For this cruise aboard
Royal’s “Anthem of the Seas”, we initially booked
an “Inside GTY”. GTY stands
for “Guaranteed Type” meaning the cruise line
will give you a lower price but they will decide which
cabin you will be placed in. We’ve done this
several times over the years and have been satisfied
with where we’re placed on the ship.
In recent years, the cruise
lines have adopted a new approach to the cabin
upgrade process. The current
approach involves opening up any available
higher level cabins to a bidding process. I
went ahead and placed a little above minimum bids on
three types of cabins… Ocean View, Obstructed
Balcony, and Balcony cabins. Results aren’t
announced until sometime during the week before
embarkation.
As luck would have it, I won the
bid on an “Obstructed Ocean View Balcony”
cabin. As expected, our view was partially
obstructed by a lifeboat.
B- Cruising Under The Bridge
We’ve cruised under the
Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge many times and captured
video in the process. But this time, we
captured a video from the comfort of Anthem’s
“Solarium”. Not as dramatic when
viewed/captured from an open deck but it’ll do…
.
C- Bumper Cars
One nice thing about
Anthem of the Seas are all of the indoor spaces for
out of the weather activity. The ship has an
area called “Seaplex” which can be setup for different
activities. Volleyball, soccer, pickleball,
roller skating, and yes, Bumper Cars. This is
one activity that a couple oysters can handle.
The video was captured with a wrist
mounted GoPro Max 360 camera. I edited the
video twice. Once to provide our view and
again to provide the selfie perspective.
D- Coco Cay Beach Club
We visited Coco Cay
while cruising aboard Royal’s “Anthem of the Seas”
in February 2024. “Coco Cay Beach Club” was on
today’s agenda. We booked a couple day
passes during a Black Friday sale and were looking
forward to checking this part of the island. A
day at the beach club included a chair and umbrella
on the beach, access to a heated infinity pool and
an upscale lunch. More importantly, a relaxing
atmosphere devoid of loud music and crowds.
There are a lot of reviews on
YouTube so I decided to try something different.
It’s been awhile since I captured some
INFRARED images so I brought the camera along on
this cruise. This video shows some of the
images I captured. I suspect no one has ever
taken infrared images at Coco Cay.
I use an Infrared Modified Nikon
Coolpix P7000 P&S camera that I had someone
modify a few years ago. 720nm filtering is
what was installed. These images are a littler
“bluer” than I typically get because the “color
balance” has to be manually adjusted and, for
technical reasons, I wasn’t able to do correctly.
E- Nassau Bahamas
Our mission was twofold. We
bought Cariloha Bamboo sheets several years ago and
wanted to replace one set that has seen better days.
The cruise ship “Shopping Consultant” gave us
some coupons so off we went. Mission
accomplished, we bought a set of sheets and, while
we were at it, some bath towels. All was
shipped to our home.
The next thing we wanted to do was
visit the Starbucks up the street for a couple
lattes. This particular store has seating on
the second floor which provided a great vantage
point for capturing some time lapse video with my
Insta360 GO 3 camera.
It should be noted that Nassau recently went through
a multi-million dollar update. Gone are the
old Straw Market Shanties. They've all been
replaced with colorful structures.
F- Door Art
We cruised aboard
Royal Caribbean’s “Anthem of the Seas” in February
2024. There are always birthdays
and anniversaries being celebrated but this
cruise also coincided with a couple more events.
Super Bowl LVIII, Valentines Day and Mardi
Gras. And of course, there are always those
who are simply happy to be on a cruise.
Doors are decorated to celebrate
these occasions, some of which are quite
imaginative. I’m usually up around 6AM walking
the halls and decided to photograph some of the door
art.
