An Anthem for Southampton?

Exciting new rumours have come to light that suggest Southampton might be getting a brand new cruise ship – the Anthem of the Seas.

The Anthem will be second ship in the Quantum Class for Royal Caribbean International, with a whole host of intriguing features – and they’re only the ones we know about so far. We know she will have on-board dodgems, a sky diving experience on deck, a viewing pod that can extend out to sea and more.

The rumours stem from the port calls that have so far been revealed. Once the ship starts sailing in 2015 it has port calls in April, May, August and October in Le Havre, Bilbao and Zeebrugge – identical itineraries to those that will be offered in 2014 on the Independence of the Seas which currently sails from Southampton.

The fact that those ports have been confirmed suggests that the ship can’t travel too far in between May and August, so it does strongly imply that the ship is going to be based in the region, and it makes sense for a new ship to be sailing from Southampton – it’s a popular port and the enthusiasm that something new would generate would make for strong sales.

The rumours then suggest that the Independence of the Seas might move to Barcelona to replace another ship, and that the Serenade of the Seas, a Radiance Class ship, might replace the Legend of the Seas which is a smaller Vision Class ship, currently sailing from various ports around Europe.

Of course this is all just conjecture for now while we wait on further details, and a quote from the cruise line simply says “We have not yet confirmed Anthem of the Seas’ deployment”, so it could all be that one false bit of information has sparked this domino effect of rumour. However we can cross our fingers and as soon as we’ve any concrete information, you’ll know.

By Ian Lewis
Google