aiyaitsai

Just wondering about Horseshoe Bay Beach- can you use a charge card for either food or umbrella/chair rentals?

We used cash to purchase food/drinks and never rented chairs so I can't help you there.

But purchasing bus tokens / 1 or 2 day public transportation passes, you can use credit cards or cash.

Btw! If you have on-board credit like I did, just know that it will be used to deduct from the expenses you will have on your account at the end of the cruise. Which means it can pay for the on-board gratuity you will be automatically charged. We mainly used it for buying an internet package.

Just a note on sharing drink packages. You can't do that. Yes if you don't have a drink package and you give them 1 card they will charge both drinks to one card. You can purchase as many drinks as you want on one card with no drink package. If you have the drink package, the first drink is free and the rest automatically charge.

When I was going to get 2 drinks once, the guy asked if I had a drink package and if I wanted to get one at a time. Meaning buy one, come back and buy the second, charging both to one drink package.

Not buying them at the same time.

Maybe this was special treatment if you're friendly to bartenders or whatever but I'm just saying that this happened to me. And if you're not fast pace chugging drinks all day, my partner and I could share a strawberry daiquiri for a little bit and then get another one to share later.

Also, how did most people dress for formal night and for the specialty restaurants? Would Country Club Casual be out of place?

A lot of people looked like they were going to some fancy gala out in NYC for formal night. Like super fancy red carpet dresses. But not everyone participated in formal night (I didn't). I think really it's mostly for photo opportunities. Specialty restaurants had a lot of casual outfits as well.

We got a little fancier for when we went for dinner because why not dress up as much as you can on the cruise? It's a wonderful opportunity to get fancy and wear the pretty dresses or nice suits if that's what you're into~

Thanks for your review!!! We are going soon, so this is very helpful. I'm trying to decide if I should take snorkel gear or if the water will be too cold. Any advice?

So when we went the temperature was almost perfect. Like high 60s low 70s. It wasn't terribly hot outside, and on the beach with the sun out it was super comfortable. A little later into the month of May and it should warm up and climb into mid/high 70s. The water however was cold, but not cold like... Maine waters cold during the summers. There were still plenty of people swimming when we went on a 68 degree day. And it felt much warmer than a New York 68.

If you're going later into the summer months temperatures should get to 80s and waters much warmer so it shouldn't be an issue. I would definitely bring snorkel gear just in case!!

Thanks so much for this! We sail 26 May and this helps tremendously as far as planning goes!

Yay glad it helped! Hope you have a wonderful time :)

Do you have a copy of the cruise compass? Going in July and would love to see a recent one :)

Thanks!

Sorry we didn't keep any! They'll print a full schedule each day for you and leave it in your cabin the night before so you always know whats happening the next day.

Hope that all helped! If I have any additional thoughts I'll post them in this thread as well :)

Feel free to ask questions!

BERMUDA

Transportation

You have several options. For $20something dollars you can get a 2 day pass to public transportation including ferry and buses. You can also purchase a 1 day pass for $17. Alternatively you can pay for a taxi cab, which will be overpriced no matter what because welcome to tourist town. A family of 5 said they got a cab from Hamilton back to the Dockyard for $55. But you could catch a ferry for $5 a person or a shared minivan for $7 a person. There is just an element of waiting to public transportation that might not be worth it.

Public transportation seems to be the best option only if you want to go to multiple destinations in a day. If you’re only going to one destination and back, I’d do minivan. Like Day 1 of Bermuda, we had a bunch of things we wanted to do near the town of Hamilton so we took a ferry there and then just took buses the rest of the day to get to different places. You can also take a bus all the way back to the Dockyard from Hamilton but it takes a bit longer than the ferry.

Below are the things we had time for and really really enjoyed.

Admiralty House Park

We went here first thing and it was a beautiful place to explore. Really cool caves to walk around in. Cliffs to climb. And as people have mentioned in Tripadvisor, its a place to go cliff diving. However we were there really early in the morning and the water seemed just a bit too low to be able to reach the natural stone steps safely without cutting yourself on sharp rocks.

Just uh, be aware that this might also be where locals purchase drugs because we met what we were pretty sure to be a local drug dealer in one of the parking lots asking us if we were “uh, interested in anything else?” He mentioned with a chuckle, that Admiralty House Park was a place where locals wanted to go alone for privacy. Our conversation was cut short when another local with a missing nose and bandages across his face drove in and the supposed drug dealer mumbles, "look a this guy, snort so much he lost his nose..." and then proceeded to converse with him for a bit. I assume a transaction occurred between them but we didn't stick around to find out.

Otherrrrrr than that. A+ park. We might’ve just been there too early for tourists to populate the area and get it to be the family friendly place it could be haha. But there were definitely a couple of other people around at the time, hiking and walking dogs and stuff.

Crystal & Fantasy Caves

I didn’t personally go, because my partner and I had booked massages at the Grotto Bay Spa just around the corner from the Crystal Caves. The other members in our party went. The big concern was the 81 steps you’d have to climb to get into each cave. Various members of our 60+ age group had a bad back or bad knee but they said they had no trouble climbing the steps. In fact they were tiny steps, and it was nothing at all. The caves were very pretty, but it was also packed when we got there around 3pm so I think the tours were moving really quickly to be able to get everyone in. Maybe go early so that you can get more solo photo shoot opportunities.

Please note they close at 4pm.

Grotto Bay Spa

As a splurge for myself on my birthday, we booked a couples massage at the Grotto Bay Spa where you get massaged in a cave much like the Crystal & Fantasy Caves. For $300 (including gratuity), we got an hour long couples swedish massage ($150/person) IN A CAVE. We were told to get there early just in case traffic was bad or we got lost and ended up getting there almost 2 hours early. Which… gave us time to explore the resort ;) If you do this, remember to bring a bathing suit.

And oh man what an awesome time we had there. Cathedral Caves is on the premises, which is supposedly a public park? It looks similar to the Fantasy Cave, but it has waters you can SWIM IN. We went and took a dip in some freezing cold rain water, fresh from the previous night’s thunderstorm. It was really cool but also a bit spooky.

Then we went to the beach attached to the resort just as the sun came out and swam in sparkling blue waters. It was so aawwweeesome. We also borrowed some resort towels to dry off, then went to our massages. We had sand on our feet when we arrived so they told us to sit on the edge of the floating massage room, and wash off the sand in the waters there. Then we had a very calming hour long massage and went back to meet our party by the crystal caves.

Horseshoe Bay Beach / Jobson’s Cove Beach

On our second day we went to Horseshoe Bay Beach. You can take a bus, which will be REALLY packed and you might have to wait for it. This will drop you off at the top of the hill. Or you can take a shuttle / minivan for $7 a person and it will take you to the bottom of the hill. We took a bus on our way there. And a minivan back because we weren’t sure of the bus schedules and didn’t want to walk all the way back up the hill. If I were to do it again, I’d do minivan both ways.

The two are attached to each other and are walking distance. Seems kinda silly to name them two separate things but whatever. Horseshoe bay is a beautiful pink sand beach (lightly pink). The expanse is beautiful, water looked nice, we did not get to swim in it. Instead we spent the entire time exploring and snorkeling over by Jobson’s Cove.

If you bring snorkel gear, you can swim out by the rocks and see beautiful multicolored fish. There were at least 3 big parrot fish there and they were really amazing to see in action. There’s also a little secret sand hill to the right side of the beach you can climb and reach the top of the cliff. If you bring shoes you might be able to explore some of the paths better but even just getting to the top of the sandhill thing gets you this awesome view. Climbing paths seemed to be available on both sides of the cliffs though.

There’s also a fast food place right by the entrance of the beach and they serve a really tasty fish & chips so don’t worry about going hungry.

SHOPPING

If you're interested in shopping, and you're from big cities, just remember that island stores close early. Like... 5pm-6pm early?

ACTIVITIES

iFly 10/10

MUST DO. This was the whole reason I chose the ship. If you make the reservation on board it was a free activity but you only got to be in the tunnel for a minute. Check out the cruise planner to see if you can still book like a longer time frame like you could on the FlowRider because I would so do it now. Don’t wait as reservations are likely going to be booked after the first few hours on the first day.

If you couldn't get a reservation by the end of the first day, another guest on this forum said they checked the compass every day to see if anyone cancelled their reservations and they were able to get in that way. But like … the Royal IQ app sucks and I don’t want to be constantly walking to the iPads they have on the ship to check for open reservations all day. So best to do it before hand if you can!

NorthStar

Not a thrilling activity but still cool to do. Takes like 20 minutes. Best to do this when you’re still in a port. Either when you’re still near NY or in Bermuda because they’ll have binoculars for you to be able to get a closer look. Pretty useless if you’re just gonna get endless expanse of ocean. Those times also book up realllly fast so get on it ASAP if you’re interested.

Rollerskating, Bumper Cars, Basketball

All of these activities happen in the same floor (SeaPlex), just at different times. During bumper cars, they pull out safety rails. For basketball they put up nets. Just check your compass to find out what’s happening when. There’re also ping pong tables, air hockey and foosball on the floor above the SeaPlex.

RockClimbing

Also rock climbing is located outdoors next to the SeaPlex. It should be available every day but if its super windy out, they won’t be operating. Lines aren't long and it was fun to try. If you can get to the top really fast they even encourage you to go again immediately :)

Arcade

Pretty disappointing arcade with a sad prize machine. You can win tickets and in the middle of the arcade there’s a machine that you can exchange the points for cheap plastic trinkets. Maybe one expensive thing in there as a prize, and I'm sure it's for a ton of tickets. Also if you purchase Arcade credits before the trip, you have to get the arcade card on your first day at a specified location. Using your Seapass card will charge the credit card you have on file.

ENTERTAINMENT

Spectra’s Cabaret6.5/10

This show seemed all over the place and the narrative was a bit confusing. There were some moments where I cringed at the production quality or cultural references. Also the sound system was really off. The Harmony sisters seemed to have unbalanced mics because when one of the performers hit a high note I needed to cover my ears. The sound was piercing. But they have really cool trapeze performers and awesome dancers. It was just unfortunate that the sound system ruined the vocal performances for me. Best seats are either front row where the performers would interact with you. OR visually, in the middle platform where the seats are facing the glass fence. Here you can see the entire stage and all the performers without straining your neck.

We Will Rock You 9/10

A really great show with some funny jokes. The story itself was a lot clearer and easier to follow in this production. The vocal performances were awesome, sound system here was much better. And who doesn’t love hearing live performances of classics like We Will Rock You or Bohemian Rhapsody? Definitely catch it if you are interested in musicals. And stick around after the performers take their bows because that’s when they do the Bohemian Rhapsody.

Music Hall

I didn’t really hang out in the music hall much but other members of my party did and they really enjoyed it. Since they didn’t really want to do any of the more physically straining activities, they enjoyed just sitting around, chatting and listening to live bands. There are two pool tables on the upper floor of the Music Hall!

DINING

We purchased the BOGO meals prior to boarding the ship and we chose Wonderland and Jamie’s Italian. I think Chops might’ve been a better choice over Jamie’s but unfortunately we had two people in our group that didn’t eat beef so that wouldn’t have worked for them.

Service is generally wonderful all around so I will only be commenting on the actual food.

1) Wonderland 7/10

Summary: Worthwhile if you can get the BOGO deal. Less so for full price. It is definitely a fun experience for everyone and you’ll get a nice photo or video of the meal to show your friends.

If you’re a serious foodie, you might find Wonderland to be a bit of a disappointment. If you’re like my mom and her friends who judge food more on presentation (thinking food served in tiny spoons immediately equals really expensive/high quality food), then you’re going to have an amazing time. In terms of flavor, the dishes were 50/50. The more gimmicky it is, the less tasty. The dishes that were less dressed up were actually very good. My favorites were the tuna? tartare topped with a lime ice, served with cheesy potato slice. The beef and the pork belly in the main course were very tender. The fish with the ginger sauce was also really delicious.

2) Jamie’s Italian 5.5/10

Summary: Mediocre. We ordered for a group of 5 and a number of main course dishes came out lukewarm. But I think they did a good job in making sure the pasta wasn’t overcooked. Highlights of the meal however were the mushroom pasta + lamb chops.

I thought a lot of the dishes were a bit lackluster. Being an Italian restaurant, you would think balsamic vinegar would be on at least a couple of dishes. But none of the classics like, caprese or bruschetta had a drop of balsamic vinegar. Which resulted in kinda bland plates. Their tiramisu was also pretty terrible. I saw several tables being cleaned up with tiramisus fully intact which is a bad sign. The best things here were prosciutto with cantaloupe appetizer, lamb chops for main course, and for dessert the table really enjoyed lemon cheesecake and raspberry sorbet. Wonderfully light flavors to end a heavy carb-tastic meal.

3) My Time Dining 6/10

Summary: Limited choices, decent food. Really friendly waitstaff. Nice to try for a day or two.

We went to My Time Dining on the last day so there were a bunch of festivities and dancing and thanking the wait staff. Other guests seemed to have eaten at MTD every single day and built a rapport with servers. I think overall the food was decent. Nothing to really complain about but also nothing spectacular. I do think their menu prices were a bit strange. Lobster tail is complimentary on their main menu. For $15 you can get a Chops Grille Steak. But to get a steak + lobster tail its $35? It seems a bit steep. I can understand $25, but I remember the pricing to not really make sense.

Steak was very well cooked and tender which makes me sad we didn’t get to actually try Chops Grille with our BOGO package. And the molten lava cake for dessert was exactly what I was hoping for.

4) Windjammer 8/10

Summary: A+ cruise buffet.

Considering that it is complimentary with your cruise, Windjammer food was awesome. We didn’t really actually eat there for lunch any of the days, but the breakfast was great with many options and dinner was also delicious. They had a lot of international food, each night featuring a different region (Asia, Caribbean, India, etc), and some of those dishes really tasted homemade. It was comforting to know that you can find some classic American food but also serving other cuisines that I know some of the older immigrants onboard the ship would be able to enjoy.

5) Johnny Rockets 9/10

Summary: Subsidized pricing, freshly made burgers.

I forget but I’m pretty sure it was like $2 for all their burgers and definitely $1.50 fries and onion rings. Similar pricing on milkshakes and whatnot. I would rather pay $2 for a freshly made burger than the pre-cooked stuff sitting out in the Windjammer buffet. Also the onion rings were bomb.

6) Seaplex Dog House 5/10

Good choice of hot dogs but why did they not have sweet relish on hand? You can find a ton of relish packets in the Windjammer but the actual section serving only hotdogs didn’t have relish? They had bratwurst, mustard and ketchup. No relish. They should really fix that. I ended up keeping a couple of relish packets from the Windjammer in my pocket just in case...

7) Solarium Bistro n/a

We never ate dinner at the Bistro because the menu didn’t really interest me but during breakfast/brunch it looks like a smaller version of the Windjammer buffet with less crowds. What I did use it for was plates of fruit and ice water during the day when I want to go sunbathing in the Solarium. Nothing like slices of cold watermelon as you kick back and soak up some sun :) If you do want dinner here it does seem like you would need reservations.

ADDITIONAL PACKAGES

Internet

We ended up needing some basic internet so that we could communicate with other members of our group. The cheaper package worked great for iMessage, Google Chat, WeChat and some pretty hefty mobile games (even though there were just a tad laggy). It was $13/day per device if you buy it for 3 mobile devices once you’re on the ship. So if you have a big group that will split off and do their own thing, really think about buying it ahead of time and maybe snag a deal with the drink package.

Drink Packages

None of us in our group really drink a ton. But even so, it might’ve been nice to get 1 drink package. Sometimes the bartenders seemed to not mind like charging two drinks to one drink package as long as you leave and come back to order a second time lol. So as long as you don’t abuse it, you might be able to get away with splitting it with someone else. We paid for things like fresh squeezed orange juice in the morning ($5) or the occasional beer or cocktail.

Also on the last day of our cruise they were selling these blended drinks in a pineapple, next to the outdoor pool bar. THIS WAS DELICIOUS. Go get it. It was like a whole bunch of tropical fruit blended with ice served in a pineapple. $12 for an alcoholic version, $9 if you have drink package or $9 for a mocktail. It is well worth the price either way.

Shore Excursions

I often feel shore excursions are a waste of money. To pay $50 for someone to shuttle you somewhere or for a tour of the island that any taxi cab driver can give you tourism is a huge part of their industry. We went to the most amazing places on the island for like a $5 bus ticket. Or a $7 shared cab ride. Just do some research on TripAdvisor on where to go and you should be golden.

RESERVATIONS

The worst thing about the Anthem is the reservations. You need a reservation for the cool activities, like 80% of the dining, and all the shows. And making reservations just isn’t relaxing. I didn’t book anything except for BOGO meals & production shows ahead of time so I had to show up pretty early to get us all set. We were set to leave the port at 4:00pm. My online check in time was 12:30pm. And I got there at 10am. Even though I was able to get all the reservations I’d wanted, prime slots were often taken by then and sometimes things got booked as I was making reservations so I couldn't get my full group in at the same time. Here’s how it went down for us.

BOGO Meals

If you can get this deal buy it because it's worth it. Otherwise specialty restaurants included in the BOGO deal range from around $35-$45 a person. We got BOGO meals with some early onboard credit so it turned out to be like $15 a person? If you don’t purchase it ahead of time, they have deals once you’re on the ship like buy two full price meals and get a third free.

We had an extra person join our party pretty late in the game, and this completely threw all our reservations off whack. We ended up having to move a pretty perfect 7:30pm reservation to 5:30pm. BUT. It actually turned out to be a great thing. Specialty dining for our group of 5 took like 1-2 hours minimum. And we were always overstuffed at the end of it (is there even such a thing as not overeating on a cruise?). Which gave us time to digest and walk around afterwards before going to bed.

iFly

I don’t remember clearly but I thought iFly reservations online cost money. Maybe that was for like a private 1hr lesson or something (which I would now gladly pay $100 for), but to book an iFly experience onboard the ship was free. However you do need to get there early and book as soon as you get on board the ship. We rushed to two70 which was where they were making all the reservations for guests the moment we got onboard and were able to get reservations for iFly and the NorthStar.

Entertainment

This seemed more important for shows in the two70 lounge than the Royal Theater. The entrances were actually blocked off and they were scanning people’s badges for the Spectre show versus Royal theater were I just… casually walked in.

My Time Dining

Immediately after making the reservations and updates to the above items, we went to the 3rd floor to make reservations for My Time Dining, which is also complimentary but instead of buffet style, you order from a menu.

Solarium Bistro

A think I noticed, you don't seem to need a reservation during the day but for dinner you would.

A Chair in the Solarium

So... it's not really a "reservation" but. People seemed to just throw their stuff on a chair to reserve it for the day. You must have to get to the Solarium relatively early to nab the best chairs because whenever we went, it was 99% taken. It was like trying to find a parking spot in NYC. But if you do find 2 open chairs relatively near each other, you can kindly ask people if you can move chairs around so that you and your partner could sit together. If chairs have stuff on them but are unattended, we were able to just move the entire chair with stuff over and the empty chairs together.

Final Thought: On our final day, we had a show booked for 6pm (We Will Rock You). It was the only day on our cruise when were on the boat + the skies were clear. That meant we ended up missing the only sunset we could’ve seen on the boat. That musical would go on again pretty late into the night so, take it into consideration when you’re making your own reservations!

*Additional activities like roller skating, bumper cars or rock wall climbing did not require reservations and the lines all moved relatively quick for these activities. Bumper cars probably being the biggest line.

Hey everyone! Below will be my review for Anthem of the Seas 5 day cruise to Bermuda. This is my 2nd time on a cruise, but my 1st time sailing with Royal Caribbean. I organized the trip for 5 people in 2 rooms. We are a couple in our 20s-30s. The other people in our group were in their 50s-60s. We both enjoyed our time on the boat and in Bermuda! Being that the ship is family friendly, us youngins had the sporty activities to do and the more senior members of our group were able to enjoy shopping on the boat, hot tubs, live music and beautiful ship decor to take lots of photos in front of.

Our room was 13270 - midship with balcony. Technically it was supposed to be unobstructed views, but there's an overhang from the deck above us that blocked out the sky/sun. So that's unfortunate unless you do want some kind of awning to prevent the sun from directly hitting your deck.

We had a bumpy experience with some things like luggage or liquor purchases going to the wrong place but other than that, we had a wonderful time and would gladly sail RCI again. Having done a budget cruise once before (Carnival), I would gladly spend the extra money for the quality of ship, activity, food, and room for our next cruise.

Some quick things I learnt:

- If you purchase liquor on the last day, you don't have to wait for them to deliver it to your room (and risk them possibly delivering it to the wrong room resulting in you waiting in the guest services line to retrieve your purchase).

- $14.50 gratuity fee charged on your card daily, and all drink or food purchases made on the boat have an automatic 18% service charge added to them. That all adds up to quite a bit by the end of the cruise - so we just ended up not really tipping anyone anything since it was all figured out before the receipt even gets to us.

- Lots of reservations required to do the cool things on board so... be prepared to wait in lines or get to places early to grab good seats.

- Johnny Rockets menu is subsidized, super cheap and delicious. Way better than the free burger in the Windjammer. (I think its like $2 a burger? $1.50 for onion rings/fries.)

- Shopping closed down on the full day we were at our destination (Day 3, first day arriving in Bermuda). Which was unfortunate because I saw a couple of things I wanted to buy. Then by Day 4, all the nice clothes were swapped out for tacky discount t-shirts??? Seemed like a mistake to me but I guess there were a lot of people swarming the t shirt piles.

Will continue with more indepth reviews in next post.

Anthem of the Seas Apr 28 - May 3

We ended up purchasing internet so that we could communicate with members in our party. We didn't get the streaming version and it was fine for things like iMessages, Google hangouts, WeChat (voice messages), emails, send photos (a bit slowly but still fine), and play some mobile phone games that required internet. Facebook videos loaded slowly but you could still watch cute dog clips that pop up on your feed. Could not stream Spotify though so if you use it, remember to download music ahead of time.

We were on the 13th floor of Anthem of the Seas (room 270) and even though we were told we wouldn't have obstructed views, the deck above us overhangs the balcony so it felt a little bit like we had an awning. Unfortunately (or fortunately) blocked the sun from reaching us when we sat out there.

If you want sun and completely unobstructed views, probably floors 9-11 would be great. Floor 12 you might still get some of the structure holding up the top deck.

Welcome to cruise critic

 

While I-fly does tend to book up they only allow a certain % of slots to be pre-reserved. Get to the port early for embarkation. As soon as you board ask where activities signup is. And no, bumper cars don't require reservations.

Ah thank you so much for the information!

We picked the earliest check in appointment so hopefully it'll work out. :)

This is getting really specific but - our check in time was chosen when I did the early online check in. Is there an even earlier time to get there? Boat leaves at 4pm and the appointment was for 12.

Thanks for the awesome reviews! Do you know if you can use Royal IQ app without buying the internet package?

EDIT: NEVERMIND. Just downloaded and opened the app and it says it right there that it does work without internet. Carry on~

On the note of all the reservations and stuff required for Anthem.

I booked a cruise on Anthem in November, to be sailing out at the end of April.

I picked it because of the iFly and activities like it. I couldn't find a way to reserve anything back then, and now I call them to try to reserve on the phone and I'm told it's all booked which makes me really sad and pissed.

Is there a golden window of booking things like this?? November was so far away and if it wasn't on the cruise planner does that just mean it was booked then too? Super annoying.

Do I need to make a reservation for bumper cars too??? It seems silly that there isn't a section of reservations held off for when people are actually on the ship.