LIVE from Anthem of the Seas, 23 September to 5 October 2022, "Discover the Canaries"

[FionaMG]

30 minutes ago, wolfcathorse said:

who is the captain for this sailing?

I actually don't know but the top tier event is tomorrow at 10.30 am so I'm sure I'll find out then and I'll let you know.

[njkruzer]

7 hours ago, vjmatty said:

Thank you for this live thread! I am sailing on Anthem for the TA from Southampton October 17 so I'm looking forward to your sharing this experience.

Same here.  One of our favorite ships.

[Kdmansfield]

9 hours ago, FionaMG said:

For those wondering about the negative test, required for this sailing because of the length, I actually brought the test cartridges all the way from Portugal to Southampton 😂. The check in agent barely glanced at them; they could have been anybody's.

😊

 

Thank you for live posting! 

What kind of test did you use? We are on the 10/5 sailing and planning to use self-adminstered lateral flow test. 

[USERBOYD66]

3 hours ago, RandomUser123 said:

I will be on Anthem Oct 29th cruise out of Cape Liberty NJ. I cannot wait. Your itinerary is definitely better than mine 🙂

We will be on the same trip!!!

 

[FionaMG]

7 hours ago, Kdmansfield said:

 

Thank you for live posting! 

What kind of test did you use? We are on the 10/5 sailing and planning to use self-adminstered lateral flow test. 

My pleasure ☺️

We used self-administered antigen (I think that's the same as lateral flow) tests that we bought in the supermarket. I took date-stamped photos of them and brought the actual cartridges along too. The agent just glanced at the cartridges and that was it.

[FionaMG]

11 hours ago, RandomUser123 said:

I will be on Anthem Oct 29th cruise out of Cape Liberty NJ. I cannot wait. Your itinerary is definitely better than mine 🙂

 

We will be on her again at the end of April which is likely to be pretty much the same itinerary as yours but it's an add-on to a trip to the Big Apple so not the main focus of that particular trip. ☺️

[FionaMG]

Day 2 compass:

 

 

 

 

[FionaMG]

WJ is the usual zoo this morning but I think DH has finally come around to my way of thinking as he was less than impressed with the selections. Hopefully we can have more civilised breakfasts for the rest of the cruise. 🤞😂

[little britain]

1 hour ago, FionaMG said:

WJ is the usual zoo this morning but I think DH has finally come around to my way of thinking as he was less than impressed with the selections. Hopefully we can have more civilised breakfasts for the rest of the cruise. 🤞😂

Cafe 270 and Solarium are much quieter! 
Say hi to Joff from his neighbour! 

[scottraveller]

Hi Fiona we got back yesterday from the same itinerary as you. We found it brilliant and oddly enough there were four Alpha medical emergencies. One required a helicopter evacuation. If you’re heading to Chops I would recommend taking a cardigan as it was really cold in there. We went three times but after the first one I had the sense to put on a jumper. 
When we sailed through Biscay it was like a milk pond really really calm so I hope it’s the same for you today

[FionaMG]

22 minutes ago, scottraveller said:

Hi Fiona we got back yesterday from the same itinerary as you. We found it brilliant and oddly enough there were four Alpha medical emergencies. One required a helicopter evacuation. If you’re heading to Chops I would recommend taking a cardigan as it was really cold in there. We went three times but after the first one I had the sense to put on a jumper. 
When we sailed through Biscay it was like a milk pond really really calm so I hope it’s the same for you today

Hi. Hope you enjoyed it. Your pics were great.

It's weird. This is the first time we've ever had an alpha call on any of our cruises and two on the first evening. I hope the people will be ok.

The Bay is largely behaving itself. We can feel a bit of movement but not as much as the Captain said he would usually expect so that's good. It's cloudy with sunny intervals but s bit too cool for our liking so we're heading for the solarium after lunch.

I always take a jumper with me to the indoor venues. The air con is brutal! 😂

[FionaMG]

1 hour ago, little britain said:

Cafe 270 and Solarium are much quieter! 
Say hi to Joff from his neighbour! 

Will do, if I get the chance. ☺️

[grapau27]

21 hours ago, FionaMG said:

We boarded Anthem this morning for this 12-night cruise calling at Vigo, Lisbon, Lanzarote, Gran Canária, Tenerife, Funchal and La Coruña.

 

Fastest boarding ever. Fifteen minutes tops from getting out the taxi to stepping on board.

 

For those wondering about the negative test, required for this sailing because of the length, I actually brought the test cartridges all the way from Portugal to Southampton 😂. The check in agent barely glanced at them; they could have been anybody's.

 

I'm sailing with DH so will only be posting a couple of times a day (usually when he's napping or contributing to Royal's coffers in the casino).

 

I will be happy to try and find the answers to any questions if anyone has any.

 

There are no compasses available at guest services. Instead there is a QR code you can scan to get a digital pdf compass on your device. However it turned out our stateroom attendant had put one in our room for us and I told him we would like one every day.

 

We are in an obstructed balcony cabin 6560 that is not very obstructed, only to the right hand side by the thingy that holds up the lifeboats and which I have totally forgotten what it's called. Senior moment. 

 

I will do cabin pics at some point when it's a bit brighter and the view is of something a bit prettier than the port structure.

 

We did embarkation lunch in Jamie's, which was very nice but far too much food for us. However, it was great not to have to battle the crowds in the WJ.

 

Meat plank

 

Tagliatelle Bolognese and prawn linguine

 

 

Amalfi lemon cheesecake and epic brownie

 

 

Today's compass

 

 

 

 

Sail away is in about 30 minutes and they're still calling out for some people who haven't done their muster drill. 🫤

 

Finally, I'm going to finish off this first post by tagging my blogging buddy @Rogueperson because he always tags me on his live reviews and he has one going right now. We are sailing at the same time but on different ships and in different parts of the world. Have fun, Rogue. 😊

Following and thanks for doing a live.

We were on Anthem 4-11 September.

We had an amazing cruise and hope you do to.

Graham.

[FionaMG]

26 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Following and thanks for doing a live.

We were on Anthem 4-11 September.

We had an amazing cruise and hope you do to.

Graham.

Thanks! Delighted to have you along. 😊

[FionaMG]

Third alpha call. Location was outside CK, so maybe somebody fell or something. 😟

[little britain]

1 hour ago, grapau27 said:

Following and thanks for doing a live.

We were on Anthem 4-11 September.

We had an amazing cruise and hope you do to.

Graham.

We were also on that one. Didn’t see you on either the roll call or around the ship! 

[grapau27]

2 hours ago, little britain said:

We were also on that one. Didn’t see you on either the roll call or around the ship! 

Sorry I missed you although I don't know what you look like.

One of our CC members recognised us on Anthem and we had a couple of lovely chats.

We ate in Chops Grill 3 nights and Wonderland 2 nights.

 

 

[klfrodo]

I'm enjoying reading this thread.

 

My wife and I are doing this cruise in October of 2023. Scheduling our flights for this date next year. Are planning to spend 8 days in U.K. pre-cruise.

[FionaMG]

23 hours ago, wolfcathorse said:

who is the captain for this sailing?

I couldn't quite catch the name at the top tier event this morning and they didn't have it written down anywhere. It sounded something like Straker. He is from Dubrovnik in Croatia. Maybe someone who is following the thread will recognise him from that and be able to give you the correct version of his name.

[FionaMG]

5 hours ago, singinalot said:

thanks for sharing. excited to follow.

My pleasure ☺️. Thanks for following.

[njkruzer]

1 minute ago, FionaMG said:

I couldn't quite catch the name at the top tier event this morning and they didn't have it written down anywhere. It sounded something like Straker. He is from Dubrovnik in Croatia. Maybe someone who is following the thread will recognise him from that and be able to give you the correct version of his name.

You should be able to get sheet with the officer's names and bios from Guest Services.  Did that on the Jewel in April. 

[FionaMG]

4 hours ago, klfrodo said:

I'm enjoying reading this thread.

 

My wife and I are doing this cruise in October of 2023. Scheduling our flights for this date next year. Are planning to spend 8 days in U.K. pre-cruise.

Delighted to have you following.

Sounds like an excellent trip that you have planned. ☺️

[FionaMG]

Just now, njkruzer said:

You should be able to get sheet with the officer's names and bios from Guest Services.  Did that on the Jewel in April. 

Thanks, I didn't know that. I will pop by and ask for one if there's not too big a queue. They usually give them out at Captain's Corner, which we always go to, but that's normally towards the end of the cruise and on our last one on Odyssey in May they didn't.

[FionaMG]

So, to catch up on today's events before it's tomorrow... 

 

The top tier event was in two70 at 10.30 am, which was a sufficiently civilised time for it to be well attended.

There were quite a lot of people for whom this was their first post-covid cruise.

I didn't catch all the guest numbers for the different tiers but it was something like 608 D, 332 D+ and 40 pins. Six new pins we're acknowledged.

After the event there was a massive people-jam with everyone trying to leave and the line of incoming bingo players. We sat off to the side until it quietened down.

[FionaMG]

The weather was starting to clear up a bit after we came out, not warm enough for us southern Europeans to put our bathing suits on but still nice enough to wander and take some pics to prove there were blue skies over the Bay of Biscay.

 

 

 

 

 

There were quite a lot of loungers outside the seaplex that looked like needed a really good wash. Some even had what looked clumps of soot on them.