October 28 Sea day #8

During the night the white gulls were swooping and darting in the ship’s slipstream, but they were gone by sunrise. Today was Sea Day # 8, the final one, as we are travelling to Cape Liberty, New Jersey, our final destination.

   Morning coordinates were 40°37.01’ N and 69°09.69’ W, on course 221° at sunrise, travelling at 10.8 knots. Cape Cod, Massachusetts was passed during the night. Morning temperature was 12° C, wind was NE19 km and it was sunny with some clouds. The waves were about one and a half meters high.  We went to Silk for breakfast, which was not a buffet this cruise, only ordering from a breakfast menu was available. After breakfast. we ordered our complimentary photos, one each, from the formal night photos and the port photos taken in Ponta Delgada, Azores and Boston. The prints will be ready to pick up this evening.

   The morning was spent loading photos from yesterday and writing about yesterday while we attended some events. First was the Captain’s Talk with Captain Iv, the Food and Beverage manager and Mario, the cruise director for this cruise, for 45 minutes at 9:15 a.m. in Two70° theatre. The Captain’s joke was: What is the difference between a ship and a boat?  The Food  & Beverage manager said that 400 passengers are staying for the next cruise to Miami via the Royal Caribbean Bahamas private island. The Diamond Club concierge had mentioned a few days ago that 300 Diamond tier and over  passengers were on the next cruise. One of trickiest parts in Captain Iv’s career was this cruise’s huge storm which stretched from Greenland to southern Portugal, and almost as wide from the European west coast to the Atlantic Ridge in the mid-Atlantic.

    Then for a 10:15 a.m. talk, we walked one deck down and to the Royal Theatre at the other end of the ship for a question and answer session with entertainment cast members hosted by Mario again for another 45 minutes. Outside the sky was getting a bit cloudier, the wind was picking up and the waves were a little bit higher, about two meters. 

    We moved to the Royal Esplanade lounge area near the Wi-Fi hub after the talk, where there were comfortable chairs near the giant tuba sculpture, for the next two hours. The pace of uploading the 50+ photos from Boston was slower than usual, taking almost four minutes per photo. Around noon, Mario, the cruise director; the Food & Beverage manager and another staff member came through the Royal Esplanade with plates of icing covered cake balls on sticks offering them to anyone there.

    Captain Iv’s announcement at noon said that the wind was blowing at 30 knots (54 km/hour) and temperature was 13° C. Anthem had only 165 knots remaining to get to the New Jersey pilot station early tomorrow morning.

   Our laptops were almost out of power and the photos were all loaded, so we left the Royal Esplanade lounge,  dropped off the computers in the stateroom to charge and went to the Solarium café before it closed at 2 p.m..for lunch.  For dessert, we stopped at Johnny Rockets for milkshakes.

   The coordinates at 2:30 p.m. were 40°32.66”N and 70°42.49”W on course 274° for a mid-afternoon map photo.  We were west of the northern tip of Long Island. On the cruise mapper website, Claire could see that the cruise ship Enchanted Princess (coming from Halifax yesterday) was not too far behind Anthem, also heading to Cape Liberty cruise terminal.

   Larry wrote the Thank You cards to the dining room staff and Carlos our steward.

   There was prerecorded Ballroom and Latin dance music scheduled in the Music Hall from 5 to 6 p.m., but it did not start until 5:15 p.m. much to the dismay of us and another couple with a 5:30 p.m. dinner time.

    We joined Melvin and Jenny for our final dinner on Anthem of the Seas. Melvin apologized for missing dinner last evening, having fallen asleep until 6:30 p.m. after visiting Boston. We went to the Diamond Club for post dinner coffees. Then we climbed the six flights of stairs to our staterooms to pack our suitcases and attach the baggage tags before placing our suitcases in the hall to be taken to cargo hold to be unloaded at the cruise terminal in the morning. We will pick them up on the way to the prepaid shuttle bus for the airport.

   With packing completed, we returned to Deck 5’s Vintage wine bar for cocktails and chatted with a couple from Essex England before retiring for the night. We did not pursue extra steps today since we had logged a record number of steps yesterday in Boston.

   Captain’s joke answer: A ship has a licensed captain and a boat has a frustrated husband.


Total steps 9, 211 

sunrise on the last sea day

the Captain’s Talk

the Royal Esplanade and the last sale

icing covered cake balls

ship position at noon on the last sea day






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