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Anthem of the Seas, June 6, 9-night Bermuda (OL-8720 SC)


TheHobbys

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38 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

A traffic controller will direct you to a particular zone. In our case, he wanted us at Zone 3. We ignored him and went right to Zone 6.

I want to say that when I went to Cape Liberty last year and was waiting in the line of cars, I heard the guy directing cars at one point call out to his teammates, "This one's Star Class!" and then that car got directed separately. May not hurt to politely tell the person you have Star Class boarding and were told to go to Zone 6. I just also remember them getting really aggravated when they had a couple of drivers completely ignore them and blow on past, presumably Lyft / Uber drivers who were just trying to get to the pickup area and didn't want to deal with the longshoremen, but scary as hell to see how those guys reacted once you got on their bad side!

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1 hour ago, SweetPea said:

I'm here and following! Forgot my password which wasn't auto filling so some reason, but I'm all sorted! 

 

Just a quick note on embarkation from us... We arrived at about noonish with zero issues and maybe a 5 minute wait for Derick once we cleared security. He had our room ready so we went straight there. 

 

A traffic controller will direct you to a particular zone. In our case, he wanted us at Zone 3. We ignored him and went right to Zone 6. We were the only ones in 6 at the time. A greeter asked if we wanted to check our large bag and we simply said we were looking for the Star Class check in. She then walked us inside to our personal check in. Do not give your luggage to anyone outside. Wait until you get to the Star Class check-in. She has her own set of porters. She will hand hold you from there. She even sat with us for the 5 minutes we waited for Derick. Easy peasy! 

Someone should make a sign to out in the front of the Uber that says Star Class.

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When we did star class last time, was in Ft. Lauderdale and seemed to go sorta smooth.  However, like @JLMoran mentioned, there was someone there we had to tell we were star class in order to get directed to the correct drop off point.  Once we got dropped off, it was pretty easy from there.  I'll post more later Thursday after we get through that process.

We are now all checked in for our flight - got high B section.  So, may 60-75 people in front of us - which isn't bad.  @Andrew72681, if I'm traveling for work - i'll make them pay the extra for me to board priority, but saving my $$ when traveling with the fam  ? 

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3 hours ago, coneyraven said:

Speaking of Southwest check in process ..... one thing that we've done the last few times is that we've taken advantage of the automatic check in feature.  Sure, it's a small fee like $20 pp ----- but we've always been in the "A" Group which had never happened before.

I always get the automatic check in fee. My husband used to play football.  He is a big man . We need to make sure he's comfortable so I can get he credit card again. December will be here before you know it. Alaska, Bermuda and Cuba are on my agenda for 2021.

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3 hours ago, SweetPea said:

A traffic controller will direct you to a particular zone. In our case, he wanted us at Zone 3. We ignored him and went right to Zone 6. 

We had a similar situation.  Our driver TRIED to take us to Zone 6 but the traffic guy wouldn't let him go there....so we had to unload upstream, schlep our crap through the very crowded, very narrow sidewalk, fending off luggage handlers all the way who were trying to take out bags.

 

3 hours ago, SweetPea said:

Do not give your luggage to anyone outside. Wait until you get to the Star Class check-in. She has her own set of porters. She will hand hold you from there.

This is so important.  If you give your bags to anyone else - even the porters who say they are Star Class and have the purple SC banner  - they will be delayed getting to you.  Talk to the SC greeter before you do ANYthing else.

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12 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Wow, what a view from their hotel room balcony!

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New York is such a cool place, especially when you've never been and have only seen pictures in movies.  Most of the morning was uneventful.  We were up just over two hours before we were planning on leaving.  This gave us plenty of time to drink our coffee and do some last minute straightening up around the house.  Got the kids up, yeah, they were excited but didn't show it #teenagers. 

Our flight was at 10:15, so we left the house just after 7:30.  It's only about a 30 minute drive, but that early in the morning, I was expecting a little extra traffic.  This give us plenty of time to drop the car off, get a ride to the airport, get through security, coffee, bathroom, and relax at the gate.  There was just over an hour that we got to enjoy our little breakfast and coffee before boarding.  The plane ride was 'fun'.  Of course, I treat it like a roller coaster, while my better half gets all kinds of nervous and stuff.  The girls were sitting in front of us and at one point, I reached up and tapped her to tell her something and got a really mean face.  Yeah, I forgot we were in the middle of take-off and my son and I are holding our hands up like a roller coaster.   #DontMessWithMomDuringTakeoff  The boys got to watch almost off of Robin Hood, but the flight was over before the movie #dangit. 

We picked up a Lyft XL, which was a really great ride.  However, when the guy showed up we realized he wasn't 'technical' an XL.   Luckily, we had to large suitecases and 2 medium ones.  After a quick adjustment of his seats, we were all packed and on the way to the hotel.  The total for Lyft was only about $26 from the airport.  Not bad, considering some of the shuttle services want to charge close to $100. 

The hotel is nice, the rooms are just meh, but we got a killer view.  If ya want to see what I mean, go check out the periscope I did earlier today from our balcony.  The link is posted above.   We walked right out the front and next door was the train for the PATH.  Very interesting, as it was my first time on a subway #cough I'm old #cough.  We got some $22 pass for the 4 of us which let us ride over to the 911 memorial and back. 

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Seeing the 911 memorial was an amazing site.  I could have stood there for a little longer, but the kids just weren't in to it.  Well, they weren't around then - so I can't blame them, sorta.  Anyways, I took quite a few pictures.  From there, we meandered down towards the Statton Island Ferry but got derailed by finding a place that served pizza by the slice, oh and sushi and burgers and salad … uh, yeah.  The pizza was actually really good - I had the eggplant version. 

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After consuming the pizza-sushi-burger-salad- thing, we continued down to the ferry where we jumped on board, scrambled up to the 4th floor I think, on the outside where there wasn't anyone.  Score … oh wait, what the hell - the damn boat is going backwards!  Yeah, didn't realize that.  No worries, some locals told us we had a great spot.  Turned out to be a really cool spot and took another ton of pictures.  It was really cool to finally see the Statue of Liberty.  More pictures … We rode all the way to, I guess Statton Island, had to get off the boat but turned around and got right back on and rode it all the way back.  Maybe a total of an hour for the round trip …

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After making our way back, we stopped by a little smoothie shake (mainly because my son wanted a picture of a smoothie call the 'Diabetis Helper')  heh. 

 

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 Saw a Starbucks and got the momma a coffee and continued our journey to nowhere.  Started walking up one street and found the big bull statue with a bunch of people taking pictures.  So, I took a selfie from the side  #NoWaiting 

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Walked further up and saw a really cool old church and a few other buildings.  Took a detour and headed back towards the Hudson river.   We ended up at some mall or something.  It's the one between the WTC and the Hudson, with a big metal dome.  

We were looking for something else to snack on and the kids were starting to complain a little more than usual.  Ok, now, where the hell are we?  We did make it back to the WTC memorial and stood there for about 10 minutes trying to find the entrance to the PATH station  (sshh, it's the gnarly white building thingy).  We kept looking at moms phone, but Siri was playing around with the stupid little positioning icon on the map.  You are here … no here, no wait, here.  Yup, you are here … no, seriously, you're over there … WTH.  Fine, so I 'manned' up and went and asked someone.  She looked at me and pointed to the white building we were standing in front of … sigh  #Tourists  I guess I should have taken my Nashville hat off.  Oh well, I wasn't the one wearing the Fanny Pack.  Oh snap, did I say that out loud??  Crap, she better not read this …  moving on ….  (yes, she had to go get a fanny pack, but I think they are called something different now - it's still a fanny pack.  It goes near your fanny and you pack your crap in it. 

Sorry, got derailed - ok, found the PATH train and took us a minute to figure out which one to get on to go back to Exchange Place.  Yeah, there's none with that in the big title on the boards … finally, we figured out to jump on the Hoboken train.  Back to the hotel, but still needed to grab a snack.  Walking around, finally found a little sports bar thing just up the street from the hotel.  Food was pretty good - don't ask me the name, but it was just up the street from Green Hooke on the corner.  Had a couple of game tables setup.  It was kinda interesting since we got to talking to the waiter and he used to work on Explorer of the Seas back around 2006.  Small world - he had asked if we worked on their … I almost said, no, I own it - buuuttt …..  #BadDad

So, back at the hotel and we took a swim down at the pool for about 20 minutes just to wear off some extra energy.  Wait, extra energy??  Yeah, cause the kids spent their last bit of energy in the pool.  Son was snorkeling with his new flippers with daughter was acting like she was doing a sales commercial using my flippers.  #crazykids

Back in the room and it's now pushing 10pm and I'm trying to type all the stuff.  You never know once you start typing how much you'll actually have to share or if it'll make for good reading, but, honestly the best part will be reading this in the future and remembering the cruise.  My son is passed out on his make-shift bed (he pushed two chairs together) and the girls are currently glued to their phones.  Time to call it a night and get some sleep before the big day tomorrow. 

Watch for a couple of periscopes tomorrow.  The main one will be of our room! 

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Hmm, I wonder where you went for dinner.  I know where Greene Hook is (been there pretty often, actually), but drawing a blank.  Do you recall which direction it was from Green Hooke?

If you are looking for a place for breakfast that is not the hotel, I've heard City Diner is good for breakfast.  I've only had lunch there, but was happy with the food. 

There is also some sort of Belgian Waffle / Crepe stand in the food court in the office building next to your hotel (if you go to you balcony and look to the left, it's that big long building).  I tried their waffle with Nutella once, and that was fun.

 

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@karl_nj I think it might have been greene hook.  Well at least that is how it billed on my credit card.   It was a sports bar with some game tables like ping pong,  foosball, and another table game inside.   There was a grocery store in the same building, but towards the water front.   

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7 minutes ago, TheHobbys said:

@karl_nj I think it might have been greene hook.  Well at least that is how it billed on my credit card.   It was a sports bar with some game tables like ping pong,  foosball, and another table game inside.   There was a grocery store in the same building, but towards the water front.   

Ok yeah, must be Greene hook then. Sometimes they have those games outside on the patio. Good choice, I like that place too. 

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15 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

This is always our problem too when travelling with our girls.  How old are yours again?

Oh, and IT'S CRUISE DAY!!!!  Enjoy!

Son is 12 and daughter is 14 (going on 20 something)   yup cruise day.   Should be at the port in just over an hour. 

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@TheHobbys  Yeah trying to get the giraffe in a picture in not simple.

I am kind of jealous of you right now, but I only have 36 days to go until we sail under the Verrazano Bridge.  We are going on Adventure so it won't be as cool as the Anthem due to height, but still it is amazing.

Plus, since you sail away during rush hour...you kind of get that gloating feeling of them in bumper to bumper traffic and you sipping on a Lava Flow doing the Cha Cha on the pool deck

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The only problem I have ever found on the sail away is they do the Cha Cha and follow it up with something like cotton eye joe or cupid shuffle.  I always think. dang did I sign up for Zumba and didn't realize it?  

The next thing I do is while dancing is to look over at my hubby lounging on a chair and raise my cup....hint hint honey I need a new one!

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20 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

How was embarkation ?  What do you think of Yen ?

Went very smooth.  We got dropped off little before 1030 and waited maybe 10 minutes for someone to show up.   Went through security easy but noticed the big sign that said key folks ...  guess they were already there because there were quite a few folks in our area. Only about 8 seats designated for SC.  Key folks were drinking our coffee.   Yen is very cool.  Told her howdy for you.  She is very matter of fact. heh. Think this cruise she had about 12 guests in 3 rooms.  We won't harass her to much.  

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3 hours ago, TheHobbys said:

Here's a guide that @Lovetocruise2002 had asked for. 

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Hello Hobby's!

Enjoy, Enjoy the Anthem!  My husband and I were on the 9 night from 23rd of May to June 1st!  It was our second time doing this exact itinerary and loved the ship and the wonderful group of cruisers were fantastic!  The staff was even better also!  (Except the cruise director Mitch wasn't as present as other cruise directors we've had in the past)  When he was present he was nice.  He was the same way on our cruise on the Allure in September in 2018 too!  We had a great time with great cruise loving people in the Conceirge lounge each night before dinner also!  Great waiters and great view with floor to ceiling glass windows that were stunning to look through for sailaway from ports when a random rain shower happened!  We loved the Manager of the Coastal Kitchen Reuben.  He was the best we ever had by far and we have been in CK on Allure Oasis and Harmony ships in the past!  He is so personable to everyone in the entire room!  He and I became very good friends!  Please tell him Michelle and Bill said hi!  He is very friendly with everyone really!  His young assistant, Annabelle, is very sweet and very smart!  Our waiter was Kerismir!  Very big athletic looking man!  You won't be able to miss him really.  He was the very best we've had also!  I like that they give you the same waiter and table each evening even if your dinner time is different!  He would bring my husbands wine immediately, etc.  You really became engaged in the entire experience even more!  Also meeting the people around you!  The last night we were seated at another great table but had our same waiter!  The view in the Anthem Coastal Kitchen was by far better than on Oasis ships also!  Everywhere in the room you felt closer to the water!  His brother, Kerismir, (I know the same name!) was our waiter 2 nights in Jamie's Italian!  He is really awesome there!  We remembered him from our other Anthem sailings!  We had the 3 night dining package when it was $60 a piece and a free night from our travel agent.  So the other two nights we went to Chops!  We had great meals also!  We upgraded to a J1 or J4 #9632 the extra large pie shaped Jr. Suite!  It was fantastic!  But since we are Diamond Plus we had some awesome Bridge, Galley and a backstage tour!  The Captain was so great also!  You saw him all over the ship starting with Cafe Promenade in the morning!  

I'm blabbing on and on!  There is so much more to tell!

Enjoy the gorgeous sailaway!  Bon Voyage!

Michelle

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