Anthem March 20th sailing

[suesnake2002]

A small review of our mask free sailing on Anthem of the seas March 20th -27 out of Bayonne. Better known as Cape Liberty. 

Covid test were done at a local medical facility. We paid $150. I heard of too many cancelations with CVS to try that route. And i don't trust wifi, living in rural PA. Always make sure you check your paperwork. They actually printed my husbands negative test twice. So glad i caught it!!

Our stops were pt caneveral (stayed on boat), coco cay, and nassau. We drove down and parked at port. We've done this before and super easy and convenient. We had a boarding time of 11am and were in a junior suite. We arrived at 10:05 am, unloaded luggage and parked. There was no seperate line for suites.But when I asked about it we were waved right in to check in. (Otherwise you were let in by time)Everyone sat together in rows of chairs. No social distancing here. MASKS are required in terminal, TSA rules. There is no separation by crown and anchor status. You basically board by how you arrived. We were the first ones on the ship at 10:31. While waiting to board in terminal you can hook up to ships wifi and start booking stuff. Although i could see by those around me some phones worked better than others. 

[suesnake2002]

One of our first stops after getting a drink was coastal kitchen. Being in a js we could eat dinner there. And the first night is filet. Capacity i believe was around 3,100. No one is there til 11:30 am. We had no problem getting a reservation. We were gonna eat main dinning room after that, but our wonderful waiter "Mo" insisted we eat there every night. So glad we listened to him. Food and service was outstanding. We are so spoiled. Mo was like Emilio in the movie Mr Deeds. Boom he was there always anticipating our needs. 

[suesnake2002]

I make spread sheets. I plan out what we want to do, and shows we want to see. Then i get on the boat and everything goes out the window. We meet great people. Start talking and socializing and drinking and our vacation just starts to happen. 

One thing I read on cruise critic was that staff wasn't allowed to leave the ship with covid protocols. And people made care packages. We made a care package for our room steward. Tooth brushes and paste, deodorant, body wash, body loofa, shampoo. Stuff like that. I believe cash is king and we tipped what we normally would at the end of the week. 

We were so touched by his reaction. He started to tell us that his grandma said if you do good, good will come back to you. Then he broke down and started crying. So if your thinking of doing this, I encourage you to do this. Sometimes it is the littlest of things that can impact peoples lives in a big way. 

Now back to our plans. We did see Spectras Caberat, and Frankie and the dreamers. We enjoyed both shows. We will rock you was cancelled. Now to address the covid in the room. Our cruise director had covid, and supposedly we will rock you some cast had it too. That is why it was cancelled. By the time we left the ship i believe it was orange. 

Although when we were planning our cruise, we were gonna wear masks indoors. When we got onboard we ditched them. Of course we had our shots and was even boosted. From another page of a group of 500. 3 posted positive after the cruise. Just to put it in perspective number wise. No need to panic. Most went maskless, with staff required to wear them. 

[LuCruise]

Good review so far.  We just got off Anthem 2 weeks earlier.  Joff the CD was there for half of it.  When introducing one of the shows, he noted his voice was funny (didn't notice).  Then he was gone and the activity manager introduced the shows going forward.  We were fortunate to have seen WWRY (twice) and Spectra so I guess it happened quickly after that.

 

We did wear our masks when inside but that's because we are Canadian and needed to be able to return home.  We saw a bit of both.  3 cases out of 500 isn't a lot.

 

That is so thoughtful how you brought items for the crew...and very touching reaction.  They really do work hard (to make cruises great for us) and are wonderful.

Edited March 29, 2022 by LuCruise

[Biker19]

16 minutes ago, suesnake2002 said:

We will rock you was cancelled.

The first show went as scheduled.

[Sunshine3601]

24 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

The first show went as scheduled.

We're you onboard last week?    We are still onboard and so happy to be doing this b2b.    

[suesnake2002]

33 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

We're you onboard last week?    We are still onboard and so happy to be doing this b2b.    

Yes we were. Haven't done a b2b "yet"  Had our first one scheduled for 2020. We know how that went. 

[Biker19]

34 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

We're you onboard last week? 

Yes.

[Sunshine3601]

11 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Yes.

Shame we didn't get to meet.    We sure had some beautiful weather last week.      Yesterday was a bit chillier and a lot more wind than last Monday but today is gorgeous.

I keep trying to get on the complimentary North Star - missed out last week when our Son and his Fiance were onboard with us.    Tried this morning but had issues with the app and LA said there was a system problem and try again later.   Now it's all booked up for today.    Will try again tomorrow morning.   

[Sunshine3601]

14 minutes ago, suesnake2002 said:

Yes we were. Haven't done a b2b "yet"  Had our first one scheduled for 2020. We know how that went. 

We met in the Music Hall the night you had on Flamingo outfits.   🤩 Loved your outfits throughout the whole cruise.     You really need to do a b2b, we love them.

[LuCruise]

5 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Shame we didn't get to meet.    We sure had some beautiful weather last week.      Yesterday was a bit chillier and a lot more wind than last Monday but today is gorgeous.

I keep trying to get on the complimentary North Star - missed out last week when our Son and his Fiance were onboard with us.    Tried this morning but had issues with the app and LA said there was a system problem and try again later.   Now it's all booked up for today.    Will try again tomorrow morning.   

Fyi, we were able to get a free North Star session on Nassau day.  I looked at around 11am after returning from port.  I'm sure it changes week to week but just letting you know.

[Raemk]

Nice review and I wish we had met -- saw you around the ship and in coastal kitchen and you seemed like a ton of fun!   And darn I wish I had been here earlier and thought to bring care packages for the crew.   I did hear they are now allowed to get off in Bayonne and at least go to the local shops, but you can tell this has been hard on them.  This was one of the friendliest crew we ever sailed with.

[Jenglish711]

We were on last week (and are in the other group) too and had a great time! We saw you a handful of times in CK; We had our two kids so tended to try to eat earlier. Love the review bc with two under 10 we didn't do much nightlife or shows haha. 

Edited March 29, 2022 by Jenglish711

[Jasukkie]

I love your fun fashion sense. Do you sew your outfits?

[suesnake2002]

Weeelllll since it's already been brought up.... we dress up every night for dinner. I have to coordinate my clothes to hubby's. It was here on cc i first saw the flamingo suit. I showed hubby, he wanted it. The rest is history. We bought the flamingo suit and money suit at kohl's (online)  he has a flag suit he didn't wear. The rest are regular suits from various places. My flamingo dress was from amazon, that is also the place i got the crèche for underneath. Also were i can get scarves to match him. We do like to have fun and be silly, and a little tipsy. If you turn your noses up at our outfits, your not our kinda people. Those that give us thumbs up and such we will stop and have a drink,talk and yes pose for pictures. 

With the money suit we will buy million $$ candy bars and hand it out to the staff. Just part of the fun. We were also able to get some staff to put on my husbands jacket.

It is also nice to have staff remember you from before covid from another ship. And this shout out goes to Elvis in the schooner bar. Sorry about the sideways. I'm tech challenged. 

[suesnake2002]

4 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

We met in the Music Hall the night you had on Flamingo outfits.   🤩 Loved your outfits throughout the whole cruise.     You really need to do a b2b, we love them.

Ahhh the music hall and the perfect couple contest. That was alot of fun. And first time I participated in these sort of shennanigans. There is a video out there in the web. I actually had someone from the audience give me a champagne while the game was going on. I had finished the glass i came onstage with. I think they were enjoying our performance. We kicked butt on the timed games giving us the win. We showed them young whipper snappers. The prize was 2 rccl water bottles. Over the years we have collected these items, so we gave a water bottle to each of the other couples participating. We had so many laughs. 

[suesnake2002]

The guitar guy from the pub in hubbys jacket

[suesnake2002]

I'm gonna jump around a bit. Cococay. Love this place. We are beach people. This is the first time that we didn't book anything. I just wanted to get as much of the island in. And we literally walked the entire island. My last two times we booked a chill island cabbana, and a day pass to the beach club. I found the current strong at the beach club. Not dog paddle swimmer friendly. You book the club for the food. 

So let me start with the note to myself. Chicken sandwhich is only at the snack shacks. I love this sandwhich, and we had to hunt it down. 

It was a windy day, and the color coded flag set out in the chill beach area was yellow. Not a good day for doggy paddling. We brought snorkel gear but only hubby went. We explored the entire place. And ive decided if prices aren't too crazy i love the chill beach cabbanas. But i am not paying $800 for 2 people. So maybe a day bed next time. 

Oh i almost forgot. We arrived at cococay 2 hours late at 11:30. 

Pt caneveral was very late in restocking the boat. We left late. So that affected our arrival time. Bummer, but things happen. And we got to be on a cruise. 

 

In port canveral we stayed on the boat

[suesnake2002]

Food porn time. Butter pecan ice cream dessert. Ck

[suesnake2002]

Octopus appetizer. Best i ever had. So tender

[suesnake2002]

Formal night lobster and scallops. Ck

I'm making myself hungry. 

[suesnake2002]

Tuna,duck,flounder and tuna

[suesnake2002]

Like someone mentioned before the crew on this sailing was outstanding. The crew on all the ships are always very nice. It just really seemed like they were extra special nice. 

An example is hubby was looking for something in the windjammer. He stopped one of the workers and asked if they have any where would it be. She said she would get it for him. She went to another venue to go get it. I mean that is above and beyond. We don't usually ask for things. I mean there are so many choices in the windjammer. But hubby thought he just didn't see it. 

 

[suesnake2002]

We are 70's nite fanatics. Love the music , vibe, and dance. We go all out. And usually seen pulling people out of the sitting crowd to dance. Wigs and all our best night. Hubby has platform shoes with gold fish in the heels and he attaches lights to it. 

[suesnake2002]

This couple gave us a run for our money on outfits. And they definately won. What a bunch of classy  nice guys.