In July 2016 I started to research prices of cruises from New York with options being NCL or Anthem of the Seas. I've been obsessed with these large ships since seeing them in Southampton prior to their maiden voyages and it wasn't a hard decision to book Anthem.
I contacted my usual cruise agent Iglu, my local Virgin travel agent in Debenhams which is across the road from my office and Royal Caribbean direct via website and on the phone to get prices and options
First decision before booked was which cabin or stateroom to book on the ship, in the past we have usually booked inside cabins, we have been upgraded for free to outside twice but are happy with an inside as only use it to sleep or recharge and get changed / showered and the like. However with this being a summer school holiday cruise all insides were booked, next category is outsides (with a window) but as most of these are in the front of the ship and it may be hurricane season I decided this wasn't a good idea, so went for a balcony cabin. Usually this upgrade would be another £1000 for a 9 day cruise but as the balconies were only another few hundred pounds and the difference between a lower D5 category and the best D1 balcony was another £100 my mind was made up we were booking a D1 balcony in a great position on deck 12. If anyone is interested in my view on best place to be in a cruise ship I can write about this in a later post!
First stop to research booking was Virgin who assured my they were the only ones that could book flights this far out (just over 12 months), they quoted my a price of £7k for flights, cruise and hotel. Mmmm more than I expected! So back to the internet.
Iglu were quoting £2,300 per person on line and Royal Caribbean were similar so I contacted both of them and got prices at just under £4K excluding our hotels in New York.
Royal Caribbean could only guarantee their quoted price if we only added a single night pre cruise stay. We wanted more than one night in New York which Iglu could accommodate even chatting to me about possible areas to stay.
So in July 2016 I booked! We fly to New York on Monday 31 July spending 3 nights in NY before joining the ship on Thursday 3rd August, after getting a tip on the DIBB we area not flying back straight away at the end of the cruise so we return to New York on Saturday 12th and fly back to the UK on Monday 15th after 2 more nights in NY.
Flights will be Virgin, American or BA and will be confirmed later, I will also need to research and book hotels nearer the time.
Will try to add more photos in future posts!
