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

[marci22]

Thanks for the review, commentary, and answering questions. It was really helpful for future planning.

[snaefell]

3 hours ago, mil76 said:

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.

With regards to  sailing from Southampton we live up North in Cheshire,around 250 miles away,probably nothing compared to what people travel in the US but due to roadworks,accidents,etc it can be a horrendous journey,last year our coach left the ship before 0900hrs & didn't get to our drop off point until 1900hrs,not the first time it has happened,a real turn off when it comes to cruising,by the time you get home you need another holiday!

[sgmn]

4 hours ago, mil76 said:

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.

Thanks for a great blog. We're finally doing a Canaries cruise in September so the info re ports is very handy.

Looking forward to Anthem again, it's been a good few years since we were on her.

Thanks again (and to @little britain) for really interesting cruise blog.

[kccrzr]

On 6/2/2024 at 10:46 AM, allington73 said:

We have just got off Anthem today.  Watch out for some very noisy staterooms.  We were in 9632 which was junior suite and it had wooden bed surround which seemed to move and creak as soon as boat was moving.  We complained 3 times after being told the seas were rough (they were quiet to moderate in my opinion).  We ended up moving to another junior suite and it was actually worse.  We were given 10% off future cruise for all four of us in the end !

That must have been very annoying. We are going in September and are in JS 12232.😯

[allington73]

23 hours ago, kccrzr said:

That must have been very annoying. We are going in September and are in JS 12232.😯

We got $400 in compensation of future cruise booking.  But sleep was a nightmare.

[ReneeFLL]

On 6/18/2024 at 9:43 AM, mil76 said:

You certainly should feel virtuous!  You also were not alone in your exploits, as the paths looked really busy from our view from way up high on our posh chariots!  We were on the red double decker bus at 9:30.  I would have been fine to do the walk, but I have maxed out any excess steps the FW is willing to do this trip.  I checked my watch and we've averaged over 12000 steps a day since we landed at Heathrow.  We did walk up and back the final 600 meters to the glacier, so we did have to put forth some effort!

 

For anyone interested, the troll cars alone were about $26 pp. Olden Adventures charges $80 pp for the combo, so with the bus alone costing $50 we saved 5 bucks pp, even though we had no choice since Olden Adventure's combo tickets were sold out.  It's the exact same troll cars BTW.  I checked the app, and Royal was still selling bus only today for $159 and the troll car combo is no longer on there, but I think they were getting $210.

Is the Olden Adventurers website oldencruise.com or which one did you use?

[mil76]

Just now, ReneeFLL said:

Is the Olden Adventurers website oldencruise.com or which one did you use?

Yes, that's it.

[ReneeFLL]

Just now, mil76 said:

Yes, that's it.

Thanks.

[TeamCan]

Thank you so much for your wonderful review!  Loved your commentary and pictures!  We like DIY excursions as well,.... thanks for the helpful planning tips.