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Anthem 11/25/17 - 7+12 B2B


twangster

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Day 6 dinner last night was a formal night.  There were some formally dressed guests but lots of men without a jacket.

I was seated at the same table as last night but this time it was still daylight outside and I could see the remnants of the sunset.

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Formal night menu with lobster and prime rib.

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I'm still dealing the extra weight I gained on Freedom so I skipped the lobster and just had the prime rib.  Food was on par with other formal night dinners from other ships.

Service was a little off tonight.  On the bright side Wanyi the assistant waitress saw the glass of wine I brought to dinner was getting low and brought me a glass of the Malbec I had with dinner the previous night before I could even ask for the wine list.  However it took a long time to get my prime rib and the couple next to me had finished both their first and then served their second round of lobster which they finished while I waited for my entree.  When it finally did come I requested horseradish with didn't arrive until I was more than halfway through my meal.  I'm getting the impression the wait staff are spread very thin in the My Time MDR.  They were very nice but very busy.

Key Lime pie for dessert.  Yum. 

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Following dinner I returned to Vintages and then the pub to watch some Thursday night football.

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Some random thoughts...

My canceled excursion on Coco Cay was automatically applied as a credit on my account.  I didn't have to call or visit anyone.  The credit appeared on the same day we missed our call on Coco Cay.

Anthem is a high tech ship.  The lights in the cabin hallways dim when no one is present but as you enter each 'zone' they return to full brightness.  This is a smart way to reduce energy consumption and it demonstrates the length that Royal Caribbean goes in their drive towards reducing emissions. 

Like Harmony, Anthem has the hand washing stations upon entering the Windjammer, Solarium Bistro, ice cream station, etc.  For those that haven't sailed the newest ships you are diverted into the hand washing area with a row of sinks as opposed to simply getting some hand sanitizer like on the older ships. 

We are off the Outer Banks of NC this morning and it's cool on the balcony this morning.  Hoping it warms up as day breaks else it may be a long pants day on the pool deck.

An envelope appeared in my cabin for 'Consecutive Cruisers'.  If I want to visit the area I can disembark anytime after 6:30am.  A new SeaPass card will be presented as I leave the ship and this allows me to skip the check in process when I return to the terminal.  Or if I won't be visiting the area I can meet in Boleros at 9:15am when we will be escorted to customs.  Since I am changing cabins I leave my bags in the stateroom and clothes hanging in the wardrobe can remain there.  All will be transferred to my new cabin for me.

Voom Surf and Stream has been pretty solid on this cruise so far.  4Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, ~200ms latency.  That seems to be the new Voom S & S standard being reported across many ships using O3b, except Harmony where I personally got much better speeds.

You really have a different mindset when cruising B2B.  We arrive in Bayonne tomorrow yet I'm feeling none of that 'OMG it's the last of my cruise I must do everything I haven't already done, the cruise is over' feeling.

I'm looking forward to another 12 night cruise on Anthem.  That's a good thing because I have a 9 night on Anthem in January.

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41 minutes ago, twangster said:

Voom Surf and Stream has been pretty solid on this cruise so far.  4Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, ~200ms latency.  That seems to be the new Voom S & S standard being reported across many ships using O3b, except Harmony where I personally got much better speeds.

In my experience, the latency is the most important factor when it comes to doing more than just basic things.  I never would have believed it had I not seen it for myself, but those are about the same speeds Indy had last week.

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16 hours ago, twangster said:

I don't always live blog my cruises,

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But when I do I live blog on RoyalCarribeanBlog.com.  Live from my balcony.

Note to @Matt - need a full screen logo :)  

 

In completely unrelated news, I am going to nominate @twangster for message board user of the year!

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43 minutes ago, Matt said:

In completely unrelated news, I am going to nominate @twangster for message board user of the year!

Woohoo!  See @WAAAYTOOO it pays to be a suck up! 

Since I've still got nearly two weeks on board Anthem I've been thinking how to blog this out.  I think I'm going to focus on various venues making each one the highlight of post.  Windjammer one day, Solarium another day, SeaPlex, Two70, Vintages, pool deck, etc.  They say a picture speaks a thousand words so I'll try to let the photos do the talking. 

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33 minutes ago, twangster said:

I think I'm going to focus on various venues making each one the highlight of post.  Windjammer one day, Solarium another day, SeaPlex, Two70, Vintages, pool deck, etc.  They say a picture speaks a thousand words so I'll try to let the photos do the talking. 

That sounds like a great approach, @twangster! I'll definitely be looking forward to it!

EDIT -- Since you have plenty of sea days for this second leg, you can even document the changes over the day in areas like the SeaPlex, where it's bumper cars at one time, trapeze class at another, and full-court roller rink on yet another (if they still do the roller skating thing...) Deleted as I realize I'm hijacking your vacation time form you and turning you into our personal photojournalist on assignment.

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4 hours ago, twangster said:

 

Woohoo!  See @WAAAYTOOO it pays to be a suck up! 

Since I've still got nearly two weeks on board Anthem I've been thinking how to blog this out.  I think I'm going to focus on various venues making each one the highlight of post.  Windjammer one day, Solarium another day, SeaPlex, Two70, Vintages, pool deck, etc.  They say a picture speaks a thousand words so I'll try to let the photos do the talking. 

Fine.  But no steenking pictures of a gym or any other workout area!!!

 

I'm pretty sure I've gained about 10 pounds just reading your blogs!!!!

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16 hours ago, twangster said:

Some random thoughts...

My canceled excursion on Coco Cay was automatically applied as a credit on my account.  I didn't have to call or visit anyone.  The credit appeared on the same day we missed our call on Coco Cay.

Anthem is a high tech ship.  The lights in the cabin hallways dim when no one is present but as you enter each 'zone' they return to full brightness.  This is a smart way to reduce energy consumption and it demonstrates the length that Royal Caribbean goes in their drive towards reducing emissions. 

Like Harmony, Anthem has the hand washing stations upon entering the Windjammer, Solarium Bistro, ice cream station, etc.  For those that haven't sailed the newest ships you are diverted into the hand washing area with a row of sinks as opposed to simply getting some hand sanitizer like on the older ships. 

We are off the Outer Banks of NC this morning and it's cool on the balcony this morning.  Hoping it warms up as day breaks else it may be a long pants day on the pool deck.

An envelope appeared in my cabin for 'Consecutive Cruisers'.  If I want to visit the area I can disembark anytime after 6:30am.  A new SeaPass card will be presented as I leave the ship and this allows me to skip the check in process when I return to the terminal.  Or if I won't be visiting the area I can meet in Boleros at 9:15am when we will be escorted to customs.  Since I am changing cabins I leave my bags in the stateroom and clothes hanging in the wardrobe can remain there.  All will be transferred to my new cabin for me.

Voom Surf and Stream has been pretty solid on this cruise so far.  4Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, ~200ms latency.  That seems to be the new Voom S & S standard being reported across many ships using O3b, except Harmony where I personally got much better speeds.

You really have a different mindset when cruising B2B.  We arrive in Bayonne tomorrow yet I'm feeling none of that 'OMG it's the last of my cruise I must do everything I haven't already done, the cruise is over' feeling.

I'm looking forward to another 12 night cruise on Anthem.  That's a good thing because I have a 9 night on Anthem in January.

Love B2B.

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On 11/30/2017 at 9:52 AM, Matt said:

I had the same experience.  At first, I thought "I have no idea what's going on, but this is incredibly weird" but once Britney Spears came out, it started to make sense for me and then I really got into the show!

Britney's in it?!  I'm there!  Glad I'm not her only fan on here.

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After dinner I roamed the ship and visited a few different venues for a variety of activities. 

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There was a magician in the main theater, a game show in the Music Hall and Karaoke in Two70.

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Joyce the guitarist from 'We Will Rock You" was back in The VIA.  For those that have done Oasis class and enjoyed Central Park at night, there is sort of a similar ambiance to The VIA at night.  Joyce helped to set the mood which i enjoyed from Vintages.

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Joyce mentioned that the cast of 'We Will Rock You' would be dropping by shortly and it's amazing to hear them sing individually and up close.

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Next I headed to the pub and came across @Big Dawg Ron who I solicited assistance from to show another cool tech feature of Anthem.  There is a chandelier that is driven by the heart beats of guests.  It stores imprints of each guest and rotates through them, sort of living art.

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At 11pm it was virtual fireworks in Two70.

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Back to the pub!

That's 'Halee With a Flair' and her husband 'Jeff With a Flair' (it's a Periscope thing).  You should follow them.

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Ron was getting ready to periscope the entertainment in the Pub so if you caught his scope last night, this was taken moments before.

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Last night (or early this morning) I commited a PUI.  Packing Under the Influence. At some point last night I lost the lens cap for my fisheye.  Might have been the whisky, might have been the gin.  Could have been the 2, 4 or 6 pack.  I woke when we started backing into our slip in Bayonne.  

I'm sitting in Boleros waiting to do the B2B customs process.  There are roughly 30 to 40  of us here.  My battery is dead on my laptop but I have some NYC sunrise photos I'll share once I'm back on board.  

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Our arrival back to Bayonne:

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Now I know how Super Mario felt when he told me on Freedom "Get Off My Ship!". 

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B2B process:

We were asked to be in Boleros at 9:15am.  At 9:45am they escorted us off.  They collected our SeaPass cards as we scanned them to leave the ship.  As a group they held us in the terminal waiting for our new SeaPass cards before seeing customs.  After 20 minutes we formed a single file line for a separate customs officer and then a u-turn back in the direction we came.  We never did enter the terminal where I waited to board the first cruise.  We were now in the area where you would get your luggage and queue up for customs.  The doors to customs area now closed we were in a vast mostly empty section of the building where they set up rows of seats and escorted Sky Class to sit.  It was like we were on display with a crowd of zoo visitors curiously looking at us from their seats.  I'm sure they were wondering 'who are these people?'.  Right around 11am they allowed us to re-board.   That makes it 1h 15m off ship.  

I immediately went to Guest Services to get my Wow band re-coded to my new room.  Since I had the same muster station I was able to re-use mine from the first cruise.  I knew that was the case and why I paid the $5 to buy one.  For my Anthem cruise in January I'm far forward on port.  I suspect I'll be A2 so my E2 Wow band won't be re-useable.

It didn't take long for the crowds to build and with folks pushing, pulling or dragging their carry on luggage it felt very crowded and very slow to get around.  

Originally the signs said cabins would be ready by 1pm but at 1pm the same signs now said 2pm.  

Consecutive cruisers were treated to a sit down lunch in The Chic restaurant ay noon.  Quite tasty.

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Muster drill didn't use scanners to record guest presence like it did on cruise 1 for some reason.  Instead they were writing down everyone's cabin number on paper.  This slowed it down a lot.  At least I was in Two70 sitting down.  It was about 25m long and immediately after releasing us we began to push away from the pier.

Anthem muster locations:

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It took roughly 30 minutes to reach the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.  It was much colder this time, 49 degrees and our cruise director staff were absent from the pool deck doing the bridge countdown.

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Cabin tour!  I changed cabins on this B2B mostly on account of booking on short notice and booking each leg a few weeks apart.  

Inside Virtual Balcony on deck 9.  Cabin 9301, muster station E2.  I booked this as an inside guarantee so technically this is an upgrade over a standard inside cabin.  Thanks RCI!

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The bathroom is identical.

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As I was writing this the virtual balcony is in my desk mirror and I saw this boat approaching us very close. I turned around and realized it's the pilot boat. Clearly it's not the same as having a real balcony but I saved $400-$500 compared to booking a balcony cabin so I am impressed so far.   

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In other news...  as I was walking around earlier the bar keep at Vintages flagged me down and asked if I lost my lens cap.  Phew! He knew I was doing a B2B so he didn't take it guest services.  The lens cap and sun shade on a fisheye lens isn't like a regular or common lens cap.  I had been calculating in my head what they might charge me for a replacement and trying to figure out how to protect this lens for the next 12 nights.    What great service!

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Earlier I discussed my Emerald C&A status and that I would make Diamond on the 1st leg of my B2B. After muster I visited the loyalty desk and Luara took care of me.  A new Diamond SeaPass was printed and I am now enjoying a glass of wine in the Diamond lounge.  My old Emerald card is back in my cabin keeping the A/C going.  

Many thanks to those that replied to my post a few months ago asking what happens if you achieve a level on the 1st leg of a B2B.  It worked exactly as you said it would.  

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1 hour ago, mpoole3_361 said:

Amazing review, and WOW you take some great pictures!   I'm sure you are happy Ron finally got off the ship! hhahaah

It's funny.  With Ron on board and his frequent scopes combined with so much going on it was kind of nice.  A few... "What?  That's going on right now?!?!" moments.  Although my liver needs some rest, so...

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As I sit here writing this it dawns on me this feels like a completely different cruise.   You might be thing thinking, DUH!  it is a different cruise!  

We have different entertainment acts on board.  I saw some folks with instruments in the terminal waiting to board so I knew we would be getting some different acts.  From the comedian in the Welcome Aboard Show to the band in the Music Hall. 

Something I missed the last cruise was a Two70 show at 9:45pm on day 1 to illustrate what the venue can do.  The show is called 'Two70 Tonight' and it's a sampler of different types of Two70 entertainment .  It's quite an amazing venue that cost $37M.

Eighteen individual projectors that need to be synched.

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Throw in some aerial artists...

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Then some awesome projected effects...

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Plus a Symphony.  Hmmm,  Symphony... sounds familiar for some reason.

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Then some singers and a band...

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More aerial artistry.

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Then Dance In a Box.  Too hard to explain but it really shows what the robotic flat panels can do.

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Some aquarium time...

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You have to see this live to get it.  Quite impressive to a geek like me.

Off to the Music Hall.  The Journey cover band has been replaced by a Led Zeppelin cover band.  Cool!

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I thought I would be able to skip some stuff assuming it would just be repeats from last week.  Yeah, that's not going to work.   I better get some sleep.

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14 hours ago, twangster said:

And in even more unrelated news I booked the Symphony TA in October as soon as I re-boarded at the Next Cruise desk.  Symphony, here I come!  Somebody stop me!

Brilliant! Now Symphony's TA will not only be represented by my shoddy pictures :4_joy:  Keep the Anthem pictures coming and my hubby will have to succumb to the pressure of me wanting to book Spectrum asap. 

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Tonight is the first formal night.  The Captain addressed the Esplanade at 7:15pm.  He is very sociable and cracked many jokes such as when introducing the Staff Captain and remarking "He takes over when I get seasick".  Yeah, somehow I don't think that happens...

After dinner I attended the late seating of 'The Gift' in the Royal Theater.  I missed my reservation on the 1st cruise because... I have no idea why, I was doing something else in the moment.  It's a story of a tugboat Captain in merry old England.  I enjoyed it.

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There is some 'tech' in the show with projection to augment the theater production.

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Day 3 - Sea Day

Finally the long pants returned to the closet for use only later in the cruise on the sea days heading back to Bayonne.  Up early this morning and I noticed some pretty clouds on my virtual balcony display so I grabbed my camera and found the ship mostly empty.

The moon barely visible with my fisheye lens was quite prominent in the sky this morning.

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They placed poinsettias around the ship yesterday.  I wonder if they pick these up for day 1 of future cruises because this area was packed on day 1 with many carry on luggage being dragged around.  

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Last night at the 'Meet the Captain' event they officially lit the Christmas tree.  I had noticed the lights on the tree were off after seeing them on last week. 

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This morning the Esplanade was nearly empty.  It was packed last night with free sparkling wine for the Captain's toast. 

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While very pretty and festive, the Christmas tree is a magnet for selfies and ad-hoc family photos on top of the ship photographers blocking off one side for pro pictures.  It creates quite a choke point in the Esplanade traffic flow.  

 

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On 12/2/2017 at 4:38 PM, twangster said:

I immediately went to Guest Services to get my Wow band re-coded to my new room.  Since I had the same muster station I was able to re-use mine from the first cruise.  I knew that was the case and why I paid the $5 to buy one.  For my Anthem cruise in January I'm far forward on port.  I suspect I'll be A2 so my E2 Wow band won't be re-useable.

Not sure if you knew this, but you can exchange WOWbands for a new one on subsequent sailings.  So as long as you bring it with you, you can exchange at guest services for no additional cost.

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