Review: Maiden Voyage; Anthem of the Seas, 22. of April

Thank you for a fantastic cruise!

As a couple, with a taste of modern luxury and good things in life (and fondness of technology) our first cruise simply had to be on ‘Anthem of the Seas’ on its maiden voyage. It was all in all a very positive experience, and it is not going to be our last cruise.

We highly appreciate quality, good hotels, fantastic restaurants and new things to explore during a vacation (without being snobs), so we felt that the style of cruise that Royal Caribbean provides (modern relaxed luxury) was the right selection for us.

It is therefore important for us that we also provide you with a constructive review of our experiences on-board:

The ship in general:

Astonishing breathtaking! A unique class in design and luxury to that is rare without being flashy and vulgar. This ship definitely has its on style, and the amount of thoughts put into the exterior and interior design was utterly unique.

The restaurants in details:

Intro: We’re foodies, have dined in many good restaurants, one of us with background as a Chef, so the Dynamic Dining was a big plus for us. We could carefully study the menu for each restaurant, plan accordingly and look forward to the uniqueness in each restaurant.

Windjammer (all days): A good buffet restaurant; a wide selection of food and all well prepared. Nothing fancy, but good wholesome food. The first days the selection is just fantastic, but the changes from day to day are too small and insignificant and after a week it gets kind of boring.

Suggestion: Perhaps have a slightly smaller selection, but a larger variation from day to day.

Chops (day 1): A brilliant experience; the over-the-top amounts of quality food that you perhaps expect in an American restaurant, but with a quality and focus on details that you cannot also take for granted. The waiters provided a personal and qualified service.

Suggestion: Perhaps rethink some of the courses to include a single vegetable.

Silk (day 2 - with Royal Evening Menu): An absolutely terrible evening! Waiters presented the Royal Evening Menu to us, which were a devastating letdown! I don’t “buy” the explanation that it’s what the Classic Diners have wanted – I can only see this as a way to ease the work for the kitchen, to force everyone on the simple menu. In parallel with this, waiters were quite confused and it was not possible to order wine to the dinner! - and our plates were removed while we were taking the last bite!

Suggestion: Do not make the Royal Evening Menu mandatory for Dynamic Dining, and train the waiters much better!

Chic (day 3): A modern relaxed restaurant with classic American dishes jazzed up to a more modern version; some dishes were absolutely perfect balanced. The service was light and professional and in all it was a very pleasant dining. This is one of the places to visit more than once for the relaxed modern ambience alone.

Suggestion: do not change anything :-)

Jamie’s Italian (day 4): Charming Italian-style restaurant with a Jamie-twist. Carefully selected ingredients well prepared to a very flavorful result and an impressive wine-list to match the food. Waiters had a significant understanding of the food on the menu.

Suggestion: Perhaps tone-down the burger or move it last on the menu, as it’s not really Italian food.

Silk (day 5 - with Silk menu): A quite better experience than the first day; the actual menu was honest and authentic and much better then the first time (the Banh Bao (“Vietnamese Tacos”) was perfect!). Waiters still slightly flustered, but with patience and guidance from the diners, it was manageable.

Suggestion: training of waiters, also in the Vietnamese parts of the menu of which Silk should be proud.

Wonderland (day 6): A remarkable experience! Although some of the dishes are clearly “stolen” or “borrowed” from Noma and elBulli, and other dishes was perhaps not fancy enough to be on the menu, the total dinner was absolutely brilliant. The service had a unique role in the experience and was clearly knowable about food.

Suggestion: Please update some of the heavy entrées and some of the desserts to be more imaginative and in line with the concept.

Izumi (day 7): Acceptable but not fantastic, and with some errors – starting with some of the Japanese beers was sold out. In general some of the dishes were bland and without taste while others was OK. One of their signature dishes (with lobster tempura) arrived ice-cold and soggy to the table; and it was almost impossible to tell this to the waiter (not understanding English nor understanding the menu) – however the dish was replaced with a fresh-made upon our repetitive request.

Suggestion: Ensure freshness of production line, and rethink this restaurant to be either a (US) sushi-restaurant or a modern Japanese restaurant; not this weird half-hearted combination.

The Grande (day 8): Absolutely splendid! The style is a combination of traditional luxury cruise and old-time American luxury dining. The food: perfect, the service: perfect; the overall experience: perfect! Sad for us that we only had time to visit this once…

P.S. The Lime Cheesecake was to die for ☺

Other items worth mentioning:

Michael’s Genuine pub: The service, the atmosphere and especially the cocktails are so very perfect. After having tried cocktails in almost all places, we then realized that the ones at Michael’s were simply much more detailed, better tasting and quite a higher quality (at the same price as the other cocktail places!).

Music: It’s sets the mood with music almost everywhere, but as it’s also the same homogeneous pop-music every day, it’s actually becomes a nuisance after a few days where you suddenly find yourself looking for a music-free place (and no, not even the library is a silent).

All over the ship the attention to details and design is remarkable, so why not design the music as well? Some very strong suggestions: Turn down the volume the places where people eat (give them a chance to talk), change music in corridors to relaxing and soothing, add some extra class in The Grand with classic music (not modern jazz) and have some quite-zones.

Attitude at staff: It’s warm, welcoming and positive (all except som male cooks in Windjammer’s) – it’s not an easy task to create this atmosphere in a ship/company at this size, so the success of which this was done, states some quite positive ability at RC management.

Finally:

All in all, this was our first cruise, it was our best cruise and it will not be our last cruise. Already now we have booked the next cruise “Independence Of The Seas” starting
04 Jun 2016 for a 14 Night Italian Mediterranean Cruise, of which we’re looking much forward to!

Thank you for a comprehensive review, and for taking the time to do it. Very helpful, I'm taking notes :)

Music: It’s sets the mood with music almost everywhere, but as it’s also the same homogeneous pop-music every day, it’s actually becomes a nuisance after a few days where you suddenly find yourself looking for a music-free place (and no, not even the library is a silent).

All over the ship the attention to details and design is remarkable, so why not design the music as well? Some very strong suggestions: Turn down the volume the places where people eat (give them a chance to talk), change music in corridors to relaxing and soothing, add some extra class in The Grand with classic music (not modern jazz) and have some quite-zones.

Thanks for writing this review, I'm really looking forward to our cruise now but your comments about the music being all over the ship are concerning me especially as our cruise is 14 nights long. This is not the first time it has been mentioned, in fact I have been reading reviews on Facebook and the subject keeps cropping up. I'm no fuddy-duddy but it is nice to sit and relax in some places on the ship, other than your cabin, that are either music free or where the music is not too loud.

Have any past cruisers on Anthrm or Quantum found that elusive quiet-zone yet?

Thanks

The outside / sun-decks are better, but bring earplugs and earphones just in case.

Very informative, thanks!

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Thanks a lot for your review. The Royal Evening menu is really annoying me and I hope they drop it by the time we cruise in Sep.

Can I ask, did you see any offers for the speciality restaurants? Say a discount on the first night for instance?

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Thanks a lot for your review. The Royal Evening menu is really annoying me and I hope they drop it by the time we cruise in Sep.

 

Can I ask, did you see any offers for the speciality restaurants? Say a discount on the first night for instance?

 

 

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There is an offer if you have pre-booked your speciality restaurants prior to the cruise of a discount in the form of OBC for a percentage of the amount paid, added to your account on board. It was paid in about day 3/4.

Book 3 restaurants get 20% back, 4 get 25% and 5 get 30%

We got this on the Quantum as we had pre booked 4 and got 25% of the amount we spent in £ paid in OBC in $

We are expecting to get the same on the Anthem as it is also advertised on there