Anthem live review 12/12-12/19/2015

Hi there everyone.

I'm going to try to post a live review of the anthem of the seas. Feel free to follow along and ask questions.

This is a 7 day sailing to the Bahamas.

I am traveling with my husband. We are from da burbs of Chicago. I flew into Newark yesterday and we spent the day in Manhattan.

We spent last night at the Marriott courtyard in Elizabeth, NJ. We took the free hotel shuttle to Newark and took the jersey transit and path trains to the World Trade Center and then traveled around via subway there.

Our stay at the Marriott was nice and we went to IHOP for breakfast. It's within walking distance and we had a nice long breakfast to kill some time.

There was no free or pay for service shuttle to the port so we used uber. Our driver arrived at 0936 and we were at the port at 1004 but there was traffic and it took a bit to get dropped off. Our fare was less than $25.

We are on board now waiting for our rooms to open.

I will post more soon. Here is the ship as we were driving up.

Have a great time!! If you have time and do not mind can you collect the Compasses and post them when you get a chance? Looking forward to your review

Here are today's compasses

When we got to the port it wasn't too bad.

I will say that I prefer the system they use at port Everglades. They seemed to manage the crowd better there.

When we arrived here people in blue sweaters were outside to check us in.

We quickly checked in. I uploaded photos before the cruise and they were sufficient for boarding so we didn't retake photos. I saw quite a few people taking pictures though.

Once inside we passed through security. Suites and pinnacle went through one line and sat in their own section. The rest of us when into this holding space.

At about 1030 something they started boarding suites and pinnacles. Then diamond and diamond plus. The line to board was all crazy. Probably bc the tv screen signs that everybody sees say " to the ship" with a big arrow. They should flash "now boarding suites and pinnacle and then the various c&a levels" in my opinion.

Many people walked in and tried to get on the ship as others sat and waited.

Finally it was time for emerald and platinum do it was our turn. When we walked up they didn't even. Heck our papers to verify what level we were. Anybody could have walked on.

At port Everglades you sit with your c&a level and they are vigilant about where you sit.

Oh well. Everybody gets on the ship at some point. No worries. [emoji4]

Once on board this is what we saw. Stair cases. We boarded on deck 5 right next to the aft elevators.

Here are some other papers and info for the kids. We have 6 kids so I know I'm always interested in seeing what is offered for each group even when I'm sailing without them.

General info:

Royal babies and tots info:

Adventure ocean:

Here is the info for the teens:

Enjoy your cruise and thank you for your review.

Here are today's compasses

[ATTACH]370895[/ATTACH][ATTACH]370896[/ATTACH][ATTACH]370897[/ATTACH][ATTACH]370898[/ATTACH][ATTACH]370899[/ATTACH][ATTACH]370900[/ATTACH]

Katie, These are really too small to read, except for the large titles, even when I click on the thumbnail to bring up the larger shot and zoom in on them. I even saved these to my computer's picture file and tried zooming on these there and they were still mostly unreadable.

Could the Compasses be uploaded to a free photo sharing website like photobucket.com or tinypic.com and linked to them which would provide a larger readable document.

If you can't do the photo sharing procedure I wouldn't go through the trouble of uploading any more Compasses into your posts which are great as we will be embarking on Anthem three weeks tomorrow. Thanks. :)

Below is a Compass I've linked to in my photbucket account.

We hightailed it up to the windjammer, walking up the 9 flights of stairs to get to deck 14. Let's just say that I'm not in the best shape right now. The first day of walking steps is always exhausting but by the end of the cruise we are pros at it.

We had a quick snack in the windjammer and did not find it too crowded at all.

I will report more on the windjammer later. I'm looking forward to the outside seating area. It's nice and shaded and overlooks the wake behind the ship.

The skyline looks pretty from the ship. It's crazy warm in December for New Jersey. We sure lucked out with weather today. It is however a bit hazy and you could barely make out the Empire State Building mid town.

Great information. As an FYI the way you are posting picture they are tiny and cannot read the information. Thank you, looking forward to the rest of your review

Here is a higher resolution shot of that same Cruise Compass page. Previous was a VGA resolution and this one 3MP uploaded to and linked to my photobucket account.

Whoopsie.

I have been using the photo uploaded on the cruise critic app. Apparently it doesn't work so well.

I will switch to photobucket. No problem.

I am mobile and not seeing an option to edit my posts so I will post a new reply for the larger photobucket versions.

How does this look?

Whoopsie.

 

I have been using the photo uploaded on the cruise critic app. Apparently it doesn't work so well.

 

I will switch to photobucket. No problem.

 

I am mobile and not seeing an option to edit my posts so I will post a new reply for the larger photobucket versions.

 

How does this look?

 

Looks great

thanks for trying while on your vacation

Here are some other papers and info for the kids. We have 6 kids so I know I'm always interested in seeing what is offered for each group even when I'm sailing without them.

 

General info:

[ATTACH]370907[/ATTACH]

 

Royal babies and tots info:

[ATTACH]370908[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]370909[/ATTACH]

 

Adventure ocean:

[ATTACH]370910[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]370911[/ATTACH]

Awesome review! I have one that will be traveling with us. She's 2 3/4 now, but will be 3 when we travel.

I'm hoping they she's potty trained by then, but am not sure (she's on her way though and we have 6 months to go).

My question is, does she have to be potty trained to be in Adventure Ocean, or can they just call me when she needs to be changed?

My other daughter will be 9 a week after our cruise ends.

What are the group age ranges and cut-offs?

She tends to do better with older kids and adults, so I'm hoping that she's grouped well.

I'd love to hear more about the family and kids programming!

We're the Dreamworks Characters around? Any sign of the new ones from Home?

Enjoy your vacation!

I'm looking forward how reading your review!

So I went and looked at this from a browser on my phone and not the app looks much bigger and clearer to read.

Hope this works.

Here is the rest of day 1:

Thanks for the live review! We'll be looking forward to your posts.

Royal babies and tots info:

Adventure ocean day 1:

Teen club for the week:

That's it for now. Time for sail away. Gotta be present and in the moment for that. :-D

Took this just now from the Cape Liberty webcam

We just got home after being on the Anthem for the past 12 days.

She is an amazing ship with a fantastic crew. We loved everything and will give a score of 10 to everything on the Post Cruise Survey. :):)

I hope you have a great cruise.:)

Awesome report so far!

I'll be anxiously awaiting for your updates. I'm considering this same cruise for Feb of 2017.

Hope you have a great cruise!

Thank you so much for doing this. I'm a first-time cruiser and really excited about my upcoming trip on Anthem.

Awesome review! I have one that will be traveling with us. She's 2 3/4 now, but will be 3 when we travel.

I'm hoping they she's potty trained by then, but am not sure (she's on her way though and we have 6 months to go).

My question is, does she have to be potty trained to be in Adventure Ocean, or can they just call me when she needs to be changed?

 

My other daughter will be 9 a week after our cruise ends.

What are the group age ranges and cut-offs?

She tends to do better with older kids and adults, so I'm hoping that she's grouped well.

 

I'd love to hear more about the family and kids programming!

 

We're the Dreamworks Characters around? Any sign of the new ones from Home?

 

Enjoy your vacation!

I'm looking forward how reading your review!

I will have to find out about the potty training issue for your younger daughter. I feel for you. My second daughter/kid #5 refused potty train. She was 3yrs9mo when she finally did it. What a mess! Literally. I will get back to you about unpottytrained 3 year olds.

As for your 9 year old, I think they go by age on date of sailing. There is a 3-5, 6-8 and 9-11 for the age group. When we sailed on the allure with my kids last year, they mixed the older 2 groups in one room.

I will see if I can pop into AO here one day to see how separated the age groups are.

As for dreamworks characters I will let you know I see any Home characters. I haven't seen any characters at all yet but we haven't tried to see them either since this is a kid free vacation.

We just got home after being on the Anthem for the past 12 days.

 

 

 

She is an amazing ship with a fantastic crew. We loved everything and will give a score of 10 to everything on the Post Cruise Survey. :):)

 

 

 

I hope you have a great cruise.:)

Thanks. :) That 12 day cruise sure looked nice. So far we are loving it on board. No major complaints at all. We are pretty easy to please though.

Awesome report so far!

 

 

 

I'll be anxiously awaiting for your updates. I'm considering this same cruise for Feb of 2017.

 

 

 

Hope you have a great cruise!

So far I'd totally recommend you book that cruise. :)

Thank you so much for doing this. I'm a first-time cruiser and really excited about my upcoming trip on Anthem.

You are welcome. I learned so much from cruise critic before my first cruise. I felt to much more prepared thanks to all the tips, reviews and pics on cruise critic.

I'm a little bit type A...