Anthem Royal Loft

[CruisnMike35]

Hello everyone,

This is my first travel Blog, and I’m not sure how to start. So I guess I’ll just jump right in with a short back story.

In spring of 2020, right when Covid was starting to set in, I began watching a lot of travel videos on YouTube. My family had just postponed/ cancelled a few highly anticipated vacations, and I was feeling pretty down. I understand that watching travel videos in this state of mind might sound like I was torturing myself; but it was actually very cathartic for me.  

At some point during the way too many hours of viewing these videos I came across Danny, from Harr Travel. For those who aren’t unaware, Harr Travel has what I have found to be the most extensive and complete library of Cruise ship videos on the internet. They have room tours for dozens of ships, and full ship tours for several of the Oasis and Quantum Class ships. But the video that was most important for me was The Ultimate Guide to Star Class. (Link below)

Once I saw this video, and the video’s of the various star class suites, I was hooked. I began searching for something that would work for me and my parents. I found a 9 Night Eastern Caribbean on the Anthem of the Seas, in the Royal Loft Suite, and after I talked to my parents we decided to book it. 

We are now 53 days away from embarkation, and I couldn’t be more excited. Last week we received our “Genie Questionnaire.”  In my next post, I will discuss this questionnaire and how we chose to approach answering the questions. I would love to hear feedback from anyone who has completed the questionnaire in the past and what they think the pros and cons of it are. 

My plan for this Blog is to document what will hopefully be a exceptional experience, and also to inform others who have not experienced STAR Class on Royal. With this being said, I will be making weekly posts on different topics as we approach embarkation. But I would also love to interact with others if folks have any questions. Thanks for anyone who is interested in following along, and I look forward to documenting this incredible journey. 

 

 

[CBlasek]

On 12/20/2021 at 7:29 PM, CruisnMike35 said:

Hello everyone,

This is my first travel Blog, and I’m not sure how to start. So I guess I’ll just jump right in with a short back story.

In spring of 2020, right when Covid was starting to set in, I began watching a lot of travel videos on YouTube. My family had just postponed/ cancelled a few highly anticipated vacations, and I was feeling pretty down. I understand that watching travel videos in this state of mind might sound like I was torturing myself; but it was actually very cathartic for me.  

At some point during the way too many hours of viewing these videos I came across Danny, from Harr Travel. For those who aren’t unaware, Harr Travel has what I have found to be the most extensive and complete library of Cruise ship videos on the internet. They have room tours for dozens of ships, and full ship tours for several of the Oasis and Quantum Class ships. But the video that was most important for me was The Ultimate Guide to Star Class. (Link below)

Once I saw this video, and the video’s of the various star class suites, I was hooked. I began searching for something that would work for me and my parents. I found a 9 Night Eastern Caribbean on the Anthem of the Seas, in the Royal Loft Suite, and after I talked to my parents we decided to book it. 

We are now 53 days away from embarkation, and I couldn’t be more excited. Last week we received our “Genie Questionnaire.”  In my next post, I will discuss this questionnaire and how we chose to approach answering the questions. I would love to hear feedback from anyone who has completed the questionnaire in the past and what they think the pros and cons of it are. 

My plan for this Blog is to document what will hopefully be a exceptional experience, and also to inform others who have not experienced STAR Class on Royal. With this being said, I will be making weekly posts on different topics as we approach embarkation. But I would also love to interact with others if folks have any questions. Thanks for anyone who is interested in following along, and I look forward to documenting this incredible journey. 

 

 

We are currently in the RLS on Anthem and it’s been phenomenal. We’re first time cruisers and Simona has been absolutely wonderful despite some bad weather conditions. I can’t imagine cruising without her. 

 

[Drewtastic86]

@CruisnMike35 Are you on the February 11th sailing? I assume so based on math. We are also on this sailing in a Grand Loft and I am blogging it as well! Looking forward to the cruise!

[CruisnMike35]

17 hours ago, Drewtastic86 said:

@CruisnMike35 Are you on the February 11th sailing? I assume so based on math. We are also on this sailing in a Grand Loft and I am blogging it as well! Looking forward to the cruise!

Yes, we are on that sailing. We will have to talk more as we get closer. It will be fun to have contact with someone before hand. This will be our first Star Class experience. Have you done it prior? 

[CruisnMike35]

On 12/25/2021 at 2:37 PM, CBlasek said:

We are currently in the RLS on Anthem and it’s been phenomenal. We’re first time cruisers and Simona has been absolutely wonderful despite some bad weather conditions. I can’t imagine cruising without her. 

 

That is great to hear. The Coffee cup tree looks so cool!!! So much fun!!! I would love to see more pics. We are so excited!!!!!

[Drewtastic86]

6 hours ago, CruisnMike35 said:

Yes, we are on that sailing. We will have to talk more as we get closer. It will be fun to have contact with someone before hand. This will be our first Star Class experience. Have you done it prior? 

This is a first for us as well! Looking forward to it! Everyone on here has been so helpful in expanding my knowledge on Star Class.  @WAAAYTOOO, @Jax and @Lovetocruise2002 are among the great Star Class resources if you have any specific questions.  Excited to meet you on board!

[CruisnMike35]

Hello everyone,

A couple of weeks ago we received our Genie questionnaire. I am interested to see what others think about this part of the Star Class process. Do you all put a lot of thought into your answers? Do the Genies actually get much to help curate the experience for the guest? Does anyone have any experiences that they attribute directly to the genie questionnaire?

I tend to over analyze things, so I’m sure I put way more thought and effort to into answering these questions than I needed to. There were some simple questions such as names, favorite drinks, celebrations, etc. Those required no thought. But for some of the others they required some real introspection. And I will go over some of those below and how me and my family answered.

One of the questions that immediately made me question if I was doing this right was “Do you have anything in common with the other people in your party?” The obvious answer is yes; But coming up with answers that we felt would be relevant to the Genie was more difficult than I expected. We all enjoy the same sports teams, we obviously have similar values, and we have some common interests in entertainment. But how can interest in Ohio State Football or a love of baseball help our Genie “Curate our suite class experience expressly for us?” In the end, we answered that we all enjoyed “good food, good service and we love to laugh” or something like that.

Other questions, such as “what would constitute a perfect day?” or “Sum up your philosophy for life” required a lot of introspection, and we found them difficult to answer. Again, I understand that we were probably putting way too much thought into our answers, but we found it was fairly difficult to give an answer that we felt would be helpful for our Genie.

There were some fun questions, like “what is the one thing you would take on a trip to Mars?” and “who are three ppl, throughout history who you would want to have dinner with?” BTW, for me those answers were “my computer,” and “Tom Hanks, Johnny Bench, and Abraham Lincoln.”

It was also fun to answer the question about the time we laughed the hardest together. We have a fun story from a previous cruise about a member of our party tripping in a very public setting (they were fine, so it was OK to laugh.) Also, the question about our favorite movies, books, bands, sports teams, and the like, was fun to discuss and answer.  

For the group, or others who have completed this questionnaire, what were some of your answers to questions? For those who have cruised STAR class in the past, have you noticed if the Genie uses your answers to curate your experience? What are other people’s thoughts on this process?

Personally, I was not a huge fan. I understand the need for something like this, but, as I said I over analyze these things and give them more attention than they necessarily require.

Thanks for those who are reading and following along. The topic for next week will be our current plans for excursions at the three ports of call. Looking forward to interacting with everyone as I continue this exciting experience.   

[FionaMG]

1 hour ago, CruisnMike35 said:

A couple of weeks ago we received our Genie questionnaire. I am interested to see what others think about this part of the Star Class process.

Full disclosure, I have never sailed Star Class and am never likely to unless I win the lottery. However, I do remember seeing a copy of the genie's form that someone posted either here on RCB or over on CC and it just seems to me to be such hard work. I would not have known what to answer for a lot of those questions either and would probably have given up on it without completing all of them. It's a big enough hassle having to pre-book shows and the like but this just seems way over the top to me. That said, I'm sure plenty of others love it and of course that's perfectly fine.

I will be following along with interest as I have my first two Quantum class sailings booked for later this year (Yay! I can now say this year instead of next year! ), one on Odyssey and one on Anthem. Thanks for sharing and have a wonderful cruise.

[CruisnMike35]

26 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

Full disclosure, I have never sailed Star Class and am never likely to unless I win the lottery. However, I do remember seeing a copy of the genie's form that someone posted either here on RCB or over on CC and it just seems to me to be such hard work. I would not have known what to answer for a lot of those questions either and would probably have given up on it without completing all of them. It's a big enough hassle having to pre-book shows and the like but this just seems way over the top to me. That said, I'm sure plenty of others love it and of course that's perfectly fine.

I will be following along with interest as I have my first two Quantum class sailings booked for later this year (Yay! I can now say this year instead of next year! ), one on Odyssey and one on Anthem. Thanks for sharing and have a wonderful cruise.

Thanks Fiona!!! I'm glad to hear that I am not alone in in my feelings on this. As I said, I get why they do it, but for my personality type it was a bit of a chore.

Thanks for following along, and congrats/ good luck on your upcoming sailings. Where will you be sailing to / from? 

[FionaMG]

7 minutes ago, CruisnMike35 said:

Thanks Fiona!!! I'm glad to hear that I am not alone in in my feelings on this. As I said, I get why they do it, but for my personality type it was a bit of a chore.

Thanks for following along, and congrats/ good luck on your upcoming sailings. Where will you be sailing to / from? 

We're staying in Europe this year to give covid time to settle down a bit more. Our Odyssey cruise is to the Greek Isles out of Rome in May and Anthem is out of Southampton to the Canaries in September.

We had actually intended sailing on Anthem out of NJ last year and spending some time in the Big Apple beforehand so hopefully we will be able to do that one next year.

 

[AshleyDillo]

I don't think we even bother to fill out the questionnaire. Everything we feel of importance will go into the response email to the introductory email that the genie sends. I see it gives the genie a starting point which can be helpful to first time Star guests who don't realize exactly kind of details may be important to note for the genie.

[WAAAYTOOO]

@CruisnMike35, after a number of SC cruises, we have found the preliminary Genie questionnaire to be fairly useless except for the [few] questions you noted that ARE important. I don’t even try to answer most of those questions anymore.  I have found, over the years, that some Genies actually do read them but it seems (to me, at least) that most don’t. Perhaps there’s some greater esoteric point to some of the inane questions but it’s never been clear to me.  I wouldn’t waste my time.

[Cruisin and Boozin]

I have really mixed feelings on this questionnaire. At the beginning of star class sailings and up until the pandemic I would say yes percent believe that it was very helpful for the genies. Now this past November I saw no sign that our questionnaire was even read. That being said I have a b2b coming up at the end of the month both star class and will see if anything from our latest shows up in our suite. Happy cruising !!

[CruisnMike35]

Hello everyone, sorry for the delay, and not sticking to the plan of posting weekly, but I guess sometimes life gets in the way. Anyway, todays post is all about excursions.

We intentionally booked our first star class cruise to take advantage of the wonderful room and amenities on the ship. Our thought process was, “if we are paying a premium for all of the things that go along with STAR class and a 1600 square foot suite, why would we go on a cruise where we would want to be off the ship most of the time?” For this reason, we booked a 9 day cruise which only hits three ports of call. Those ports are Labadee Haiti, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and St. Maarten, and originally, we reserved excursions in all three locations.

Labadee:

For those who might not be aware, Labadee is the lesser known of Royal Caribbean’s two private islands in the Caribbean. This is the one location that no one in our party has been to. It doesn’t have the water park like Perfect Day, and from what I can tell it is nowhere near as large, but there are still some great things to do at Labadee. We decided that we are going to get one of the over water cabanas and also do the longest over water zip line in the Caribbean. This is known as the Dragons Breath, and it is a 2600 foot Zip line over 500 feet above the beach and private lagoon that takes you from the top of a mountain back to the peer where the ship is docked. The Videos look amazing, and I can’t wait for this ride.

Now for some unfortunate news. We had a call with our travel agent and were informed that we should be prepared for possible changes to the ports of call. For a myriad of reasons, it is possible that any or even all of the ports could change up until the day the we get to port. So, we are going into this with an open mind and taking things as they come.

San Juan:

Originally, we had planned to book a walk and ride tour of El Yunque National Forest. Which is the only tropical rainforest in the US National Forest Service. We were very much looking forward to this tour, but unfortunately, due to the ever changing COVID procedures this booking was cancelled. Instead, we are now doing an ATV excursion. While I think it would have been great to see the rain forest, I am now really excited about riding an ATV, and watching my mother do the same. It should make for some awesome videos with my go pro. (Which reminds me I need to buy a new helmet mount.)

St. Maarten:

This is the one that I am really sad had to be switched. Originally, we were book for a submarine tour in St. Maarten. I have never been on a sub tour, or scuba diving. So, my experience with sea life is almost completely from videos, aquariums, and a single snorkeling excursion when I was 12. Unfortunately, also due to the ever changing world of COVID this tour had to be cancelled. Instead, we are now booked for a Rum distillery tour. I am always excited to drink rum, so this will be nice as well. Though I wish we were able to go with the original plans.

Those are our planned excursions; (at least for the time being.) We will see if they have to be changed again. Please let me know if anyone has done any of these excursions, or any of the ones that we originally had booked, and what you thought. Also, please feel free to share some of your favorite excursions over the years. One of my favorite parts of cruising is waking up in a different place every day. What say all of you?

My next post is a very exciting one. We had our first contact with Royal Genie, Simona. She seems like such a nice person, and she has been amazing so far answering questions and getting us setup for a great experience. My next post will be about some of the requests we have made so far and some we are thinking about. Also, I will be looking for thoughts or examples of Genie gifts, tipping (I know this is highly debated topic) and some examples of interesting Genie experiences other have had. Thanks in advance for following along with this journey!!!

[Drewtastic86]

@CruisnMike35  Congrats on getting Simona! I have seen other people have really enjoyed her!  We have Jay as our Genie.  Something I requested for this sailing (since we are on the same sailing) is a reservation for the Valentine's Day dinner at chops.  Normally this is an extra charge since it is a holiday dinner, other bloggers and Jay confirmed that for Star Class it is complimentary.  I just had to let Jay know we wanted to do the special menu. that night and he is taking care of the rest!  I requested for us to be scheduled at Coastal Kitchen 5 out of the 9 nights and the other four nights would be at each speciality restaurant except Wonderland.  

Hope. this helps and see you onboard!

[CruisnMike35]

Hello everyone, we are getting closer, now only 11 days away. As I said this post will be about the Genie experience. But I wanted to give an update since there have been some major changes to our sailing.

(Warning if you don’t want to read a grown man’s whining skip the next paragraph)

We will now be going to Puerta Plata instead of Labadee, and St. Thomas instead of San Juan. It would be lying to say that I have been thrilled with Royal Caribbean’s handling of these changes. The email informing us of the change was not very informational and to me at least, it does not feel like the changes are a one to one comparison, or even close to equal. For instance, Labadee is one of Royal's private locations, it has private cabanas, a huge zipline, jet ski excursions, and a private all-inclusive club for suite guests. Puerto Plata does not have any comparable excursions, and the closest thing to the private club seems to be a “VIP beach club,”  which we will have to purchase rather than being included as a suite perk. BTW the money is not the issue at all, it is the fact that the substitutions are simply nowhere near comparable. As for St. Thomas, we would love to look at excursions but as of today there are fewer than ten excursions available to choose from, 4 of which are generic "beach" excursions, and none of which interest our group very much. I understand that the logistics for something like a large cruise ship are not simple, but it would have been nice to replace one private location Labadee, with another similar location like CocoCay to at least attempt to make a comparably similar situation.  We certainly will not let this ruin our trip, but we are far from happy about how it has been handled. OK, I’m done whining now, on with the discussion.

As I said in the last post, we will have Simona as our Royal Genie, and so far, she has been awesome! Her initial email was very informative regarding some of the COVID protocols, specifically a new boarding process for STAR class guests, and she also asked if we had any dinner reservations, we would be interested in. My father, who over-plans everything had a spread sheet with our plans for dinner ready to go. Simona seemed to love that. We also scheduled our arrival for as early as possible.

Outside of that, we have not made any requests, and that is where I would love to hear from others regarding stories or experiences you have done on STAR class previously.

I am a huge foodie, and in my younger days aspired to be a Chef. That did not happen, but I still enjoy cooking and would love to see some behind the scenes stuff with the kitchens or restaurants. Has anyone done this, or do you think this is a possibility? Also, I have heard of folks hosting parties in their suites. This was not something we had considered because we really are not big party ppl. But with our favorite NFL team playing in a fairly big game on the first Sunday that we are on board, we may be interested in hosting a watch party. Do you think this is something Simona might be able to assist with, and how does that work with food, drinks, other guests who are not STAR class, ect?  

Also, does anyone have any cool stories or experiences they have had in STAR class? Do you have any suggestions, or things we shouldn’t miss? We are getting so excited, about this trip.

Thanks for anyone who wants to follow along and interact as I continue with this awesome experience.

[AshleyDillo]

On 1/31/2022 at 1:54 AM, CruisnMike35 said:

I am a huge foodie, and in my younger days aspired to be a Chef. That did not happen, but I still enjoy cooking and would love to see some behind the scenes stuff with the kitchens or restaurants. Has anyone done this, or do you think this is a possibility?

Pre-pandemic I would have said yes, if you tell your Genie you'd love to see some behind the scenes stuff in the kitchen they would arrange it. You can still ask but be prepared for the answer to be no due to the pandemic. I've noticed all of the usual behind the scenes offerings that they used to have aren't going on currently. You never know unless you ask, though!

On 1/31/2022 at 1:54 AM, CruisnMike35 said:

But with our favorite NFL team playing in a fairly big game on the first Sunday that we are on board, we may be interested in hosting a watch party. Do you think this is something Simona might be able to assist with, and how does that work with food, drinks, other guests who are not STAR class, ect?

This is absolutely something that Simona should be able to assist with. If you want a custom cake created for the party in the colors of your team, that would be an idea to ask for. Simona should be able to arrange for food to be delivered. What food will depend on which restaurants are open at the time and what your preferences are. We had a small gathering when we were on Anthem in Star Class and the Genie had a lot of room service items sent (wings, tenders, veggies, fruit, cheese, etc) and we put in an order for some Izumi Sushi items as they were open. You can request non-alcoholic drinks and beer to be stocked in your room ahead of time to accommodate. Cocktails would have to be ordered at the time of the party and delivered. They typically don't have an issue with you ordering food and sharing with non-STAR guests in your suite.

[CruisnMike35]

Well folks, the day has finally arrived!!!!

We all tested negative yesterday, (a huge monkey off of our back) and as I type we are 2 hours and 19 minutes into our 9ish hour drive to Newark. 

I can't wait to get there and probably not be able to fall asleep tonight. We have a 10:30 arrival time tomorrow morning, and I should have a quick suit tour video, and writeup of our embarkation process. 

I can't believe we are finally at this point!!!

[Drewtastic86]

@CruisnMike35 Safe trip to New Jersey! See you on board!

[JohnK6404]

Hi @CruisnMike35!   

Have an amazing time!

[CruisnMike35]

Hello everyone from the Anthem of the SEAS. Today has been an incredible embarkation day. We were among the first few ppl on the ship, which was awesome. Simona is better than my wildest dreams. Anything we have requested as been taken care of within a few minutes. My parents are celebrating their 40th anniversary, and our suite was decorated to celebrate. My mom was touched. I think STAR Class may spoil anything less for us moving forward. We had lunch at Coastal Kitchen. I had the tomato soup and Seared Salmon. It was perfectly cooked and tasted incredible.

Tonight we will be eating at Chops and then going to the comedy show.

When we get back will plan to upload some of my pictures. Thanks for following along. 

Oh and BTW our ports of call have reverted back to the originals. We are so happy!!!

[Censored]

On 12/20/2021 at 7:29 PM, CruisnMike35 said:

Hello everyone,

This is my first travel Blog, and I’m not sure how to start. So I guess I’ll just jump right in with a short back story.

In spring of 2020, right when Covid was starting to set in, I began watching a lot of travel videos on YouTube. My family had just postponed/ cancelled a few highly anticipated vacations, and I was feeling pretty down. I understand that watching travel videos in this state of mind might sound like I was torturing myself; but it was actually very cathartic for me.  

At some point during the way too many hours of viewing these videos I came across Danny, from Harr Travel. For those who aren’t unaware, Harr Travel has what I have found to be the most extensive and complete library of Cruise ship videos on the internet. They have room tours for dozens of ships, and full ship tours for several of the Oasis and Quantum Class ships. But the video that was most important for me was The Ultimate Guide to Star Class. (Link below)

Once I saw this video, and the video’s of the various star class suites, I was hooked. I began searching for something that would work for me and my parents. I found a 9 Night Eastern Caribbean on the Anthem of the Seas, in the Royal Loft Suite, and after I talked to my parents we decided to book it. 

We are now 53 days away from embarkation, and I couldn’t be more excited. Last week we received our “Genie Questionnaire.”  In my next post, I will discuss this questionnaire and how we chose to approach answering the questions. I would love to hear feedback from anyone who has completed the questionnaire in the past and what they think the pros and cons of it are. 

My plan for this Blog is to document what will hopefully be a exceptional experience, and also to inform others who have not experienced STAR Class on Royal. With this being said, I will be making weekly posts on different topics as we approach embarkation. But I would also love to interact with others if folks have any questions. Thanks for anyone who is interested in following along, and I look forward to documenting this incredible journey. 

 

 

These youtube stars make me laugh with all their hand gestures. He's Italian of course.    good points to know.

[CruisnMike35]

5 hours ago, Edmund said:

These youtube stars make me laugh with all their hand gestures. He's Italian of course.    good points to know.

What????

[CruisnMike35]

Hello again, sorry for the delay. We are having such a great time. 

Day one we had dinner at Chops. I had the Ribeye and it was amazing. Next we attended the welcome aboard show and comedy show. They were both a lot of fun and Simona had our seats reserved in a great spot, and drinks delivered as soon as we sat down. 

On a side note, even with all of the questions i asked of you guys, as well as watching countless videos, and doing other research, I still was not prepared for just how impressive STAR Class actually is. Simona has been absolutely amazing. She has met us at the entrance for every single meal, she even wore her own formal e just to meet us for our Chef's table reservation last night. I cannot overstate just how unbelievable this experience has been and we are only 2 days in. 

Thanks for following along. I am having trouble uploading pictures. The only one that actually went through was a pretty cool one of the NYC Skyline as we were departing. I will try and upload more but i think they are too large so i will have to degrade them a bit to actually upload. 

[CruisnMike35]

Hello again, sorry for the delay. We are having such a great time. 

Day one we had dinner at Chops. I had the Ribeye and it was amazing. Next we attended the welcome aboard show and comedy show. They were both a lot of fun and Simona had our seats reserved in a great spot, and drinks delivered as soon as we sat down. 

On a side note, even with all of the questions i asked of you guys, as well as watching countless videos, and doing other research, I still was not prepared for just how impressive STAR Class actually is. Simona has been absolutely amazing. She has met us at the entrance for every single meal, she even wore her own formal e just to meet us for our Chef's table reservation last night. I cannot overstate just how unbelievable this experience has been and we are only 2 days in. 

Thanks for following along. I am having trouble uploading pictures. The only one that actually went through was a pretty cool one of the NYC Skyline as we were departing. I will try and upload more but i think they are too large so i will have to degrade them a bit to actually upload. 

[Mrs. Regular]

21 hours ago, CruisnMike35 said:

Hello again, sorry for the delay. We are having such a great time. 

Day one we had dinner at Chops. I had the Ribeye and it was amazing. Next we attended the welcome aboard show and comedy show. They were both a lot of fun and Simona had our seats reserved in a great spot, and drinks delivered as soon as we sat down. 

On a side note, even with all of the questions i asked of you guys, as well as watching countless videos, and doing other research, I still was not prepared for just how impressive STAR Class actually is. Simona has been absolutely amazing. She has met us at the entrance for every single meal, she even wore her own formal e just to meet us for our Chef's table reservation last night. I cannot overstate just how unbelievable this experience has been and we are only 2 days in. 

Thanks for following along. I am having trouble uploading pictures. The only one that actually went through was a pretty cool one of the NYC Skyline as we were departing. I will try and upload more but i think they are too large so i will have to degrade them a bit to actually upload. 

This will be my view on Sunday as you leave, we will be boarding. Thanks for sharing your trip with us!