Live Blogging Anthem of the Seas July 18 sailing!

[thejewgernaut]

Ok -- picking up where I left off. Lots of backlogged content, so I'll get it out in batches. Following our tour, we hadn't eaten for 3 hours. As we all know, if you don’t eat every 3 hours on a cruise you’re failing to do your part or something. So, off we went to the Coastal Kitchen for lunch. Bottom line up front – good, better than some of the other “free” fare (like the main dining rooms), but nothing extraordinary to make you envy the "Suite Life" - at least for lunch. Service was excellent. Thanks to some helpful people, we were able to get in (typically JS can only go for dinner, not lunch or breakfast - but if you ask nicely you can get in a few times as a JS as others have reported). Despite the challenge to get in, it was pretty dead in there. Never more than 4 tables max occupied during our lunch. If Royal wants to utilize that venue better, they should extend it to JS at a minimum. If it was packed, I would understand, but after being allowed in and seeing it empty it was like waiting an hour to get into a club to find it empty.

Ok, on to the food review for Coastal Kitchen Lunch! I got the prosciutto wrapped dates (good, dates were a little cold- they didn't give them time to warm to room temperature and probably pulled them from the fridge directly), shrimp and spinach salad (again good, nothing special) and the citrus olive oil cake with cheesecake ice cream (again, good, nothing special). DW got the tomato soup with bread (she reported as good), the pasta primavera (this was the best dish of the meal), and the caramel pudding (good but overly sweet). Sorry that the pictures aren’t clean, we forgot to take them before digging in so we had to reconstruct the dishes a bit.

 

After a bit of digestion, we headed up for our iFLY experience. This was… a lot of fun. However, much like my first flowrider experience, it was a rough start. I will start by saying that the orientation and training piece was great. Excellent staff that takes good care of you. What you may not realize is that there is a trainer in the tube with you at all times who is basically dragging you around and helping you fly. It turns out “falling” in a giant tube that shoots air is actually really hard. Hard enough that I flailed all over and decided I hated it and I wanted out after I flipped on my back. Oops. However, DW gave me a stern look and pointed me back into the tube, so I went for round 2, which was much better and a ton of fun. DW was very good at the iFLY and was able to briefly achieve “flight” or “falling” or whatever the experience is.. They take a ton of photos of you but I think that this actually may be something where Royal should consider a different pricing model. I think they should show you the photos, and then tell you if you don’t pay them X amount of money, they’re posting them to a live photo stream. I probably would have paid at least $100 to keep those photos private and to see them personally destroyed. All that said, it was a blast and we were glad we did it. And we probably don’t need to do it again.

As we were finally approaching the med, the weather cleared up for the first time all trip and we enjoyed some pool time before getting ready for dinner at Jamie’s. I’ll post the Jamie’s review later, but it was really quite good and exceeded expectations. I butchered the photos a bit again, but they should do their job.

Post dinner was the adult comedian, who was a British chap. He was funny, but not “in tears” funny. This wasn’t just us not totally getting the dry humor, the crowd laughter was more than “polite” but not “uproarious.” Still it was a decent enough show. We turned in after that in preparation for climbing the rock.

 

So - that partially catches up the status of our trip. We just finished up an amazing stop at Gibraltar (We hiked the Mediterranean steps, which is 4500 steps per my fitbit, but 86 flights of stairs. It was incredible, but intense, and I'll have an in-depth review soon, along with everything else we've experienced on what has been a fantastic trip.

[UniPac]

After a bit of digestion, we headed up for our iFLY experience. This was… a lot of fun. However, much like my first flowrider experience, it was a rough start. I will start by saying that the orientation and training piece was great. Excellent staff that takes good care of you. What you may not realize is that there is a trainer in the tube with you at all times who is basically dragging you around and helping you fly. It turns out “falling” in a giant tube that shoots air is actually really hard. Hard enough that I flailed all over and decided I hated it and I wanted out after I flipped on my back. Oops. However, DW gave me a stern look and pointed me back into the tube, so I went for round 2, which was much better and a ton of fun. DW was very good at the iFLY and was able to briefly achieve “flight” or “falling” or whatever the experience is.. They take a ton of photos of you but I think that this actually may be something where Royal should consider a different pricing model. I think they should show you the photos, and then tell you if you don’t pay them X amount of money, they’re posting them to a live photo stream. I probably would have paid at least $100 to keep those photos private and to see them personally destroyed. All that said, it was a blast and we were glad we did it. And we probably don’t need to do it again.

 

I have two questions regarding the iFly, maybe you can help me:

 

1. If you want to have a another session/more minutes, can you buy e.g. 10minutes? Do you know the pricing, maybe it is shown on the TV system?

 

2. I have booked both of us into different slots - her slot starting at 10.20 and mine at 11:00. We want to be outside the channel to take pictures - will this timing work, do you have any ideas on that?

 

Thanks so much and enjoy the cruise!

[thejewgernaut]

 

I have two questions regarding the iFly, maybe you can help me:

 

1. If you want to have a another session/more minutes, can you buy e.g. 10minutes? Do you know the pricing, maybe it is shown on the TV system?

 

2. I have booked both of us into different slots - her slot starting at 10.20 and mine at 11:00. We want to be outside the channel to take pictures - will this timing work, do you have any ideas on that?

 

Thanks so much and enjoy the cruise!

 

1) You absolutely can book private lessons. I don't recall the price but will see if I can find out.

 

2) The way the slot works, about ~40 mins is prep, and then last ~20 mins is everyone flying. Everyone goes into the antechamber, and then goes in one at a time for their one minute. You can't leave until everyone is done. So assume your group is flying at the ~40 min mark. However, note that you don't fly high in the tube -- you're down near the bottom. They control the windspeed, so they keep it low (just at the point of easy equilibrium) for the beginners. In between every few people, the trainer who is handling you will do a few tricks and they crank it up for that. Also, most pictures are "head on". You don't really see too much background. Also note that based on that timing, you'll be in orientation when she's flying. So you won't be able to take pictures of her. They don't let you bring cell phones up. You'd need a third photographer.

[thejewgernaut]

Ok, we're back for a quick post. The hold up has been these intense port days, and also getting all the pictures processed. I have been shooting the good ones on my camera, and then I need to resize them into photoshop and send them to DW's phone, so that slows down my posts. For now...

 

Review – Jamie’s Italian for Dinner (Day 3 dinner)

Bottom line up front – excellent meal for the price point ($30 a head when we booked), with an emphasis on the mains. We rolled into Jamie’s Italian on night 3, continuing our food marathon. Unlike night 2, Jamie’s was only about half full. While the weather had started to warm as we neared the Med, it was not warm enough that they had their outside seating section open. :(

A quick review of the menu found somewhat weak appetizer courses (their big hitters are the meat and veggie planks, but the rest were a bit uninspired to me), an extensive pasta list, and a solid dessert list. We ended up going with a veggie plank for 1 (with the intent to share), and the baked mushrooms. The baked mushrooms, as you can see, were a big cheesy/bready combo, not a traditional baked mushrooms.

Our server advised they were good, but heavy, and she was right. The veggie plank was quite nice. On to entrees! We had elected the tagliatelle Bolognese and the prawn linguini. Both were outstanding. In particular, the pasta itself was excellent- very fresh and perfectly cooked. We both thought the Bolognese was the better of the two, but they were both delicious dishes. We also grabbed a side of polenta fries, which were crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside and delicious. For dessert, we went a bit off the beaten path with the Frangipane Tart, which is a spongy almond pastry torte. At this point DW had surrendered (which is rare, as she has a second stomach which is exclusively for desserts, but apparently it had been used for dinner tonight), but I was able to soldier on. I was glad to see that it wasn’t a “throwaway” dessert – as I imagine most people gravitate to the usual tiramisu / cheesecake options – it was actually well worth going with something different. So to reiterate – this was an excellent specialty dining meal. Thumbs up, would go again (And may go again). I’d likely be a bit pickier with what I ordered for appetizers, however.

 

I'll have a Gibraltar post later or tomorrow. We just finished an interesting (but not as awesome as Gibraltar) day in Cartagena, and of course that will come soon as well.

 

[UniPac]

1) You absolutely can book private lessons. I don't recall the price but will see if I can find out.

 

2) The way the slot works, about ~40 mins is prep, and then last ~20 mins is everyone flying. Everyone goes into the antechamber, and then goes in one at a time for their one minute. You can't leave until everyone is done. So assume your group is flying at the ~40 min mark. However, note that you don't fly high in the tube -- you're down near the bottom. They control the windspeed, so they keep it low (just at the point of easy equilibrium) for the beginners. In between every few people, the trainer who is handling you will do a few tricks and they crank it up for that. Also, most pictures are "head on". You don't really see too much background. Also note that based on that timing, you'll be in orientation when she's flying. So you won't be able to take pictures of her. They don't let you bring cell phones up. You'd need a third photographer.

 

Many many thanks, very much appreciated!

 

First thing is that i'm gonna move the sessions to allow more time inbetween. Second is I will wait if you can find prices on the lessons!

[Luv06012012]

Congratulations on your marriage and wishing you a continued great honeymoon!

 

I am love, love, loving your review! Thank you for taking the time to do it.

 

I love your sense of humor...you're cracking me up as I follow along.

 

Wishing you and the new Mrs. all the best!

[thejewgernaut]

Day 4 – Gibraltar

 

Solid land! At last! It had been so long! We were at the gateway to the Med, on a misty (Yet still warm) morning. We arrived a few hours early, which took us from a leisurely 11 AM docking to a 9 AM docking and an 8 AM wakeup call to meet our excursion group. Curse them, I wanted to party and drink. Oh well.

 

 

Since we're crazy and knew we'd be pretty lazy for two weeks, we decided to go for a sense of accomplishment and went with the Mediterranean Steps excursion (through RC). This involves hiking up the back side of the rock, on a narrow trail with a nice (likely lethal) fall into the Med if you slipped on the crappy, rocky trail (well, actually you’d probably bounce a few times and get shredded by the vegetation before falling to your death). The excursion notes warned that it was a tough, strenuous excursion, so we were appropriately ready. We packed multiple bottles of water. Both of us are in good shape (despite what you may believe based on our food orgy thus far), and were ready along with about 15 other brave souls. For a bit of history, the med steps were a path and series of lookouts that the Brits had set up in case Hitler invaded. They figured the difficult terrain would favor the defender, and in the future it would be entertaining and ironic that people would pay money to traverse what was originally designed as a **** death trap.

 

 

This excursion was simply fantastic. It was not easy. The climb wasn’t so bad actually, but the heat was extremely unpleasant. We had mist cover over the sun at times which made things much better, but you’re hiking up a rock in the scorching sun. I’ve got several pics from the hike itself – I wish I had taken more of the trail (you can see a few group pics) – but the majority of it was narrow paths and not so much the stairs you see at the end (the switchback stairs at the end were actually right before the top). Honestly I didn’t want to lose my camera gear (or my footing) and I was sweating bullets so I sorta dropped the ball on the photos of the trail. Plus, you don't want to be "that guy" who takes a picture and then falls off the rock. Kills the mood for the rest of the group and I haven't updated my beneficiary forms for DW since we just got married. The group took infrequent breaks – our guide was fantastic and said we can break whenever, but since it’s a one way narrow, single file trip, people just kind of rested when they needed to and we set a fairly punishing pace as a group. There were various caves and former lookout points from WW1 and WW2 along the way, as well as a variety of stunning views. No apes on the back side of the rock, apparently they’re smart enough to stick to the front side.

 

(top to bottom, left to right) The trail started out in vegetation, but quickly moved to bar rock. Top of the switchback stairs, looking down. Looking up at the rock. Again down from the switchback stairs. Looking up at switchback stars (note that the stairs were a safe place to shoot pics, so I did a lot there). On the trail on the rock. You can see it is single file, minimal side rails.

 

 

Once we made it up to the top – it was quite the feeling of accomplishment. My fitbit read about 2 miles and 76 flights of stairs worth of ascending to the top in 90 degree F heat. We really were delighted and it made it well worth the story.

 

 

 

(top pics) Shot from the back side of the rock, at the ocean with freighters. Shot from the back side, of the resorts/etc. Shot of the harbor, including anthem. (middle panorama) From Morocco (mountain in the distance) to the Anthem. (bottom pics) Morocco, ape, and the Rock as we sailed away (by DW).

 

 

 

From the top, we descended along the normal trail (paved roads with shade), stopping briefly at St. Michael’s cave for a rest, but not the cave itself. The taxi situation is a bit wonky, because the Rock is a nature preserve, you have to pay to get in, so you can’t just call a cab to leave the excursion early (at least easily). Else we would have ditched the group to do the caves (other excursions hit the caves, but we really wanted to climb this sucker). So we trudged back down to regroup. While at the rest area, we got some great pics of the apes, one of whom had filched a candy bar and was enjoying it. We were warned the apes would steal pretty much anything, so I was on guard. Endangered species or not, if they came for my stuff, I was ready to go toe to toe. Turns out they didn’t need my gear though, so interspecies conflict was avoided.

 

I would highly recommend this experience and excursion if you want a story to tell and enjoy the exercise. I would not do it if you’re out of shape. Several groups had kids, but I would only take kids if you know they are game for this sort of thing. There is no turning back on this excursion. Our guide noted that while Royal advertises the excursion (obviously), no one from RC has actually DONE it, which means any advice you’re getting on board is strictly based on the tour company’s info, and the fact Royal isn't as crazy as we are I guess. Again, that’s fine, they warned it was strenuous, but it was a little disconcerting to hear honestly. I do think it is worth it to arrange with the guide, since the guide knew the trail, was knowledgeable, and handled transport. If you're a DIY, you can probably manage it, but I'd only do that if you're very experienced in hiking and traveling.

 

 

Rolling back to the ship, we were disgustingly sweaty (this is a theme in the Med I am learning) and hungry, we grabbed a quick bite at sorrentos (typical sorrentos, about the same as any ship) and Café Promenade (the sandwiches thus far have NOT rotated and have been the same- they’re good, but other ships have more selection). Swapped clothes and relaxed at the pool before heading off to dinner at Coastal Kitchen. I’ll post the dinner review later. Preview is that it was a stronger showing than lunch, and a great “free” meal, but again, nothing that makes you overly envious of the Suite Life (i.e., it didn’t hit specialty dining level as far as quality.

[Nina Panda]

We are going on the Anthem on 15 August. Signed up for the meet and mingle - I should really get in touch with others on it as know you can chat before going. I am interested to hear where you will be visiting as I want some advice on Gibraltar in August and wonder whether you are going there and if the cable car queue will be horrendous and then we should take the taxi tour.

[Nina Panda]

Just seen that you have posted about Gibraltar!

[thejewgernaut]

Review – Coastal Kitchen Dinner

 

Post Gibraltar, we spent some time at the pool relaxing and cooling off and generally enjoying the afterglow of conquering the steps. Dinner was at Coastal Kitchen, which allows Junior Suite members to book as often as they choose. I was curious to see how it would stack up. One way CK spices up their bread is with a pita/cracker bread with tzatziki and eggplant dip, making it a bit different than the other venues and not offering the usual rolls. The pita was warm both at lunch at dinner, which is always nice. We decided to order a bit lighter, just one appetizer (zucchini stuffed with ricotta). We both were pretty happy with the choice. While not anything special, it was solid. I also should note our choice of just one appetizer for both of us shocked our server. Apparently if you are only ordering one appetizer at dinner, you get put on some sort of Cruise terrorist watch list for odd behavior. After we convinced her we were just full from snacking, she let us order the rest of our meal. DW went with tenderloin, and I went with the lamb. Again, both good choices. I was particularly pleased with the lamb, as the chops seemed to be a big higher quality than the typical MDR food, but the difference also could have been in the preparation. Coastal Kitchen has its own kitchen where everything is made from scratch, and the cooks seemed to know their business, so that lends itself to a better quality than typical MDR food. Finally, the dessert was tiramisu in a jar, so it was not a “traditional” tiramisu. It was probably the weakest of our pics. Not bad, just not special. The other desserts from lunch were also weak, so I would say dessert (and actually the cocktail list) are the weakest at CK, but the mains and bread are pretty good.

 

 

(left, then right, top to bottom) Bread, stuff zucchini, tiramisu, tenderloin, lamb chops.

 

 

 

Overall grade – a very good MDR experience, but as with lunch, nothing to wow you. That said, it definitely is a a half a step above the complimentary restaurants we’ve had from Royal (and our Grande meal this trip) in the past. We’ll see how that grade holds as we make our way through the other complimentary options this cruise.

 

After some light gambling, we called it an early night to prepare for Cartagena.

[thejewgernaut]

We are considering upgrading to a jr spa suite. Would it be possible for you to post a couple of pictures of your cabin. Have a great cruise and congratulations on your marriage. Thank you.:)

 

 

At last, pictures! These don't quite do it justice but should give you an idea of the space and the rooms.

 

Room from both sides, and the balcony.

 

 

Top two pics of this next one are the toilet/sink bathroom, bottom two are the bath/shower one. It's the same sink in the middle for the second bathroom with the showers, for point of reference.

 

[thejewgernaut]

Day 5 – Cartagena

 

We woke up early yet again and prepared to go on our Cartagena and Concepcion Castle tour. First a bit about Cartagena. Very cool city. Lots of historical buildings all over – every hill has a castle, there is a Roman theater (actual theater where Romans sang to each other) and a Roman Amphitheater (where Romans murdered each other, watched slaves murder each other, watched animals murder slaves, etc.), and other various ruins right up against new buildings. Oddly, they are trying to find investors for restoring the Amphitheater and thus far have not had any luck. The regular theater is a big museum that you can visit. The harbor is also a natural harbor (which is why Carthage and the Romans liked it) and an interesting S shape with the breaker walls (you can see in the pic below) that was fun to watch the Anthem maneuver through.

 

Our tour would cover Concepcion Castle and the Punic Wall and a little walking downtown. I have to admit I didn’t do great research on this stop, and that became apparent during the tour. Typically we book through RC for convenience and the “don’t miss the boat” factor, but I’m a fairly frequent traveler and not opposed to hoofing it. Since this was a “second tier” stop for us, we just booked it. Our tour was good – the guide was very knowledgeable. We went up to the Castle which had some stunning views of the city (captured below), although the exhibits were pretty meh. We could see the theater and amphitheater, so that was awesome and made me happy. The Punic wall was pretty meh, just a museum with a section of wall and a crypt. They made us watch a video about the history of the city that I thought was going to be really dumb, but actually ended up being pretty entertaining. The big thing that had me banging my head was the fact that all of these sites were very close to each other. For some reason I thought the castle was further out of town (as opposed to across the street from the ship) and booked the tour based on that. So bottom line – you can do all this yourself in fairly short order. Again, the tour was perfectly acceptable, but it would have been much cheaper and minimal effort for DIY. I also don’t know how you can tour (or if you can tour) any of the castles on hills, but those might be interesting.

 

 

top row - The harbor, the amphitheater. Middle row- panorama of the city, from the Anthem to a modern theater to a roman theater to the city. Bottom row - crypt skulls and main street.

 

 

After the tour, they took us to main street where people could go back to the ship, continue the tour, shop, eat lunch, etc. We decided to go back to the ship (it was yet again a bazillion degrees out), although we picked up a bunch of waters for our next leg at a supermarket for a bargain .35 euros per 1 liter (a bit cheaper than what Royal charges).

 

I’ll finish up the rest of this day later, but the short version was a very nice (but not worth the price) dinner at Chops, an awesome performance of “We Will Rock You,” and a late night of partying.

 

As a quick aside, we’re about to embark on a grueling part of the trip (Rome, Florence, Marseilles) so my updates will slow down, but I’m still keeping at this, and I hope everyone is enjoying it.

[VTSKIandCRUISEGUY]

It's so great that you're taking the time to give us all of this info, and in such a nice way.

 

Greatly appreciated.

 

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[vrock]

Thank you for the pictures and taking the time to post.

[Foody]

Fabulous thanks for taking the time! We join the ship the day you get off for two weeks, sad for you but exciting for us!

Enjoy every moment and thanks again.

[mandymac]

:) First of all Congratulations to you both and thank you very much for taking the time to post this review.

 

We are thinking about booking the 13 night Canary cruise in October, so hope you dont mind me asking, can you please have a wee look when you are passing the seaplex wether it gets used a lot for kids playing football(soccer) during your cruise, obviously dont go out your way just if you notice when you are passing that would be fab...

 

Loving this review so off to subscribe and thanx once again :)

[njmomof2]

Really enjoying your review and finally can see your pictures (I'm sure it was my server that was preventing me from seeing them).

 

Just booked Anthem for this Christmas from New Jersey. An outrageous expense, but it's probably my last vacation with both of my kids before my oldest heads off for college in 2016. I have been fairly ignorant of the whole DD concept, thinking by the time we sailed her I'd understand, so I like seeing what you're doing and the choices you've made.

 

BTW, what, exactly does your screen name mean? I find it so interesting.

 

Oh and Congratulations on your marriage!!!

[thejewgernaut]

:) First of all Congratulations to you both and thank you very much for taking the time to post this review.

 

We are thinking about booking the 13 night Canary cruise in October, so hope you dont mind me asking, can you please have a wee look when you are passing the seaplex wether it gets used a lot for kids playing football(soccer) during your cruise, obviously dont go out your way just if you notice when you are passing that would be fab...

 

Loving this review so off to subscribe and thanx once again :)

 

The seaplex alternates between 4 "modes" - bumper cars, roller skating, trapeze, and "seaplex" - the "seaplex" being sports mode. When it is in this mode, it is divided between football and basketball. They post the schedule so you can see what it is when. It is usually "seaplex" half the day, then rotating in the other options.

 

Tons of kids playing football when we've walked by.

[Madzulu]

Great review. Congratulations on your wedding. We sail the same itinerary 1 Sept and really appreciate your tips and sharing your experiences

[thejewgernaut]

Day 5 Evening

 

 

Day 5 Dinner review -- Chops. We have history with Chops. We liked it, and we’ve had some nice meals with good memories on other ships from years past (perhaps one of our favorite being when a shoe fell on the roof of the outdoor seating of the Chops on Oasis one year). But, as the price has increased, and the selection decreased, we’ve actually stopped going, electing other options. While the meal is good, it isn’t worth the price with other specialty dining options. But, as must complete the “Eat the Anthem” challenge, so we booked it.

 

We had seen the inside of Chops on Day 1 en route to the Prime Table, like the rest of Anthem, the room and ambiance was great. Service was fantastic as well, which has been consistent on the ship. We had decided we were going to go “baller” on this meal, and order a lobster. I was curious how the cold water lobsters would be, and we got shorted on our lobster in our Grande night since it was on the non-lobster menu. And it's our honeymoon, so bring on the up charge pleasures!

 

 

In order to make sure we got off that terrorist watch list we think the Coastal Kitchen waitress put us on for not eating enough, we ordered quite a bit – shrimp cocktail, scallops (I must note – these came with 3, not 2 like the pictures had, but I was a few cocktails in and DW was hungry so we forgot to take pictures again so we had to reconstruct things. Seriously you people need to appreciate what we're doing here, it is very hard to train yourself to photograph food before eating, plus we get a LOT of weird looks from people and explaining my live blog to them will make me seem even weirder), carpaccio, a beef short rib, a 9 oz. filet, a lobster, and sides (spinach, mashed, mushrooms). All of the food was excellent. No complaints on any of it – everything was properly prepared and food quality is good. Dessert was the mud slide (pictured) and a molten chocolate cake with bananas and coconut iced cream. The molten cake was the better of the two.

 

 

So – why my beef (pun intended) with Chops? For $39 cover charge, it just doesn’t justify the cost to me, particularly since the lobster was another $21 upcharge. While totally different cuisine, we got the same culinary pleasure from Jamie’s for far less. That’s not to say it’s bad. I just don’t think it is the value of some of the other options on the ship. We’ll likely go back to passing on it in the future again. Glad we went, but it affirmed that there are better options to have.

 

Following dinner, we were off to see We Will Rock You. To be honest, we were completely unfamiliar with the show, but excited nonetheless. One of my best friends in high school was a huge Queen fan and got me into them, so a show based on the music of Queen was primed for high marks. And it was a fantastic show. The leads were fantastic, the music fantastic, and the dancers excellent. I’m not a huge fan of musicals (major exception being Phantom, which is the best, but everyone knows that, and if you disagree, a Punjab lasso for you!), but DW is a fan, and we both loved every minute of it. Major props for the show. Very impressive production and up there with Hairspray as our favorite Royal productions thus far.

 

 

Following that, we decided to go gambling and then finally spent some major time in the Music Hall (it was in DJ mode). The Music Hall really is a fantastic venue – it is well designed, two stories, and two big bars. It was a little funny on the demographics – the vast majority of kids dancing were 16-22 or so, we were the “old people” on the dance floor in our early 30’s. The bulk of people are our age and older were at the bar proceeding to get hammered, which many on this cruise are doing (all the Europe cruisers get the drink package included and seem to make good use of it). We had a blast until 2 AM when we decided to have late night drunk pizza (for me) and late night sober pizza (for DW). We observed a rather inebriated fellow caress the pizza server's cheeks as he asked for pizza for himself and his date. I promised not to touch the pizza man if he gave us the good fresh pizza that just came out of the oven. He ended up giving us both the stale pizza and the fresh pizza -- I think he was scared of drunk people at this point and just wanted to be left along. After some well deserved pizza we called it a night.

 

 

I will try to get my next review up tomorrow or the day after of our Chic dinner and the next comedian. Off to Rome tomorrow to tromp around historical sites while avoiding being pick pocketed. Cheers all!

[hansolosmom]

Great review, absolutely love it. I'm looking forward to the Anthem, but I have quite a bit of time to wait

[KiwiGal117]

Seriously you people need to appreciate what we're doing here, it is very hard to train yourself to photograph food before eating, plus we get a LOT of weird looks from people and explaining my live blog to them will make me seem even weirder)

 

 

I will try to get my next review up tomorrow or the day after of our Chic dinner and the next comedian. Off to Rome tomorrow to tromp around historical sites while avoiding being pick pocketed.

 

Okay I admit I LOL'd. Family Thinks I'm nuts laughing at my iPad[emoji23][emoji23]

[mandymac]

The seaplex alternates between 4 "modes" - bumper cars, roller skating, trapeze, and "seaplex" - the "seaplex" being sports mode. When it is in this mode, it is divided between football and basketball. They post the schedule so you can see what it is when. It is usually "seaplex" half the day, then rotating in the other options.

 

Tons of kids playing football when we've walked by.

 

Thanx very much this will make a big difference to my mad on footie 13year old boy :)

[thejewgernaut]

Day 6 – At sea

 

A new day dawned, back at sea. We had a relatively calm day planned, a relief after two days of trekking around in the heat. However, we did have Puzzle Break planned, for which I was quite excited. Puzzle Break is one of those “puzzle room” games where you’re “locked” (not really, you can go to the bathroom and all that) into a room and have an hour to solve a variety of puzzles, including physical puzzles (like the kind where you want to make a picture), mental puzzles (crossword, Sudoku, etc), and the like. I don’t want to spoil it, but I will say this – our group destroyed it. We solved it in what is apparently a record 32 minutes. We had some extremely talented people on the team. DW and I had our moments and contributions (she crushed a Sudoku puzzle), but it really was the group who shined as a team. We communicated well and divided up things well. I HIGHLY recommend this, and it is free (at least as of this sailing). My theory was that since it was a 12:30 game, we were motivated to win as fast as possible so we could go to lunch.

 

Lunch was Devinly Decadence. I would rate it as “solid,” which by now is what you all know is my rating of food that gets the job done but doesn’t shine. I miss the gazpacho bar on the Oasis class solarium, but there were some dishes that were quite good, like the enchiladas.

 

 

The rest of the day was spent in the sun and going to the gym. I learned that deadlifting while at sea in 8 foot swells is not a great idea, as the ship lurched during my heaviest set. I will not be doing that again. After cleaning ourselves up, we headed for our usual pre-dinner drink and music. Whereupon I made a discovery for the Diamond (and up) crowd that I must share for the good of all.

 

As you Diamonds know, you get 3 coupons a night to use in whatever bar. The menu is set. However, the night prior, I had ordered a draught beer from Michael’s (good stuff, not the cheap stuff) and they said it was covered. I wasn’t sure if the bartender was being nice or what, so I asked a different one tonight what I could get off my Diamond coupon. His answer “Any beer up to $9.” The song “A Whole New World” from Aladdin sprung into my mind as I saw an offerings of craft and imported (well, I guess actually they’re domestic, or something, since we sailed out of the UK) delicious beers for $9 and under. I mentioned it to the Diamond Concierge Andrew (who, by the way, is AWESOME), and he said that it’s great to hear they were doing that, because in past sailing they had been jerks to his customers (delightful). Anyway, who knows if it will hold, but pass it on.

 

On to dinner! Tonight was Chic. Our second true DD experience. A few things to lead off with. First, we were seated next to two other 2 person tables. Many have said the seating is tight, and this was a much tighter fit than our previous table at the Grande. That said, we had lovely impromptu dinner companions who were all very nice. Second, and I’ll be posting more about this in another thread, two of the specialty cocktails on the Chic list weren’t available, and unfortunately they were the good ones. This made me grumpy. Anyway, on to dinner. I’ll start by saying again the bread was good (a consistent theme on the ship) and included tapenade dip. I really like the “little things” that customize each venue like the bread selection and dips. We started with bruschetta (tomato and mozzarella were quite good, but the bread was a bit hard), and a crab cake (a little undercooked but very meaty). Dinner was beef wellington, which is a big favorite of mine, which the waiter was a little leery of recommending and told me “I can swap it out if you don’t like it.” Despite the disclaimers, it was a pretty good dish. Nothing amazing, but it satisfied my craving appropriately. DW had gnocchi with parmesan sauce with bacon and spinach toppings. I thought the gnocchi were pretty rubbery. DW found them “fine” (which we’ll say is about a cut below “solid”). Dessert was chocolate banana bread pudding and chocolate torte. These were good. Definitely better than the desserts at Coastal Kitchen actually. So – overall, I would say this was a pretty normal MDR experience. Some hits, some misses, nothing disastrous. We’ll probably rebook our second Chic night into something else though.

 

 

 

Following dinner, we were off to another Comedian, John Evans. This one seemed to resonate better than the first. About half of the audience loved him, the other half was eerily quiet, which he kept mocking them for, to the delight for those of us enjoying him. Anyway, good show, nothing extraordinary, but did the trick. After donating more to the Royal Caribbean Casino College fund, we headed back into 270 which was hosting a “silent disco” – where everyone gets headphones and they could be tuned to either of the two DJs who were spinning. We’ve done these parties before and enjoyed them, what was particularly fun was that depending which of the DJs you were listening to, your headphones lit up blue or green. For fun, I’ve got a picture posted below.

 

 

We called it early (about 11) so we could sleep before our early morning Rome Excursion.

[thejewgernaut]

Day 7 – Rome

 

Our day dawned rather early as we got ready for our big Vatican and Rome day. We grabbed a quick breakfast at Devinly Decadence (it was solid again). We were determined to do a mega sampling of the sites and pack in as much as we can, favoring speed over all else. We did the express shuttle to Rome excursion through Royal, which essentially was paying a premium for coach service, private train, and return trip. Everything else was on your own. None of the other excursion hit all the things we wanted, or they made you eat at a restaurant they choose, and we didn’t want to be shackled to poor dining or being slowed by the group.

 

I had done extensive research for our blitzkrieg of the Holy See and surrounds. One of the challenges of the sites in the Vatican and Rome is that you can buy tickets, but they’re all timed. We didn’t know exactly when we’d get in, and a misplaced trip would cost us dearly – lines at all of the attractions are insane. Long story short, my timing worked, but I will at least convey to you what OUR trip timing was if you want a rough idea of how to time the trip for yourself. I also should note that you pay a premium on this trip ($90 pp) for a glorified transfer. However, with the mercurial nature of Italian transport (frequent train delays and constant strikes), I viewed the price essentially as trip insurance.

 

The excursion started at 8:40 (meet at 8:25 in the Royal Theater). We were on the train by 9:30, and it was about a ~40 minute ride to St. Peter’s train station right by the Vatican. Note a few things. First of all, my understanding is the size of the group determines if you get a train or bus. We had so many people it was an entirely chartered 5 car train—so that was taken care of. We had a few surprises once on the train. First, instead of the 6 hours the excursion advertised, we had just over 5 hours. This isn’t a huge deal, but when you’re packing a day in, it is frustrating (in the end this wasn’t a big deal due to the heat, but we’ll get to that later). Also, on the train, there were two offers which were not mentioned by Royal that the tour company was selling, both of which would be charged to your room (suggesting a relationship with Royal and that this could have been mentioned). First, you could do an immediate Vatican booking and skip the line with the company. I had already booked this for us, guessing we could make an 11 AM arrival(and it worked out – we got there at 10:45 but it was still a shot in the dark for 40 euro), but this would have removed our guesswork of what time to pick our timed entry for if I knew it was an option. Second, they offered tickets to the hop on hop off bus. This wasn’t as important to us, but still it was interesting. Now I can’t guarantee future cruises would have this, but I wanted to pass it on. A family next to us, for example, had booked 1 PM entry to the Vatican and abandoned their tickets to grab the 11 AM with the tour.

 

We ended up in Rome and off the train by 10:15. We quickly dashed through the horde of tour groups and bolted for the Vatican Museum, our first stop. We admired St. Peter’s Basilica and cringed at the line for it, shot a quick selfie in front of the various amazing artwork in the square. Once we got to the Vatican Museum, we saw there were two lines. One was insanely long and not moving and full of people who:

A) Had never heard of the internet and the fact everything in Rome and the Vatican has insane lines if you don’t book tickets ahead of time (we’re talking hour or longer queues here, skipped with a 5 minute google search) or

B) Maybe it was a convention of people who enjoy waiting in line in horrifically hot weather?

 

Anyway, we were quickly triaged by helpful staff into the line for advance tickets. After a 2 block walk (but rapidly moving) to the entrance, we were able to roll in with minimal delay, get our tickets, and commence museum appreciation. And that museum is HUGE and it is LONG. Like physically long. There was a 1 mile detour for the Egyptian collection (we saw part of it, quite amazing), in addition to all of the other works you’d expect. The Sistine Chapel was also breathtaking. As an aside, the dress code did not seem to be enforced for men, possibly because of the weather. Regardless, I was suffering in linen pants. Apparently the Vatican doesn’t believe in air conditioning for their awesome museum. Which makes me wonder where our 40 euro admission fee went but I digress.

 

 

After our successful hour and a half in the Vatican, we caught a cab to grab a quick lunch, gelato, and on to more sites. First, we picked up Roma pass cards from a PIT kiosk near Piazza Navona. Roma cards let you skip the line at the various attractions. While you pay a premium, given the fact we couldn’t do timed entry (we had no idea when we’d get to the Coliseum), we figured it was worth it since we were trying to do so much and to ensure our ability to see what we wanted to see. Time is money, and all that. We then got a bite from MAMI (near Piazza Navona) which had good reviews, and lived up to expectations. Neapolitan pizza, charged by the pound, we got 3 types of pizza and waters for 10 euro. Super fast and delicious. We swung by Ci Gusta! by the Pantheon for gelato to cool off (also delicious, but beware that google maps did not place it in the right spot)– by the way, did I mention that apparently Rome in summer is like the first layer of Dante’s Inferno? I mean seriously horribly hot. The fact that no one has air conditioning except the taxis (including the museums!) did not help things. Anyway, a quick swing by the Pantheon for a photo, we were off to the Coliseum by cab. Our Roma cards paid off, skipping another queue of people who haven’t figured out how the internet works. The Coliseum was remarkable, and besides the Vatican, the one we spent the most time at. A marvel of engineering and the cultural impact of the games and all their terrible glory for the Roman empire. It did not disappoint. We then did a quick walk over to the Forum. I wish we had spent more time there, but at this point we were getting seriously worn down from the heat and we needed to get back to the train station. The whole complex was outdoors and we were dragging and frying, so we bailed.

 

And this is when we got mildly ripped off by a taxi driver. We stumbled out of the forum (the exit being quite far from the entrance) and quickly found two taxis. At this point my core temperature had caused my brain to shut down and it was looking to achieve two core missions: 1) articulate that we need to go to St. Peter’s train station, NOT termini (DW and I had an issue with our cab driver taking us to the wrong Hilton in Southampton, we did not wish to re-enact that awesome experience) and 2) secure air conditioning. The cab driver assessed us, quickly decided we were stupid American tourists, and said something to the effect of:

 

“You are tired and hot and do not know where anything is! I will offer you a rate of 24 euro flat fee to take you to the train station, making good money off you by not using the meter and exaggerating the length of the trip to you to make you think this is all logical.”

 

My brain, focused only on missions 1 and 2, heard:

 

“I have this car. It has air conditioning. You will finally be comfortable after a day of sweating out your body weight. You also want to make sure you’re on time and I can get you where you’re going. 24 euros is a reasonable price!”

 

I quickly agreed. Once I got in the car and my brain began higher order thought as I cooled off, I realized that I was an idiot, should have demanded he use the meter. Anyway, it probably was a 15 euro ride, and I would have tipped him, so we probably only lost ~7 euro or so. I did not tip him and I made sure to let him know he secured a great rate from us, and he was still happy as a clam, and I felt better than I let him know I knew he ripped us off. So we all won! Or something. I also should note that another family back at the station mentioned a cab driver tried to scam them claiming there was a train strike and that he could take them back for cheaper. No surprise to anyone that Italian taxi drivers will try to play you, but they seemed to be amping it up on cruise boat day.

 

Anyhow, we got back to the train and found our group as 5 cars of RC guests streamed back for the return trip. Interestingly, one couple was missing from our group and they were abandoned (sorry kids, be on time). Not sure if they made the ship, but there were plenty of trains and the meeting time was 3 hours before all aboard so they probably made it.

 

Anyway, in summary – well run “excursion” of a transfer. You can blitz Vatican and Rome if you are aggressive in planning and with getting cabs. You could DIY it but you do have a major weakness in the train system to plan around. A wonderful day but the heat was really killer and exhausting.

 

I’ll post my dinner review tomorrow. We’ve got another early wake up (we’re actually crashing hard tonight, the sun really got to us both) for Pisa and Florence.

 

Ciao!