m-dfromjersey

Yes, Anthem has freestyle machines. We used them in Sorrentos, WJ and Seaplex by the hot dog place. Not sure if there were others we missed.

Nope, you got them all - 2 in the WJ, one in Sorrentos and one in the Seaplex. I'm surprised they didn't put one at the Cafe at 270°, since that's a hot alternate lunch spot.

We were in 13250 on Anthem last year and never heard the elevators from our cabin. (Of course, on our cruise, many of the elevators were out of commission from the constant swaying of the ship the first few days...)

My wife and I were in 13250 on the 1/15/16 10-day (which turned into an 11-day thanks to Winter Storm Jonas), and I can verify that the balcony is indeed larger than the standard balcony. You can see from the photos below that the angle shown on the deck plan is accurate; additionally, the balcony seems slightly larger than it is because the asymmetrical design gives a more open feel to the balcony than on a standard balcony. You're not going to be dancing the waltz out there, but it's plenty of room for 2 people to sit comfortably.

(Photos by @jenfromjersey)

I work for TBS and the programming that the ships get, at least in the case of TNT, TBS, TOON, TruTV comes from Turner Latin America which is based out of Buenos Aires.

 

One clue to this is that you may notice that some shows that do not air on Turner networks in the states you will see on Turner networks on the cruise. One example I noticed was last cruise the TruTV channel played many episodes of that Dave Navarro hosted tattoo reality show that is/was on Spike here in the states.

 

The english / spanish mix is odd. I assume it's because they want to make sure at least the programs are in English.

 

The endless loop of the programming implies that they are not taking in a feed of the live Latin America stations, more likely every so often they receive a feed of a bunch of new stuff and put that on a new endless loop.

 

Also, they may use the Latin America programming because it is cheaper than it would be from the states, but that's just a guess because I know how RCI looks for revenue wherever they can... :)

 

 

I'm going to hazard a guess and say that the "endless loop" comment was more about the ship-programmed channels (Prime Time, Dreamworks, AO, etc) and not what was coming off the satellite feed. I know that on Anthem, the same loop of slightly stale programming ran for all 11 days (1st season ep of Community with music removed, early Person of Interest, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the Middle, Castle, etc.)

Also, I think the CNN feed was the US feed rather than Int'l - non-stop election coverage, interrupted only by non-stop blizzard coverage. I feel like Int'l wouldn't have spent that much time vamping about snow.

It was offered on the last sea day on the 1/17/16 cruise.

I don't believe it was offered at all on Anthem during the 1/15 10...er...11-day. Or if it was, they kept it really quiet.

What are DJ's?

Based on context, I'd say Dinner Jackets.

There are no advanced reservations for shows on Freedom.

 

It's possible they may have a ticketing system for the ice show, and if so, they will tell you onboard.

When my wife and I sailed Freedom 2 years ago for our honeymoon, the only show ticketed in advance was the ice show. All main stage shows were first come first served.

You could cancel and then re book for the 4 of you. You could also call and find out what Royal is showing on their end.

 

When you add guests from another reservation it will show you all the guests from that reservation and it looks like they are added but you need to select each individual guest that you want to add before they are actually added. I've made that mistake a couple of times booking shows.

I ran into this issue the other night making dining reservations for our upcoming 10-night on Anthem. It's a case of terrible interface design - the site shows you two buttons, both of which say "Add Guests", but serve very different functions. I almost threw my iPad across the room in frustration.

Same on my Anthem sail, one of the two machines in Windjammer was often out of ice and I learned that if that is the case the drink won't be carboneted (and therefor not drinkable at all). When I tried a different flavor I also wasn't able to refill until 30mins. Worked on all other machines...

Just want to confirm (because I just booked Anthem for January 15) - Anthem does have Freestyle machines onboard?

I had a chance to use the Freestyle machines on Freedom back in December 2013 - the biggest issue was just that the demand for the machines was greater than the number of available machines - especially at night when the machines at the WJ were unavailable, leaving only the machines on the Promenade. There was frequently spillage/overflow in front of the machine, and occasionally flavors ran out, but I never encountered an outright technical issue.

R&H musicals like "Oklahoma" seem like a good idea on paper, because they're known commodities, but I don't know how well they go over with modern audiences because they're generally long and, frankly, kinda dull. If you're replacing the production show with a known "Broadway" show, it has to be able to appeal to all audiences, and I don't think R&H fits the bill anymore. And as much as I love Irving Berlin's work, I don't know that you're going to get younger audiences to sit through AGYG without a big star (like Reba) in the lead role.

Some mid-century musicals could play well on cruises because they've been revived and reinvented often enough to appeal to a broad audience. How to Succeed, for instance, has been revived twice in the last 20 years, and each time featured one of the biggest stars of his generation (Matthew Broderick in the 90s, Daniel Radcliffe more recently).

However, I think a show like "Nice Work if You Can Get It", which enjoyed a decent run in NY, could play well at sea. It's a jukebox musical of sorts, as it amasses familiar Gershwin tunes from a few different sources and works them into a new narrative; classic tunes + modern storytelling = a probable hit at sea. It also benefits from having a nicely gender balanced cast, and doesn't require it's leads to be triple-threats.

Re: "Cinderella" - The fact that it's R&H's version means kids who go in expecting to hear Bibby-Bobbity-Boo are going to be very disappointed. That said, I understand the production was pretty well received. Playing off Disney's success might be a bit tough, given that TWDC/DCL would almost certainly clamp down on any attempt to draw a parallel.

Oh - one thing just occurred to me about "Joseph" - traditionally, it's performed with a Greek chorus of children. So...that could be an issue, although not an insurmountable one.

And as for the (seemingly foregone) conclusion that it's "Chicago" loading into Harmony...I adore "Chicago" (did two productions of it as a kid), but it's a little disappointing to hear this news (if true). it's a brand new ship, you'd expect it to get a brand new show.

What about capitalizing on their Dreamworks partnership and doing "Shrek The Musical"? It's toured the US and the UK recently after ending its Broadway run, and they've been licensing the music/book/lyrics to independent theaters since 2010. Those theaters have each done their own set design, so the massive Broadway sets aren't necessary.

"Shrek" isn't a terrible idea, although it might be a little too on-the-nose, given the Dreamworks presence on the ship. It might also generate some pushback from parents who are trying to get away from the kid's fare for a while, and from older cruisers who are looking for a more traditional musical experience.

Ha ha...totally forgot that Newsies is Disney. Yeah, that wouldn't go over too well on an RCL ship. I just remembered that it was high energy with singing and dancing, and a simple story and set. Scratch Newsies.

 

And yes, good point about Matilda. Wouldn't work with child actors on a ship.

If it makes you feel any better, I almost added "Newsies" to my suggestions last night. But yeah, there's no way Disney gives up "Newsies".

I almost added "Honeymoon in Vegas" to my list - I just saw it two weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised - it was a lot of fun! It's a big production, but I think the only potential technical challenge would be the 'flying Elvises' sequence...although RCL has done aerial work in their theaters before, so I imagine a flying rig isn't out of the question. That said, the show just opened on Broadway and could use some time to build a reputation before it goes afloat.

Not going on this ship but interested too. I agree wtih m-dfromjersey - a lot of those shows are too complicated set-wise for a ship, controversial or outdated. Ok ones would be...Jersey Boys, LIttle Shop of Horrors. Other possible ones: Matilda, Newsies

"Matilda" has a cast full of children; that would be problematic on a ship - they'd need two full casts just to get through two performances a night, plus they'd need 4x the space for the cast (children + parents) AND have to set up a school on board for the child actors.

And as for "Newsies"...apart from the fact that the cast is 90% male, I doubt Disney would ever allow a rival cruise line to mount a production of "Newsies" at sea.

Just my $.02 (and certainly, anything is possible), I don't expect "Wicked" for a regular cruise schedule, as royalties are still pretty high. Possibly "Jersey Boys", but as the cast is more male dominated, it might not work well on a cruise ship requiring cast members to also be in shows that have more gender-balanced or female-shifted casts (nice thing about "Cats", is that it is hard to tell gender under the costumes).

Most ALW shows would be considered too large (from a production standpoint) for a cruise ship - most have enormous sets and/or set pieces that need to be executed a certain way in order to retain a "Broadway-level" presentation. You can't do Phantom, for instance, without the chandelier, which hangs over the house, not the stage (something a ship's theater would have to be specially equipped to handle, and even then, it would probably wreak havoc with the lighting design). It's true that Cats is performed on what amounts to a giant garbage pile, but it also requires an enormous cast of all-triple threats. Sunset Boulevard requires a massive set for Norma Desmond's house. Starlight Express...roller skates + marginally rough sea = disaster waiting to happen. The only popular ALW shows that might be practical on a ship are Joseph (which could be too religious for popular tastes) or Evita, which can easily be done on a unit set, so long as you can replicate the balcony for "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina".

In general, it seems the the cruise lines are gravitating toward musicals that have been turned into movies (like Chicago and Hairspray) and jukebox musicals that deliver everyone's favorite songs, have well balanced casts, and are reasonably cheap to produce from a production standpoint (Mamma Mia, Million Dollar Quartet, Rock of Ages). Jersey Boys is a possibility, since the production requirements are minimal and the music is cruise-friendly (and there are women in the cast, FWIW), but the fact that it's still going strong in NY and there's a resident production in Vegas may stop the rightsholder from signing off on a production afloat. Wicked, tho popular (yeah, I know) is a massive technical production and probably isn't well suited to an onboard theater.

Some guesses (just guesses, not even speculation):

 

"A Chorus Line" - Royalties low and good cast balance, but hard to integrate the production singers as they would also have to dance. It is somewhat dated, though, and might not be that well received by passengers.

"Evita - Royalties also low, and doesn't

require

a lot of dancing or gender-specific cast, so cast reuse for other shows is good. Production costs can also be at a minimum.

"Phantom of the Opera" - Popular, well balanced cast, decent dancing, but might be overly set-expensive (both in cost and onboard storage). Also royalties are still higher.

 

Other ALWebber shows - mostly popular, royalties are reasonable, sets/casts can be as small/large as desired. Some, though, are dated.

"Rent" - Still popular, good cast balance, can mix production singers with dancers, sets can also be simple.

"Little Shop of Horrors" - Fun, and allows for creativity for Audrey II. Possibly dated.

"42nd Street" - Revival was popular, on a ship - maybe.

"Grease" - Interesting possiblity, may also be dated.

Stretching, but possible:

 

"The Producers" - Also fun, but might be a bit racy for a cruise ship audience.

"The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" - Not as racy as the title, but that alone might make it undesirable.

"Dreamgirls" - Nice musical, but casting might be a challenge.

"Rock of Ages" - As a rock soundtrack, might not work as well with the ship orchestra.

Here are some other possibilities to consider:

• Into the Woods: recent movie adaptation AND well-received "stripped down" revival on Broadway. Rights have been available for decades. Easy to perform on a unit set.
  
• City of Angels: Tony-winning musical from the 90s, with music by Cy Coleman. Invokes old Hollywood without the massive sets required by, say, Sunset Blvd.
  
• The Drowsy Chaperone: Tony-winning musical from the last decade, notable for being the show that gave Sutton Foster her breakout role. Hard to describe, but lots of fun - part old Broadway, part meta-commentary on current Broadway, part love-letter to the form. I've never laughed so hard at a Broadway show. Only requires 1 set.
  
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch: just kidding. But you should totally see the current production in NY if you have the chance.
  

Over New Year's week the only comedy on board was the Second City troupe. I got the impression that was pretty standard.

It's worth noting that while none of the Second City shows are straight stand-up, they do two different types of shows - one that's 100% improv and one that's probably 85% sketch, 15% improv. I really enjoyed both the adults-only sketch and the late night improv show, but of course YMMV.

So, long story short, on the BA New Year's week cruise i managed to get pretty banged up at Atlantis - managed to get deep cuts on the bottoms of both feet and on my knees (after falling off my raft in the rapids section of The Current). Went straight to medical when we got back to the ship, got patched up and was given a tetanus shot by the ship's doctor.

Fast forward a month, and it occurs to me that I should have a copy of the chart from that clinic visit so I can update my primary care doctor (and let her know what tetanus shot I received). Since the treatment was covered under the Short Excursions policy, I didn't get charged, so I didn't walk away with any paperwork. Does anyone know who at NCL I can contact to get a copy of that chart?

Assuming the elevator bank is in the same location as on BA, the "forward" elevator bank is really more midship than forward.

What exactly is the waterfront on the Breakaway? Is it a promenade deck, but with bars and restaurants on it? My favorite place on any ship is the promenade, so I'd be disappointed if they got rid of it. Can you still walk all the way around the ship? Thanks!

Deck 8 is the top level of "678 Ocean Place", and houses many of the specialty restaurants, bars, performance venues, and duty free shopping. There is a corridor that runs down the centerline of the ship (similar to decks 6 & 7 below), as well as the Warerfront.

The Waterfront consists of outdoor deck space with some oversized (comfy) chairs and outdoor seating for many of the indoor venues on deck 8 (Cagneys, Moderno, Shakers, etc.). The outdoor deck starts and ends at the forward elevator lobby (which, on BA, is really more midship than forward) and wraps around the aft of the ship. There are access doors at the aft elevator lobby and at most of the larger venues along deck 8. You'll also find Ocean Blue on the Waterfront (a la carte stand, separate from the restaurant) and Dolce Gelato outside (although Carlo's Bake Shop, which shares space with Dolce, has an indoor counter).

If you're looking for a traditional Promanade deck, like you'd find on RCCL ships, you're going to be disappointed here. Yes, deck 8 has most of the same features as you'd find on a Royal Promenade, but without the high ceilings and art installations. That being said, the Waterfront is a great place to sit and read on those long sea days (weather permitting, of course), especially if you don't care for the overly cramped pool area on deck 15.

While it's true that Fitbit doesn't technically require an Internet connection to sync to an iOS device, I've found that the Fitbit app freaks out a little bit if it can't "call home" to Fitbit's servers. That being said, I haven't tried an offline sync in a while, so they may have fixed that issue.

FYI - all Fitbit devices will retain user info for 7 days without a sync; true, you can't go back and check the previous day's numbers on the device, but the data will be retained.

Definitely add me to the "loved Richard Spacey" group. We found him much more approachable and sincere.

+1 for me as well. I'm a bit spoiled - my first ever cruise was FOS in December 2013, which ended up being Richard's second to last sailing on both FOS and RCCL. It helps that I'm very much into British comedy, so his cheeky, somewhat absurdist style appealed to me right away. He set such an upbeat tone that you couldn't not have a good time. We actually looked forward to the morning show on the Space Station. We made sure to listen all the way through to the end of his announcements for his tidbits and the requisite "I love you". Even if we didn't have an interest in the evening's show, we made sure to catch his introductions (and his sock selection). And as busy as he was, he was never too busy to talk to guests or take a picture.

My wife may hit me for saying this, but as close as we got to getting up on stage for the Love & Marriage Show (Katie didn't select the newlywed couple by length of marriage, but rather by "audition" and audience vote - we got into a triple tiebreak revote with the couple who eventually won...not for nothing, but we'd been married 2.5 weeks to their 8 months...), Richard was so entertaining and worked the contestants' responses so well that I think I enjoyed watching it more than I would have enjoyed playing. (One of the husbands actually said his wife's bra size was 18C, and Richard was off to the races.)

Contrast this with our recent cruise on the NCL Breakaway: the CD, Julie (yes, really) was just kinda...there. She wasn't awful, or "car salesman"-like (although the Welcome Aboard show was pretty pitch-heavy), and she wasn't great (she seemed like she was just going through the motions in some of her hosting duties). We ran into her on deck a few times, and she was perfectly pleasant, but aside from wanting to know what activity you'd be attending next (and don't get me started on the scheduling on Breakaway), there just wasn't much to her. Richard Spacey practically radiated joy by comparison.

Why don't they show commercials? I didn't know they broadcast the game without commercials?

It's not that there WON'T be commercials - they just won't be the Super Bowl commercials you "want" to see.

The feed that you'll see on most cruise ships is an international/regional feed; for most cruise ships in the Carribbean, you'll actually be watching ESPN Carribbean. They'll be picking up the feed from the US broadcaster (in this case, NBC), so you'll hear the normal commentary, but the commercial breaks on the US feed are overridden by ESPN Carribbean to promote their programming. In fact, it's not uncommon for ESPNCarib to mistime short commercial breaks (like 30sec timeouts), so they'll rejoin the action in-progress.

In short, you'll probably have to wait until you're home to watch the better commercials on YouTube.

My one caveat would be that in my experience, FitBit doesn't handle time changes well. It tended to sync, but do so by matching the device to the website (instead of matching the website to the device). Since the website was at zero...

 

Anyway, just a warning that it may be a good idea to take note of how many steps you have before you sync, just in case you need to do a manual update afterwards.

I didn't have an issue with this when I cruised on FOS with my wife last year, since RCCL maintains 'ship's time' as the time at your departure port. So even when we hit Cozumel, even though we were in the Central Time Zone in reality, the ship - and my Fitbit - were still in the Eastern Time Zone.

That being said, yes, Fitbit devices won't automatically pick up time zone changes without a hard sync to the phone app. That always annoys me when I go out to CA on business - I'll go to check my step count at 9pm only to see it essentially zeroed out.

Bluetooth can be turned on while in airplane mode usually as BCguy100 said. If you want to coordinate your group I am guessing you would need the wifi to upload the info to the website.

 

Flex and Charge have the same details in their specs - "We recommend syncing your data regularly. As long as Flex has battery power, it tracks the most recent seven days of detailed, minute-by-minute data. It also tracks your daily total for the past 30 days and summarizes your daily calories, distance, and steps taken."

In my experience with my Fitbit One (which met an unfortunate end in the Atlantis Aquaventure Rapids River last month), yes, you can turn Bluetooth on in airplane mode, but the Fitbit app (at least, the iOS version) would throw errors at me if it couldn't call out to Fitbit's server over an Internet connection.

Likewise, if the goal is to compare stats on a day-to-day basis, the best (only, really, short of writing down everyone's stats before the clock strikes midnight) method is going to be to sync to Fitbit's servers.

Can anyone answer this? Our family wears/uses Fitbits. If we wear them onboard, we will obviously not be able to sync daily as we have no plans to buy the overpriced internet packages available. BUT...if we wear them and when we disembark in ports (and find that free internet wifi) will our bracelets sync several days at a time? We leave on a Sunday (wifi before we go), are at sea Monday (no sync), in ports on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (hopefully able to sync) at sea Friday/Saturday (no sync) and back on Sunday (wifi). Are they able to store that much info between syncing? We are sure to do tons of walking, so we are hoping to monitor those steps!

 

 

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All Fitbit devices store user info for 7 days, so you should be fine until you're able to get data service on disembarkation day. Of course, if you find a free wifi hotspot in port (if you're on a Carrib route, the Tortuga Rum stores usually have free wifi), you'll be able to sync mid-week; just put your phone in airplane mode (to avoid jumping on a local mobile network), then manually switch on your phone's wifi radio.

How easy is it to get a cab at either place. Are they waiting in line or luck of the draw.

 

 

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The real question is whether you can get a cab at TTS that will actually do the 2hr round trip to the port. Chances are better at the resorts than at the TTS, but still...