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jjsparkles

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  1. My Dyson will only work using the EU socket, I take an EU plug adapter with me. This socket has a higher voltage. Worked for me on Harmony and Anthem. Good luck 🙂
  2. Thanks for reading. We found the temp inside to be ok, except the solarium, which was too humid for us. Hope you get a great room. Have a lovely cruise 🙂 Thanks for reading. Hope you have a great cruise and don’t have any missed ports. Just one of those things we can’t plan for unfortunately 🙂 Thanks for reading. Hope you have a great cruise 🙂
  3. Thanks for reading, it really was stunning 🙂 Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. Hope you all have a wonderful cruise 🙂 Thanks for reading, hope you have a lovely cruise with some nice sunny weather 🙂
  4. Thanks for reading along. Hope you get to enjoy Anthem soon 🙂
  5. Thanks for reading, glad you enjoyed it. My understanding re the environmental issues is that no current cruise ship, big or small meet the new proposed regulations. But the regulations don’t affect all ports, only the UNESCO heritage sites such as Geirangerfjord, so I think it may mean itinerary changes rather than no cruises at all. If you do a Google search you can find more info. Have a great cruise to Alaska. Didn’t detect any cheese, lol, that wouldn’t have been good 🤪
  6. You’re welcome, glad you enjoyed it 🙂 Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. I’m sure you’ll have a fantastic time 🙂 Aww, thanks so much, glad you enjoyed it 🙂
  7. Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. Sounds very similar to Revolut. Monzo is similar too, makes travelling so easy. Thanks for reading along. We’ve used Revolut for years too, so easy. The wind was a welcome break from the stuffiness inside when it was busy so we were out often. No fear of being blown away, lol. Thanks for reading along. Glad you had a great time too. It was really great, hope you see it again. Have a great time 😀
  8. Another look over the bridge wings Then we went out onto the top deck to enjoy the sunset. A nice fellow passenger offered to take our photo Back to the cabin we caught our final glimpse of the sun setting And then it was all over 😢 Sunday 28 May - Hometime We were up around 6ish and didn’t bother going out for breakfast, instead just having some tea and snacks we had in the room. Our view over Southampton – had it really been a week already? It was another beautiful sunny day. We watched the tv for our tag number to be called and were off the ship quickly, collecting our bags and in the car for around 7:15. Something I really like about cruising in Europe is no passport control as you exit the ship, makes for a very easy departure. The drive home was good, making a few stops for breakfast and lunch we were home early afternoon. Definitely an easier journey going home. We’d had an absolutely wonderful time however I kept my sea legs for 3 or 4 days….I was completely exhausted and a bit dizzy for a few days, honestly felt like I was still swaying. I’ve read that this can happen if you keep moving after you leave a ship, eg get in a car and drive for 8 hours straight….which is what we did 🤪 Final thoughts Ship We both really liked Anthem of the Seas. Our only Royal comparison is to Harmony of the Seas, but it’s not a true comparison as we had sailed just after covid with only around 1500 passengers so it was a very different experience. That said, I liked the layout of Anthem, we really liked Music Hall, 270 could get busy very quickly and the solarium was a bit of a no go for us. This was a disappointment as we’d spent a lot of time there on Harmony. But as I said earlier, it was just too hot and stuffy if you didn’t plan on stripping off for the pool/hot tubs. Nice open areas to walk around outside and lots of indoor areas too. Only downside we noticed was that on rainy days the inside definitely felt more crowded. The staff were all very nice, helpful and no problems with anyone at all. Food We liked the main dining room this time better than we had before. Everything served was piping hot and tasty. The Windjammer was ok, nothing wrong with it but we struggled to find what we wanted in here. And it was always busy which kind of put us off and we didn’t really want to eat in a hectic atmosphere. Sorrentos Pizza was great, but limited choices, only cheese, pepperoni and another mixed one I can't recall. Café 270 was a great option for lunch too, really good salad bar and of course the roast beef sandwich. Room We loved our room. All the worry of being on deck 13 with the overhang was a worry I wish I hadn’t wasted time on. Yes, you could definitely hear people walking upstairs but it wasn’t overly noisy. Maybe it depends on which part of the deck you are on. We were just under the sunbeds in front of Johnny Rockets. We actually enjoyed the overhang on the balcony as it offered some shield from the wind and rain. And on the occasion it was sunny, we did get some sun too. We still benefited from some amazing views and being just below the pool deck, it was no hassle at all to nip up there if we wanted to. Great to have a kettle in the room for making a cup of tea. There are tea bags/sugar and milk pods in the room, but we just topped this up from the drink stations around the ship. We also ordered a carton of milk with our room service breakfast and kept this in the fridge. We loved being able to nip up to the windjammer for drinks – I loved that they had barista coffee in there and our position made it really easy to get around the ship. The bathroom was good too, shower was a good pressure and temperature. And we loved the storage, really easy to have everything put away. Would not hesitate to do this same cabin again, especially since it had been cheaper than an inside cabin when we booked. The only thing that let it down was the bed. I’ve moaned enough about that – but it really was like sleeping on a brick. Norway Stunning. I can’t think of enough words to say how beautiful it was. We didn’t have the best weather, mostly overcast, some drizzles of rain and other days sunshine and wind. But it didn’t matter. We really enjoyed all the ports. Everyone we encountered were really lovely, chatty, pleasant and very welcoming. Payment I wanted to provide some info about using the travel card, Revolut for settling the account on the ship. I wasn’t going to go into too much detail here because this will probably only be useful to UK passengers, but I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to research this and in the end it was actually very simple. (I also don’t want this to be a ‘just use your credit card’ thread) As UK passengers on a US ship, sailing out of the UK, it’s actually a bit of a pain to have to think about dollars when you don’t actually need physical cash. Conversion rates vary enormously with each bank, often having to pay a transaction fee, then a really poor rate. If you do exchange cash you have to guess how much you'll need, will it be too much, not enough? Our credit card is rubbish for other currencies (I know you can get others) so it really irks me that I end up paying more than I should. Anyway, wherever we travel, we use Revolut, which converts to whatever currency you want, as you use it. Now, the issue is that Revolut works like a debit card, so the holds can be on much longer than a credit card – I’ve heard horror stories of duplicate holds for weeks because of the way Revolut works. This is how you get round it: Input your Revolut card details into the app during the check in process, so that you’re not delayed when you board the ship. As soon as you’re on the ship, before you purchase anything, go to guest services and ask for your card to be removed from the account and set up a cash account. You DO NOT need to put down any cash. You will have a limit of approx. $500 before you need to settle anything on your account. Go to guest services on the last day, or before if you go near your limit and use your Revolut card to pay the bill. You must tell the agent that you want the bill in dollars, otherwise they may try to do the double conversion thing because the system will recognise a UK card. Done – so simple. You pay your bill in dollars, using your card, at the best rate possible. Currency /Tipping We didn’t change any money at all. None. Every single shop and even market stall in Norway we went to took cards. Many of them even had signs to say ‘card payment preferred please’. Contactless is used everywhere or chip and PIN if you don’t have that on your card. We pre-paid our gratuities and then took some GBP to tip our room attendant and room service staff. Remember, this ship’s home port is Southampton at the moment so the crew will have opportunities to purchase things on land there. I’m quite sure they would also appreciate some Euros for the other cruises or NOK if docking in Norway. And there will likely be lots of people using dollars so the mix will, I’m sure be appreciated. I suppose what I'm trying to say is don't go out of your way to exchange cash if you don't need to, card is used and preferred almost everywhere. We really did have an amazing time and feel very lucky to have seen beautiful Norway like this. Disappointed we didn't get to experience Geiranger but absolutely nothing we could have done about it. Our port fees/taxes were refunded and our third party shore excursion company also gave us a 50% refund which was good of them. For all you lucky cruisers who can drive to a port and enjoy a beautiful sunny cruise, I’m so envious! I absolutely loved being able to drive to get on the ship, so don’t ever take it for granted 🙂 Anyway, as I always say when I finish these reports, thank you to everyone who participates on these forums. I learn so much from them and find all the information vital to my holiday planning. And thank you for all the lovely comments. Happy cruising everyone 🛳️
  9. Saturday 27 May – Sea Day & last day 😢 We both slept well again and had a really lazy morning. I got up and made us a cup of tea and we sat in bed with the curtains open watching the world go by. Perfect 🙂 It was lovely and calm outside and we’d decided to enjoy brunch again today. We headed to the dining room around 11ish. We both had the express breakfast again and decided to be a bit indulgent and shared a serving of pancakes too. These were absolutely delicious, so light and fluffy. Guest services was surprisingly quiet so we stopped by to settle our account. There was nothing we would buy tonight so thought we may as well get it sorted now. All sorted in minutes, we headed upstairs for our daily laps round the ship. We noticed that it could be perfectly calm at the back and sat here with the flowrider shielding the wind behind us. Don't be fooled by John with his winter coat on, lol. I just had my cardigan and was fine. It was definitely warming up a bit. However the wind really changed as you got to the bow of the ship. We called it the windiest corner in the world each time we went by, lol. We lazed in the solarium for a short time, too hot for us in there when we didn’t plan to swim or use the hot tubs. We played cards again in the Music Hall for a while. And then it was time for us to get into the theatre for the 14:30 showing of We Will Rock You. It was around 2pm now and the theatre was already filling up. We found some seats at the end of a row in the downstairs section which already had a few people in it. The bar service waiter came round and we ordered our drinks. Slowly we realised some more people were arriving to join the other people in our row and they were trying to find some seats for them. I said to John we should move to let them sit together, so we moved to get up. Then I realised we’d ordered drinks, so John went off to find us a seat and I stayed there to make sure our waiter didn’t get confused. The people were so nice and thanked us for moving. They hadn’t asked us but I know if I’d been with our family I’d have liked us to be together. Anyway, John ended up in the upstairs section and after our waiter returned, I went to join him. The theatre was buzzing by now, only 5 minutes until curtain up and we soon realised the seats were not great. For some reason the upstairs part of the theatre is all sectioned off with wood and glass and the angles are not good at all. Despite us being in the second row, we couldn’t see much at all. It really didn’t matter too much though, the music was absolutely amazing. The musicians on the ship are so talented, as are the singers. Both our sons play guitar (our eldest son professionally) and we know the work that they put in to learning and rehearsing every single note they play. When songs are played to sound exactly like the records you’ve heard a million times, it’s so easy to forget that these are being played live, they make it look too easy! The show was fantastic, I could have watched it all over again. Well done to everyone involved! Back to the room we did the dreaded packing and got everything ready for the morning. It was around 5pm now. It was really warming up now, and too early for dinner we took another few laps round the deck. We sat in the sun for a wee while enjoying the warmer air and breeze. It really was lovely today, John even took his coat off! We went back to the cabin to get ready for dinner and made our way to the main dining room around 6:30pm. Again we had a lovely window seat. We both had the seafood cake to start, lovely. Followed by Spaghetti Bolognese, also lovely And to finish, apple cobbler, delicious We made our way back to our cabin to decide what to do for the evening. We sat on the balcony for a while and enjoyed it so much we decided just to stay there, before first nipping downstairs and grabbing some drinks. My indulgence all cruise had been the virgin pina colada - the Music Hall were the best at making it 🙂 It was now that I remembered that I’d never managed to see the swing in the solarium! It had always been too busy, hot to be in there so we took a chance and wandered down not. It was after 9 now. Thankfully it was quiet and we enjoyed the solarium for a while. We loved the swing!
  10. Thank you, glad you're enjoying it. Your cruise sounds fantastic, Flam was somewhere I'd also have liked to see but wasn't on our itinerary. Have a wonderful cruise, I'll look our for your updates 🙂 I watch Ben and David too and have watched that series, I'm sure it was a transatlantic on Symphony. I know they don't often have negative comments about Royal, they usually have very good things to say so I took their review seriously. We were definitely looking out for cold food however I'm happy to say that every hot meal was served piping hot. I suppose all ships will be different because in the end it's down to the staff and how they manage things. Maybe they got unlucky with lots of new crew joining for the transatlantic and new season in Europe? That was our experience too 🙂
  11. I'm sure there will have been some somewhere on the ship - maybe the main dining room just sticks to the crispy stuff?
  12. Lol, snap! It was probably in the Windjammer but we didn't go there for breakfast - the crispy bacon was actually very good 🙂 Sorry, I've no idea who it was It was really nice Thanks for reading along, glad you're enjoying it. The hike did have a real path most of the way, but lots of gravel areas too. One part had some big stones to navigate, but there were railings at the very steep parts, and just above the waterfall there were also some steps, albeit a bit gravelly. You're definitely not walking on grass and actually hiking - but there are some steep parts. Thank you, it was really lovely to see.
  13. Soon we were off to our reservation at Izumi. We had a nice outside table overlooking the Royal Esplanade We shared our starters, vegetable fried rice and crispy chicken kara-age This was absolutely delicious and we both said we could have ate this as a main course. Next we both had Chicken Teriyaki, again really nice. We also ordered a crispy philly roll to share This was good too, but actually it was too much food so we didn't finish it. The Chicken Teriyaki was deceiving as the rice was really filling. Full up we didn't order desert and left feeling very satisfied. We strolled around the Royal Esplanade having another look around the shops, but nothing much we wanted. We finished our day in the music hall listening to the band. They always did a great job of creating a good atmosphere and we enjoyed a few hours listening to them. Another great day over, we landed in bed around midnight and were soon rocked to sleep. Was it really our last day tomorrow already 🥹
  14. Friday 26 May – Stavanger Well, would you believe it if I told you we’d both had a good night’s sleep? Well we did! Amazingly we’d managed to stay in the bed and slept so well. I was so relieved to actually feel rested when I woke up. A peek outside and we were right beside beautiful Stavanger old town. We didn’t have any excursions planned today and were going to explore Stavanger on foot. With no rush we didn’t want to be out too early, but we also didn’t want room service breakfast or to battle the windjammer so we made our way to the dining room around 9am. We both had the express breakfast with some toast and tea. It was all piping hot and delicious. Back to the cabin we grabbed our coats and got organised for the day ahead. By now we were realising what a great location our room was in. Up one deck was the pool deck and windjammer which was great for grabbing a drink quickly if needed. The lifts near us took us directly to the gangway on deck 2 and also the restaurants/music hall on deck 4. It was a really handy spot. We wandered out into Stavanger, again we were lucky with our cabin on the side of the ship that overlooked the port. It was a bit of a grey day but wasn't too cold. Stavanger is really easy to explore on foot, mostly flat and beautiful buildings all around the harbour. We took our time and enjoyed the surroundings. We made our way into the town and along to Ovre Holmegate, a beautiful street with colourful buildings Then time to say hello to Mr Troll We could see some folks getting ready for a rib boat tour. Brave people, the wind was getting up again! I wanted to pick up some souvenirs for the kids and a Norway Starbucks mug, so we headed into the shops and I managed to get a lovely Stavanger mug in the Starbucks there. We also stopped by a small outdoor market and got a lovely hand painted picture of the beautiful white wooden houses in the old town. Everywhere was asking that payment be made by card, even the market stalls, so there's no need to have cash. On our way back to the ship we explored the old town. It was really beautiful and we'd had a lovely morning exploring. Back on the ship I got a latte and John a drink from windjammer and we headed to music hall to play cards. We really liked it in here. The bar didn’t seem to open until the afternoon, but the pub was right next door so really easy to pick up a drink from there. Then we went up to the top deck and enjoyed the views over Stavanger. The solarium was quieter with lots of people still out exploring, so we grabbed some drinks and put our feet up for a while. A bit hungry for food now, we did try the solarium bistro but it was closed for some reason, so headed to windjammer. After our lunch we grabbed some cookies, another latte and headed back to the cabin to enjoy the balcony for a bit of a rest. We headed to the Music hall to do a Netflix quiz around 4pm which was actually really difficult. I think the winner got something like 15 out of 30, we only got about 9! Then into the Schooner bar for another quiz, this time Cher vs Prince. Then we watched a bit of the sailaway from deck 5 and up to the top deck to enjoy the views. We did a facetime with our youngest son to check he hadn’t wrecked the house, lol, and enjoyed an ice cream. We did go back to the room to put our feet up, but it was being cleaned so we popped to deck 5 and sat outside Vintages for a while. Back to the room, we got ourselves organised for dinner.
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