Live BLOG & PERISCOPE from Anthem of the Seas - Feb 6, 2016

[herdfans4]

Thanks Matt. We watched your sail away on periscope. Never used that app before and found it pretty amazing and now I am hooked on it. May even do one myself on board oasis in March. I am 1mom_md on periscope. Looking forward to following along with you this week.

[SDA1125]

What a awesome way to get updated on Periscope - thanks for taking the time to do this.

I will be going summer 2017 - this helps me tremendously - have a great cruise !

[maaaaattt]

Bolero's Drink Menu

 

I'll take pictures as I make my way around.

 

Edit: These look super blurry on my phone after I uploaded them. Let me know how it looks for you guys.

Edited February 7, 2016 by maaaaattt

[jonj]

Thanks for posting the print is too small to see -FYI

[LisaMM]

Hope you have great trip. I will be following you all week.

We are booked on Anthem in May, but I am seriously considering canceling due

to all negative reviews about food and service. So I am very eager to hear from you!

[Yorkvillain]

Your periscope from Wonderland was pretty funny. We could hear her loud and clear. ;)

[maaaaattt]

Your periscope from Wonderland was pretty funny. We could hear her loud and clear. ;)

 

 

I almost fell out of my chair. Sorry about that. LOL

 

Unlimited alcohol has it's downfalls. :-P

 

Hope my mother wasn't watching...

[Yorkvillain]

I almost fell out of my chair. Sorry about that. LOL

 

Unlimited alcohol has it's downfalls. :-P

 

Hope my mother wasn't watching...

 

Haha. Nothing to be sorry about. I got a good laugh out of it. Enjoy the rest of the night.

 

Oh, I had one request. Can you see if they open the roof this week at any point at the pool with the retractable roof? We were on the Quantum for nine days and they never opened it once even though there were a good 5 days or so when it was pretty hot out.

 

Thanks.

[maaaaattt]

 

Wonderland menu items...

 

...Are these pictures coming across ok? I'm using Tapatalk to upload from my phone.

[jonj]

[ATTACH]375560[/ATTACH][ATTACH]375561[/ATTACH][ATTACH]375562[/ATTACH][ATTACH]375563[/ATTACH]

 

Wonderland menu items...

 

...Are these pictures coming across ok? I'm using Tapatalk to upload from my phone.

 

They are very small and the menu from Bolero is too tiny to read

[maaaaattt]

They are very small and the menu from Bolero is too tiny to read

 

 

Thanks for letting me know. I'm going to try uploading through the website shortly to see if that makes a difference.

 

If that doesn't work, I'll have to forego pictures until I get back to my laptop.

[maaaaattt]

So I know everyone is questioning the food based on many reviews that have been popping up as of late....

 

Tonight we ate at Wonderland. I don't know how else to describe it other than to say it was amazing. The space was beautiful, the service top notch, and the food was as whimsical and delectable as you would imagine judging by the name of the restaurant.

 

Granted, everyone has been saying this is the best place to eat on the ship. Hopefully starting here on night 1 won't lead to disappointment throughout the week.

 

We signed up for a 4 night dining package ($95 p/p). We will be eating in the complimentary dining rooms on the nights that we don't have speciality reservations. I will definitely report my findings each day. But as I said earlier, lunch in the Windjammer this afternoon was exactly what I've come to expect on any Royal ship. So far, food is looking good.

 

We are calling it an early night tonight. Been going since long before the sun came up.

 

Looking for more Scopes and answers to the questions you guys have posted so far in this thread during tomorrow's sea day!

 

Signing off...

 

- Matt

[maaaaattt]

Hope you have great trip. I will be following you all week.

 

We are booked on Anthem in May, but I am seriously considering canceling due

 

to all negative reviews about food and service. So I am very eager to hear from you!

 

 

People's opinions of food are SO subjective. I'd hate to hear of anyone cancelling because of food alone. So far, the crew has been in very high spirits and everyone has been friendly and energetic. I've been getting good vibes all over the ship. Of course, if anything changes, you'll hear it here immediately.

 

The ship is really exquisite. I've been on every class and I especially love the older ships (my favorites were always Majesty and Enchantment). But even I have to admit, for what I've seen so far, Anthem feels like a throwback to the more traditional ships (having come after Oasis class) with some great bells and whistles.

 

I'll keep you posted. :)

[Alter Ego]

re: Wonderland - in your opinion, is it something you would do twice in one week? I've seen comments saying yes, but also others saying it's not worth it as you get so much from the menu in one seating.

 

Thanks for taking your time to do this review and scopes!

[maaaaattt]

re: Wonderland - in your opinion, is it something you would do twice in one week? I've seen comments saying yes, but also others saying it's not worth it as you get so much from the menu in one seating.

 

 

 

Thanks for taking your time to do this review and scopes!

 

 

I personally would not think to hit it twice in a week, as you do sample the majority of the menu in one seating.

 

They describe it as a culinary journey utilizing "small bites" and "big portions". I was absolutely stuffed at the end of the meal, and then they brought out three different desserts for the two of us.

 

Great couple of hours, but I don't feel compelled to do it again.

[maaaaattt]

Testing uploading through website...

[jonj]

still tiny - I think you need to save them to something like photobucket first and then post them here. At least that is how I have seen others do it

[maaaaattt]

Yeah, looks like only having an iPhone is going to make pictures hard to do this week. I'll take pics of all the menus and upload them when I get home next weekend.

Edited February 7, 2016 by maaaaattt

[whitshel]

[ATTACH]375560[/ATTACH][ATTACH]375561[/ATTACH][ATTACH]375562[/ATTACH][ATTACH]375563[/ATTACH]

 

Wonderland menu items...

 

...Are these pictures coming across ok? I'm using Tapatalk to upload from my phone.

 

They are really small. I used tapatalk on my live Oasis review a couple weeks ago and it worked really well.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2293377

 

Make sure you are using the reply, and not the quick reply then use the little image icon. The other thing that may be something to look at is make sure you use the pics from your phone and not icloud or any other internet photo site. I tested mine before we went and used google photos and the pics came out small, when I used the pics off my actual phone they were fine, tapatalk stores the photos on their servers.

[whitshel]

 

I used tapatalk for this.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

[Alter Ego]

They are really small. I used tapatalk on my live Oasis review a couple weeks ago and it worked really well.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2293377

 

Make sure you are using the reply, and not the quick reply then use the little image icon. The other thing that may be something to look at is make sure you use the pics from your phone and not icloud or any other internet photo site. I tested mine before we went and used google photos and the pics came out small, when I used the pics off my actual phone they were fine, tapatalk stores the photos on their servers.

 

What's the "reply" versus "quick reply" button? I don't use Tapatalk much, and I only see "Write a reply..." on the bottom of the page. Am I missing something?

[maaaaattt]

Good afternoon everyone!

 

So day 2 sea day has arrived. We woke up to an announcement from the captain that there is a major storm and that he would be doing his very best to "go around it" but keep us on target for our arrival in Port Canaveral tomorrow morning. So far there have been no changes to the itinerary or our arrival times.

 

We ate breakfast in the Windjammer. It was par for the course. Although pretty trivial, I found my first frustration. I had a craving for cherry vanilla Diet Coke. Windjammer has two Freestyle machines. One wasn't working at all. The touch screen was frozen. The other was completely out of almost every low calorie option. This forced me on a wild goose chase that found me in Sorrento's on deck 5 in the esplanade to get my fix. Suffice to say, I love my Diet Coke. :-P

 

The weather has unfortunately affected many of the options that people would consider on a sea day. There's no Flowrider, rock climbing or Ripcord and most everyone is packed into the glass enclosed pools at the front of the ship making it hard to even find a chair right now. The esplanade is standing room only because they're running sales on jewelry and seasonal apparel. I did find myself a cozy little spot near the library at 270 where I'm typing this and enjoying the panoramic views of the rough waters.

 

We kept tonight open and don't have any reservations for shows or dining. I wanted to be able to watch the Super Bowl. They're playing it on the big screen poolside, in the Music Hall and on stateroom televisions. After that, there is a Journey cover band onboard that I'll probably enjoy. As for dinner, I may actually do something I've never done on any cruise and eat buffet style for once.

 

There hasn't been much news on when the weather will clear up, but as I said on my Periscope broadcast this morning, bad weather on a cruise kicks being at work's butt any day.

 

Send me on a chase, guys. This is the perfect day to explore the ship. I'll be glad to take suggestions for where to broadcast live from or hunt down some answers for you all.

 

- Matt

[Alter Ego]

Good afternoon everyone!

 

Send me on a chase, guys. This is the perfect day to explore the ship. I'll be glad to take suggestions for where to broadcast live from or hunt down some answers for you all.

 

- Matt

 

A popular question that has come up is where to sign up for Puzzle Break. Some people find it difficult to find and others say there's just a board to sign up somewhere near Seaplex. Would help me in knowing where to go...:)

[whitshel]

 

Now this is the android version . The apple version may be different

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

[kelly0525]

Matt quick question. You said you paid $95 for 4 specialty restaurants, can you choose the ones u want or they assign it to you ? Thanks.