jbr5049

My wife and I are in our late 20's and have sailed multiple times in the past. After welcoming our son to the world 6 months ago, we decided we needed a vacation to celebrate. So we decided on the March 17th, 2018 7 night from Bayonne to Port Canaveral to Coco Cay to Nassau to Port Canaveral.

We had sailed Anthem in 2017 when my wife was in her 2nd trimester, an uneventful trip from Bayonne, to Bermuda to Boston. I did a review on this one, so feel free to check my profile if you want to read it.

We booked a D5 Superior Ocean View Balcony for about $2300 plus $300 OBC for Dad, Wife, and Baby (Did not include Gratuity). We opted for Traditional Dining @ 5:30 each night, and booked all of the main shows in advance. The wife and I also opted in for the Ultimate Beverage Package for a little more than $800 all said and done. Typically we opt fo premium dining, but because we were sailing with the 6 month old, we did not pre-book any specialty dining. We got a free specialty dinner from our Travel Agent, so we decided to book on board.

Depending on how much you ride even with the price of the bike and the monthly service you make out ahead compared to soul cycle classes. At least you get a free shirt on your 100th ride!

We are skipping the treadmill, nothing really groundbreaking with that thing, and if I remember correctly it is like $3000-$4000?

We are Pelo-snobs. I guess when we spend $2500 on a bike you get spoiled!!

 

Who else preordered the pelo-tred???

 

 

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We did this class last year on Anthem. If you do spin classes regularly or have Peloton you might be disappointed. The music was upbeat, but the instruction left a lot to be desired it felt as though they were just going through the motions without any real intensity or encouragement. Of the 3 classes, we had 2 different instructors, but only 2 different sets of music, so class 3 was the same set of music as class 1. The room is small even compared to typical spin classes, you are INCHES away from one another, get there early and grab a corner spot if you want to have some personal space.

Peloton shoes use a delta look cleat, these will NOT work on the bikes on Anthem, you need SPD shoes if you want to "Clip In". You can use your sneakers with a toe cage on the other side of the pedals, but everyone in our group had great difficulty securing these properly, mind you both couples have Peloton bikes at home.

The room was indeed locked when not in use and did have signage stating that this area was only to be used during instruction.

If you have a Peloton at home or do soul cycle or any other spin class my suggestion is to miss these. The lack luster instruction and 90's tired techno beats will do little to push you into having a great workout. Use the cardio equipment on the ship or run on the track outside before the "walkers" crowd the space (The track narrows as you hit the aft of the ship near the seaplex on both sides, lounge chairs leave you with with little clearance and little space to overtake those moving slowly)

The obstructed balcony:

We were cabin 6584 which is classified as an Obstructed Balcony. Deck 6 Mid Ship balconies have either a Davit or a Life Boat restricting the view out from the balcony. They are also 1 deck above the life boat loading zones which is a guest accessible area which allows you to almost walk the length of the boat on port and starboard sides.

We saved about $150 total selecting this option as opposed to a D8 balcony. We had the lovely view of a yellow lifeboat for about 40% of our view, the other 60% was some ocean, but mainly the sky. This means that at night you cannot look down and see the ocean reflecting from the light of the boat or the moon. You also will have light from the deck 5 walkways reflecting against the lifeboat and into your room at night unless the curtains are closed. You will also get a decent amount of noise from people sitting, walking, or hanging out down there. Sadly we only spent one late night eating Sorentos pizza out there, the noise and light were enough to spoil the experience. In the future we will pass on the marginal savings and go for an unobstructed view and experience.

The rest of the room:

Aside from the balcony, the room was wonderful. The layout works well, and as noted in other posts you can see the ocean from the round tube shower (No shower curtains here!). There are no soap dispensers in the shower, instead you get shampoo, conditioner, and body wash in independent travel size tubes. The TV is mounted to the wall and much larger than we have experienced on other ships. I would estimate the size was in the 30-42 inch range and was a welcome surprise. The safes are numeric (no card swipe here). When you walk into your room for the first time you will notice that none of the lights or HVAC will work until a card is inserted into the small holder outside the bathroom. This is an energy saving feature hoping that people won't leave the lights on or run ac when you are outside of your stateroom. Just bring an old card with you and you can leave it in there the entire cruise. I happened to have some business cards so I put 2 together and it was enough to trick the system. You obviously could use a credit card, but leaving that out is probably not a good idea.

There is TONS of storage in the room, and the beds are raised to have multiple large suitcases stored underneath them. Our refrigerator came empty and other than 2 bottles of evian water there were none of the impulse snack items you see on other ships. You can lock your refrigerator with a numeric combination if you so choose. The outlets at the desk/vanity area have 2 usb ports, but the other outlets are the standard 3 prong used in the US. The room felt very clean and modern. There was limited "Wear and tear" in the room which emphasized the youthful feeling of sailing on a newer ship. We never heard either of our neighbors, and there was no noise bleed from the esplanade below.

iFly:

I showed up 15 minutes early for my appointment, but they were taking guests up until 10:30a when the actual appointment was (I had read elsewhere they turned people away if they weren't early).

You will watch a safety video ~5 minutes that teaches you 4 basic hand signals, Chin up, Legs Bent, Legs Straight, or Relax. There really wasn't much to the video. You spend about 10 minutes getting geared up in the jumpsuit, goggles, and helmet. LEAVE ANYTHING VALUABLE IN YOUR ROOM. Folks were told to remove all loose jewelry and leave it in the group changing area. There were diamond rings, cell phones, watches all just sitting out on shelves where the different groups will be coming and going for their reservations. Someone could have easily walked through and stolen these items as it is not secure in any way shape or form. There is a photographer there that will ask you for your state room, they might also write a number on your helmet that will correspond to the stateroom so they know who's state room to attach the photos to. They will also hand out ear plugs, these are disposable. Make sure to wear closed toe shoes, they do not allow flip flops. They do have some shoes they will offer you to use as long as you have socks.

After you are geared up the instructor brings you up single file to the iFly area, the person in the front of the line sits to the far left of the tube on a bench. This person will go first, and the person on the far right will go last. Everyone gets about a minute in the tube and then you get a 2 minute demo from your instructor on the cool things you can do. It was a great experience and was a lot less intense than you would think.

For those of you that are germaphobes... the helmets they use get sprayed with lysol in between each use, but the instructors all seem to use a sort of bandana to cover their hair before putting on their own specific helmet. Might not be a bad idea to bring one if you are sketched out putting something on your head that has been on thousands of others' heads.

The iFly registration area (Right near Gi-Gi) is also where you can sign your waver and get the activity band for the flowrider and rock climbing. The Flowrider staff was friendly as always, and the experience is certainly worth a shot. Numerous people had never done the boogie boarding, but were able to successfully stand up on the flowrider board their first time with some help.

Bionic Bar:

They have 3 Sony Tablets on tables in front of the Bionic Bar. If the tablets are out the bar is open, if the tablets are not out the bar is closed. You have to scan your sea pass or wow band at the top right corner to unlock the tablet. You have to enter your birth year to be able to order a drink. There are a few options to get classic or signature drinks (Think Long Island Iced Tea or Jack and Coke) or you can make your own drink. You max out at 4 parts or 2 "shots" of liquor per drink you make. You can add different sodas or mixers as well as grenadine or lime cordials. The process to order a special drink is intuitive and does not take much time. Interestingly enough you can order 2 alcoholic drinks at a time through one set sail pass. The drinks were decent, and only take a minute or two to make. Steer clear Day 1 as there will be huge lines. Day 2 - 7 it will be almost completely empty, it's kind of sad this area does not get much more attention as it is rather cool to watch the robots make drinks.

Wow Bands:

One of the things we did on Day 1 was get the WOW bands. These are RFID bands that can be used in addition to your sea pass cards. The bands were just under $6.00 each and you are assigned the band that will reflect your muster station. They have a bunch of different colors, but you are only able to get the band that has your specific muster, so in our case we had the option between white and black. Now let me preface this by saying that we were in Disney last year and used their Magic Bands and absolutely loved them. Disney really thought out how to implement the band to replace cards and hit it out of the park.

The Good about the Bands:

They are easy to bring with you as they fit snugly on your wrist. They also work very well to unlock your stateroom door without fumbling for your sea pass card. Because they have your muster station on them they can be used to get filtered into the correct muster station. They also work very well if you are buying anything in one of the shops onboard as the RFID reader is right next to the register where you will be standing.

The Bad:

You have to take them off if you are going to be ordering anything at the bar. The RFID readers at the bars have a very short cord so 99% of the time you will have to hand over your WOW band. This is a little annoying, but makes it even more annoying when you have multiple in your group with the same color WOW band, you have to hope that the bartender remembers whose is whose. We tried writing on them with sharpies, but the ink quickly came off, so we used our cards over the bands at the bars. The WOW bands also cannot be used to embark or disembark at any ports. I attempted to use mine while leaving in Boston and was quickly scolded by the security guard, he requested I present my card to leave the ship (I understand you need your card's information to clear port security to come back). I also was not able to get my band to successfully register in the casino at the slots for players points or at Bionic Bar to order a drink. Each time after a failure to read on the WOW band I pulled out my Sea Pass and was able to have it register immediately.

My Verdict - Wow bands:

They have so much potential, but due to some limitations right now with reading the bands I would suggest holding off. If bartenders had mobile reading ability like they do in Disney you would never have to take them off to pay for a drink. I also think they could improve the signal so that you get positive reads on all the different things you use them for on the ship.

Tour De Anthem:

The cycle class on Anthem is held in the Vitality gym on sea days @ 8:00 am. The class is 45 minutes long and costs about $12.50 per person. We had read online that the shoes used with a Peloton bike would work (Delta Look Cleats) on the bikes with Anthem. Unfortunately that was incorrect information, the SPD cleats are the ones that work on these bikes (Google SPD Cleats) if you are not sure which ones you have. They do have Toe Cages that you can use your regular running shoes with, but the mechanism used to tighten the straps was less than intuitive, so all 4 in our group did some portion of the ride with loose cages and did have to re-adjust more than once. The class was "Eh". The instructor did not have much personality and bounced between "60%" "80%" and "100%" effort amongst some 90's Techno. I did sweat in the class, but was not impressed. We did decide to cancel our other 2 classes we had signed up. These bikes are in a separate area in the gym and there is signage stating that the bikes are reserved for classes only. We did not attempt to wander in there outside of the class time, but you might be able to get away with it.

Running Track:

If you have sailed an oasis class ship, you know they have a running track on deck 5 that is a dedicated running/ walking track. Anthem does have a running track, but it is located on the top deck where people usually walk. Frequently you will be faced with a narrow lane blocked by people walking 3 deep alongside each other. If you are planning on running, I highly suggest getting up there no later than 8. After that it gets very busy and can be a frustrating run trying to dodge others, or waiting for someone to move over.

Reservations:

We had 2 friends join us last minute ( 2 months before set sail) and all Northstar and iFly reservations were full online. So we were directed to head into the royal theater (Deck 5 Forward) where they had 5 stations setup to make reservations for shows as well as Northstar and iFly. Our friends were able to get similar times (Either right before or right after us) for both Northstar and iFly. We were in here right about 11:00 am and had only short lines, no issues at all getting these booked.

From there we did run up to the vitality gym to get reservations for the Tour De Cycle that is held on sea days (3x total classes). Again, we were up there around 11:15 and all of the class signups were empty. We all signed up without issue (They are sheets where you write your own name and cabin number).

So on the ship for about 30 minutes and we got all of our reservations done, I highly suggest getting on EARLY if you need to make dining reservations or failed to get show/iFly/Northstar reservations at the time/day you wanted online. They can cancel and re-schedule anything you need, but these will fill up quickly on embarkation day.

Lunch on Embarkation Day:

270 cafe (Deck 5 Aft) has a large assortment of lunch options. This is the "Veteran" move to avoid the windjammer on day 1. We arrived there around Noon and found a rather long line, I guess the secret is out! It took about 10 minutes to wait in line and get our food. They have about 6-8 different sandwich options, fruits, fruit cups, as well as a make your own salad bar, and some light pastries. You can then easily find all sorts of seating in the 270 venue just steps towards the rear of the ship.

Sail Away:

Immediately after muster (Held in dining or entertainment venues on deck 4 and 5) we ran up to the solarium at the front of the ship. There are bridge wings that are open to the air and accessible through the front of the solarium. They are on both port and starboard sides and offer a very unique perspective of the ship as well as a quiet area to celebrate sail away. About 10 other people were out there with us, and the solarium bar was almost empty, so it was easy to get drinks while standing out there.

So I just got back from a 7 night Bayonne - Bermuda - Boston Cruise on Anthem of the Seas and I wanted to share some of the learnings I had... mainly things I did not see answers to on here.

Embarkation:

We arrived to the port @ 10 am, you are literally driving through what looks like an abandoned warehouse district until BOOM you see the ship. Follow the signs for Cruise Port, because putting in the actual address confused our GPS and was going to take us into a residential area. There was about 5 minutes of waiting in line until we dropped off our bags with the porters, another 5 minutes we were parked onsite in the garage ($20 a day, bring your ticket with you because you have to pay at a self service meter before you leave. Meters take both cash and credit.) So at about 10:15 am we walked into the cruise terminal. It was rather underwhelming, we were directed to go through security before checking in. Security allowed us to enter with bottles of water in our backpacks, but threw out any that were open. From there we were directed into the standard lines you see at other cruise terminals to complete your set sail paperwork. We had done our photos online as well as completing our documentation so this process took about 5 minutes in total. They did take our photos again because they said ours were not close up enough on the face.

From there you get your set sail paperwork stamped which will allow you onto the ship. You DO NOT get a set sail card (Room Key) until you get to your room @ 1pm. They will be in an envelope outside your state room. This means the paperwork you have will be used for anything you need to buy before you get your set sail cards, these papers do allow you to use your drink packages, the bartenders will just scan them.

Suite guests are stationed at the far left corner, right near the bathrooms. There was a small station setup with coffee and tea, not sure if it was suite only because I could have easily grabbed a cup if i wanted. They sell the usual lanyards and take your photo before you are stationed in your boarding zone. Boarding started @ 10:30 a and we were on the ship at about 10:45 a (Platinum).

You spit out onto Deck 5 on the top of the Royal Esplanade, and are off to explore the ship.

Dining Packages:

This was the first time we had ever used a dining package, it was $100 per person for 4 premium dining nights. With the prices for premium dining on Anthem, you really can't go wrong. I was nervous though, because with the Dining packages, you make your first request for dinner on either Day 1 or Day 2, but do not know if you will get your time, or if you will get the dining venue you want. We printed out a list of the venues we wanted on the times and days (1,2,3, and 7) all for 6 pm with our stateroom number. We walked over to Wonderland which was stationed with the Restaurant Manager. We asked if he could make our reservations for the 4 nights of the package, I handed over the print out, and 2 minutes later we got all the venues and times we wanted. In this case the Dining worked out perfectly, I do believe that part of the success was due to running directly to Wonderland and getting this taken care of immediately. We ate at Chops, Jamie's, Izumi, and Wonderland, but I will talk more about this later.

Saw this on Oasis 2016. I like JB so I took special notice, did not buy it though.

Thanks for the Info. Saved $18 on Chops and $50 for the refreshment Package!

I may get blasted for this, however, we were on the Indy last thanksgiving and are doing so again for Spring Break with our kids.

 

When we were on the Thanksgiving cruise I had only one really good experience at one of the bars (Olive or Twist).

 

So, would I do better to tip out a specific bar/bartender with cash? We are doing the Premium package so feel like they aren't really tipped with every drink.

 

Thanks for any inputs (and flames lol)!

 

Cheers

At the pool bars we always tipped $1-2 per round and saw a marked difference in service.

They remembered us and would bring us new drinks before the old ones were done. We did the premium package as well. The 1-2$ is WELL worth it.

Expresso is a specialty coffee that is not included in the premium package. Irish coffee or an "after dinner booze coffee" is a cocktail made with regular coffee, so it is included in the premium package.

Sorry I should have been more specific in my answer. Booze coffee AND Booze Espresso was covered by the premium package. The photo is from INDY in January 2016, and it was a "Royal Delight" Hot espresso with a Gran Mariner, Irish Cream, and Tuaca in it.

Didn't have an issue ordering these with the premium package. Oddly enough the only time I got pushback was when I ordered an espresso without booze in it.

Premium dining venues on Indy, Enchantment, and Oasis didn't bat an eye when I got an after dinner booze coffee. I didn't try at MDR or at a bar.

Great review! Can't wait to cruise on this ship. I CAN see the pictures, for some reason.

 

Was it worth it to get the drink package? We'll be with our kids (11 and 14) and enjoy drinking - trying to figure out who should get which drink packages, if any. We definitely would drink a lot of water, so that alone may make it worth it.

 

Thanks for the great review and pictures!

Premium worked well for us with the amount we drink. If you can handle 4-5 mixed drinks a day and enjoy bottled water and soda do the premium package. Remember there are no freestyle machines on Indy!

Cozumel Continued:

We boarded the boat and laid out for a few hours. After getting ready for dinner, we were able to watch the NFL playoff games from Brilliance's pool deck from Olive or Twist. This was pretty cool to be able to see the game from this vantage.

Olive or twist was amazing for sail away, I highly suggest spending some time up there during the day or while docking.

A few minutes up there and we were sailing back home.

Dinner in the MDR that night was uneventful. Food was decent, nothing to write home about.

We spent some time in the Conisour club, which had the playoff game. They had a large number of scotches and would grab you beers if asked. The place is TINY, with seating for under 16, but with the ventilation in there, it wasn't overwhelming at all.

We spend the remainder of the evening in the Casino. The games of chance ended @ 3 am, which was surprising to say the least. They actually had a last call for gambling.

Great review great pictures...we sail in 32 days...which night was "formal" night? You said the prime rib was great...was that formal night? I had it on allure and it was awesome. We will do some specialty dining but don't want to book that for the wrong night!

Formal night was the 2nd night (Sea Day), and yes the Prime Rib was fantastic and well worth the calories.

Cozumel is BEAUTIFUL.

We didn't go further than the main strip when we wandered, but it was such breathtaking scenery being oceanfront the entire time.

This bird cost $1 to take a photo with.

These birds cost $5 per person to take photos with

Supposedly the money goes to a "Parrot Rescue" but they seemed happy and very willing to be interacted with. Usually I wouldn't do something like this, but since you can openly walk around with beers that cost $1 each... things happen.

This was a little opening with some soft sand and limited rocks. Certainly within walking distance from the boat and no cost.

If you decide to walk back from the forum shops, know that there are little places to grab beers or other drinks as well as use the restrooms. If you are able I highly suggest walking home from the forum shops which is about a mile and a half.

Beers go from $1 to $3 each when you get closer to the boat.

Cozumel Thoughts...

Be prepared to bargain. I repeat... be prepared to BARGAIN!

For example, a "Solid Silver" Giraffe was in the window of a shop, I walked in asking how much he was, the salesman said "950 US $" I said "Way too much! How about 950 Pesos?" He laughed, walked away and came back and said "OK! best offer is 600 US $". I said "No Way! How about $150?" to which he said, Ok best price, $250!".

So just for a frame of reference, they haggle and haggle and haggle. In a store other than a supermarket, do not feel odd offering under 25% of what their initial price is.

A lot of the cuban cigars they offer start off as 60-80$ for 5, but these can be sold for $20 if you have a strong constitution.

Some ports aren't this inflated, but in Cozumel, please please please haggle your ass off!

Also, please stay away from off brand tequila. There are shops all over the place selling fancy bottles with crap tequila with overly inflated prices. We were offered $250 for a 750 ml bottle of "No Name" tequila. Not worth it... don't take the samples either, just asking for trouble if not willing to purchase!

Welcome to Mexico!!!!

We arrived early and opened our windows and enjoyed the view of the ocean and COZUMEL.

We didn't have a plan of attack for today, so it was a lazy morning. We were up by 8 am and wandered into the Windjammer. Breakfast was standard, but if you know what to grab quite tasty. We then went to the main deck to watch people debark. The pool bars seemed to open around 9 am which was a welcome change from Oasis (10 am for those not in the know). We had a few drinks, grabbed some cash from the room and decided to set foot into the foreign land.

I did snap a shot of the Solarium, which is an odd layout from what we were used to, there is no roof!!!

At 10 am the gangway was EMPTY, we brought drinks all the way down to deck 1 and stashed them right before we scanned out. Carrying a backpack and some water we wandered through the confusing outdoor market that was Cozumel. We were stationed with some other cruise ships and they had a Fruit and Veggie detecting Dog that snorted out a Banana from some random woman in front of us (ROOKIE!).

So where we docked, it was a 1.5 mile trip into the "Forum Shops" They really push taking a Taxi, but in retrospect I wish we had walked... It was around $20 with generous tip to get to the shops for 3 people. Remember to verify price before you get into the taxi.

So we wandered into the shops looking for some jewelry. They have all of the famous watches you might want as well as certified and uncertified diamonds. We couldn't find something of interest so we passed.

The main drag is full of shops, food, and various entities of entertainment. We walked about 2 miles away from the ship stopping in some random shops. Folks all sit outside asking you to come in to look, or for a "Free" sampling. A "No Thanks" will keep them at bay. You can walk around with a beer, so feel free to stop in a shop and buy a Tecate or Corona for $1.

We stopped in the shop above after 2 miles of walking and decided to turnaround.

We thought the food looked funny and took a photo.

So one side of the area is the shops and the opposite is this

Walk and walk, even a day without an excursion is full of beauty!

The ex-pat below is from London and was throwing a 2 liter bottle of coke into the ocean and her dog was picking it up and bringing it back. She was friendly and talked with us. She said how much they love having tourists help bolster the economy.

So tip to the wise. If you have a go-pro and want to take photos with it... make sure you set it to 5 photos 1 sec burst or 10 photos 1 sec burst. The go-pro is prone to motion blur, but if you do the 10 photos in 1 second you are more than able to capture the photo.

We went to the headliner show at 9pm since dinner was at 6. This was a combination of singing and dancing... Honestly nothing that appeared to a 20 something crowd, but it was loud and bright. The Foster's Oil Can was the beverage of the show. The Oz to Minutes of show ratio was in my favor, and this happened to keep my entertained for the entire time.

The funny thing about cruises is that you might get sleepy, but once someone offered to go gamble it is easy to get excited!

The casino offered your standard fare of blackjack, poker, roulette, craps, and some of those random other table games.

Blackjack minimums stayed strong at a 10$ minimum bet with 8 deck and 1 deck offered. There were always open tables which was very nice.

The slots are not circa 2016, some are the touch screen variety, but numerous are of the old reel variety. These can be a lot of fun if you have patience and are willing to try out a game who's bonus composes of lights and dials instead of flashy screens. We did pretty well in the slots, and although were able to grind several hours at the tables, did not turn up much of a profit!

Interesting point, casino tends to close around 3:00 am, so if you plan on gambling into the wee hours our cruise tapped out around 3.

Day 2:

So after stumbling back to the state room after a long night of blackjack. Not Club Royale members, but for the amount of money we gambled we damn well should be!

We had an 8 am couples massage. They called us around 7:30 to make sure that we weren't still drunk to remind us we had booked a massage. We groggily opened our eyes with his wakeup call and made our way up to the spa.

The spa waiting area here is TINY there were maybe 7 chairs for folks waiting for treatments, so maybe they didn't plan on ever being busy up there. Even at 8 am it was standing room only for folks waiting on treatment, so people were seated elsewhere.

The couples massage was fantastic, a 50 ish minute massage followed up by a passive sales pitch for more treatments and a watchful eye from the masseuse as my wife filled out the receipt. The thing that sucks is when you pay online ahead of time you forget there is a tip included, so when you get a $0.00 bill you feel OBLIGATED to tip if you don't remember your payment online already included a tip.

Weather sucked, cold and rainy when we ended our massage, so phew, no need to run and get chairs... Breakfast in the Windjammer was standard, with the exception of MISO soup in jade. This was an oddity I had to attempt, which after forgetting a spoon (Napkin rollup cutlery is a fork and knife only) I drank from the bowl. Oops? Breakfast was fine and we made out way to the pool deck to grab chairs. It was still cold, but manageable. Around 11 they played pool deck bingo for a guaranteed $500.

See the skies? Not beautiful for cruising!

So this was over in about 10 minutes and we enjoyed some music and drinks and the skies OPENED! We enjoyed several hours of beautiful weather and sun while boozing and enjoying our day.

Around 4pm we decided it was time to walk further than the bathroom or bar and walked back to our room. We showered and got ready for Formal Night in the MDR.

After a quick shower and sitting on the balcony we decided to head to the schooner bar for a pre-dinner drink.

Yes... I do smile...

Notice the fingers.. DAY 2 BABY!!!

So maybe a few too many drinks at the schooner, because we wandered into an EMPTY "Labyrinth". This is the gothic themed bar, 2 levels. A HUGE space that honestly I think is completely useless. (Liberty is turning this into staterooms and Sabor in the dry dock so I think Royal realized the same.) We wandered our way out to a backdoor and found a very friendly man to take our photo.

Before you comment on my attire for formal ware, at least it wasn't a tank top and Jorts (Jean Shorts for those of you not in the know).

Menu for those of you that are curious...

Dinner was fine, I got the prime rib which was tasty. Our servers were quite attentive and were well deserving of their tips on Day 3. These folks really grind for their money and I am a big supporter of extra tips when someone kicks butt!.

So up on the top deck is beautiful. You can follow the jogging track and walk around the entire ship. You have these amazing views, and can see all of the other ships that are moving through the waterways.

So muster drill took in total about 45 minutes. This was much longer than usual, and we accredited it to the fact that at 3:30 there were STILL people entering the cruise terminal. We could see people running into the terminal as we were assembled which was quite interesting. Bring your water to ensure proper hydration!

Good luck finding a bar that isn't packed once muster ends. The promenade and the deck below are flooded and you will indeed have to wait for bar service, but patience pays off... get your drinks and if you can head off to the helipad, this is gorgeous place to set sail. The helipad was a little more packed than I had thought, but with a drink in hand relax and enjoy the sun and sea.

Dinner in chops was 30% off in the form of onboard credit and very much worth the price. We love the premium dining and honestly see a marked difference in quality, taste, and service. You can order as many appetizers and sides as you want, but i believe only one entree. My filet was ordered rare and did not disappoint.

We spent the rest of the night wandering the promenade and enjoying each other's company. Music was abundant, but we ended up praying for 21 playing blackjack.

More tomorrow, but it was quite a late night!

So we decided we love winter cruises. They help us break up the cold north eastern winters, and allow us to take a really nice break from work after the holidays. We got an amazing deal on an E3 Balcony on Independence sailing from Ft Lauderdale on January 7th heading to Cozumel and back.

We have sailed on the small (Enchantment and Grandeur) and the large (Oasis) yet we were extremely excited to try a somewhat "In-between" ship.

We flew out the day of, 8 am flight out of Newark to land at 11 am in Ft Lauderdale. This was obviously a risk hoping we would not be delayed, because 2-3 hour delay would mean we might not meet the ship in port.

Newark has completely revamped their layout and there are all of these small venues in the terminals allowing for iPad ordering of food and beverage.

Remember, you can bring in 1.5 oz liquor through TSA security as long as it is in the recommended size bag, so we did take in about 8 little bottles of vodka. Guess what is in the drinks in front of us?

I have never understood why so many people stand up before their flight... all these people stood there ~ 25 minutes before we even started boarding.... why even bother, sit down and wait, we will all get there at the same time.

So 3 hours of excitement later we begin our decent over the port. How freaking exciting is it to fly over your boat???? Well too bad its nearly impossible to take a photo out of an airplane window, so just focus on the top left of the image.

We took a cab to the pier that cost about 25$ with tip, we arrived around Noon and were quickly met with some long lines. We are a point away from platinum and found that there were no "Gold" lines, so everyone under platinum were joined into the same line for security and check-in. It took about 45 minutes from drop off at the pier until we were actually on the ship which was long in our experience. Folks were friendly and we had no problem checking in.

So this was a "Scentsy" incentive cruise. This is the warmer with wax candle things, there were hundreds of these folks on the ship, so this photo shows the people in line to check in with "Scentsy" on the left hand side. This was a very LONG line.

My wife got her Premium Package online, and I used my onboard credit to get my package onboard. We have done this on most of our recent trips and have found it to be a wonderful option when you add in the cost of bottled water. I stood in line for about 2 minutes to get the package and had my first drink about 2 minutes later, gotta love all the bars on this ship!

We grabbed a quick sandwich at cafe promenade and headed up to the upper decks.

The weather was beautiful, the sun was shining and the drinks were flowing.

We had taken photos with fingers to show the days with each drink we purchased as a collateral to remember how many drinks we got that day, but this quickly fell apart, so don't judge that all drinks in the following review are not accompanied with a finger in the air!