njboyindc

On 4/24/2024 at 12:49 PM, tlc1972 said:

 

Assuming there will be a meet up, but if not maybe we'll create our own! 

Very much looking forward to this now that the photos of the completed QA are making the rounds. She's stunning!

Sounds good

Hi there, my friend and I are on this sailing!

2 minutes ago, bucfan2 said:

Thank you for your review.  Was there any word among staff about upcoming protocol changes (masks in particular)?

No, though I do see the website says that they may be changing the mask policies Feb 13th. Masks were worn by almost everyone inside. 

Overall, I had a great time and think Virgin offers a great product. I would gladly sail on them again. Happy to answer any questions. Here are the good and bad things that stood out for me.

Good:

-Friendly and helpful staff, always responsive. I liked that you could message sailor services in the app instead of going there and they would usually respond within about 15 minutes. 

-Always great to be on a new ship. They were really creative with a lot of spaces. 

-The food was a real standout. Wow. Just about every meal, even including the Galley, was very good. Extra Virgin (pastas) and Razzle Dazzle (cookies and milk) were my favorites. 

-Hammocks on balconies is a great touch. I usually don’t spend a lot of time in the room but loved to lay out there on the hammock. 

-The Dock at the back of Deck 7 has to be one of the nicest, most relaxing spaces I’ve seen on any ship. It felt like you were lounging at the back of a yacht rather than a giant cruise ship.

-Lack of ship wide announcements were nice. However, this also meant that their communication was lacking, for example where the gangway was located to leave the ship at a port. Without offering the daily newsletters or doing ship wide announcements, sometimes it felt like you were on your own. This isn’t necessarily bad but will feel very different to seasoned cruisers.

Bad:

-There app is not working well yet. This wouldn’t be so bad except for the fact that they are very dependent on the app for the little messaging that they do. If they’re going to be as reliant on the app as they are, it needs to work. We had our shore excursion get canceled twice by the app even though it wasn’t actually canceled and the app also regularly froze. I’m not sure how a passenger that didn’t have or didn’t want to use a smartphone would be able to know what’s going on or to take advantage of all that the ship offers. I was willing to use my phone but would have preferred to not have to carry it around and be on it all the time while I was trying to disconnect and relax.

-The wifi wasn’t too good. It was nice that it was free and worked well for texting but not much more. There were dead spots around the ship and didn’t seem to be able to support the need to be doing everything on the app all the time. Granted we did not pay for the upgraded streaming wifi but, again, given how reliant they are on using the app, the wifi struggled to keep up. If they can fix the app and upgrade the wifi, it would go a long way. 

-Separated beds should be fully separate, not in this L shape with either heads inches apart or one persons head right next to the other’s feet. That being said, I found the beds very comfortable and slept well

-The seating around the ship looks really cool but rarely comfortable, with the big exception of the hammocks as mentioned above. It’s like they just picked out the best looking seating but without sitting in them. 

Somewhere I have a picture of Malcolm sleeping in a bed on the pier next to the ship in one of the ports in broad daylight. I’ll try to find it. It’s just a joke.

On 7/26/2021 at 11:59 PM, markeb said:

Guessing you went to the Reagan Building. Dulles seems to be doing a lot of them, too.

Yes!

Count me as another that couldn’t update my new passport info on the GE website. No idea why. But they were able to do it in a minute at my local enrollment center today. They didn’t seem surprised so I think they’ve been doing this for others too.

Here are some screen shots from the departure

I figured it out. The Odyssey list is only showing up when you are logged in.

5 hours ago, cruiselvr04 said:

Knowledge that the ships air handling systems do not mix between cabins.

Yes! I’m going to need a better understanding of this and know changes were made if needed before I cruise again.

I didn’t see a thread for this cruise. A friend and I are going. Anyone else?

Phil

We switched from an inside cabin deck 7 midship to a balcony cabin deck 8 aft. We noticed the smell on other passenger cabin decks but did not smell anything in the public rooms. Others we talked to also had the smell in their cabin bathrooms.

Just got off Edge this morning. It was my 18th cruise. Unfortunately, we found the smell to be quite prevalent which I’d liken to rotten eggs. We actually switched cabins on the first sea day and did not have a problem in the new cabin but did smell it at times around the ship all week. I hope they fix it. Otherwise, the ship is amazingly beautiful and had a great time. 

The update from the captain is that the repairs were successful on the propulsion issue and we are cruising at near top speed and the sway is gone so all is good so far!

That's a relief! Thanks for the update! :)

Thanks for great posts. Can you keep us updated about the propulsion issue? Has it been fixed? I am on next week's sailing and have things planned in each of the ports so hoping they don't switch up the schedule again. Thanks!

Wanted to bump this up as we are now under a month away. Anyone else going?

Phil

Here are the prices they gave us on the February cruise.

Thank you!!

Is there a brochure for this anyone can send? Love going on new ships

Thanks,

Phil

While I agree that Royal needs to hear from us about safety, I do not believe that the captain should automatically be fired. Decisions about routing and weather are made as part of a team with plenty of corporate input and Royal should look at their entire decision-making process. The skills of a captain such as Anthem's are not easily replaced.

Not that anyone needs my 2 cents at this point, but here goes.

I think somebody at RCI corporate made a bad decision to sail this ship and the captain did a phenomenal job sailing it under the worst of circumstances.

The captain doesn't operate in a vacuum, he has much higher ups than him that he has to answer to.

 

 

 

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I agree completely

Glad to hear. It had been quiet on here. Lol. I'm mostly going with family but a friend is coming too so would be nice to meet up. Shoot me an email at njboyindc at yahoo dot com

Definitely go to the Quest. It's a lot of fun. You can pretty much just watch but you will likely want to participate.

Hi there! Is anyone going on this sailing or considering going? Pretty close to booking here.

Phil

For me it wasn't so much the length of the show as the time. I could only get tickets for a 2pm show on a sea day and that was not my idea of how I want to spend a beautiful day sailing in the Caribbean. I left after 3 songs. If the show was offered after dinner, I probably would have stayed and enjoyed it.

Great video. I liked the comment about combining the best of the Solstice class ships and the Oasis class ships. That would be a great combination.