A first time for us we booked an autumn cruise to highlight a successful project. For a second time only we did not fly to the boarding place, the Cape Liberty Cruise Port at NJ, but drove to there (round trip about 1,400 km). Itinerary of 5 stops: Boston - Massachusetts, Portland - Maine, Bar Harbor - Maine, Halifax - Nova Scotia and Saint John, New Brunswick. We were expecting cool weather while progressing north but it was sometimes worse: rain, wind, squalls, and down to 8 Celsius. So I came back with a cold... Nothing to do with the Caribbean, which I prefer cruising to.

Another thing new for me while doing the online check-in, RCCL suggested to us to upload a photo (to save time at the terminal), and to make an appointment by choosing a 30-minute time slot, so I chose 12h30-13h00. Outside the terminal, employees with electronic tablet finalized the boarding of the passengers, which procedure seemed effective to us. Once on board, however, for the lunch buffet at the Windjammer Marketplace, there were so many people wishing to have a little lunch; in fact on the Anthem, compared to its size and capacity, we were much more cramped than what we were accustomed to on the Celebrity Solstice class ships (at the Oceanview Café). In addition, some passengers seemed to be carrying all their luggage, not only their carry-on baggage (since our cabins were obviously not yet ready).

Day 1 - Exploration of the ship, second in the Quantum class, the Anthem was our biggest sailed until now (169,000 tons, 4180 passengers ...). We feel the youth and the ubiquitous technology on this ship, but that was not our priority. Cleanliness, service, food, entertainment, etc., everything was great ... or almost. I will speak later about dining. Guest assembly drill at 3:30 pm, leaving port at 4:00 pm. Read more