MaryS

Completely correct and your beginning to touch on a potential big problem in the future.....RCL has had excellent financials for all these bankers and investors to sign up for future endeavors. In the future when the financials are less than stellar, at what price are they going to write the loans?  Nobody in the history of the world has called a banker “compassionate”, “understanding of the circumstances”, or.....”forgiving.” What has occurred here over the past month and a half is going to have a big impact for rates of interest for years to come on many of the new ships or for what ever else they receive loans.
Companies with no debt? There is only one that I know of; Berkshire Hathaway. I hope you have Class A shares!
 

Day 5 – Cococay
So excited to wake up and be in Cococay!  It was a little cool without the sun first thing in the morning but it definitely warmed up during the day.  Mariner of the Seas was docked with us – I wasn’t expecting anyone with us but since we rented two cabanas we weren’t worried about it being busy for us.

Since we had two cabanas at Chill Island booked, we wanted to get off fairly early.  We met Yen at 8:30 on Deck 4 and she brought us off the ship.  Once off the ship, Yen arranged a golf cart to bring all 10 of us from the ship directly to our cabanas so we didn’t have to wait for the trams and Yen arranged a time to go back at 3:00 for anyone that was ready.  Very nice and loved the special treatment.  We had cabanas #4 and #5 which were the front middle waterfront.



 

 
The cabanas are stocked with a cooler full of ice and water, the table doubles as a safe, there was a Bluetooth speaker and we had a device that allowed us to push it and our cabana attendant would bring us food and drinks from the menu.  The drinks were obviously all free being in Star Class (besides tipping the attendant).  The food menu is available beginning around 10:30.


 
We did some exploring of the island and took some pictures along the way.  We did not go to the new beach club but could see the floating cabanas on the beach behind us.  Based on the map, those were floating cabanas 1 through 10 and didn’t seem as private since there was a beach (not part of the beach club) that was right there. but I could be wrong.

 
The view from our cabana was great.  We loved the location although it did get a little chilly at times with the breeze.  In hotter weather, the breeze would be more enjoyable. 



 
We did some snorkeling before lunch and there were a lot of fish near the rocks.  Unfortunately, after lunch when we went out again to the deeper areas it got windy and the sand was stirred up so it was harder to see anything.
We left a little after 3:00 and went back to the room to change.  Of course there were snacks waiting for us and after being out in the sun and swimming all day, we were very excited for them!!!  I got one picture before we ate most of it.

 
After snacks, we took the opportunity to go up in Northstar since our balloon ride was cancelled due to high winds.  Yen met us there and made sure we were the only guests on there when we went up.  We couldn’t believe how far out the tide goes near the over water cabanas…not sure if they were still floating or not!


 
We were all exhausted so everyone just did their own thing for dinner that night and then played some more in the casino after dinner.  They ran out of Michelob Ultra in the casino so Junior went and found some at another bar and put a few on ice for me.  I think he appreciated that we always tipped him extra for any drinks we got because a lot of people weren’t.
 

Los Angeles to the Galapagos - however many days it takes to get there, balcony suite, and then just leave me there with the Blue-Footed Boobies and tortoises. 

Okay...so here starts the good part....Embarkation Day!!!  
Day 1 - Embarkation Day (YEAH!!!)
I couldn’t believe over a year of planning was here!!  Of course, we were very worried about the Coronavirus with everything going on around the world but nothing was stopping me from getting on this ship.  Royal sent an email to us indicating all passengers would be checked for symptoms so that eased my mind a bit. 
Yen had sent us a photo of Zone 6 and where to go as well as a contact person who will take our bags from us to bring them directly to our room.  We had heard so many people say to make sure that the porters did not take your bags unless it was the star class porter. 
We got to the terminal around 10:30, pulled up to Zone 6, and the porter that was there confirmed he would take us and our bags through security and directly to our room.  He loaded our bags, we waited for my husband to park the car and went into the terminal.  After a short temperature check before security (due to Coronavirus), we went through security and went to the suite check-in to the right where Yen was there waiting for us!  We showed our passports and Yen took us to the front of the line.  We had to wait about 5 minutes before they opened the doors to start boarding a little before 11.  Once we were allowed to board, Yen took us up a separate gangway with no lines and brought us on the ship….so far so good!
Once on the ship, Yen toured the ship with us (we have been on Anthem 8 other times but it was our cousin’s first).  Because Yen had to meet the other 7 people in our party she left us to explore on our own (and get an adult beverage) and she set up a plan to meet us at noon at Vintages and bring all of us up to our suite.  When we got to the suite, our lunch was waiting for us (sorry it is blurry...I promise I only had 2 drinks by this time):

 
Room 10324
All I can say is WOW! The living room was huge, storage was plentiful, both bathrooms were great and aft balcony phenomenal.  I tried to get most of the pictures I could of the room before we made it messy!!
 

 

Master Bathroom Shower


 

Our bar was set up with everything we asked for and Yen had our suite attendants (Brian and Lucky) bring in a cooler full of ice so we could keep our beers ice cold (the refrigerator was not big enough for the amount of drinking we did!!).  We had asked for Corona Light and Yen specifically had some brought to the pier before we left NJ since it isn’t sold on the ship.  She also didn’t have any Budweiser stocked in one of the rooms and 10 minutes later, 6 beers showed up chilled on ice – service was amazing throughout the cruise.
We also got a bottle of champagne that was a perfect way to toast the beginning of this amazing cruise.

 
 

As I mentioned, the other rooms booked were 10724 and 10320.  Although 10320 had 3 balconies, the living room was significantly smaller and didn’t have as nice of a layout (sorry I didn't get pictures to show the comparison).  I also heard complaining about the noise from the suites on Deck 8 but rumor has it they may be installing soundproofing above 270 to keep those suites quieter after dry dock.
We did sail away on the Suite Sundeck and loved being up that high to sail under the Verrazano Bridge.

 
Yen met us at 4PM to go over the schedule she had sent us and provided us with an updated one.  She changed our iFly reservations for the first sea day as she explained it sometimes gets cancelled later in the cruise due to bad weather in the winter months.  She also scheduled more than one session of bumper cars and moved our North Star for us to our Day at Cococay. We also indicated that we would like limited interruptions during the day as we wanted to enjoy hanging out on the balcony and not constantly getting up to answer the door.  Yen did a great job of this which we appreciated very much!
 

 
For dinner we ate at Coastal Kitchen as it was Filet night and it did not disappoint.  Most of us ordered the Filet and people also raved about the pasta with sausage.  That was the only dinner we ate there since we mostly chose Chops, Jaime’s or room service from one of those restaurants throughout the cruise. Sorry I didn't get any food "porn" pictures but I can assure you, everything was amazing!
Of course, we got a towel animal from Brian and Lucky who were absolutely the best suite attendants.

I have been reading all of the live blogs others are doing of their Star Class cruise and thought about attempting one, however, I didn’t want to be constantly on my phone blogging about the day’s events or answering questions so mine is going to be an “after the fact” blog!  I am certainly not witty and it likely won’t be as funny or entertaining as others but hope to provide some information for anyone else looking for it.  I will space the posts out so if people have specific questions I can answer them along the way.  I am also currently going through all of my photos so future posts will hopefully have less content and more pictures!
Booking
We booked this cruise over a year ago.  We always try to book early to secure a location we wanted and my SIL asked if we wanted to try Star class this trip since we are celebrating big anniversaries.  The prices of the rooms weren’t that bad on Anthem compared to some of the other ships sailing in March.  We booked and then sometime over the summer, my BIL’s parents and nieces decided to join us and they snagged the last Star Class suite on Deck 10. My Husband, his cousin and myself stayed in GLS 10324, my SIL, BIL and niece were in GLS 10724 and my BIL’s parents and their 2 grand kids were in GLS 10720.
Prior to the Cruise
About a month out we received the generic questionnaire about any special requests, who we would be cruising with and some other random questions.  We were sailing with 10 of us in total in 3 Grand Loft Suites on Deck 10 and requested that we have the same Genie.  We also requested what we wanted stocked in our room for drinks and snacks.
A little over two weeks before the cruise, our Genie, Yen Lee reached out to us introducing herself.  From what I have read about Yen, she will make anything we want happen but we shouldn’t expect any real surprises.  That was completely fine with me because I am not one who likes surprises….I used to open my Christmas presents before Christmas and re-wrap them all again! 
We provided her a spreadsheet of where we wanted reservations for dinner for 4 of the nights and a list of what other things we wanted to do (iFly, Flow Rider, Cupcake Decorating, Rock Climbing, Galley/Bridge/Theater tours, North Star, etc.).  We also asked that the two cabanas we had booked at Chill Island on Cococay be next to one another in the front row (specifically Cabana #4 and #5).  After some back and forth emails between Yen, my SIL and myself, we got a final schedule around 5 days out with everything we wanted scheduled.  She indicated she appreciated the spreadsheet as it made it easier for her to make our final schedule for the week. 
This is what she sent to us:

One thing we had really wanted was to have a lunch set up in one of the suites on embarkation day to avoid all of the crowds.  We know we could have eaten at Coastal Kitchen or any of the specialty restaurants but wanted something in our room. Within 24 hours Yen replied with menus we could order off of (Jaime’s and Chops) along with letting us know we could also order pizza.  I have heard a lot of people were told they couldn’t set up lunch in the room on embarkation day but because we were her only suites, I think it made it easier for her to accommodate us. 

Thought I'd share:

Without Question!!!
I think we are all well aware of of Matt's enthusiasm but today more than ever Royal needs Matt and his Blog. Not just to spread truthful word but to be optimistic.
Royal owes Matt a deep, deep debt of gratitude. 
 

Keep supporting your favorite travel content creators, like @Matt and others.  They need us  (and we need them) more than ever right now!!
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/style/travel-influencers-coronavirus.html
(I really don't know what category this belongs in, but this is the most visited, so here it is.)

We were in a Central park view, the little window with view to Central park on Oasis for May 10th. I noticed the prices have dropped quite a bit. We were trying to go to a Central Park balcony because the price was 600 bucks cheaper than what we paid for the CP view cabin but they don't issue refunds or on board credit which is what I thought they'd do. So our TA thought that didn't make monetary sense so he got us into a ocean view balcony. MEI Travel is excellent by the way. John Ames is excellent!
Now we just have to hope more cruises don't get cancelled. Man am I excited!

Just booked Oasis in July in a 1 bedroom Aquatheater Suite!!! Got a really good price. Deposit + FCC and the cruise will be paid for!!!
First Oasis class ship as well.

Perspective is the word of the day. My cruise was a luxury. A break from life and the daily grind. It's a bummer I have to reschedule, and have to cancel my PTO request.....but ......I have an awesome family, I have my health, and....now.....I get to pick out, and plan another cruise to replace the one we just lost!  So....as upset we are at losing a vacation, and the hassle of canceling hotels and excursions and such....just ask yourself......

My take on it is this (for what it's worth, I'm a nobody).  We are trying to deal with our vacations. VACATIONS.  The people on the other end of the line, whether they are cruise line employees or travel agents, are dealing with the prospect of "what's going to happen with my job, this is getting out of control".  Would it be great if every single person was able to put that aside and handle 100% of each interaction perfectly? Sure.  But not everyone is equal.  And I'm sure they are trying, and nobody wants to intentionally let a customer down.  But I believe they have to be under a great amount of stress, and it just wouldn't hurt to extend a little understanding.   I'll say no more.

#1) the value of having a travel agent
#2) I'd arrange to call back another time before ever waiting on hold for multiple hours.
#3) it's very easy to accidentally disconnect a call that you pick up - I've done it myself without ever meaning to.  That's not poor customer service, that's simply human error.
#4) they are insanely busy!  I can't believe people are judging them harshly during this cluster**** (choose your own word).

That is awesome!! We upgraded in May on Independence, from Interiors to Ocean Balconies too!! But without a TA, and we will never ever ever book without a TA ever ever again. It was a long and grueling process, but I'm glad I experienced it because I will appreciate the TA even more next round! Especially with all the awesomeness your TA's are doing. I'm glad that worked out for you! 

I upgraded 3 cabins on Oasis for our May 31 cruise.  Interiors to Ocean Balconies!!  And, with 2 different Travel Agencies!! Kudos to both agencies for staying on hold with RCCL and helping us get our upgrades.  TAs are pros!!
 
 

There are definitely good bargains to be had; the OVB I booked on Monday evening is, as of about 48 hours later, now nearly $800 less than I paid. My TA managed to get me a price drop yesterday when it went down less than 24 hours after I booked when it dropped nearly $200, so I'm not so sure RC would be accommodating now...and I think my TA needs a break from me. ?
That being said, I might have her look into a possible paid upgrade in a day or two -- if there's anything that's still actually higher than I paid in the next day or two...at the moment, even a JS is cheaper than what I paid 48 hours ago. ?

I upgraded for free today to ocean view from an interior on Empress.  Spent 2 days trying to get through.  Finally got through after calling 3 times today and waiting over an hour each time I called.  Traveling solo so not having to pay for the upgrade is nice.  Upgraded 2 weeks ago for our (my sister & myself) cruise on Rhapsody in August to the Greek Isles.  Went from ocean view deck 4 to aft balcony deck 7 (the big corner balcony in the back 7652) for only 100 pp.

I upgraded for free today to ocean view from an interior on Empress.  Spent 2 days trying to get through.  Finally got through after calling 3 times today and waiting over an hour each time I called.  Traveling solo so not having to pay for the upgrade is nice.  Upgraded 2 weeks ago for our (my sister & myself) cruise on Rhapsody in August to the Greek Isles.  Went from ocean view deck 4 to aft balcony deck 7 (the big corner balcony in the back 7652) for only 100 pp.

I upgraded for free today to ocean view from an interior on Empress.  Spent 2 days trying to get through.  Finally got through after calling 3 times today and waiting over an hour each time I called.  Traveling solo so not having to pay for the upgrade is nice.  Upgraded 2 weeks ago for our (my sister & myself) cruise on Rhapsody in August to the Greek Isles.  Went from ocean view deck 4 to aft balcony deck 7 (the big corner balcony in the back 7652) for only 100 pp.

It has been a crazy few days. Lots of back and forth between go and don’t go. Ultimately, a few things sealed the deal for us.
Never were we worried about the virus on the ship. I am still of the mindset that the ship is likely one of the cleanest places at the moment. Quarantine on the ship was also an afterthought, because how bad could it be in the ATS?  
What really made us re-think over the last few days was the possibility of being further quarantined in Trenton (military base). That is where they are taking all the Canadians on the Princess ships. That does not sound like a great time.
Yesterday, Delta also waived change fees for all travel this month, and Royal revised their “Cruise with Confidence” policy in that we would get back our FCC that we redeemed for this sailing. So really, we would lose nothing by not going. It was beginning to get harder to justify going.
The ultimate deal breaker is that Plan B, was better than Plan A. This blog is officially, “To be continued...” in 166 days.  
We are sad, but at the same, for the hockey people out there, we feel like we just won the Stanley Cup of cruising!  

When one door closes, another one opens. ?

Final thoughts and things I learned:
Mr. SpeedNoodles has declared Symphony of the Seas as his favorite ship, and wants to book more Oasis-class cruises.  We don't have one booked until Allure in Jan 2022 and I don't know where we'll fit one in between now and then.  But I've been informed.  Also he wants an AquaTheatre suite.  So if anyone runs across a fantastic deal, please clue me in. While we were able to do a lot on the ship, there was so much more that we weren't able to do.  We never even stepped into Jazz on 4 or The Attic. I had reservations for the comedy shows, but something always interfered. There's just SO much to do! We made it to a hot tub once - we really never got to spend any time on the pool deck.   As usual with me, no matter what I was doing I felt like I was missing out on something else. The staff was exceptional.  There wasn't one place on the ship where we didn't encounter helpful, friendly crew members.  If we dined in a specialty restaurant once, and ran into our waiter somewhere else a day or two later somewhere else on the ship, they remembered our names (WHAT WITCHERY IS THIS?????). I figured out a handy packing tip on this trip.  While I use packing cubes, and typically try to pack things together so they are easy to unpack on the ship (like items together that will be placed into the same drawer or closet), when I packed to come home I packed things in the cubes that would be washed together.  All I had to do was open up cubes that contained things washed together and dump them in the wash instead of sorting them at home.  It really didn't take much extra time at all but made laundry much easier. 30 SPF sunscreen doesn't do a damn thing to protect skin that hasn't seen the sun for 5 years. We got really good at using Lyft.  From the time we left the house to the time we returned home we used Lyft 11 times. I learned at the Quest that I cannot twerk, but the 70+ year old woman in front of me could. I saw my very first Booby.  As in Brown Booby - the bird.  A flock of them followed alongside the ship as we left St. Maarten, constantly diving after fish that must have been disturbed in our wake.  I took photos.  Not a Booby can be seen in any of them. You'll simply have to take my word. #birdlifelist We're pretty bummed that we have to wait until October for our next cruise!!! (But it's going to be a SUPER FUN cruise!) 
Thanks for following along. (Now I need to go catch up on all of YOUR blogs that I've fallen behind on!)

A nice photo of Ovation and Spectrum together in Sydney harbour yesterday before Spectrum left for her first complementary cruise.
Photo Credit: royalcaribbean_aunz

Day 7 - Coco Cay!!!
If anyone's wondering (and you probably didn't know that you were until now), Captain Rick pronounced it "Cay" and not "Key". He's Canadian - take that for what it's worth.
We had nothing special on the island - no cabanas or day beds.  Since Mr SpeedNoodles had never been there I figured we'd spend some time exploring and then find a place to settle so that we could snorkel.
The weather was in the high 60s or low 70s and overcast.  I'm pretty much a big baby when it comes to water temp, so I never even broke out my snorkel gear.  I waded into the little lagoon where people snorkel and made it about waist deep, saw some pretty fish and watched Mr SpeedNoodles snorkel a little bit before I just gave up.  He snorkeled a bit until he scared up a few stingrays, which he did NOT like.  I looked up and saw him coming in hot to the beach and wondered what was up. He really wasn't too interested in going back after he saw those.  He had some fun playing with the GoPro in the water until then (I have yet to figure out how to get those videos onto my laptop and I'm sure they aren't worth sharing).
I had my rash guard on when I went into the water because I'd burned my back so badly on St. Maarten - so now I had a wet shirt on and I was cold.  He was cold.  Then the wind picked up. We headed over to the Snack Shack to get a crispy chicken sandwich and hope that the sun came out or the wind would die down.
He grabbed a table and I headed over to the restrooms when a staff member came SPRINTING by me, saying "aye aye aye!!!!!!!!!!!".  I turned around to see the Up, Up, and Away balloon in a VERY awkward position.  The basket was listing quite a bit, and it was clear that they were having a very difficult time bringing it back down to the ground. I'd left my phone back at the table, so I wasn't able to get any photos, but it looked scary as hell.  They must have gotten enough staff out there to bring it down before I got out of the restroom, but it never went back up the rest of the day. Apparently either the wind came up suddenly, or they pushed their luck with one last ride.
We just couldn't get warmed up, so we headed back to the ship around 1pm.  I really got very few photos on the island, but I have to keep my reputation going, so:

We showered up and then hit some trivia in the pub and grabbed a few drinks.  We had Izumi Hibachi at 5:30, so we got a little packing done (boooooo). We got the rest of our packing done between dinner and the 8:30 showing of HIRO (which we really wanted to see at night - even better at night!).
I left a little note for Jeff, our cabin steward, about the great towel animal he left:

He in turn left me a little note back:

And I did.
We caught him in the hall before the show to give him his tip personally (I don't like leaving them in the envelopes, I prefer to take the opportunity to say thank you in person). We've never had a bad cabin attendant, but some are definitely more fun than others.

After Hiro we made a few stops at our favorite bars to have some drinks and say goodbye to some of our favorite waiters, and with that, the cruise was pretty much over ?
 

Day 6 - At Sea
Dagnabit, the cruise is getting too close to being over!!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
We took this day to sleep in - it was the first time that we actually closed the drapes and didn't just let the sun wake us up.  This was pretty much Mr. SpeedNoodle's request. We really had nothing to do until 11:30, so we slept until about 9:00 and then hit the tail end of breakfast at the Solarium Bistro.
This morning we had the Escape the Rubicon escape room activity. While we waited for our group I had to take a few pics of the area - Adventure Ocean had such cute paintings (as far as we could see in), and it was just a very pretty area to wait. Who am I kidding, the entire ship is beautiful.



We were then ready for the Escape Room. We had about 9 people (one no-show).  I can honestly say that, while it was interesting, I've never spent that long being so confused and utterly useless in my life.  My mind just doesn't operate in such a manner to solve puzzles such as these (other kinds, yes, maybe - maybe not, feeling super dumb now).  Most of the rest of the team seemed to have their stuff (not my chosen term, but it's a family blog) together. But we did not solve it and escape. Not escaping didn't bother me as much as just feeling stupid and totally demoralized.

I had a solution for that, though:

We grabbed a drink (we were skipping lunch because we'd decided to go to Chops for dinner instead of Wonderland, but the only reservation I could snag last minute was at 5pm) and headed over to watch the International Belly Flop competition. During the competition, Brian (cruise director) announced that they were going to hold an impromptu "HIRO" show in the AquaTheatre at 3pm, because they'd  had to cancel so many in the first few days of the cruise.  We already had our reservations from last Saturday rescheduled to Friday, but we decided to see if we could get in, just in case THAT one ended up being canceled as well.
We had no trouble getting in and grabbing a comfortable seat, and we loved the show.  While I thought the story line was pretty loose (ok, REALLY loose), I really enjoyed the entire show.  The performers were truly amazing (and brave).  Pics from the daytime show just aren't that spectacular so I'm only posting one of the woman who was constantly harnessed up and walking up above the audience. We were especially impressed with her.  We watched the crew put the 360 harness on her during the top tier event - that thing is TIGHT and the faces she made when they seemed to screw it into her hips really told it all.  The fact that she can smile through the entire performance might impress me the most.

I also had to get my one ride on the carousel.  I've been obsessed with them my entire life, and I have no issues being the weird adult chick on the kids ride. I refused to let Mr. SpeedNoodles take any photos (which was easily accomplished since he never took his phone out of the safe all week and I wouldn't give him mine!)
By the time that was over it was time to get ready for dinner at Chops.  We found it to be really not good on Ovation in June, but decided to give it a shot, since we'd eaten everywhere else by then.
I started with the Carpacchio and the lobster bisque.  


My entree was the ribeye and Mr SpeedNoodles had the strip.  He really liked his. Mine was fine. But he grills steaks for us all of the time at home, buys really good cuts, and seasons them and cooks them just the way I like them, so I'm very difficult to impress when we go out for steak.  I should have tried the lamb, since we don't do that at home. By no means was it bad, it just wasn't as good as he makes it.

We shared a slice of Key Lime Pie.  We dug into it before I remembered to take a picture.  It was ok. It wasn't as amazing as it was at Joe's Stone Crab in Miami (although they're kind of famous for it, so that's probably not a fair comparison).
We then wandered through the Promenade on the way to the Royal Theatre to see "Flight" and saw discovered this band playing above the Royal Shop - they were pretty good, but we had to keep moving....

Then we ran into the Stowaway Piano Player, and took a few minutes to ride the elevator with her.  She was good, but the music she played wasn't nearly as much fun as the guy on Navigator played.  But she was sweet and we liked her:

We had some time before Flight and I remembered that they were performing iSkate in Studio B, so we ducked in there to catch that - we'd missed 1977 because I was dumb and scheduled that the night before St Maarten at some ridiculous hour like 10:30pm. 
We dodged over to see Flight next (not bad, not great - glad we saw it, wouldn't go see it again).

And then, although we'd been pretty much going from activity to activity all day, I insisted that we go to the Quest.  Mr SpeedNoodles had never been to one, and it's one of those things that simply can NOT be explained and must be experienced.  I didn't get any pics (my phone was effectively out of battery life by then), but it was one of the highlight activities of the week.  Mr SpeedNoodles plans to be prepared to participate on the October Group Cruise (he says he'll prepare with appropriate clothing choices and a few shots of tequila). 
We came back to these creatures in our stateroom.  I LOVED this little puppy.  I'd never had anyone leave anything like it.


And that was enough for a sea day.  Tomorrow is Coco Cay!!!!