Anthem Of The Seas - British Isles Mini Cruise - Travel and Pre Pre-boarding day

[Milpston]

Travel Day 1 - Extending the trip

So in Lieu of doing anything else this year and in the aftermath of a couple of cancelled Florida trips we were desperate to get away for some quality time with the kids.


We'd loved our previous cruises with Royal Caribbean but had not been since 2013 and we'd never taken Emma and Benjamin on a cruise.

My only previous cruise trip report was done for our honeymoon cruise in 2013. This trip report can be found here if you fancy a nose.

I did a pre-trip report for this cruise although with the stress of hoping for negative PCR tests and negative lateral flow tests at the terminal I didn't add the final update for the last couple of weeks. My pre-trip report can be found here

So, the 4 of us had been for a Covid PCR tests on Friday 20th August. These were all arranged through Royal Caribbean and they covered the costs. They were using Eurofins for the tests and we easily got booked in for ours at Stansted Airport. As the tests now just consist of nasal swabs rather than nasal and throat we had got the kids used to them over the few days before by doing Lateral Flow Tests at home. When we went to Stansted for the tests the kids did not bat an eyelid. It was then the anxious wait for the results. Because we expected this we had not told the kids we were going on a cruise as we didn't need to have to deal with the disappointment. They knew we going to Pepper Pig World and thought the tests were to be able to go there.

We (sally) started the packing on the morning of Saturday 21st August. Fortunately the kids didn't really take a lot of notice of the fact we were taking 4 suitcases with us. We just told them we wanted lots of choice of what to wear at Pepper Pig World which they accepted

The kids seemed happy just to be having a night in a hotel prior to Pepper Pig World.

We had decided that we would watch the football on TV before we headed off to the tropical destination of Reading for the night. It was just an afterthought really to add a night away and break the journey up down to Southampton.

I was really hoping we would get the results of our PCR tests through before we left... as I didn't fancy turning round half way there. The first result I got through was Benjamin's. This came through as negative about 13:00.

Once the football was over we decided to head off. I had to play a fairly advanced round of suitcase Tetris to get our cases in the car. For our last trip together we had a Mondeo which I could have pretty much lobbed these 4 case in the boot from a distance with no issues. Our updated car was not so much fun. Benjamin ended up with one of the cases in the footwell with hi feet on top of it as it was the only way I could get them in.

We got the good news of our other 3 negative Covid test results pinging through to my phone at about 15:00 just as we had loaded the kids in the car and Sally was just locking up the front door for us to leave. It cheered us up for the journey but we still had the fear of the kids having Lateral Flow Tests at the terminal. This covid testing lark completely ruined the build up and excitement for the cruise. It felt akin to when we've had hurricanes clobber Florida just before we were about to fly out on a couple of occasions. I guess this is going to feel like the norm for the foreseeable future

Sally captured the obligatory car journey shots on the way down. I guess it's a good point to note that I didn't take my decent camera with us on this trip. I should have done but I, honestly, couldn't be bothered with lugging it around for the week so I just used our phones. I know I will regret it with the quality of pictures but it's too late to change my mind now.

We had a good run round the M25 to Reading. A little slow traffic due to an accident but nothing that delayed us by more than 10-15 minutes.

The kids spent most the journey asking, "how much longer?", and, "Are we nearly there?", as you would expect but considering they've done no long car journeys in the last year or 2 they were as good as gold.

After a nice little ride we arrive at the Holiday Inn in Reading. By the time we had popped to my parents' on the way out we didn't leave until later than expected but arrived in plenty of time before the time we had booked a table for dinner. We had booked dinner bed and breakfast at a decent rate.

We were checked in by a lovely lady who was really good with the kids. I asked her if she would minding printing some emails for me which had the certificates on for our negative covid tests which she was more than happy to do. Although everything for Royal Caribbean was on my phone electronically I had read a few reports of the signal being poor in the cruise terminal and people having problems accessing their documents. Because of that I have paper copies of everything as well electronic versions.

We went for dinner about 17:30 as we were starving. We sat in the restaurant and initially struggled to work out what was available as included on the room rate we had booked. We asked one staff member and he told us it included anything with a 'V'. We quickly found these were the vegetarian items so we asked someone else. She said that the first guy we asked only worked in the bar not the restaurant and not to take any notice of him

Anyway, she said that if their is a set menu it is just the set menu that was included but as they didn't have one it was any starter, main and dessert included.

Sally and I both had the wings to start.

Benjamin had garlic bread

and Emma had some Halloumi fries.

Emma nibbled around the edges of them. For anyone that read my Florida trip report in 2018 they may remember that, back then, Emma pretty much lived on Nuggets and chips. Well since then... she's got worse she's been through stages of not liking chips and currently doesn't eat nuggets. She is getting a little better though in that she will now try some things... usually with an immediate, "NO", but its a start.

For main course Emma had pizza and chips... this will become a theme!

Benjamin had fish fingers and chips

Sally had a burger

I had the fish and chips

For dessert I had the chocolate brownie

Sally had the sticky toffee pudding

and the kids both just had some vanilla ice cream

I have to say the food and service was very good. We worked out the meal would have cost the best part of £80 had we been paying for it. When we'd only paid £100 for dinner, bed and breakfast it was a bit of a bargain really. There is a swimming pool at the hotel but is still closed due to Covid. It would have been nice to take the kids for a swim but we were aware of this at the time of booking. We went into the bar for a drink after dinner.

I was already starting to feel the holiday weight going on! Sally and I had started a diet back in January. Sally lost 11lb and I have/had lost just under 5 stone. I am sitting writing this having arrived home this morning and have had about 12 days of eating whatever I want. I will have my official Monday weigh in tomorrow morning but my clothes are tighter... I'm guessing I have put on about 1.5 stone in that time

I did a couple of runs to the car for our cases. We decided not to leave any in the car and it was typical that our room was about as far from the car park as it could possibly have been.

The room was actually nice. Perfectly adequate for what we wanted it for and very clean. The kids made their usual assault course out of jumping from bed to bed and it was just nice to be away from home. Apart from a couple of nights in London with the kids recently, like everyone else, we haven't been far!

We settled down for bed and had booked a table for breakfast in the morning. I think it was 08:00 but obviously have no notes to rely on at all.

[Kcstyle]

superb! We are thinking about this for October 9th so looking forward to your views! I think our kids are slightly older (9 & 11).

[Melanie R]

Wow, you’re organised with the report! I was on the same cruise and have only had time to unpack and book another one 🤣
Looking forward to reading - need to get a start on mine too

[MrsFizz]

Originally Posted by Melanie R

Wow, you’re organised with the report! I was on the same cruise and have only had time to unpack and book another one 🤣
Looking forward to reading - need to get a start on mine too

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Impressed you have booked another one already! I’m still doing all the washing 😂

[Melanie R]

Originally Posted by MrsFizz

Impressed you have booked another one already! I’m still doing all the washing 😂

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I know - I have a Princess one booked next month, but saw a price for October back on Anthem that I couldn’t turn down! I’ve got no plans to go further afield until things settle, so thought why not!

[Milpston]

Originally Posted by Kcstyle

superb! We are thinking about this for October 9th so looking forward to your views! I think our kids are slightly older (9 & 11).

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I will give my views as we go along and a summary at the end. I do think your kids are at a better age than ours to get the most out of it though.

[Milpston]

Originally Posted by Melanie R

Wow, you’re organised with the report! I was on the same cruise and have only had time to unpack and book another one 🤣
Looking forward to reading - need to get a start on mine too

See more...

Fortunately for me, unpacking etc is Sally’s department. I would get it all wrong any way 😂

I have to admit having gone through our photos earlier I am regretting starting a trip report a little. It will be nowhere near my normal standard… the pictures are not great using my phone and I really didn’t get many in and around the ship to do it justice…. I think we put more effort into getting our money’s worth out of the drinks package 😂

[Lizzim]

Originally Posted by Milpston

Fortunately for me, unpacking etc is Sally’s department. I would get it all wrong any way 😂

I have to admit having gone through our photos earlier I am regretting starting a trip report a little. It will be nowhere near my normal standard… the pictures are not great using my phone and I really didn’t get many in and around the ship to do it justice…. I think we put more effort into getting our money’s worth out of the drinks package 😂

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Please keep going, we are booked for Sept and eagerly awaiting some 'real' reviews. We won't judge your photo quality (or lack of photos).

[Melanie R]

Originally Posted by Milpston

Fortunately for me, unpacking etc is Sally’s department. I would get it all wrong any way 😂

I have to admit having gone through our photos earlier I am regretting starting a trip report a little. It will be nowhere near my normal standard… the pictures are not great using my phone and I really didn’t get many in and around the ship to do it justice…. I think we put more effort into getting our money’s worth out of the drinks package 😂

See more...

I’ll be totally honest, most of my pics will be of the cocktails - I also put effort in the drinks package 🤣

[Lizzim]

Originally Posted by Melanie R

I’ll be totally honest, most of my pics will be of the cocktails - I also put effort in the drinks package 🤣

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We don't really drink - but again won't judge