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Regular people cruising - Anthem of the Seas Feb 20-27, 2022


Mrs. Regular

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16 hours ago, silenttuba said:

Sounds like your husband and I would get along…I’m a HUGE Weird Al fan (will be seeing him in concert twice this year), and I also love magic shows, haha. 
 

so, there are no complimentary iFly slots at all anymore? My wife will be disappointed, as she wanted to give it a try, but I doubt she will for $50. 

There may have been some free iFly offered while in port but we never saw availability. Best to check at guest services or at the sport desk early in the cruise for details.

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Am really sorry that you weren't able to get a spot for iFly.  How disappointing.  Just to clarify...this is for the bookings where you pay?  If so, good to know and we should just book on day 1.  Is it the same for North Star?  Obviously free spots are better but we will pay for it if that's what we can get.  Our kids really want to try iFly (and me, North Star).

Also, do you need reservations for any shows on top of We Will Rock You and Spectra's Cabaret?  Definitely seems like there are some things to do right when we board.

Sounds like you all had a great cruise!

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@dancernlthank you for writing this blog, I always appreciate when people take the time out of their vacation to share.  One day I hope to give it a try.  It turns out we were on this cruise with you so I will share my experience with iFly and North Star.

Complementary booking for iFly, North Star and bumper cars are available but go very quickly.  The App only allowed us to make 1 reservation (per passenger) per cruise.  Reservations for iFly should be made as soon as possible because based upon my experience each reservation time only has room for 4 people, so there really wasn’t a lot of availability.  Royal reserved the sea days at the end of the cruise for the pay reservations, so the complementary times were earlier in the cruise.  When you get in the tunnel an iFly trainer is with you the entire time to coach you and ensure your safety.   The complementary reservation provides the guest 1 minute of “fly” time in the tunnel while the paid reservation provides two 1-minute sessions of “fly” time.  If you have never done iFly before, it can take a while to get the hang of it, so a second immediate opportunity is nice, but it comes with the $50 price tag.  I only did the complementary reservation; however, the pay reservations were available much later in the cruise and I can’t say for sure if they even sold out.

We were told the complementary North Star reservations just rose vertically over the ship, it did not swing off to the sides of the ship.  To get the longer North Star ride you had to reserve the paid version of $30.  Each North Star ride was carrying 10 guests.  We did both the complementary and paid version.

When we showed up for iFly, North Star and bumper cars we had made reservations in the App, but the attendants all made us show them our reservations on our phones.  They must have access to the reservations on their systems but weren’t using them.  I don’t know why but everyone had to stop, pull out their phones, find the calendar in the APP and then show the attendant the reservation to get onto the attraction.  I would think scanning a guest’s SeaPass card would have been more efficient.

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On 3/5/2022 at 6:10 PM, MyRCBlogPenName said:

Thank you for your awesome review. It was so helpful.

  • I really want to make sure my son gets to do bumper cars. Is this something that has to be reserved on day 1 as well, you think?
  • Were there WOW bands on this trip?

Reserve anything you think you may want to do on day 1 when you board, even if you're unsure you'll attend. Pay attention to the cancellation policies, especially for a paid reservation, but you can always sign up and cancel later. There were no WOW bands on this ship, we tapped our Sea Pass cards for just about everything.

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23 hours ago, WannaCruise said:

Am really sorry that you weren't able to get a spot for iFly.  How disappointing.  Just to clarify...this is for the bookings where you pay?  If so, good to know and we should just book on day 1.  Is it the same for North Star?  Obviously free spots are better but we will pay for it if that's what we can get.  Our kids really want to try iFly (and me, North Star).

Also, do you need reservations for any shows on top of We Will Rock You and Spectra's Cabaret?  Definitely seems like there are some things to do right when we board.

Sounds like you all had a great cruise!

Guests need to reserve for complimentary AND paid iFly or North Star experiences, so just get on the app as soon as you board and can connect to ship wifi to make a reservation. Or go to Guest Services. We were trying to make our specialty reservations on day 2 or 3 for later in the cruise in the app but it was showing no availability for any of them. So while we were at Guest Services for another matter we asked if we could get squeezed in at Jamie's Italian. The crew member helping us said there were lots of reservations available so she wasn't sure why the app was not showing them. We got a reservation there without a problem. When in doubt, ask Guest Services!

Sailings are getting more and more full so yes make reservations for anything in the Royal Theatre and Spectras. They were scanning our Sea Pass cards before allowing us into the venues but I am unsure if this is for attendance or tracing purposes. Likely both. 

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18 hours ago, SolariumSnoozer said:

@dancernlthank you for writing this blog, I always appreciate when people take the time out of their vacation to share.  One day I hope to give it a try.  It turns out we were on this cruise with you so I will share my experience with iFly and North Star.

Complementary booking for iFly, North Star and bumper cars are available but go very quickly.  The App only allowed us to make 1 reservation (per passenger) per cruise.  Reservations for iFly should be made as soon as possible because based upon my experience each reservation time only has room for 4 people, so there really wasn’t a lot of availability.  Royal reserved the sea days at the end of the cruise for the pay reservations, so the complementary times were earlier in the cruise.  When you get in the tunnel an iFly trainer is with you the entire time to coach you and ensure your safety.   The complementary reservation provides the guest 1 minute of “fly” time in the tunnel while the paid reservation provides two 1-minute sessions of “fly” time.  If you have never done iFly before, it can take a while to get the hang of it, so a second immediate opportunity is nice, but it comes with the $50 price tag.  I only did the complementary reservation; however, the pay reservations were available much later in the cruise and I can’t say for sure if they even sold out.

They were sold out, we were at Guest Services to get another reservation the app was giving us trouble with. We inquired about what's available on the last 2 sea days and both iFly and North Star were completely booked up. 

18 hours ago, SolariumSnoozer said:

We were told the complementary North Star reservations just rose vertically over the ship, it did not swing off to the sides of the ship.  To get the longer North Star ride you had to reserve the paid version of $30.  Each North Star ride was carrying 10 guests.  We did both the complementary and paid version.

Yep, that's correct! We were happy to pay one time to do the extended experience but probably won't repeat on future sailings on a Quantum class.

18 hours ago, SolariumSnoozer said:

When we showed up for iFly, North Star and bumper cars we had made reservations in the App, but the attendants all made us show them our reservations on our phones.  They must have access to the reservations on their systems but weren’t using them.  I don’t know why but everyone had to stop, pull out their phones, find the calendar in the APP and then show the attendant the reservation to get onto the attraction.  I would think scanning a guest’s SeaPass card would have been more efficient.

Interesting. We didn't need to do this for our North Star on day 6. The crew may have scanned our sea passes but now I don't remember. I definitely didn't need to show anything on my phone.

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Part 4: Ports!

As a reminder our 3 ports (4 if you count Bayonne, I guess!) on this itinerary were Port Canaveral (day 3), Coco Cay (day 4) and Nassau (day 5). These were all new to us so the following impressions may be through rose colored glasses as we aren't jaded just yet 😎

Port Canaveral - I won't rehash my feelings about this "port stop" as I've complained about it enough in the lead up to the cruise. Once the arrival time was pushed back to 3:30 p.m. we lost all motivation to go do anything so we remained on the ship. We watched the sail in from the Solarium, which was really nice. We saw dolphins! We were docked with the NCL Getaway and the Mariner of the Seas. 

Coco Cay - Oh LORD where to begin? This was really the highlight of our trip and I can't wait to return. On our original 2021 cruise I had booked a Water Park Cabana for $499. Those days are GONE! When we booked this one all cabanas were at least $999 anywhere on the island. So I booked us a Breezy Bay beach bed for $149. What a steal! We loved having this beach bed as a "home base" with comfort, shade, the floating mats and a cooler. The Breezy Bay location was excellent as well with a Snack Shack and bar directly behind us. We had #37 which is in the front row toward the middle of the section. We were close to the floating cabanas but they did not block our view. I also had water park tickets I booked during a Black Friday sale for $48 each. We liked going back and forth between quiet relaxation on our bed to fun on the water slides.

We were docked with the Independence and they arrived about an hour before we did. We lined up to disembark on deck 3 around 9:15. The ship had already docked and we could hear them setting up the gangway area below us on deck 2. But then we waited and waited. It felt like an eternity for the ship to be cleared and it was almost torture to know the folks on the Indy were having fun without us. I am sure they were all looking at the Anthem thinking "oh crap, there goes our peace and quiet" 🤣 We finally got clearance at 9:55 and after a quick stop to get towels we were on our way to the beach bed. We checked in and dropped our things and then went to the water park. It was about 10:30 and we waited in the longest lines of the day. Rookie mistake! The Sling Shot was super fun and then we did the Daredevil Tower red slide. Grabbed lunch at the buffet, I had tacos and a hot dog. Relaxed on the beach bed with some bevvies (thank you Deluxe Package!), used the floating mat and got a funnel cake from Snack Shack. Went back to the water park around 2, lines were so much shorter. We waited about 10 minutes for the Sling Shot again and then did the other slides in that area, hung in the wave pool and then did some of the shorter slides in the Tower. Mr. Regular and I left the kiddos to play some more on the slides and we hit the swim up bar in the Oasis pool. Indy was leaving at 4 so by this point (maybe 3:45?) the Anthem guests were the only ones left on the island. We got spots in the pool area with no issue and enjoyed a couple of drinks together. We met the kiddos back at our beach bed to pack up and then by 4:30 we were very grudgingly walking back to the ship. 

Over all our impressions of Coco Cay are super positive. We will 100% get a beach bed again on future visits. We loved having the space and the location. In the water park we could see the cabanas and were actually glad it didn't work out to have one because we loved our bed so much. We will probably not do the water park next time, there are some other excursions the fam wants to do like the jet ski tour, kayaking and swimming with pigs. I would love to try the Beach Club. Our next time visiting will be July 2023 the day after my birthday, so that's a good reason to splurge 🙂

Nassau - We got into port around 8 a.m. and the ship was cleared quickly. We had the 9 a.m. reef sail and snorkel excursion booked through Royal, it was $55 per person (we are all considered adults by Royal so I don't know what the child price was). We lined up on the pier at 8:30, met our excursion leader, Kesha, and then.... stood and baked in the hot sun. I am glad we all lathered up with sunblock in our rooms before we left the ship. At 9 everyone was there so we walked to where the catamarans would typically pick us up.... and then turned around. Port was BUSY today, we were there with the Indy, NCL Getaway, Virgin Scarlet Lady and an MSC ship (can't remember which one). All the 9 a.m. excursion groups were converging at the same time so Kesha got clearance for our catamarans to pick us up at the very spot in front of the ship we had come from. Once we all boarded we were on our way to Rainbow Reef to snorkel for about an hour.

This was a let down. I guess we had been too spoiled on our last snorkel trip in Hawaii and I knew not to expect too much but honestly the basics weren't even covered here. The equipment was not in good shape and this company did not provide flippers so we all were required to wear inflated life vests that were uncomfortable. The crew was nice and I appreciated that they did what they could with what they had to work with to help us. SK1 couldn't get a good seal on her mask and she didn't know that snorkel masks weren't like pool goggles so she never got in the water (had a little bit of a 16-year-old meltdown). The reef itself was nice to swim over and there were a lot of fish to see. While the sun was out and the air temp was 80 F, it was super windy so the sea was NOT calm. We also thought this would be a cove or protected spot of some kind but no. Mr. Regular, SK2 and I were in for maybe 30 minutes before we got tired of fighting the waves. We got back to the ship around 12:15 and went back to our room to shower and change.

We thought about our options for the rest of the day since we were still in port until 5. Being a brand new port and country to us, and I had done almost no research outside the snorkel excursion, Mr. Regular and I didn't feel all that comfortable walking around and exploring on our own. I bet we would have been ok but we also noticed SK1 was struggling. She was upset she didn't snorkel and had been looking forward to it. She also was up and down with the food options onboard so we had talked about going to a late lunch in port but we backed off that choice which left her with Windjammer, Cafe Promenade/Sorrentos, or Cafe 270. She didn't want anything at any of those places and she was hungry. She had reached her danger zone and needed a hard reset. So we gave her space and support to process and was eventually convinced to take another lap around the Windjammer to find something. Sk2 and I got changed and grabbed up some loungers on the sun deck above the pool. We spent the afternoon enjoying a less crowded pool, drinking, swimming, reading, and snoozing. Sk1 felt better after eating (shocking ;)) and she joined us in a much better mood. 

We left port a little late. All aboard was 4:30 and we were waiting for 1 last passenger at 5 p.m. We had the perfect view of the pier and gangway from our spot on the sun deck to watch the pier runners. This last gentleman was brought from the pier entrance to our spot on a golf cart at 5 p.m. and then we were able to sail out around 5:30. 

 

All in all we were happy to be somewhere warm and beautiful for the majority of this cruise. It's convenient for us to sail from NYC. I think as we get further on in our cruise life we will sail this itinerary again, but I don't see that happening any time soon unless it's our only option. Coco Cay is amazing but we didn't have strong feelings about Port Canaveral or Nassau. 

Pictures to follow!

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On 3/1/2022 at 9:26 AM, dancernl said:

Anyone ever experienced prolonged motion sickness AFTER disembarking? Mr. Regular and I have not regained our land legs, we still feel like we're in perpetual motion. It's been 48 hours, is this normal? We don't want to go to Urgent Care for nothing. We have COVID home tests to do and PCR tests scheduled just in case, too. I'm sure it's mostly just cruise hangover!

Anyway, here's part 1 of this cruise review. Instead of a day-by-day I'm going to chunk up our thoughts and impressions by category (arbitrarily determined my me) and follow that up with photos. Food will be last 🙂

Part 1: The Embarkation Process and Itinerary

Arrival at the terminal was super smooth, we dropped luggage first and then parked the car. It wasn't until we needed to get our passports out that I realized I had left mine in my backpack... that I had dropped with the luggage! YIKES! I sprinted back to the luggage drop off area and was able to get to my backpack before they had taken the cart away. Thank goodness! We entered the port terminal around 12:45, our check-in time was 1 and we thought that since there was literally no line to get through security we would try to go in. No one asked us what our assigned time was so we went through and was funneled to suite check in. Huh? Regulars in the suite line? I noticed there was no line there and the staff was directing families with kids there at the time. So we did get to bypass the long line for the usual check-in desk. However, it was not all good. This is our first cruise in 4 years so all the check-in technology is brand new to us. It was loud and echoy in the terminal and masks made it difficult for us to follow what the check-in agent was saying. Somehow in the process, he checked me in as my daughter and my daughter in as me. When we went to Guest Services later to get it sorted out and when my seapass card was scanned her picture came up with her bev package, and her seapass card showed my picture with my alcohol package on it. Her app also had me as the primary guest and my app was useless. Our photos and drink packages were eventually righted, but the app issue couldn't be fixed. This was an annoying hiccup but lesson learned on our part - take it slower at check in to make sure everyone's info is correct!

Getting on the ship is super easy, up the escalator, down the gangway and BOOM you're dropped right into the Promenade. Rooms weren't ready yet so it was pretty crowded in there. We walked around to get the lay of the land, find venues we wanted to visit later, and get a drink. Rooms opened about 1:30. We met our room attendant (more on him later) and went to find food at the Windjammie. It's crowded in there on embarkation day but the lines moved fast.

Sail away was supposed to be at 4:30 so we went to our rooms to unpack and get settled, then suddenly at 4:05 SK2 noticed we were moving. So we enjoyed leaving Bayonne from our balconies and sailed under the bridge. 

Itinerary

This was a 7 night Perfect Day and Bahamas cruise. Our schedule was:
Bayonne
Cruising
Port Canaveral
Coco Cay
Nassau
Cruising
Cruising
Bayonne

This is the itinerary for the next 7 weeks or so of spring break season in the Northeast before the ship goes to the UK for the summer. It was also the last contract week for many crew so there were lots of fun celebrations and good-byes during events. Over all we liked this itinerary but I don't think we're itching to do it again unless we just want to use the Anthem as a fancy expensive water taxi to Coco Cay and back. The biggest bummer was arriving to Port Canaveral so late in the day. Ship wasn't cleared until 3:30 so there was no point in getting off and I heard from fellow sailors the port was a hot mess and transportation out was difficult. The two days at sea on the way home was nice to have as a chance to continue to enjoy the ship and its amenities. Mr. Regular prefers a more port-heavy itinerary so he was getting a little itchy by breakfast on day 7. I, however, reveled in the time to do nothing in the Solarium, soak up precious sun rays on the top deck, and enjoy the entertainment onboard. This itinerary is a nice balance of active and passive and you can choose how you want to spend your days. Since this was a holiday week, lots of families were on with kids and grandparents, we saw large parties of folks celebrating birthdays or anniversaries. The overall vibe of a winter cruise is definitely I'M COLD GET ME OUT OF HERE.

I'll throw some extra photos in the next post and then later today or tomorrow I'll write about our staterooms and other random areas of the ship.

That prolonged motion sickness after the cruise hit me one time and it lasted about 2 days then gradually went away. 

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Our amazing beach bed!

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Daredevil Tower

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Port Canaveral - one day we might walk through the Disney port terminal!

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Coco Cay pier 

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Nassau port pier. Anthem was docked at the very end.

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This photo is titled "Dads on vacation." Mr. Regular (left) noticed there were 2 other dads on our catamaran with this shirt he bought at Coco Cay the day before. He approached them for a photo and as it turned out the two other dads had thought about doing the same thing, lol. 

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Post-meltdown but still upset. She got better later.

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Crazy expensive and beautiful houses in Nassau

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Rainbow Reef

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The absolutely stunning Scarlet Lady. Another ship for the bucket list.

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Sailing out

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56 minutes ago, fa-li said:

Oh the joys of travel with teenage girls! I promise they grow out of it! Especially if you help work through all those big feelings on trips like you clearly did - you are nurturing a wonderful future adult travel companion!

Sometimes it takes a REALLY long time for them to grow out of it, though !

😂🤩

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3 hours ago, dancernl said:

Our amazing beach bed!

1EA1F02B-D535-4A4F-811A-77CE73BCE4AD.jpeg

5F46A0F5-3C18-4EEF-8277-5386CEBBE195.jpeg

Daredevil Tower

83E22356-3C15-497C-87DC-5A99F6BD032E.jpeg

7C02247F-FA55-4B26-9131-8E124BAFF3FF.jpeg

Port Canaveral - one day we might walk through the Disney port terminal!

C3EAE3BB-C753-44D3-B22A-9CA1C999EBB0.jpeg

Coco Cay pier 

155AB679-57A1-4A31-B59D-EAA954B5ECCF.jpeg

A822F6A7-08A0-47DB-B177-C336783478F6.jpeg

Nassau port pier. Anthem was docked at the very end.

4BC31CE2-1E84-4E46-93DD-6AB0B59238C0.jpeg

96BAD3D7-F1F0-47DB-8F2F-CEB5E45267E1.jpeg

This photo is titled "Dads on vacation." Mr. Regular (left) noticed there were 2 other dads on our catamaran with this shirt he bought at Coco Cay the day before. He approached them for a photo and as it turned out the two other dads had thought about doing the same thing, lol. 

03F9961B-061C-4014-A855-7B6F38860DE1.jpeg

Post-meltdown but still upset. She got better later.

277A8E4D-FBB1-4291-B786-A61D650DC541.jpeg

Crazy expensive and beautiful houses in Nassau

2E23DD77-EB20-42BE-9650-05C2793F0D7A.jpeg

Rainbow Reef

BB4DFABD-DB4A-45D6-9B9C-885746EE05E0.jpeg

A303D25A-6A36-4B63-8501-2F3AE06596D6.jpeg

The absolutely stunning Scarlet Lady. Another ship for the bucket list.

AD299B48-FD53-41B0-AE28-E9699B7C06C9.jpeg

Sailing out

B73E6E7D-1FC2-470F-9ABC-45C6D74BFAD6.jpeg

A2D39326-1FB5-441C-B81D-C595C25D281E.jpeg

E0675698-E7D3-42D9-9A0C-DE447D934A36.jpeg

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Port Canaveral...my home town. 

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3 hours ago, fa-li said:

Oh the joys of travel with teenage girls! I promise they grow out of it! Especially if you help work through all those big feelings on trips like you clearly did - you are nurturing a wonderful future adult travel companion!

Aww, thank you. Both kids are usually easy going but everyone has their breaking point and she had definitely reached hers. Her brother can be moodier than she usually is so I was more concerned about him all week but he had a ball no matter what we were doing.

2 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Sometimes it takes a REALLY long time for them to grow out of it, though !

😂🤩

We all have our moments, I'm sure I probably had some on this cruise too. The beverage package snafu was really irritating.


I think this is a good time to reflect on traveling with teens or just kids in general. Like I mentioned in my intro post, we don't do huge family trips very often. So they don't get to GO BIG like this pretty much ever. Heck, this was only Mr. & Mrs. Regular's second cruise ever and I love doing my research but it's not like we're experts at this whole cruise thing (yet). Plus, we know our kids. We know that since they don't get to leave their environments for more than 2-3 days at a time they would need some expectations laid down and help figuring out the norms. Cruising isn't for everyone and while we hoped they would love it there's never a guarantee. Here are some things we did in the lead-up to the trip and during our vacation that helped us. All families and kids have different needs, so what we did may not fit your family's needs or style and I hope you find some helpful takeaways.

We told them about this trip shortly after we booked it so they had about 9 months to help us with the planning and researching. I wanted them involved so they could 1)be informed and 2)give input and feel invested in the trip. We watched some short ship tours online and I would share the excursion options and ask what they were interested in doing. We made plans as a family but also gave them a lot of freedom to spend time away from us if they made friends on the ship. When we did the check-process about 45 days before sailing we also started our conversations about expectations. We covered everything from behavior (e.g. no shenanigans no matter how many other kids were joining in) to a daily budget for extras ($5 a day or 2-3 bigger purchases like shirts or souvenirs) and when we wanted them to check in with us, like have dinner each night. They also each downloaded the app so they could explore menus, deck maps, the cruise compass once onboard, etc.

Laying out clear expectations was very helpful, but we also allowed them to make requests of us. If they were not into what we wanted to do in a certain moment we let them know it was 100% fine to bow out and go back to the room. Or if they were excited about something and wanted us to come with them. We wanted them to feel comfortable vocalizing when they needed time away or something different. I know I've joked about "forced family fun" and "torturing teens with X activity" but we really didn't want to do that in reality. There was always another option, another activity, another space to discover on this ship that it was ok to change their minds.

With the exception of the food selections, there wasn't much we could do about that. SK1 has some sensory issues that can be challenging when it comes to food, noise or crowds and she can shut down quickly. Food this week was a trigger for her where she will just get to decision fatigue and have nothing. Or she will order something familiar or similar to what's at home and what is served is nothing like what she had been expecting. I think that's a really relatable situation for adults but as kids those emotions are intense and they are still learning how to process those situations. Expectation is directly linked to sadness, disappointment and anger when those ideas aren't met it can be a recipe for disaster.

As parents, we have to accept that just because we are on vacation and have spent a lot of time, money and energy on this experience it doesn't mean our kids are going to change their behaviors and habits. I see this all the time at Disney, too. Tantrums will still happen, meltdowns will happen, they will get tired if they don't have their nap, siblings will squabble and fight. They have been up late, up early, eating restaurant/takeout food for 7 days and completely out of their routines and environments. Give them some grace, and give yourself some grace too. Cruise ships are overwhelming. Build in some time to help them process what they're feeling and then find an option to help them move forward. That might be a time out or a time in, or a snack, a good wailing cry in your stateroom, or whatever. Once they have a chance to hit the reset button it will right itself until the next time. Our trip wasn't ruined because she had a couple struggles on day 5! The rest of the cruise was fantastic and she is looking forward to the next one. Especially since she's had this experience under her belt, we will know how to prepare for it. 

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Part 5 - FOOD and BEV!

Here's the part you've all be waiting for. We ate primarily in the MDR and Windjammer with supplements from Cafe Promenade/Sorrentos, room service, Cafe 270, and 1 specialty dining. Here's the yummy, meh, and yuck of all of it!

Yummy - pretty much anything in the MDR! I was surprised this is the highest ranked restaurant for the entire Regular fam. I thought for sure it would be the Windjammie, but the kids and MR. Regular preferred the food and service in the dining room. Dinner was always the highlight of our days. We had fabulous service (shoutout to Andrew and Jose!). SK2 did the typical 14-year-old boy thing and ordered multiples of desserts, even SK1 got into the spirit on night 6 and 7. I don't think there was really anything we ordered that we didn't like. We ate 2 breakfasts and 1 lunch in the MDR during the cruise. I was a little Meh about the lunch selections on day 6 but still had a descent meal. Breakfast was good, too.

Yummy - Room service! We ordered lunch from room service on our first sea day as a treat. Especially since the Windjammie was such a dud the day before we didn't have a ton of expectations here but we were all pleasantly surprised. We ordered using the room TV and it was delivered about half an hour later. All our entrees were hot and the food was fresh. We got burgers & fries, chicken tendies, quesadillas, a salad, cookies, and chocolate cake. Well worth the service fee. We also ordered breakfast on our Nassau excursion day. All the breakfast items were free on this sailing, including omelets, pancakes, etc. We tipped all our delivery crew extra cash.

Yummy - Jamie's Italian and Izumi. Mr. Regular and SK2 are sushi heads but SK1 will only go to Japanese if she can order Hibachi. There is no Izumi Hibachi on the Anthem. So the guys went to sushi and the gals went to Jamie's Italian. They ordered off the 3 course menu at Izumi and thought it was really good quality, taste, and presentation. Mr. Regular enjoyed a few of their signature cocktails, which are included in the alcohol package. They were stuffed by the end of their meal. SK1 and I also enjoyed Jamie's! We ordered the meat plank, garlic bread, 2 pasta dishes, gelato and the ultimate brownie. Everything was very good and we loved the house made pasta. 11/10, will definitely eat at both places again!

Yummy-to-meh: Cafe 270. We did 2 lunch stops here and mainly for the roast beef on Weck. Having lived in Western NY where this sandwich originates from, it's not an authentic version but it was much better than the ones from Solarium Cafe on Rhapsody. I liked the selection of pasta salads and panini's. The complaint from SK1 was that the paninis and wraps are all premade and she is picky about those certain thing so they can't be ordered without tomato, for example. She would have had to take them apart, discard what she didn't want, and then put them back together, which she didn't want to do. 

Yummy-to-meh: Skipper Grill and Snack Shack on Coco Cay. I liked the taco bar but had higher expectations for food quality. We got mozz sticks and funnel cake from snack shack. They were ok but nothing to write home about. I've enjoyed the same things at our state fair more.

Meh - The Windjammie. Mr. Regular and I had high expectations because the Windjammie on the Rhapsody was so good. Breakfast was steady with quality and selection but the service was up and down. I think they are still short crew for how busy it is here in the morning. Lunch on embarkation day was very poor and it turned the kids off to coming back. They did have other meals here when it was the least worst option but they really didn't like it. I always found something appetizing but I didn't go back for seconds and the desserts weren't the quality we were expecting. The biggest letdown is something pretty silly to complain about - their cookies are crunchy. We like soft baked chocolate chip cookies and these look soft but don't let that fool you. 

Yuck - Sorrentos. This pizza is offensive. It always smelled good but once it was on the plate it looked unappetizing and tasted bland. Maybe I was too sober to understand the appeal 🙂

 

DRINKS!
One of the best things about the alcohol package is the ability to try lots of new cocktails or beverages and if you don't like it, there's nothing to lose and you don't have to finish it. Order something else you might like instead. Mr. Regular and I sampled a lot of the new drink menus plus some old favorites. We especially liked

  • Espresso and chocolate martinis from the Schooner Bar
  • Malbec wine with dinner
  • Gin and tonic at Bolero's, especially made by Martin
  • From the pool and Solarium bars: Caribbean Mules, Mai Tais, Goombay Smash, Sangria, Pina Colada, mimosa, screwdriver. Luane in the Solarium is fantastic
  • From the Windjammie coffee bar: soy latte and chai lattes, hot chocolates. Jacky is an excellent Barista, make sure you go say hi to him!
  • Boston iced tea and the Manhattan from the Pub
  • Cosmos at 270 made by Somi
  • Milkshakes from Johnny Rockets - yes these are included, even the Boozy ones for adults! Don't sleep on these.

There may have been 1 or 2 drinks that weren't made very well or used a lower quality liquor than we wanted. It was ok - we politely asked for the bartender to remake it and they did with pleasure. 

I have some food & bev pictures to share. After this, I have nothing left that I can think of to share about. I will ask SK1 to send me her photos, she took menu pictures each night in the MDR and took some of her own food photos. The guys have no interest in documenting food before they eat it. 

If I haven't covered something you're curious about, please ask! I can't share anything about Adventure Ocean or the Casino since we didn't use those services or spaces. But anything else, ask away! Thanks for reading along 🙂

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I am sailing tomorrow and finally the app is starting to show some of the activities and movies available onboard. The app is still not showing the book or some activities such as North Star and iFly. Do these show up later once onboard? If they don't, will any reservations done with guest services be visible in the app later?

 

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