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On 3/11/2019 at 5:59 PM, CruisingJoe09 said:

Joff is on OV until April 17th and Chris Brown will cover his vacation - Joff will be back to Ovation in June for Alaska cruises. Should have booked OV...

 

Angelle will be back as AM in May.

So close! Would have loved to sail with Joff again. Sailing May 13th so right in the middle of his break.

We are going to be sailing on the MSC SeaSide from Terminal F, and then when we get off will be going to Terminal A to board the Symphony of the Seas. These terminals appear to be a at nearly opposite ends of the port. Is there any kind of shuttle or other transportation to get between the two locations? Has anyone had experience with doing a B2B out of Miami on two different ships before? What would be the best way to transfer ships, walking appears to be out, but if anyone with experience knows otherwise please say.

Just a follow up: Dennis' real last name is Dennis Sciortino, and he went by that name for a number of years before changing his professional name to Dennis Charles. Until recently, he spent more time shoreside than on ships, and was/is responsible for training CDs.

When I looked for information on him prior to sailing Jewel everything just showed him as being on her exclusively, never saw anything about his shore side time, but that explains a lot about him. It's like you managed to fill in all of the missing pieces. That makes so much sense now. After Dru spoke so highly of him I was kicking myself for not interviewing him on Jewel, now I've got another reason to hope he's on Anthem.

I was on Anthem last week (March 24 sailing) and both Clo and Dennis were on board. They were both together at the opening night show but after that I only saw Dennis in person at the events in two70 and the royal theater (but I saw Clo on the stateroom TV leading some of the game shows and doing the morning TV show, so maybe it was just coincidence as to the events I went to).

I'm following this story closely. It would be a very short vacation for Dennis, but I selfishly wouldn't mind him returning already. At the moment he's scheduled to board the day we get off in May. I haven't heard anything negative about Clo, so it's nothing against her, but this sailing is a special sailing for my family and we have a previous special connection to Dennis.

Which CD's are these? It's always nice to hear of CD's who have nurtured their staff into becoming very successful themselves in the company.

Sorry to carry this from the old thread, but I wanted to respond. I was talking about Dennis Charles who I sailed with on Jewel and now seems to be on Anthem a lot. I always think of the rating of CDs as more of a chart than a scale, and while some score highly in areas, IMO no one ranks consistently higher across the board than Dennis.

When I sailed Anthem last year I was talking with Dru Pavlov and he spoke highly of a CD I had never heard of. Eventually he revealed that he goes by Dennis, speaking of Dennis Charles. It really kind of surprised me because I had heard so many speak highly of Dru as being a great Solstice class CD, and prior to sailing Jewel I had never heard of Dennis.

I have the final episode of theCruiseView from my shortened 4/17 sailing on the Anthem of the Seas. This was the end of the sailing for us so it's a rather short episode, but it features a great interview with Captain Srecko Ban where he discusses the Quantum of the Seas' journey over to Asia and everything that they did to ensure the safety of the ship. I hope you enjoy.

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Day 3 of theCruiseView from 4/19 features the last sea day heading south with the international men’s belly flop competition during the day and Spectra’s Cabaret at night.

I have one more episode left to release that I just filmed a few days ago to cover the Puerto Rico morning and it includes my interview with Captain Ban.

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Day 2 of theCruiseView takes a look at the surprising new breakfast options available, as night 2 we feature the return of the captain’s welcome moment to the Quantum Class, and the Gift makes its sailing debut. I also took a quick preview of Spectra’s Cabaret.

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The first day of theCruiseView from this sailing went live this morning. In this episode I have all the usual items such as the location, weather, compass, and menus. As well as a continuation of the Quantum Class timeline from day 1 of the Quantum series 3 years ago to catch things up to today. As I've mentioned before sailing the Anthem was night and day compared to the Quantum 2.5 years earlier and this series while shortened, will thoroughly capture that. I hope you enjoy and stay tuned for the next 3 episodes!

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The last of the main videos from my 4/17 sailing is the arrival into San Juan. It was a beautiful morning with perfect conditions (compared to the rain and wind on Quantum). Just as we arrived I could see the Carnival Sunshine departing in the distance. As we pulled in we had to go to customs and got lunch so I missed the horn battle with the Brilliance of the Seas which was docked across from us, but I saw her departure from our balcony shortly afterwards as she sailed past the fort.



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I still have 3-4 episodes of theCruiseView to edit and post. Hope everyone enjoys it and stays tuned!

During our Quantum Sailings they didn't have all the shows up and running yet, but I got an overview of what "An Evening With..." would entail when it launches. On Anthem that event was replaced by Two70 Tonight. If your not familiar with it, the event is hosted by the Cruise Director on the first night offering an hour long preview of all the capabilities of Two70. This includes technical overviews, RoboScreens, Vistaramas, aerialists, singers, and dancers. Here's the show from 4/17 hosted by Dru Pavlov.

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Since one of the piers is damaged it is unlikely all ships will be able to return starting November 11th. I wonder if they would accept the smaller ships and keep the larger ones away until they have more capacity to handle and accommodate the larger numbers.

Today I have the Captain's Reception from the 4/17/17 sailing. I always love these receptions so it's great to see it returned to the Quantum Class ships. During this sailing there were members that we had sailed with on both the Jewel in 2015 as well as the Quantum in 2014. That's what always makes them so much fun, finding all the crew that you've sailed with previously.

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How can they make it bigger. The original version on Oasis was the full show complete with intermission, the new shows are all the shortened Vegas ones. Will they give Symphony the full length show or a shortened one?

Thanks Joe12!

Did you have reservations for the North Star on embarkation day or did you just do walk on? We'd like to try to get on in port and weren't sure how that worked.

Since embarkation day can be unpredictable with regards to when guests will get onboard the ship they don't do any reservations. It usually opens some time between 12 and 1 on a first come first served basis. They operated until the muster drill and then as she departs (as the shadow can be seen in the timelapse video) they begin doing more rides once under the bridge. I'm not sure how late they operated to, but I would guess probably around 5.

On sea days they require reservations, but if you wait around and someone doesn't show you may be able to get a ride. Here was our ride on a beautiful sunny sea day on the morning of day 3. I also took my GoPro along for this ride and got a nice timelapse for the video as well.

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Incredible stuff as always. Well done.

Thank you! Today I have a pair of North Star rides. IMO there is no experience that makes you realize your on a Quantum class cruise like taking a ride on the North Star just after lunch in Two70. It's become my tradition, and one that I plan to do again in December. The view in Cape Liberty isn't the nicest, but you do get to see NYC and experience something you can't do on land right from the moment you board.

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It’s a bit later than I had hoped to be posting these, but a lot has been going on. I sailed on the Anthem of the Seas’ April 17th 12 night Southern Caribbean cruise, but unfortunately only made it as far as Puerto Rico on the 20th before having to abruptly depart to head home. That won’t be the end though, we have rebooked for 12/1, the next 12 night Southern Caribbean sailing.

I was on the Quantum of the Seas’ 8 Night Inaugural Sailing as well as the 11 night Southern Caribbean sailing that followed it in 2014 so this wasn’t my first Quantum Class experience, though a lot has changed since then. If anyone followed my massive Quantum review thread (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2137565) or the 19 night theCruiseView info vlog series (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2158075) you know that the Quantum class quickly became my favorite despite how troubled those first sailings were. Luckily this sailing was about as opposite as a sailing could be right until it’s sudden end. All of the entertainment and activities that made the Quantum class so special remained while all of the frustrations and flaws seemed to have been fixed.

As with all of my post trip reports I have a ton of photos, 2500+ actually.

Photos (2,500+):

Day 1 - 4/17/17 Cape Liberty (728): https://photos.app.goo.gl/IGOMHQum0GHAGxLm1

Day 2 - 4/18/17 Day at Sea (439): https://photos.app.goo.gl/ylvZP2ybNBHIQzf72

Day 3 - 4/19/17 Day at Sea (1,281): https://photos.app.goo.gl/kT4TKNuCVLQRjUr42

Day 4 - 4/20/17 Puerto Rico (100): https://photos.app.goo.gl/fym63jsTdqlHFcVp1

I will also be posting several videos as they get uploaded to Youtube over the next week starting with the actual departure from Bayonne.

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As well as it's timelapse. Unfortunately since the cruise was shortened and I had so much going on while we arrived in San Juan the timelapse is only for the Bayonne departure.

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Videos:

Bayonne NJ Departure (4/17):

Bayonne NJ Departure 4K Timelapse (4/17):

Puerto Rico Arrival with Brilliance of the Seas and Carnival Sunshine (4/20):

North Star: Bayonne NJ (4/17):

North Star: At Sea + Time-lapse (4/19):

Captain’s Reception (4/18):

Two70 Tonight (4/17):

I’ll keep posting the rest of the videos as they are uploaded and try to answer any questions that I can. I may post the three episodes of theCruiseView that I have to this thread to simplify things. I unfortunately only got to film one interview before departing, and it wasn’t tossed to in any of the days I filmed. It was an incredible revisit with Captain Srecko Ban on the bridge for a discussion of how things were with Quantum in China and the journey over there. I’m still trying to decide if I’m going to force it onto the end of an existing episode, film something to end the third, or film a fourth episode from home to cover the Puerto Rico arrival and toss to that interview. No matter what I’ll be sharing it though and when it comes to detailed information you don’t see anywhere else, I think that interview ranks number 1.

Thanks!

Done 21 nights over the course of 9 months on Harmony and yes, she is a fantastic ship! I also enjoyed the full CruiseView series, and hope to see some from Anthem soon!

My Anthem cruise was unfortunately cut short unexpectedly. I honestly haven't even had a chance to get through my videos and photos from that April sailing yet. I plan to get a new MacBook shortly and will get the few videos and episodes that I have from it up. I got a great interview with Captain Srecko Ban but didn't film the episode for the interviews day, so I'm going to have to do some editing or film an intro at home for it. It's was a really fun and informative one. I will be making up for everything I missed though with a redo sailing in December which will hopefully make it to the end with all the usual videos that I didn't get to do in April.

I am posting a review of my Harmony B2B soon. Would you mind if I use the same rating categories for my review?

Please feel free to. I hope you saw some of my Harmony of the Seas video/photo series. She's a beauty of a ship with some great entertainment onboard!

Just reviewed this thread again. It's really good for those of us who are fans of Lady G.

 

 

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So glad you enjoyed it. It's great to see that after 3 years people are still benefiting from all my work!

This is the end, the 13th and final episode of theCruiseView from the Harmony of the Seas' transatlantic sailing as well as the last video in the 28+ hours of Harmony content I've shared. Today's episode features the historic meeting of the three sisters and was filmed incredibly late on the 4th, so late that people were departing while I was finishing filming, so the first arrival into the USA on the 5th is included as well. I also take a look at how the Harmony of the Seas performed during the sailing as well as review everything that has gone on over the past 13 episodes. I hope you've enjoyed the journey over the last 13 episodes. If your interested in more, don't forget about all of the event, port, and tour videos I've posted. It took a bit longer than I had hoped to get all 28+ hours of video edited (from about 48+ hours of footage) but I think it all was worth it in the end. The extra time also means no gaps. I won't be posting any more videos here, but on my YouTube account you'll see all the Disneyland Paris videos show up over the next two weeks while I'm once again setting sail on Monday with the Anthem of the Seas. If your interested in those videos subscribe to my channel or watch for the threads to popup for that sailing's videos.

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That would be Captain Remo, sailed with him twice (Indy in Jul 10 and Apr 11), and remember nothing, but that was before I cared about who the Captain was. The first time I went to a Captain's Corner was in Jul 11 on Enchantment with Captain Anders.

Captain Johnny was the one who really set the benchmark though and made me actually think about the impact that a Captain can have on a cruise.

I tip toed around not saying his name, and you still figured it out!

I enjoyed Captain Gus as Captain on Harmony, he and Captain Johnny make a good team.

Only had one Captain I didn't care for much, but I always prefer the ones who are visible around the ship and attempt to make their announcements humorous and interesting.

Captain Gus was great. He's a surprisingly shy person with a huge personality. It's not often you find that. I was really surprised how outgoing he was during the Captain's Corner when he chose to perform.

I always prefer the very public captain's as well. I've only had one captain that was completely private. He only really appeared for the welcome reception, not even a captain's corner was held. You always have to look at the full situation though. He gave every one of his noon announcements promptly at noon and while some complained, it was clear that he spoke live while looking at the weather and navigation radars rather than from notes. We had by far the roughest weather and the ship was down an azipod and he still managed to arrive and depart each port at exactly the scheduled time usually to the second. He always wore the standard white shirt and dark pants like the rest of the bridge crew and during crew involved events like the tug-o-war competition he was right in the stands with the crew watching. He was by far the least visible captain I have ever had, but he was also IMO the most obviously competent and well respected captain among the crew I've ever had. He just preferred to be one of the team rather than the star. He's since retired, but I still always remember him just because he was such a different, yet great captain compared to all the others that i think of as great captains.

In this penultimate episode of theCruiseView form the Harmony of the Seas transatlantic we have a busy day of entertainment wrapping up throughout the ship with the premiere and close of Hideaway Heist on this sailing, as well as the close of iSkate and Columbus The Musical. We have a venue tour for the day, with the abstract concept of Seaviews which includes the running track and bridge wings. For our final interview of the sailing, ironically the first that I filmed, we are ending with the man in charge of the ship, Captain Gus Andersson to talk about his job onboard the Harmony of the Seas and taking out this massive new ship.

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For some reason a post I made in another thread and this post (2 days apart) are no longer here. So I'll post it again for you.

For our final neighborhood tour we have an abstract concept more than a physical area. Today's tour is of the seaviews onboard the Harmony of the Seas. She may be a very inward facing ship, but she still has some places to watch the ocean go by. In this video you'll get to take a lap around the Harmony of the Seas' full jogging track (roughly 7 minutes!), check out the bridge wings, and a few others areas on this Seaview tour.

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