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


TheHobbys

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11 hours ago, TheHobbys said:

Coast guard helicopter and plane circling showed up and we're showing down.   Not sure what's going on ... will post update if I learn something

An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, medevacs a 55-year-old Canadian man and his wife from the cruise ship Anthem of the Seas, 100 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, June 14, 2019. The medevac was requested for the 55-year-old male, who was reportedly suffering from abdominal pain. (U.S. Coast Guard video courtesy of Air Station Elizabeth City)

 

Video at https://www.dvidshub.net/video/689949/coast-guard-medevacs-55-year-old-canadian-man-cruise-ship-100-miles-off-cape-hatteras-nc

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@TheHobbys

Hey John, I am just curious, I could not find you, are you a member in our RC Periscopers group on Facebook group as well?

If you are on Facebook, I would love to have you join us, it’s a very active community, of almost 2,900 Cruising RC Periscopers.

just Search Royal Caribbean Periscopers on Facebook, or our Direct link is

rcperiscopers.live

CruisingKat

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@CruisingKat(Kathy)...My vote is for @TheHobbys (John) for POTW!!  Just sayin' ?

Thank you John for a fantastic blog and scopes.  I thoroughly enjoyed checking in each day to see what you guys were up to.  Looks like you had a great time.  I have to ask...which do you prefer...Star Class Q class or Star Class O class?

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13 hours ago, CruisingKat(Kathy) said:

@TheHobbys

Hey John, I am just curious, I could not find you, are you a member in our RC Periscopers group on Facebook group as well?

If you are on Facebook, I would love to have you join us, it’s a very active community, of almost 2000 scoping Cruising RC Periscopers.

just Search Royal Caribbean Periscopers on Facebook, or our Direct link is

rcperiscopers.live

CruisingKat

I'm all joined there now

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1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

@CruisingKat(Kathy)...My vote is for @TheHobbys (John) for POTW!!  Just sayin' ?

Thank you John for a fantastic blog and scopes.  I thoroughly enjoyed checking in each day to see what you guys were up to.  Looks like you had a great time.  I have to ask...which do you prefer...Star Class Q class or Star Class O class?

Star class O.  But that's because of the O- class ships we now prefer. 

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12 minutes ago, rjac said:

John, too bad your cruise is coming to an end. Have enjoyed your posts and your comments. One question about the Anthem, how is she handling the open Atlantic? A lot of rocking back and forth or has it been calm? Thank! :27_sunglasses:

@rjac, you know I have to say this was one of the roughest cruises.  You would think with the air pillow cushion for fuel efficiency that it would be smooth.   Now, I guess this may be due to the route or something but it was still a lot more noticeable than other ships.  

It wasn't enough to rattle your teeth but was still noticable.  The other factor might have been our room on the back left but ther were a few night it was shuttering pretty good.  The officer on the bridge said it was due to the wind... not sure I believe all that. 

I didn't mind it, made for some nice rocking me to sleep ha.  

She plowed through just fine but you'll notice a little more motion.   Pushed between 18-24 knots.   With that itinerary the ship had to rock n roll from one port to another. 

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29 minutes ago, TheHobbys said:

@rjac, you know I have to say this was one of the roughest cruises.  You would think with the air pillow cushion for fuel efficiency that it would be smooth.   Now, I guess this may be due to the route or something but it was still a lot more noticeable than other ships.  

It wasn't enough to rattle your teeth but was still noticable.  The other factor might have been our room on the back left but ther were a few night it was shuttering pretty good.  The officer on the bridge said it was due to the wind... not sure I believe all that. 

I didn't mind it, made for some nice rocking me to sleep ha.  

She plowed through just fine but you'll notice a little more motion.   Pushed between 18-24 knots.   With that itinerary the ship had to rock n roll from one port to another. 

We've sailed out of Bayonne on Adventure, Explorer & Quantum, Serenade from Boston and Grandeur out of Baltimore.  The trip south is always a little rocky, no matter which class or ship.  Can't do much, as you are in the ocean and not the Caribbean Sea.  Just a perk of sailing from up north...we're on Anthem in December 2020 and I'm sure we'll experience the same. 

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You ever wonder how to start a summary?  Trying to figure out just how to write out your experiences, how to try and accomplish multiple goals?   Not only are you trying to engage an audience in your real-virtual-interactive story, but you are also creating a memory of your adventure.  It's amazing what writing down or typing your experiences can do for you.  I have had a blast writing this blog and watching as others follow along and being able to interact with them in a semi-real-time setting.  It has been a learning lesson for me as I attempted to communicate our experiences with others - while hoping to make it entertaining, so that everyone would want to continue reading.

Ok, enough of that sappy stuff ?  but had to get that outa the way.   Now to try and remember what the heck happened recently, since I didn't write anything down on the actual days.  Backing up a couple of days here, the last two days of our trip were seemingly very busy.  Both days were at sea, which I really enjoy.  However, after snorkeling on Labadee and hanging out in the suite area beach, we sure wish there was a route that would start with Labadee and end with Labadee.  But having the final two days be at sea, allowed us to enjoy the ship a little more and also allowed the kids to hang out with the new found friends.  I think the kids preferred being on the ship, away from us #LittlePunks  Honestly, it's all good - we don't require much, just come and eat dinner with us and say hi every now and then.  I swear, there were a couple of days where they woke up late, missed breakfast but got dressed really quick and bolted out the door as fast as they could to meet up with their friends.

The next to last day, Thursday, we had the We Will Rock You show at 2:30 followed by the Chef's table at 6:30.  I know somewhere back up in this post I said to go see the WWRY show multiple times, and yes, do it.  We had all the shows booked early in the cruise, but released all our times thinking it would be easier to have our genie book them all.  Yeah, being the planners we are - that sorta backfired on us.  Next time - we book our own show time.  That way if we really enjoy one of the shows, then we can go back and see it a second time.  We would have gone and seen WWRY and Spectra twice - had we seen it towards the start of the cruise. 

Chef's table.  If you like wine, this might be a cool experience for you.  They start with a blonde wine and end with a bold red - or at least that's my interpretation.  Our meal lasted just over 3 hours.  But - it was honestly because of the company of the other guests there.  Six of the other guests were all in the royal suite as SC, so we were able to hit it off with them right off the bat.  I felt a little bad for the other couple who were at the end of the table that were not really engaging in much of the conversation.  Now granted, it's a long table we were sitting at …. There were six people on each side of the table.  Kinda hard to lean forward and holla at the person at the other end of the table.  The food was just ok.  It felt like just a little better presented version of different foods from all the different restaurants.  We already had all of it before.  The rest of the day was just lounging around and playing down in the casino.  At least we won a little bit on Thursday to have some extra play money for Friday.

Friday - sad day.  Most of the morning was spent packing up, oh yeah guess what … yeah, #LittlePunks bolted.  Oh well, we would do the same thing at their age.  Our packing goal was to have about 75% of everything packed, most of the room clean (yes, we keep our room pretty clean and picked up), all persons have a shower and all drawers emptied.  That way, the next morning all we have to do is pack up the final toiletries and pj's.  This allows us to not be all stressed getting off the ship, which has been stressful in the past.  We took a break in the middle of the morning go to take a quick tour of the Control Room.  Yen got us a couple of spots to tag along with the all access tour.  Yes, I said couple because the kids had 'other plans'  #CuteBoys   #Games  If you haven't done a control room tour, it is really interesting.  Honestly, for me it was just cool to be able to see stuff that I've watched on tv.  I've seen how the Anthem was built on the science channel multiple times … What, you don't have shows you like to watch multiple times?  #DontJudge   After a quick lunch break, up in our favorite place the CK, we took off a quick bridge tour.  Um, yeah, so there were only 5 of us … we counted for two.  The kids were #TooBusy to hang with us and go on the tour.  Was still fun even though we had done the same thing on Oasis a couple years ago. 

After the tour, it was back to finishing up packing a little bit.  We did a little bit of quick shopping for a t-shirt or two, but didn't really see any RCL stuff that we wanted.  Usually, there is a couple of cool trinket type things we like to pick up, yeah, not here.  There was a little casino playing involved that entertained us for a little bit.  But then, guess what … yup  #TimeToEat.  It almost felt like the people on the Wall-E spaceship … wonder around from one place to another, grazing.  Hmm … did you hear that cattle call?  Ok, ok … I can't say anything about eating so much because it was time to hit the Coastal Kitchen for the last dinner.  And you know what that means …. FILET!  Yes, I was on a filet-binge this trip after the first night or two, knowing it would awhile before I would enjoy the … sweet … flavorful … tenderness … mmmm … of a filet.  Oh, I didn't tell you?  Yeah, most of the house enjoys the non-meat version of food.  Sure, I can go get some type of meat but last few times I got one of those rotated chickens, I couldn't finish it all.  So, yeah … there you go.  It was a great filet … I knew what was to follow, however.  The #MeatSweat  #WildDreams  #YouKnowOtherStuff  was all on the way, but well worth the sacrifice.

We gave the kids a midnight curfew since we had to get up early the next day and get booted, I mean, escorted off the ship.  Something about new cruisers come on board shortly thereafter - meh.  Back to the casino for another hour or so at a game that we had a lot of fun at.  After we regained some of our play money, we wandered up the Brass and Bock to catch up with the other family we had met at Chef's table.  We hung out with them for a little bit, ordered some fried pickles and sat out near Sorento's to people watch.  It was hard thinking it was closing in on midnight and we needed to get to bed before the chaos of leaving the next day.

Saturday - #GetOffMyShip  We had set the latest disembarkation we could at 9:30.  Up at 7 to get our coffee and stumble down to the La Pastatier (I still can't spell it) to grab some of those bags of goodies.  It wasn't until almost the last day before we found out those were included.  Now we know - now ya'll know.  The Coastal was open for breakfast, so we went up there to say bye the gang who took amazing care of us.  We left out primary server a thank you card and a few dollars.  Back up to the room to wait out the remaining time.  The kids were waking up and still groggy after partying hard the previous night.  Yen came and got us at 9:30 and walked us off the ship and down through customs.  Everything went pretty smooth until we got outside and then we were shuffled into the rest of the crowd hunting rides home.  #NoMoreSC  ?

We booked a Lyft ride to airport for about $28 bucks or so.  Took him about 20 minutes to get to us after booking on our phone.  The ride back to the airport was fairly quick, even though the Lyft driver was fairly new and missed our turn to the zone for the Southwest flights.  No worries, we helped him navigate all the way back around to get to our terminal.  We checked in and ditched our luggage and headed to the departure gate.  Security was a little of a pain, since there was only one point where they funneled everyone through.  #WishWeHadAYen   Our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until about 2:15 and it was just after 11 when we got all through security and to the gate.  We grabbed a little bite to try and waste some time, then went and found us a seat.  I think all of us zoned out and put in our earbuds to listen to stuff on our phones.  About an hour before we were supposed to leave, they came over the speaker and said the airport was shut down and flights delayed for an hour or two.  Sigh … more time to wait at the airport.  Well, come to find out, a United plane had a flat tire and went off the runway.  Noone was hurt and things were ok, they just needed a couple of cranes and a can of fix-o-flat.  Our delay turned out to be almost 6 additional hours we were not expecting.  We finally boarded right around 7pm - ugh.  Finally, decent flight and watched a movie to pass the time.  Next thing we knew, we were touching down in Nashville.  Ah, finally home.  #Exhausted

Thank you for following along on our journey.  I took almost 1,000 pictures during the entire cruise that now need culling and figuring out how to organize them.  I've posted quite a few along our adventure here that hopefully will help others out on their future Anthem cruise.  There are a few more that I'm going to post in a random post over the next couple of days.  If there are any questions about our cruise or pictures you might be looking for, just let me know.  You can either reply to this blog or send me a DM.

Once again, thanks to everyone for making this a great first time blogging experience!  I look forward to our next cruise and my next major blog - Harmony May 31, 2020

Thanks!

John and Carrie Hobby

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Amazing review.  Thank you for taking us along.  Can't wait for Anthem next year.

Sounds like you all had a wonderful time (despite a long day for your return).  Your kids seemed to have a blast meeting new friends (even if you didn't get to see them as much).  The age of teenagers and pre-teens!  And everything seemed great on your side.  We won't have a genie (in our measly virtual balcony rooms...lol) but good tip about booking things early in case you want to go again.  I'm the same too, and even with one, would have wanted to book those myself.  Glad to hear though that the shows were so good.  And your Chef's Table sounds great too with meeting new people and good wine, plus you really seemed to enjoy CK. 

Bet you can't wait for Harmony.

 

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30 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I know those post-Star Class Blues. It’s hard to deal with life without a Genie but we always manage to push through.  Welcome home.  The land where nobody does your laundry for you or cooks and cleans for you.

???

Yeah, we actually had to figure out our own dinner last night and do about 6 loads of laundry that WE have to fold ... what... lol  You know it's funny, we make a lot of 'star class' jokes after we leave ... like -  Standing in the security line at the airport  "Wouldn't have to do this if Yen was here ..."      "I bet the Coastal Kitchen's dinner is better than this ..."   

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19 minutes ago, WannaCruise said:

Amazing review.  Thank you for taking us along.  Can't wait for Anthem next year.

Sounds like you all had a wonderful time (despite a long day for your return).  Your kids seemed to have a blast meeting new friends (even if you didn't get to see them as much).  The age of teenagers and pre-teens!  And everything seemed great on your side.  We won't have a genie (in our measly virtual balcony rooms...lol) but good tip about booking things early in case you want to go again.  I'm the same too, and even with one, would have wanted to book those myself.  Glad to hear though that the shows were so good.  And your Chef's Table sounds great too with meeting new people and good wine, plus you really seemed to enjoy CK. 

Bet you can't wait for Harmony.

 

Thanks!  I bet you'll love  Anthem - I mean, come on, you're on a cruise ?     This was the first time we sorta let the kids 'free'.  Most nights, they had a midnight curfew but a few nights we let them stay out till 1 am.  The teen stuff closes around midnight anyways, so they didn't need to be out past that.  We thought as it of a captive space - not like staying out till midnight at home driving around town somewhere.

As @Lovetocruise2002 says, #TeamCK  ?  

Harmony is only 11 months away ... sigh

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25 minutes ago, KathyC said:

Congrats #POTW!  (For those who don't know what I'm talking about, Periscoper of the Week)! You beat out @Matt

Great live blog, it was fun traveling along with you.  The airport thing was crazy...so glad everyone on the plane was okay.  

That was an unexpected surprise ... I'm glad everyone has been enjoying the scopes.  I'll post a listing of all my scopes here for future reference.

Here's the little Periscoper of the Week announcement:

https://www.periscope.tv/kcjarvis/1ypJdvrvdNLKW?fbclid=IwAR20tLBjYLh2FmzLcXxJ0ck_cn_CDcbRxIZCoW0cqdhQdIvTWiMJN-AFrJY

 

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4 hours ago, TheHobbys said:

Yeah, we actually had to figure out our own dinner last night and do about 6 loads of laundry that WE have to fold ... what... lol  You know it's funny, we make a lot of 'star class' jokes after we leave ... like -  Standing in the security line at the airport  "Wouldn't have to do this if Yen was here ..."      "I bet the Coastal Kitchen's dinner is better than this ..."   

We do the same !  "Where's my GENIE ?!"

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The concierge club.  It's like playing a game of hide-n-seek.  You'll find this on the 12th floor on the back of the ship ... all alone.  We went there once, just to take pictures because we honestly never knew it existed until late in the cruise.  It's disconnected from everything.  The O-Class ships have it as part of the Coastal Kitchen.

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The Coastal Kitchen staff rocks!  I think we both thought the staff on board Anthem were over the top!

Meet Austin, our primary waiter.  He's moving to Canada after his assignment is over.  He was fantastic!

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Meet Reuben, an extremely interesting and amazing manager ... meet him and see for yourself ? 

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Meet Anna.  She will greet you when you enter always with a smile and glad to see you.  She remembers your favorite seat!  Extremely friendly!  We need more of her in our restaurants back at home !!

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