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Second Anthem - NJ to Bermuda - Oct 19 to Oct 24 - LIVE(ISH)


JLMoran

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For those who've been wondering how my foot made out -- Just had my follow-up at the wound care center, and the doc was not happy with how swollen the ankle is now and how it's still not looking like it's healing yet. Not surprised, with so much walking required just to get around the ship. If I'd thought it would be this bad a couple of weeks earlier, I could have maybe rented a scooter for on board; but as it was, there was no time for that. The good news is that it's still not the least bit infected, it's just ugly looking as all get-out.

So, now I'm wrapped in compression bandages up to my knee, and I go there again on Tuesday for another follow-up. Hopefully this phase of it is short-lived.

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This is actually far from the worst I've had with this recurring wound. That would be the time I ended up taking Levaquin tablets for six months, because I was 20 years younger, way more stupid, and took forever to see a doctor about it. On that scale, this is truly just a minor setback. I'm just glad I'm able to work from home while dealing with this.

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I've got enough photos edited and cleaned up that I'm ready to start blogging our time in Bermuda proper. Let's start with the ferry ride to Hamilton...

The ship arrived in port later than last year; we didn't get cleared to disembark until about 9:15. This was fine, as the first ferry to Hamilton didn't leave until 10:15 and it let us be more relaxed with getting our transit passes and walking to the ferry terminal. It's the same terminal for both the orange line to St. George's and the blue line to Hamilton, which is why the ferries alternate.

From the terminal, we had nice views of the ship and the Clocktower Mall. Since I had the good camera, I decided I'd re-take the photos from last year and get some cleaner shots.

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Once underway, I got a nice view of Anthem from the seaward side. In some lucky timing, the North Star was raised for this shot as well.

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We passed a few clusters of tiny one-person sailboats on the way. It was hard to tell for sure, but it looked like they were practicing some for some kind race.

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We continued to make our way up the channel, and started seeing more of the traditionally colorful Bermudian homes.

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The vegetation was an odd mix of lush greens and browns, not as vibrant as I remembered from last year. It wasn't until much later in the day that I realized why.

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We finally pulled up to Front Street, the main waterfront road going through Hamilton.

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We wanted to get in a little exploration of downtown Hamilton before we boarded a bus for... wherever we decided to go next. We just turned right on Front Street after leaving the ferry terminal and started walking.

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We quickly came across a little park area, with a nice view of the homes on the other side of the channel.

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Hamilton is a busy place. Lots of cars and scooters. They even rent out tiny little electric cars for the tourists that only hold two people (barely) and only have enough charge for two or maybe three hours of driving around.

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We came across another park area with picnic tables, checker/chess boards mounted on posts, and some trees for shade. In the channel, we saw the ferry already heading back to Hamilton with its next load of passengers.

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We turned back as it was looking like the main downtown was ending. Since we knew we'd have to head inland to get to the bus terminal, we crossed to the other side of Front Street before heading back. We got another look at just how many people get around by motor scooter, as the entire length of the street for as far as I could see was lined with them.

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It's good to look around while you're walking. You never know when you'll find a surprisingly pretty view from what first looks like a service alley.

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Done with our exploration (which is to say, my foot was telling me to take a break already), we made our way up Burnaby Hill road, then turned left on Washington street and walked the roughly one block to the central terminal. We decided we'd visit the botanical gardens since they were closest to the terminal. As luck would have it, a bus from the main Hamilton line to the Dockyard (number 7 line) was right there and ready for us to board.

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The bus ride from the central terminal to the gardens is really short; like, 10 minutes tops. You actually get off at the hospital, and walk a short distance to a pedestrian entrance that takes you alongside the hospital parking lot to the next street over, where the gardens proper begin.

The gardens are, if I'm being honest, set up a little oddly. There is a map showing where the exhibits are, but it's not one big reserved area like you'd find at, say the botanical gardens in New York or Butchart Gardens. Instead, they have a bunch of exhibits arranged around other buildings and park areas, and you have to find the paths that get you there. I wasn't up for deciphering the map, so we just found the nearest marked path and wandered to see what we'd find.

First exhibit? The ficus tree!

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When I first saw this, my first thought was the tree in the pilot episode of Lost, that Kate hid inside when the "monster" made its first appearance. Right genus (Ficus), but wrong species; I looked it up just now, and the tree in Lost is a Banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis), whereas the Ficus on Bermuda is the weeping fig variety (Ficus benjamina).

Based on the plaque I found, these trees are apparently the largest that grow on the island. They have long hanging tendrils, hence the "weeping" part of their name.

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These tendrils grow into new part of the trunk, letting the tree gradually spread and become quite wide.

Remember the brown foliage from earlier? The gardens weren't exempt. There was a completely dead tree next to the one I took the earlier pics from:

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This was damage caused by the hurricane that blew through the island just a couple of weeks earlier. It wreaked havoc on the gardens, destroying the floral exhibits and damaging a lot of the larger plants like the trees. But we still hadn't put two and two together, so we kept wandering around to see what else was here. First thing we found was an actual hedge maze, with a gazebo in the center.

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I'd heard a chainsaw running for a while, and this was why; not in this pic, but we passed a guy neatening up the hedges and keeping the paths well-defined.

Next up we came across a large field with a variety of trees. Here, too, the damage from the hurricane was evident.

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Notice in this photo how two of the palm trees have completely lost all of their foliage. They look like poles that were randomly placed in the middle of the other trees and shrubs.

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This tree was interesting for the way its trunk had formed over the years. Look closely at it, you'll see what looks like a crooked finger rising from the ground to form the front part of the trunk.

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This next tree was the only one with any fruit on it; I'm guessing it's a date palm given the large cluster of immature fruits, but maybe it's actually coconut?

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Our last stop before giving up on finding anything more vibrant was this fountain in a small sensory garden that had also lost all of its other foliage. 

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On closer inspection of the water, I found there were some fish living in there. Look for the orange shape under the water in the center of the picture.

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We decided to get the bus back to the central station, and slowly walked back to the hospital where the depot was located. Maybe a five minute wait for a bus going back to Hamilton to come by, and other ten to return to the station. We had debated trying to make it over to the aquarium, but my foot was getting increasingly unhappy and Cathy was getting hungry, so we walked back from the terminal to the ferry depot.

The ferry depot is attached to a larger building that has a little cafe inside. We stopped there for a small bite, since the ferry wouldn't be arriving for another 15 minutes or so. Decent food, expensive as expected for anything bought in Bermuda.

On the ride back, I got a nice view of Anthem and Norwegian Gem lined up at the dock.

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The Gem had been there since the day before, and we learned wouldn't be leaving until the next day, same as us. Yup, people on that ship were getting 3 days in Bermuda instead of only 2; Cathy and I were jealous, even if it wasn't as good as ship as ours. ? 

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The next part of our day was the sunset sailing we'd booked with the catamaran Restless Native by way of TripAdvisor. We almost missed it! Having seen it docked at the slip right by Calico Jack's earlier in the morning and again in the afternoon, we assumed that's where it would be located for boarding. Nope! Nowhere to be seen, even as it was getting really close to the boarding time noted on our tickets.

Thankfully, Cathy insisted we ask another catamaran docked there if we knew where the Restless Native was boarding, and we were directed to the compass rose located on the main dock, in between both cruise ships. We made our way there and met up with the group, and pretty much just in time! The catamaran was actually docked past the Norwegian Gem, I guess to avoid conflicting with the route of the other catamaran we'd seen.

To be clear, this was my fault. The email I got after booking did say we'd meet up on the dock in between the ships. But that little side slip area is pretty much in between the two ships, and after seeing Restless Native there twice we made the mistake of ass-u-me(ing).

After boarding and taking one of the bench seats at the rear of the boat, we settled in for our night's trip. The sky was already looking promising, but we still had about a half hour before sunset.

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They were serving rum swizzles from the moment we set out, and we all enjoyed at least one; by the time the night was done I'd had three, but the fact is that the earlier ones were noticeably weaker than the ones that were served later. I made sure to keep one eye on the sun as it slowly sank lower in the sky.

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Now, at this point I feel like I need to pre-apologize to @Marc Van Niekerk -- I read his blog after taking these pics and coming up with a narrative, and wouldn't you know it but he beat me to the punch! I can't believe our two sunsets were a couple thousand miles apart, because his photos looked an awful lot like the ones I'm about to post. Marc, I swear these really are my own sunset pics and not copies of yours! ?

So the main event is nearly here, but the low-hanging clouds on the horizon are making me more than a little nervous about whether we'd actually get anything good. Maybe 5 minutes before sunset, the sun started to peek through. The gentleman sitting at the cabin window facing the front of the boat was kind enough to let me slip in for a few moments to take these shots.

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Just a couple of minutes later, as sunset was creeping closer and the view was getting even better, everyone in the netting at the very front of the boat was blocking the view out of the cabin windows. I had a feeling this might be all there's be, and I decided I had to get creative with capturing the shot before I lost it. There was no way I could stand in the front or even on the side without falling or hurting myself, my foot just wouldn't have that. So I climbed up the steps to the deck, grabbed hold of the cabin roof with one hand, used the roof to brace the camera. The effort was totally worth it.

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As expected, that was all she wrote. The sun disappeared behind the clouds and never peeked through again. But we did get to see some very nice post-sunset colors in the sky as we sailed back to the dock.

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We pulled up to the dock about 7:30, right on time. 

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For this post, I chose to upload PNG files instead of JPEG images, as the JPEG files were showing some noticeable banding and other artifacting. Apologies for the much larger file sizes and slower download, but I spent too much time cleaning up these shots to let JPEG compression mess them up.

After getting off the Restless Native, we were walking back to the ship and it occurred to me that I have this nice new camera with real glass and a good sized sensor; why not see what it can do with the ship all lit up for the evening? So before boarding, I grabbed these shots. Needed a bit of post-processing, but overall pretty impressive for a six year old compact camera model.

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This wasn't enough for me. We had already talked about getting on the North Star and seeing the Bermuda skyline at night, so I figured I'd keep taking pictures and seeing what worked and what didn't. We got onto the standby line, fingers crossed that they'd have a couple of no-shows, and I snapped a couple of shots while waiting our turn. First up, this shot from the North Star Bar looking out over the pool deck.

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I was also able to get a nice shot of the North Star while she was fully raised above us. Didn't realize it had lights on the bottom of the capsule; I guess they need that for safety in case of any low-flying planes coming near.

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And then, it was our turn to board the capsule. We rose up into the dark, and I immediately saw that this was going to be difficult at best. You all know how the glass is pretty reflective in the day time? Well at night it's practically a mirror! They have blue lights inside the capsule, and the glass catches and reflects everything lit up by it like crazy. I must have taken a dozen shots of the skyline and dockyard area, but finding a spot where I could put the camera in my own shadow (or someone else's) to block out the blue lighting was nearly impossible. These two were the best I could manage, and required a lot of editing to minimize the blue that still got into the pics:

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But then I saw the pool deck from up high, and it looked like maybe I'd have some better luck there. Still required a pretty decent amount of editing, but I am darned happy with the end result. The only piece that I couldn't edit out was the reflection of the shoe you can see there on the bottom left. I'm wondering if I could get away with using the "healing brush" to make that last little bit go away...

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It looks even better at full size, but I don't how much @Matt would appreciate me uploading a nearly 5 MB file. ? 

After we came back down, I stopped on the little observation platform they have as you go down the stairs to the exit at the North Star Bar. I got one more shot of the dockyard at night, and without all that reflective glass it came out looking much better.

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And with that, we rushed back inside to quickly change our clothes and grab dinner. Cathy wasn't up for the MDR that night and just grabbed a few slices at Sorrento's. I was pretty hungry and wanted to share the day with my table-mates while finding out how they had spent the day, so off to deck 3 I went.

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As with last year, we made our second and final day in Bermuda all about Horseshoe Bay. You already saw the posts I made from there on my phone, so I'm not going to repeat those comments about timing and such. This post is all about the amazing pics I caught with the DSC-RX100.

First up, the beach itself looking towards the end with the little grotto.The pink wasn't as visible today as it was the last time, might be due to the earlier hour.

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This bird was there all day. Perched there when the beach opened up, never moved even once during our whole time there.

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The water started off reasonably calm...

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... but the tide was definitely coming in. Before long, we were getting some nice spray off the rocks.

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This rock looked interesting. I wondered what the waves must have been like to undercut it that way.

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I found out a couple of minutes later.

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As crowded as the beach was getting by noon time, no one was going all that far out into the water; just about everyone stayed close to where they'd set up their umbrellas and/or loungers. They'd have had a much less crowded time in the water if they'd just walked over where I was standing.

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Although I'm sure this snorkeler appreciated having all the space to themselves.

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The other thing that was different about this day was the number of birds I saw. There were sandpipers...

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...sparrows...

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...and as you can see in that shot, a variety of bird I haven't seen before. At first I thought it was some kind of Grackle, but then I realized it wasn't solid black; it was actually black with numerous white dots on its body and white edging on its wing feathers. Got some much closer and better shots of it here. I think it's a European starling based on some Wikipedia searching today.

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This is going to be my last post to this blog for today; I still have to edit the photos I took during sail-away and our final sunset, plus arrival back in Bayonne, so that should be coming tomorrow or maybe not until Sunday.

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3 hours ago, JLMoran said:

Now, at this point I feel like I need to pre-apologize to @Marc Van Niekerk -- I read his blog after taking these pics and coming up with a narrative, and wouldn't you know it but he beat me to the punch! I can't believe our two sunsets were a couple thousand miles apart, because his photos looked an awful lot like the ones I'm about to post. Marc, I swear these really are my own sunset pics and not copies of yours! ?

Not to worry ?

Fantastic pictures!

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We got back to the Dockyard a little after 2 PM, and I suggested that we hit the craft shops and get whatever souvenirs we wanted to pick up. I didn't want to repeat last year's mistake and find ourselves racing the clock to all-aboard time, and it was a good choice. We were able to visit both the craft center, where we picked up another print to hang on our wall along with a couple of pairs of shell earrings for the girls, and the arts building next door that we missed on our last visit.

No way we could afford any of the paintings on display, and I was extremely bummed to find that a print they had of a moon gate in St. George's was out of stock. No picture taken, out of respect for the copyright notices plastered all over the store and the fact that it's run as a charity. We did pick up a little soap dish / candy dish with a fish hand-painted on it, as Cathy really likes that sort of thing. It's a really neat place, definitely should check it out if you're there.

We also found one surprise in the place, and kind of wished we could add it to our existing collection:

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No, not the chair! That would never go with the rest of our decor! ?

Souvenirs in hand, we made our back to the ship and got ready for our sail-away from Bermuda. I wanted to get photos and went up to the North Star Bar, only find that in the hour since we got back on board, we'd become completely shrouded in fog!

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I grabbed my traditional margarita while I waited for the fog to clear, and was glad for the overhanging roof they had there as the fog turned to a light rain.

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Thankfully, just like in the Caribbean, the rain stopped fairly quickly. We pulled away from the dock only 5 minutes later than scheduled, possibly shy a few passengers; Cathy told me later on that the captain had called the names of about 6 passengers who weren't on board.

I made my way forward on the walking track, and took my last look at Bermuda for at least a couple of years while the tugboats got us turned around and moving into the channel.

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While the rain had cleared out, the sky had not. @DDaley, I had you firmly in mind as I was taking these pics. Amazing cloud formations all through the night.

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While it may look like it, this last one is not from a fisheye lens. The clouds really were wrapped in a semi-ring around the island and us!

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It was 5:30, and sunset would be on us in just over an hour. I went back to my cabin for a short break and to meet back up with Cathy.

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@DDaley, be warned. You may be about to experience cloud overload!

We went up to the Solarium to see about watching the sunset from the observation wings. For some reason, the port-side wing was locked down and only the starboard-side one was open to passengers. Maybe because the captain didn't want people standing over him and making while he was still actively navigating the channel out from Bermuda?

Sunset was about 10 minutes away, and the sky was not looking like it would cooperate with us tonight. Those clouds from earlier hadn't moved on, and if anything they had gotten thicker. Unless there was a gap I couldn't make out, the sun would be fully blocked this time around.

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Then the ship had to make a turn in the channel, and our view to the west was rapidly getting blocked. But not before I got this pic with the ship catching the light beautifully.

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Behind us, Norwegian Gem was making her own way through the channel.

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All of us who were on the observation wing rushed back up to Deck 15 and the port-side aft end of the running track, to try and catch what we could. While the sun itself wasn't especially visible, there were enough breaks in the clouds to allow some very nice coloring to still take place in the sky.

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All of us from the observation wing were pleading for the sun to break through and give us a final show, but the clouds were not in our favor, and sunset proper was quite muted. Throughout, Norwegian Gem continued to follow behind us; I wondered if the passengers on board her were getting any better of a view for being that little bit closer to the island.

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While true sunset was a bust, the heavy clouds did give us some incredible colors in the post-sunset twilight. Combined with the lower-hanging clouds, the contrasts and variations made for a truly striking display. The lower clouds were moving and changing shape so quickly that you could see changes toward the horizon from one minute to the next.

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Even looking forward, streamers of colors were visible among the roiling lower clouds.

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The show seemed to go on forever.

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By 6:15, though, the show did end. I took one more picture of the massive system behind us, and we went inside to our dinner at Jamie's Italian.

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On our final morning, we woke up to find ourselves already docked at Cape Liberty. Thankfully, we woke up early enough that we could still catch the sunrise and see its reflection in the skyscrapers across the river.

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We finished getting ready, and said farewell to our room before going to the Windjammer for the final time this sailing.

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Final Thoughts and Impressions About the Ship

Cabin:

  • The balcony cabins, even those on the hump, are much narrower than the J4 Junior Suite we stayed in last year. There were times it was a bit tricky navigating around each other as we'd go past the bed to the balcony, or around the desk to the bathroom. But seeing as we paid less than half the price of a JS, seems like a fair trade.
  • The shower in the bathroom didn't have sliding doors like on Freedom, but a swing-out one that didn't seem to close as tightly and, just like our shower in the JS, leaked some water onto the floor; I can only assume they just allow for this in ship designs, but it's still annoying to step onto a wet shower mat.
  • Storage was plentiful, and even on an 11-night sailing I think Cathy and I would have no problem getting everything tucked away.

Dining:

  • Late seating in the MDR was totally fine for us, as expected; it was nice having folks to chat with at the end of each night
  • The wait staff were visibly rushed and looked like they were struggling to keep up with everything. This only seemed to become more noticeable as the cruise went on.
    • One couple at our table said it was the worst MDR service they'd had in any of their several cruises on Royal; they also said they were underwhelmed by Coastal Kitchen the one night they tried it, so I'm a little dubious about that statement.
    • The times I spoke to our assistant waiter to thank her or ask for something and made sure to say her name, she just seemed to glow in response; made me feel like she normally doesn't get that much courtesy from the guests or something, which if true is kind of sad
    • I really feel like Royal needs to increase the wait staff in the dining rooms so they aren't so rushed and overwhelmed-looking; said as much in my post-cruise survey
  • Food-wise, it was OK. Nothing came out cold, thank goodness, but I did have one time where the escargots came out only slightly warm. The menu on night 3 was the one time where both Cathy and I struggled to find something we wanted for both entree and dessert. Never had that experience in CK, don't remember it happening on Freedom last year, either.
  • Jamie's Italian was good, but not stellar. Personally, I think it's on par with Macaroni Grill and not any genuine Italian or even Italian-American restaurants. Glad we had the chance to try it, but also glad that chance was on Royal's nickel.
  • Sorrento's, as noted earlier, was way better than before. Still not stellar, but good enough that Cathy and I both ate there twice for lunch.

Beverages:

  • Not getting the Deluxe package was totally the right call. I ordered all the alcoholic beverages that I wanted, never felt like I was holding back; yet over the 5 nights I only had 7 drinks, one of those a beer from the pub that was only $10 after auto-gratuity.
    • In total I spent just over $100 on alcohol
    • If I had bought the DBP at $52/night, that would have cost me $210 more than what I'd paid for the Refreshment Package after factoring in gratuities
    • To be fair, I did bring my allowed two bottles of wine and drank only from those each night at dinner, so that saved me about 10 drink purchases over the course of the trip (2 glasses per night)
    • Moral of the story here is that I will now always bring my allowed wine on board with me for with dinner, and only get the Refreshment Package to cover my non-alcoholic drinks
  • Speaking of the Refreshment Package -- at $17/night both Cathy and I just barely broke even
    • We both got two large cappuccinos / lattes every day, and I got fresh-squeezed OJ most days while Cathy would get a couple of sodas from the Freestyle machines; and we both got at least two bottles of water each day.
    • We also both ordered specialty non-alcoholic beverages at Two70, and Cathy also got one of the ones offered at Jamie's
    • So the moral of this story is that the Refreshment Package can actually be a good purchase, but only if you get it for a really good sale price; I'd still buy it for the convenience factor at $19 or $20, but anything over $20 would leave me feeling like I'm getting fleeced; $25 or higher is a definite no-go.

General:

  • Entertainment options on board were a lot better this time around, even though it was still the final Bermuda sailing of the year; Royal must have listened to guest feedback after last year's really poor options, because we got Vistarama shows, what appeared to be a better headliner act (and I'm annoyed we had to miss it!), a comedian who was really good, and a lot more!
  • Even though the ship sailed full, for some reason it didn't feel as crowded this time; even walking around the Esplanade or the Via, the crowds seemed to flow better; I can't say I noticed anything different about the arrangement of floor kiosks in the Esplanade or other things, so maybe I just got lucky and only went into those places when the crowds were smaller.
  • While I already covered this at length when it happened, it bears repeating: The staff on board truly went above and beyond in handling that issue with the hunk of metal inside the sausage I'd gotten. If they'd done nothing, it wouldn't have changed my mind about sailing with them again; but the fact that they did so much to fix the experience and leave me with a smile instead of a frown has ensured that I'll feel happy about sailing with them again. And this is another item I pointed out in my post-cruise survey, including mentioning the folks who'd helped me by name.
  • I ran into a couple who got married on Day 5 in the Music Hall; very small service from what I saw, just the bride and groom with their parents. My brother just got engaged and said he and his fiancée are also looking to do a tiny wedding, I may suggest they look into that as an option (followed by a longer sailing for their honeymoon, of course! ?).

It's funny, I went into this cruise feeling a little ambivalent about being more "stuck on board" because of the foot issue. Yet I've come out of this cruise liking Anthem better than I did last year. I probably won't be sailing her again until at least 2021, when she's back in NJ (or maybe it'll be Odyssey at that point, who knows?), but I'm feeling like I want a third round on her that's a longer sailing or a B2B so I can really experience all the entertainment and other things the ship can offer. I still feel like I haven't experienced everything they use the Two70 space for, and I really want have a proper cover band instead of a generalized group like the Royal Swedes on board.

I guess that's the best way that Royal could hope to have me feeling once I'm off the ship.

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Thoughts about Bermuda

One thing I wanted to mention here was that, while Bermuda is definitely an island to do it all on your own, it's really important to be aware of things that may have happened recently and properly factor that into your plans. Cathy and I winged it for our full day, and quite honestly wasted much of our morning with that trip to the botanical gardens when we could have just gone to the aquarium. If I'd paid more attention to the effects of that hurricane that hit a couple weeks earlier, and not only thought about "will they have the lights back on?", I would have realized that the gardens should be saved for another time.

Also, we made the mistake of thinking that Hamilton would be an easy to explore place like St. George's. Let me be clear -- Hamilton is nothing like St. George's when it comes to wandering around!

Where St. George's is a relatively small community with not much more to explore than the main road with all the shops, plus the little historical section in the center of town by the channel, Hamilton is a true city. It is huge compared to St. George's, and it has all of the sprawl and varying "regions" that come with being a city. I would advise reading up on the place before you go there and picking a spot or two to walk to, not just wandering around at random. Front Street seems to be the shopping and dining center of the city, but there are side streets where you'll find other places to check out. Whenever we make our way to Bermuda next, I'm going to make sure to properly read up on the place so we can figure out what we want to do, if anything that time beyond getting to the bus terminal to reach our true destinations for the day.

The other thing I learned this trip was that I should really expand my beach horizons beyond Horseshoe Bay (and Tobacco Bay when up by St. George's). There are many more beaches, including Admiralty Beach, Long Bay Beach, and Elbow Beach; from pictures that other passengers showed me, or descriptions I got from my table-mates at dinner, more than a few of them are just as nice as Horseshoe Bay without the massive tourist crowds, and even have some neat features of their own. The main draw for Horseshoe is convenience, thanks to the constantly running shuttle vans; but if I'm paying for an all-day commuter pass then why not use it to find some of these other beaches and spend some time on them instead? A lot of them even have their own restaurants and amenities, so I wouldn't even be giving up anything I'd have at Horseshoe Bay.

 

So that's it. This blog is done, and now there's only one thing left to note....

 

? Two hundred eighty-one days 'til we go on the next cruise,

That's nine months and five days 'til we goooo! ?

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Great blog Joe!

I like Quantum class because it offers something different compared to Voyager, Voyager Plus (Freedom) and Oasis class.   After sailing other classes it's always nice to return to Q class and find new appreciation for those items that are unique to this class. 

Just like Chops is not the best steakhouse, Jamie, Giovanni's, Hooked, etc. will never be the best restaurant within that specialty.  Few chain restaurants on land ever succeed at being the best within their niche so it should come as no surprise that the Royal chain restaurants don't either.   They are after all pretty much a chain restaurant preparing a menu that a head chef somewhere else created. 

When you make it to Diamond you'll really appreciate not requiring a beverage package every cruise.  Despite the naysayers Crown and Anchor is still the best cruise loyalty program out there.  

Great job on the photos, glad that new(old) camera worked out for you :).

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@Lovetocruise2002, a little epilogue for you: Cathy really is the female version for your hubby; when I mentioned the idea of taking an 11-night Caribbean sailing in the winter, when both of the kids are in college and it’s easy for us to get away for that long, she asked me what ship. I told her Anthem, and she sighed and said, “Anthem again?!? Why can’t we do that on a different ship?” ?

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26 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

@Lovetocruise2002, a little epilogue for you: Cathy really is the female version for your hubby; when I mentioned the idea of taking an 11-night Caribbean sailing in the winter, when both of the kids are in college and it’s easy for us to get away for that long, she asked me what ship. I told her Anthem, and she sighed and said, “Anthem again?!? Why can’t we do that on a different ship?” ?

This is my thinking too (similar to you...can cruise longer when kids are grown up).  An 11 nighter, or even 9 nighter would be perfect.  But...DH loves cruising like me but gets restless and finds for the 7 nights he'd had enough. So doubt I'll ever convince him.  Sigh.

Love your review. Can't wait for Anthem.

Hope that foot heals up for you real soon.

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33 minutes ago, WannaCruise said:

gets restless and finds for the 7 nights he'd had enough.

For Hubby it's not the longer length, it's the repeat ships he doesn't like.  To be more specific, it's the repeat entertainment.  We both love the shows but to watch it over and over again, he will be bored.  He's already complaining about Harmony next year, it will be the 4th time seeing Grease.  This is going to be the problem heading into summer 2021, with Wonder not coming to North America, not sure what that leaves us.  By summer 2021, we will have sailed all 4 Oasis class (minus Wonder)..Oasis/Allure pre and post amp, Harmony 3 times, and Symphony.  I don't mind, but Hubby, that's another story.  Hoping that @Matt makes the decision easy for us by announcing a summer 2021 GC.  Then it won't matter cause we'll be there, even on Empress. ??

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@Lovetocruise2002 got it.  That is one of the downsides of repeating a ship (such am awful problem...lol).  I'm one who sees Broadway shows again (have seen Mamma Mia 25 times, Wicked 8 times...ha ha) so not an issue for me but do get it.  And so guess it's hard for you and Joe to convince that we should go on Harmony...again (or whataver ship).  Hope a group cruise comes up for your timing...or the convincing works. It's a Royal cruise after all. 

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3 hours ago, WannaCruise said:

I'm one who sees Broadway shows again (have seen Mamma Mia 25 times, Wicked 8 times...ha ha) so not an issue for me but do get it.  And so guess it's hard for you and Joe to convince that we should go on Harmony...again (or whataver ship).

I’m like you, and will happily rewatch movies or shows I’ve loved up to dozens of times. My wife is always looking for the new and rarely wants to rewatch anything, in spite of the massive library I’ve built up over the years.

But I think with the ships it’s really not the entertainment; she was very happy to see Spectra again, and was ok with a second showing of WWRY. But she wants to try out completely different ships with different spaces and venues. Might just just be that she hasn’t yet found “her” Goldilocks ship or ship class. So even if it’s a new itinerary, she’ll be less interested if she’s repeating a ship she’s been on.

I do wonder how she’s going to like Celebrity Summit, as she’s already told me that while she likes the itinerary we’ll be sailing, she’s not feeling enthusiastic about the ship at this point. Feels like there won’t be enough to do on board during sea days, but I don’t think she realizes yet how packed our port days are going to be.

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1 hour ago, JLMoran said:

But she wants to try out completely different ships with different spaces and venues. Might just just be that she hasn’t yet found “her” Goldilocks ship or ship class. So even if it’s a new itinerary, she’ll be less interested if she’s repeating a ship she’s been on.

I do wonder how she’s going to like Celebrity Summit, as she’s already told me that while she likes the itinerary we’ll be sailing, she’s not feeling enthusiastic about the ship at this point.

Two words....

OASIS CLASS!!!

It's time lol

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I just hope that whichever ship returns/comes to Cape Liberty in 2021 resumes an itinerary that includes Bermuda!

I'm assuming Oasis class is too large to dock at Kings Wharf, etc.?

Love the Bermuda (my profile photo ☺️) and Eastern Caribbean itinerary! We did that once on Liberty back in 2015. Right now, we're newer or amped ship snobs! :27_sunglasses:

Still haven't had the chance to sail on Anthem!

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...

So I had to add one more post here to truly close it out. Remember that wound on my foot that gave me trouble throughout the cruise? Well, as of today -- 5 months to the day since the cruise ended -- I am officially discharged from the wound center and had the wound declared "healed".

Yeah, it took 5 additional months -- including a deep clean-out that required 5 or 6 lidocaine injections all around the wound, and cauterization with silver nitrate a couple weeks later -- for this stupid scar to finally fill in properly and grow new skin. It's still a bit of a small divot, so I've been told to take another week to keep it elevated, minimize water exposure, avoid lengthy walking around, etc. and let it "firm up" some more. And be prepared for it to take another two years before it's really and truly stabilized.

I've also been ordered by the center's plastic surgeon to get fully custom shoes that will be built to avoid rubbing the area and (hopefully) prevent this from coming back yet again. Shoes have been on order for a while now, still waiting for them to actually arrive and then see how well they fit. Given the current situation with Covid-19, I could be waiting a while longer yet. At least I'm on mandatory work-from-home while this issue is going on, so keeping it elevated isn't an issue.

But healing is done, and it's 131 days still to go before August 2. So I'll keep babying it in preparation for the TON of walking I know will be coming then, and wait until June / July to gradually start getting used to doing that kind of walking around again.

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2 hours ago, JLMoran said:

I am officially discharged from the wound center and had the wound declared "healed"

So, I thought you folks from North Jersey were tough. Oh but wait, your an IT guy.....now I understand.....and you know I'm joking. Happy for the good news, but, please don't over do that two year recovery. Still looking forward to a cruise where we can meet each other. Stay safe, stay healthy and WASH YOUR HANDS!!?

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43 minutes ago, WannaCruise said:

What a long haul for you but so glad to hear your foot is now healed and you are doing better.

You have no idea. I've been working from home for the entire five month period, and basically in social isolation because I couldn't walk around, couldn't even stand up for more than a couple minutes without discomfort, couldn't really not have the foot elevated; even wrapped in compression bandaging, I could feel it swell up if I kept the leg down more than a few minutes. And with the kids away at school and wife at work 3 days a week, I'd be in an empty house most of the day for half of every week. The good news is that the dog has finally gotten used to me, and seems only looks at me with very slight concern as I wander around the house talking in different voices, singing random bits of songs, or just generally acting like a total "nutter" when there wasn't anyone else to witness it. Seriously, not giving a hoot about acting bonkers every so often probably kept from actually going bonkers.

I kind of chuckle at the people who are saying they're getting cabin fever after the just the last week or two, but at the same time I'm more of an "introverted extrovert".

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  • 6 months later...

So....

Bringing this thread up again because just shy of a year after sailing, I just got a chance to recap this cruise with @Matt for this week's podcast episode. Not just my first time contributing to the podcast, it's actually the first time Matt and I have had a chance to talk to each other voice-to-voice! ?

If you want to hear about this sailing in a much more brief format, keep an eye on your podcast client. Episode #375 will be coming out soon.

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On 10/5/2020 at 3:44 PM, JLMoran said:

So....

Bringing this thread up again because just shy of a year after sailing, I just got a chance to recap this cruise with @Matt for this week's podcast episode. Not just my first time contributing to the podcast, it's actually the first time Matt and I have had a chance to talk to each other voice-to-voice! ?

If you want to hear about this sailing in a much more brief format, keep an eye on your podcast client. Episode #375 will be coming out soon.

Thanks for the heads up on this.  Due to the pandemic, my commute to work now just involves walking to my basement, so I'm a bit behind on my podcast queue.  But when I saw the alert on this one being released, I knew to make sure to check it out immediately.

I really enjoyed the episode!

I totally agree that the staff on Anthem really go our of their way to make sure any issues are rectified.  Before one of my Anthem cruises I was a little annoyed because the pub beer menu looked like it changed for the worse.  Out of all the mass market lines RCL tends to have the worst selection of "interesting" beers, but Anthem was a bit of an exception when it was branded as Michaels Genuine.  Still not the best choices at sea, but better then the rest of the RCL ships.  Right before my cruise, they rebranded it to be more like the non "celebrity chef" pubs on the other ships, and early reports made it seem like the beer choices were pretty limited.  So I sent an email to corporate with some suggestions, got a reply thanking me for my comments and I figured that was it.  But no, one day onboard I get back to my room and I see they left me a bucket of several of the more interesting beers available onboard, which was a very nice surprise.  I really enjoyed them on my balcony, I thought it was a very nice gesture.  But, much like you found, that was not it.  Eventually my wife, daughter, and I decided to try the food at the pub and buy a couple of beers.  Once our card was scanned for our first round, it must have triggered an alert to the assistant food and beverage manager that ran the pub, since he appeared out of nowhere to come and chat for a bit.  We had a nice chat and I recommended some other beers and beer styles that might be good to stock onboard (I don't think anything ever came of that, but it was nice that he asked), and then he left.  But when we asked for our check for our food, it turns out that he comped our meal.

Sometimes enough little things go wrong in a row, and it can put a bit of a damper on ones enthusiasm.  It's nice that the staff on some ships try to do their best to turn those situations around.   It certainly helps to have the "right" attitude, but giving staff the power to also try to fix things can also go a long way.

 

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