LIVE from Anthem of the Seas Transatlantic October 2022

[jimbri]

Great review.  Enjoy!

[Ejb4iv]

We love Anthem and will be on in a few weeks. Random question, do they have diet tonic at any of the bars on board? I hope you’re enjoying your cruise

[FionaMG]

56 minutes ago, njkruzer said:

Yes, pleasant. Always nice to be served. Ordered an omelet, as did dh. He also had oatmeal,  or as the waiter said, porridge! 

Haha, yup, it's porridge to me! AND, like a true Scot, I make it with salt not sugar. 

[FionaMG]

3 hours ago, laurieal said:

Day 1 stateroom mail

 

 

 

It's my first time seeing an exclusive diamond offer for a sailing, but this is only my second diamond sailing. Is this common? 

 

They definitely didn't have this on my Anthem sailing. I think probably it's what @little britain said, to help ease congestion in the D lounge.

[Sunshine3601]

1 hour ago, njkruzer said:

Captain just announced that there's a storm in the Atlantic that he's trying to avoid. Doing 21 knots and staying in touch with Miami.  Yes, I can feel the movement,  though it doesn't bother us.  Slept in but still made it to breakfast in the dining room, American Icon, at about 9:45.  Open till 10 it said.  Dh printed out his Sunday Times puzzle and working on it.  Computers and printer are in the Library,  which has books again, deck 6 above 270.  You have to enter through 270 and take the stairs on port side. Starboard side stairs should also connect.  Daily Sudoko is also up there.

There is also a small elevator near the computer room/library for those they cannot use the steps in 270.  

[laurieal]

18 minutes ago, Ejb4iv said:

We love Anthem and will be on in a few weeks. Random question, do they have diet tonic at any of the bars on board? I hope you’re enjoying your cruise

I was in Two70 when I saw your question and I asked the bartender there. This is what they have on board. He called it the “Slim Line”
 

[Deeliteful]

Following your review as I’m doing a T/A next week on the Jewel from Barcelona to Port Canaveral via Madeira and the Azores. T/As are my favourite cruises, just so relaxing!

I have a friend travelling on your cruise, if you see Rob, at the Poker Table, tell him Pat says hi and good luck! 
I May do a live review too.

 

Enjoy your cruise x

Edited October 18, 2022 by Deeliteful

[little britain]

22 minutes ago, laurieal said:

I was in Two70 when I saw your question and I asked the bartender there. This is what they have on board. He called it the “Slim Line”
 

They should have Fevertree in Vintages… they know us Brits like our g&t! 

[Ejb4iv]

9 hours ago, laurieal said:

I was in Two70 when I saw your question and I asked the bartender there. This is what they have on board. He called it the “Slim Line”
 

Thank you so much

[Ejb4iv]

8 hours ago, little britain said:

They should have Fevertree in Vintages… they know us Brits like our g&t! 

Thank you 

[njkruzer]

Just listened to a Jazz group of musicians from the ship band. They performed in 270 this evening.  We went to the 10:15 show.  Enjoyed it very much.

[texmex.ferr]

@lauriealI'd love to hear your views on We will Rock you.    We saw it in one of our local theatres just before Covid, and loved it.   Would love to see it again, might be a reason to book Anthem.   lol

 

Good review so far, as usual.   The ship looks quite quiet.

[laurieal]

8 hours ago, texmex.ferr said:

@lauriealI'd love to hear your views on We will Rock you.    We saw it in one of our local theatres just before Covid, and loved it.   Would love to see it again, might be a reason to book Anthem.   lol

 

Good review so far, as usual.   The ship looks quite quiet.

We Will Rock You is scheduled for Day 10 and 11 and I’ll make sure not to miss it. It looks like a lot of fun.

 

Have you sailed on this class of ship before?

[little britain]

10 hours ago, texmex.ferr said:

@lauriealI'd love to hear your views on We will Rock you.    We saw it in one of our local theatres just before Covid, and loved it.   Would love to see it again, might be a reason to book Anthem.   lol

 

Good review so far, as usual.   The ship looks quite quiet.

Only 2700 on board and 150 kids apparently 

 

WWRY is excellent 

[laurieal]

I seem to have lost my digital Cruise Compass for Day 2, so I will have to scan it once I go back to my stateroom. I’ll post it later today. 

[njkruzer]

2 hours ago, little britain said:

Only 2700 on board and 150 kids apparently 

 

WWRY is excellent 

WWRY is not my favorite. Have seen it a few times, not sure if we'll see it this trip.  Also Spectra's cafe not a fan of.  Others enjoy both.  

[laurieal]

Day 2

 

Hello from the outdoor pool deck!

 

I started my day by visiting the Diamond Lounge for the first time. The breakfast offerings looked nice, but I skipped those and went straight for the coffee machine for a cappuccino. Fun fact, I think the Diamond Lounge has the only non-automatic door I have encountered so far. Having to open my own door on vacation like a peasant, can you imagine?

 

 

 

 

I brought my coffee up to the Solarium, which was a favourite breakfast spot of mine on the Wonder. It was quiet and very enjoyable. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The captain made an announcement that I couldn’t hear at the time, but thanks to someone who commented on this thread I now know that he was saying there was a storm in the Atlantic that he would be trying to avoid. The weather did look lousy and I had no desire to venture outside of the Solarium’s glass protection. 

 

After breakfast, I went to the Music Hall for a round of Family Animated Movies trivia. I like that venue a lot and I’m looking forward to seeing more from it. 

 

 

 

Last cruise, I figured out that day drinking is the secret to using all four of my drinks vouchers, so I returned to the Solarium and I got started on that with a Passion Spritz which I figured was close enough to a mimosa that I could justify drinking it in the morning. 

 

 

I worked on my review until it was lunch time and then I headed over to the Café@Two70 for a kümmelweck sandwich. With the weather being so bad, most of the seats in Two70 were occupied and the space felt pretty crowded, but I managed to find a spot. The good thing about being in a wheelchair all the time is that I never need an empty seat. The sandwich was good, as expected, but next time I’ll need to ask for extra jus because it was on the dry side. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was on a mission to inquire about diet tonic, so I went to the bar in Two70 and chatted with the bartender for a while. I figured that while I was at a bar I should continue my day drinking project, so I asked for the bartender’s favourite drink. He made me a Goombay Smash, which I enjoyed a lot. Fruity, but not overly sweet. Perfect for day drinking. One part of the bar is lower for wheelchair users, which I appreciated. 

 

 

 

 

While I was there, someone was doing an enrichment lecture about Personal Power Mastery. Did anyone attend? Did you enjoy it? The bit I caught seemed a little heavy on the self promo, but I did end up leaving before the end so maybe I missed all the good bits. 

 

Someone on this thread had mentioned a lift to get to the upper level of Two70, so I went on a mission to explore that. The view from upstairs seems very good and I would like to watch Spectra’s Cabaret from up there if I get the chance. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, I went to Sorrento’s to check out the marinated spicy cheese situation. They had some! It looked quite different from what they had on the Wonder, but I went for it anyway. Sadly, it wasn’t for me. It tasted like some cheese drenched in ketchup and I’m not really a fan of ketchup. 

 

 

Feeling a bit dejected, I decided to lift my spirit by gambling all my money in the casino. And by all my money, I mean all my Diamond member casino credits. Thanks to @little britain I got $8 instead of $6 by using my credits on Day 2 and that $8 actually kept me busy for quite a while. At one point I even won a whopping $5 in one spin! You should have seen the machine flashing and beeping like I had just won an early retirement. 
 

 

Having walked away from the casino with nothing, I went to a venue I could afford: La Pâtisserie for my free non-alcoholic specialty coffee of the day. Apparently those are not loaded on my card and they had to fiddle on the computer to make it happen, so I’ll need to visit Guest Services eventually to take care of that. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After my coffee, I went up to the Windjammer where I made myself a small antipasti plate. It was formal night and it wasn’t very busy in the Windjammer so I could find a quiet spot next to a window from which I could watch the sky go dark.

 

 

 

 

 

Fun fact about this sailing: they brought back the Captain’s Reception. I didn’t attend, because I really didn’t feel like dressing up, but they were doing drinks and pictures in the Royal Esplanade. 

 

By then, we were really moving and grooving and the barf bags were out in the staircases. Feeling very unstable, I went to Music Hall for a round of Name that Tune: Songs with colours. I tried a cocktail I had never had before, the Strawberry Fields. Very good, would drink again. 
 

 

 

 

After trivia, it was time for Rock the Room, which was completely different from how I’ve seen it done in the past, but it was loads of fun. Kudos to all the participants who did an amazing job singing and dancing. 

 

I left and headed for bed, having once again failed to use all four of my drink vouchers despite starting earlier. Maybe I’m just a three vouchers type of person.

 

 

It took me a while to fall asleep because of the ship’s movement. While I usually enjoy being gently rocked to sleep, this was more like being thrown to sleep. I even kept my bin close just in case…stay tuned to see if I needed it. 

 

 

(I didn’t. I was fine.)

 

So, here are my initial impressions of the ship after spending two days on it. I think it’s absolutely beautiful. I love the Solarium, the Music Hall, and Two70. The Via is really cool looking, although I can’t pretend to understand what’s going on with the music and the animals as we enter it. I’m just glad to be along for the experience. 

 

The carpet, though. Why so much carpet? And why so thick? A lot of times it’s a struggle to get from one place to another. I also feel like the elevator doors are closing waaaay too quickly. Considering a lot of elevator bays have carpet, I have lost a few elevators because I wasn’t quick enough to catch my ride. And believe me, I am quite fast. 

 

To those who have sailed this class of ship before, what’s your favourite spot to hang out? What’s your favourite place to eat? Any hidden secrets I need to know about?

[Biker19]

3 minutes ago, laurieal said:

Any hidden secrets I need to know about?

Working by the window in the library usually has a decent wifi connection and is fairly quiet, most of the time.

 

Biker, who would recommend breaking up a long post like that into more manageable chunks.

[laurieal]

Just now, Biker19 said:

Working by the window in the library usually has a decent wifi connection and is fairly quiet, most of the time.

 

Biker, who would recommend breaking up a long post like that into more manageable chunks.

I can do that for sure. As a reader, how many pictures per post approximately would you consider manageable?

[RandomUser123]

I will be on the next Anthem Cruise Oct 29th out of Cape Liberty, cannot wait!!! Please make sure to keep the ship nice and clean for me 🙂

[Biker19]

2 hours ago, laurieal said:

 As a reader, how many pictures per post approximately would you consider manageable?

CC used to have a limit of I think 6 - that seems like a good number.

[chucknmarilyn]

On 10/18/2022 at 6:17 AM, njkruzer said:

As D+ apparently we also get a free daily non-alcoholic Specialty coffee.  That's for dh.

I did not know this! Is this an extra perk just on this Anthem sailing?

[ValerieJo]

Thank you for the fantastic review.  Absolutely loving it.  Following along as I await our first time on this class of ship.  We are sailing Nov. 20 with 4 adults and a 16-year-old grandson.  We have 3 cabins on Deck 10 as well.  Fairly close to the rear elevators.   Does Deck 10 seem to be a pretty good location to get to most venues?   Another question I have is in regard to indoor space.   Since we will be sailing from New Jersey toward the end of November, I'm guessing we won't be spending a ton of time out on the pool deck for the first day or two.  Do you feel there is enough indoor spaces around the ship to not feel overcrowded?  Thanks again.  Looking forward to more of your review.  Have a wonderful time!

[clochette]

On 10/18/2022 at 4:29 AM, laurieal said:

 

It's my first time seeing an exclusive diamond offer for a sailing, but this is only my second diamond sailing. Is this common? 

They generally give the coffee coupons when there are lots of Diamonds and higher or the coffee machine is broken.

Really enjoying your review.  Love the Anthem and it is fun following you across the Atlantic

[njkruzer]

1 hour ago, chucknmarilyn said:

I did not know this! Is this an extra perk just on this Anthem sailing?

Don't know. Also added on Liberty in August because coffee machine in D lounge wasn't working.