Anthem of the Seas 1/5/20-1/16/20: photo review

[allisonb22]

Sorry for the delay in posts, the semester started this week so I've been busy with school 😞 

 

Day 4- San Juan

 

We woke up and knew we wanted to try the Flowrider. We weren’t docking in San Juan until 3pm so we had the morning to enjoy the warm weather on the ship. We wanted to have breakfast in the MDR but overslept so we went to breakfast in the WJ. We got awesome seats outside. After breakfast we did a little shopping on board and got some new sunglasses.

 

We went to the Flowrider to watch the stand up surfing and waited for the boogie boarding session. We all went on to boogie board while my parents watched. It was fun. We got the wrist bands to let us try the stand up surfing but every time we looked and were going to go back, we decided not to or something else came up that we wanted to do. We got some good videos and pics of each other. The line was really short so we all went a few times. Afterwards, I went to shower and get ready to get off the ship once we docked. 

 

Once I was ready I went to the Seaplex to watch my sister try the trapeze. That was cool to watch. They told us on the first day to get there early because it was really popular. I don’t remember the times or specific days but I do remember there only being three sessions throughout the whole cruise. It was fun to watch and she had a good time. 

 

 

I was really excited to be docked next to Oasis.  I was more excited when I saw that we were docking next to her than I was for the port at all. We had just booked Oasis for Summer 2021 so I couldn’t wait to see her and Anthem side by side. Its crazy how much wider she is.

 

 

 Once we were cleared to get off the ship, we waited a bit on board so we could avoid the rush to get off. We didn’t have any excursion planned so we weren’t in any hurry. We’ve been to San Juan before and didn’t have anything we really wanted to do, so we planned to just walk around a little and go to Senor Frogs. We saw these pretty birds people were taking pictures with but none of us were brave enough.

 

 

We got back on the ship and caught a nice sunset. We sat outside for a while and then were heading to the North Star bar to get a drink and we were asked if we wanted to ride the North Star because a couple wanted to go up but they needed a certain amount of people (I think they may have said 6?). All six of us decided to go because we thought it’d be cool to see Oasis from above (when would we get the chance to do that again!??) and to do the North Star at night in port. It was so cool. This time it was a much smoother ride than a few days before. Then we went to get ready for dinner. It was a quiet night in the MDR because all aboard wasn’t until 10:30pm. After dinner we went outside and watched Oasis sail away and waited a bit to watch our sail away and then ended the night in the casino. We went to bed fairly early to get ready for our beach day in St Maarten.

 

[allisonb22]

Day 5- St Maarten

 

Today is St Maarten! We've been to this port before but picked a different excursion so we were all excited. Last time we took a water taxi across and did some shopping. This time we all wanted to go to the Airport beach (Maho Beach) so thats what we picked. We had to meet in the theater for 10 or 10:15. I know we got there early and we got off the ship as a group well before that time. (I don't know if it was because everyone was there already or if they were expecting a large group, I'm not sure.. but we got off well before the meeting time). There were a few ships docked as well (I think 5 total). I was excited that we docked next to Oasis again!

We waited on the dock just off the ship for a bit. Then we made our way over to where the buses pick up for excursions (I assume taxis too). Half of the group got on the first bus but it filled so we had to wait for ours. Well, we waited in line for 30+ minutes. The tour guide explained that it was election day and they were experiencing a lot of traffic so our bus was delayed. Not a huge deal but we were excited to get to the beach so needless to say I was a little restless. We were supposed to be at the beach by 11:15 but we didn't even leave the port until around 11:30.  It's a ~30 minute ride from the port to the beach but we didn't arrive until 12:20 because of all the traffic. 

 

Once we got to the beach it was PACKED. Like, barely space to walk on the beach, let alone set up towels or rent beach chairs and umbrellas like the excursion said would be offered. It was SO busy. Besides the mobs of people everywhere, the beach was beautiful! Watching the airplanes right above our heads was so cool and the weather was perfect. We went up to the bar/grille area which was nice. I think it was called Sunset Grille. I wasn't hungry so I didn't get anything to eat but we had a few rounds of drinks which were good. One thing I've never seen before was that there was a woman outside the bathroom collecting money. You had to pay $1 to use the bathroom! I thought it was nuts because I've never seen that before but after a quick google search it seems its common in parts of Europe? Interesting. I never would have thought, haha. 

 

We had to meet back at the bus for 3:00 local time (which was also ship time because we changed our clocks on one of the first nights). We didn't have a whole lot of time on the beach which kind of sucked because we expected a full beach day but it wasn't anyone's fault. The traffic getting back to the port was crazy too. It took over an hour to get back. We weren't nervous about getting back because the excursion was booked through Royal so even if we were late the would have waited for us. I don't think we cut it close on time though (I don't remeber what time all aboard was..).

 

When we got back to the ship we all went to our rooms to shower and get ready for dinner. I took a nice nap before dinner too. When we were getting ready I saw on twitter that Royal's meterologist tweeted about the high winds coming. I didn't think too much about it because no one on the ship was saying anything so I just brushed it off. 

 

 

We went to dinner and then after we spent some time outside. I went up to the library area on the second floor of two70 to use the computer. We had to meet around 8:15 the next morning for our catamaran excursion in Antigua so we called it a night pretty early. I was sooooo excited for the next day so we didn't mind going to bed early. 

 

[sellwingri]

I’m really enjoying your review. Anthem is my favorite ship; I sail on her again in 14 days.

 

It’s a shame that Maho Beach is now so commercialized.  The first time we went there at least 15 years ago, it was empty.  There were no more than 10 people on the beach.  We’ve been there several times over the years and still love it but it’s lost some of it’s uniqueness.  

[allisonb22]

10 hours ago, sellwingri said:

I’m really enjoying your review. Anthem is my favorite ship; I sail on her again in 14 days.

 

It’s a shame that Maho Beach is now so commercialized.

thanks for following along! i agree. its less exciting because of all the people. still a cool place but i don't know if i'd be in a rush to go back...