sdmike

Anthem is a very different sailing experience. It doesn't matter if you are true to Royal, this class ship requires reservations in advance which may "put" some cruisers off.

 

If you want to just book a cruise and pick a dining time, the Anthem is not for you. A lot of planning goes into it.

 

It's different and we loved it!:)

Well said. I came from a very different perspective and expectation, hence my post. At least people can see what they're getting into.

We are sailing on Thursday on the Anthem, a group of 15, and I understand the frustration of the OP even before we board. I checked online religiously for reservations of all types to open up. I was actually able to book two tables for dinner in free restaurants for every night of the cruise, and also for the three shows that need reservations. The first issue we had was with RCL changing the dates and times of two of the shows, which caused conflicts with our dinner reservations. I tried to adjust online and in a call to customer service, but was told 1) There were no reservations available for the new times needed, and 2) even though I had booked all the people in our group, each individual person (cabin) had to call to cancel. That wasn't going to work,but luckily, a fellow CCer on here provided an email address to ask for assistance. They were able to adjust our reservations for us, but, I am sure mist people, without the benefit of CC, would have been out of luck.

We also were unable to book any activities, which is disappointing, especially to the youngsters in our group.

Sorry for the long post; I just think the way RCL does things is exhausting and way too much work!

 

 

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The same thing happened to us. I successfully booked all of the shows for our group, and a week out they were all changed, which conflicted with other things we had planned. We lost out on the iFly due to one of the changes and were never able to get a new slot. By "we" i'm talking about any...not the 10 of us. :) My brother was able to get us a reservation on the North Star for the 8th day, but it wasn't easy. He had to talk to a supervisor in guest services after a show was scheduled over it. I agree 100%. There was way, way too much planning required for this ship versus others I've sailed on. I think it's a combination of the NUMBER of things you can do, the limited availability of each, their "needs work" approach to dining, and the horrible IQ app. :)

As to dinners, I'm curious why you didn't make reservations ahead of time, especially with such a large group. I don't blame you for getting tired of the Windjammer. It becomes redundant rather quickly.

For a couple of reasons, actually. First, we never know when and where we want to eat. I'd hate to be involved in something and then have to leave because it was dinner time. This is especially true of our larger group. There are some nights when a few of us want to eat while others had a big lunch somewhere else. The point being, we chose this dining method for the flexibility that quite frankly didn't exist. Second, we ASSUMED (yes, I know) that this worked like NCL freestyle that we were more familiar with. We were not aware that walk-ups would be turned away instead of being asked to wait for an available table.

Did anyone who was refused reservations at a free venue threaten to remove auto-tips? Unfortunately, I think that is the one thing they would listen to. If they told me I had to eat at WJ because there was no room at the free venues, that is what I would do.

Unfortunately, that punishes the staff which were all great and doing an outstanding job. I figured my best bet was to notify NCL of my displeasure both on and off the ship. If enough people speak up, maybe something changes.

We are finishing up the same sailing with you and I actually completely understand everything you are talking about.

 

We love Royal. We are diamond members and we're excited about this new class of ship. We actually loved everything about our trip and feel that the ship is gorgeous. New venues like Music Hall and Two70 are awesome! Staff was great.

 

Royal blows NCL away with their pools. NCL pools are small and lackluster. Sure slides are fun but I want to chill in a pool all day, and Royal has got them beat in this area. Especially the Solarium. Heaven.

 

Sorry..chopped up your post a bit to respond.

What an adventure, right? I'm not sure anyone mentioned yet (I just got back on after the trip) that we arrived in NYC 6 hours early because there was another medical emergency at sea and the captain wanted to get the pax back to NY ASAP. There were also some broken bones at the flowrider. I wonder if this ship is jinxed. A friend of ours did the transatlantic and said there was a fire on board during their trip. Oye!

I agree with the pools. Having the large outside pool, the large indoor pool and the solarium is awesome. My kids preferred the slides, but chilling in the solarium was my thing for sure. :) Like I said, it's a beautiful ship with a ton going for it. I posted because people should be aware of some things that can be improved so they can prepare/address them in advance. Happy sailing!

My husband and teens did the Labadee waverunner (or kayak?) excursion 5 or 6 years ago on Labadee. They also had vendors come out on kayaks. My husband was ready for them by saying, 'sorry I didn't bring money', but of course they offered to let him pay when he got back. He just said no thank you.

 

I don't think they will stop doing this anytime soon. I can see why you were upset. Most people will just say 'no'. It is still annoying, especially if you are unprepared for it.

Most of us said no for sure, but they clearly (likely without realizing it) took advantage of someone unable to deal with the situation logically and emotionally. That's what is irritating me the most.

Back when Quantum debuted I remember someone doing the math and calculating that the four free restaurants could hold about 1730 diners per seating. So unlike every other ship I've ever been on, they can't feed everyone in two seatings. Allowing for specialties, they probably need 2 1/2 turns.

 

Was on the 6/16 nine day sailing with 6:30 pre-booked reservations every night and was amazed how all four restaurants were always mobbed at 6:30, but less than 1/2 full by 7pm. Not much busier when we'd leave around 7:45. Despite this, we were constantly told that all time slots were completely booked each night.

 

Believe there are significant issues with the dining reservation system.

 

Much of this is due to Royal programming it to believe that dinner takes two hours. It doesn't. We were always done in a little over an hour including dessert and coffee. Because it uses 2 hour dining slots the system thinks the restaurants are much fuller than they actually are. This is somewhat ameliorated by space being absorbed by walk-ups.

 

Another issue is that while they need almost three seatings to feed everyone, a large % of each restaurant is dedicated to dynamic dining classic which only has two seatings. Once the early seating finishes those tables all sit empty for an hour or more until late seating.

 

Also, when you change a reservation the system doesn't always delete the old reservation when adding the new one. This double booking gives the appearance that restaurants are more fully booked than they actually are.

 

We did see them making progress turning tables faster. Dedicated teams really hustled to clear and reset tables in only 2-3 minutes. Also, while we did observe more folks than usual dining in the Windjammer, doubt the facility was more than 10% full. And they did attempt to vary the menu through several theme nights.

 

Contrary to what others said, the Grand was the most crowded venue we visited. Our party of four ate there three times and always had a 5-10 minute wait.

I think there's some real truth to what you are saying. Some of us were able to get into Silk when they opened (4 out of our group), and when we left there were empty tables everywhere. Our service was about 70 minutes, and if they reserved for 2 hours it would explain the openings.

The Labadee thing IS way out of hand. The vendor area doesn't bother me- that is easily avoided and I always just ignore the salespeople.

 

But some of the employees there are locals- and I'm betting your wave runner guide set that up on purpose, with or without the knowledge of the cruise line. What happened to your son is disgusting and deplorable. I'd be furious if I were you, too.

 

Our guide was from the Czech Republic, and he was actually put off by the vendors in kayaks as well, but told us that he "had to do this" and apologized. That, and the fact that RCI has people collecting money back at the wave runner dock for "purchases" made while on the water, tells me this is 100% intentional by RCI. Hence my frustration.

The Labadee thing IS way out of hand. The vendor area doesn't bother me- that is easily avoided and I always just ignore the salespeople.

 

But some of the employees there are locals- and I'm betting your wave runner guide set that up on purpose, with or without the knowledge of the cruise line. What happened to your son is disgusting and deplorable. I'd be furious if I were you, too.

 

It's hard, because those locals are so poor, and on the one hand I feel terrible for them- they are desperate to make a buck. On the other hand, on our last cruise at Labadee my cell phone was stolen (out of my backpack) and only returned to me when I offered a $200 reward to the band that was playing near our lounge chairs. Funny, one of them "found" it moments later. Extremely frustrating. RCI's response? They said the theft likely was committed by a fellow passenger. Sigh.

 

We will not book another cruise featuring Labadee, most likely.

 

On our first RCI cruise my husband was totally irritated by the 'sell-sell-sell' in the promenade area- and they have one employee whose job it is just to jam sales fliers in your hands- just like in NYC! That and tables stacked with cheap t-shirts and tacky watches: it really does cheapen the atmosphere.

Dang, I'd be angry too about that cell phone situation. I think the whole Labadee experience needs to be re-evaluated by RCI. Seems to have gotten a bit out of hand.

Royal has the cheap sales on every ship. There is a demand for them (why I don't know), as evident by the crowds. They are something easy to avoid and shouldn't impact your cruise. Just don't go to deck 4 or 5 when they have them.

quite difficult to do when so many other things are on those decks, but yeah, I try to avoid them as much as possible.

My point was really that they should spend less space and time on selling us stuff and more time making sure pax spending $5k+ per room are happy.

There are no reservations for the bumper cars.

Yep. Bumper cars are a bright spot. Lots of fun, lots of available times, and reasonable lines

What you are reporting from "the woman in reservations" would mean that 4,000 people per night night can be accommodated in the complimentary restaurants, since there are four of them. Passenger capacity of the Anthem is 4,180 double/4,905 max berths. Considering Coastal Kitchen and all of the for-fee restaurants, and the size of the Windjammer, you should not have encountered the wall of "no" that you did. I am sincerely puzzled.

 

I never had any problem, and I didn't talk to people on my cruises who had this problem. Some difficulties? Yes, but far from what you are describing. I wonder if there was something unusual about the passenger load or demographics on your particular cruise?

Good question. I just learned at Guest Services that there are 4800 people on the ship, so while not totally full, it's pretty darned close. I don't know what, if anything, is unusual about the demographics that might be causing the issue. Maybe few are interested in "formal" dining in the Grande, which removes a bunch of tables from the pool. The phone reservation system might be at fault too, since the recording asks that you pick a restaurant to call as opposed to having a general reservations clerk that can look across options. Maybe the woman answering the phone for Silk can look at other restaurants (which it appears is true since she told me that nothing was available anywhere). We actually got a table for 5 in the Solarium last night, but we walked up at 8:30 (due to a late show) and had to wait for 20 minutes.

I just re-read my post, and I know it's coming across as very negative. Sorry about that. It's not my intention to "bash" RCI or the ship. Like I said, I give the while trip a "B". What i'm genuinely unhappy about is the dining and reservation situation, which could mostly be result of the number of guests overwhelming the capacity, and our incident on Labadee. The staff on the ship have been amazing, as have been the shows and venues. I just wanted to share some experiences to help others avoid or be prepared for similar.

While I sympathize, there really isn't anything Royal can do about the local peddlers. If they move the stop the peddlers will figure out what the next best location is and just keep doing their thing. We had similar situations in St. Lucia on a private excursion, in Costa Rica on a non-cruise trip, and on another island, can't remember which one off hand. It's annoying, but they will always figure out where the tourists are and harass them.

 

I do definitely agree with the insane amount of selling items on board, and we haven't done any of the mega ships yet. We have set dining times on Anthem in August, but will have to do My Time Dining on Harmony in January and I'm a bit worried we won't be able to get tables, given your experience. Having to eat in the buffet every night would be a major downer

Oh, they can certainly do something about the peddlers that I had issues with. On Labadee, RCI either owns or leases that entire facility. The vendors are invited to be there on the property. Also, the wave runner tour intentionally took us to an area where those vendors came out to sell to us. In fact, they had RCI staff back at the docks collecting cash from passengers that bought things from those kayak vendors since most didn't carry anything with them on the wave runners. It was fully condoned by the cruise line.

I agree in general about local vendors, and I have zero issues with the locals coming up to us on the beach on St. Maarten, etc. We know that's how they make their living (selling things, braiding hair, hawking beer, etc.). Most are very considerate and will move on after being politely told "no thank you" a couple of times.

I suggest you try to reserve times as much as possible to avoid having to eat in the buffet most of the time, especially if your cruise is pretty full. I really don't think RCI has this figured out yet.

Your opinion and viewpoint are yours and valid. I am not in any way denying their validity.

 

Just wanted to comment.

 

I just don't walk in the area where the vendors are on Labadee.

 

Selling on the ship never bothers me. I just walk by.

 

I never had a problem eating in the complimentary restaurants, in more than six weeks on both Quantum and Anthem. I am truly sad that you did. Perhaps it was the size of your group, without prior reservations, that was the problem. (was your entire group trying to eat together?)

We even tried breaking our group into smaller ones to get reservations. No luck. The woman in reservations said that they have a capacity of about 1000 for each of the dining halls each night, but with 5000 on the ship it was a real problem for them to find a way to accommodate enough people. The Windjammer was packed too (long lines, no tables), so I guess this is a big problem at this level of guests.

I’m a couple of days from completing our 9 day trip out of Bayonne to Bermuda, St. Maartin, San Juan and Labadee, and wanted to share some thoughts about the cruise. I’ll do a full review later, but since we’re out at sea right now I’ve got some time to put some thoughts down. As a bit of background, we’ve sailed RCI a few times (Sovereign, Vision, Anthem), but have more recently been on NCL ships to the Caribbean (Epic) and Alaska (Jewel). This is my first time on a RCI “mega-ship”, and a lot of my opinions are in comparison to my experience on the NCL ships, especially the Epic. This trip is fairly full (from what I understand, about 5k pax) which could be impacting our experience as well. We are also the trip where the 8yo boy was found in the pool, prompting a return to Bayonne on the first day, but that’s a totally separate issue that doesn’t impact our review of RCI or the ship. So here goes…

Overall it’s been a great trip. The ship is beautiful and there are lots of things to do. The Solarium is fantastic, and the pools/tubs there combined with the large indoor and outdoor pools give you plenty of pools space. This is a marked improvement over the small pools on the Epic, but in its defense, the Epic had the great water slides that the Quantum class ships are lacking. We also love the Seaplex and all that it provides. The kids loved the bumper cars, roller skating, basketball games, parties, soccer matches, etc. that take place there. Great, great idea, RCI. The ping pong, foosball and xbox areas are a great addition there (except half the xbox stations were broken), as was the hotdog stand. Thumbs up.

The rooms are very comfortable and well laid out. We are in a balcony room on deck 11 and have no complaints at all, other than some issues with the AC on two occasions that were worked out (once it wouldn’t cool and had to be “rebooted”, and the other time the AC wouldn’t shut off and had to be reprogrammed). The beds, while a bit hard, are comfortable with great sheets, and we love the charging options at the desk with the two plugs and two USB charging ports. There’s lots of storage, great lighting, and the overlapping curtains keeps the room fairly dark when desired. The rooms are also fairly well sound-proofed as well. The Epic is the gold standard on sound proofing, and this is a close second. You still can hear idiots running in the halls or talking outside your door at 2am (jerks…lol), but you don’t hear the neighbor’s TV or conversations. Overall, lovely rooms.

The layout of the ship take a little getting used to, but that’s pretty normal with ships. Once you’re on it a few days you can find your way around fairly well. The extensive signage helps (there’s a ship may at every elevator area), but the huge touch screen boards spread around the ship that allow you to find things, view events, etc. don’t work well. Also, the food that we’ve had has been good. This includes the one time we’ve sat down at a restaurant with servers (more on that later) and the sushi we had at the specialty restaurant. Really no complaints there. The Lavazza coffee is excellent – strong and rich – and the variety of flavored waters and tea is nice. No complaints at all on our ability to get something good to drink on the ship.

Oh, I have to give kudos to the Voom internet wifi system on the ship. It was fairly bulletproof and adequately fast. I can’t comment on the price ($13/day for basic, and $18 for streaming) because it was included in our package, but it’s been great to use. My family stays in touch using Facebook Messenger on the ship and it’s worked out great.

Like I said, overall we are having a nice time, and the ship is great. However, there are some issues that need to be raised so people know what they’re getting into when booking with RCI or on this ship. I won’t dig into too many details, but can elaborate on these if needed:

My #1 issue is that it’s virtually impossible to get a sit-down dinner in a free dining room. Yes, the ship has a lot of people on it, but being told day after day that there are NO reservations available at any of the non-pay sitdown restaurants (unless you’re a party of 2 that wants to eat at 9:15pm), plus being turned away as a “walk up” at all of the restaurants and being forced to eat at the buffet is just wrong. NCL does it right, in my view. Specialty (pay) restaurants require reservations, but the main dining rooms are walk up. We never, ever had an issue strolling up to a restaurant for dinner on NCL. That’s why they call it freestyle. Well, RCI had tried to mimic this approach and has failed miserably. You can’t just walk up to a restaurant and eat. Plus, if you don’t reserve in advance of the trip, it can be hard to even get a table AT ALL in a main dining room. While the buffet is good, it’s the same food every night (zero change, unlike NCL), and limited seating (and inconsiderate guests taking up tables playing cards, etc.) means I ended up on way too many nights eating buffet food in my room. Fix this, RCI. How about devoting less space to high end watch and r stores and using more space providing a good sit down meal to your passengers? Just a thought.

The same applies to the activities on board. Weeks in advance of the trip, reservations for the iFly skydive simulator were closed. On the phone RCI said they would open it up for reservations again on the ship. Well, guess what. First day on the ship we went there to make reservations, and none were available for any day. Very frustrating. You have a great new attraction that’s unavailable to most passengers. Even more frustrating is that it sat idle for all but a couple of hours per day. How about a couple more instructors or more hours to handle demand?

Their systems are messed up. Their Royal IQ application shows a couple of things we had booked, but other things are listed wrong, and most things are just missing. If you go to the customer service desk they will print out a list of your reservations (shows, excursions, etc.), but on the TV and the application things are just wrong. The staff on the ship told us that they always have issues with this. RCI needs to either fix the systems or stop making them available. It’s got to be a customer service desk nightmare when the TV and app show something totally different that what’s really booked.

Here’s where I get a bit testy. We’ve paid around $25k for the 5 rooms we have for this trip. That’s $25k to have an enjoyable trip, inclusive of meals, destinations and entertainment. What we seem to have gotten for that $25k is also becoming an open target for the non-stop selling of every type of products and services that you can imagine. Seriously, RCI, if I wanted all this crap that you’re pushing on me I would have just gone to a shopping mall. A MASSIVE amount of space on the ship, on the TV, in the Cruise Compass and even in their port on Labadee is dedicated to selling me more stuff. How about some more places to eat instead of another high end jewelry shop? You can’t get around decks 4 and 5 due tables set up selling junk watches, purses, hats, shirts, etc. at $10 a pop. Where I really get angry what we faced on Labadee. We had an outstanding time doing the wave runner excursion (the highlight of the trip with my family), the roller coaster, the water park, etc., but the dozens of “local artisan” shacks with sellers following you trying to get your attention (“hey mister, come to my booth!”) is too much. Yes, if I’m on the beach in St. Maarten, I expect locals to come by offering me products. They did, and were respectful of my space when I said “no thank” you. However, having this hoard of sellers in this area CONTROLLED BY RCI is inexcusable, IMO. I saw so many people harassed as they tried to walk out to Columbus Cove that I got disgusted by the whole thing. This is a problem, RCI, and you need to fix it.

Here’s the thing I’m writing a letter to RCI about. My 21yo son has Asperger’s Syndrome. He went with us on the Wave Runner trip, and he drove his own wave runner. We were having a great time, and did overall. However, as part of the “tour”, the guide had us stop and regroup in a small bay where locals (I assume) paddled out in kayaks with their boats full of crap to sell to the tourists. They grabbed our wave runners and offered their products. One grabbed my leg so he could pull himself closer. It was very difficult to get them to leave us alone. “no thank you” just made them work harder. I found out later that one of the sellers harassed my son so bad that my son, to make him go away, paid $20 for some little wooden cup that was probably worth $1. The fact that the RCI guide INTENTIONALLY BROUGHT US TO THIS SPOT where these local merchants would paddle out to do this is patently unacceptable in my mind. We could have stopped anywhere. Hell, if we would have stopped 100 yards further away from the shore (like we had 4 other times), nobody would have paddled out. This was intentional, and I’m furious. It’s not about the money. I’d gladly give $20 to someone who needed it way more than I did, but the fact that RCI intentionally put us in this location where we were harassed by vendors, causing emotional pressure on my son (in fact, he’s still feeling very upset about this) is wrong. They need to stop doing this – immediately.

Ok..back to something I’m less pissed off about. 

There are plenty of other things that need to be addressed, like broken equipment (foosball tables, xbox, shuffleboard poles, etc.) even though it’s a very new ship. I would imagine this stuff gets a lot of use though, so I can understand that it’s hard to keep up with maintaining it. Oh…don’t drink on the ship unless you rob a bank first. My wife and I went to a show (a Boston cover band that was great) and two margaritas cost us nearly $40 ($12 each plus 18% tip). Couldn’t even detect any booze in them. *sigh*. My wife also noted that the gym is very small and not very well equipped for a ship this size, unlike the EPIC which was amazing.

So, believe it or not, even after that ranting we’re having a great time. The ship is great (for the most part), the ports have been wonderful and fun (for the most part), the weather has been awesome, and all of the entertainment has been top notch. I’d give the whole thing a solid B, but clearly there are things that need to be fixed.

Way, way, way too much trying to sell us stuff. From spa services to jewelry and watches to the complete cluster on Labadee. They also need to fix their ability to provide meals to their guests. I feel like they’re half way between traditional dining and NCL’s freestyle, and it’s not working. The rest of the stuff is just annoying and inconvenient and not a big deal. However, we’re unlikely to come back to RCI until they resolve their dining issues, and certainly won’t be going back to Labadee.

Love reading the questions and responses. Thanks everyone for the information. We sail in June

I had a room under the galley on a disney cruise and like the OP said, there was stuff rolling around all night. It woke me up a few times each night which made it feel like I didn't sleep well, but in general I got enough sleep. We certainly won't stay in a room like that again, but demanding to be moved or compensated never crossed my mind. While I can empathize with the OP a bit, putting any blame on the cruise line is just misguided.

I know this is an old thread, but it's got bad info. Yes, they ship to the US. We purchase it often

You can't change the input on the Epic, at least when I was on it. Leave the console at home and enjoy all the ship has to offer

Yes. Not a problem

We're huge fans of NCL but have decided to go on the Anthem of the Seas next summer. They have something called Dynamic Dining which is like freestyle, where you can eat in any of the free venues whenever you want. It's all casual except for one dining room which is formal for the entire trip. There's a lot of complaining on the RCCL boards about folks that go there not wearing suits and ties. My main concern is that people suggest making reservations at the restaurants you want to go to. To me, this is far less freestyle than I like. I prefer to walk up and be seated, not knowing each day what kind of food I want and when I'm hungry. That's the beauty of NCL, and it remains to be seen how this works for me on RCCL.

Be careful what you wish for!! A "snow storm" might keep you tied up at the pier!! Might mean you can't even get to the pier!! Might mean a bit of a rough passage!! Might mean lots of people being sea sick!! Have you even been on a boat where the predominant smell is of sea sickness?

 

Mike

You're clearly a glass-half-full kinda guy :)

I just booked a 9 night cruise out of NY on RCI. While the free specialty dining and booze on NCL was a more expensive perk than I got, I decided that the risk booze fueled misbehaving was way to great for me. Not just fights, but rude behavior in general that seems to accompany drunks.

Love the Jewel as well. Sailed her to Alaska. Not as much to do as the mega-ships, but not nearly as crowded feeling IMO