Just back from NYC and cruise to New England & Canada
 

I apologise this is not a full report, just a shortened version, but its impossible to do a live one while at sea, and now we are back to whole house being decorated, school starting, work etc, I cant do it! Hoping this is enough to give an idea of how it was. Our first family holiday without eldest DS! :cry: (George is still in Bahrain)

Was just me, DH and youngest son, Harry - 15. (the magic grumpy number) 4 nights in NYC staying in Times Square area, at the Intercontinental then a 9 night cruise on Royal Caribbeans Anthem of the Seas, to New England and Canada. We flew with Norwegian and had the experience of their replacement aircraft for the 787 dreamliner, an A380 double decker...HUGE!



As we had booked premium economy, they sat us in the very comfortable business class style seats...I have never walked up stairs before on a plane.


Although it was extremely comfortable, we didnt get a drink of any sort, not even water, for 3 hours... I was not impressed! I think the staff were just headless chickens, luckily I slept through most of the flight so it didnt matter. We arrived in JFK at 1am, and made it to the Hotel by 2:30ish.

New york
 

Our first morning, we got up, and headed to Macys, for around 10am. I love this store, the old wooden escalator is still there, and it has so much character!

Then we headed by subway downtown, to Greene St, so Harry could go to his favourite shop ‘Bathing Ape’ (dont ask) highly pretentious fashion but who am I to question a teenager?

Harry spent his entires years savings, in one go, then we walked to Bleecker St for some pizza slices, it was rough round the edges but we loved it.

When we were suitably full of pizza we headed to the Chelsea district, to start the Highline walk, this is an old disued rail line that has been turned into a park walk for everyone (FREE of CHARGE) and it was my highlight of our time in NYC, such an amazing place - flowers, performers, stalls, great views of the city, little benches to sit at, what a great use of something abandoned.

On our second day we went to the Woodbury Common outlet, it was quite a way on the bus, (an hour) but easy to do, and a nice mall, Im not really a shopper but my DH got timberland boots, and ralph lauren shirts etc.

On our last day we saw Frozen on Broadway, I LOVED it! I even got a glass of red wine, served in a plastic ‘sippy’ souvenir cup! 😂 which Im keeping...

We then headed by train to Long Island, to visit some friends - it was great to see outside of Manhatten, and I loved seeing all the cute houses with wreaths in their door, there were a few with the american flag flying in the garden too. (We didnt mention Trump to anyone we met in case we put our foot in it) They had prepared us a lovely dinner, and we also went to Jones Beach for a walk, it was beautiful white sand for miles...

And so ended our time in NYC, tomorrow we would be getting on the SHIP! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🛳🛳🛳

Brilliant start. That plane is huge! We love New York

Anthem of the seas
 

I had arranged a shared transfer for us and some other people from the cruise from the Hotel to the Cape Liberty cruise terminal, we used Hoppa tranfsers, and it worked out very well, great price, and our minivan was lovely with a great driver.

We arrived at the ship late morning, and check in was very smooth, within half an hour we were onboard and looking around this beautiful ship!


Anthem has so much to do for all ages, we couldnt take it all in at first! Our cabin was a Junior Suite, with a generous balcony and was perfect for us, Harry had a sofa bed, and we had lots of space to live in, we saw Dolphins on our first sea day which was wonderful. Soon we were sailing away - bye New York! We could just spot the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

Anthem of the seas
 

We took part in a few activities on the ship, they have an amazing area called ‘Seaplex’ which has so much to do, bumper cars, trapeze classes, dodgeball, five a side football, (which is how Harry made friends and then disappeared for the rest of the cruise!) basketball, roller skating, table tennis, Xboxes, it was endless.

I tried Roller Skating, having not done this for years but it soon came back to me! They were a bit over zealous with the protective gear lol. I didnt kill anyone else or injure myself and it was so much fun!

And DH did the Sky diving... 😂😂😂 oh I died laughing. It looked quite tricky to master!

Food
 

Some food photos from the ship, we ate very well, I had purchased a dining package so we could try Jamies Italian, Chops Grille, and Wonderland, the speciality restaurants in board that cost extra. They were worth the upsell, and we thoroughly enjoyed all our meals, and the wine! (Of course) We had dinner in Coastal Kitchen, the dining room for suite guests, we found the food here excellent, and loved our waiter. I love that there is no cooking or washing up on a cruise. And no bill! :D
Main Dining
Chops Grille

Wonderland

Cookies and wine by the pool at lunchtime... (the best)

Boston
 

After one day at sea, which we spent doing crazy stuff on the ship, and finding our way around, we arrived in Boston, I hadnt been here before so was quite excited. We had booked a Segway tour, independently, which I felt would be a fun and fast way to get around the city and also get some information about what we were seeing.

Boston is lovely, we loved Quincy Market (really quaint food hall basically) There was a vintage car rally on so we had a wander around all the cars.







We headed off to start our segway tour, our guide was called Captain Bob, who said it is easy getting used to handling the segway, just lean on your feet forward to go and lean back on your feet to stop, sounds simple but I was a bit wobbly! We soon got the hang of it and off we went, causing much amusement to other tourists as we passed by.







After the tour we had lunch, and our first lobster roll, from Quincy Market. It was delicious but expensive at $23! We shared it.


Then we just had a quick look around the shops, and headed back to the ship.

Our next port of call was Portland Maine, I was so looking forward to this because we booked a foodie walking tour, through the ship, and it sounded amazing, seeing somewhere and eating! Yes!
It was advertised as a tour offering samples of Maine inspired dishes, Im thinking Chowder, Mac and Cheese, Lobster, etc... mmmm...

Well, we actually ended up eating - Moroccan chick pea soup, a burrito style pasty, and a choc chip cookie. (Not complaining about the cookie it was delicious) but the other food did seem a tad random...:erm:

We also visited a brewery to sample beers etc, we are not beer fans and there was no wine but we tried some of the blueberry soda, cream soda and watermelon soda which were lovely.

Portland looked really nice, bit I didnt feel the tour gave us a proper experience of it at all and we were a bit disappointed. We came back to the ship and everyone was raving about the seafood etc! Never mind, we still had a nice walk, in a lovely place.

I did buy some really delicious chocolate covered peanuts with caramel in the health food shop called ‘money on the honey’ oh my they were good!

The next port of call was our favourite, Bar Harbor.
It looked just how you imagine New England to look in the movies, so quaint, with loads of cute little shops etc. I loved ‘Shermans’ a traditional book store. Was like going back in time.

We were booked on a Bike Tour, of Acadia National Park, which was fantastic (apart from the incredibly uncomfortable bike seat, which left me almost unable to sit down the following day!)

We saw a beaver dam, and even grumpy Harry had to admit he was enjoying himself with us, which was quite a break through in itself! The park was beautiful and despite some challenging uphills, we saw so many wonderful unspolit views. I would love to go back and spend more time in this area one day.

Beaver dam -



After the bike ride we just mooched around the gift shops, and had a bit of lunch (more lobster!) at the Side Street Cafe, what a cool place, and the lobster here was delicious, even just the roll which is soaked in butter would do me, with some crisps in it! :D



Back on board...what a fantastic day.

Your holiday looks fabulous. We loved Harmony of the Seas and would love to do another cruise.. The meal in Wonderland was the strangest but most delicious meal I have ever eaten. Didn’t quite know what I was eating but just delicious!
I will need to have a look at Anthem. Didn’t realise they did skydiving. I wonder if this was extra cost ?
Thanks for sharing your lovely photos!