Rogueperson

You shouldn’t look at a cruise on the Anthem as “uninspiring”. I’ve done 3 live threads to Nassau i believe ( grandeur, allure and Mariner). Nassau has lots of things if you just look. Even if its to find a restaurant you’ve never tried. My Greenland cruise will be a challenge for a live thread because I only have 5 ports in 14 nights. Thats a lot of sea days. Port days are easy. Sea days can get repetitive.

Neither am I. It pretty much consists of me going to my wife “will i like this?” or “what goes with what”. The only wine i know and only because i had it at Chefs Table and its got a cool name is the Conundrum. They sell it on the ship for $16 a glass and $63 a bottle. I can get it at home for $15.00 for the bottle.

The only thing I really saw that was above 13 was wine. Did you actually get wine that was more than 13.00? I didn't see any mixed drinks including ones i just popped out of my head and not on the menu cost more than 13 last week. We were actually charged the difference when we ordered more expensive wine. And last week, it was $13.00

Did you ask for Chicken? or was this part of the menu? This course is usually the Filet Mignon. It looks like the Filet plating. And where did they hold Chef's Table on Oasis?

Security is a crap shoot. I got stopped because they thought my aeropress was drug paraphernalia.

The menu hasn't changed much since 2017. The only change i've seen is that they've subbed out the chocolate bar thingie for the world from Wonderland. This was my live thread from two weeks ago. Well, Chef's Table was about 2 weeks ago, i got off the ship on Saturday. If it doesn't pop up, you want post #144

The original post has been deleted, but I've done a live thread while someone else was doing a live thread on the same ship and sailing!!! I didn't get squished too badly by Radio, but it was an interesting contrast to be had by two people on the same ship. Our priorities and focus were different and even though its the same sailing, we had different experiences. I'm sure the OP will notice a difference between legs. I sure did when i did my recent b2b one off of Adventure last week.

I think with that quick a response, I left it in my room.

Here are my final thoughts for this cruise. I am treating this as 1 giant cruise, not two itineraries. But there was definitely a stark difference between the first 5 night leg and the second 9 night leg. The shorter cruise was a lot more energetic. More of a party crowd. 2nd leg was a lot more laid back. Nights were a LOT more quieter. They were definitely two different animals and if you prefer to sail with "your crowd", one of these legs would have definitely not worked for you. Personally, I found them both fun in different ways. Pre-cruise. If you can do it, drive/fly/travel in the day before. If I could, i would have preferred to come in prior to rush hour, but that would entail leaving before noon, which was not feasible. I probably would not have a problem driving in day of, but I ended up SAVING money WITH tips with the package vs. driving up day of. The only bonus would have been to get on the road home that much faster vs. getting a car to the hotel, and then getting in my car and going. Trinity Reservations is amazing. Everything was perfect with them. The car service was amazing. It was way better than i expected. I was thinking a quasi-shuttle bus with a bunch of stops. No, this was a personal SUV who picked me up when i wanted and dropped me off when i wanted, and did the same in return coming back. It was the same guy, so even better. Springhill Suites was great. I had no issues there at all, except for their abysmal cruise like internet speed. I would highly recommend them anytime you sail out of Cape Liberty. Embarkation. Last time I came up at noon and traffic was slammed. This time, we drove right up to the terminal and got dropped off. Inside the terminal. 10 minutes 31 seconds door to ship. New record. Amazing. On Board Activities Both legs had similar, if not identical activities. But obviously, there was more variety in the 9 night as opposed to the 5 night. There was more on the 9 nights, but they were fun and I had no issues with the activities. Food. Did you like my food pics? Can you tell I enjoy food? Anyways, this was a great experiment. My final view on the UDP before I go into the actual restaurants. UDP (Ultimate Dining Plan) is great, BUT, the menu is very limiting. 2 or 3 time visit, and you've tried everything on the menu. Also, as great as the food is, they do NOT accommodate dietary restrictions well. When they try to accommodate, you lose even more menu choices and as i said before, the menu is very limiting. Granted, my wife is Glutten Free and nut free and that just kills everything. My wife was done by probably day 3. So, if you have dietary restrictions, i would recommend AGAINST the UDP in any capacity. Also, depending on your cruise length, and of course ship, I would recommend Against UDP if you have more days than twice the dinner options. For example, Adventure has Chops, Izumi's and Giovanni's. I did not count Johnny Rockets as its more of a lunch place, and Playmakers would also fall into that category. So, with 3 dinner options, I would not get the UDP for more than a 6 night cruise. We ended up eating a Chops 4 times (3 lunch and 1 dinner) because the other venues were not available for lunch on the sea days and I was pretty much sick of steak for probably until 4 days into the second leg. It can get repetitive fast. I'm glad i did it for 5 nights. It was the perfect number. Chops. Always a good steak. But there's such thing as too much of a good thing and 4 meals at Chops did it. Once per cruise. Perfect. 4. Too much. Giovannis: After having Chops so much. I am starting to see that Giovanni's has the better, more diverse menu. I'm still torn on which one is "better". I like both and Giovanni's was wonderful. I'm glad I had dinner there twice. Izumi's. I'm just not a fan. I keep giving them chances to wow me, and they just don't. Now granted, I've had some really good sushi before, but Izumi's fails to measure up. At one time, I think there was a $20.00 charge, or that's how much you would expect to spend at dinner, and it was barely worth it back then. Now at $35.00, its not even close. Its not *bad* sushi. However, your paying a premium and you're not get a premium product. I feel like its on par with good supermarket sushi, but still, supermarket sushi. Johnny Rockets. I'm only adding them here because I did try them. I have not had a burger from them in a while, but I felt that when i did, even from their land locations, they did not impress. The burger is unremarkable. However, they DO have chili cheese fries and they definitely satisfied my craving. However, this is no different than the Nachos they used to have at Park Cafe which were complimentary. Even at the reduced price of $7.00 for the fries, which was waived for me due to the UDP, I cannot recommend. In fact, if you want a burger, don't go here, go to Chops for Lunch. That burger was amazing and if it was more available, it would be a contender for best cruise burger. However, at the Lunch Price of $22.99, you decide if that burger is worth it to you. Chef's Table. This could be one of the best Chef's Table i've had. At least the top 3. There was a little hiccup in the beginning and it had the markings of possibly being a bad one. But everything turned around, and it became one of the best. In the past, I am not a fan of the Freedom and Voyager Class's venue for Chef's Table. It is in the Main Dining room on the landing between floors. This time, fortunately, it was not very loud, but on Navigator, it was way too loud due to the regular diners. Mariner was not bad, but we were also at 50% occupancy, so i can't count that. Overall, you're paying a premium for dinner but if you have a full sailing you could have distracting time. MDR: I mentioned that if you have a dietary restriction, the UDP is not for you and your choices would be more limited. However, in the MDR, these waitstaff have WAY more discretion. My team, Joel and Abhishek made my wife's dining experience that much better. They went out of their way to provide alternative meals such as indian and vegetarian menus that were not readily available, but made available to her because of her restrictions. Did i mention that Indian food on a cruise ship is VERY VERY GOOD. Even with their restrictions, they can still pull it off. Try getting Tandoori Chicken without an open flame. apparently its quite difficult. But they pulled it off. We went 9 for 9 in the MDR and each night was a great experience. My wife is not against the UDP, but we will probably only get it again on a ship that has at least 4 dinner venues, like Oasis class. Ports. I have no words to express how this combination of ports works. You know you have a cruise someetimes, where there's a port you love, a port you can take or leave it, and a port you just don't want to get off. This is not that cruise. Bermuda. This place is amazing. Besides the point that Fiona came within a hundred miles of Bermuda and they shrugged it off like it was no big deal. Fiona was a Cat 4 when it went by. The only sign i saw that a hurricane hit was one palm tree was missing fronds on one side. No debris found. I loved St. George and Hamilton. I hadn't been to those towns before. I love the ferry and how easy it is to use. I want to go back and see more. Boston. Salem by itself was amazing. I would definitely rent a car again. There is so much to do in Salem, I don't want to know about the Boston Area alone. I could spend a week exploring this city. Would definitely come back. Bar Harbor. This is by far my favorite of this trip. The Acadia National Park is just so serene. I know what we want to do the next time we're up here. I probably got the most pictures here as it was just a feast of on the sights. Portland. Another great town. This is a food paradise. St. John. This comes in second when on scenery. Its a close call between this and Halifax, but for nature, St. John wins. Halifax. It rained all day while we were here, but that added to the mystique. I would love to just drive through the little towns and hamlets that litter the coast here. Its a bit creepy as this feels like what I would expect from a Lovecraft story. I'm waiting for Deep Ones to come out of the ocean here. Service. I did not want for anything. Everything was taken care of. Servicewise, this was one of the better cruises I had out there. This is my 13th Royal Caribbean (well, 14th, if you count the b2b as 2 cruises). Bartending service is amazing AND I DON'T DRINK. I have 4 diamond vouchers. So i'm hard pressed to order that many drinks. Last day on the cruise, i was walking by and I notice the sign for the day's drink. I think it was the Port Side Punch. Anyways, I had not used any of my vouchers and I said what the heck, i got one. Later that evening, the place was pretty busy, and I still had drinks left on my card. The bartender goes "you want another Port Side Punch". I hadn't really drank at this bar for the entirety of the cruise, but he remembers I got a port side punch earlier in the day in passing. I am going to add an additional note here for the b2b transition review. I was absolutely anxious about the process due to testing and Canada's requirement. They made it very easy. They could have been more forthcoming with the process prior, but the only answer they had to give me was "we'll take care of everything" And they did. It was easy and painless. Debarkation: This could have been done a little better. The line going out was insane. This port has the facial recognition system, but they weren't using it. Its the world's most expensive stand for the custom agent to lean on to check your passport and that's it. So thus ends my first B2B. I really have no complaints about anything. I may have a video or two i will post as posting videos on the ship wifi is a total non-starter. My next planned cruise isn't until next year, and I plan to do a live thread there too. I may not be the only one because this is the ONLY itinerary Royal has from Bayonne. Its the 14 night Bayonne to Greenland roundtrip run on the Jewel. I'm excited for that. If i'm lucky, i might be able to squeeze another cruise out around march - may, but we'll see. Nothing is booked there. So until next time, Thank you for taking the time to read and follow along.

Holy crap, they found my Kindle!!!! I'm responsible for the shipping, but hey, i'll take it!!! I mean this was QUICK. Today, I get a response email from the email i sent this weekend. It was a request to fill out the official lost and found form. That was at 12;45pm today. 3:10pm, I sit down and fill it out. 3:16pm, i get a response and a text. They found it!!! Woot!!!

I've already emailed Royal. I have little hope that it will be found. I've already deregistered it, so there's no unique identifier now. Its not the end of the world. I got the Kindle last year because of the 3G termination. I wanted a Kindle that could access my library whenever, but on this cruise, we found that we could not download books off the cellular for some reason. Had to hotspot in Boston and connect wifi. That was the WHOLE point of me buying a new Kindle. The old Kindle worked better in every way. Better battery life, better interface (to me).

I said earlier that there were no real issues on this cruise. I discovered one upon arriving home. I LOST MY KINDLE!!!!! I'm fairly certain I had it when i left the ship. It was in my hands. But between dinging off the ship, a bag breaking and holding way too much stuff, it disappeared. Where I know it isn't. I did not drop it in the hotel when getting my car. I did not leave it in the hired car.

We have safely made it home. I will post final thoughts in the next day or so. Thank you everyone for joining in. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did writing it.

Thats one thing i didn’t get many pictures of. The Windjammer.

ship to door time slower. Not sure why there was a line. Too many people milling around the luggage terminal.

Good Morning from Bayonne. In case you’re interested, these are disembarkation instructions. So this more or less ends our journey. I will of course see how fast ship to door processing will be, but i heard they have facial rec here so that’s a plus. I will post my final thoughts probably on Monday. I tend to post at work 😅

Dinner Menu Coconut Shrimp. Salmon Gravlax Braised Lamb Shanks. Profiteroles Summer fruit Pavlova, repurposed baked alaska again.

It was a leisurely day at sea. There was a lecture I went to about piracy, smuggling and terrorism. It was interesting. After that, I just wandered and got pictures of the ship. Incoming photo dump. There is a “secret” deck on deck 11 forward that will take you to the front of the ship. That is where there is a observation deck looking down on the bridge.

Lunch menu today. Caprese Salad. Different from dinner last night. Sweetened Corn cakes. The “guacamole” aka avocado salsa was bad. Four Lentil Chili. This wasn’t chili. It wasn’t bad. Just not chili Floating Island. Repurposed baked alaska from last night.

yes she is. About 11 miles away

Aha! Got a lock on my position.

Its there. I missed it. I found out about Beaver Tails after we left St. John, which was why i was hyped to get it.

now that i think about it. I’ve only been on 2 cruises diamond pre-covid. First one, I was quarantined for 1/2 the cruise and 2nd was a very busy 7 night Allure cruise. The rest were post covid

I just talked to Magic Marvin on Adventure. He is only on for a couple more cruises. He says Tornado Tanya is taking over for him at the end of October.

I thought this was some kind of tour. Its just a q&a thing.