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Live from Anthem with Autism on the Seas

bcsurvivor05
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bcsurvivor05

bcsurvivor05

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Check in was amazingly easy! we arrived at the port about 10:30 am and met a rep from autism on the seas right outside and pretty much walked right in. We were on the boat by 11 and eating in the windjammer by 11:30. We have our own section in the back so it is pretty quiet for our kids. For those of you who do not know autism on the seas is a group that travels on different cruises and offers assistance to families with special needs children. I highly recommend traveling with them if you have a child with special needs.

 

 

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maggie416

maggie416

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Hey everyone. Just boarded Anthem for a 5 day to Bermuda. If anyone wants pictures or has questions let me know. I'll post daily!

 

 

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Absolutely!!! We love The Anthem and can't wait till our next cruise on her next April!

Marg

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bcsurvivor05

bcsurvivor05

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Day 1 recap....

 

Got on the ship by 11:00 and had lunch in the windjammer. Food was great. Much better then carnival and a larger selection. I even thought the pizza was good (and I'm from ny).

 

We wondered the ship and got somewhat acquainted. Made our way to the sea plex and went on the bumper cars. There was no line so they let us stay on longer. It was great!

 

Autism on the seas has a private mister drill so we got through that pretty painlessly.

 

We like to watch sail away from our own balcony and it was fabulous. Going under The verrizano bridge was pretty cool I have to say. It almost felt like we could touch it (we are on the 13th floor).

 

We walked around the lower decks to try to find our way around and did the robotic bar. We don't drink but we're able to get some non-alcoholic drinks which was nice and my daughter loved it. She thought it was the coolest thing ever!

 

Dinner was at the grande tonight. If you don't want to dress up but want to try the grande do it on day 1. There is no dress code so it is the best of both worlds! The food was fabulous! I had the shrimp cocktail, French onion soup and surf and turf. One note on that...the surf was 2 pieces of shrimp...also on the menu was lobster tails...add that to the meal for a real surf and turf experience. All was cooked perfectly. For dessert for me was Creme brûlée. Kids menu was nice too. My daughter had Mac and cheese ( which was pretty good I must say...of course I had to try it to make sure it wasn't poisoned [emoji12])

 

We didn't make it to the show tonight as my daughter was ready for bed and when your child with special needs says they want to go to bed...you run ...don't walk...to the cabin. So my husband is putting her down and I am in the beautiful Solarium waiting for his text to tell me she is sleeping and I will go back and he will hit the casino)

 

Overall we are loving the ship and our experience with autism on the seas.

 

It's a bit rocky tonight but not to bad!

 

My only complaint (and it is not a "real" one but just mine) is leaving out of nj in the cold just seems wrong. Usually I leave from the warmer climates and then you are on the boat listening to calipso music and getting into the cruise mode...here it was to cold to be out by the pool. Again this is no fault of anyone or anything but just was a weird start to my cruise...don't worry...I got over that real

Fast when I had my first daquari [emoji483]

 

 

Now this special needs mom is going to get some serious R&R right now!

 

 

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spfar

spfar

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We were on Anthem 2 weeks ago and there was a large group of special needs adults on our cruise. It was awesome to see the crew interacting with them. They really went out of their way to make the cruise a great experience.

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Pencruise

Pencruise

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Day 1 recap....

 

Got on the ship by 11:00 and had lunch in the windjammer. Food was great. Much better then carnival and a larger selection. I even thought the pizza was good (and I'm from ny).

 

We wondered the ship and got somewhat acquainted. Made our way to the sea plex and went on the bumper cars. There was no line so they let us stay on longer. It was great!

 

Autism on the seas has a private mister drill so we got through that pretty painlessly.

 

We like to watch sail away from our own balcony and it was fabulous. Going under The verrizano bridge was pretty cool I have to say. It almost felt like we could touch it (we are on the 13th floor).

 

We walked around the lower decks to try to find our way around and did the robotic bar. We don't drink but we're able to get some non-alcoholic drinks which was nice and my daughter loved it. She thought it was the coolest thing ever!

 

Dinner was at the grande tonight. If you don't want to dress up but want to try the grande do it on day 1. There is no dress code so it is the best of both worlds! The food was fabulous! I had the shrimp cocktail, French onion soup and surf and turf. One note on that...the surf was 2 pieces of shrimp...also on the menu was lobster tails...add that to the meal for a real surf and turf experience. All was cooked perfectly. For dessert for me was Creme brûlée. Kids menu was nice too. My daughter had Mac and cheese ( which was pretty good I must say...of course I had to try it to make sure it wasn't poisoned [emoji12])

 

We didn't make it to the show tonight as my daughter was ready for bed and when your child with special needs says they want to go to bed...you run ...don't walk...to the cabin. So my husband is putting her down and I am in the beautiful Solarium waiting for his text to tell me she is sleeping and I will go back and he will hit the casino)

 

Overall we are loving the ship and our experience with autism on the seas.

 

It's a bit rocky tonight but not to bad!

 

My only complaint (and it is not a "real" one but just mine) is leaving out of nj in the cold just seems wrong. Usually I leave from the warmer climates and then you are on the boat listening to calipso music and getting into the cruise mode...here it was to cold to be out by the pool. Again this is no fault of anyone or anything but just was a weird start to my cruise...don't worry...I got over that real

Fast when I had my first daquari [emoji483]

 

 

Now this special needs mom is going to get some serious R&R right now!

 

 

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Hi, we also boarded yesterday and yes it was quite chilly for sailaway but lovely views sailing out. This morning it is much warmer and hopefully the sun may come out later. Seas have smoothed out a lot and we are looking forward to a relaxing day at sea. We dined at Chops last night and it was excellent.

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UnMe4ever2gether

UnMe4ever2gether

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Hey everyone. Just boarded Anthem for a 5 day to Bermuda. If anyone wants pictures or has questions let me know. I'll post daily!

 

 

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Please post a pic of the current margarita glass. I've been collecting them. I like to see how they have changed over the years. We will be on the 11/10 cruise. Thank you.

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bcsurvivor05

bcsurvivor05

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Day 2...at sea

 

It was a rough start to the day. My husband was sea sick during the night which kept both of us up. Thankfully my daughter slept though it all but she got up at 4:25 am and we were roaming the ship by 6am. FYI the only place to find food at that time of the morning is in cafe promenade. And that is just coffee, tea and some muffins etc. nothing else opens until at least 7.

I am not going to lie...the windjammer let me down this morning. They have an amazing buffet with tons to choose from but the taste of the food left a lot to e desired. I ended up with a bowl of fruit loops. Lunch is pretty amazing there though I do have to admit.

 

Anyway. In my opinion the beds are horrible. Royal spared no expense except on the beds...so hard!!! We asked our room steward to put extra padding on it which she did so we'll see if that makes a difference tonight.

 

So a wonderful and calm day at sea. It was cloudy and misty this morning but turned out to be a really nice day. We had some staff assisted pool time with autism on the seas. It is so nice to know that you can actually enjoy your vacation while having help with your special needs child. It has been such a great experience.

 

We were supposed to do the rock wall today but it was closed due to the wind. Hopefully we will be able to try again another day.

 

We were given some respite time today (which is basically babysitting) so we were able to just be a couple and reconnect which is so rare these days. We spent the entire time in the solarium. It is so nice in there. The boat does not seem overly crowded this week. We are always able to find chairs no matter where or what time we go.

 

Bad thing we have found is that the bathrooms are pretty far apart and not well placed. For example... if you are in the granite the only bathroom appears to be in the casino. If you're not a person who likes the smell of smoke this becomes an issue especially if you have a child that needs to go through the smoke to get to the bathroom. Speaking of smoking they do have some designated smoking areas outside. One is on the main outdoor pool deck. It honestly is not too much of an issue except when you forget which side of the boat you were on and wind up walking through it with very little notice. Overall I have not smelled smoke any place other than in the normal places for example that casino.

 

Tonight and eat dinner in silk. I do not recommend that at all. Food was a bit spicy and very fishy. I definitely would not recommend this to anyone and I have heard bad reviews about that particular restaurant from other people.

 

Tonight we went to see spectra cabaret. It was one of the most amazing shows I think I've ever seen on a cruise ship. There is so much going on you do not know where to look. The technology is nothing short of amazing. Only bad thing is that in two 70 there are way too many seats that have obstacles in front of you. This is definitely an issue for the show.

 

Overall we absolutely love the ship and would recommend her to anyone. Tomorrow we are finally in Bermuda. I have never been there so I am very excited about it.

 

 

 

 

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Capp720

Capp720

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We were on 2 weeks ago to Bermuda. We had such a great time and really miss the Anthem.I would wake up early and jog before the family woke. I enjoyed the Windjammer for breakfast but one of my daughters would eat fruit loops each day. Thanks for posting and hope you have nice weather for rest of your cruise.

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bcsurvivor05

bcsurvivor05

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Ok I fell asleep before I was able to post last night.

 

Day 3: Bermuda

 

Weather was absolutely perfect. Oh huge mental note...if you get breakfast in bed...don't do it morning of a time change. We had it set for 6:30-7 and they call first. So at 6:45 (which to my body was 5:45) the phone rings right next to my head and scared us all. My daughter was "off" the rest of the day.

 

Moving on...

 

Autism in the seas had us go to stingray beach which was walking distance from the pier. We had an amazing 2 hours with their staff playing and helping our families. I have never been so relaxed in my life. We came back on the boat by around 12 and ate lunch. Then we hung out by the outdoor pool. It was pretty empty which is what we love about being on the ship during port days. The ice cream machine had vanilla today (Yey) so we helped ourselves to that and got ready for our flow rider session. We had a private session through autism on the seas which was awesome. They had so much patience with our kids and they each got to go twice (some 3 times). The parents were able to go as well. All of the kids (and parents) did great. We tried to get on north star but we were wet and apparently all of the controls are in the floor so it any water gets into it there is a huge problem. Not an issue because we have a private session with autism on the seas on Thursday. We just wanted views from Bermuda instead of the Atlantic Ocean.

 

After that we changed for dinner. Tonight was in the chops grille. A bit disappointing again...it was like wedding food.

 

As I said I passed out pretty early so I didn't to to much else.

 

I can say that many people were having problems with their soda cups today . You need this specific soda cup in order to use the soda machines...believe it or not there is a chip in the cup they the machine reads and knows that it is a valid cup. Modern technology at its best !! Anyone who had or had a problem just had to go to guest services for either a new cup or a sticker with a chip to be placed on the cup.

 

So far our only complaint about the ship is that the bathrooms are so far from each other. But overall the ship is amazing!

 

 

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les37b

les37b

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My eldest has type 1 diabetes and is autistic. We notified Carnival under medical conditions. We needed a sharps box for needles, but mentioned his autism just to advise.

 

When we boarded we were given priority boarding .... I was actually physically the first person on the ship at embarkation in Barcelona on the Vista. We also had the private muster drill, though we did also go to the main drill. We didn't really need any extra help ... though the fact they did, full kudos. I'm not a fan of Carnival (there is a lot not to like IMHO) but hats off to them for their customer service there.

 

 

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