Live blog From Anthem of the Seas Transatlantic

[BourkeBlogs]

Thank you for sharing the photos. One question, Was there a wine package offered/available the day you boarded?

 

 

Hi Seaworthy, we have not seen anything on wine packages anywhere onboard. He only thing being plugged very heavily are the drinks packages with multiple tables set up on the first day and tv screens on each bar with the information on them

[BourkeBlogs]

Hi.. I'm not sure if you're having dinner at Devinly Decadence (aka Solarium Bistro) if you get a chance, I'd like to see the current dinner menu and a photo of what the appetizer and dessert buffets look like at dinner. Thanks!

 

PS great photos so far!

 

 

Hi Mister Bill

 

It's one of the only restaurants we are not eating in for dinner, but will see if can get the menu for you

[BourkeBlogs]

I have a favor to ask of anyone on board . If it is not too much trouble , we are planning my Daughter's wedding on board Anthem July 9th sailing to Bermuda. One venue they have offered is the Conference center at the stern of the ship. Was wondering if anyone on board could snap a picture or 2 . We anticipate 40 -50 people sailing and attending the wedding and it looks like a great view out the rear of the ship .

 

 

 

The only other venue available that sailing is the Music Hall and while nice we were looking for something with an outdoor view. The solarium has been offered as well but tuled out based on how warm it could be that time of year in the solarium.

 

 

 

Any thoughts are most appreciated, thank you and enjoy your sailing ! ,glenn

 

 

 

Hi Glenn

 

We will see if we can get in the conference room tomorrow, if so I will get some pictures

 

 

Hi Glenn, we have been up there this morning and got some pictures.

 

The conference rooms are accessed from deck 13 and are at the rear of the ship. To get there from the lift banks you walk through the stateroom corridors on deck 13

 

When we got the pictures around 6am (as we assumed it would be empty then) it was dark outside so you will have to imagine the sea but we would think it would be a great view.

 

The conference room spans the rear of the ship and can be divided into sections. The starboard end section was sectioned off with the door open. It looks like this is being used for storage at the moment so I didn't take any pictures of this part. The port side also sectioned off so there isn't one photo of the full area I'm afraid just the sections.

 

 

 

Centre section taken from starboard side

 

Centre section taken from port side

 

Port side section

[BourkeBlogs]

Morning, it's day 4 and it's

 

 

For a change its another day at sea

 

We got up early this morning at 05:30 so we could get some pictures while it was quiet. So over the next couple of days I will have a look through them and get some uploaded.

 

It's been a bit choppy again and the ship is moving around. Fortunately we're not ill, but have noticed there are bags of sick bags on the stairwells, not sure if this is normal or if they have been place there due to the weather.

 

All the pools are still empty so unsure when these will be available to use again.

 

We are booked on iFly later this morning but again because of the seas not sure if they will cancel this.

 

Here is the cruise compass for today:

 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2015 by CruisenovicesUK

[BourkeBlogs]

On our walk round this morning we also saw the cruise compass for children and teens so have took some pics of this too:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BourkeBlogs]

Just a quick post, position update

 

 

Edited October 30, 2015 by CruisenovicesUK

[BourkeBlogs]

I just remembered I never uploaded any pictures from We will Rock you the other night so here they are:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mott1086]

CruisenovicesUK--- looks great! Thank you and keep it up :)

 

I do have a question tho--- it seems as if drink prices on Anthem are higher than other ships.

 

Would you recommend the drink package? My wife and I are going back and forth.

 

We usually get the Premium package... And prior to this review thought it would be too much to spend... But looking at the menu prices, we might settle and get it.

 

Any thoughts on that in your opinion?

 

Thanks!

 

-Michael

[Submariner]

Appreciate the effort you did for this blog. Thanks.

 

If you have the chance, can you take a pic of the area where one could partake in a fine cigar after dinner. My mates and I are going on the Anthem next month and we enjoy smoking cigars. Alas, they dont have a cigar room on the Anthem (bastards! :) ) - so where does one smoke one?

 

Cheers and thanks ...

[BourkeBlogs]

Ok so quick weather update, calmer than yesterday but still very rocky which is having impacts on the activities. Overnight motion was bad with wardrobe doors opening and closing.

 

Deck 15 is still closed, North Star, Flow Rider rock climbing and iFly are unavailable.

 

We went to Seaplex this morning to do roller skating which was cancelled. We were scheduled on iFly this morning so have now rescheduled for Monday, as the guy in Seaplex said to us tomorrow is going to be horrendous and Sunday not good either, hence the reschedule for Monday.

 

One thing I would add is that no updates are provided on cancelled activities until you get there. It would be good if the cruise compass on the app could be updated so you know if to re plan your day.

[LuCruise]

Great review. Not sailing the Anthem (next time) but your review sure makes me want to in the future.

 

How did you like We Will Rock You? I saw it in our city about 4 times in our city a few years ago (so obviously love it). Neat it's on the ship.

[Turtles06]

Morning, it's day 4 and it's

 

 

 

Oddly, I was in a couple of elevators last night (Thursday) around 10:30 PM, and they already had the Friday signs. :confused::):p

 

Like the OP, we were fortunate to have done North Star on the first sea day (which was a gorgeous day). It hasn't operated since due to the weather. One bit of advice I'd read on here months ago and that I want to underscore, if there's something you want to do on Anthem, do it as soon as you can, because you never know if/when it will be operating again.

[BourkeBlogs]

CruisenovicesUK--- looks great! Thank you and keep it up :)

 

I do have a question tho--- it seems as if drink prices on Anthem are higher than other ships.

 

Would you recommend the drink package? My wife and I are going back and forth.

 

We usually get the Premium package... And prior to this review thought it would be too much to spend... But looking at the menu prices, we might settle and get it.

 

Any thoughts on that in your opinion?

 

Thanks!

 

-Michael

 

 

I think it ultimately depends on how much you will drink and how much you will be on the boat.

 

Although based on drinks prices you need very few drinks to make it cost effective.

 

For us it has definitely saved a lot of money as the drinks are expensive and it would quickly mount up.

 

I checked our online account today and it shows we have had around 90 drinks between us so far in 3 days. I know this sounds a lot but this includes coffees, frappucinos, soft drinks, freshly squeezed orange at breakfast, bottles of water which we take back to the room and we have drink a lot of these and then beers, wines cocktails etc.

 

We haven't gone crazy on drinks, apart from the other night where we probably had a couple too many but it soon mounts up.

 

I think it is ultimately a decision you need to take yourselves based on your own habits. Although for us it was more about not having the worry factor about how much we were spending and being able to get whichever drink we wanted, which is why we went for the Ultimate package. I would say we have drunk a similar amount to a normal Carribean holiday where we never think about cost.

 

The drinks packages are heavily promoted and its maybe why drinks are so expensive to try and push people to buy the packages.

[BourkeBlogs]

Great review. Not sailing the Anthem (next time) but your review sure makes me want to in the future.

 

 

 

How did you like We Will Rock You? I saw it in our city about 4 times in our city a few years ago (so obviously love it). Neat it's on the ship.

 

 

Hi LuCruise

 

We have also been lucky enough to see We Will Rock You in when it was in the West End

 

We love the show, probably because we love Queen and we also went to see them earlier in the year when they were touring with Adam Lambert.

 

The show on the boat was excellent, really entertaining and was a total full house and we saw it on show 2. They have only had this show on 3 times so for anyone who is going on Anthem you need to make sure you book in advance and arrive early to get a good seat as the queue was huge even when we got there around 45 minutes before the start.

 

We weren't sure if they would use pre recorded music on the boat but fortunately they still had a live band supporting. Although as mentioned in my original post about the show, the volume and bass was significantly lower than in the original show. This is possibly to show consideration to other guests.

[kjclosson]

CruisenovicesUK

 

Your live blog has been great and informational. I will be on the Anthem for a 12 night in January and the details you are providing are answering lots of questions for me.

 

On previous cruises we have taken part in the daily bingo sessions and I haven't seen it listed in the Cruise Compass photos you have posted and wanted to know if it was still available and maybe it just wasn't listed.

 

Sorry to hear that things have been getting cancelled for you because of the weather. Was wondering how long this TA trip takes? Is this the longest cruise you have been on and would you do it again?

 

Thanks for the up to date postings, really enjoying your straightforward insights.

[Swarmmarketing]

Can you remind me on this? We sail on 11/22 and will be having a small event in that conference room. I'll be glad to share pics if I remember.

I will for sure and thank you for your offer , glenn

[Swarmmarketing]

This one is from the Quantum, Found on the internet..............

Thank you , I am starting to think this would work nicely , perhaps if they turn the chairs around to face the windows

[Swarmmarketing]

Hi Glenn, we have been up there this morning and got some pictures.

 

The conference rooms are accessed from deck 13 and are at the rear of the ship. To get there from the lift banks you walk through the stateroom corridors on deck 13

 

When we got the pictures around 6am (as we assumed it would be empty then) it was dark outside so you will have to imagine the sea but we would think it would be a great view.

 

The conference room spans the rear of the ship and can be divided into sections. The starboard end section was sectioned off with the door open. It looks like this is being used for storage at the moment so I didn't take any pictures of this part. The port side also sectioned off so there isn't one photo of the full area I'm afraid just the sections.

 

 

 

Centre section taken from starboard side

 

Centre section taken from port side

 

Port side section

Thank you this is most helpful , I appreciate all the pictures , I wish the most enjoyable cruise, glenn

[BourkeBlogs]

CruisenovicesUK

 

 

 

Your live blog has been great and informational. I will be on the Anthem for a 12 night in January and the details you are providing are answering lots of questions for me.

 

 

 

On previous cruises we have taken part in the daily bingo sessions and I haven't seen it listed in the Cruise Compass photos you have posted and wanted to know if it was still available and maybe it just wasn't listed.

 

 

 

Sorry to hear that things have been getting cancelled for you because of the weather. Was wondering how long this TA trip takes? Is this the longest cruise you have been on and would you do it again?

 

 

 

Thanks for the up to date postings, really enjoying your straightforward insights.

 

 

Hi kjclosson

 

Thanks for your feedback.

 

Good timing on your question, I was going to post about Bingo as we played yesterday so it's prompted me to do it.

 

Bingo is available in the Music Hall at 15:45 each day with tickets on sale 15:15 - 15:45, think it shows in the cruise compass although not immediately obvious if scanning it.

 

There are 4 games played each day, with yesterday's being the first game only played until a line (no play on till full house) 2nd game was a line again but this has to be the bottom line on the ticket, 3rd game was for 2 lines and the 4th and final game was for a full house. So basically there is only one prize per game.

 

Tickets cost either $32 for 6 tickets for each game or $48 for 6 tickets for the first 3 games and 12 tickets for the final game. Dabbers were also available for $1.50 each.

 

We overheard someone yesterday telling people that if you said 'ringo' which was the code word from the day before you received an extra 3 free tickets for the 4th game. Also some people showed a code on their phones to get extra free bingo tickets but not sure how you get this, could be due to loyalty status levels as there was no code on our app.

 

We occasionally play bingo in the UK (can't see your location as I'm using an app) but we found this bingo very different. The speed of the calls was very slow and it was not what I would define proper bingo. In fact it was so slow that I wrote a blog post while playing bingo.

 

The prizes were good, the first game had a prize of around $420 the second game around $470 and the third around $530. Although I may be wrong on the exact amounts as I didn't note it at the time. There was a lot of people playing though, there were 5 people selling tickets and it took over half an hour for the ticket sales to complete.

 

The 4th and final game was not played for cash but was for an upgrade to a 2 bedroom suite for the rest of the cruise.

 

The TA takes 8 nights. It is the longest cruise we have been on but it is also our first ever cruise as well. The only other times we have been on boats is for example overnight Hull to Rotterdam which is obviously very different.

 

Yes we would do it again, we've had a great time so far. In fact we have another cruise booked already for the inaugural on Harmony for 4 nights in May, so look out for my next blog.

[BourkeBlogs]

Appreciate the effort you did for this blog. Thanks.

 

If you have the chance, can you take a pic of the area where one could partake in a fine cigar after dinner. My mates and I are going on the Anthem next month and we enjoy smoking cigars. Alas, they dont have a cigar room on the Anthem (bastards! :) ) - so where does one smoke one?

 

Cheers and thanks ...

 

 

Hi Submariner

 

Sorry boys your choices are limited. Here are some pictures.

 

This is on deck 5 aft opposite Vinatges and near 270.

 

The next 3 pictures are from deck 14 next to the pool where the other smoking area is and when we have walked past seems to be where most people go.

 

 

 

 

In addition you can also smoke on deck 3 in the casino.

 

You'll be glad your not on this cruise as if you did want to go out for a cigar, not sure how much you would enjoy it unless you like 50knot winds, freezing cold weather and like wearing a very thick jacket

[Mott1086]

CruisenovicesUK--- no pressure here at all, I promise you...however, next time you go to a bar, could you kindly find out how much they charge for a Mudslide?

 

That is our drink of choice.

 

No worries if you can't

 

Thank you both!

 

-Michael

[Submariner]

Wow! Thanks for the feedback! Yeah. It sure looks chilly to enjoy a cigar there ... I'll be in the Bahamas so hopefully it will be a tad warmer.

[Setting sail for fun]

I can see why a drink package is perfect for a TA.

 

We thought about it for our last 7 night cruise. In the end, we decided against it as several days we were in port and some excursions included unlimited drinks.

 

In the evening we receive some free drinks as a Diamond Plus benefit. Drink prices have really increased since last March!

 

Enjoy your day!

[BourkeBlogs]

We are currently in Vintages for a nice glass of wine after lunch. It's the first time we have been in here and it's a really nice bar.

 

The weather is causing issues for the staff though, with a number of bottles falling over and breaking.

 

The staff are trying really hard, yet it was disappointing that one of the bar staff was reprimanded by one of the officers in the bar, in front of the customers because some bottles have broken. It's not their fault the weather is bad, so not sure why he thought this was appropriate.

 

The captain has just made an additional tannoy announcement due to worsening conditions and listing of the boat. He has said current sea conditions are around 7m with listing of 4 degrees although seems worse than this. He mentioned the boat can take 47 degrees of list before there is an issue which would be the equivalent of the promenade deck (deck 5) before there is an issue.

 

So back to the original purpose of this post, here is the menu and I will add some pictures of the bar after (due to the 6 picture restriction on posts)

 

 

 

 

[BourkeBlogs]

Here are some shots from Vintages

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last 2 shots are of self service wine machines where you can tap your card and serve yourself. However, we have just asked the bar man and he advised even if on a drinks package these wines are not included even if under the $14 per glass limit, which seems a bit odd. I guess it's a concept as I have never seen self service wine machines in any other bar before.

 

 

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