DragonOfTheSeas

I am currently on the anthem. And we were randomly assigned to the 630 fixed seating. We love it. And would sign up for this all the time. I imagine a lot of people would. There are only nine waiters who are currently doing that on this ship. And it’s a pretty big ship. I think it’s a real struggle for the waiter. there have been several nights that the previous people were not finished by 6:30 or they finished up right at 6:30 and it took the headwaiter and all the waiting staff to frantically bus tables that were assigned to the 6:30 session. They added a bunch of chairs into an anti-room for us to sit and wait until the table is ready. That works if you have a few tables but it’s not gonna work if you have the whole dining room. I think they’re still working on the specifics.

The ship is holding an Easter egg hunt in the kids club this morning. No telling how they’re going to do that with all these children. But as I passed through the indoor family pool, I noticed that there were a lot less people.🥚🐰🧺

I posted this a couple hours ago in the wrong thread. If this is a duplicate, I apologize. I thought I would move it here. I can answer many questions if you have them. Our DS lives in Virginia Beach and used to live in Norfolk near Old Dominion University.

I’m in my happy place, the solarium. It took me a while to find a seat. They are not near each other —but that is no issue. We are like vultures looking for prey. The staff is putting notes on seats with just towels and removing them after a half an hour. But there’s certainly more people who want seats than there are seats in the solarium today.

Here are a few more random shots from around the ship these are from Two70 and this was the end of a program called the house of mouse. We got there just as it ended, and they were deciding which team won. Note the three team captain standing in the front. The team on the left captain looked to be about 12. And that team won. The interesting thing was that, the prizes were beer cuzzies. Haha that would normally be a perfectly good prize, but you had to know that if the game was called the house of the mouse, that it was going to be a child filled audience The bionic bar The royal Esplanade

Norfolk is a Navy town. They rally around when anything goes wrong. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the area around the dock. It is known as waterside, and it is a very popular section of the city. If you are able, go down a day early to enjoy, the scenery and the restaurants. Check out Nauticus on the Internet and see if you would enjoy visiting that. It’s just beside the cruise ship terminal. There’s also a small park right on the waterfront and they often have events there. You might want to check the schedule for the city. if it was me, I would stay at either the Hilton or the Marriott. Each of them is only a block or two from the port. If you drive down and have transportation, you might want to go to Virginia Beach for the afternoon before. It’s a very family friendly beach. Very modern and clean. There is a boardwalk and there are hotels adjacent to the boardwalk but It is less commercial than Ocean City, for example.

Here is today’s sunrise picture. Look at that beautiful flat ocean. You can’t ask for better weather on the last day of a cruise. High today is supposed to be 70 but of course it’ll feel a lot cooler than that with the wind.

Thank you we would need to do that when DD sails with us again. We usually cruise in the spring and the fall. Sometimes doing.B2Bs. we will have to see when we can make that work with her teaching schedule. The Doubletree near the Penn station is not that great of a hotel but it’s very convenient and with DH mobility issues easiest is good.

We were usually done by about 7:45. Our waiter was very fast. If we ordered two appetizers, he always put them on the table at the same time. I’m not sure if that’s the new procedure or if I was just what he was doing too. Make sure dinner moved along quickly. yes, that time works really well for us too

Thank you I hadn’t looked into it yet.

It took us about a half an hour from the Doubletree last October. We took an Uber from the hotel. I think the next time we leave from Bayonne we will go back to the Doubletree. The reason that we selected the Jersey City hotel this time was that we are Hilton HHonors members and so we like to stay at the Hilton Brand. And they had two room suites, and the Doubletree at the Penn station doesn’t have a suite like that. Our daughter was with us and we wanted to give her and us some privacy. edit: I reread my post. I’m not sure that you were asking me about the Doubletree at the Penn Station that we stayed in last time or the Doubletree that we stayed in Jersey City. So I’ll leave the above comment and add that it took us about 30 minutes from Jersey City as well. that was just to get to the port once we got to the port of course we were in all that traffic, so it took us more than an hour in total, but this wasn’t unusual situation with the anthem arriving late.

I wanted to write a post about the main dining room for dinner. As I mentioned earlier, we originally signed up for my time dining with a reservation at 7 o’clock each night. So Royal Caribbean selected us to be part of their experiment for a 630 fixed dining time. that has turned out to be quite the blessing. First of all our waiter and assistant waiter are excellent and we’ve had a great experience all week. Secondly, the lines to get into the dining room are simply outrageous every night. It’s such a crowd in front of the dining room, that we go in a side door to get to our table each night. This is a picture outside of the main dining room. the right hand side of the hall are people without Reservations the left-hand side are people with Reservations I don’t see that the people who made reservations are in any better shape than the people who didn’t. I would be really annoyed to have made reservations and have to wait in line like this every night to get seated. i’m not sure the 6:30pm fixing, will work on a large scale. Several evenings the early seating guests were still at the table at 6:30. The dining staff set up a series of chairs in a small ant room, near that side entrance, and we and other guests at 6:30 whose table was not yet empty would sit there until they were ready. It was never more than five or 10 minutes. So it was not a problem for us. but it was a stressful situation for the waiters who were really frantic to bus and reset the table. The headwaiter has been very attentive and helpful. I’m sure he’s also trying to facilitate this trial. Our waiter told us that there were only nine waiters that are part of this 6:30 seating as a trial. And this is the second cruise that he has done that.

Yes, they do, but there was a giant line and it was faster for us to park first and then take our luggage with us.

I know they’re very disappointed that vacations are not what they thought they would be. But I think Royal Caribbean has offered a fairly decent package of changes. It seems the best they can do. they were never going to make this a good change for people who live close to Baltimore or have issues that longer distances a problem. I mentioned another thread early on that this would be a problem for many Baltimore cruisers. I have been waiting for the airlines to step up and waive change fees for people flying in and out of Baltimore, if they are on a cruise. Would be easy enough for them to show they have cruise ticket in order to get their fees waived. Also, it would not be that many people. But I don’t see them stepping up.

Hahaha 😂. We have decided we will check out other cruises 🚢 on Anthem in the future. We are just now really finding our way around. luggage tags were put on our beds this morning. It’s never a happy site.

Are you asking what things are available to do? Or are you asking what the procedure is? They said they would send more information, right? The cruise terminal is in the nicest part of the city. That area is known as waterside. There are fairies that will take you over to Portsmouth. There’s a children’s museum there and some sports museum. A small mall and a bunch of restaurants right on the waterfront.

That garage is 2-3 blocks away. When we sailed out of Norfolk, we parked there and pushed our luggage down the street to get there. That would be harder for us now and will be for many of the guests who normally cruise out of Baltimore. I’m sure they will have some shuttle buses too.

We just finished a great meal and Jamie‘s Italian restaurant. I got the reservation on Black Friday for a really good price. So we decided to give it a try. it was all delicious, but the garlic bread and the lasagna were the two standouts. We also had an antipasto plank. But I didn’t get any pictures of the bread or the plank. Pasta carbonara Shrimp, linguine Lasagna And tiramisu The reviews have been hit or miss. With most of them being misses. there were plenty of negative comments regarding the hostess. But we felt it was an excellent lunch. The service was good and the hostess was businesslike but she was fine.

I have not been on the anthem before, so I can’t speak to this ship specifically, but it certainly seems like everything is pretty much like it was pre-Covid. All the activities seem to be back. The only things that have been canceled have been canceled because it was too windy or cold. The elevators are stuffed full of people all the time there’s no social distancing going on. The first time or two that happened it felt very weird but now it just seems normal. We have so many children on board. I think they need to have all those activities to keep them busy.

The SeaPlex on deck 15 is probably the most versatile space on the ship. They use it for basketball, rollerskating, and bumper, cars, etc. on the second layer are all the ping-pong tables. And there is a hotdog stand, at the back. I found that yesterday and had a great snack.

Here are some random shots from around the beautiful anthem of the sea. we have been eating breakfast and dinner, mostly in the American icon dining room. Here is the art installation outside that dining room And here is the silk dining room. I think it has the most unusual decor. And of course, here is the gym. It has been a very popular place. It is a very large and has impressive equipment. here is the sky bar. I wasn’t sure if I posted this or not but here it is.😝

I enjoy seeing different places in the world. But on a cruise ship sea days are my favorite. Here is today’s sunrise. Or as close to sunrise as I got up.ha ha ha!

We were at Coco Cay yesterday. And we went to Hideaway Beach. I really liked it. I would buy a day pass again depending on price and time of year. this is a spring break cruise. And there are lots and lots of children on board. We actually found Hideaway Beach to be relatively uncrowded. We feel that’s because there are so many parents and grandparents at the water park or elsewhere with their children. The pool was good and the food was better. There was very much a party atmosphere. They even had a couple of girls going around with bottles of champagne attached to triggers, and they shot champagne into peoples’ mouth people. It was not my thing, but it was very popular. They had perfect aim and we’re never closer than a foot to a person so it was sanitary. cabana area

That’s all it’s not usually one of my favorite parts but I did enjoy getting off and looking at the Newport area. This is the new visitor center. Right outside. I was also pleased to see that the vendors weren’t too pushy I did not go in. But I saw that the Junkanoo museum was $11 for adults. I said by the lagoon and had my latte from Starbucks. And watch the various excursions drop off these docks. That’s so much better than the arrangement they used to have.

I was hot and sweaty when I came back from walking around Nassau. So I hopped on the little tram. Someone asked about the yacht that is docked, right near liberty of the seas. The tram driver said that belongs to Steven Spielberg. it is a beauty. 😊(the larger ship, of course)