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“The Starry Neighbor (Neighbour?) Chronicles: Pining for the Fjords” – Anthem of the Seas, July 8th-15th, 2022


Lovetocruise2002

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I love those bathrooms, idk why but I love me a nice, beautiful bathroom. Also don't do Piccadilly Circus at night🤣 I saw several parts I had no intentions of seeing. We did the Hop-on, Hop-off bus last time we were in London, and it was great. Have such a great time, you are making me nostalgic for my European vacations. 

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10 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Amazing rooms !  Incredibly large by European standards !  Have a wonderful time !

581 and 430 square feet. 

8 hours ago, Guy Gadwa said:

Following & looking forward to your adventures! 🙂

Thanks for following!

8 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

Also don't do Piccadilly Circus at night🤣 I saw several parts I had no intentions of seeing. 

No plans for that! Lol

8 hours ago, JLMoran said:

@Lovetocruise2002, so glad to hear your flight was on time and all luggage present and accounted for! May that be the end of the "stress times" and your boarding of Anthem be without incident.

Thanks. One last hurdle…testing 

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Just had a moment of panic. Remember how earlier I mentioned that the times were off for Alesund and might interfere with the Stranda Mountain Explorer? Well I just opened my email and saw 4 emails from [email protected] with the subject of change confirmation……

with trepidation I opened it to find this

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phew…..now I can relax and go back to packing. 28hrs 42 min until wheels up.

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London - Day 2

Wow! Today was a non-stop busy one! We started the day taking the Tube to Victoria Coach station to catch our Best of London tour. This tour was good value. Very comprehensive, packed, and tiring! It was supposed to be a 9 hour tour but turned out to be 10 hours because London traffic was awful today. 
 

The day started off at Westminster Abbey. 
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Then we headed over to St. Paul’s Cathedral and spent about 1.5 hours there. We went it and toured the main floor and the crypts. 
 

 

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Next stop was the Tower of London where we stopped for lunch and then toured the towers. This was probably the most disappointing part for me personally. I don’t blame the tour company, but because it took us a while to get to the Tower of London, we only had about 1.5 hours to spend there. The line to see the Crown Jewels was incredibly long (as I knew it would be so late in the day) so we never got a chance to see it. 
 

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The last part is where things got weird. After the cruise down the Thames, our guide said he would not be going with us. He asked for a volunteer to take a paper that had a bar code on it containing the 37 tickets for all who would he riding the London Eye. Hubby and I looked at each other and the Type A personalities took over, we did not hesitate to volunteer because at least we knew that we would make it on the flight lol. This was a 30 min flight and worth it for a one time experience. Hubby said it was a North Star on steroids lol. 
 

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3 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

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Child-sized full plate armor? They started them young, back then!

3 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

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What kind of fish was that? I don't think I've ever seen a filet that massive in an order of fish and chips.

Did either of you go for the traditional malt vinegar?

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17 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

The line to see the Crown Jewels was incredibly long (as I knew it would be so late in the day) so we never got a chance to see it.

Where are the genies when you really need them ...

If you really want to see them , maybe you should come early morning just for this tour , take the tube to avoid traffic.

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The other neighbor (neighbour?) is on the way!!!! Currently sitting at the airport waiting for our flight. So far everything has been smooth sailing. 
 

we started our morning with 4 negative tests!!

brought this goofball to the boarder….

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My dad picked us up to bring us to the airport. All morning the kids believed our white lies about why they were taking COVID tests and everything else. Conveniently my son didn’t notice that we weren’t loading up any of his TaeKwonDo gear for summer camp.

Once we got to the airport, we let them in on the secret!

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needless to say, they were a little

shellshocked!

Next stop Philadelphia!

 

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2 hours ago, GregD said:

 

The other neighbor (neighbour?) is on the way!!!! Currently sitting at the airport waiting for our flight. So far everything has been smooth sailing. 

 

Can’t wait to toast at sail away! 

8 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

YAY, Sabrina !  SOOOOO relieved that you all tested negative.  Now there is NOTHING in your way !  Enjoy this...you certainly worked hard to get there.

🥰😍🤩

Let’s not say nothing. Remember in March when I thought that the test were the only hurdle and then you know what happened after that lol. But yes, such a relief for this one since we flew over here and spent a few days here already. 

6 hours ago, Traveler said:

Where are the genies when you really need them ...

If you really want to see them , maybe you should come early morning just for this tour , take the tube to avoid traffic.

I know right?! I wish we had time to do early morning here. I have read in many places where that is the best thing to do. However, there simply is not a morning where we could have made that work. 

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London - Day 3 

Another super busy day today. I cannot wait to just sit on the balcony, breathe in the sea air, and relax. We have been going non-stop since Sunday. 
 

Our day started with a great breakfast at Thames Foyer in the Savoy. This place is just so pretty. There isn’t a better word to describe it. 
 

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Today was an exciting day for the girls, especially my 13 year old. She is an avid reader and a major Harry Potter fan. We could not come all the way to the UK and not take them to the Warner Bros. studio tour. This tour was time well spent. It helps you to appreciate all the time that was spent on these movies. Some of the sets and details were just amazing! 
 

We had the option to find our own way by public transit to the studio, that would have involved the Tube, a train, and a bus. In the end, we took the easier option and joined a tour who took us there directly by motor coach. Much more calm and relaxing. Gave me a chance to catch up on sleep from staying up the night before for covid testing. 
 

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We did not get back to our hotel until about 4:45pm. After a short break, we spent the evening having dinner and took a walk through Covent Garden. Wiped out again as usual! Off to bed for another busy day tomorrow. Tomorrow is mostly the “Hubby’s requests” day so I will let you guess what that might include. 😉

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Welp…….we have made it to Philadelphia. We are currently relaxing in the admirals club and I think we have just encountered our first travel hiccup…B7CA66CA-08AC-4D10-B933-75424B3FDA52.thumb.png.285cbbb184289ec69ca89f20c4881fc3.png

there are supposed to be 4 bags there. We watched them unload our luggage, and my garment bag with our fancy clothes did not come off the plane. Oh well, there wasn’t anything important in there so all is not lost. Maybe we will be surprised when we get to London.

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Wow...that Harry Potter exhibit looks amazing!  Like you are really in the movies!

So glad you made it safe and sound, negative tests, etc!

Looking forward to following along with your Anthem cruise.  I know it's not your favorite ship (DH feels the same about Anthem, but DD and I really enjoyed her)....but seems this one isn't about the ship. 😉  

What an incredible vacation...and your cruise hasn't even started yet.

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@Lovetocruise2002

We vacationed in London in 2016 and was hands down one of the best.

I'm at huge HP fan so we did the tour too, it was excellent.

I even dragged my family to the London Zoo but then they surprised me and took me to platform 9 3/4.  Got one of my favorite picture of me grinning like a loon and my daughter rolling her eyes.

 

@GregD

Delta lost our luggage for 3 days, we only had our carry on.  We always packed an extra set of clothes in our carryon so we just washed one set and worn the other until our luggage showed up (in a flat with a washer)

I love the looks on your kids faces, I bet they were so happy!!!

 

Keep the updates going we are living vicariously thru you guys 🥰

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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