Day 1 & 2: Boarding Day and Ship Photos

After finding a porter for our 2 bags, we made our way into the terminal at Cape Liberty and found the line for security, which didn't take long at all. Once on the other side of that, we were confronted by a mass of humanity. We were trying to find the end of the line, any line, and I handed my boarding documents to a lady in a blazer with a name tag. Helen pointed us to the far left of the building where Line 1 was forming. It had 2 people in it. I'd forgotten we'd booked a junior suite which gave us priority boarding.

The Junior Suite came with dinner in a place called Coast Kitchen. This was a restaurant set aside for suite guests. It has a different menu and the kitchen cooks to order, meaning the food is a bit fresher and hasn't been sitting under a heat lamp. We ate there a couple of times and enjoyed it.

This is the bathroom, with a tub on one side (that would't fill), and a shower on the other side. It came with upgraded shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and body lotion. I only used the shower gel since I brought my own shampoo, etc from home.

The two photos above are of the powder room.

I really like the padded chairs on the balcony with foot rests. I usually don't spend too much time on the balcony, but I did on this cruise. The location of the room, 10636, is on a hump (see photo below) and this causes a lot of wind noise. We had some rough weather at sea on a couple of nights and the blowing and whistling of the wind got quite loud. One other bad point of this balcony was the dividers on both sides could be opened. Because of the winds, the dividers rattled and banged and the noise got so bad I used wash cloths to jam the dividers in place and lessen the noise.

The coffee machine. Be still my heart!

The biggest and best surprise of the room was the coffee maker. When our steward, Wilson, stopped by and introduced himself, we begged him to keep the regular coffee packets fully stocked at our coffee station. His reply? "We're out. Those are the last two packets." I think my shock and disappointment showed because Wilson begged, borrowed and I believe stole a dozen or more packets of a better variety of fully leaded coffee for our coffee station. We loved coming back to the room in the afternoon and brewing a nice cuppa to enjoy on the balcony.

The next few photos will be random pictures of the ship. The posts after this one will concentrate on the cruise and port stops themselves.

Lots of interior decor of interest, like this unusual chandelier.

Normally, the atrium is for relaxing and having a drink. On the Anthem of the Seas, it's to set up tables and sell cheap crap. Even the employees really got into it.

Grant had a difficult time walking along this see-through staircase. I can understand why.

The North Star ride. $25 to get swung around in this bucket-on-a-pole. No thanks.

**If You Tube ever manages to upload my video, I'll put it here.**

This was the Heartbeat chandelier. Place your hands on the pad and it measures and records your heartbeat, adding it to the 9 previous recorded heartbeats for an interesting and active chandelier display.

After the muster, our ship pulled away and headed to sea toward our first port o' call at Boston, Massachusetts.