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Anthem of the Seas, 23 September to 5 October 2022, "Discover the Canaries"


FionaMG

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Boarded Anthem this morning for a 12-night cruise to Vigo, Lisbon, Lanzarote, Gran Canária, Tenerife, Funchal and La Coruña.

I will be doing a full recap when we get back but will be happy to try and find the answers to any questions anyone might have as we go along.

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  • FionaMG changed the title to Anthem of the Seas, 23 September to 5 October 2022, "Discover the Canaries"

It's a very nice itinerary. Very easy DIY ports that don't really need excursions. The only one we booked was the bus transfer to Puerto del Carmen beach in Lanzarote because it's a pain to get to on public transport. However there are plenty of taxis on the pier if you prefer to go on your own schedule and for two the round trip cost of the taxi is about the same as the bus transfer if you book it during a sale.

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Otherwise we're just doing our own thing. There are "free" walking tours available in some of the ports, the ones where you pay what you want at the end of the tour. We've used a company called Guru Walks for these in the past and they can be useful for a brief overview and to get your bearings.

The weather has been very pleasant, perfect for sightseeing in non-beach ports and nice and sunny and warm for the beaches too.

The really good thing is that if this were your standard 7-night cruise, we'd be on our way to the airport now, but instead we have another 5 days! 😁😁😁

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans...

It's been a week since we disembarked from our wonderful Canaries cruise and I had expected to have my recap completed by now.

Except on the very next morning, as he was leaving the house to go to work, my DH had a stupid accident that landed him in hospital overnight and he is now convalescing at home. It will likely be another couple of weeks before he's anywhere near back to normal.

He was lucky; nothing was broken (except for the car and gate at the end of the drive, but they're replaceable, so who cares?).

With the emotional rollercoaster ride finally slowing down a bit I'm almost ready to revisit our trip.

Thanks for your patience and for indulging me. 😊

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  • 2 weeks later...

So, finally...

As I said back in the first post on the thread, this was a 12-night cruise on Anthem of the Seas, departing from Southampton, England, and calling at Vigo, Lisbon, Lanzarote, Gran Canária, Tenerife, Funchal and La Coruña.

I won't go into a huge amount of detail about our travels to Southampton since that part won't be of much use to most peeps on the board here, but suffice to say we flew non-stop from our local airport (Faro, Portugal) into Bournemouth, England. This is a tiny airport about a 30-40 minute drive from Southampton and which essentially serves a couple of European low-costs. It was a good way to avoid the big London airports and could conceivably be made to work for people coming from across the pond if you fancied a stop on the way to/from your cruise somewhere that has flights to Bournemouth. 

In the past we could probably have flown straight to Southampton but the airline that served that route from Faro went bust and there is currently only one flight a week on a Saturday, which didn't work for this cruise. Again, however, Southampton could be an option if you can connect in Amsterdam, as KLM operate a twice-daily flight between the two.

We pre-booked our airport-hotel-airport transfers with Westquay Cars for £65 each way. A credit card was required to guarantee the booking but we paid cash to the driver on the day. Booking was not as easy as it could have been since I couldn't get their online booking to work for me. Instead I emailed them and then had to call to give them my CC details.

We stayed two nights pre-cruise in the Premier Inn Westquay in Southampton.

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Premier Inn is a well-known slightly upscale budget brand in the UK and this particular hotel is popular with cruisers because of its proximity to the port. It's nothing fancy but was perfectly fine for 2 nights. We added on the breakfast option, which is a bit limited but what there was was nice, and we also had dinner there on our first night. Service was a bit slow but the food was fine (we both had steak) and reasonably priced.

The location is great because there are plenty of shops and restaurants in the immediate vicinity including a large mall if the weather decides to be unfriendly.

It is usually possible to walk from here to the port, although that depends on how comfortable you are dragging your luggage. We would have done it but our dates coincided with the Southampton International Boat Show which meant the walking route to the port was blocked off and we would have had to go a very long way around. Instead we got a taxi. I used Radio Taxis Southampton, having downloaded their app the evening before. We only had to wait a few minutes and the very short ride cost £6.

Boarding for this cruise was the fastest and easiest we have ever encountered. It took us about 10 minutes from getting out of the taxi to setting foot on the ship.

Our check-in slot was 11.30 am and I had booked us into Jamie's for lunch at 1.30 pm, so we had time to settle with a coffee in Two70 and then go for a bit of a wander before lunch. This was our first specialty restaurant lunch ever and I really only booked it because we had some OBC to use up. However, I think I might make this a standard practice as it was really nice to avoid the pandemonium in the WJ for that first lunch on board. 

One of the main reasons we tend not to book specialty dining is that we have very small appetites so we never feel like we're getting our money's worth. However, with lunch costing less than half the price of dinner and having an almost identical menu, I thought it was a reasonable deal. Even so, there was way too much food for us and we didn't even order very much. It was very good and we enjoyed it very much.

Lunch menu:

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Meat plank:

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Garlic bread:

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Prawn linguine:

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Tagliatelle Bolognese:

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Epic brownie:

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Amalfi lemon cheesecake:

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While we were finishing up our lunch, they announced that the cabins were open so we headed off there. Our luggage had already arrived (earliest ever!), which was great as it meant we were able to unpack straight away.

There was a copy of the Day 1 Compass on the bed, which pleased us greatly as there had been none at Guest Services. Instead, where they would usually be, there were QR codes to scan for a digital copy. After our cabin steward came to introduce himself I made sure to ask him to get us a paper copy every day.

Our cabin was an obstructed balcony, 6560, which had I had seen recommended by various previous cruisers due to having very little obstruction. As you can see from the pics, they were correct. Really the only obstruction is the davit to the right that blocks your view aft.

Views of and from our obstructed balcony cabin:

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These two were taken on arrival in Vigo and you can see how little obstruction there is:

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And these two show that there's plenty of water visible!

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With everything unpacked, we headed out to explore the ship a bit more before sailaway. Luckily the weather was cooperating and although it was cloudy it wasn't raining.

A few brave souls using the pool (too cold for us):

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The North Star bar was consistently packed solid for the entire cruise:

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The brand new Norwegian Prima was also in Southampton but we left first! Bye bye Southampton and Prima! 😆

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We ate all our dinners in the MDR on this cruise. We had My Time Dining and I had booked us a set time of 8 pm each evening. Although this kind of defeats the purpose of MTD it means we can count on having a table just for ourselves. It's not that we don't like to be social but we talk to each other in Portuguese so it can be a bit awkward if you're sharing a table with others who don't speak the language. With the My Time set-up, we can still chat with the people at the tables next to us but that awkwardness is eliminated simply by the fact of being at a different table.

Our waiters always brought us a printed menu and I can confirm that the menus in the app were accurate.

Day 1 menu:

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Maryland-style crab cake. I used to really love these (even though I have been told on numerous occasions that they are nothing like the real thing). However, since the restart they have not tasted the same and I was a bit disappointed not to have chosen the mushroom soup instead.

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One of the things I really like about European sailings are the pie and curry options on the menu. These were previously only offered on sailings out of Southampton but now appear to be available on other European sailings. They certainly were on our Odyssey sailing back in May.

Chicken Saag:

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Prime rib, which DH asked for with fries:

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Blueberry and pear cobbler. It was nice enough but nothing really special.

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And the Royal cheesecake, which DH said was a bit disappointing in that it came without any strawberry sauce. Later on in the cruise, it would occur to us to ask for some strawberry sauce to go along with it.

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To round off our evening on this first night of the cruise, DH made his first nightly contribution to the casino, which he found to be more tight-fisted than on any of our previous sailings, although that didn't stop him having fun while his money lasted, after which we headed to Two70 for Spectra's Cabaret.

I am utterly divided about Two70. As a lounge it's lovely but as a show venue it's awful. It's virtually impossible to get a decent seat unless you're prepared to turn up at least an hour before showtime, which we were not.

That said, what we were actually able to see of the show was excellent. It was very dynamic and even DH, who falls asleep at 90% of the shows on board, stayed awake the entire time and enthused about it afterwards. 

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And with that, we headed off to Café Promenade for our nightly pre-bed tea and cookies. 😆

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Enjoying your review as we were on Anthem in March...and with it's US port out of NY, I can see us going on her again.  Really enjoy that ship.

Your "obstructed" balcony looks like a great option.  I assume it's just that small white part that is the obstruction? Not bad at all.  Anthem  has really nice balcony rooms...very deep and plenty of space and storage locations.

I found Spectra's Cabaret "interesting", but a little odd.  Not sure what it was about although it has some nice visuals.  DD and I saw it by accident in practice (we were in the 270 in the day and they were "performing" something informally and didn't realize until the end what it was). and then we all saw the real show.

Interested in your thoughts on The Gift if you saw it.  It hadn't started up yet when we went in March.

Looking forward to hearing more.

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3 hours ago, WannaCruise said:

Enjoying your review as we were on Anthem in March...and with it's US port out of NY, I can see us going on her again.  Really enjoy that ship.

Your "obstructed" balcony looks like a great option.  I assume it's just that small white part that is the obstruction? Not bad at all.  Anthem  has really nice balcony rooms...very deep and plenty of space and storage locations.

I found Spectra's Cabaret "interesting", but a little odd.  Not sure what it was about although it has some nice visuals.  DD and I saw it by accident in practice (we were in the 270 in the day and they were "performing" something informally and didn't realize until the end what it was). and then we all saw the real show.

Interested in your thoughts on The Gift if you saw it.  It hadn't started up yet when we went in March.

Looking forward to hearing more.

It was an excellent view for a supposedly obstructed balcony. Ours was a 2-berth on the starboard side, while the corresponding one on the port side is a 3-berth. The obstruction was the davit, which is a huge pillar-type structure that holds up one end of a lifeboat, so it completely blocks the view towards the aft; but looking straight out or towards the front of the ship we had excellent views. One thing I meant to mention about it is that the entrance to the cabin is slightly narrower than normal because part of the structure of the ship juts out right by the door, maybe about 3 inches. It might make it a bit awkward for someone who is mobility challenged and has difficulty manoeuvring. I would have no hesitation in booking this cabin again.

I saw The Gift and enjoyed it but I knew from the boards beforehand to expect a very tenuous storyline. I'll be sharing some pics later on. It wasn't performed until almost the end of the cruise. DH did not see it; he fell asleep before it started and only wakened up as it was finishing 🙄 😴

We are booked on Anthem again next spring but out of NJ this time, as we recuperate a trip to New York that got covidated early in the pandemic. It's the 23rd of April, an 8-nighter immediately prior to her return to this side of pond. If that's a date that might work for you, check  it out; the prices right now are VERY good!

 

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Day 2 - At Sea

I love when the first full day of a cruise is a sea day. It really gives you the chance to get into cruise-mode proper and relax while you explore your new surroundings.

Having sailed on Odyssey back in May, we were familiar with the layout of Anthem but since it was our first time on board this ship and given that she is an older sister, we found that there are several significant differences.

Our first breakfast on board was at the Windjammer - DH is usually a fan; I am not, as I find it too crowded and don't care for the pandemonium. However, it was so bad on this particular morning that I would be able to convince him we should try elsewhere going forward, especially considering the length of the cruise. I promised that if he absolutely hated every other breakfast venue we would return to the WJ!

This was followed by the Top Tier event at 10.30 am in Two70, which was not as well organised as it had been on Odyssey, where they made use of the robot screens to post information rather than just reading it off cards (stuff like the number of cruisers on board in each of the different C&A tiers). On this cruise there were something like 608 D, 332 D+ and 40 pins, with six new pins being acknowledged. The Loyalty Ambassador read the points total of the top cruiser off his card too fast for me to be able to note it down.

After the event, there was a massive log-jam of people as the many attendees at the Top Tier Event tried to get out of Two70, while dozens of bingo fans were trying to get in. As we weren't in a rush to get anywhere, we sat down at one of the long tables and just waited until it had eased.

The weather was starting to clear up a bit after we came out, not warm enough for us southern Europeans to put our bathing suits on but still nice enough to wander and take some pics to prove there were blue skies over the Bay of Biscay.

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In fact, we had pretty smooth sailing across the Bay and the Captain had actually remarked at the Top Tier event that he was expecting a smoother than normal crossing.

One thing that we didn't like seeing as we wandered around the outside decks were the dirt-streaked loungers outside the seaplex. I know soot can be an issue once you get aft of the funnels but I have never seen so many dirty and obviously uncared-for loungers on any of my past cruises, so that came as a bit of a shock and a reminder that while the post-Covid recovery is underway we are still not back to "normal".

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Even DH wasn't up for braving the inevitable pandemonium in the WJ at lunch, so we skipped it and had some pizza from Sorrento's instead, which was fine. I didn't think the little salad fixings that you can get along with your pizza were as good on Anthem as they were on Odyssey, so although we went back to Sorrento's a couple more times, we stuck with the pizza and ignored the salads.

After lunch, we went searching in vain for two loungers even remotely close together in the solarium (it still wasn't warm enough for us to venture outside in shorts and t-shirts, let alone swimwear). We ended up with two single loungers about as far apart as you could physically get and still be in the same room. This would essentially be par for the course for the entire cruise and, although there were a few loungers occupied only by a towel or a hat, the vast majority were being used by actual people.

At about 4 pm, DH headed off to the hot tubs and I went to the gym. As a new ship, Odyssey's gym had been equipped with nice shiny new machines; on Anthem, it was clear that some were badly in need of maintenance. The treadmill I chose on this first visit had a sticker along the bottom of the screen telling you how to unblock the screen if it blocked (which it did, several times) 😕. There were several others that also had this sticker.

Luckily, on subsequent visits, I found some sticker-free machines and they were fine.

A few pics to keep the fitness freaks happy (are there any of you out there or am I the only one?):

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I didn't see much in the way of classes going on in the gym, just a short evening stretching session a couple of times, and as usual - soap box moment (I'll keep it short) - apart from the instructor taking those classes, who arrived at the start time and left immediately afterwards, I never saw an instructor in the gym. A gym is an accident waiting to happen and there should be an instructor on duty at all times during opening hours, but there isn't. Rant over. 😬

Once we were all hot-tubbed and gymed out it was time for dinner. This was the only night of the cruise when we were seated in the American Icon. On every other night we were given a table in the same section in Silk. The ladies at the welcome podium outside the MDR were absolutely lovely. We especially appreciated Auren who remembered our names after just a couple of nights and always had a huge smile on her face (we could tell from her eyes even though we couldn't actually see it because the crew were still having to wear masks at this point).

Day 2 MDR menu:

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We didn't fancy any of the starters so we ordered the stuffed Portobello mushrooms as a starter instead. They were ok but had a bit too much cheese on them for our taste, so we weren't able to finish them.

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For mains I had the curry and DH had the tenderloin. He dug in too fast for me to get a pic of his but he said it was very good. I enjoyed my curry too.

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The waiters seemed to be rushed off their feet this evening, probably because it was the first formal night, and we had to wait about 20 minutes for dessert. I had my favourite royal chocolate cake and after waiting so long I completely forgot I was supposed to be taking a picture of it. By the time I remembered, there was only one bite left! Oops. Not a problem though, as I would be having it again several times over the course of the cruise. I don't seem to have a pic of DH's dessert so I'm not sure if he had the cheesecake again or if he was so stuffed that he didn't have anything (Note that I ALWAYS leave room for dessert!).

At this point it's worth mentioning attire. This being formal night, there were lots of folks really dressed up to the nines, definitely many more than on our Odyssey cruise in May. I think this is likely down to demographics as 96% of the passengers on board this particular cruise were Brits who still like to get the glad rags out (plus on Southampton sailings they mostly don't need to worry about baggage allowances).

The headliner tonight was a magician called Jamie Allen and he was very good. I definitely recommend seeing his show if you cross paths with him but on this ship, if you want to secure a seat that doesn't have obstructed sightlines you need to get there early (again, we weren't up for this), so between pillars and overhangs, we weren't always able to see everything that was going on on stage, which was a pity.

Our first port of call would be the next day in Vigo and it's worth mentioning the question of "port time" versus "ship time" here. We stayed on ship time for the whole cruise. I had pretty much expected this because it made sense for this itinerary. Out of all the ports, only two - Vigo and La Coruña - are in a different time zone to the UK, and they were our first and last ports of call, so we would have been zig-zagging between time zones if we hadn't stayed on ship time. This, unfortunately, would partly impact our visit to Vigo, as I'll explain in my next post, as soon as I have time to get it done.

 

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Day 3 - Vigo, Spain

This was one of the only two ports on the itinerary that we had not been to before and with this in mind I had booked on one of those "free" walking tours with a local provider just to get an overview of the city. Unfortunately, it was not to be. First of all Royal made changes to the itinerary, not the ports themselves but the amount of time in each, and where we had originally been slated to arrive in Vigo at 8 am - plenty of time for an 11 am tour - the new arrival time was precisely 11 am.

I contacted the provider to ask about the possibility of the tour starting later, given that at the time only we and another couple from our CC roll call were actually booked on it. It was agreed that we would check back nearer the time and at this point it was a go with the start time being changed to 12 noon to accommodate our later arrival into Vigo.

However, there was more to come. After the evening show on day two, the CD announced that the arrival time of 11 am was ship time and not local time, meaning that our 12 noon start time would be untenable as Spain was an hour ahead of ship time. Although the others who had also booked contacted the provider to alert them to this, there was no reply. DH and I decided we would make the effort to get to the meeting point in case the tour was still going ahead. Now, usually I'm pretty good with technology but for some reason trying to use google to get me anywhere completely short-circuits my usually excellent navigational skills and we got hopelessly lost. We tried to phone the provider but got no reply so gave up on the whole thing and set off for a wander.

Luckily we were still able to enjoy our time in port. The weather was nice and sunny and more by accident than design we found the "castle". There's really not much of it left other than some walls but it's a great vantage point for views over the city. Note our ship in the background too.

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Back down in the centre, and again by accident, we found the 9-metre tall merman statue. This was where were supposed to have met for our ill-fated walking tour. I expect there's a story to it that would undoubtedly have been explained on said walking tour but I hadn't researched it so it'll have to wait for a future trip.

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Heading back towards the port we drifted slightly off the more touristy streets and came across a place where locals we're having lunch. When in Vigo...

It was a great choice. Iberian ham and cheese, followed by veal tenderloin. Absolutely delicious.

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So all in all, despite the rocky start, it turned out to be an enjoyable and undemanding port call.

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Backtracking somewhat, the fact that we were arriving later into Vigo gave us the chance to try the MDR for breakfast. It was generally open rather later than I remember being the case on previous cruises, often 8-10 and I think only on two days when we had earlier arrival times in port did it close earlier.

There were two breakfast options in the MDR - à la carte in American Icon and buffet in Silk. Since there were a couple of items on the breakfast menu that I'd been hankering to try, we did the à la carte this morning. 

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Power wrap, one of my "targets" and although it doesn't look like much it was actually very tasty.

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DH preferred a more traditional breakfast! 😆

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The only issue we had with this breakfast option is that the service was very very slow. Even though we arrived before 9 am (as recommended by our waiter at dinner) it still took ages to place our order and get our food and we're not really leisurely breakfast types so we were getting a bit antsy while we were waiting. Definitely not the best option if you're in a hurry. That said, it was still much nicer than battling the crowds in the WJ.

I had been hoping to see the brunch option that had been cropping up on some ships and sailings but it never materialised on our sailing and because of the timing we never made it to the MDR for lunch so I can't comment on how good or bad that was.

After we had finished breakfast and since we still had time before our arrival in Vigo, we stopped by the loyalty ambassador's desk to introduce ourselves and make sure we were on the crystal block list, not least since the reason for being on it was that we booked this cruise during the double points promo. He confirmed to us that we were on his list and double-checked our address since they had none on board. I suppose that means we will eventually receive it but if we haven't by the time our next cruise comes round (in April 2023, again on Anthem) I'll be chasing it up! This is our very first crystal block so I'm not giving up on it!

 

 

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Back on board after our adventures in Vigo we did our normal hot tub/gym thing before dinner.

Day 3 MDR dinner menu

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Seafood cake. I liked it; DH didn't care for it. He thought the sauce was too acidic.

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Mushroom risotto and pan-seared sole. We both liked our choices.

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DH's lemon curd tartlet.

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And my Mississippi mud pie. Very yummy and definitely worth giving up my royal chocolate cake for. 😋

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Tonight's show was a comedian, Josh Daniels.

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To be honest, if I'd realised it was a straight-up comedy show we'd have skipped it because with DH's first language not being English, comedy in English often goes over his head, and that would have been especially true of this show by a British comedian catering to an almost entirely British audience. Unfortunately, because we didn't arrive an hour before start time (🙄) it was packed and we got stuck in the middle of a row, making slinking out discreetly an unviable option. In the end, I enjoyed the show and DH helpfully had a nap! 😆

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Day 4

Today we decided to try the buffet breakfast served in the MDR (Silk) and finally found our go-to breakfast spot.

Obviously, it is a much smaller buffet than upstairs in the WJ but if you usually only want the basics it has everything you need. Note that nothing other than toast is made to order so if a freshly-made omelette is your breakfast favourite, then this is not the place for you.

On arrival you are escorted to a table. This is so much better than having to do the rounds in the WJ hunting for somewhere to sit. Once you've been accommodated, roving waiters come round with hot drinks and juices. Where the coffee was concerned, this meant there was a tendency for it to be lukewarm, so we got into the habit of asking for a jug of hot milk and that way our coffee was always nice and hot.

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The hot items in the middle are your usual "ready-made" bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes and beans, as well as French toast and pancakes.

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While we were having breakfast, the ship was on her final approach into Lisbon so we headed off up to the top deck to watch our arrival. It felt rather strange to be arriving by cruise ship into a place that we can drive to from home in under 3 hours!

Welcome to Lisbon.

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The ship docks close to the centre, about a 20 minute walk, half of which is on the zigzagging ramps between the ship and the terminal exit.

There is not much in the terminal itself but you can get hoho bus and tuk-tuk tour tickets there. The hoho bus was 25 euros pp and someone I was speaking to while we were manoeuvring to the dock said the ship price was 60 dollars so it's definitely better to wait and buy on land.

We enjoyed our wander around Lisbon. We had a typical quick, cheap and tasty Portuguese lunch of freshly-made vegetable soup and bifanas (pork steak in a roll) and DH had a custard tart. He bought a couple more to take back to the ship. I always recommend visitors try them out and they are pretty much a trademark of the country. Note that you don't have to go all the way to the Belém area of Lisbon to get them (this is where the original recipe is supposed to come from); as you wander around the city centre you will see numerous cake shops that make them on their premises. Look for the places with big piles of them in the window. They are just as good as the "originals".

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On the way back to the ship, there was a small but nicely laid out shop in the terminal selling souvenirs, food and drinks.

Sailaway from Lisbon is pretty spectacular as you have to sail under the 25th of April road and railway bridge, and you feel sure the top of the ship is going to hit the underside of the bridge. We got ourselves a good spot on one of the little outdoor sections of the solarium. We were literally sailing into the sunset at this point, which unfortunately resulted in some lens flare in my pics as we headed towards the bridge. (I had never heard of this before that little green dot turned up in my beautiful sunset pics!)

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However, after we had gone under the bridge and were heading out to sea I managed to get a great one of it behind us.

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Tonight's MDR menu, not one of our favourites.

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The seafood puff pastry, which was better than I was expecting.

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Mojo marinated pork chop. This was the first time we'd tried it even though it's been on the menu since we started cruising away back in 2001. However, the sauce was a bit too sweet for our taste, so we'll be unlikely to have it again in the future.

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Bananas foster

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And the classic chocolate cake (my go-to dessert if the day's offerings don't include anything with chocolate in it. A dessert isn't dessert without chocolate!) Both were delicious.

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While we were eating, we heard the people at the next table discussing their strategy for the next day, which was a sea day... "We'd better put the towels out before breakfast. There's going to be a fight for the good sunbeds." (They were right!)

Tonight's show was a variety show with a couple of numbers by the royal Caribbean orchestra, 3 songs by one of the cast members of We Will Rock You and some more tricks by magician Jamie Allen. He really is excellent.

And speaking of shows, the only one that required bookings was Spectra's cabaret, which was done on board. I did it in the app but I think you could also do it at Guest Services. All of the others were first come first served with no reservations required.

 

 

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Day 5 - At Sea

As predicted by our next-door table-mates yesterday, the pool deck was heaving this morning. Since it was a beautiful sunny day this was only to be expected but there just seemed to be people everywhere. After a fair bit of hunting, we finally managed to find a single lounger in the sun to share.

View from said lounger

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We stuck it out until 1 pm and then headed off to the Schooner Bar, as I had noticed on the Compass that there was going to be a flag trivia. I watch a LOT of international athletics and since it's pretty much a worldwide sport I'm pretty good with my flags, which I proved by winning the quiz. Go me! 👏

The prize was a $200 discount voucher for the purchase of something Effy. Sounds good? Sure, but there was a minimum purchase of $600 required to redeem it! Um, thanks but no thanks. I'll just bask in the glory and be grateful for the free little pendant that also came in the prize envelope. 😆

By the time we'd finished doing the quiz the lunch crowd at the WJ had thinned out considerably so it was fairly quiet and I managed to find a very tasty, albeit it rather large, steak and kidney pie.

In the afternoon, there were plenty of open loungers in the sun. I guess by that time, all the morning sun worshipers had had their fill of golden rays (and were probably turning a nice shade of lobster pink to judge from quite a few that I noticed). This meant we were finally able to get two loungers together in a nice sunny spot and there I was, soaking up the sunshine, when suddenly a massive cloud blocked it out... except it wasn't a cloud; it was the north star doing one of its over-the-side journeys! It was quite impressive to watch.

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On my way back to the room after my gym session, I popped into the spa to pick up a price list since, for some unfathomable reason, we had had a $50 discount voucher delivered to us to commemorate "our special day" (no idea which special day they were talking about as we certainly weren't celebrating a special date on this cruise).

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And I also snapped a photo of this artwork which is at the top of stairs as you come out of the gym, just because I liked it. 

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We were treated to a lovely sunset from our "obstructed" balcony this evening as we were getting ready for dinner. 

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Tonight's dinner menu

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Artichoke and pea salad. I had this for the first time on Odyssey in May and really liked it. It didn't disappoint this time. Very nice.

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DH's cheese plate

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Lamb pot pie. Delicious but it was so BIG. I couldn't finish it; had to leave room for dessert.

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DH's pork shank (with a side of fries!)

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Chocolate souffle, one of my all-time favourites and which tends only to show up on longer cruises.

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I was so stuffed when we left the restaurant! 😆

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There was no show for us tonight because it was We Will Rock You and while I would have liked to see it (DH could not have cared less) the timing meant that the performance went right across our dinner time. In fact BOTH evening performances were held at exactly the same time 7.45 pm, which was completely useless for anyone with traditional late dining or who would normally eat later. The only other performance was the very first one, which was at 2 pm and people were already lining up for it at 1 pm while we were in the Schooner Bar doing the flag trivia. The CD had suggested the evening before that they should do this. I was incredulous. I don't care how good a show is, there is no way I would spend an hour waiting in line to get in. Anyway, with two more cruises already booked on Anthem for next year, maybe I'll get the chance to see it then.

Instead, we decided to head over to Two70, where the Big Music Game Show was going to take place. We were not planning on participating, just spectating, so we had intended on getting seats near the door to make a discreet exit if it was rubbish. Fat chance! We got there 25 minutes before and it was already packed, so we ended up in the middle of a row on the balcony about as far from the door as was physically possible and still be in the same room. Anyway it was quite entertaining and we lasted until the end of round two, by which time some other people had already left so we didn't have too many legs to clamber over.

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I think, in total, we recognised about three songs between us while we were there!

In retrospect, if we had realised what a great entertainer Perry Grant in the Schooner Bar was we would probably have gone there instead. We really only discovered him by accident one evening as we were heading back to our room and stopped to watch him for a few minutes, so I don't have any pics of him in action but he is definitely worth watching.

I also took the opportunity to snap a few more pics of the artwork. I particularly liked these ones at the entrance to the Via:

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This sculpture outside Two70:

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And these colourful pieces which were lurking in a corner with a sign above it saying "Art Gallery" and which I think was an optimistic name for the place where they keep the artwork that will (potentially) be sold at the art auction:

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I thought I was crazy but thankfully Wikipedia is there to confirm exactly what I was thinking. I go to San Francisco a couple times a year and those sunset pictures look exactly like the Bay Bridge!! 

"The 25 de Abril Bridge is based in part on two San Francisco Bay Area bridges. Its paint is the same International Orange color as the famous Golden Gate Bridge, and the design is similar to the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. Both the Bay Bridge and the 25 de Abril Bridge were built by the same company."

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Day 6 

Today we were in Lanzarote. We have been here on several occasions for land holidays and once before on a port call. It is a great island, one of our favourites, with some very interesting places to visit and if you've not been here before I'd recommend going to Timanfaya National Park. It's one of the island's main attractions and there will be ship-sponsored and locally-provided excursions available. 

We decided just to make it a beach day and with this in mind booked Royal's beach transfer during a sale (real for once). The price for the two of us was about what it would have cost round trip in a taxi (about 27 euros each way), so for groups of more than two people a taxi would be more cost-effective. Note that while you can get to Puerto del Carmen (the beach in question) by public transport, it's quite a faff. For a start you have to get to the marina entrance, which is a long trek (about a mile I think) and then the local bus stops dozens of times along the way, turning what is a 20-minute drive into 40 minutes.

In the pic below, taken as we were arriving into port, you can see the line of white taxis waiting. If you wanted to walk to the marina entrance you have to follow the wall around in the direction the taxis are facing.

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After the easy drive to Puerto del Carmen, we were dropped off on the seafront promenade at a spot where there is a ramp and a set of stairs down to the beach, and where there are public toilets. We didn't really notice any changes since the last time we were there (maybe 20 years ago now, that's scary!); it's your typical seaside resort, with the long beach on one side and shops, bars and restaurants on the other.

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We had about 3 and a half hours here, which was perfect for spending some time on the beach and then wandering around the souvenir shops and having an ice-cream before getting the bus back to the ship. We decided we need to come back here again for a short break in the winter.

Some local plant life next to the ice-cream kiosk.

According to Google this is a crown-of-thorns

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And this is a golden barrel

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Back on board, I took the plunge and used the spa voucher to get my nails done. I am absolutely not a spa girl and they would not have got me in the door without the voucher. Naturally, you had to book something that cost more than the face value of the voucher, and a manicure was the obvious choice, since pretty much everything else was over $100. I reckon for the $20 it cost me it was fine.😆

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21 minutes ago, DDaley said:

I thought I was crazy but thankfully Wikipedia is there to confirm exactly what I was thinking. I go to San Francisco a couple times a year and those sunset pictures look exactly like the Bay Bridge!! 

"The 25 de Abril Bridge is based in part on two San Francisco Bay Area bridges. Its paint is the same International Orange color as the famous Golden Gate Bridge, and the design is similar to the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. Both the Bay Bridge and the 25 de Abril Bridge were built by the same company."

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I have not been to San Francisco and I wouldn't have remembered this if you'd not mentioned it. Hopefully one day in the not too distant future. 🤞

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Tonight's MDR menu

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DH's pumpkin soup

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Arancini. This was my first ever time trying arancini and I liked them a lot but they were VERY filling. I could easily just have had them along with a garden salad and I wouldn't have needed a main course.

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Steak au poivre, medium rare, very tasty and tender. I've generally found that you need to go for the medium-rare in order for it not to be too dry.

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DH wasn't very hungry after eating THREE ice creams over the course of the day, so he had the herb-crusted salmon, for something light (he passed on dessert).

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I did NOT pass on dessert. I had the warm cookie à la mode and it was amazing. I thought I'd died and gone to chocolate heaven. If the arancini hadn't filled me up so much I might have ordered a second one.

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After dinner, while DH went off to make his nightly contribution to the casino, I popped into the theatre to catch the last 20 minutes of We Will Rock You. It looked like it would have been a good show. PXL_20220928_202043225.thumb.jpg.3eace5bac7c388be2412a3edb01ddf1a.jpg

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And on the way back to the room at the end of the evening another piece of random artwork caught my eye.

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Day 7

Today was the second of our Canary Island stops and this time we were in Gran Canaria.

Today, at breakfast, I tried a piece of the raisin bread that I have seen so many people rave about. Sorry folks, it did nothing for me. I won't bother looking for it again. 🤣

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We had a window seat for breakfast and were able to watch as a big boat pulled up alongside us. We had no idea what it was at first but a public announcement informed us that we were bunkering and that there was to be no smoking until the process was completed (which was not until after we came back on board in the afternoon!).

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You can see in these pics that it was very grey and cloudy and this was still the case when we were ready to get off.

We had intended for this to be a beach day since there is a beach - Las Canteras - within easy walking distance of the port, but given the cloudy sky and despite being firmly in the "better to have and not need than need and not have" camp, we left the towels in the room, since it really didn't look like it would clear up at all.

Famous last words... I should have followed my own mantra. We had only got as far as the big mall and the garden at the end of the port when you could see that the sky was clearing...

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and as you can see from these pics, in next to no time the sun was splitting the bricks, as they say where I come from! 🙄

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We should have gone back to the ship to get the towels but DH decided it wasn't worth losing the half hour it would take us to get there and back, so we pushed on towards the beach, where we stopped at a souvenir shop on the promenade and became the proud owners of a Gran Canaria beach bag and towel. 🙄🤣

Las Canteras is a lovely beach, nice and flat to walk along the water's edge and very clean. There are public toilets and showers too and the promenade has lots of places to "fuel up". We decided we needed to come back here for a short winter break as well as Lanzarote! I definitely recommend it.

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To be honest, we are not really big beach fans; a couple of hours and we're usually done. So since it was lunchtime by then, we wandered up off the beach to a place we'd spotted along the way and had a very tasty lunch of Iberian cured meats.

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And then it was back to the ship for our usual evening routine. Here she is, waiting for us, with the bunkering barge still tied up beside her.

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Tonight's MDR dinner menu

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I wasn't at all inspired by the starters on this menu so I just went for the garden salad, not very exciting but the vinaigrette dressing was very good.

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DH was similarly uninspired and went for the crab and shrimp risotto as his starter, which he enjoyed. Since this is actually a main course, he would subsequently be too stuffed for dessert. His loss! 🤣 I had it as my main course and enjoyed it too.

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Then for his main course, DH chose the pork chop, which turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Despite its uninspiring appearance, it was very tasty and the vegetables were, as he put it, "properly cooked" (he's not a fan of al dente veggies 🤣). Note the side of fries... for anyone who likes their fries and doesn't know, you can always get them but you have to ask specially as they're on the kids' menu. Maybe Royal think adults shouldn't be eating fries in their fancy MDR.

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Dessert was wonderful. Chocolate cappuccino, a very light chocolate mousse with a coffee foam topping. I loved it.

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The main "show" in the theatre tonight was the continuance of the Name That Tune competition. We decided to give it a go and luckily managed to get some seats near the end of a row this time, meaning only two people would subsequently be inconvenienced when we cleared off before the end.

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Apart from the contest per se, tonight's episode also included some numbers by the Royal Caribbean singers and dancers, which we enjoyed. This is the type of entertainment that we always enjoy and which we found to be rather lacking on this particular cruise.

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On returning to our cabin, we noticed that we were sailing close to land so I had a quick look on the Marine Traffic website and discovered that we were sailing the long way round Gran Canaria en route to our next port stop, Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Deciding to try my (largely non-existent) photography skills and with the help of my phone's night shot function, I managed to get a couple of interesting pics of the clouds illuminated by the lights on land.

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Day 8 - Welcome to Tenerife

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If this had been your standard 7-night cruise, we would have been on the eviction list right about now but instead we had another FIVE days! I can't begin to tell you how ecstatic that made me! 😆

This was the last of our Canary Island port stops and we really didn't have a plan for this one. There is a man-made beach nearby but not near enough to walk to. Royal did offer a transfer to this beach but even with the cruise planner sale it was going to be more than the cost of a taxi, so we decided to wing it. This was also partly due to the fact that Royal made changes to our itinerary several months before the cruise and this was one of the ports where we lost the most amount of time; instead of staying till 6 pm we had to be back on board at 2.3 pm. 😕

In the end, we thought this would be a good place to do some shopping for souvenirs and gifts, so we strolled through the marina and into town, where we had a lovely wander and found a very nice shop where we bought everything we needed. And the sun came out despite the cloudy skies as we were arriving.

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This is a dragon tree (Dracaena draco). They are native to the Canary Isles, Cape Verde and Madeira.

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We also learned something interesting today. While we were wandering around I noticed what appeared to be the Scottish flag flying from some of the buildings and there were souvenirs in the shop with it too, so I asked the shop-owner about it and it turns out that it wasn't the Scottish flag but the Tenerife flag. They are virtually identical and apparently there is just a very slight difference in the shade of blue. I looked it up later when we got back to the ship and one suggested reason is that both places have Saint Andrew as their patron saint. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

As we were making our way back, the nice blue skies were progressively and quite rapidly clouding over again and it started raining just as we reached the ship.

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We found out later from our CC roll call friends that they had gone on the beach transfer and spent the last hour of their time there huddling under the awning of a beach bar as the rain poured down. I'm so glad we decided just to go into town!

We made our way up to the WJ for lunch and although it was pretty busy it wasn't an absolute zoo. I found a very nice roll there that looks a lot like a cinnamon swirl but had cheese and tomato in the swirls instead of cinnamon. I had never seen them before and they were very good, lovely and soft and just plain yummy! 

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Although the rain had stopped while we were having lunch, it came back on again very shortly afterwards and we left Tenerife shrouded in mist. Once we were away from the harbour, we could feel some significant movement and I spotted the barf bags out on the stairs a bit later on as I was heading to the gym.

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Tonight's dinner menu

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Salmon and shrimp fritters. I'm not quite sure what to make of these. The texture was much firmer than I was expecting and they were quite spicy even though there was no mention of that fact in the description, other than the name of the sauce, which wasn't familiar to us. Someone who doesn't like or can't eat spicy food would definitely have given them the thumbs-down, especially if, like us, they weren't expecting it and although I thought they tasted OK I probably won't go out of my way to have them again.

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Chicken marsala. This was quite nice. The sauce wasn't too sweet, which I was glad of because I'm not a fan of sweet and savoury together.

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DH didn't fancy any of the main courses on today's menu so he just went for the strip steak. With the ubiquitous fries, of course.

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And for dessert, we both had the red and white cheesecake. I'm not a huge cheesecake fan but because this one was a bit different I decided to give it a go. I thought it was OK but definitely not worth giving up my Royal chocolate cake for. DH on the other hand, who loves cheesecake, thought it was very good.

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Tonight's show was the Love and Marriage Show, which we usually go along to and enjoy. It was even more hilarious than usual tonight because somehow a Dutch couple ended up on the stage as the longest-married couple (this on a ship where 96% of the passengers were Brits!) and while she spoke good English, he spoke hardly any, which made communication very difficult while adding to the hilariousness of the show. When it was time for the husbands to be asked their questions and his wife obviously couldn't be there to translate for him, the staff ended up using Google translate. As a professional translator, I can tell you that Google translate has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years, but the questions being asked here were obviously way beyond its pay grade and ROFL ensued. 🤣 It was a really fun evening.

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Day 9 - Funchal, Madeira, one of the world's most beautiful ports of call.

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Unfortunately, while our original itinerary was supposed to have us be here from 8 am to 6 pm, the revised one, which we were informed about just after final payment (always the way, isn't it?) had us arriving at 7.30 am with an all-aboard time of 2 pm, so we lost half a day here. We have been here several times both for land holidays and for port calls so while it was disappointing to us, we didn't have anything planned other than strolling into town for a wander. However, it seriously impacted the plans of many of our fellow cruisers.

The MSC Meraviglia was also in port with us, but they were staying longer, lucky things.

It takes about half an hour to stroll from the cruise port into the town centre, and there is a bit of an uphill stretch from the port until you reach the seafront promenade, but if you're not up for the walk there are plenty of taxis. As well as just running you from point A to point B, many of them offer tours. The official taxis in Madeira are yellow with a blue stripe along their sides. The ship was offering a shuttle service into town but at $10 per person, it's really only worth it if you're travelling solo. (Taxi should be under 10 euros each way.)

Artwork on the seafront outside the CR7 Hotel and Museum. This piece is by Portuguese artist Bordalo II, who specialises in turning everyday rubbish into art.

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Random views from the seafront as we were walking.PXL_20221001_093745308.thumb.jpg.ccbb7cf70dd2b3f1c90f6d4624ede169.jpg

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As we were admiring our ship from one of our vantage points, a couple got chatting to us, asking us if we'd ever been on "one of them". We were more than happy to tell them that, yes, actually, we're on THAT one. 🤣 Anyway, we think we convinced them to give cruising a go. Curiously, it was while we were here on a land holiday many many moons ago that we saw a cruise ship in the harbour and we got thinking, well why not? Especially since DH was a crew member on the old Sitmar line in his younger days and has very fond memories of those days. No sooner had we returned from that holiday than I had our first ever cruise booked - a Splendour of the Seas repo from Barcelona to Lisbon the following year.

We and the other couple offered to take pics of each other with the ship in the background. The little crooked bit bottom right is where there was a stupid bin we hadn't noticed but a very kind person used an app of some sort to remove it and sent me this bin-less version. 🤣

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Madeira is well-known for its bird of paradise flowers and they can be seen everywhere. These ones are in some landscaped areas along the seafront.

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Moving up off the seafront now, this is the cathedral

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And this is the entrance to the farmers' market

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You will find all sorts of fresh produce here and if it's not something that you're used to seeing where you live, I definitely recommend a visit. (Plus, they also have free, clean public toilets.)

The fruit and veggie section

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Madeiran bananas, which are much smaller and have a firmer texture than the ones that come from places like Ecuador and Colombia.

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They're not ready to eat until they are quite brown on the outside, like these ones.

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Now, here's the fish section

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The big chunk to the right is fresh tuna and the long black fish are scabbardfish, a Madeiran speciality, usually served with fried banana. The name for this fish in Portuguese (peixe-espada) translates literally to "swordfish" and restaurants often get the translation wrong on their menus. However, swordfish are an altogether different beast, called "espadarte" in Portuguese. So if you ever happen to be eating in a restaurant in Madeira (or anywhere in Portugal for that matter) watch out for this and if you see "swordfish", check the Portuguese version first!

After a toilet break and a rest on a bench while sampling a couple of bananas, we started making our way back towards the port.

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And came across a nice little garden with some handicraft stalls.

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After another nice rest on a bench, we reckoned it was time to head back to the ship for lunch and since there happened to be a taxi rank right beside the little garden we decided just to hop in one and ride back rather than walking.

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Back on the ship, we headed to the WJ for lunch and, as we expected it was packed. What we didn't expect, however, was that we would get lucky and find a free table in the small outdoor seating area at the back. We could not have asked for a better spot for sailaway!

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We had intended on finding a sunny spot to catch some rays after lunch but a strong wind had got up so we headed to the solarium instead, fully expecting only to find single loungers at opposite ends of it. However, luck was clearly on our side this afternoon and we somehow managed to snag two front row loungers since most other people (remember 96% Brits) were still braving it out on the open decks. 🤣

You can't really complain about a view like this, can you, even if they weren't the soft-cushion-type loungers.

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Tonight's MDR menu
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The mushroom puff pastry. This is a favourite of ours and it didn't disappoint. Packed full of mushrooms and very tasty.

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Crispy crab cake, which wasn't really crispy but was very nice nevertheless.

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DH's shrimp linguine, which he said was good.

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And my butter chicken with sides. I really enjoyed this and the mango chutney was delicious even though I'm not usually a fan.

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Royal cheesecake, but this time we made a point of asking for strawberry sauce, which made all the difference.

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And the warm chocolate lava cake. I have been consistently disappointed by these and I really don't know why I keep ordering them. I asked the waiter if he could make sure it came out properly warmed up, and he promised he would. Well he kept his promise but it was still a disappointment as it was not molten in any way, shape or form. To my way of thinking, chocolate lava cake is supposed to have hot, molten chocolate inside, right? Hence the name. Well it didn't and I made a promise to myself never to order it again. It did taste OK but a definite "no" from me.

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The headliner show tonight was Jack Pack, who were finalists on Britain's Got Talent a few years ago. The theatre was packed and they were outstanding. Even DH managed to stay awake for the entire performance. I definitely recommend seeing them if they come to a cruise ship you're on. As usual, we refused to go to the theatre and sit around for 30 minutes before the show (DH would have fallen asleep if we'd done that) so we got stuck with seats on the balcony, so the pics don't do the performance justice.

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Day 10 - At Sea

With plenty of time on our hands, we started today with a second visit to the à la carte breakfast in the MDR so that I could try the breakfast burrito. It was very tasty, although perhaps just a tad on the greasy side. All four people at the table next to ours also had them.

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Then we headed up to see the Voom man to get my free D day transferred to DH and from there we wandered into Two70 to take some pics of the breakfast set-up there:

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The weather was being temperamental - it was sunny but very windy and some parts of the upper decks were closed off - but even so there were some hardy (maybe crazy would be a better word) souls braving the elements, determined to catch those rays despite being swathed in layers of towels to keep from freezing to death. 🤣

It was way too chilly for us so we took refuge in the seaplex, where not only were there comfy sofas but also a decent internet signal - very important if you've been too frugal (tight?) to pay the $8 to upgrade your free Surf to Surf & Stream.

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The bumper cars were in full swing and after a bit of surfing (the net, not the flowrider), we decided it was time to go for a wander and try out our photography skills.

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Having been on Odyssey in May, I would be bound to say that I found the upper deck of the seaplex on Anthem to be poorly utilized in comparison. It seemed very empty.

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Looking down at the Dog House. We did not try anything from here, so I can't say if the hot dogs were good or not.

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And just off the seaplex (or maybe it's actually part of it), we discovered an arcade that we had not known was there.

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We took another peek at the pool area from behind the protective windows. Nah, still too cold for us!

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So, we decided to do an art tour instead.

Some of the artwork on the midship stairs.PXL_20221002_102058307.thumb.jpg.9608c501c8d497a66f7b3a41c644111e.jpg

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And then on to the Via, which was largely deserted:

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Where is everybody???

Silly question. They're here on the Esplanade, buying $10 t-shirts and buy-3-get-1-free made-in-China gifts. 🤣

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Continuing our walk-about:

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Schooner Bar. Lots of peeps here too. Looks like they were probably finishing up a trivia.

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Focus:

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Shore Excursions:

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Guest Services. Note that there is NO queue. There was NEVER a queue. Either everyone was having a fabulous time and didn't need assistance or they were just too British to do anything about it.

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Sorrento's

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The pub:

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And finally time for a coffee break in the Diamond Lounge. Despite being rather hidden away, this was a nice lounge, spacious and bright with windows to the outside. Not as nice as the one up top on Adventure OTS, but miles better than the "dungeon" on Harmony.

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Day 10 - continued

Nicely refuelled by the D lounge coffee and cookies, we continued on our ship tour:

Some of the offerings at La Patisserie. We never tried any of these as there was an extra charge, so I can't say if they were good or not.

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The Music Hall. There was a good selection of live music and various other entertainment held here. There are pool tables on the upper floor. It's actually a very nice lounge, although we didn't really spend any time here; usually we were just passing through on our way to bed, but we did catch a bit of the Beatles tribute band's show one evening. They also had a performance in the main theatre, which was actually this particular evening.

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The casino where DH made his small nightly contribution. On this cruise, smoking was not allowed in the casino, only on two outside areas, one on deck 5 and one on deck 14. I don't know if that rule is being continued now that the ship is Stateside but it made the casino an altogether nicer place to be than on all of our previous cruises. Notice how empty it is, though. I'm guessing this might be a cultural thing because I seem to remember the casino being busy at any time of day on our cruises in the Caribbean and to a slightly lesser extent in the Med. On this cruise, it never really got busy until evening.

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The library and computer room on the upper floor of Two70. Both of these were operational and there were lots of books in the cupboards. On our Odyssey cruise back in May there had been no books and no computers, so I'm guessing this is one more step towards pre-Covid normality.PXL_20221002_155347266.thumb.jpg.d93ec3b4d1b819f2b2a868073d2f42ac.jpg

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And looking down from the upper floor onto the stage area:

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By this time, we'd had enough of playing the amateur photographers and were ready for some lunch, so we headed back to the room to dump the cameras. It was nice and sunny out but as you can see the sea was pretty rough. In fact, they had to close the flowrider because the sideways movement made it unsafe.

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We had some Diamond treats waiting for us too... Nice!

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I don't know if you can see just behind them, we had a kettle in the room with the fixings for making tea and coffee. As I understand it, this is because kettles are provided in all stateroom categories on ships that sail from the UK. Many moons ago, when I was a tour guide, one of the top complaints I used to get from my British guests was that they had "NO KETTLE IN THE ROOM! How are we supposed to make a cup of tea?" And luckily, Royal have had the presence of mind to listen and respond to their guests' needs.

I can't remember where we had lunch today but it was probably Sorrento's or the WJ. We never made it to the MDR for lunch because they finished serving too early for us. The rest of our afternoon was spent doing our usual afternoon pursuits - chill, gym, hot tub - at least I assume so, since I have no more pics until dinner time.

Tonight's dinner menu. For some unknown reason, tonight was lobster night. Usually lobster is on a formal night but we had our second formal night on day 9 and tonight was a normal night.

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We skipped the starter and went straight to the main event, which was very tasty. Our waiter brought us two each and would have brought more but it's just too much food for us so we told him not to.

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We were chatting to the people at the next table when dessert came and I forgot to take pics. We managed to somewhat disguise the semi-demolishment of DH's Baked Alaska, but there was no hope of resuscitating mine, which luckily was the Royal chocolate cake that I've already posted pics of earlier on.

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As I mentioned, tonight's show in the main theatre was the Beatles tribute band. I just can't believe how bad the sightlines in the theatre on this ship. It seems that practically anywhere you sit there's a stupid pillar or overhang blocking your view. Of course, we could sit down in the main part of the theatre but that brings its own problems: firstly, I'm a shorty and I never fail to get someone who's at least 6 feet tall sitting in the seat right in front of me; and then there's the problem of discreetly leaving, which is kind of hard to do if you're down there in the thick of it.

Anyway, just to exemplify this little soap box moment, look at this stupid pillar. That was right in front of me.

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Leaning over to the left (or maybe the right) I was at least able to get a couple of pics to show how it should be.

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Anyway, I'm glad to report that despite the visual impairment, it was a great show. I definitely recommend seeing them if they come to a ship you're on.

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Day 11 brought us to La Coruña, Spain.

Our time in this final port was also cut by a few hours, with a later arrival and earlier departure than originally scheduled.

We had not been to La Coruña before and when I was researching things to do there I came upon the Tower of Hercules, which is UNESCO world heritage and dates back to ancient Roman times. There is a coastal walk that you can do to get there that takes about half an hour and you can go up inside the lighthouse. The normal cost of the entrance ticket is 3 euros, but it's free on Mondays and today happened to be a Monday.

The weather had decided to be friendly today and the approach to La Coruña was very pretty. We actually passed the Tower on our way in.

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If you want to go up inside the tower, you have to get your ticket at the ticket booth at the bottom of the ramp before you head up. This is very important, because they won't let you in without a ticket and will send you back down to get one. Entrance is timed, every 30 minutes, in order to limit the number of people inside due to space constraints. Note that you need to get a ticket even on the days when entrance is free. They will give you ones with a zero cost on them.

The tower is not suitable for people with reduced mobility or who suffer from claustrophobia. The stairs to the top (232! DH counted them!) are very steep and narrow. However, if you're mobile enough to do it, the view from the top justifies the effort.

As you can see from the first pic below, the ramp up to the tower has large crazy paving stones and is itself quite steep so it would be very challenging for wheelchair users.

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As you first enter the tower, you see the original Roman foundations with plaques explaining about them. Here are a couple of examples.

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And now some of the views from the top. If you look closely you can see the top of the ship in the third one.

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After we came back down, I went round to the other side to take some closer-up pics of the wind rose and some of the tower from that side.

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Then, since there was an ice-cream van next to the ticket office, we had a nice rest and an ice-cream before continuing our walk.

The coastal walk wraps right around the peninsula where the tower is located so you don't have to retrace your steps; you can keep going and will eventually come back into town. Here is a distant view of the tower that we spotted as we walked, so again from a different angle.

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This part of the walk brings you to the town beach and what a lovely beach it is. It actually made me sad that we hadn't had a whole day here. You could easily visit the tower or spend some time in town and then go to the beach afterwards. You can see the North Star at the left-hand side of the pic below.

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These statues of surfers are on the promenade above the beach.

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About half-way along the beach, you turn left into the town centre, where there are pedestrian streets and lots of shops, and this brings you back down to the port area.

Sailway was magnificent too, as the sun was setting behind the tower on our way out. I don't have any pictures of that unfortunately as I was on the treadmill in the gym at that time. But what a view to work out to!

We really enjoyed our time here and hope to be back.

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