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Anthem Jan. 5, 2020 11 Nights Southern Caribbean - RECAP


twangster

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I'm writing this in the past tense because, well, the cruise is over.  I knew I would be busy on this one so in fairness I'm going to skip a lot of things about this magnificent ship.  

I've always enjoyed Anthem and Quantum class in general as evidenced by this being my fourth time on Anthem.  I wouldn't keep coming back if this wasn't a great ship.

Itinerary:

Day 1 - Bayonne embarking

Day 2 - Sea day

Day 3 - Sea day

Day 4 - San Juan

Day 5 - St. Maarten

Day 6 - Antigua

Day 7 - St Lucia

Day 8 - St Kitts

Day 9 - Sea day

Day 10 - Sea day

Day 11 - Sea day

Day 12 -  Bayonne debarking

 

I've done a couple of previous Anthem live blogs, you'll find those here:

  https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/5068-anthem-112517-712-b2b/

    and

  https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/5387-anthem-11918-9-night-bahamas/

Spoiler alert - I still love this ship after my latest cruise.

Without further adieu, let's get this started.

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Day 0 

I flew into Newark like I always do.  I had Southwest booked but then they pulled out of Newark so I relied on my tried and true airline who rarely lets me down, Delta.

As it turns out that was a blessing.  On this occasion I was able to fly the new A220 aircraft born from the Canadian Bombardier C series.  There is some background to this aircraft but that's a story for another day.  Now it's offered as an Airbus A220.

My good ole airline even upgraded me to first class so I was able to "sit up front" on this occasion.  With boarding done early I saw an opportunity to peek into the cockpit and asked permission to take a picture, granted.  It's a very modern and comfortable aircraft.

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The A220 didn't disappoint. 

Landing in Newark and reaching baggage claim I had a "things that make you go hmmm" moment when I spotted a blue container on the luggage carousel.  At least I'm not the only overpacker when it comes to cruising.

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Unfortunately my Hilton hotel booked using points let me down.  The airport shuttle wasn't running so after standing in the cold for a while for a shuttle that was promised but never came I hailed an Uber and reach my Home2 Suites hotel.  No rooms.  Apparently housekeeping walked off the job today, or so they claimed.  They set me up with the Hilton down the road so with another couple also rejected they sent us to the Hilton in a taxi they paid for and off we went. 

Finally by 2am I was in my room at the Hilton Airport.   Now there are two Hilton brands I won't stay at.  Marriot - I'm coming back...

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Day 1 - Bayonne 

IT"S CRUISE DAY!!!

I checked both Lyft and Uber and found Uber a bit cheaper.  Uber it is.


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The Uber app sent my driver all over the place on the way to pick me up.  Even my driver wasn't sure what was going on.  None the less I arrived at Cape Liberty just after 10am.

My cabin on this cruise was a Junior Suite so I took advantage of the suite line and waiting area.  Check in was quick and convenient.

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The rest of the terminal:

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Boarding commenced shortly after 10:35am.  

Later I noted the much heavier terminal traffic just before noon:

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Cabins ready at 1:30 so I grabbed a Kümmelweck in CafeTwo70 and made reservations at Coastal Kitchen for the duration of the voyage.  

Sail away shortly after muster, here is Lady Liberty with a telephoto lens from my port side balcony:

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Lower Manhattan:

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I was almost done unpacking when I made a dash for deck 15 to take in the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

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Phew, looks like we'll make it one more time.

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Cabin Tour - J4 Junior Suite 6240, Port side

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No walk in closet but ample space.

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Wow bands included with a JS.

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Ample space in the suite.

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The bathroom facilities are split with a water closet or toilet on one side:

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And the bathtub and shower on the other side. 

Bathtub on the left...

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Shower on the right.

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Rainfall shower head (not pictured) as well as shower head sprayer.

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Foot rest/shelf for shower supplies.

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L'Occitane toiletries: 

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I waited until we were under nicer skies to photograph the balcony.  It's a nice cabin with large windows and views to the sea.

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The view down.  That's the deck 5 port side public sitting area below the cabin.  No impact to the balcony, smoking side is starboard.

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The view aft.

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The view forward.

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Night 1 Dinner - Coastal Kitchen

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Those who have eaten at CK know the drill.  Classics that never change on one side...

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Daily items on the other side

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Caesar Salad

Interesting presentation and very tasty.

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Fillet Mignon - Yum.

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The fillet remains to be the best steak in the fleet. 

Dessert menu

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Chocolate Praline Tart

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Coastal Kitchen remains a fantastic experience.

Back to my cabin my Crown and Anchor amenities have arrived.  Loyalty pays.  Who needs a drink package?

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Night 1 continued...

After dinner I wandered and found DSB in the Music Hall.  They are a Journey tribute band and very good.

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I've seen these guys before on Anthem and was pleased they would be back.

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It wasn't long before the audience was on the dance floor.

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Meanwhile in Boleros The Royal Swedes were also rocking it out.

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Getting late The VIA was empty.

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Aft or midship elevator bank. 

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Anthem really is a pretty ship.

Enough for day 1, more to come...

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Day 2 - Sea Day

Departing from Bayonne in the winter means the first and last day of the cruise are what I call "long pant days".  Fortunately Anthem is a perfect ship for cold weather and there is a lot going on around the ship.

The adult only solarium is 16+.

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In this cabin the TV is mounted against the wall and it doesn't hinge like some other ships or cabins.  There is no way to access the HDMI inputs and with a border surrounding the TV you really can't do anything with this TV but watch the Royal channel lineup.

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Dinner in Coastal Kitchen.

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Maine Lobster Salad.

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Roasted Veal Tenderloin.

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Valrhona Chocolate Bar.

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On this cruise there were high numbers of upper top tier Crown and Anchor so the Concierge Lounge was off limits to D+.  The expanded Diamond Lounge using the upper floor of the Music Hall works quite well for this purpose and I met many new friends on this cruise.  Here is a wide angle picture to aid in obscuring individuals for privacy purposes.  This is the Music Hall upstairs bar area during Diamond happy hour,

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Tonight was a performance of The Gift.  I decided to leave the cameras in my cabin and take in this show with my eyes.  Luckily I scored a front row seat.  Just a quick smartphone pic before the show begins.

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Pay attention for the first 30 seconds of the show since the storyline is revealed.  If you are talking or distracted it will be hard to figure out the plot of the show if you miss that brief introduction.

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Day 3 - Sea Day

I'll use this lazy sea day to show the Esplanade.  As an early riser it's nice to find the Esplanade mostly empty of guests.  The Esplanade is similar in concept to the Promenade found on many previous Royal ships in the fleet as the heart of the ship.

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The Loyalty Ambassador's desk is beside guest services.

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The pub.  More on that later.

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The Esplanade has a dog leg around the pub heading forward to additional shops and the Music Hall.

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Calm seas today and a nice day to enjoy a balcony with no humidity.

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We changed time last night.

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Top tier event in the main theater starts with guitar music from a band member in the Royal orchestra.

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2782 total CAS

988 Gold, 352 moving to Platinum
520 Platinum, 175 moving to Emerald
272 Emerald, 86 moving to Diamond
598 Diamond, 35 moving to Diamond Plus
354 Diamond Plus, 5 moving to Pinnacle
50 Pinnacle

A feature I really enjoy is the outdoor seating for the Windjammer.  I eat many meals out here.

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Day 4 - San Juan

With a 3pm arrival day 4 starts like any other sea day.  The SeaPlex is a great way to pass some time on such a day.

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I like to take a picture of the SeaPlex schedule displayed on the monitors so I can plan my days accordingly.  On this sailing these were the SeaPlex activities for the cruise.

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Back to the ship for a break.  With a 3pm arrival we have an 11pm departure so lots of time to come back out later.

Dinner in Coastal Kitchen.

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I like the Caesar Salad so I decided to enjoy this classic again.

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Cheese Tortellini.  Great flavors.

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I decided to skip dessert tonight so I wouldn't be too full.

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After dinner I ventured back out to try my hand at some night photography.  I also ran to the CVS to pickup up supplies I neglected to pack. 

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Paseo de la Princesa was still lit up in Christmas colors.

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Oasis started the Aqua show but her aft was out too far to get a good view of it from Anthem.  Not long later she started away from the pier.

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Not long after it was our turn.

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Once out at sea Oasis was off our port side but too far for a decent picture.  We share St. Maarten tomorrow she we'll sail together through the night.

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Day 5 - St. Maarten

Not a bad view to wake up to...

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Pilot boat approaching.

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I told a client I would sit in on a conference call for them.  I just didn't mention where I'd join the call from...

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As mentioned in the last post, we are sharing the pier with Oasis again today.

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Fortunately we pulled straight in so my port side balcony had a perfect view of Great Bay.

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At one point I looked up from my balcony and saw something I did a few years back here in St. Maarten.   The America's Cup 12 metre Regatta boats "Stars and Stripes" and "True North IV".

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They do somewhat simulate a race but I'd use that term loosely.  True North IV "won" this one.  It's more about just having fun and experiencing what these boats can do.  They are very agile.

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It's a lot of fun 

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9 minutes ago, twangster said:

At one point I looked up from my balcony and saw something I did a few years back here in St. Maarten.   The America's Cup 12 metre Regatta boats "Stars and Stripes" and "True North IV".

 

I looked long and hard at this one.  I think I'll put it on my list of something to book on another trip to St. Maarten (I promised Mr Speednoodles an ATV tour this year).

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18 minutes ago, SpeedNoodles said:

I looked long and hard at this one.  I think I'll put it on my list of something to book on another trip to St. Maarten (I promised Mr Speednoodles an ATV tour this year).

I have done it twice and highly recommend it for "active type" people.  They assign positions on the boat with the guests as the real crew, working the sails, winches, ect.  Some positions are easier (in charge of the drinks cooler handing out the drinks) than others.  As Twangster said, it's lots of fun, and something unique you won't find elsewhere.

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29 minutes ago, twangster said:

At one point I looked up from my balcony and saw something I did a few years back here in St. Maarten.   The America's Cup 12 metre Regatta boats "Stars and Stripes" and "True North IV".

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They do somewhat simulate a race but I'd use that term loosely.  True North IV "won" this one.  It's more about just having fun and experiencing what these boats can do.  They are very agile.

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It's a lot of fun 

Sorry for "quoting" the post.  The pictures are stunning.  This is the best excursion I have had in over 20 Caribbean Cruises.  Highly recommended, and I would love to hear from anyone who has a better record than 5-0.  

?

If you want to win, there is a secret ... all contributions to the "Curt from Canada" Retirement Fund will be gratefully accepted.

?

Curt from Canada 

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Day 6 - Antigua

Or at least that was the plan...

When I woke I noted an NCL ship sailing close but in the opposite direction.    If we are sailing into Antigua, why is that ship sailing away from Antigua?  Things that make you go hmmm.

I went up for breakfast as we did a normal approach.  Sitting outdoors behind the WJ it was a beautiful morning.  Then we started to turn.  Then the wind that I wasn't aware of started coming across the outdoor seating area.  The wind was so strong it was blowing my almost empty glass of orange juice across the table.   Then my plate started to slide.  It was getting really windy.   We had been sailing directly into the wind so on the aft WJ seating area it had been completely sheltered.

Finished with my breakfast I carried my stuff to a sheltered food cleaning station because if I left it on the table, it was going flying.

St. John's is to the left in this picture, we had almost completed out turn back towards the sea.

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That little spec to the right near an island is the pilot boat that came back and retrieved the local pilot.  Yep, we were skipping Antigua today.

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The Captain came over the PA right at 8am to inform us it was too windy.  An NCL and a Princess ship both had skipped as well.  On to our next stop but at a more leisurely pace.  This was now another sea day.

Originally my excursion was supposed to be a helicopter ride over to the Montserrat Volcano.  Several months ago that was cancelled due to the tour operator cancelling.  That was a moot point because in these winds it would have been cancelled anyways and now that we skipped Antigua it really wouldn't have mattered.

None the less as we sailed South towards St. Lucia the Montserrat Volcano was on starboard. 

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We are quite far from the volcano but with my telephoto lens I was able to get a pretty good picture of it.

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You can really see the flows from the past several eruptions and where they reached the sea.

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Still active you can see how this island is growing taller with each eruption.

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Our CD advised us to refresh the app and that a new Cruise Compass would be distributed by noon.  New activities were planned.  Lot's to do.

They set up a waffle station in the Esplanade with all the fixings.  

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One of the things I did today was try the new Expedition 270 game in the Royal Caribbean app.

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It's an augmented reality game that uses your device's camera and motion sensors.  After finding the symbols found within the Two70° venue and scanning them in the game it presented a series of challenges.  In this one you control light that you aim through different gems to deflect the light to the next gem and so on until you use the light to destroy an object.  By moving your device and walking around the virtual mountain and I was able to send the light where it needed to go and complete this series of challenges

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At another station I had to shoot moving targets that floated around the room (virtually).

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By completing all four stations you collect all the masks and finish the game.

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One of the stations requires you to point your phone and move around a particular seating area in Two70°.  On my first attempt there was a couple sitting and reading right where I needed to point my phone.  It felt super awkward pointing my phone at them so I left to return later hoping the seats would be unoccupied (they were).

Later on RCTV I watched the Captain's explanation of why we had to skip Antigua. 

As we approached the channel the ship had to sail at at angle to compensate for the wind.  In open seas that isn't a problem.  In a narrow channel the ship can only use the channel in a straight line staying within the center of the channel.  With the ship at an angle due to the wind, we would use too much of the channel's width leaving no margin for safety.  Nearing the start of the channel the Captain made the call to abort so that is when we turned and our local pilot got off the ship.

The Captain provided a great overview and detailed explanation of the situation.  I love that he took the time to keep us informed of why he had to make this unfortunate decision.

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Day 6 Dinner

You guessed it, Coastal Kitchen.

I met up with a CC user at the Diamond happy hour and since we were both eligible for CK we shared a table tonight.  It was kind of entertaining.  Our table wasn't my usual table so not my regular waiter.  My waiter still came over even though it wasn't his table, greeted me and brought me my regular glass of wine that he knew I liked.  Excellent service!

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Another Caesar Salad but I've shown that a few times so no picture.

Braised Lamb Shank

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For dessert I kept it simple with some no sugar added ice cream.  It's ice cream, served in a martini glass.  No picture needed

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Day 7 - St. Lucia

I was concerned with the winds still up a bit that our stop in St. Lucia would be in jeopardy but the Captain turned the ship and backed us in like a boss.  The direction of the wind and channel into the harbor worked in our favor today.  

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Today's excursion would be a Coastal Cruise to the Pitons booked through Royal on sale.  When booking excursions through Royal check prices often because excursions routinely change in price irrespective of an any announced cruise planner sales.

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It was a pleasant sail down the coast.  This catamaran type sailboat featured a covered section and open seating on top with mesh netting at the bow. 

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After an hour or so our destination started to appear over the coastal hills.

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Along the way our guide pointed out various communities and spoke about their history.

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Then as we approached our destination and namesake for the tour the rains came.  Short lived but enough to send everyone under cover.

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Cruise to the Pitons - ✅

To be honest it was rather anticlimactic but it was nice to get out on the water and see the coast.

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On the way back up the coast we hugged the shore a little closer.  

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The tour also included a 30 minute swimming break.

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Waves and surf were up from the winds so we couldn't beach.  Instead they tied off at a buoy and we were given the choice to go swimming or start into the rum punch.  They wouldn't serve the punch before swimming for safety reasons but those who chose not to swim were given a head start on the punch.

Noodles and/or life jackets were available for swimming for anyone who wanted them.

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Feeling good from the choice to not go swimming we gathered everyone back on board and continued back up the coast.

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Along the way we sailed past some beautiful beaches and resort areas.

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Back to the port area.

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Very enjoyable as a catamaran sailboat experience.  The crew were good and very friendly.  

Notes: 

  • The catamaran featured separate mens and ladies facilities although small and a marine pump action toilet.
  • The total tour length on the water was around 4 1/2 hours.
  • No food offered but bottled water and some soda like ginger ale were available the whole tour while rum punch was only available after the swimming activity.
  • No other adult beverages, just rum punch.
  • Music was played during the tour and paused during the guide's announcements.
  • The vessel was mostly under power with the aid of a partial jib for effect
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Day 7 Dinner

You betcha - Coastal Kitchen.

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Spinach Salad

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I was hoping the fillet would return to the menu because I felt like having steak so instead I had the Grilled NY Strip.  As strip steaks go it was good with nice flavors but nothing like the fillet.

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More ice cream for dessert.  #boring

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Arriving back to my cabin I discovered an invitation to a sail away party.

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Having sailed in full suites on Oasis class I have enjoyed these events because like Quantum class the helipad is not open to the public. The only opportunity is visit the helipad is by invitation to an event.  Normally on Quantum class there is no suite sail away party on the helipad so this is indeed an uncommon and unexpected event.  

I've always wanted to visit the Anthem helipad (winch pad) so I was hoping for good weather tomorrow.

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