Anthem of the Seas - 15th July - thoughts on cruise.

[Dinglebert]

This I imagine will be briefish.  Its a overview of our cruise, highs, lows and inbetweens.

 

Background

 

This was never the cruise we were going on.  We had booked two weeks P+O from Southampton to the Canaries.  However Covid, Cancer and children meant the change was made.  Basically our two youngest adult children made mention of how much they were looking forward to their summer holiday with us.  Problem with that was they weren't meant to be going.

So I moved P+O to next year same time and booked the Anthem of the Seas for a week going from Southampton to La Rochelle, Bilboa, La Corona and of course Le Harve which they insist is Le Harve(Paris)

I would never have chosen Anthem normally as I have this idea I don't like big ships.  Our last biggish one was Navigator and I didn't really enjoy Navigator.  Everyone congregating in what I knew as the shopping street.  However Anthem was a pleasant surprise.  Yes, its big but its also manageable most of the time.  Lots of sitting places, lots of different bars etc.

The ship was full and on sea days you could really tell.  A 1000 children on board.  There was on sea days the dreadful hogging of the sunbeds.  However Royal were going around removing the things if they were not sat on for an hour.  They didn't do it on port days only sea days.  It did help.

The Ship:   Anthem has a number of "selling points", the North Star, the Dodgems, the bionic bar (although I know other ships also have this).  None of them made much of an impression for us in reality.  the North Star we did on a port day. It was average.  The rest of the ship however I did enjoy.

Staff:

Staff were as per usual very outwardly friendly and helpful.  I sure they really don't actually like us but they do put on a good act!

The staff live and die by their ratings on the customer reviews.  This time as before we got the whole need a 10 speel not once but on four different occasions.  Twice by the main waiter (think he forgot he did it the night before, once by the head waiter and once as an speaker annoucemnet as the chefs paraded the restaurant.  I had no issues with the waiting staff.  Indeed the assistant waiter was replacing my Chandon before I finished the previous one by night three.

Bar staff were excellent.

 

Entertainment

 

Entertainment was mostly good.  We will rock you was OK, definately not theatre quality but watchable.

There was in the 270 a thing called Spectres Caberet which linked all the electronic wizardy with singing and dancing.  I didn't find anyone who knew what was going on.  Remove the wizardy and it was a bit average.

The big band were excellent.

The visiting artists were very good in particular Jamie Allan the magician who we had seen before a few years ago.  He is mainly sleight of hand and is outstanding at it.  

 

Port stops

 

We did not do any of the tours.  Just went off and into the towns.  Bilbao was 44 degrees when we were there so a tad on the hot side.  Worth visiting them all for different reasons but the locations were not our focus when booking.

 

Food

 

I think this was our biggest let down from previous cruises.  The main dining room food was just not that great as compared to previous years.  One of the party is veggie and there was only ever one choice on the menu.  There is a separate vegan menu which he did choose from at points.  Yes I know you can ask for anything but that does involve being proactive 24 hours before.

Windjammer is imho the best buffet around compared to others.  It was however jammed at points with staff searching for tables.

If we sail with Royal again, which is likely then we would be buying the dining package.

Cabin

 

We were fortunate to get the Royal up from inside to balcony.  Very cheap way of doing it.  Kids had an inside, the vitual balony was a bit of a waste of time as far as they were concerned.

 

My one change of opinion.

 

I have always advocated up till now dressing for the formal evenings.  Out comes the kilt.   It did on day 2 as per normal.   However I did feel very out of place.  We had early sitting and I would estimate only 20% were in formal dress and around another 20% in long sleeves.  Everyone else was in the same style of dress as per a normal evening.  I think there were more for second sitting but I did feel with Royal that its thing of the past.  We didn't do it second formal night.

Overall for many different reasons we needed this holiday and enjoyed it (probably rereading it doesn't come over that I did)-

For the same covid and cancer reasons we have another 3 cruises prebooked and moved over the next year.  Countdown for October now in place.

 

Second Last thought

 

I am never ever driving to Southampton from the Borders again.  Going down was OK, driving back yesterday for absolutely awful.   From Southampton to the Lake District I worked out after we got home was an average speed of 33 miles an hour.  After lakes it go going.  Looking at flights now for next July.

 

Last thought
We were part of a FB group for this cruise. Since returning a rather large number have posted that they have tested postive and showing the tests for some reason.

I would be very surprised if it happened to us as were are all just through it a month ago. However it is a big possiblity at present of it transmitting on the ships. There were 4000 plus people on a floating tin can with no distancing.

[Sancho_proudfoot]

Thanks for the honest review, very helpful  as we're  onboard in September.   

 

Sad news about the formal night's, we both enjoy the "dressing up " part.

 

Fingers crossed over covid-19.  Triple-jabbed, ( and I've had it recently) regularly  PCR tested  (until last month also blood tested for antigens monthly ).

[la_croisiere_s'amuse]

9 minutes ago, Sancho_proudfoot said:

Sad news about the formal night's, we both enjoy the "dressing up " part.

 

Sancho,  DH and I also enjoy getting dressed up and having formal night pictures taken on every cruise. Yes, we are definitely in the minority but I don't let it discourage us. Besides, we typically get several compliments and if some of the other passengers think we're loonies, at least they keep it to themselves. 😉 So my advice would be, if you enjoy dressing up, GO FOR IT!!  ☺️

Edited July 23, 2022 by la_croisiere_s'amuse

[la_croisiere_s'amuse]

33 minutes ago, Dinglebert said:

However Anthem was a pleasant surprise.  Yes, its big but its also manageable most of the time.  Lots of sitting places, lots of different bars etc.

I'm glad you decided to give her a chance, and glad your experience was overall a positive one! 🙂