Live Blogging Anthem of the Seas July 18 sailing!

[thejewgernaut]

Day 8 Review – Silk Dinner

 

Silk was one of the complimentary restaurants I was particularly looking forward to trying. Reading the reviews here, it seemed people loved it or hated it, which of course intrigued me. I am a huge fan of Asian food of all types, so the concept appealed, but of course execution is always the question.

 

Silk is one of the coolest decorated of the complimentary restaurants. We had another odd seating arrangement, where we were literally separated by a British family of 4 by about 3 inches. Seeing the arrangement, I greeted them “Hello new friends!” to which one of them replied “You’re late for dinner, we started without you!” They were a good natured group and we chit chatted a bit throughout the meal. The eldest of their group had been on a few cruises, but it was a first time for many of them, and they were loving the ship.

 

Anyhow, back to Silk. You also know you’re not in traditional dining land anymore when they give you a plate of prawn crackers for the table instead of bread. The menu was also a nice change of pace, after a few days of somewhat repetitive dishes, we suddenly had new options. We decided to order a bunch and sample everything, partly due to indecisiveness, partly due to deliciousness (or at least potential deliciousness). We started with vegetable pakora (good, particularly considering how getting decent fried food in a banquet meal can be a challenge), seaweed salad (standard but good), and seared tuna, which was bad. It seemed like they used a low cut grade of fish, didn’t cook it enough, so it had a slimy texture. I had a bite after DW warned me something was up with it and we pushed it aside. Honestly I didn’t say anything to our server and probably should have if only to figure out if it was a bad cut we got unluckily or a bad dish. But we had so much food I wasn’t overly concerned. For entrees we went with tiger prawn korma (I really enjoyed it and DW actually sorta liked it, which is high praises for her when it comes to Indian food) and asian style duck, which was duck with pancakes and hoison, but no scallions sadly. The duck was also quite good. Entrees were also served with papadum and naan.

 

 

 

Finally for dessert we continued our “all in” style with a lychee chocolate cake (more chocolate than lychee, but good), this matcha strawberry pound cake (bottom right corner picture) with yuzu sorbet, which was awesome, and a Thai peanut cheesecake, which was pretty good as well. In full disclaimer, we ended up only eating a few bites of each. Also DW wants me to note that we can't remember the exact names of the desserts, so apologies for that.

 

 

 

(top row:pakora, seaweed salad, tuna. Mid row: duck, prawn korma. Bottom row: prawn crackers, chocolate lychee cake, thai peanut, matcha pound cake)

 

Overall – our second best of the “big four” (behind Grande). We really enjoyed it and will go back a second time later in the cruise. The dishes were definitely adventurous for RC and I’m impressed they rolled it into a single menu, but with a backstop of the “classics” which are the same every night everywhere, it seems to work.

 

Following dinner, we headed off to watch the hypnotist, Chris Caress. I’m a big fan of hypnotist shows, Flip Orley comes through our town fairly often and does a great show, and Anthony Cools in Vegas is a ton of fun. Hypnotism is a fascinating concept, particularly in stage settings. My friends have gone up and volunteered and been in shows in Vegas before, and indicated that whatever was going on, it was legit. I was curious how it would work on a ship and the answer was the same as on land: freaking hilarious. Excellent act, one of the few headlines that has drawn us thus far but really a great show.

 

It was our last early night, since we had a day at Provence (and another wake up call), so we called it early. I am pretty sure I funded another dealer’s college education before then. The casino has been a cruel mistress this trip.

 

That's all I have for you for now. I need to get photos set up from our lovely day in Provence and then our awesome experience at Wonderland. Coming soon! Today we were at sea and tomorrow we're at Cadiz for some sherry tasting and tapas tasting.

[thejewgernaut]

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.

 

We'll find a good picture to post... plus you can see we're still normal sized people despite all the eating!

 

As far as the crowd, honestly I've thought this is a better behaved crowd than some of the ones I've had sailing out of the US. Everyone is definitely drinking a LOT, but I haven't seen anything crazy or anyone out of control (yet). In general it seems to be a beer/cider drinking crowd which maybe is keeping it tamer than heavy hard liquor? What has given me a chuckle is that you see all ages drinking -- from 18 (which keeps throwing me off) to 90. But the late night scene, as others have posted, is more about the bars than the dancing. The bars are PACKED.

[adpiterp]

/QUOTE]

 

One of the best reviews I've read - you are hilarious and great pictures! And hey, I'm close to you in Silver Spring and hilarious username (my hubs loves it). Can't stop laughing silently at work. My coworkers think I'm crazy.

 

Enjoy your honeymoon!

Edited July 27, 2015 by adpiterp

[thejewgernaut]

And a quick good morning from Cadiz! We had a slightly later docking so we were able to hop on deck and even ride the North Star (pics coming on that, I took them on my regular camera). But, here's a quick shot of the city.

 

[thejewgernaut]

Day 9 – Marseilles

 

Day 9 dawned with us pulling into the port city of Marseilles. It was the end of the trio of doom of stops, that is to say, early wakeups followed by all day sightseeing. I believe we did breakfast in 270, and don’t have anything notable to report. For Marseilles, we had elected the “Villages of Provence” excursion. This would take us to Les Baux, which is a small village on a mountain, and Saint-Remy, another cute town. Several of my family members had raved about Saint-Remy, so we were looking forward to getting a bit off the beaten path – at least as much as you can when taking an official excursion.

 

Worth noting, with no real point, is the vast majority of excursions were headed to Aix en Provence and Cassis – probably 10 or so busses worth of people. That meant we were either super cool or super dumb for not doing that. Nonetheless, we loaded up onto the bus and began another tour. This bus, unlike the Florence one, was by far the nicest we’d had yet, and our French guide sternly noted that there was to be no eating or drinking on the bus. She ran a tight, clean ship. Or bus. Or whatever.

 

En route to the first village, I started reading my kindle because there wasn’t a whole lot of countryside to look at. I tuned out the guide, but picked up a few odd comments – “We’re stopping at this place that your ship doesn’t mention is part of the tour” – “it’s called the Cathedral of Luminaries” – “Abandoned old stone quarry” – “it has a show.” You can imagine that my brain was piecing these together and sounding at least a yellow alert. We arrived at a cliff face and moved through a ticket kiosk area, and suddenly were thrust into some sort of crazy world. Huge pictures of frescos and crazy intense baroque music (at least I think it was that. You know, the big, doomlike organ music) was playing.

 

The Cathedral of Luminaries is, in fact, an abandoned old stone quarry – a giant empty cave. It has been converted into a series of projectors and speakers and they have various custom “shows” that are projected on the now blank white stone walls. It was actually quite spectacular and cool. The current main show focused on the works of Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci – sadly, Donatello did not make the cut. As a quick aside, we were quite disappointed that we didn’t get to complete the “Ninja Turtle Art Tour” and find any works of Donatello. I think he had some in the Uffizi in Florence, but as I noted, it was not meant to be. Anyway, we walked in at the “End” of the show, which was showing Michelangelo’s works with an epic sound track in the background. After watching the show in its entirety (they also had a shorter “intermezzo show” of various weird stuff), we piled back in and headed to Les Baux.

 

(top - panorama of the countryside from the top of Les Baux. Bottom left - street in Saint-Remy. Middle right - Cathedral of Luminaries. Bottom Right - Marseille old town, cathedral and marina)

 

 

 

Les Baux is one of those “you need to see it” type places, I’ve tried to capture a few photos below. It was a cute little town with spectacular views, numerous restaurants and several shops. The only issue is that we had about 75 minutes to eat, we got there at 11:30 so very little was open, the restaurant staff didn’t speak much English, and what they did convey is that they could NOT guarantee they’d get us done in time to catch our bus, and there was no way they would rush things for us. They were polite about this, but firm. This led to a little bit of marital friction as our plans for a nice French meal fell apart, but we were able to find a quick sandwich and made a recovery in Saint-Remy.

 

We arrived at Saint-Remy and found that there was a wine festival in full swing. However, there were two main issues that prevented me from indulging: 1) yet again, language barrier. 2) When I drink, I have to pee. A lot. And it was an hour ride back to the ship. Alas! We were, however, able to recover from this issue and our previous lunch fail by securing a delicious dessert of crepes. We walked around some, piled on the bus, and headed back.

 

We actually really enjoyed this tour because of the comparatively few number of tourists. There was only one other bus of tourists in Saint-Remy, and none in Les Baux. While the language barrier was a bit frustrating, it was nice to be in a place that wasn’t catering to the cruise ship invasion. Florence was absolutely overrun with us cruise tour groups (Rome you couldn’t tell, but Florence you were tripping over the 7 or so ships that were in La Spezia), so it was nice to have a quiet, leisurely excursion. Also due to the remoteness of the two villages, it would be a tougher DIY – you’d probably need to rent a car. All that said, highly recommended.

 

Returning to the boat, we hit the gym because we had a big night ahead of us. Right before we went to the gym, the Captain announced that he requested and received permission to take us out the southern route, which would take us right by the old city. I brought my camera with me to the gym (nope, not weird) and DW was assigned a treadmill by the window with the job to get me when we were underway. One of the results of that was the picture in the collage of the city and the cathedral – it was really quite the view.

 

After cleaning up, I was on a mission - having failed to get any rose (the good dry Provence rose, not the sweet stuff) in Provence, we decided on a quick snack at Vintages before dinner with accompanying wine (plus I had some BOGO coupons to burn). I may have blogged this earlier, but unlike other ships, Vintages does their tapas by Jamie’s, and the vast majority of the menu (6/8) is items at Jamie’s. Nonetheless we wanted to give it a try, and we were pleased. Below you can see an arancini (DW attacked it but we’ll pretend we just wanted to show you all what the inside looked like) as well as the giant green olives, which also came with bread and tapenade.

 

 

Coming up next will be our review of Wonderland (awesome, must do for those who are into that sort of thing) and more.

[offshorefriend]

Fantastic review, thank you so much, enjoy your cruise and honeymoon, all the best for both of you!

[thejewgernaut]

/QUOTE]

 

One of the best reviews I've read - you are hilarious and great pictures! And hey, I'm close to you in Silver Spring and hilarious username (my hubs loves it). Can't stop laughing silently at work. My coworkers think I'm crazy.

 

Enjoy your honeymoon!

 

DW is also a terp ('05)- and we are right around the corner from you on the beltway over in Rockville. I appreciate the kind words and am glad someone besides DW thinks I am funny!

[dsrn99]

Seeing that the windjammer serves food until breakfast time, makes me happy! No worries, mon! :D

Edited July 28, 2015 by dsrn99

[Foody]

Fabulous! Thank you!

[choclover]

Hi there! Just a quick note to say that I am really enjoying your review! It's a relief to finally read some positives about the Anthem! We are sailing on the 15th August exactly the same itinerary as you, but so far all the past reviews are mainly negative, it makes us look forward to our cruise more so now....

I do have a quick question for you: I know you can book the main 3 shows in advance, what do you do for the headliner shows and comedians? Do you just turn up or can you pre-book once on board?

Enjoy the rest of your honeymoon and the cruise.

Edited July 28, 2015 by choclover

[thejewgernaut]

Hi there! Just a quick note to say that I am really enjoying your review! It's a relief to finally read some positives about the Anthem! We are sailing on the 15th August exactly the same itinerary as you, but so far all the past reviews are mainly negative, it makes us look forward to our cruise more so now....

I do have a quick question for you: I know you can book the main 3 shows in advance, what do you do for the headliner shows and comedians? Do you just turn up or can you pre-book once on board?

Enjoy the rest of your honeymoon and the cruise.

 

Our experience has been overwhelmingly positive. We love DD. that said - easy to see why it has been so mixed. I will write more about that at the end. I also will write a positive review because of the exact reason you noted.

 

Headliners and 270 comedians are just first come first serve. Usually 2 shows a night for headliners and the 270 shows are usually 1 show a night, 2 days per performance.

 

You will have a blast. She is a great ship.

[1bets1]

Great writing! Where would you say the best spot to hang out in for sail away?

[sammydh82]

Day 6 – At sea

 

A new day dawned, back at sea. We had a relatively calm day planned, a relief after two days of trekking around in the heat. However, we did have Puzzle Break planned, for which I was quite excited. Puzzle Break is one of those “puzzle room” games where you’re “locked” (not really, you can go to the bathroom and all that) into a room and have an hour to solve a variety of puzzles, including physical puzzles (like the kind where you want to make a picture), mental puzzles (crossword, Sudoku, etc), and the like.

 

Hello! Thank you so much for taking the time to do a Live Review and Congratulations on your wedding!!

I was wondering if you had to reserve a spot ahead of time for Puzzle Break or just show up and hope you get to do it? We are really, really wanting to do this on our cruise in May 2016!

[1bets1]

Sammy...I just booked my June 2016 sailing yesterday, and the RC person on the phone never heard of it. I had to call today with another question, and today's person was clueless too. I'm hoping it appears on the cruise compass.

[ratfam]

Hi thanks so much for your fabulous review and congratulations on your marriage! We will be on the same itinerary so I am also very excited to hear not only about your adventures on the ship but also in port. If you don't mind a question, I was wondering about your thoughts on staying in Marseille rather than heading out on an excursion. After the planes/trains/automobiles dealing with the two stops in Italy, we are inclined to stay in port even though some of the nearby areas sound great. We know that Marseille won't be as beautiful as some other areas but we have read good things, interested in what you might have heard from people who stayed in town. Enjoy the rest of your trip!

[bravostar]

Loving your review. Thanks so much.

So did you notice if there are any tables for 2 that have a least a little bit of privacy?

[cruiserking]

Terrific travelogue and pictures. Congratulations on your wedding, reminds me of my wife and I's Transatlantic through Europe.

 

So glad Anthem is doing a silent party, have read about them, looks really fun. The Coastal Kitchen breakfast looks like a must try for breakfast, glad it's comped now, not so on Quantum.

 

Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

 

Jonathan

[thejewgernaut]

Great writing! Where would you say the best spot to hang out in for sail away?

 

Lots of options. The only semi secret is the "wings" above the bridge, accessible via the front of the solarium. Otherwise the usual spots. North Star bar is also really nice.

[thejewgernaut]

Hello! Thank you so much for taking the time to do a Live Review and Congratulations on your wedding!!

I was wondering if you had to reserve a spot ahead of time for Puzzle Break or just show up and hope you get to do it? We are really, really wanting to do this on our cruise in May 2016!

 

You book it at the activities desk in seaplex- which I confess to not knowing the location of, as I just booked it at guest services. Usually 4x a day on sea days.

[Foody]

Thank you once again for the review. As I said earlier in the thread I am boarding on Saturday for the next cruise. I have just read some reviews on here and it has thrown in into a panic! Surely it can't be as bad as they say, I've spent a fortune on this holiday!

It's great to read your positive review, it's helping me to calm down! :)

[Pencruise]

Thank you once again for the review. As I said earlier in the thread I am boarding on Saturday for the next cruise. I have just read some reviews on here and it has thrown in into a panic! Surely it can't be as bad as they say, I've spent a fortune on this holiday!

It's great to read your positive review, it's helping me to calm down! :)

 

Don't you worry, we were on the Anthem for 12 day cruise June 1st - fantastic ship, great food and service. Would not hesitate a moment before cruising her again. You must try Wonderful Restaurant - incredible !!!!

[dani negreanu]

If you don't mind a question, I was wondering about your thoughts on staying in Marseille rather than heading out on an excursion. We know that Marseille won't be as beautiful as some other areas but we have read good things, interested in what you might have heard from people who stayed in town. Enjoy the rest of your trip!

 

If I may ...

There is a free shuttle into town, which Royal takes good care not to say anything about. It is ~15 min walk from the terminal. It leaves you on a spot where u can either walk or take a taxi into town. We walked ~30 min easy walk to the Old (Vieux) Port, took the Petit Train to the Cathedral, strolled around, amazing views, then took the train back, had a nice lunch overlooking the port and took a public bus back to the shuttle stop. The train is 8 € pp, it is fun and it gives u a "taste" of Marseille.

Be sure to take a picture of the shuttle stop :)

[sammydh82]

Sammy...I just booked my June 2016 sailing yesterday, and the RC person on the phone never heard of it. I had to call today with another question, and today's person was clueless too. I'm hoping it appears on the cruise compass.

 

You book it at the activities desk in seaplex- which I confess to not knowing the location of, as I just booked it at guest services. Usually 4x a day on sea days.

 

Awesome! Thank you so much for the info! Looks like we are in luck 1bets1! ;) Now we just have to attempt to beat thejewgernaut's record time :D

[WesternTrader]

The Cathedral of Luminaries is, in fact, an abandoned old stone quarry – a giant empty cave. It has been converted into a series of projectors and speakers and they have various custom “shows” that are projected on the now blank white stone walls. It was actually quite spectacular and cool. The current main show focused on the works of Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci – sadly, Donatello did not make the cut. As a quick aside, we were quite disappointed that we didn’t get to complete the “Ninja Turtle Art Tour” and find any works of Donatello. I think he had some in the Uffizi in Florence, but as I noted, it was not meant to be. Anyway, we walked in at the “End” of the show, which was showing Michelangelo’s works with an epic sound track in the background. After watching the show in its entirety (they also had a shorter “intermezzo show” of various weird stuff), we piled back in and headed to Les Baux.

 

You're on your honeymoon and don't need to be answering these comments, so I'll keep it brief...

1) Congratulations on your wedding- I wish you a long and happy life together

2) Loving the review with the clever picture stitches and entertaining comments

3) Your missing turtle for the set (Donatello) could be found at The Bargello (a statue of David) or not far from where you had lunch - San Lorenzo church, where there is a particularly fine pulpit!

Thanks for taking the time to do this!

WT

[thejewgernaut]

Hi thanks so much for your fabulous review and congratulations on your marriage! We will be on the same itinerary so I am also very excited to hear not only about your adventures on the ship but also in port. If you don't mind a question, I was wondering about your thoughts on staying in Marseille rather than heading out on an excursion. After the planes/trains/automobiles dealing with the two stops in Italy, we are inclined to stay in port even though some of the nearby areas sound great. We know that Marseille won't be as beautiful as some other areas but we have read good things, interested in what you might have heard from people who stayed in town. Enjoy the rest of your trip!

 

DW was actually in Marseilles last year for work, and said the same thing as dani negreanu, so +1 to that.

 

Loving your review. Thanks so much.

So did you notice if there are any tables for 2 that have a least a little bit of privacy?

 

There definitely are some with more space than we've seen, the arrangements are a bit haphazard - we saw several very close to where we were seated in Silk with more privacy that for whatever reason the host didn't sit is in. We didn't want to be rude to our neighbors and after over 2 weeks with each other (we were in London beforehand) we didn't mind making new friends ;) But imagine if it's a priority for you, you could ask them to seat you with some privacy. We've never seen the complimentary restaurants more than half full.

 

So glad Anthem is doing a silent party, have read about them, looks really fun. The Coastal Kitchen breakfast looks like a must try for breakfast, glad it's comped now, not so on Quantum.

 

They are doing another silent party for an hour tonight as well, so that should be fun. Just to be clear, the Coastal Kitchen breakfast took some being very nice to the right people and "it's our honeymoon!" card playing to get. The vibe we've gotten is that if they're not packed (so port days, not sea days) and you don't try to go every day, you can get in there. So if you ask nicely, you have a shot. Again, note this is in a JS, which has dinner privileges there.