Live Blogging Anthem of the Seas July 18 sailing!

[jm485]

This review is really fun, and it's terrific of you and your wife to spend time on your honeymoon creating it.

 

FWIW, I've been to Rome twice -- once in late October and once it late November -- and it was hot then! Can't imagine it in the summer.

 

Enjoy Florence and the rest of your trip!

[rodenboy]

I don't want to quote the entire post but I really really do hope they decide to put the "escape room" and the "silent disco" on Harmony!!

[BlessedMimi]

This is the most entertainingly well written review I have read! I am loving it since I will be on the October 27th Trans Atlantic sailing! Thanks so much for taking time on your honeymoon to share with us!

[nolyana]

Day 5 Evening

 

 

Day 5 Dinner review -- Chops. We have history with Chops. We liked it, and we’ve had some nice meals with good memories on other ships from years past (perhaps one of our favorite being when a shoe fell on the roof of the outdoor seating of the Chops on Oasis one year). But, as the price has increased, and the selection decreased, we’ve actually stopped going, electing other options. While the meal is good, it isn’t worth the price with other specialty dining options. But, as must complete the “Eat the Anthem” challenge, so we booked it.

 

We had seen the inside of Chops on Day 1 en route to the Prime Table, like the rest of Anthem, the room and ambiance was great. Service was fantastic as well, which has been consistent on the ship. We had decided we were going to go “baller” on this meal, and order a lobster. I was curious how the cold water lobsters would be, and we got shorted on our lobster in our Grande night since it was on the non-lobster menu. And it's our honeymoon, so bring on the up charge pleasures!

 

 

In order to make sure we got off that terrorist watch list we think the Coastal Kitchen waitress put us on for not eating enough, we ordered quite a bit – shrimp cocktail, scallops (I must note – these came with 3, not 2 like the pictures had, but I was a few cocktails in and DW was hungry so we forgot to take pictures again so we had to reconstruct things. Seriously you people need to appreciate what we're doing here, it is very hard to train yourself to photograph food before eating, plus we get a LOT of weird looks from people and explaining my live blog to them will make me seem even weirder), carpaccio, a beef short rib, a 9 oz. filet, a lobster, and sides (spinach, mashed, mushrooms). All of the food was excellent. No complaints on any of it – everything was properly prepared and food quality is good. Dessert was the mud slide (pictured) and a molten chocolate cake with bananas and coconut iced cream. The molten cake was the better of the two.

 

 

So – why my beef (pun intended) with Chops? For $39 cover charge, it just doesn’t justify the cost to me, particularly since the lobster was another $21 upcharge. While totally different cuisine, we got the same culinary pleasure from Jamie’s for far less. That’s not to say it’s bad. I just don’t think it is the value of some of the other options on the ship. We’ll likely go back to passing on it in the future again. Glad we went, but it affirmed that there are better options to have.

 

Following dinner, we were off to see We Will Rock You. To be honest, we were completely unfamiliar with the show, but excited nonetheless. One of my best friends in high school was a huge Queen fan and got me into them, so a show based on the music of Queen was primed for high marks. And it was a fantastic show. The leads were fantastic, the music fantastic, and the dancers excellent. I’m not a huge fan of musicals (major exception being Phantom, which is the best, but everyone knows that, and if you disagree, a Punjab lasso for you!), but DW is a fan, and we both loved every minute of it. Major props for the show. Very impressive production and up there with Hairspray as our favorite Royal productions thus far.

 

 

Following that, we decided to go gambling and then finally spent some major time in the Music Hall (it was in DJ mode). The Music Hall really is a fantastic venue – it is well designed, two stories, and two big bars. It was a little funny on the demographics – the vast majority of kids dancing were 16-22 or so, we were the “old people” on the dance floor in our early 30’s. The bulk of people are our age and older were at the bar proceeding to get hammered, which many on this cruise are doing (all the Europe cruisers get the drink package included and seem to make good use of it). We had a blast until 2 AM when we decided to have late night drunk pizza (for me) and late night sober pizza (for DW). We observed a rather inebriated fellow caress the pizza server's cheeks as he asked for pizza for himself and his date. I promised not to touch the pizza man if he gave us the good fresh pizza that just came out of the oven. He ended up giving us both the stale pizza and the fresh pizza -- I think he was scared of drunk people at this point and just wanted to be left along. After some well deserved pizza we called it a night.

 

 

I will try to get my next review up tomorrow or the day after of our Chic dinner and the next comedian. Off to Rome tomorrow to tromp around historical sites while avoiding being pick pocketed. Cheers all!

 

Hi,

We're from Australia following your blog with great interest as we're going on the 1st of September on the same itinerary. Thank you for the postings and pictures. Could you please tell us how to subscribe to your blog so we can use your advise on our trip. Thanks again.

[rodenboy]

Hi,

We're from Australia following your blog with great interest as we're going on the 1st of September on the same itinerary. Thank you for the postings and pictures. Could you please tell us how to subscribe to your blog so we can use your advise on our trip. Thanks again.

 

 

By replying to the thread you are automatically subscribed. If using a web browser, go to your control panel to see your subscribed threads. If using tapatalk or the CC app, click subscribed in the main menu!

[Yorkvillain]

I'm loving this review. Great job!

[Trixie21]

We were on anthem in June this year so I am loving your views of the ship - we also did all the Rome ports 2 years ago so again very interesting reading about your experiences. Great review!

[thejewgernaut]

Hello everyone! Back from a lovely day in Florence. I am typing away the latest for you all while DW showers and gets ready for dinner (which means I should have 3 hours or so) but first, a little bragging...

 

Yesterday, we were greeted by a pair of these waiting for us:

 

 

 

Sorry the picture is a little sucky, we used an iPhone and the lithographs really screw with the autofocus. It is tough to see, but the north star is actually at a 45 degree angle off of the ship. Maybe I'll try to get a proper backdrop beyond our sofa to photograph it properly at some point.

[thejewgernaut]

Day 7 Dinner – American Icon Grill

 

So, we had finally made it back to real air conditioning - man did the ship feel good once we got on, although we, and everyone else, reeked of sweat and grime. We all had a grim understanding amongst our fellow passengers, the first rule about sweat club is don’t talk about the fact we all smell like sweat. DW and I got back to the room for what may have been one of the best showers of my life. I had forgotten what it felt like to be clean and cool.

 

Anyhow, we grabbed a drink and headed to dinner to see if we could get seated early. We had reservations for 8, but wanted to see the headliner at 9, so we strolled in at 7 PM, which we thought would be prime time and hard to be seated at. However, the place was deserted. I’m not sure if it is because everyone was hot and tired, or people didn’t want to eat there, or what, but it was half full when we got there, half full when we left.

 

On to the food! Bread at American Icon was corn muffins and this foldover thing with a bit of cheese baked on. Both were good. No special dip here, just good old American butter. Maybe they made it with extra fat or something to keep with the theme.

 

Now a quick rant. Please be warned, that while at this point of reading, you probably have come to admire me and my work, thinking me a selfless man, and DW a saintly woman, as we provide you a blow by blow of this great ship and our trip so that you might better plan for your future vacation. But I have a dark side. I am a cocktail snob. I love my alcohol, and I love good alcohol. So be warned, the side of me you’re about to see should not color your judgment or cause you to unsubscribe from this thread. If you’re of the faint of heart, just skip down to the pictures after the end of the cocktail rant.

 

Start: Obnoxious Cocktail rant

 

As I’ve noted, and as many of you know, Royal redid some of their cocktail program for the Quantum class. Every restaurant (complementary and specialty) has custom cocktails, and most venues do too. Now, many are typical sugary vacation drinks (blue Hawaii/goombay smash/etc type drinks) which are standard fare on the boat. However, there’s also usually a gem or two of creativity on each menu (even if the Chic ones were both out of stock). I think it is great that they are customizing the drink experience and I like that they have a mix of options for all palettes and drinkers. One of the real winners was a “Smoke and Mirrors” at 270 which is a bourbon drink with smoke infused syrup which was awesome. American Icon had a “Buttered Popcorn Sazerac” which was a modified sazerac with buttered popcorn infused syrup. All right then, let’s try that, since the other drink was such a hit. I was told by the bartender it was “very good.” She returned with a drink that immediately set my teeth on edge. Strike One: it was pink. I don’t even know how a sazerac turns pink. If there was a child services for drinks I would have immediately contacted them for this offense against mixology. Strike Two: it was full of ice. A sazerac is served neat. Strike Three: it tasted horrific, sugary sweet, overly licorice flavored (I think they went crazy with the absinthe bitters they were using since they likely didn’t make it properly with an actual absinthe rinse), and not a hint of popcorn. I was very sad. I almost wondered if it was the wrong drink. I couldn’t even have more than 3 sips, which for me is rare. Anyway, for more drink critiques I’ll do a longer post when I finish up of what I tried and the overall program. Let’s get back to dinner.

 

End: Obnoxious Cocktail rant

For appetizers, we went with the legendary (at least on the boards) pastrami and cheese turnover, and the baked artichoke (which came in a creamy/breadcrumb sauce and was served in an escargot dish). Both were good and at least somewhat inspired. I preferred the turnover, the artichokes had a slight edge for DW (but she likes cheesy/creamy dishes). Entrée selection in our opinion, was a bit disappointed. But I think honestly this was the result of a combination of two things – first, all of the specialty dining wearing us out on steak, and two, day 7 of constant eating. I considered trying the “pie of the day” – since this is a UK ship, there is a pub pie daily served in all complementary restaurants, but it was just beef sausage. Instead I ended up going with the halibut, and DW did the short rib. Both dishes were solid enough. The halibut was properly cooked, as was the orzo it was on top of, although the sauce was a bit creamy. The short rib did the job, and we were pleased to note that while it was good, the one in Chops was clearly superior meat quality (As it should be). We ended up not finishing either, prompting another skeptical look from the waitress and probably adding a second demerit to our “possible Cruise terrorist for not eating enough” account. For dessert, we went with the candy bar and the mini ice cream sandwiches. The candy bar was good, it was rich but not overly sweet (hard cookie base, peanut butter filing, chocolate top). The ice cream sandwiches were the real winner of the day, however. Soft chocolate cake and surprisingly good ice cream.

 

So – for us, the appetizers and desserts were hits, the mains were solid, and the drink atrocious. Also I should note the service was the weakest we had gotten thus far. Slow to refill water, our server didn’t check on us as much as the other nights. It wasn’t bad service, it was just average.

 

Unfortunately through dinner I was getting a bad headache, which I think was due to the sun and dehydration. We ended up staying in and going to bed early (I actually wrote a bunch last night during this time too, hence the posting spree yesterday) since our wake up today was even earlier.

 

I’ll have a breakfast review of Coastal Kitchen and more about Pisa and Florence soon!

[Cyclospora]

Really enjoying this report. Many thanks for posting :)

[Turtles06]

This is the most entertainingly well written review I have read! I am loving it since I will be on the October 27th Trans Atlantic sailing! Thanks so much for taking time on your honeymoon to share with us!

 

We're on the TA as well. Please come over and join the Roll Call! :)

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2105214

 

And again, huge thanks to the OP (and his wife) for this very entertaining review!

Edited July 25, 2015 by Turtles06

[The Big Booper]

Really enjoying your review.

 

How about a picture of you and DW so we can match that up with the story you are telling. Completes the mind picture.

 

Also, many member reviews of the Anthem complain about the excessive drinking by the passengers on these runs. You sort of skirted this issue and just briefly touched on it. I guess being off on tour all day and going from your cabin after cleaning up right to the dining room you avoided the boisterous crowd.

[BourkeBlogs]

First of all congratulations!

 

Secondly, what a fantastic trip report. We are loving the writing style and there is some great information for us for our TA in October. Thank you for taking time on your trip to keep this updated.

 

I had been trying to find out about the behind the scenes tour! So think will need to keep my eye open on the cruise planner for when this is available to book.

 

Hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday.

[Turtles06]

First of all congratulations!

 

Secondly, what a fantastic trip report. We are loving the writing style and there is some great information for us for our TA in October. Thank you for taking time on your trip to keep this updated.

 

I had been trying to find out about the behind the scenes tour! So think will need to keep my eye open on the cruise planner for when this is available to book.

 

Hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday.

 

Hello! If you are on the Anthem TA (Oct. 27), please come over and join our Roll Call! :)

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2105214

 

Activities and entertainment aren't available to book just yet...

[Newsbuff16]

Congratulations on your marriage!

Loving your review and pictures. We were on the Quantum in April and agree with you assessment of the restaurants...loved Jamie's as well.

 

Your day in Rome was exhausting to read...can't imagine what it was like to do!

[thejewgernaut]

Coda to Day 7:

 

A fun little coda from that evening I want to relay. As many of you know, or have read, there is a part of the Windjammer on the Quantum class ships that is open 24/7. Its existence is somewhat debated, of course, because it isn’t listed in the Cruise Compass. As we all know, if the Cruise Compass doesn’t mention it, it doesn’t exist, right?

 

Intent on solving this mystery (and I wanted some lemonade), DW and I went up the other night to do some investigating. We found that there was an area still active, and the Executive Sous Chef was standing by it. I went up to him “Excuse me chef, but I’ve heard a rumor that the Windjammer is open 24/7. Is that true?” To which he replied (note, he was Jamaican, so imagine that in the response) “I don’t know who told you that mon, but I do know that we’ll be serving food here until breakfast.” We went on to ask him why it wasn’t advertised, and he said “Bars don’t need to list that they have alcohol. You want food, you go to where the food comes from!” For those curious, it was hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, some cold salads, cookies, and then there’s one rotating special item (one night it was baked brie, another night it was a chicken and pork pie). So there you go!

[thejewgernaut]

Day 8: La Spezia (Florence)

 

Another morning to wake up early for adventuring across the Med. What a terrible life we lead! We decided to try to sneak into Coastal Kitchen because we were up and didn’t want to have to wake up early on day 10 for our “appointment” there. They kindly let us in. I was looking forward to this breakfast because I was on a bit of a quest. You see, in my opinion, while Royal has a number of “good” breakfast options, they don’t really have any “great” ones (think: breakfast at a Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton if you’re tracking my train of thought). I was curious if Coastal Kitchen would crack the “glass ceiling” of breakfast options.

 

Coastal Kitchen Breakfast Review

 

Much like the other meals there, the Coastal Kitchen service was excellent. They offered you mixed Danish, which are the same you can get in Café 270. A fun find I had was that their orange juice appeared to be fresh squeezed. It certainly was way better than the machine stuff. The menu was pretty similar to American Icon, but it did feature a few new items – including a breakfast flatbread and a frittata. DW went with pancakes (her favorite) and I decided to try the frittata. While the presentation was a bit meh for mine, both were very good - the pancakes dusted with cinnamon sugar and the maple syrup was real, and the frittata had a nice texture and fresh ingredients. So while it did not quite break the barrier into “great,” it was an upgrade over other options. We’re going to try to see if we can eat there one more time for breakfast, as I’m curious how their other options stack up. But I will say if their quality is consistent it does shine as a distinct upgrade, particularly because it is free.

 

 

On to Pisa and Florence!

 

This time we were doing the “Independent Pisa and Florence with Smart Device” Excursion. At least I think that’s what it was called. I know it had some combination of those words in it. We trooped on to our bus, and found while the AC was better than the Rome transfer bus, it definitely had seen more wear and tear. Nearly every row had gum crammed into the trays in front of it that I could see (seriously, I started to keep track of color and location before it grossed me out and I abandoned that bit of trivia). Other than that it was a good bus and a good guide. We headed to Pisa first, where we had 45 minutes to run around taking pictures. This was fairly straight forward, although disaster struck when my camera’s memory card went bad right at the end, losing all of my work, including the mandatory “DW holding up the leaning tower” – and trust me, I spent way too much time trying to make that picture work. I had backup cards, but was pretty bummed. Hopefully I can salvage the files later when I am home. We hustled back to the bus just in time to beat an oncoming thunderstorm, and our bus drove action movie style away from lightning strikes and torrential rain. Not really, but it sounds cooler than to say we drove through light rain on to Florence.

 

 

 

 

Now, here comes the “Smart Device” part. En route from Pisa to Florence, we all were issued Samsung phones that were preloaded with various features, including maps and internet. It would route you back to the meeting point (helpful, except it wouldn’t route you anywhere else), it had GPS (but it was pure GPS, not device assisted GPS, so it actually was poor and never knew where you were facing and was only good for rough approximations), the guide could message you (and you could see where the guide was), which was helpful for shaming people who were running late, and it had internet but it wouldn’t let you open more than one tab at a time and it wouldn’t save tabs if you accidentally clicked off of it. So, calling it a “smart device” maybe was a bit overkill, I’d say more “C student device” but we picked the excursion for the independence, not the technology.

 

Off we went to Florence. Unfortunately, we couldn’t figure out what time we’d be there to book Academmia or Uffizi tickets, so we instead decided we’d get a good Italian meal and then walk around. For those curious, we got there about 12 and had until 3:30. If you booked tickets around ~1 or so, you would have been fine. I also should note it was pouring at this point – so we quickly sought lunch and ended up going to La Cantinetta, right by the Duomo, which was well rated by Trip Advisor, and didn’t have wifi or outdoor seating (which likely meant the food was its main draw, not the view). The menu also was not your usually red sauce / white sauce / Americanized Italian, so we had high hopes, which were met. We started with bruschetta, and then I went with the wild boar fettuccini (pictured) and DW went with the marsala ravioli. They also had a lot of fresh Italian meats they were freshly slicing. We highly recommend it. A few quick walk arounds and pictures, a quick stop for gelato again at Perche No?, and then back on the bus.

 

 

Florence wasn’t nearly as intense as Rome, but it was again a nice sampling of Pisa and Florence. The bus transfers were much longer – the trip back was about 1:45. The tour guide did a nice job. All that said, we were pretty drained from two days of sightseeing in the heat and humidity. Nonetheless, we needed to rally, for a dinner at Silk and a date with the hypnotist awaited. Ok, let’s be honest, there was no way either of us was going up on stage, but we sure were going to laugh at the people who did.

 

More to come later of course!

[Susie51]

Thank you for your extensive blog.

[JC2922]

Thank you.:)

[Peeker28]

Do you know how late the bionic bar is open?

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Congratulations!! Sounds like you are having a wonderful honeymoon and great start to your marriage!! Anthem sounds amazing! (We loved the Quantum!) Can't wait to read the rest! Thanks for doing this!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[LuCruise]

Great review! Looks like an awesome cruise!

[aussielozzie18]

Enoying your live report immensely.

[sauvichick]

Congratulations on your marriage and Happy Honeymooning! I am loving your live review and your wife's fantastic collage photos. My favorite parts are your reviews of all the restaurants. A Quantum class ship may make the cut for next year's cruise so thank you.

Edited July 27, 2015 by sauvichick

[thejewgernaut]

 

I have two questions regarding the iFly, maybe you can help me:

 

1. If you want to have a another session/more minutes, can you buy e.g. 10minutes? Do you know the pricing, maybe it is shown on the TV system?

 

2. I have booked both of us into different slots - her slot starting at 10.20 and mine at 11:00. We want to be outside the channel to take pictures - will this timing work, do you have any ideas on that?

 

Thanks so much and enjoy the cruise!

 

We went up today to ask them about #1. Turns out they currently do NOT offer private lessons. I talked to the manager (not on purpose) and he said he's been trying to convince them to allow that but no go so far. Right now you can only do 1 free 1 minute flight (booked), then you can fly repeatedly on "standby" if you want to wait around a lot.

 

I imagine you'll see this change in the upcoming months, but that's the current state of things.