Southampton has found its Anthem

I was a very lucky winner and managed to get a place on board the Anthem of the seas this weekend and I can tell you it was a fantastic experience. We travelled down to Southampton and once we arrived was greeted by Gigi the Giraffe smiling down on us and giving us a warm welcome.

The ship looked beautiful from the outside and we weren’t disappointed once we got on board it definitely had the wow factor.

My colleague and I were very lucky to have an adapted balcony cabin to experience and I just couldn’t believe how spacious it was.

The room was really well designed for a wheelchair user with a ramp out onto the balcony , handles on the back of chairs and the wardrobes had a grip bar to pull the rail down to hang your clothes.

The bathroom was a wet room with a seat in the shower and we also had a button to press which opened the door for us .

These cabins were so good for the disabled passengers needs and for them to experience a comfortable cruise.

The main aim of the trip for us was to explore and try and see as much as the ship as possible. There was an open hour afternoon for agents so we managed to go round and have a look at the different types of cabin grades from the leading inside grades, the virtual balcony’s right up to the Royal loft suites.I have to say I really didn’t like the virtual balcony cabins as they just seemed a bit pointless and almost like ‘oh look what you haven’t got, a real balcony!!!’

The Royal loft suites, as you can imagine were just amazing. The floor to ceiling windows make the suites so bright and airy and the space in there is enormous and very luxurious. The bedroom is on a mezzanine balcony overlooking the lounge and it has huge bathroom, wardrobe area and then another balcony up there with its own private hot tub  and a swing– heaven!!!

The open areas on board the ship are full of really funky artwork and unique features. On deck 5 they had a chandelier made of light bulbs hanging from the ceiling and then directly underneath there was a metal plate where you placed your hands for 10 seconds and then it picked up the rhythm of your heartbeat and flashed to the rhythm.

Little things like this made the ship really fun and quirky. There was a wall made up of light switches in neon colours and this spelled out words – a fabulous piece of art.

We were also very lucky to have a wonder round all the speciality restaurants and got to sample little bite sizes of the menu. My favourite speciality restaurant was wonderland. Tables laid out with the Alice in Wonderland theme with big grand velvet chairs, clock faces on the chairs and the menus were in gold photo frames with a blank page. You then are given a paint brush and a pot of water to wash over the page and the menu magically appears.

We dined in the Silk restaurant the first evening and then the Grand the second night and we were lucky to have the menus with the best of the best from all four free dynamic dining rooms so we could sample a bit of everything. The food, as expected was beautiful. Lots of choice and super quality with my steak being cooked medium was perfection.

On the first evening we went to the Two 70 which was the cabaret act on the Robo screens. It was loud, bright, and futuristic and felt very much like a Vegas show. The special effects in there were so good and even if you are not a big show gore then you should go just to experience the screens as the visual effect is so unique you won’t see it anywhere else.

The second evening was the cherry on the cake for me as we went to the main theatre to watch the ‘we will rock you’ show. It was a really great performance and the singers all had amazing voices and I was really shocked when the first performer who came out on stage was Curly watts from Coronation Street!!! He was actually really good and the show was very funny in places so definite worth a watch.

The true hidden gem for me was the solarium area on the very back of the ship. This is an adult’s only area and it is so peaceful and tranquil in there a real perfect place to crash down on of the huge loungers with your book. The bar in here is a juice and smoothie bar and they were so helpful in there, you didn’t need to order of a menu you just told them what you fancied and they would make it up. There were crates of fresh fruit so people were ordering strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, mango …..The lot.

The main pool area is nice also with rubber waterproof loungers to lie on in the pool and they have the steel bands playing so it’s always a good atmosphere around here. They also have the movie screen put there and also the North Star is positioned by the main pool so you can watch everyone go up in there and have a good people watch.

Another unique point was the rip cord experience which is the sky diving at sea. They did have me booked down for a go but unfortunately I didn’t get on the ship on time. We did have a look and it looked like great fun and right next to the flo rider so this would be where I would recommend to head to maybe on a sea day to have an afternoon of action and adventure.

The overall experience from start to finish was unforgettable and for anybody lucky enough to be going on board for their holiday this year I am very jealous and can assure you, you are in for a treat. If you want to try a cruise that has imagination, creativity and abundance of new things to try and explore then you will be hard pushed to beat the Anthem Of The Seas it’s the cruise ship of the future.

Some more pics !!

Just chilling on the Balcony.

Getting ready to go out and watch the show

Having a go on the Bumper cars in the Seaplex !!

Me beating my colleague Lisa at ping pong……yeah !!!