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An old woman, her ho-hum (so sweet) hubby and a genie. Anthem, February 26, 2023.


Yesiamthere6

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Bionic bar is working, for now. Just had it make my first ever Sex on the Beach drink, which I really like!  We had Oriental tonight, which was good.

I got up late this morning, had lunch at Coastal then walked a little in port, which meant a short nap before doing Northstar.  We told our Genie that we didn’t want to see him until dinner tomorrow night. We also told our room stewards to take all day off tomorrow too. It’s going to be a lazy day with no schedule. I want a day just to really be in the moment. We will be at coca bay, where we will walk around then back on the ship. Casino will be open so surely it will be calling me to give it some money

We did meet the Captain at Coastal, who didn’t care that we were star class  His job seems to be to make sure the Pinnacles are happy  He went to each of their tables telling the same jokes!  I did get a picture with him  

Life is so sweet for now, and I’m really appreciative of that!  

 

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Two what the heck?  Last night we were delayed leaving because a woman lost her sea card in port, and they would not let her on the ship. She was crying. Not sure what happened after, but we did sail on. 
My second what the heck was finding the upside down pineapple near our room. I think they should include a picture, just in case. Lol

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36 minutes ago, asquared17 said:

i know we've talked about the ~pineapple and its significance before... at length... 😂 but i'm just envisioning someone who didn't know, putting that magnet on their door right-side up, and a random passerby or kid, spinning it around as they walked through...

the chaos this would cause... 😆

My hubby jokingly said, let’s take this bottle of wine and knock on their door. Lol

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So funny story about "pineapples".  The friends we made from across the hall would wear matching outfits most nights. Now spy the shirts on either side of Johnny who is hiding behind the towel.

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Notice all the pineapples? So those are our new friends, and they had NO IDEA, about the "other meaning" Of course we had to have some fun with it. We are all walking around the ship with The Boss chatting up Brian, and I'm walking along with Danielle, and the kids and Julie in tow all looking very friendly🤣 We were all joking about how many heads we may have been turning that night....

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20 minutes ago, Yesiamthere6 said:

Update on the Pineapple door:  Hubby walking down the hall saw a man coming out of the room, then a lady poked her head out and watched him walked down the hall. Pineapple was missing from the door when hubby walked past. 

oh my god what if it wasn't HER husband

THE DRAMA I CANT

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1 hour ago, Ampurp85 said:

I was told that's land-based swinger etiquette. By a nice couple in the casino..........who were looking to add folks lol.

A local church here does a fundraiser where you can pay to have someone "flocked" where they go and plant tons of plastic flamingos in their front yard 😂😂

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Today I slept in again. Hubby did IFly where our genie stayed with us holding hubby’s stuff. Our genie had us bypass the long line yo get into Jamie’s where prime seating was waiting for us. Might of gotten a few stares. 
Hubby is going to do the puzzle break at three with other star passengers. Don’t sure I’m going to do it. 
Off to have more fun!  

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9 hours ago, Yesiamthere6 said:

Today I slept in again. Hubby did IFly where our genie stayed with us holding hubby’s stuff. Our genie had us bypass the long line yo get into Jamie’s where prime seating was waiting for us. Might of gotten a few stares. 
Hubby is going to do the puzzle break at three with other star passengers. Don’t sure I’m going to do it. 
Off to have more fun!  

 

9 hours ago, Yesiamthere6 said:

Losing at the casino. It’s so crowded. One day left. I’ll write more tomorrow. Will say best service ever!

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Today, our last day, has been a relaxing one. After the bridge tour, we had lunch at Coastal. We are treated like royalty there, always given the best table. I played a little in the casino, which is really small!  Same stupid machines. Hubby is watching basketball. We have dinner at Chops tonight then the farewell show. I like Anthem for its outstanding service, but I do enjoy bigger ships a little better. 
A couple we met said a guy took his shirt off last night in the dining room. It’s always the fat guys that we have to watch. Everyone was like, gross, but no one said anything to him. Same guy later had two security guards going in his cabin. Thinking he was smoking pot on his balcony. 
Tidbit for you:  if one mouse or rat is found on board the ship has to close immediately. Now you know. Lol

Gotta get ready for dinner soon. 

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2 hours ago, Yesiamthere6 said:

Today, our last day, has been a relaxing one. After the bridge tour, we had lunch at Coastal. We are treated like royalty there, always given the best table. I played a little in the casino, which is really small!  Same stupid machines. Hubby is watching basketball. We have dinner at Chops tonight then the farewell show. I like Anthem for its outstanding service, but I do enjoy bigger ships a little better. 
A couple we met said a guy took his shirt off last night in the dining room. It’s always the fat guys that we have to watch. Everyone was like, gross, but no one said anything to him. Same guy later had two security guards going in his cabin. Thinking he was smoking pot on his balcony. 
Tidbit for you:  if one mouse or rat is found on board the ship has to close immediately. Now you know. Lol

Gotta get ready for dinner soon. 

It sounds like i should pack some coasters for our next cruise, just in case ...

 

 

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Getting kicked off the ship in a bit. Hubby is ready. I could do a couple more nights, but not sure my stomach could. When we did the Northstar we had to have our weight checked. Usually, it’s turned so no one but the worker can see the total. This time, the weight was shown to everyone. Now my hubby knows I fudge a little when we talk about our weight. Lol

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8 hours ago, Yesiamthere6 said:

When we did the Northstar we had to have our weight checked. Usually, it’s turned so no one but the worker can see the total. This time, the weight was shown to everyone.

Note to self: begin starving yourself one month pre-cruise for Odyssey. Book North Star for first cruise day. Set reminder for Dec 1, 2024.

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On 2/25/2023 at 8:42 PM, SweetPea said:

Welcome to NJ. Please don't judge our state based on its armpit. 😀

Sleep well. Looking forward to your boarding report tomorrow. 

We came home with mostly clean clothes, thanks to Star Class, and I’m ready to give an overview of our trip.

We got to the pier around 10:04 and entered at the suite entrance.  There was no star banner.  Check in took about two minutes.  It was freezing where we all had to sit to wait for boarding.  I found that odd!  Our genie arrived within the first five minutes and boarding started just before 10:30.  Our genie, Gandhi, dropped us of at 270 to eat a salad. He returned at 11:10 to escort us to our room 8324.  

The room is really pretty!  Loved the location on deck eight vs deck ten.  The bed was really comfortable. There was a shower downstairs and one upstairs.  We never used the one downstairs to help out our room stewards.  We did ask for a fan, and it was delivered within a couple of hours.  We had a cheese plate and sushi waiting for us.  All our requested drinks were in place.  The view from the room is just unbeatable with total privacy.  I would book the room just for that view!  The room temperature always seem to be ideal, but you could easily change it.  There’s plenty of closets for your stuff.  Hair dryer was a cheaper model, so you may want to bring your own.  Shampoo, body wash, and crème rinse were all in the shower and were very doable.  

The negatives of the room:  Hubby could hear music from the music hall, during the day and at early evening.  He said it wasn’t loud, did not bother him, but it might you.  The second night at sea was rough.  Everything was banging and the vibration felt under our bed kept sleep was happening.  It lasted most of the night.  The rest of the nights it was peaceful and quiet.  The lights from the stairs could be a game changer for you if you like to sleep in total darkness.  Hubby thought since no heat comes from the lights that you could put electrical tape over them.  The lights did bother me, but soon adjusted to them.  

The room is all the way back at the end and some may find it too many steps to take to get there.  You have to go around a lot of curves.  We found the step just perfect as we are walkers, and loved getting those extra steps!  

Our room stewards, Dmitry and his assistant, Sujit were awesome.  Dmitry is Ukrainian and his demeanor made me think of Russia at first.  By day three he was all smiles and truly delightful.  He made us 19 towel animals throughout the trip and has unbelievable artistic talent.  He was always friendly!  He told me, after the first day, that we kept the room so clean that he felt he was doing very little for us, so I think he upped the towel animals.  He was the best room steward, ever!  Sujit was truly a delight, always smiling, always willing to help.  He is ready to be a head steward.  

Hubby and I everyday, did a special treat for them.  They enjoyed it so much that they requested we stay for another month!  We also gave them a whole day off, and a half a day.  We gave our genie off from dinner one night to dinner the next night.  I know money is king, we still tipped, but thought not having to worry about a room would be a nice break.  

Our genie, Gandhi, was our best genie ever too!  He started the morning telling us our schedule for the day.  He would meet us for our dinner reservation making sure we bypassed lines and was seated at the best table.  One line at Jamie’s was really long, and we might of gotten a few stares as we jumped the line.  Gandhi, also had wonderful seats at all shows.  I changed a few things last minute and there was never a problem doing that.  We rode the northstar twice, once in port and once on a sea day.  Never charged.  Hubby did Ifly with another star passenger and they both got to do it two times.  We were offered the flow rider but said no.  We didn’t do the bumper cars either due to a neck problem.  We could of just shown up, once a session, and skipped the whole line.  I’m sure our genie could of gotten more rides than just one.  

Hubby did puzzle break with the other Star passengers.  He said you have to complete 12 puzzles.  He used his math skills to do a few.  They were able to escape.  Genie said the puzzles were really hard, harder than most escape rooms.  

We did the galley, theater and bridge tour with the others star families.  It was fine.  They now have the main area of the bridge roped off, so you cannot get close to any of the officers.  Still a neat thing to see!  

We saw spectra and we will rock you.  Spectra was o.k., and we will rock you was way too long.  I actually left hubby there and played in the casino for over 30 minutes.  Came back to see the last twenty minutes, which I really enjoyed.  The show should be a 30 minute show!  

We saw the farewell show and left before it ended.  Yawn.

Food was really good, overall.  I never did eat in our room.  Service was excellent, especially in Coastal.  Hubby and I were surprised that we liked the food in Wonderland.  He brought us everything, even all the desserts.  Once again, the service was so good that I was amazed.  I’m not sure if service was awesome because we were star class, or we had the reputation of tipping well.  

Bionic bar worked the whole cruise.  We got  couple of drinks there and were well made.  

The wrist bans are back and our’s identified us as star class.  I noticed ALL the star class passengers were wearing them.  We wore ours for the first couple of days then got tired of it, and off it went!  But I always keep my room card on a lanyard around my neck.  Easy access.  

There were a lot of Canadians on this cruise.  Lots of French being spoken.  A family said school was off that week in Canada, so they decided to do a cruise.  

Our weather was really cold boarding.  Chilly the next day but people still got in the pools.  By the second night it was getting nice.  The third day we were in Florida and went to the Kennedy Space Center.  The weather was awesome.  Next day in Nassau we walked just a little around the port enjoying the warm weather.  Cocoa Bay had nice weather too.  The second sea day was warm.  The last sea day was back to chilly.  Definitely bring a sweater!  

The casino is small, to me.  Non smoking had more machines than the smoking section.  Overall, I thought the machines were tight even though I did win $1200 on the oriental game.  That same type game, a few cruises ago, paid someone $22,000 on an .88 bet.  That had to be a shocker  

We decided to leave our luggage out the night before, so we wouldn’t have to carry it all to Coastal the next morning.  We left the room at 8:00, had breakfast then met our genie in the diamond lounge at 8:40.  He escorted us to our luggage area.  Easy find, then facial recognition machine.  Our ride arrived shortly after we got outside to chilly, but doable weather.  

Would I do star class again?  Yes.  The whole experience was amazing!  That said, I would do sky class too, where it’s a lot cheaper but you still get a lot of benefits.  If it just hubby and I, I would most likely sky class it, add our kids then it’s definitely star class….then again, no promises that hubby and I would not do star class again next time.  

It was a wonderful week, but keep in mind, it’s an expensive week.  The game is not over after you pay your final bill for the cruise.  There’s a heck of lot of tipping.  You eat - you tip.  You drink - you feel the need to tip, mainly because you are star class!  Room service brings your star bucks - you tip.  They take your luggage- you tip.  Keep that in mind and plan accordingly.  

Thanks for following!  See you next year on the Harmony, with our kids in star class!

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

This is why I fell in love with the Grand Loft on Anthem, even though I am not a huge fan of Quantum class. 
 

Thank you for sharing your week with us!

This was my first time in a grand Loft suite.  Are the same title room on other ships as nice as Anthem?  That room is now my favorite room!  

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i loved your liveblog and the final review 💚 and i like the idea of giving the cabin steward a day or more off!! that would have never occurred to me, thank you for sharing this 😍

for some reason i forgot you were sailing out of NJ; we found odyssey (same class of ship) to feel a lot of the motion as well when we were in the caribbean. i think it’s because she is a narrower/longer style than most of the fleet/what we are used to.

still, the technology aboard and 270 particularly, are stunning. i loved how the dining room was open to the next floors up, near giovanni’s. 

your cabin looked incredible also!! can’t beat that view 😍 

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10 hours ago, Yesiamthere6 said:

Are the same title room on other ships as nice as Anthem?

Yes, they are all pretty much identical, except for those side GLS. @WAAAYTOOO stayed in one of those and she does not recommend it. She said the configuration is different and more cramped. But the middle GLS are pretty much all the same on Quantum and Ovation.

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