harryfat1

My wife and my son played there for a bit and then we went back to the cabin as it still a hot day as the sun was slowly setting in the west. We would come back here on day 7

As originally designed as part of the “ultra” Q class, this yellow/orange sphere was supposed to be a bungy virtual reality thing but they discontinued that in early 2023 so now it’s just a sad space where they have bean bag toss there. Now the biggest attraction there is the glass walkway

Onward with the trip report ++++++ As we hadn’t spent much time at the back of the ship, we walked around taking some pictures of the area

Toward the end of the cruise, the elevator door refused to close as it kept saying “overload” even though we had way less than the number of maximum passengers and nobody in the elevator was a larger size person. Not sure how accurate the weight scale is on the ship. As for the piano man, I have a different video of a bunch of ladies inside with him in the elevator. I’m sure their elevator should have gone above the threshold but the sensor never kicked in and they were able to close the door and left.

Sure thing, we “men of culture” stick by each other…

Dani, Thanks for the invite. I will upload my trip pictures in the summer after we get back. I’m always fascinated by different object shapes and the “to infinity and beyond” pictures. That’s why I like the Mooring line pictures as it could be an eternity for a slug to climb that rope. It would be cool to see the Escher Museum.

Thanks for the info. Too bad on the small chance of the statue of Liberty view as it would have been cool to be at eye level or above the statue. Cool picture of the Manhattan skyline at night. Your average NYC tourist can’t get this shot. I guess if you have a good zoom camera/cell phone, you can zoom in on the statue from the ship during the daytime. Maybe on a later trip back to NYC, we will go in December to see the holiday lights and then take a cruise out of NJ on the Anthem to Florida and back. That would be a magical holiday experience to spend a few days in NYC pre-cruise. Interesting that we are connecting my future NYC trip to this trip report.

There’s no special shortcut from deck 7 to deck 6 or 5 via the back entrance. If you look at the deck plan for 7, there’s no special opening like you see for 6 The entire deck 7 at the back is blocked off. I think that’s where the aerialist needs to get to so they can “drop down” from above to deck 6 and 5 during the show. They can’t just appear out of thin air so deck 7 Aft space is enclosed so they can use that space. If you are on 7, the best way to get to 270 is via the 2 flights of stairs down to 5 and walk down the path as the “secret entrance” on deck 6 won’t do you much good going to the cafe. One time savings you might get is if you are coming from 270 after an event/show and there’s a large crowd and you are already on deck 6 at the top of the theater, instead of going down to deck 5 via the staircase, use the “secret door” on deck 6 and get to the Aft staircase and go up one deck to your cabin from there. Deck 5 can get very congested as there’s only one way in and out of 270 on the starboard side. The port side is blocked off as it has the kitchen so after any big event, there’s a lot of people trying to get out via the narrow passage way. If you walk out via the secret door on deck 6, there should be very little traffic.

Yeah, if you like these perspectives, take a look at some of the tilt-shift phone apps that you can adjust your photos to trick your eyes so they look like miniatures. I don’t have the patience to do post-shoot lab work in playing hours with my pictures on Photoshop to make them “perfect”. Too lazy to do that as I have thousands of pictures from every cruise. I would be spending 9 months playing around with various pictures from every cruise trying to get the perfect postcard shot. I have never been a perfectionist. Good enough is good enough. CC doesn’t pay me enough to make me want to doctor up my pictures. Having said that, if you are lazy, downloading a photo editing app to modify a few pictures periodically can be a fun thing. I just modified the 3 Curaaco pictures uploaded last night on the phone app. Took less than 15 seconds per picture. Took longer to find the picture than to add special effects to them. I normally do this with every trip report as it can be a quick fun thing to do. Here are a few extras from previous vacations

Appreciate the help from you and your hubby. This is still a very rough schedule as we only decided to go to NYC last month so besides doing this trip report, I have been trying to research what’s available in NYC in-between trip report uploads. Many things will change as we get closer to the date in the summer. So far I only book a 100% cancellable hotel in Midtown Manhattan. I grouped my days into one or two regions within NYC, so we don’t have to go cross town in the middle of the day. Just take the subway to one or two places daily and just hang out there. We won’t see as much using this strategy but one lesson I learned from Curacao walking is that you get very hot and tired after a few hours out in the heat. Can’t be too aggressive in wanting to see everything. Sometimes in life, less is more. As for Curacao pictures, we are not done yet. There’s more to come.

OK, This being the poor person’s ride, it’s over in 15 minutes It was a unique experience to see the ship/island from high above as the Caribbean doesn't have Empire State buildings for you to gain a high perspective of the city. NorthStar gives you that. I rate it as a not to be missed. I'm not a Sea person and wouldn't pay for the extended experience as it doesn't do much for me but I would recommend it for any port days, especially when the ship is sailing in the NYC area in the winter or Europe in the summer, you can get great perspectives. For those that have sailed out of NJ on the Anthem, do you sail by the Statue of Liberty on the way out to the Sea? If so, time your Northstar to sail away to get a special picture

Zoomed into the HAL ship Supposedly this is the tallest bridge in the Caribbean

Ahhhh, yes, this was the picture I was hoping to see. You always see these colorful buildings on every Curacao postcard but they took the picture from a ground point of view. Only the NorthStar can give you this higher perspective. This was the MAIN reason why I wanted the NorthStar time slot at Curaaco in the afternoon so I could see the city from above. The 3 other ports (Port Everglades/Aruba/Labadee) are OK, but not what I wanted to be compared to Curacao. Some people prefer the side-to-side view from the NorthStar but for me, all you see is the ocean on sea days. I’m not a sea day person. I much rather have pictures of different perspectives of a city. It’s a personal preference thing. Slightly zoomed in

OK, enough NYC talk for the night. People are not reading this for NYC... +++++++++++ Shortly before 4 PM, they gathered up the 4 PM appointment folks and walked us up the staircase to the NorthStar entrance level. There’s always an operator inside every ride. A different perspective of the German AIDA ship in front of us

Yeah, I believe Little Italy is next to Chinatown in Manhattan so we will take a stroll to see that. I have seen YouTube videos that showed the cannolis so will try to buy some.

Thanks for the subway tip and MOMA suggestion. The reason we want to see the Guggenheim is not for the exhibits but more for the architecture as I am a fan of buildings/structures as evidenced by my cruise ship and building pictures of Curacao. I want to see the inside of the Guggenheim to see and appreciate the structure. I’m not an art person. Couldn’t tell the difference between any painting or any artist. My favorite artwork is the picture of the dogs playing poker so that tells you the depth of my art knowledge or lack thereof. The closest thing I have to actual art appreciation is Escher's artwork. Let me show a few Internet pictures of the buildings we hope to visit for folks who are not familiar with what interests us. Guggenhiem museum structure: Oculus Center The Vessel (It has the Escher feel to it but I believe they don't allow people to go inside anymore due to the high number of suicides with people jumping off the top) Here's Grand Central Terminal. More classic structure. Seen in many movies NYC Public Library

As I mentioned previously, you must make a reservation for the NorthStar after you board the ship. Depending on your luck, you may or may not be getting the complimentary session. Only port days are free. Sea days cost extra. At around 15 minutes before your appointment, you need to check in at the podium to let them know you are here. Then they will ask you to stick around the area for the next 10 minutes. So we just hung around the area and took a couple more photos of the area

Everyone’s favorite photography trick is where you pretend to touch the big object behind you. The classic one is the leaning Tower of Pisa in many pictures – yeah, I’ve been there.

It must be a port day as there’s nobody by the elevator at 3:30 with many people still off the ship as we are docked until 8 PM with all boarding at 7:30. People at the pool area Looking at the Curaaco “cruise terminal” – well, technically it’s a cruise terminal but no real physical building. Just some tents and kiosks. Zooming in to see the HAL ship from earlier

Onward with the trip report: +++++++++++ Elevator ride. There’s a weight and people limit for the elevator to safely operate. If everyone gains weight on the cruise, by the end of the cruise, would the people limit decrease by one with everyone feeling heavier? Oh, wait, what am I saying? With the cost-cutting on the RCI food budget, nobody gains weight anymore from cruises. Silly me as I was thinking of the old cruising days…🤪

Happy Valentine’s Day to All. Hope y’all had a pleasant evening with your loved ones. I don’t know about you guys, but I kept getting notifications today from CC on all the old posts from these couple of weeks. I think ever since their server had issues, they stopped having notifications until today when all the old notification that was hung up in the queue was realized all at once. The notification bell on my cell phone was having spastic attacks from all the old posts. It’s been over a month since I started this trip report. I appreciate whoever is still left to read this.

No, Not likely. I don’t have a forum to post the info on. Not like I can start a new thread “Cheapo Dad’s land saga to NYC” here at the RCI boards. I guess I can drop in a few pictures on @dani negreanu mega thread as I saw @bobmaclibertyhad posted some pictures of his trip to NYC with pictures of the US Intrepid last month when he uploaded some mooring line pictures. Here’s my draft itinerary version 1. There will be many changes as I firm up my plans next few months but here is what we hope to see in NYC as it's heavy on the "tourist things to do": Day 1 – Arrive in NYC Day 2 - “Free” Walking tour of the Financial District in the morning 9/11 Memorial Museum/One World Observatory Oculus Staten Island Ferry Day 3 - High Line/The Vessel at Hudson Yard USS Intrepid or some sort of museum if weather is too hot Day 4 – Statue of Liberty Time Square Rise NY Day 5 – “Free” Brooklyn Bridge Walking Tour in the morning DUMBO (this should be part of the walking tour) Brooklyn Bridge Park Subway back to Manhatten Either K-Town or a Broadway Musical Day 6 – “Free” Walking Tour of Central Park in the morning Guggenheim Museum Day 7 – NY Public Library Grand Central Station Rockefeller Center Top of the Rock Observatory Day 8 – Homeward Bound This schedule assumes we will get the multi-event NYC Explorer pass to save a few dollars on the various admission fees as well as a 7-day NY Subway. Still need to shove in a few other items like Chinatown in there somewhere. Part of it will be dependent on the weather. If it’s miserably hot, we will opt for more indoor activities. Will have more time to plan things out once I am done with this trip report by next month.

Yeah, they have security at the gates either at the regular streets or at the kiosk area (yellow and red arrows) to prevent vendors from getting anywhere near the ship as the area is technically “Curaaco Cruise Terminal” although there’s no terminal building like they have in Cozumel or Aruba. It’s just a few tents and kiosks in the area. So either you used the golf cart transportation or walked it like we did.