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

[Lovetocruise2002]

Final thoughts on our Grand Loft Suite. 
 

I will admit, I did not set many expectations for this suite only because I am #teamDeck17 at heart. Several things did not surprise me about this room:

- It is most definitely a long walk to/from the suite. 
- There is quite a bit of motion back here. 
- The missing vanity downstairs (compared to the star loft) was missed by the two teenage girls. It made getting ready a tad slower. 
 

A few things that did surprise me about this suite:

- Aside from the long trek to/from the room, I liked the room a lot. It is not as “open” as the star loft but I did not mind it. 
 

- The master bathroom layout in this room is way better than the star loft on the older OA/AL, and the newer HM. It is more open and there is more counter space. This one wins for sure. 
 

- The view from this suite is the best. Hands down. No contest. On OA class ships, with all your Deck 17 rooms, there is either some obstruction from the back deck (flow rider, basketball court, mini golf, etc.) in your line of sight. The ocean facing ones are one sided. The ATS has the Aqua Theater in the line of sight. This room gives you a totally central view of the wake with nothing but the wake in your line of sight. No other room can do that. We have taken so many balcony pics this cruise compared to other cruises.

Would I hesitate to book this room again? Definitely not. 

[Lovetocruise2002]

Final thoughts of Star Class on Anthem:

- SC definitely paid off for activities. We had zero stress getting to the bumper cars, North Star, iFly. 
 

- Specialty food options are lacking a bit on Quantum class, compared to Oasis. We repeated most of the specialty restaurants, they were all good, but compared to our other star sailings, this one lacked variety a bit. 

- At the end of our 3rd cruise now on Anthem, I can definitely say that they have the best CK staff. On all our sailings on this ship, from March 2018-now, this CK remains beyond excellent compared to other CK crews. There is just something extra about them. 
 

- Leroy, our Genie is fantastic! He is so well organized, kind, great with little kids, and pay attention to small little details. Every day he sends an overview of the day, reminders along the way, follows up on orders to the room, he is beyond thorough. Every dinner he showed up to walk us in (they don’t all do that), and no request was too much for him to handle. He is very dedicated to this job and it shows in his actions each day. He is headed back home soon for vacation but if anyone gets him in the future, they are lucky and in good hands. 
 

[Lovetocruise2002]

Tomorrow we are going to push disembarkation as late as we can (eye roll here, yes, we are going to be “those people” this one time) because we are spending one extra day in the UK before flying home on Saturday. The rationale here was that we did not want to face a long flight home on debarkation day. Staying an extra day gives us a chance to rest and reset before flying home. 
 

As we were packing up today, Hubby said to me, “We aren’t staying in some fancy hotel tomorrow, are we?” Well, I wonder if after almost 20 years of marriage he really knows me lol. I am also willing to bet he doesn’t know we had 5 Accor Suite Night upgrades and not 4.

 

[Lovetocruise2002]

Goodnight all!

Hubby

[cruisinnewbie]

2 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

- Leroy, our Genie is fantastic! He is so well organized, kind, great with little kids, and pay attention to small little details. Every day he sends an overview of the day, reminders along the way, follows up on orders to the room, he is beyond thorough. Every dinner he showed up to walk us in (they don’t all do that), and no request was too much for him to handle. He is very dedicated to this job and it shows in his actions each day. He is headed back home soon for vacation but if anyone gets him in the future, they are lucky and in good hands. 

 

So glad you had the same Leroy experience we did. My kids talk about him still. He is an amazing genie, but he is also such a genuine and kind person. The walk back to the room didn’t bother me (though I’ve never experienced the magical deck 17 so maybe I’d change my mind!), but the motion did. The suite’s location is definitely something to keep in mind for those prone to motion sickness!

[GregD]

Worst day ever

 

[FionaMG]

1 hour ago, GregD said:

Worst day ever

 

Feel your pain. 

 

[Lovetocruise2002]

Disembarkation: Room to curb 15 mins. No customs to pass through

[Lovetocruise2002]

We just settled into our hotel room.

Kids: “Where is the cutlery in this room so that we can have a snack?” 

Me: Um, this is not star class. Remember in regular hotels there usually is not cutlery waiting for you. Lol

[twangster]

19 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

We just settled into our hotel room.

Kids: “Where is the cutlery in this room so that we can have a snack?” 

Me: Um, this is not star class. Remember in regular hotels there usually is not cutlery waiting for you. Lol

I feel for any future friends or partners later in life that ever make the mistake of saying to your future grown up kids "Let's go on a cruise!".  They have no idea the expectations that await them.   

[Lovetocruise2002]

22 minutes ago, twangster said:

I feel for any future friends or partners later in life that ever make the mistake of saying to your future grown up kids "Let's go on a cruise!".  They have no idea the expectations that await them.   

My kids claim they can happily sail in a regular cabin. In fact, they keep telling me they look forward to it. They say that I am the only suite snob in the family. 
We shall see

[Lovetocruise2002]

Relaxing comfortably at the Sofitel Heathrow right now. We are camping out here until tomorrow morning. Then we fly home.

I had 1 Accor suite night upgrade left to use. That is why we are here. Otherwise I would be staying in one of the T3 hotels instead.

We have the Prestige Suite. It has one main bedroom, a living area with a fold out couch, one master bath with shower and tub, and a separate half bath with toilet/sink. Lots of space for the 4 of us.  

[WAAAYTOOO]

15 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

My kids claim they can happily sail in a regular cabin. In fact, they keep telling me they look forward to it. They say that I am the only suite snob in the family. 
We shall see

That's b/c you leave their a$$es at home when you don't cruise in SC !  LOL

[just kidding !]

[WAAAYTOOO]

9 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Relaxing comfortably at the Sofitel Heathrow right now. We are camping out here until tomorrow morning. Then we fly home.
 

I had 1 Accor suite night upgrade left to use. That is why we are here. Otherwise I would be staying in one of the T3 hotels instead.

We have the Prestige Suite. It has one main bedroom, a living area with a fold out couch, one master bath with shower and tub, and a separate half bath with toilet/sink. Lots of space for the 4 of us.  

Again....very nice size for Europe !  Well done.

[Lovetocruise2002]

10 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

That's b/c you leave their a$$es at home when you don't cruise in SC !  LOL

[just kidding !]

That is true lol. We hopefully have another cruise coming up in 10 days on FR and they are not going on that one. Hubby might be in for a bit of a shock though lol

[Neesa]

@Lovetocruise2002 and @GregD Thanks to you both for taking us along. You are beautiful people with beautiful families. Every evening I would look forward to your pictures and commentary. Last night hubby put in a DVD for a movie we wanted to enjoy, he was like "I'm ready!" I responded "I'm not, still catching up with Sabrina and crew!" He laughed and did something else until I was finished. Then he said didn't she go to Norway? So we revisited all of the photos from page 1! 

The content was amazing, you guys did great, I felt like I was there with you. I felt the cold, I felt the food coma (with zero calories) but most of all I felt the joy! Happy Birthday D16 and Happy Anniversary Greg D family. I enjoyed your journey and personally feel like I visited myself, thinking of checking this one off my bucket list, I even stayed Star Class! 

Safe travels all, be well and until next time... 

 

 

[teddy]

Safe travels home to all of you 

[FionaMG]

Thanks for bringing us along @Lovetocruise2002 and @GregD. It's been great. Safe travels home. 

[Yesiamthere6]

On 7/14/2022 at 2:43 PM, GregD said:

Dinner at Chops tonight and Leroy had some nice things for us. It was a great way to end this cruise. What The Boss didn’t know was that Leroy reached out to me and asked for pictures of the two of us together and this was the result.

For dinner, The Boss had shrimp cocktail and the goat cheese salad. The camera forgot it’s bite there. I had the wild mushroom soup that everyone apparently loves. For me it was just okay. We both had the petit fillet, and I added the lobster. I was informed that they didn’t have the full lobsters and just had the tails. No big deal for me!

Totally impressed with your genie!  

[JLMoran]

Thanks for sharing this cruise with us, @Lovetocruise2002 and @GregD! Hope you both have uneventful flights home with no mishaps at LHR!

Gotta say, following this blog has left me wanting to do a Norway cruise some time in the not too distant future. Gonna add that to the list along with Iceland/Greenland.

Question about WWRY: Is Joyce Kuo still the lead guitarist? Still remember getting to see her play acoustic guitar in Schooner Lounge back in 2019 and chatting with her afterward. Really great person.

[GregD]

Update on us! 
 

Like @Lovetocruise2002 we left CK that morning, and were in our ride 15 minutes later. We used blackberry cars again and 2hrs later we were in London walking into our hotel. We will be here in London for another 5 days. We don’t have a bunch of Suite credits and we were also looking for convenience, we we are in a Premier Inn, within a very short walk to Paddington Station. It’s a place to sleep and one that also claims to have the space for 4 people in the room. Well this room didn’t match the picture on the website.  It’s a bit snug

We will make it work. It would be better if there were more options for storage. The AC is nice and cold, which will be good for Monday when it’s due to be 101 degrees. That’s 38.3 for the neighbour (neighbor?) that lives in the ingloo

I’ll have much more to update everyone with as we go along, but I have to be careful with my phone battery. Like an idiot, I brought the wrong outlet adapters for the UK, so until I can get a few, updates will be sparse.

 

[Lovetocruise2002]

56 minutes ago, GregD said:

The AC is nice and cold, which will be good for Monday when it’s due to be 101 degrees. That’s 38.3 for the neighbour (neighbor?) that lives in the ingloo

We were laughing at the reports on TV yesterday while chilling at the hotel re: the heat wave. Where we are in Ontario, I work in a non-air conditioned school, with a class full of 13 year olds, in over 40°C (100°F) some days in June. 

[Lovetocruise2002]

Well we are now at T3 in LHR waiting for a gate to be posted. They will not post the gate until an hour before departure. 
 

How can I describe the chaos that is T3 at LHR? The train ride from T5 (where Sofitel is) to T3 was quick and easy. Things started to go wonky when we went to check our bags. Because we are Canadian citizens, but flying into DTW, there was a slight delay as the ticket agent explained that their system doesn’t allow them to check off that we are just passing through the US, and their is no address that we are staying at. I already anticipated this would be a hold up because yesterday when I was doing the online check in, it wouldn’t let us check Hubby in online. And when I was filling in the contact tracing, it would not let me check that I am passing through and not remaining in the US. Anyway, after explaining to the ticket agent that our car is parked at DTW and we drive back to Canada from there, they said all is good and boarding passes were printed. I told them that as long as there is no trouble at the gate, we are all good. 
 

Next came the part where everything you see on the news lately (about LHR) is true. Massive lines to get from checking your luggage to security. The line was wrapped around to the outside, 5 lines deep. Hubby took a pic but the pic doesn’t truly show the craziness here. 

Once you make it into the part of the line that is inside the terminal, it’s about another 75-90 mins to actually get to the security check point. As the ever optimist (glass is half full person), Hubby said at least there are lots of staff directing the crowds, which there was. 
 

Our flight is scheduled to depart at 12:55pm. Last night before bed, the family discussed what time we should get to T3. In normal times, 3 hours is the general guideline for international flights. I told them that news about LHR has not been the greatest. We decided to give ourselves 4 hours and we left our hotel room at 8:30am this morning. Thank goodness we did. It is now just past 11:00am and we are relaxed and waiting for our gate, praying that our flight does not get cancelled. All is on time for now. Fingers crossed. 
 

In other news, lots of reports from our FB roll call group this morning and last night of people getting home and testing positive for covid. Not great news for FR coming up.

[Lovetocruise2002]

2 hours ago, JLMoran said:

Question about WWRY: Is Joyce Kuo still the lead guitarist? Still remember getting to see her play acoustic guitar in Schooner Lounge back in 2019 and chatting with her afterward. Really great person.

I don’t think so. It was two guys at the show. 

[Lovetocruise2002]

At the gate now. They just announced boarding in 10mins time. Hubby has been taken to another area for a random “special search” Looks like they are just searching through all his carry on items in detail, I hope. 

[GregD]

29 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

At the gate now. They just announced boarding in 10mins time. Hubby has been taken to another area for a random “special search” Looks like they are just searching through all his carry on items in detail, I hope. 

Perhaps they caught you trying to smuggle a genie home in his luggage?

[Lovetocruise2002]

12 minutes ago, GregD said:

Perhaps they caught you trying to smuggle a genie home in his luggage?

All is good. Phew! Hubby did not have to show his new food coma cruise bod.

[Lovetocruise2002]

Headed home. 

[GregD]

Our trip is saved! Our trip is saved

Adapters have been secured! While it’s great to be able to charge phones etc. The Boss is happier now that she can do her hair!

 

[twangster]

34 minutes ago, GregD said:

Our trip is saved! Our trip is saved

Adapters have beef secured! While it’s great to be able to charge phones etc. The Boss is happier now that she can do her hair!

 

This is why I bring USB cables with me. 

Also, I hope your wife isn't planning to plug a North American 110v hair dryer into that adapter, unless she wants a new hair dryer.  One less thing to pack for the trip home I suppose.  

[Ray]

6 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

We were laughing at the reports on TV yesterday while chilling at the hotel re: the heat wave. Where we are in Ontario, I work in a non-air conditioned school, with a class full of 13 year olds, in over 40°C (100°F) some days in June. 

Yeah its funny watching this! 

Its the same in winter England gets 1" of snow and it comes to a stand still and people get heating allowance if it gets a little bit cold. 

Yet other countries manage to survive in extreme heat or 2m of snow with temperatures dipping as low as minus 50

[GregD]

16 minutes ago, twangster said:

This is why I bring USB cables with me. 

Also, I hope your wife isn't planning to plug a North American 110v hair dryer into that adapter, unless she wants a new hair dryer.  One less thing to pack for the trip home I suppose.  

I had upgraded most of our apple cables and chargers to USB-C for the fast charging. I only had 1 USB-A to lightning.

Thankfully she doesn’t bring a hair dryer, but does have a flat iron that is rated for 110/240v so we should be okay. If not, the pictures will be funny at least!

[Traveler]

9 hours ago, GregD said:

we we are in a Premier Inn, within a very short walk to Paddington Station

If you are near Paddington station you can take the Heathrow express train to the airport, it not cheap,around 25& pp but takes you there in 17 minutes...

[GregD]

1 hour ago, Traveler said:

If you are near Paddington station you can take the Heathrow express train to the airport, it not cheap,around 25& pp but takes you there in 17 minutes...

That’s one of the exact reasons I booked this hotel! We are a 5 minute walk to Paddington.  I was also able to book Heathrow express tickets early for pretty cheap too!

[GregD]

Okay, backtracking a little bit here. So where we left off, we had caught our ride up to London to the hotel. We dropped our bags and headed out into the city to explore. We started with a hop on hop off bus tour and headed to the direction of Tower Bridge. We got to see many sights along the way. We drove down Regent Street with all its shopping. Johnny’s ears sure perked up when he heard about the 7 floors of toys at Hamleys! We saw some of the West End and Soho. Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square. Westminster, Houses of Parliament, the clock tower that contains Big Ben, Downing Street, the financial district and on and on. It was a good way to see a lot of the city. 
 

 

[GregD]

Some fun things we saw on the way to the bus.

Nothing says “we are an international tourist destination” when they have to put this on the roads to remind everyone that the direction cars come is different than everywhere else.

 

We also like to find highly rated local restaurants to try out when we travel. It’s a good thing there are so many……

Next stop Tower Bridge

[GregD]

We hopped off the bus at Tower Bridge and explored the area. 
You know you are in Europe when you see this live in an amphitheater. If you know, you know!

 

Not sure of the significance of the monkeys, but we had to get a picture.

We headed into the bridge, and started up the stairs. 206 stairs, and this one made sure to count every one to give us status updates.

Once at the top, we headed across the upper walkway. There is a glass floor to let you see down.

 

This one said NOPE to that floor

 

This one loved that floor

The views were expansive!

Here was a neat view. This is inside the tower, looking up.

After the bridge we got to explore the engine room that housed the old steam engines that were in use up to the ‘70s until they were replaced with electric motors.

 

[GregD]

After we got off the bridge, we were pretty hungry. 
 

This sign lured me in. Like any typical male, I didn’t read the whole thing at first and was disappointed when I walked in.

 

Despite my disappointment the food was good. This place is called The Vault and is built into the bridge pier.

We got fish and chips, and we are firmly on the side of malt vinegar  @JLMoran

There was also a burger and some nuggets.

The Boss found her new favorite drink

 

 

[GregD]

After lunch we headed across the bridge again over to the Tower of London. This fortress was larger than I thought and we explored all over the place. We saw some of the carvings that the infamous “guests” left in the walls and eventually saw the Crown Jewels. They don’t mess around in there with their no photography policy. There were many teenagers who got yelled at for simply having their phones in their hands.

Traitors Gate

Johnny was ready to defend the fortress!

We didn’t try messing with these guys…

We were in awe as to what was inside here.

 

[MicDay]

16 hours ago, GregD said:

Some fun things we saw on the way to the bus.

Nothing says “we are an international tourist destination” when they have to put this on the roads to remind everyone that the direction cars come is different than everywhere else.

 

We also like to find highly rated local restaurants to try out when we travel. It’s a good thing there are so many……

Next stop Tower Bridge

Pay attention to the KFC, when we were their in 2016 it was packed.  From the time it opened to closing at the one near our flat we had rented.  Madison tried it one night as a snack to see what the deal was, it had "American KFC" and I guess British extras.  She said it was good.