DragonOfTheSeas

5 hours ago, LATTELOVE said:

Wow this has been a wonderful review.

Just finished catching up with all the reading. 

Thank you for taking of your time to do so.

We have really enjoyed it.

 

Question for you.  

How far was the taxi ride from the Double Tree hotel

to the cruise port?

We will be going on a cruise from Cape Liberty

in June and would like to stay around that area too.

Thank you!

It took us about a half an hour from the Doubletree last October. We took an Uber from the hotel.
 

I think the next time we leave from Bayonne we will go back to the Doubletree. The reason that we selected the Jersey City hotel this time was that we are Hilton HHonors members and so we like to stay at the Hilton Brand. And they had two room suites, and the Doubletree at the Penn station doesn’t have a suite like that. Our daughter was with us and we wanted to give her and us some privacy. 
 

edit: I reread my post. I’m not sure that you were asking me about the Doubletree at the Penn Station that we stayed in last time or the Doubletree that we stayed in Jersey City. So I’ll leave the above comment and add that it took us about 30 minutes from Jersey City as well. that was just to get to the port once we got to the port of course we were in all that traffic, so it took us more than an hour in total, but this wasn’t unusual situation with the anthem arriving late. 

I wanted to write a post about the main dining room for dinner. As I mentioned earlier, we originally signed up for my time dining with a reservation at 7 o’clock each night. So Royal Caribbean selected us to be part of their experiment for a 630 fixed dining time.
 

that has turned out to be quite the blessing. First of all our waiter and assistant waiter are excellent and we’ve had a great experience all week. Secondly, the lines to get into the dining room are simply outrageous every night. It’s such a crowd in front of the dining room, that we go in a side door to get to our table each night. 

This is a picture outside of the main dining room. the right hand side of the hall are people without Reservations the left-hand side are people with Reservations I don’t see that the people who made reservations are in any better shape than the people who didn’t. 
 

I would be really annoyed to have made reservations and have to wait in line like this every night to get seated. 

i’m not sure the 6:30pm fixing, will work on a large scale. Several evenings the early seating guests were still at the table at 6:30. The dining staff set up a series of chairs in a small ant room, near that side entrance, and we and other guests at 6:30 whose table was not yet empty would sit there until they were ready. It was never more than five or 10 minutes. So it was not a problem for us. but it was a stressful situation for the waiters who were really frantic to bus and reset the table. The headwaiter has been very attentive and helpful. I’m sure he’s also trying to facilitate this trial.

Our waiter told us that there were only nine waiters that are part of this 6:30 seating as a trial. And this is the second cruise that he has done that. 

3 hours ago, time4u2go said:

Do they not allow you to drop off the luggage at the port then drive to the parking lot?

Yes, they do, but there was a giant line and it was faster for us to park first and then take our luggage with us. 

3 minutes ago, BND said:

Sigh.  This only happened due to a major tragedy where people lost their lives, and many thousands of people's livelihoods were impacted,  but hey, complain about missing a day.

I know they’re very disappointed that vacations are not what they thought they would be. But I think Royal Caribbean has offered a fairly decent package of changes. It seems the best they can do.

they were never going to make this a good change for people who live close to Baltimore or have issues that longer distances a problem. I mentioned another thread early on that this would be a problem for many Baltimore cruisers. 
 

I have been waiting for the airlines to step up and waive change fees for people flying in and out of Baltimore, if they are on a cruise. Would be easy enough for them to show they have cruise ticket in order to get their fees waived. Also, it would not be that many people. But I don’t see them stepping up.
 

6 minutes ago, Neosophy said:

Please bring my ship back now.  I have to get on it Sunday morning.  You have had it long enough now! <grin>

Hahaha 😂. We have decided we will check out other cruises 🚢 on Anthem in the future. We are just now really finding our way around.
 

luggage tags were put on our beds this morning. It’s never a happy site.

20 hours ago, Rewind said:

I'm crossing my fingers that they will reimburse a hotel night for after the cruise.  Now just need to find out what to do in Norfolk.

Are you asking what things are available to do? Or are you asking what the procedure is? They said they would send more information, right?
 

The cruise terminal is in the nicest part of the city. That area is known as waterside. There are fairies that will take you over to Portsmouth. There’s a children’s museum there and some sports museum. A small mall and a bunch of restaurants right on the waterfront. 

5 minutes ago, Redskinsfan92 said:

Fyi, for those wondering how Norfolk plans to handle parking for multiple cruise ships. . . . RC cruises will use the MacArthur Center South Garage with more details to come. https://www.norfolk.gov/6030/Cruises

That garage is 2-3 blocks away. When we sailed out of Norfolk, we parked there and pushed our luggage down the street to get there. That would be harder for us now and will be for many of the guests who normally cruise out of Baltimore. I’m sure they will have some shuttle buses too. 

We just finished a great meal and Jamie‘s Italian restaurant. I got the reservation on Black Friday for a really good price. So we decided to give it a try.
 

it was all delicious, but the garlic bread and the lasagna were the two standouts. We also had an antipasto plank. But I didn’t get any pictures of the bread or the plank.

Pasta carbonara

Shrimp, linguine

Lasagna

And tiramisu

The reviews have been hit or miss. With most of them being misses. there were plenty of negative comments regarding the hostess. But we felt it was an excellent lunch. The service was good and the hostess was businesslike but she was fine.

4 hours ago, LuCruise said:

Oh wow...That is the first I've seen of them bringing back rollerblading since covid.  Excited to see!  (It wasn't on Odyssey when we went in dec).

 

I have not been on the anthem before, so I can’t speak to this ship specifically, but it certainly seems like everything is pretty much like it was pre-Covid. All the activities seem to be back. The only things that have been canceled have been canceled because it was too windy or cold.

The elevators are stuffed full of people all the time there’s no social distancing going on. 

The first time or two that happened it felt very weird but now it just seems normal.

We have so many children on board. I think they need to have all those activities to keep them busy.

The SeaPlex on deck 15 is probably the most versatile space on the ship.

They use it for basketball, rollerskating, and bumper, cars, etc.

on the second layer are all the ping-pong tables. 

And there is a hotdog stand, at the back. I found that yesterday and had a great snack.

Here are some random shots from around the beautiful anthem of the sea. 
 

we have been eating breakfast and dinner, mostly in the American icon dining room. 

Here is the art installation outside that dining room

And here is the silk dining room. I think it has the most unusual decor.

And of course, here is the gym. It has been a very popular place. It is a very large and has impressive equipment.

here is the sky bar. I wasn’t sure if I posted this or not but here it is.😝

I enjoy seeing different places in the world. But on a cruise ship sea days are my favorite. Here is today’s sunrise. Or as close to sunrise as I got up.ha ha ha!

We were at Coco Cay yesterday. And we went to Hideaway Beach. I really liked it. I would buy a day pass again depending on price and time of year. 
 

this is a spring break cruise. And there are lots and lots of children on board. We actually found Hideaway Beach to be relatively uncrowded. We feel that’s because there are so many parents and grandparents at the water park or elsewhere with their children. 
 

The pool was good and the food was better. There was very much a party atmosphere. They even had a couple of girls going around with bottles of champagne attached to triggers, and they shot champagne into peoples’ mouth people. It was not my thing, but it was very popular. They had perfect aim and we’re never closer than a foot to a person so it was sanitary.

 

cabana area 

That’s all it’s not usually one of my favorite parts but I did enjoy getting off and looking at the Newport area. 
 

This is the new visitor center. Right outside.

I was also pleased to see that the vendors weren’t too pushy

I did not go in. But I saw that the Junkanoo museum was $11 for adults.

I said by the lagoon and had my latte from Starbucks. And watch the various excursions drop off these docks. That’s so much better than the arrangement they used to have.

I was hot and sweaty when I came back from walking around Nassau. So I hopped on the little tram. Someone asked about the yacht that is docked, right near liberty of the seas. The tram driver said that belongs to Steven Spielberg.
 

it is a beauty.  😊(the larger ship, of course)

We had a Northstar reservation at 9:15 this morning. All of the times for today are sold out so that means there are no more basic (free) slots. 
 

I took way too many pictures while I was up there. Ha ha ha. Here are just a few. And of course, here’s the proof of life picture from DH and I. 
 

I just wanna let everybody know while we’re in Nassau that we are at the Starbucks. It is on Bay Street .1 of a mile from the straw market. They are selling the been there series mugs in case anyone collects those.

10 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

It's a CABARET, not a story.  Just enjoy the performances.  🙂 

I appreciated the talent. Especially the gymnastic ability of the dancers. They were phenomenal.

just not my cup of tea

One thing that the Anthem has done that is a really nice touch is provide music as you’re arriving for breakfast. Each morning one or a few crew members are stationed outside of the main dining room, and providing us with music.
 

Today it was beautiful flute melodies.  
 

We are docked in Nassau. Woo Hoo. This is a picture as we got close. We are docked in the 4th berth.
 

Nassau is not my favorite port. But I’m very interested to see what the new port area looks like. I don’t have any excursion or plans here but I do plan to get off and look around.
 

This was the pilot boat arriving at the ship early this morning. I wasn’t able to get a picture of the pilot, jumping onto the ship. 

we have been following the Norwegian pearl in each of our port stops. And she’s here, docked beside us.

Shortly after we board at the ship DD and I walked around on the15th deck. We went to an activities desk in the seaplex. one of the guys there told us that to reserve the north star for the basic trip, (free version) to check the app after 6pm. The previous two nights we had tried, and never saw it pop-up.
 

Tonight, our daughter was just looking on the app for something else regarding tonight‘s entertainment, and the basic version of the Northstar appeared. She followed the prompts to make a reservation for 9:30 in the morning and told me to do the same thing. I was standing right beside her, so did.

I immediately tried to make the reservation, but the 9:30am slots were all gone so I picked 9:15am. It’s no problem that we’re not going together. I just wanted to point out how quickly those times fill up. 

If you want to try out the basic version of the Northstar be on your app right at 6 PM the night before your port stop. 

Tonight DD And I had reservations for the show Spectra. It’s very hard to describe.

when the show was over, I told DD that if cirque du Soleil and a computer had a baby it would be this show. 

The special effects, lighting and costumes were excellent. But there was no storyline, and the use of the computer generated content was just weird. And I was not the only one that thought that it hurts several people talking about it if they left. The performers were all very talented and amazing dancers. it was just not my cup of tea.

36 minutes ago, davidrlewis2302 said:

Does your watch get notifications even if you are away from your phone?  Like if you left your phone at home and went for a walk, would it continue to ping?  If so it has it's own esim with a data package and yeah, you might be in for a bill (all be it the amount of data the watch is using is quite low as it's mostly notifications!).

But if the watch only gets its data via the phone, you'll be fine. 
 

No, I do not get notifications if I forget the phone.  It is good to know that even if I fouled up that the Apple Watch would not likely trigger the huge bills I read about. 

Oh well, learning experience. 

The music got a little louder as the day went on. But it was still fine with me. The only one of the songs that I recognized was by Beyoncé. And I didn’t know what the name of it was. Ha ha ha ha. 
 

The pool was never crowded. There was always one or two of those in water loungers empty. I thought they would be full by 10 o’clock but they weren’t. I think there’s so many children on this ship that the parents and grandparents went to the waterpark or other parts of the island with the children. 

look at these two women dressed in bright Caribbean costumes. There were a few of them around the pool, dancing, and generally trying to encourage the party atmosphere.
 

A couple of them were carrying around champagne bottles fixed with triggers, and shooting a mouthful of champagne into everyone they passed. I passed on the opportunity, but DD enjoyed it.  They had pretty good aim from a foot away. You can tell they do this a lot.  sorry, I was in the pool at the time and didn’t have my phone with me and didn’t get a picture. 
 

10 minutes ago, ace2542 said:

What about flying people in from wherever? Especially overseas? I highly doubt there are many direct flights. Far more to NYC/NJ area.

oh, most of the flights are not dressed, but there are some that are from certain places.

but I will tell you that a lot of the people that I know that cruise out of Baltimore are not going to drive to the New Jersey New York area.

we have tried to get them to go on a cruise that we thought was good out of Bayonne and they wouldn’t do it. 
 

I will drive there either.DH and I take the train. And they could do that, but for some reason they don’t do that either.

not saying that this is Royal Caribbean’s fault. This is a disaster not of their making. But there will be a number of people who would not drive to New Jersey.