LIVE from Anthem June 2-21 - B2B Canaries and Fjords

[mil76]

I've always wanted to do a live report, so here goes.  Cruising with the DW, aka the OG Flow Widow.  We like cruising because we love to travel and cruising includes two of our favorite past-times: me flowriding, and her playing the slots.  We were talking about doing the fjords this summer and wanted to use her annual casino Prime cruise for that, but then this 12-day Discover the Canaries popped up on the casino list during our Navigator cruise in February so we booked it, with the expectation we would do a B2B.

 

We patiently watched as the 7 day fjords cruise available staterooms dwindled down to nothing while waiting for the yearly Prime cruises to be awarded in April.  We got about half way through April with no luck from Prime, and the cruise showed as sold out online for about a week, so we wrote off the fjords cruise.  Then some staterooms popped up so we pounced on it and the B2B was back in business.  Oh well, I guess the Prime cruise will have to wait!

 

My grandmother was a WWII war bride and moved back to England when I was 11, so I have spent a lot of time in the UK over the years, but this is my first time cruising out of Southampton.

[mil76]

As we were finalizing our packing this week, we checked the Royal app to see if activities are loaded yet and noticed that the itinerary was out of whack.  It seems the ports were all reversed,  No notification as to what is going on from Royal, so speculation was running rampant here and on that other site.  DW called the casino line and the rep checked with a higher up and they assured us it was just a glitch with the website.  Then a day later we got this email:

 

So now we are scrambling to contact our private tour operators in Lisbon and Lanzarote to see if we can change the dates.  No word yet from them.  Stay tuned.

 

If this is the worst thing that happens on this cruise, I will be elated.  Our last European cruise was a Baltic cruise 2 years ago on Voyager.  That one started off with St. Petersburg being dropped.  Then we got to Copenhagen and tested positive for Covid.  Coming down with Covid in one of the world's most expensive cities with nowhere to stay is not my idea of vacation.

[mil76]

Gotta love Royal IT.  This is what the cruise excursions page looks like.

[irishgal432]

I am going in September and looking forward to your reivew.  Where did you stay in London?

[mil76]

4 minutes ago, irishgal432 said:

I am going in September and looking forward to your reivew.  Where did you stay in London?

We're staying at the Hilton Bankside.  It's near Waterloo for the train.  

[mil76]

Bags are packed, and these guys didn't make the cut.  1 50 pound checked bag for a 19 day cruise with that variation in climate is tough.  I appreciate Southwest Airlines right now.

[Viajera7]

I’m going on this cruise too and I wanted to go on the following cruise too but it was sold out. I booked a cruise from Athens after this one so I am staying in Europe until the 25th. I’ll be following this thread when I can since I’m flying to the U.K. tomorrow and I only have one day of free internet being Diamond. 

[GetToLivin]

Wow, what an itinerary! Can't wait to follow along on your adventure 😀

[mil76]

No upgrade for us.  Good thing we booked premium plus.

[fuinseog]

Following!

[little britain]

Following along and looking forward to meeting you on the Norway 🇳🇴 leg!

 

Love Lisbon - being there till midnight is a treat! 

[perfect match]

I’m sorry to see that your Flowrider boards didn’t make the baggage cut. Otherwise it sounds like a great cruise so I’m looking forward to following along. 

[Tin can]

An almost perfect B2B itinerary, looking forward to following along.

[mil76]

Made it to London.  Took 2 melatonin when we got on the plane, and then we sat for about an hour before taking off.  I was in full zombie mode by the time we went airborne.  Reclined the seat and next thing I knew we were flying over the southern tip of Greenland.  

 

Immigration was a breeze.  They let US citizens use the same auto-doors as the Brits, so it took about 30 seconds to get through.  Picked up the bags and headed for the tube.

[mil76]

Took the Elizabeth line for the first time.  Much faster getting into central London than the Piccadilly line.  Checked in to the hotel, and set out to fight the jet lag.  We're staying a block from the Tate Modern, so took a look in there.  

 

Then took a walk along the south bank of the Thames.

 

St. Pauls

 

Globe Theatre

 

The Shard

 

Borough Market

 

Then stopped at a pub by Tower Bridge for one of these.

 

And some.of this

 

 

[mil76]

Lots of crowds today, even though the weather lied when they said mid 60s and we got mid 50s instead.  Had to break out some of the Norway packing 2 weeks ahead.of schedule.

 

The crowds can be blamed on this:

 

Lots more.Dortmund fans than Real Madrid out and about today.  Not surprising.since Real is in the final it seems like every year.

[mil76]

Since this is supposed to be a cruise thread and I am babbling on about London, look what was docked right next to the HMS Belfast.

That must be awesome cruising up the Thames and going through Tower Bridge.

[FionaMG]

There's

7 minutes ago, mil76 said:

Since this is supposed to be a cruise thread and I am babbling on about London, look what was docked right next to the HMS Belfast.

That must be awesome cruising up the Thames and going through Tower Bridge.

 

There's more to a cruise than just the time between embarking and disembarking. The pre- and post-cruise parts of the trip count too.

 

I am enjoying your live thread. Thanks for sharing. ☺️

[mil76]

11 hours ago, perfect match said:

I’m sorry to see that your Flowrider boards didn’t make the baggage cut. Otherwise it sounds like a great cruise so I’m looking forward to following along. 

It should be OK.  Most of the ships now have a short Outlaw board unlike the old days when they only had the 42" barges.  My boards didn't make the trip to Singapore last December for our Spectrum cruise and I had some of my best riding ever.  We already had to drag 4 bags (2 checked and 2 carry-on) on the tube into London and from the tube to the hotel. Adding a flowbag with 2 boards would have been miserable.  I'm 57 now I can't do the porter stuff like I used to 20 years ago.

[mil76]

12 hours ago, little britain said:

Following along and looking forward to meeting you on the Norway 🇳🇴 leg!

 

Love Lisbon - being there till midnight is a treat! 

Will be great to meet you.

[Preziosa]

We Will also Be on the trip from 2. June

[mil76]

So today I wanted to find something new, since we have seen just about all the central London tourist sites.  So we headed off to Hampton Court, home.of Henry VIII.

 

 

Edited June 1 by mil76

[mil76]

It's a 35 minute train ride to Hampton Court from Waterloo.

Edited June 1 by mil76

[mil76]

One tourist attraction we haven't done in central London before is Sky Garden.  It's free, but you have to get tickets ahead if time.  They release tickets on Mondays for spots 4 weeks in the future, and they get snapped up quickly. 

 

It's in the building known as the walkie talkie.  It's the building in the forefront of this picture.

 

The views are pretty spectacular, and you can't beat the price.  I hear it's 35 quid for the Shard.

 

[mil76]

After that, we headed to Chinatown for an early dinner.

 

We then walked around a bit and the crowds were pretty unbearable in Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus. 

 

Was a bit disappointed in these areas.  It's all souvenir shops and American chains now.  There's even an American candy store.  Why would anyone go to London and buy American candy?  Getting English chocolate and sweets is one of the best things about visiting England for us.

 

Today Real Madrid made up for their lack of presence yesterday as they were EVERYWHERE.  We decided the crowds were enough for us, and since we are heading to Southampton in the morning we decided to head back to the hotel for the night.