LIVE from Anthem June 2-21 - B2B Canaries and Fjords

[little britain]

Went to the Behind the Scenes talk. Very interesting re lighting and sound. Much more technical than previous tours which seemed to involve looking at the pretty ( tatty) costumes! 

 

 

 

Edited June 20 by little britain

[little britain]

Then a very entertaining talk with Kevin Kennedy who has played Pop in WWRY on board for many years. For the Brits it’s Curly Watts from Corrie

 

 

Edited June 20 by little britain

[heatherb1958]

8 hours ago, little britain said:

That question is still in the survey. Doesn’t seem to stop them! We are in AIG 

 

Well so far we have not been asked,  maybe because we eat early. 

Lovely peaceful location in dining room , no blaring music just entertaining wait team . We have the same table next cruise and requested same team.

I wonder if it is because the ship will soon be going around Africa without passengers to get to Dubai so they are trying to get their bonuses up in the time they have left here in the UK.

[mil76]

Windjammer is ridiculous.  

 

[FionaMG]

24 minutes ago, mil76 said:

Windjammer is ridiculous.  

 

 

OMG that's really bad! 😮

[mil76]

England-Denmark is in the Music Hall.  No sitting in the rain today.

[Tz2989]

On 6/2/2024 at 7:46 AM, mil76 said:

Greetings from the Anthem of the Seas in beautiful Southampton England!  Train arrived on-time at 11:00 and we were on board by 11:40, and that included walking to the port and getting lost once.  Getting through the terminal was a breeze. 

 

Love the view of IKEA.😄

 

Got my soda cup and Flowrider waivers are signed.

 

I hate to quote a really old post, but how was the walk from the train station? Were there sidewalks the whole way?

 

I'm staying at one of the hotels near IKEA the night before and was wondering if you are able to walk into the port or if you are forced to be driven in?

[sowhat]

English  Channel 

[mil76]

15 minutes ago, Tz2989 said:

I hate to quote a really old post, but how was the walk from the train station? Were there sidewalks the whole way?

 

I'm staying at one of the hotels near IKEA the night before and was wondering if you are able to walk into the port or if you are forced to be driven in?

Completely walkable, both to the hotels and the port.  There are two entrances, one at each end of the port.  My only issue was the streets don't have the best crossing signals, but the drivers seem to understand that the area is full of cruisers who don't know what they are doing.

Edited June 20 by mil76

[little britain]

1 hour ago, Tz2989 said:

I hate to quote a really old post, but how was the walk from the train station? Were there sidewalks the whole way?

 

I'm staying at one of the hotels near IKEA the night before and was wondering if you are able to walk into the port or if you are forced to be driven in?

You cross the road at the traffic lights 🚦 by the Novotel and walk under the arch to the ship. 
Or if you are at the Holiday Inn you are literally minutes walk from the ship. 

[little britain]

Sadly the 7:45 performance of WWRY was barely a quarter full ( guessing due to some football match ⚽️) so felt sorry for the new cast. They were excellent. 
 

Sorry never to have met you @cublet and @mil76. Perhaps next time. 
 

[little britain]

Beautiful day in Southampton 

[mil76]

Leaving the ship was a breeze.  Plenty of luggage trolleys and no passport check.  Walked right to the taxi stand and there was no wait.  £6.60 for the taxi to the coach station. 

[FionaMG]

Thanks for bringing us along. Safe travels home. ☺️

[cublet]

13 hours ago, little britain said:

Sadly the 7:45 performance of WWRY was barely a quarter full ( guessing due to some football match ⚽️) so felt sorry for the new cast. They were excellent. 
 

Sorry never to have met you @cublet and @mil76. Perhaps next time. 
 

Hello,

 

Sorry to have missed you too. We aren’t meeting next year as you cancelled because of school holidays - yes?

 

I hope you have a safe journey home.

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

[snaefell]

Thanks,it has been so enjoyable following your trip,safe journey home!

[skittl1321]

22 hours ago, mil76 said:

Leaving the ship was a breeze.  Plenty of luggage trolleys and no passport check.  Walked right to the taxi stand and there was no wait.  £6.60 for the taxi to the coach station. 

What time is self disembarkation able to leave the ship, please?   And on the opposite end, what's the latest time?

 

 

[Saab4444]

4 hours ago, skittl1321 said:

What time is self disembarkation able to leave the ship, please?   And on the opposite end, what's the latest time?

 

 

Started about 6.30 and until 8 latest.

[little britain]

5 hours ago, skittl1321 said:

What time is self disembarkation able to leave the ship, please?   And on the opposite end, what's the latest time?

 

 

They were calling for all people to get off the ship at 8:40 yesterday. All numbers had been called by then. 

[skittl1321]

1 hour ago, little britain said:

They were calling for all people to get off the ship at 8:40 yesterday. All numbers had been called by then. 

Thank you.  I think we would be safe to arrange for a 9:00 transfer, assuming we are off by 8, that leaves an hour for immigration.  

[little britain]

1 hour ago, skittl1321 said:

Thank you.  I think we would be safe to arrange for a 9:00 transfer, assuming we are off by 8, that leaves an hour for immigration.  

There is no immigration. You walk off ship, down escalator , collect luggage, and walk out. 5 minutes max! 

[skittl1321]

5 minutes ago, little britain said:

There is no immigration. You walk off ship, down escalator , collect luggage, and walk out. 5 minutes max! 

Oh, phenomenal!

[mil76]

Made it back to Denver last night.  The National Express coach is the way to go if you are flying from Heathrow.  They had separate buses for Terminals 4/5 and Terminals 2/3.  We were on the 9:45am, and with heavy traffic we still made it to Heathrow before noon for a 2:50pm flight.  Booked 2 months in advance.  Coach fare was £18.90, reserved seats were £2.00 each (this gets your bags on first and lets you board first), and extra bags were £10.00 each, so £61.80 total for both of us.

 

I don't advise getting to the coach station too early.  It's not gross like a US Greyhound bus station, but there were a bunch of people waiting with suitcases, and the the station is very small.  We left the ship at 8:30am and were at the station by 8:50am.  

 

Only bad part of the whole journey was arrival in Denver.  Denver's airport has not expanded their immigration capacity to keep up with the volume, so it took almost 2 hours from arrival to leaving the airport.

[boontj2003]

Thank you. Good reading!

[mil76]

Final thoughts

 

First off, we loved sailing out of Southampton.  I haven't had a smoother experience getting on or off a ship ever.  I have never seen a ship empty so quickly.  By 8:30am you had no excuse to still be on the ship unless you were B2B.  The B2B process was also great.  There had to be a couple hundred B2Bers on our cruises, but we only had to wait a few minutes to go through the process in the MDR.  It was great to not have to go stand in the terminal for 15 minutes while they cleared the ship.  I know in the US this isn't Royal's fault, but this is the way to do B2B. 

 

People talk about the logistics of getting to/from Southampton, but it seems to me that you can get to just about any destination from Southampton via rail except for Heathrow, and the coach service covers that quite nicely. 

 

We enjoyed sailing on a ship with so many Brits, and we were lucky we had the cruises before the school recess bedlam began this week.  I have never seen anything like the "Fill in the Blank" game show on this cruise.  You have to experience it to understand.  We also made new friends from the US on the cruise, and have already booked a December cruise together.

 

Our experience with the food was mixed.  This was a new experience for us since we did 80% of our dining in the Windjammer.  I have gone multiple cruises in the past without setting foot in the WJ, but the logistics of this cruise meant the WJ was our primary choice.  For the first cruise, the food was mostly great.  They had good variety every night, and lots of British food, which we love.  But then by about day 10 they reverted to form, where I ended up eating a cheeseburger for almost every meal, and the 2nd cruise never got better until day 7.  Specialties were mixed: Izumi was poor, Jamie's was great, and Chops did redeem themselves after our first fiasco.

 

FW didn't have the greatest luck in the casino.  The slot machines are getting replaced before Asia, so the few desirable machines were hard to get on.  We did end up booking 4 additional cruises through the casino during the 2 weeks, but let's just say that these were "pre-paid" cruises rather than "comps". 🤑. This is what I call the Flow Widow's revenge!

 

As for the itineraries, I think the Canaries cruise can't be beat for the mix/quality of ports and length of time.  The 12 days felt like a month (a good thing) with how the ports are spaced out with sea days mixed in.  The ports can all be DIY walkable to interesting activities with the exception of Lanzarote, and our excursion there was worth every penny.  The Fjords cruise flew by with the 4 consecutive port days.  We didn't make it to Haugesund, but replacing it with Bergen was OK in my book as we really enjoyed our day there.  Flam and Olden were just WOW, and Stavanger was decent.

 

The biggest gripe of the trip was already mentioned, and that is what Royal is allowing to happen for surveys.  The begging for 10s now detracts from my cruise experience, and the subliminal "10" messaging through signs and video screens is completely overboard.  The fact that Royal still asks if someone solicited 10s on the surveys like they are trying to prevent this is comical.

 

Anyway, we'll surely cruise from Southampton again.  Still haven't been on Indy so maybe next year.  I have to figure out how to time everything to catch a Chelsea match and then hop on a cruise.

 

Thanks to all who followed along, and thanks to @little britain for adding content during the last week.  It's a lot of work to keep these things going for 3 weeks straight.  Hopefully we'll manage to meet up next time our wakes cross.