7 Days Onboard The Anthem of the Seas To Norway

I was recently onboard a 7-night Royal Caribbean cruise, heading to Norway with my family on Anthem of the Seas.

I’ve been cruising for years but usually, I only cruise with other adults. On this cruise, though, I brought my nieces along, and it has been a totally different experience. 

When I saw this trip advertised at just £654 ($829) per person, I thought this could be the chance I’d been waiting for to take my family on a cruise.

I wasn’t sure how cruising with children would change the way that I did things, but I hoped that they would enjoy it, as I’m always telling them how great cruises are.

My nieces, who are 6 and 13, have cruised twice before, but they had rough weather on both their past cruises. My hope for this cruise was that we would have calm seas and a lot of fun.

There are so many things to do on Royal Caribbean cruises, things that really have to be seen to be believed. 

Before we even embarked the ship we had an email about bad weather. It said that Royal Caribbean had been “monitoring some adverse weather along our intended path” and that we would now be calling at Bergen for our first port stop. 

I hope this would mean that we would avoid the bad weather completely, but only time would tell. I was nervous that this would be my niece’s third rocky sailing. 

We embarked the ship in Southampton and it was very easy. We’d already checked in online before arriving so we just had to scan our passports and boarding passes before going through security.

Boarding a cruise is very much like going through an airport, but generally more relaxed and faster. It took us under 10 minutes to get onto the ship, and I can’t imagine getting through an airport that fast. 

Anthem of the Seas can hold 4905 guests and 1500 crew members at one time

Because of that, I was expecting the ship to feel busy when we walked onboard and straight into the central street, but it really didn’t.

This area is the central street of the ship, most Royal Caribbean ships have an area similar to this and it’s lined with bars and shops. Particularly in the evenings, this is a very popular place to be. Theres even a robot bartender in one of the bars that makes drinks. 

Before boarding this cruise, I bought myself a soda package. Most cruises include food but not drinks. Some drinks are included in the buffet, but if you want a soda in a bar or a beer in the pub, you have to pay for those. You can either pay as you go, like a bar on land, or you can buy what is called a drinks package. 

I ordered a soda package, which meant that I could have unlimited soda every day. In my opinion, Royal Caribbean has the best soda package out there.

Find out why here:

This Cruise Lines Soda Package is Better Than All The Rest – Here’s Why!

Not only can you have soda at any of the bars, but they also have “Freestyle Coke Machines” around, where you can fill up your cup yourself with a selection of different sodas.

We picked up our soda cups from a bar called Bolaros and the cups do have microchips in them, so you can’t use other cups at the machines. The cups will stop working after the cruise ends, so you can’t sneakily hide one and pass it onto somebody on the next cruise.

By now, we were pretty hungry, so we headed to Sorrentos Pizza for lunch.

Sorrentos Pizza is a pizzeria, which I probably didn’t need to explain, but better safe than sorry. It’s usually open from late morning until around 3 a.m., and all of the food here is unlimited and included in the cruise fare.

My nieces were happy as soon as they found that out, and me too, to be honest. After picking up some pizza, with ketchup, of course, we headed up and outside to explore the ship.

I always upset people when I say I like my pizza dipped in ketchup. Sorrentos serves nothing but pizza and has a giant ketchup machine – so clearly, pizza is meant to be served with ketchup.

Royal Caribbean has some of the most exciting cruise ships in the world, and Anthem of the Seas is no exception. She was built in 2015 and has things like surf simulators, rock climbing walls, and a massive observation pod on top, which is called the North Star.

I knew that I would have to come back later in the cruise to try that one. I was hoping that I would be able to claim one of the free slots but knew that they do sell out very fast. Still, I love a freebie so I was determined! 

The ship does of course have the standard things like swimming pools and splash areas. There is one pool where the water just goes round and round and round, like being inside a big washing machine.

This was particularly popular with kids and we’d always see them floating around and around. The lifeguards were wrapped up as they are stood there all day. 

Heading inside the ship and that feeling of amazement certainly continued. Wandering around a cruise ship on the first day is my favourite feeling, and getting to see it through my niece’s eyes was fantastic.

We came across a massive area called the Sportsplex. Here, they would have like Bumper Cars, Roller Skating, and Laser Tag.

On a regular cruise, I might have a go at those things, or I might not, but being with my nieces, I knew that I’d have to give everything a go. I’ve got my “Cool Auntie Emma” reputation to uphold, of course. 

After a quick stop in the buffet to pick up a cookie we found some seats for sail away. This may be the fastest I’ve ever found cookies on a cruise. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the most cookies I’ve ever consumed on a cruise, they were so good and available all the time in multiple places.

We’d take them back to our cabin sometimes and there was also an ice cream stand on the pool deck which is all included.

As we were cruising in summer, it was still nice and bright when we sailed away. The entertainment team was dancing, and music was playing. It was such an exciting feeling to be heading off on this cruise and to have everybody together.

They had some drinks carts up here, which I always think is a great idea. As we had the drinks package they just looked at our cards and poured us a drink. Easy peasy. 

I’m glad we watched the sail away from the top deck because it wouldn’t have been the same to watch it from my cabin, even though it would have been technically possible.

I had what was called a “virtual balcony cabin” which is basically an inside cabin with a massive TV screen showing you views from outside of the ship.

I thought that was very cool, but there was no time to sit and watch as we had our dinner reservation coming up.

Find out all about my unusual cabin in the video below:

I’m usually a fan of flexible freestyle dining but when cruising with a big group it’s often easier to have a fixed dining time, that way you can meet there if you want to, or not, but you have a guaranteed table.

Pre-cruise, I selected early dining, and we were given a table at 5:30 pm, which was absolutely perfect for me. 

There are multiple main dining rooms onboard, and Royal offers both fixed and flexible dining times. I hoped that my nieces would find something to eat that they liked, and I’m happy to say that they always did.

Our waiters were so friendly, and at dinner, we kept my younger niece entertained with colouring books and stickers.

One of my favourite things about Royal Caribbean cruises is that because the schedule is so busy, you can just accidentally stumble upon things happening, and that is exactly what happened to us next.

I knew that there was a venue onboard called Two70, so we headed there. We were just planning on having a drink, but it seemed to time perfectly for us to see a show called “Spectral Cabaret”.

I have absolutely no idea what was going on in this show, so please don’t quiz me on it, but it was very entertaining, and I enjoyed watching both the dancers on the massive screens. 

There was one part where they showed rough seas outside, which did seem weird given that we were on a ship, and it looked pretty convincing. But hey, considering it was just a bonus show I didn’t even know was on, I was very impressed.

Royal Caribbean does have an App and all of the information about what is happening where is in there.

There are no paper schedules on Royal Caribbean cruises. Make sure you download the App. You can ask for a paper one if you prefer, but that’s the exception now, not the rule. 

As it was getting late, we picked up a drink from the magical soda machines in the sportsplex and decided to call it a night. At this point, we hadn’t seen most of the ship, but I was very much looking forward to it, especially the skating and laser tag.

It’d be a lie if I said I woke up bright and early but the great thing about the buffet onboard the ship was that it served breakfast until 11 am. I’ve been on some cruises where it stops at 9, which I usually sleep through, but 11 is perfect.

I picked up a doughnut because on Royal Caribbean cruises doughnuts are a breakfast food, for some reason. I only ever saw them at breakfast, but honestly, I would have liked them all day. They were great.

The buffet did get busy just before closing but I’d usually just take my doughnut outside or I’d sit by Johnny Rockets which is a specialty restaurant that wasn’t open in the mornings.

We went on a little duck hunt next which I know sounds weird, you may be thinking why would there be ducks on cruise ships?

Cruising ducks are a big thing, and people bring rubber ducks on cruises for other guests to find. I’ve never really understood the craze, if I’m being honest. But seeing my nieces’ faces when they found the ducks made it make a lot more sense. In total, they found 14 with a little guidance from us. 

This first day was a sea day, and we headed to the music hall for trivia and did absolutely terribly. The theme was 90s TV, but it was all American sitcoms I’d never heard of. Still, we enjoyed it, and we did come back later in the cruise to win a trivia contest.

The music hall itself was a big space spread out over two decks. We were always able to get a seat here without a problem, even for our big group and my younger niece loved dancing on the dance floor when the band played. 

For lunch, we decided to head to the Two70 cafe, partly because I wanted to try the wraps, but also because I wanted to see the space in the daytime.

The cafe also serves breakfast in the mornings, so is a great place to head to if you want a change from the buffet.

It’s called Two70 because you have 270-degree views of the ocean from here, or so they say. 

In the cafe, they serve salads, sandwiches, and wraps. Everything is included in the cruise fare, and they also have cookies and cakes.

Water, tea/coffee, and juices are included in the cruise fare for everybody, which is nice. 

Seeing the view from these windows made the whole space feel so much bigger. Sitting and looking at the view is one of my favourite parts of cruising, and I was so excited to visit Norway, which is always beautiful.

For now, though, we had a different kind of exciting thing to do, and that was to head to the bumper cars. They’re also included in the cruise fare, and I love how they are called Bumper Cars, not Dodgems.

Sometimes, you go on this kind of car, and you’re expected not to bump into each other, which is just ridiculous. I didn’t come to dodge; I came to budge. We were allowed to bump! 

We got to the Sportsplex and joined the queue around half an hour before it opened, in total we waited 45 minutes which honestly wasn’t that bad.

What was kind of annoying was that when we were at the front and thought we were going on next another group of people arrived who took our place without lining up.

They were what is called “Star Class,” which is for people staying in suites. This happened twice while we were waiting at the front of the queue. It was frustrating as we had waited so long, but the staff there were all very apologetic and friendly. It was just bad timing for us, I suppose! 

All of the crew onboard were always really helpful and polite. It felt as though they had time to chat with us, which was nice, and they always made an effort to talk to my nieces, too. 

We headed to the Schooner Bar, a very popular bar that has been on Royal Caribbean ships for decades.

We took part in a craft class where we made flowers out of a ribbon. There are some craft classes onboard that cost extra but I only went to the ones which were included. All that making made us hungry so we headed up to the buffet for dinner.

This was the first time we really had a chance to look around the entire space, and every member of my family loved this buffet.

They said that it was much better than the cruises they’d been on before and we also all commented about how smooth this cruise had been in terms of weather. I often don’t like to say that as I’m afraid it’ll jinx the weather, but we were all hopeful.

There was so much choice in the buffet, lots of fresh fruit and the desserts were amazing. I had scones in here I think at least 4 days out of the 7 because they were so good.

If you were a scone connoisseur, you might not like them, I dont think they had the right jam and they definitely didn’t have what is considered the right type of clotted cream – but personally, I really preferred this.

That’s why I struggle when people ask me which cruise line has the best food. One person’s best is another person’s worst, as long as it’s all hot and tasty and theres choice, I’m happy.

They had massive tables in the buffet where we could all sit together as a group of 8. My younger niece who is six was very happy she could get her own drinks from the machines and we all found something that we liked.

The great thing about a buffet when you’re cruising with a big group is that you can all choose something totally different, nobody has to agree.

Eating early when the buffet opened at 6 pm was definitely the key to finding it quiet. Peak time I’d say would be around 7 pm or 8 pm – but we ate earlier whenever possible. 

Whenever we walked into or out of the buffet, the crew would do a washy-washy song and dance to get us to wash our hands.

It’s become quite a thing but it always made us laugh and I love it when a cruise line insists that people going into the buffet wash their hands.

If I had my way hand washing would be much more enforced and people who don’t wash their hands after going to the bathroom would be immediately disembarked. No questions asked, just off. 

Everybody shares tongs in the buffet and then eats with those hands, so making sure everybody has washed hands is very important to me. 

It was actually Formal Night, so we decided to get changed. There were two “formal” nights on this week-long cruise, but the dress codes are very relaxed with Royal Caribbean. 

Find out more about Royal Caribbean dress codes here:

What To Wear on a Royal Caribbean Cruise – Examples and Enforcement

They’re one of the most relaxed cruise lines, it’s really just a suggestion of what to wear that applies only to the main dining room – which you of course, don’t have to go to.

Even if you have fixed dining, it just means your table is available for you. You don’t have to go and don’t have to tell anybody. You just eat where you want to. 

There are a few rules for Formal Night like no shorts in the main dining room, but a pair of trousers and a polo shirt or a dress is more than formal enough.

It is nice to get dressed up sometimes so we did want to even though we didn’t eat in the main dining room, it’s a great chance to take photos and I don’t have a lot of photos with such a big group of my family, so that was nice. 

We headed into the theatre to see a show. It wasn’t the headline show “We Will Rock You” which I was very much looking forward to seeing, but it was still very impressive and kept us all entertained.

Cruising with a 6-year-old certainly made me look at the entertainment in a different way. It wasn’t just about if I’d enjoy it, but also if it would be worth her sitting still for that long.

She liked the show. I wasn’t sure about her sitting still for We Will Rock You because that show is two hours long, but we did go to that later in the cruise. 

It’s not uncommon for cruise ships to have gameshows, but when we went to watch “Who wants to feel like a millionaire?” It was different from any I’d seen before. Of course, it’s called “Who wants to feel like a millionaire” because they don’t have a million to give away.

There were a couple of contestants and on each round they gave away something from the ship – like an hour of internet or a speciality meal. I thought this was a clever move from Royal, not only was it entertaining people but also opening their eyes to what they could buy.

They must have assumed that everybody would get at least a decent way through, because they had all the prizes lined up. If the person did pick the wrong answer they’d often let the audience correct them or the presenter would help.

It certainly wasn’t as serious as the real “Who wants to be a millionaire”, but when the prize is an hour in the thermal suite, it really doesn’t need to be serious. Later in the cruise, we did see another gameshow, which I liked much more. 

I saw on my phone that there were some slots appearing for the next day on the North Star.

The North Star is an observation pod, and it is sometimes free. Generally speaking, on port days it’s free, and on sea days, it’s not.

You have to be very fast to get the free slots but we did manage to get one for the next day in our port of Bergen. That was the port we weren’t ever meant to go to. 

Inside the Royal Caribbean App you can add the other people that you are cruising with and you can message them anytime for free.

You don’t need to pay for an internet package to do that and I think it’s fantastic. Sea days can be tricky when none of you can contact each other to make plans and this made it so much easier. I wish every cruise line would offer that.

We were docked all day in Bergen, so we had time for a lazy breakfast and a trip to the North Star before we headed off.

The free trip just goes up and back down, but I really think that’s enough. If you do want to go over the sides of the ship, you can pay for that on a sea day, but this was more than enough for me.

It was cool to see the ship from above and it was a perfect amount of time to spend in the pod. It actually wasn’t scary at all. 

In Bergen, we took the funicular railway up the mountain and walked back down.

Royal Caribbean was selling a very similar excursion for $59 each, but we bought the train tickets on our phones directly, and they only cost £6 / $8.

We did have to walk the ten minutes there and find it ourselves, but that suited us perfectly. Doing this also avoided some of the queues.

I took the same funicular way back in 2018, and when we got to the top, we couldn’t see a thing, couldn’t see the ship, nothing, it was so foggy.

It was really weird to come out of the train expecting a great view and literally just nothing. On this day, though, we were very lucky, and we had beautiful views of the ship. It was quite warm too.

When I say warm, I mean around 15-20c, which is 60-70f, but it was nice enough to take off my coat. 

All in all, we walked for around 3 hours, and the theme of good weather continued for our next ports of Flam, Olden and Stavanger. Norway is one of my favourite countries in the world and I’d recommend it to everybody. The views are incredible. 

It’s so easy to get around too, most people speak English and they take cards everywhere. 

When we got back to the ship, we decided to go roller skating. I hadn’t roller skated before, apart from a little bit on an MSC cruise last year, but I got the hang of it.

I can’t stop or do much apart from go around in circles, but that is good enough for me.

We had to book the slot on our phones, and everybody had half an hour, which was plenty of time. Helmets are mandatory, but you can decide if you also want elbow or knee pads.

I was so excited to get my helmet on that I actually clipped it and caught my neck. I didn’t really notice too much at the time, but I could see the mark on my neck a few hours later. 

The trickiest part was avoiding the kids who had fallen over. If they weren’t there, I think I could have done a lot better, but it was like an obstacle course. They had little things for the kids to help them, like Zimmer frames with wheels that they leaned on.

I’d seen that they had Laser Tag in here and I knew I’d have to come back to see what that was like. I couldn’t imagine how Laser Tag in what is basically a bouncy castle could be that good, but the whole thing was really surprising.

There weren’t too many kids on this cruise, but there were enough that my nieces had other people to play with and run around with.

We were cruising out of school holidays, so I’m sure that helped a lot.

Our cruise was sold out- but it’s very different a ship being sold out – meaning all the cabins have somebody in them – to the ship being completely at full capacity. This means that all the cabins have the maximum number of people in them.

Usually the 3rd and 4th beds in cabins are taken up by kids so school holiday cruises are a lot busier and I personally try to avoid them whenever I can. 

One place on this ship that I usually go to a lot, but I didn’t spend a lot of time on this cruise, was the solarium. It’s a lovely adult-only area at the front of the ship, and we did sit here for the next sail away. 

It started pouring with rain, it was running down the ceiling and all of a sudden it started thundering. There was lightning and fog, and it was amazing to watch. 

We were so lucky that we didn’t have this weather during the day. It drizzled a little, but we had a great day wandering around the port.

Olden is beautiful, and we were lucky enough to be the only ship there. We actually never docked anywhere with another big ship.

Needless to say we stayed inside the ship for the evening, heading to Bolaros next which was the main karaoke bar of the ship. 

It was fairly busy so we ended up sitting on a weird round chair, a bit odd because you’re looking outwards, away from your family and friends but we never had any trouble getting a seat in any of the bars. 

On the schedule at 10pm was a gameshow in the theatre. I was a bit hesitant to go to be honest, it was quite late for my nieces and gameshows dare I say it can sometimes be a little bit naff.

Naff if your Britishism of the week and I’m not sure there is a real definition for naff, to me it means a bit lame a bit “meh” – nothing awful, but nothing exciting or cool. Some people say it to mean unfashionable, but I use it for all kinds of things. Theres nothing off-limits that couldn’t be naff to me. 

This though was fantastic, it lasted about an hour and a half and it felt more like a fully produced show, the band was involved, there were dancers and singers and overall it was just really funny.

My family did have a balcony cabin on this cruise, so I was able to spend some time there when we sailed into or out of ports.

The views were spectacular, and because we had to sail quite a long way inwards to get to the ports, we had sail-ins and sail-outs that were three or so hours long.

At one point, we did sail under a bridge, and we were told that there was only a couple of metres of clearance between us and the bridge.

There were lots of us up on the top deck, and I think that’s really the best place to see something like this. It’s hard to get an idea of the distance and the speed from further down. 

It seemed like we were sailing so slowly, but then the bridge came over so fast. I know the captain and everybody must have checked the water levels a thousand trillion times, but I’d still be nervous to take this ship under the bridge.

Anthem of the Seas cost a whopping $940 million dollars to build, so you wouldn’t want to damage her by hitting a low bridge!

Also up on the top deck was the “ifly”. This is a sky diving simulator in a tube, and to our surprise, my 6-year-old niece said she wanted to give it a go when we were docked in Stavanger.

She did fantastically, I think kids are often better at stuff like that because they don’t over think it and worry, they just do what they are told.

I had a go too, and I’m pretty proud of my performance. I didn’t head butt the edges or end up doing an accidental handstand, and that was all I wanted, to be okay enough. Again we did the free slot here just by monitoring the App. 

Find out more about my experiences on the ifly here:

I Went Skydiving on a Cruise Ship: Royal’s iFly- Review, Free Tickets, and FAQs

Stavanger is the most populated place we visited on our cruise, with a population of over 130,000.

It’s actually the third largest city in Norway, and as as result, theres lots to see, it’s famous for the old town and the colourful houses, but wandering around the newer parts of town is great too. I visited a few years on Norway’s constitution day and I’ve never seen so many flags it was great. 

We headed back to the ship a little after lunch because we had a booking for Laser Tag. That is such a weird sentence.

We waited about 15 minutes after the time we had booked and were taken in to get our equipment, they explained something about Yetis, and I don’t even remember who the other side were, to be honest.

All I knew was that we were split into two teams, and I wanted to win. I was in team Yeti, so that’s probably why I forgot the other side. 

Inside, it felt much bigger than it looked, just like the tardis from Dr Who, and there were lots of places where we could hide.

There were a few little kids who I’m not sure really understood the game but they were great for getting easy points, I was here to win not to go easy on the kids. We all came out of there with a massive smile on our faces, and I’d definitely do it again. 

Anthem of the Seas has a pub right in the middle, and we’d often go there for a drink when we came back from a port.

Last year, I took a cruise on Anthem’s sister, Spectrum of the Seas, which was designed for the Asian market.

On that ship, they removed the pub and replaced it with a Tea House, but the pub suits me much better. They’d have live music in here sometimes or trivia. 

Find out about my trip on sister ship Spectrum of the Seas here:

The service was fantastic, the pub was a great place for me to sit quietly to catch up on some work -when they weren’t showing the football, of course.

When they did that, just like any pub on land, it would be very busy. They also showed the football up by the pool, where they would normally show funny cat or dog videos. 

When I said earlier that “We Will Rock You” was two hours long, it was, but that was without any of the waiting time. We arrived about 30 minutes before, and that was about right, I think. We were able to get a pretty good seat on the side.

The show itself was fantastic and the singers and dancers were incredible. I love musicals and go to see them in London whenever I can and this was absolutely as good as the West End version.

In fact I think I prefer cruise ship musicals because theres no intervals and all the seats are included in the cruise fare. You just have to show up earlier if you want a good seat. 

After sitting down for so long we headed to the silent disco in Two70, this was more my nieces thing than the theatre.  It was popular but not too busy and we had fun dancing and listening to the music.

There were two channels, a blue and green channel and they both played an odd mix of music to be honest. Still, it got everybody up dancing and this was a great venue for that.

Silent discos are never silent. There are always people singing or sliding their feet around. Sometimes it’s more fun to just watch without the music because everybody looks so funny. 

This cruise had a great mix of people from the UK, the USA, Canada, and loads of other places.

I didn’t hear any other languages spoken apart from English, but I did get to meet a lot of people, and everybody was so friendly and interesting.

My videos are always a combination of loads of people’s experiences, so thanks for talking to me. 

Although I saw this cruise to Norway advertised for £654 ($830) per person I did end up spending a little more than that.

Royal Caribbean added on automatic gratuities/tips every day, which came in at £85, which is $107.

I added £69 ($87) for my soda package, £131 ($166) for WiFi, and £8 ($10) in the casino, bringing my total to £862 ($1092).

That price is based on two people sharing an inside cabin, and that is what I personally paid for my half of that room.

Sadly, there wasn’t a cash prize when I won trivia, but I can confirm it was Netflix trivia we won! My knowledge of “Stranger Things” “Orange is the new black” and “Bridgerton” finally came in handy!

Before You Go

Find out all about the fun-filled activities not to be missed on a Royal Caribbean ship here:

6 Adrenaline-Filled FREE Activities You Shouldn’t Miss on Royal Caribbean Cruises

Find out about the five important things I do the day before I cruise here:

5 Small But Important Things I Do The Day Before a Cruise