Anthem of the Seas - Review - Bermuda & Caribbean - June 20, 2019 - June 29, 2019

[Noreen411]

Day 9 Compass and Planner

 

[Noreen411]

Day 9 Compass and Planner

 

[Noreen411]

Sorry - had some trouble posting the compass and it looks like it posted twice above...

[Noreen411]

Friday 6/28/19 - At Sea

 

We both went to the gym this morning, but later than we normally go.  We didn’t go until about 8:15.  I guess all this vacationing is catching up to us.

 

After the gym we walked the track.  We changed up our routine a bit and I headed down before Scott and he continued walking the track.

 

I stopped at the Patisserie for my iced white mocha and bottle of water then headed back to the cabin to shower and change.

 

Scott also stopped at the Patisserie when he finished; in addition to his normal capuccino he got two macaroons - Pistachio and Raspberry Poppy.  They packed the macaroons in a little “to go” container for him.  Good thing since we ended up not eating them and taking them home with us.  He showered and changed once he got back to the cabin.

 

 

 

We went to the Culinary Delight show in 270 at 11:30.  They chose various guests to come down and decorate a cake working in teams.  A winning team was chosen.  It was a cute idea but was over pretty quickly.

 

They also had a cake that people could eat (not the ones the guests were touching/decorating).  We didn’t have any of the cake, but I took a picture.

 

We skipped breakfast today so had lunch at Cafe 270.  We had roast beef sandwiches, pasta salad, and a strawberry scone.  We are enjoying lunch at 270 pretty often this trip.  

 

We stayed for the Captain’s Corner at 1pm.  The captain has a good sense of humor.  This event could be interesting but it depends on the questions that the audience asks.  Unfortunately, we had a bunch of boring questions asked.

 

We went to the casino for a little while.

Edited August 4, 2019 by Noreen411

[Noreen411]

Friday 6/28/19 - At Sea - Continued

 

We walked around on deck 14 and walked into the Solarium.  We stopped for smoothies from the Solarium bar.  I had mango and Scott had tropical.  They were good but they were very sweet so we ended up not finishing them.

 

 

 

We went back to the cabin to pack.  

 

Our laundry was delivered.  All the stuff that Scott managed to stuff into the one little plastic bag yesterday came back folded in two full paper bags.  Below is the bags as they were delivered and then all the clean laundry that came out of them.  You can stuff a lot into those bags.  

 

We showered and changed then headed down to the casino.  We stopped at the Casino Bar.  I asked to be surprised with something sweet, fruity, and not too strong and they made me a Malibu Bay Breeze.  Scott had a gin and tonic.

Edited August 4, 2019 by Noreen411

[Noreen411]

 

Friday 6/28/19 - At Sea - Continued

 

We had dinner at Coastal Kitchen.

 

 

 

For appetizers I had the escargot from the always available menu.  Scott had the Hamachi Crudo and a shrimp cocktail.

 

For our entree I had the sesame crusted tuna over cauliflower fried rice.  This was one of my favorite dishes on prior cruises but it wasn’t that great tonight.  The tuna was a little over cooked and the rice was just OK.  Nothing was wrong with it, but it’s been outstanding in the past.

 

Scott had the lamb shank.  We also had the saffron linguine to share.

Edited August 4, 2019 by Noreen411

[Noreen411]

Friday 6/28/19 - At Sea - Continued

 

Tonight’s question of the day was fun.  I don’t remember exactly how it worked, but we had to pick various numbers and he listed them and then numbers were added.  He wrote a different number on the other side of the paper and that’s what everything would add up to.   Amar walked away to do some other things while we were looking at the paper.  It worked as expected, but Scott decided to tease him a bit so he changed the number on the back of the paper.  Another table near us were given the same question of the day and they were in on the joke.  When Amar came back and asked what the number was and to open the paper expecting to see the number, he was shocked that it wasn’t.  He was like a deer caught in headlights.  We started laughing and so did the other table and then he realized we played a little trick on him.  It was all in good fun and everyone got a kick out of it.

 

For dessert, Amar asked if we wanted red velvet cake so we accepted that offer but only wanted 1 piece to share.  We were pretty full already.

 

 

 

We hugged and said our goodbyes to Amar and Rueben.  We really enjoyed having dinner at Coastal Kitchen each night and getting to know them.

 

We went to the farewell show which we enjoyed.

 

We went to the casino.  I had to switch my certificate since it was the wrong one.  They delivered them to the cabin earlier which was nice.  Scott’s was correct - he earned a free balcony cabin.  Mine was for a free interior, but since they printed it early and I was still playing, it should have been a free OceanView.   The casino host quickly changed mine.  Often the sailings listed for free don’t work with our schedule so we end up using the dollar value off for a cruise we choose.  It’s not the best bang for your buck, but it’s always nice to get something back from the casino.

 

We played a cute Haunted Mansion penny game since it made a lot of noise.  A lot lower stakes then we usually play, but it was fun.  

 

We put the luggage out before 11pm.

 

We headed back to the casino to play a little more of our regular games.

 

We went up to the cabin around midnight.

Edited August 4, 2019 by Noreen411

[Noreen411]

Departure Information

 

 

Edited August 4, 2019 by Noreen411

[Noreen411]

Saturday 6/29/19 - Disembark - Bayonne NJ

 

We were still sailing when I looked out on the balcony around 6am.

 

I watched us go under the Verrazano Bridge.  It’s much more fun/exciting seeing the bridge at the beginning of the trip.

 

 

 

We showered and got dressed.  We didn’t go to the gym on the ship today.

 

We packed our last minute stuff.

 

We had breakfast in the dining room.

 

I had French toast with sausage.  I forgot that I should have asked for the strawberry sauce on the side.  It’s a bit of a mess in the plate this way.

 

Scott had pancakes and sausage.

 

We were finished with breakfast around 7:30.

 

We stopped by the Patisserie and waited for them to call numbers to get off the ship.  There was a board there that showed which numbers they were up to.

 

We were off the ship a little before 8:30.

 

As we were walking into the terminal where all the luggage is a porter was walking over asking if anyone needed a porter so we quickly grabbed him.  We got our luggage, were quickly through customs, and the porter walked us to where Scott should pick up me and the luggage.

 

 

 

We were home a little before 10.  Cruising out of Bayonne is so easy.

 

We played with the cats who were excited to see us after giving us the cold shoulder for the first 5 minutes we were home.

 

We unpacked and got the laundry started.  The rest of the day was spent with the usual chores after vacation like sorting mail.

 

We didn’t want the birthday vibe for Scott to end so we went out to dinner at a local seafood restaurant.  Before we left for the cruise I got a Carvel Ice Cream Cake for him and hid it.  When we got home and I took it out, it was really frozen.  Scott used an electric knife to cut it.  I gave him the rest of his birthday presents.

 

Scott kept saying this was his best Birthday ever.

Edited August 4, 2019 by Noreen411

[MadamG2U]

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this,  Glad Scott had a good birthday!

[Noreen411]

Final Thoughts

 

This was another great cruise on Anthem.  We really enjoy the ship and the convenience of cruising from Bayonne.  Since we have been on the ship several times already we don’t feel like we have to see and do it all each time.  We were pleasantly surprised by St Maarten and Labadee this trip.

 

I will be sad to see Anthem leave Bayonne even though it’s only temporary, but it will give us a chance to try another class of ship right out of Bayonne too.

 

If anyone has any questions/comments about Anthem or cruising just let me know.  I love to talk about and plan trips and enjoy helping others with their trips.

 

I think I have convinced Scott that birthdays are fun and hopefully he doesn’t hate his anymore.

 

Noreen

[cherylroslyn]

On 7/28/2019 at 6:19 PM, Noreen411 said:

I found my floating thing...I was close on the name, it’s a Papasan

 

 

LOL I looked up the name you gave and I got an assortment of Indian chips and crackers.....then I added float to the name and it was able to figure out what I wanted!!!!  I am completely loving your review.  I started a while ago and then I was hooked and couldn't find updates....I figured I'd give it a rest and come back searching.  Now I sat here reading it for an hour!!!!!!  Wonderful job!!!!!

[barb65]

On ‎7‎/‎21‎/‎2019 at 11:36 AM, Noreen411 said:

Friday 6/21/19 - At Sea - Continued

 

We showered and got changed for the evening.

 

Even though it’s not his birthday yet, I had Scott pose with the decorations.

 

 

 

We saw another funny animal picture in the elevator - an Elephant.

 

We wanted to get some pictures taken by the photographers by the Wonderland Chair. We had a great shot taken on our February cruise there.  We were off with our time.  We thought our phones/Fitbits would change time automatically but they didn’t.  We were wondering why the photographers weren’t at the chair since a sign said they would be.  We asked a guest to take a picture for us.  We also asked what time it was and it was an hour later than we thought.

 

Such a nice-looking couple! Enjoying your review. We are sailing on Symphony in February 2020 also in a junior suite. First time on Royal Caribbean for us. Hope we won't be disappointed.

[maggieq]

We enjoyed sailing out of Bayonne.  Looking forward to going back on oasis when she comes to Bayonne in 2020. Not crazy about the itinerary but stopping at coco cay would be good I’m sure. Will you be cruising out of Bayonne before anthem comes back from Europe?

Edited August 4, 2019 by maggieq

[Noreen411]

On 8/4/2019 at 4:12 PM, cherylroslyn said:

LOL I looked up the name you gave and I got an assortment of Indian chips and crackers.....then I added float to the name and it was able to figure out what I wanted!!!!  I am completely loving your review.  I started a while ago and then I was hooked and couldn't find updates....I figured I'd give it a rest and come back searching.  Now I sat here reading it for an hour!!!!!!  Wonderful job!!!!!

Thank you for the kind words - I enjoy writing these reviews.  

That’s pretty funny that my original misspelling of the float was crackers LOL

[Noreen411]

On 8/4/2019 at 5:21 PM, barb65 said:

 

Such a nice-looking couple! Enjoying your review. We are sailing on Symphony in February 2020 also in a junior suite. First time on Royal Caribbean for us. Hope we won't be disappointed.

Thank you

 

I’m sure you will have a great time.  

 

Feel free to ask any questions  and I’ll do my best to answer.  I haven’t been on Symphony myself yet, but have been on several of the other Royal Caribbean ships

 

Noreen

[Noreen411]

On 8/4/2019 at 7:57 PM, maggieq said:

We enjoyed sailing out of Bayonne.  Looking forward to going back on oasis when she comes to Bayonne in 2020. Not crazy about the itinerary but stopping at coco cay would be good I’m sure. Will you be cruising out of Bayonne before anthem comes back from Europe?

Hi.

 

Cruising from Bayonne makes the whole getting on and off the ship days so easy.

 

We’ll be on Anthem again next week for the short 5 night to Bermuda cruise.

 

I am super excited to cruise on Oasis right from Bayonne.  I agree the itinerary isn’t that great, but the ship will have finished getting it’s renovations so should be a lot of fun.  I have two sailings booked on Oasis.  Scott has always wanted to try a small ship so I also booked a sailing on Empress when that ship is in Bayonne next year too.

 

Noreen

[sdrocks]

I'm late reading this, but enjoying it immensely.  We sail on Anthem B2B in October and am chomping at

the bit to get cruising.  We took it up a notch and booked an Owners' Suite for a change of pace.  It's our 75th (husband) 

and 70th birthdays so thought we'd splurge more than usual.  

[Noreen411]

1 hour ago, sdrocks said:

I'm late reading this, but enjoying it immensely.  We sail on Anthem B2B in October and am chomping at

the bit to get cruising.  We took it up a notch and booked an Owners' Suite for a change of pace.  It's our 75th (husband) 

and 70th birthdays so thought we'd splurge more than usual.  

We have never done a B2B before, but would love to do it someday.

 

Happy Early Birthday to both of you.  B2B in an Owner’s Suite is a great way to celebrate.

 

If you have any questions about Anthem (or cruising in general) I’ll do my best to answer.

 

Have a great trip

 

Noreen

Edited August 7, 2019 by Noreen411

[donnabonna]

Noreen,

 

Sailing with you on Anthem on Saturday. Just found out I won my low bid on a junior suite. I guess I will be seeing you in the casino and Coastal Kitchen after all. I have to reread your details about Coastal before we sail again to get some tips! Thanks for the detailed review and getting me excited for Saturday. See you on the ship!

[Noreen411]

58 minutes ago, donnabonna said:

Noreen,

 

Sailing with you on Anthem on Saturday. Just found out I won my low bid on a junior suite. I guess I will be seeing you in the casino and Coastal Kitchen after all. I have to reread your details about Coastal before we sail again to get some tips! Thanks for the detailed review and getting me excited for Saturday. See you on the ship!

Congratulations - that’s great that you won your bid.  

We usually try to have dinner in Coastal Kitchen around 7pm.

And we’ll be in the casino each night.

Definitely come find us

Noreen

[donnabonna]

I assume we have to make reservations at Coastal Kitchen each night?

[donnabonna]

Do you know how a Spa Junior Suite is different from a Junior Suite? Do we get spa access as well? I have been trying to find the

answer on RCL website and doing a search on CC but have not been successful.  Thanks for your help.

[Noreen411]

Just now, donnabonna said:

I assume we have to make reservations at Coastal Kitchen each night?

We usually do to make sure we can eat when we want to.  We also will ask for our favorite waiter’s section.  He was on vacation during our last trip but think he may be back this time.

 

We stop by the first day and make our reservations then for the whole trip usually.  They are pretty flexible if you need to change your plans

[Noreen411]

1 minute ago, donnabonna said:

Do you know how a Spa Junior Suite is different from a Junior Suite? Do we get spa access as well? I have been trying to find the

answer on RCL website and doing a search on CC but have not been successful.  Thanks for your help.

Good question.  I don’t think you get anything special for the spa junior suite related to the spa.  Maybe that’s why they renamed it since it’s confusing.  We’re trying a Spa Junior Suite this upcoming cruise too since our favorite J1 type (the one with large balcony) wasn’t available.  I will email my TA and ask but don’t think we get anything extra.