Anthem Of The Seas - British Isles Mini Cruise - Home time and final thoughts

[Milpston]

So it was an early start this morning and we arrived in Coastal Kitchen just after 06:45 for breakfast.

We were docked back in Southampton.

Emma was feeling a bit sad this morning as she really enjoyed the holiday and didn't want to go home.

Benjamin... was just Benjamin

We had our usual breakfast spread to get us ready for the journey home.

We had a couple of photos taken with Lourdes as we left.

Emma had a few tears as she didn't want to leave the ship or Lourdes. Sally saw that Lourdes was passed a tissue by the Maitre D as i think she had a little tear too. I would imagine it made her miss her kids back in Peru even more!

I think the disembarking procedure is that you are allocated a time to disembark and you wait until your number is called and make your way off. As we were in a suite we could leave at any time. We collected our last couple of bits from the stateroom and walked off to find our cases which were located immediately as you entered the luggage hall.

We were at our car within a few minutes of leaving our room and playing one last game of suitcase Tetris.

As we only live in Essex it was only about a 2 and half hour journey home. We made one short pitstop at South Mimms services on the way home.

We did remark how lovely it was to have such an easy journey home especially with it being a Sunday. We are used to having to kick around in Florida for the day after getting off a cruise before going to an Airport and arriving home the next morning.

My thoughts on the cruise.

Overall, we loved it. It was so nice to be back on RCI having not been on since 2013 and it was our first with the kids. It was even better and a bit nostalgic having got engaged on Oasis and part of our honeymoon was on Allure.

The positives


It was was the best holiday we could have had with the money in the current times. Nothing else could have realistically come close at the moment.

The service was superb in every location went to. The staff are genuinely delighted to be back working and will bend over backwards to make you happy. Our server in Coastal kitchen was Exceptional. Chops Grill was as good as we ever remembered it to be.

The food and drinks were of an excellent quality. We honestly did not have one thing that we could have been critical of.

The shows were of a high standard especially We will rock you.

Having an indoor swimming pool on the cruise was a real plus point for a UK cruise.

One bedroom Grand Suite - It was lovely to have more space, a bigger balcony and a full bath for the kids. I would never pay full price for one but it was nice to have especially with the added bonus of coastal kitchen.

Cleanliness - everywhere was spotless as I have always seen on RC ships.

The drinks packages! well worth getting them if you like a drink. You really don't have to drink much to break even. The drink packages for sally and I cost £538.55. An estimate of just the alcoholic drinks we had would be around £1200. The soft drinks we had as well as copious amounts of freshly squeezed orange juice with breakfast would also have been an additional cost.

The photo package. We bought 100 photos for £102 not long after we booked the cruise. They've actually sent me all of the 128 we had taken during the cruise. Some of them really are lovely.

The Ifly and the bumper cars were really good especially for the kids although I did book the extra charge versions to guarantee them not missing out.

The negatives

This is only a personal opinion and I know the opposite views would be perfectly valid!

Queueing for the swimming pools was a bit silly as I already stated a couple of times. I just can't get my head round how 14 people in a swimming pool with the same queueing shoulder to shoulder on the side is better than just letting them in where they would have been more spread out. It just didn't feel very well managed either.

I did feel that was a lack of things to do with the kids. Admittedly this is exasperated by the fact mine did not fancy the kids club but we were happy as we really wanted to spend as much quality time with them as possible on this trip. I can imagine in hotter climates (even though our weather was good) we'd have spent much more time around the pool but it just wasn't the same when you had to queue to get in during the afternoons and the pool areas were very busy by that time. I'm not sure I'd have enjoyed it at all if it was a full ship and it would probably have been more pleasant on the other sailings this year that were lower in number.

The booking systems - the way they released ll the bookings right at the start for Ifly, North star, Shows, restaurants etc didn't really work and they did not appear very flexible with it. I was already aware of this so we got everything that we wanted but I heard plenty of grumblings from others who didn't.

They wouldn't allow people to standby queue for the bumper cars who couldn't get a booking. This was even the case when it was fairly quiet. Some tables out of use in bars whilst others that were available were still close together. They'd upped the numbers of people in the theatres but still had roller skating and trapeze school closed. You couldn't sit at a bar for a drink but full gaming tables in the casino with no masks was fine.

The above sounds like I am anti Covid restrictions I'm not at all astill wear my mask everywhere I go and at work. i just felt the restrictions were very inconsistent and, for that reason, felt difficult to understand.

The itinerary - Let's face it. However, you dress it up 'Southampton, Liverpool Belfast' is about as bad as a cruise could get

Would I do it again?... YES... and NO.

We had considered booking the Anthem round the med for Aug 2022 but the price they want isn't worth it for me. I think it's because I prefer the Oasis class ships as I just think they offer more wow factor and more to do. I would also quite like to try a freedom class or even go back to a refurbed Voyager class which has more water slides etc for the kids. Although I loved the Anthem it would not be my first choice now we have done Ifly and Northstar.

Having said all that... if the price is right and I could can get the time off work we 'may' book the October half term sailing if there is still no confidence of getting a bit of sun somewhere.

*Edit*

I forgot to add... Sally put on 5lb during this cruise and I managed to put on 15.16lb I had lost nearly 5 stone since January and after a couple of days of struggles since being home I am now back working to get those cruise pounds off!

A Florida trip for 2022 is completely off the table for us and we will hope with everything that we have that we can do it in 2023... or 2024.

[mitch84]

Really enjoyed reading along. Impressed at your use of the drinks package. I’m doing P&O in a fortnight and will try to match you 😂
I cruise solo mostly but do love reading a cruise trippie

[Milpston]

Originally Posted by mitch84

Really enjoyed reading along. Impressed at your use of the drinks package. I’m doing P&O in a fortnight and will try to match you 😂
I cruise solo mostly but do love reading a cruise trippie

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I hope you have a great time!

We rarely drink at home but we certainly didn’t have to worry about driving or anything. It’s surprising how many drinks you get through without giving it much thought…. We managed to keep the kids alive as well which was a nice little bonus 😀🤣

[MrsFizz]

It was interesting to read your positives and negatives. We were on the same cruise and my feelings are identical to yours. It was perfect in the current circumstances and we had a great time but I’m not sure we would do it again. The pool lines were crazy and it was all my 13 year old wanted to do!

The staff were amazing we found they couldn’t do enough for us. However, we found the covid restrictions inconsistent as well.

It was our first cruise so nothing to compare it to. We are thinking of possibly doing a shorter cruise from Florida whenever we make it back there but not 100% sure yet.

Thanks very much for your trip report. I’ve really enjoyed reading along and thinking about our trip.

[Milpston]

Originally Posted by MrsFizz

It was interesting to read your positives and negatives. We were on the same cruise and my feelings are identical to yours. It was perfect in the current circumstances and we had a great time but I’m not sure we would do it again. The pool lines were crazy and it was all my 13 year old wanted to do!

The staff were amazing we found they couldn’t do enough for us. However, we found the covid restrictions inconsistent as well.

It was our first cruise so nothing to compare it to. We are thinking of possibly doing a shorter cruise from Florida whenever we make it back there but not 100% sure yet.

Thanks very much for your trip report. I’ve really enjoyed reading along and thinking about our trip.

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Thanks for reading along and I'm really pleased to see my views weren't too controversial
I just couldn't make sense of some of them.
It was definitely a different experience sailing during Covid and in the main I think they did a great job to get these cruises sailing at all.

I really recommend giving an Oasis class ship a try. Harmony out of Cape Canaveral would be a good choice but obviously they are only 7 nights.

Sailing the Caribbean is such a different feeling with the clear waters, beautiful ports and views along with the hot sun on your back!

[Melanie R]

Great review, it’s been really interesting to read a report from the same cruise and compare experiences (and cocktails!) 😂
I understand your issue with the pool, I was lucky enough to spend most of my pool time in the adult area so didn’t encounter this as more often than not the pool was empty!
I guess it wasn’t helped by the high volume of kids/teens onboard as it was the last sailing before schools returned! 😊

[Milpston]

Originally Posted by Melanie R

Great review, it’s been really interesting to read a report from the same cruise and compare experiences (and cocktails!) 😂
I understand your issue with the pool, I was lucky enough to spend most of my pool time in the adult area so didn’t encounter this as more often than not the pool was empty!
I guess it wasn’t helped by the high volume of kids/teens onboard as it was the last sailing before schools returned! 😊

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Yeah I totally agree. We never even got around to popping our heads into the solarium for obvious reasons. I will be some years before we get to enjoy the solarium on RCI.
Apparently there were 800 kids on our sailing but I have to say it never seemed like it. I think most of the other sailings would have been lovely and quiet. I had been seriously thinking about booking October half term but I’ve put it on the back burner as I think it could have the same issue.

If only I’d known you were on there doing a trip report as well. We could have met up so I could borrow a copy of your notes 😂

[Melanie R]

I was told there were over 800 too - and I agree it didn’t feel that way! I have rebooked for October, but booked the week before half term so I’m expecting it to be quieter 😊
I’ve already made a list of the cocktails from your report I missed out on 🤣

[Milpston]

Originally Posted by Melanie R

I was told there were over 800 too - and I agree it didn’t feel that way! I have rebooked for October, but booked the week before half term so I’m expecting it to be quieter 😊
I’ve already made a list of the cocktails from your report I missed out on 🤣

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We had a chat with Joff (the cruise director) guy one night and he said the numbers on the sailing were set to drop like a stone after our sailing. I’d be surprised if your next sailing has more than 1000 on so I think it will be lovely!

[Lizzim]

Thank you for writing this, we are going towards the end of Sept. No kids and I don’t drink so there will be less alcohol

I am hoping for some sunshine but we’ve booked a suite (to be allocated) so we have a little bit of space if not good weather!