Anthem Adventures with Andy - Day 4 Belfast

[Melanie R]

So following such a chilled out day yesterday, you would expect we would have been up early and raring to go for our day in Belfast – except you would be wrong 😂

We had many conversations over what to do in Belfast – I still had only seen the delights of Café Nero yet Andy clearly had seen everything he wants given he lives there, so we had finally decided to have a day on board the ship as we had already committed to a weekend for me to go over following the cruise where Andy has promised to show me all the sights. We had a very lazy start to our day, to the point we actually overslept and missed breakfast!

We were due to dock at 11 this morning and so we decided as we were so late, we would watch the ship dock from the balcony, then we would head up to Windjammers and check out their lunchtime offerings instead.

Now that we had a firm plan, we made a cup of tea to take outside and stood watching the ship sail into Belfast – it was slightly surreal to think this was the third time in as many months that I had done this, yet on the first one I didn’t even know Andy existed and the second one I was so nervous for our first date that I was up at 5 watching the ship arrive!

This time we were stood watching it together – not something I ever would have thought would be happening when I arrived on that first cruise back on Anthem just 8 weeks previously!

Having watched the sail in, we headed up to eat – there were so many options but as a Northern lass from Wigan, it was always going to be a pie! It was actually really good and I had some mashed potatoes to go with it 😊

We got in the lift where we learned that it was indeed Saturday 😂

and decided to head down to the Future cruise desk where we booked our next adventure!

We had picked up the details of the 2022 itinerary earlier in the cruise and after looking at dates and locations, we had made the decision that a 7 night sailing to Norway would be our next Anthem Adventure together – it would have been nice to have a different ship, but the dates and location won out and within minutes we had booked, taking advantage of the decent offer and my blue light card discount!

Once we had done this, we decided we had gone long enough without a cocktail so decided to head to the Solarium again and enjoy the hot tub and some drinks.

As we put our things down on a couple of sun loungers, my phone pinged with a message from a work colleague who was on the same cruise suggesting a meet up if we were free later in the day – as it happened, she was sitting at the bar in the solarium with her husband so we headed over for a chat – and she asked me quietly if everyone at work knew about Andy or did I want her to keep it to herself! As it happens, a few did already know so I reassured her it was fine, although I do know she isn’t a gossip, but I knew she would be asked questions!

It seemed weird that this was my third of these cruises and on the other 2 where I was solo, I spoke to nobody I “knew”, yet this one where I had company had Sue (my colleague) and the previous day I had been spotted by a Dibber who stopped for a quick chat which was also lovely!

We left Sue and headed to the hot tub for a while where we enjoyed a couple of cocktails – a pineapple Guava Sangria and Ice Ice Baby (just for a change!)

and we chilled on the sun loungers when we started to get too hot from the hot tub.
We had a lovely relaxing day in the Solarium before heading back down to our stateroom to get ready to go down to dinner – we were placed back in the American Icon restaurant today which we much preferred, and as luck would have it we also had Manuel the same server we had the last time who was an absolute star!

Tonight’s menu was minestrone soup

Beef tenderloin

Molten chocolate cake

And a cappuccino, washed down this evening with a glass of white wine for a change - and somehow I have no pics of them 😂

We were a little later this evening at dinner as we had booked the theatre show for 10:15 – tonight was a singer Gary Williams who was excellent and we both thoroughly enjoyed the performance. As we headed out and decided to call it a night, we were discussing our tastes in music and what we both liked to listen to and discovered we have very similar tastes which will come in handy if we ever undertake a long car journey together – no fighting over the playlist 😂

We found on our arrival this little beauty

We continued the conversation with a final drink on the balcony – we had missed the sail away as the ship left during dinner, but we could see the lights of Belfast in the distance while we stood and chatted into the early hours before deciding to call it a night and headed to bed - it had been another lovely day together, just chilling and getting to know each other better 🥰

[JudeB]

What a lovely relaxed day.

[dismamx2]

A really chilled day, how nice Everything sounds lovely, glad you are both getting on so well!

[Disney_time]

Originally Posted by Melanie R

This time we were stood watching it together – not something I ever would have thought would be happening when I arrived on that first cruise back on Anthem just 8 weeks previously! 🥰

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That's so lovely. Such a lovely turn of events and everything has just fallen into place.

[P&S]

A lovely day I'm loving your love story it's so uplifting

Belfast is an amazing city and the people are so lovely and friendly I hope we get a trip report!

[Ciano]

Look at you two making plans for the future too ...love it!