Anthem of the Seas
Heralded by Royal Caribbean as the most technologically advanced cruise ship at sea… ever. That claim is true as far, as it goes (in fact we spent some time seeing just what Anthem had to offer technophobes – you can see our findings here) but there’s a lot more to Anthem of the Seas than just her technology. In fact there’s so much to see and do that even if you spent a month on-board we’re betting you wouldn’t see everything!
There’s restaurants, bars and entertainment galore on-board but perhaps one of our favourite features on the shop was the artwork.
Different doesn’t even come close to it! Although very (dare we say it) ‘funky’, none of the artwork ever felt ‘in your face’. Although unusual it did a really good job of blending into the background at the same time.
Not convinced? Below is some of our favourite pieces from on-board…
1. Pulse Spiral
Pulse Spiral is an interactive chandelier by Rafael Lozano Flemmer and consists of two hundred light bulbs. Place your hands on the pedestal underneath and within two seconds the chandelier will begin to pulse in time with your heartbeat. Once you remove your hands your heart recording will be transferred to the lowest bulb, rising through each bulb as someone new uses the display. It’s nice to think your heartbeat will stay on Anthem long after you’ve left (although obviously it’d be nicer if you were allowed to stay forever!)
2. Inspirational Art
Anthem of the Seas is full (and we do mean full) of inspirational quotes and slogans like the below. However as uplifting and motivational as we found them we can’t help but feel artwork saying things like “are you sure you need that third burger from the Windjammer” or “really? ANOTHER cocktail?” may have been more useful for our waist line!
3. A Giant Trumpet
Located on deck five you’ll find this giant trumpet sculpture surrounded by several of Anthems bars and restaurants. We don’t have much more to say in all honesty….It’s a giant trumpet. (Well we did say some of the artwork was whacky!)
4. Anthems Lift Art
Not for Royal Caribbean the cliched mirrored interior for their lifts (or elevators – It is an American ship after all!), not even the burnished steel that some more modern, fancy ships have experimented with.
No!
For Royal Caribbean nothing but animals in makeup, top hats and sunglasses would do!
You’ll find these in all the lifts on-board – Make sure you get a picture of each one to complete the set!
5. Doughnuts On The Wall
They’re not real donuts (we checked) and we’re not sure why some of them are shaped like Mickey Mouse but they did make a nice change to the inspirational quotes. Although technically they did inspire us to go get a doughnut so that might qualify them as inspirational art again…
What do you think?
6. A Crashed V.W Camper-van
We’re assuming someone didn’t really crash a camper-van on the fifteenth floor (although you never know!)
Found just up from the Seaplex what’s clever about this is that if you head inside to the Doghouse at the top end of the Seaplex you’ll find the back end of the camper’van sticking out; just don’t try to drive it off!
7. A Statue Outside 270
You can find these two just outside of the 270 theatre and we’re not quite sure what to say expect we’re not sure which of them looks the most uncomfortable!
8. Don’t Look Down
Don’y worry, if you don’t have a head for heights you can skip this bit and take an alternate route but for the brave amongst you the very top set of stairs on Anthem of the Seas gives you a great view of all the way doooooooooooooown!
9. Inspirational Light switches
Would you know what to do with these?
Some of them light up when you switch them, others are just dummies. Find all the correct ones, switch them on and this happens…
(Believe, Love, Live, Dream, Inspire in case you cant make it out)
10. Geolithic Mobile
Located at the top of the stairs just up from the Grande restaurant this display of semi precious stones was really beautiful (although we wouldn’t want to be underneath if any of them ever fell!)
11. Ummm…
Nope, we’re not sure what to say about this one either – It’s art, we know that because Royal Caribbean told us so but we can’t claim it was our favourite piece on-board! Does anyone else know what this is meant to be? We’re stumped…
12. Stairwell Art
Many cruise lines use the stairwells on their ships to display some beautiful art pieces (those of you taking the lifts everywhere have been missing out!) but again Royal Caribbean decided to go one better and go all out on their stairwell art. We wont spoil it by showing you everything here but this one caught our eye by being really unusual (by normal cruise ships standards anyway; it’s not that unusual for Anthem of the Seas!)
13. Whoops! It Wasn’t Us (Honest)
Clearly someone at Royal Caribbean HQ has a sense of humour! Located at Seaplex this looks ultra realistic, especially if there’s a basket ball game going on at the time! Make sure you get a picture when you’re on-board so you can ‘claim the credit’!
14. Gigi the Giraffe
No collection of Anthem of the Seas’s artwork would be complete without us giving pride of place to Gigi, the giraffe mascot of Anthem. At over thirty feet high this has to be the biggest piece of art on-board and we’re sure will also very quickly become one of the most photographed giraffes on the planet!
Anthem of the Seas is a huge ship so we’re sure we’ve missed something (apologies to any of the artists whose work we haven’t included here).
Have you been on Anthem? Seen anything unusual? Make sure you post your pictures in the comments below…
Not been on Anthem yet? What do you think of the artwork? Let us know below as well…
