Anthem of the Seas Star Class review!

So it has been almost a moth since my family and I boarded the Anthem, I wanted so share some thought on our first Star Class sailing. I am only talking about the perks of Star Class. I plan on including all our tips since I searched a lot of threads and most were vague on what people were tipping

Arriving at the port---- I drive a large pickup and knew it was going to be a nightmare on embarkation day, we decided to drop it off the day before. Thomas ( he said he was the manager of the facility) said it was no problem and when we found that the garage was full Thomas opened up a special section so we could park. We tried to tip him but he declined and said we if we wanted to thank him to take care of the folks working the next day!

So the next morning we left our hotel at the Embassy Suites in Elizabeth NJ ( decent hotel, I would stay there again ) and took an Uber to the port, the cost $74.50 for an Uber XL ( our driver was crazy funny and we tipped him $50) it's a short drive to the port and in no time we were there! When you are in Star Class you go to Zone 6 you will see the signs that say Star Class. We were instructed by our Genie Derick Martis to let someone know when we get there and he will take us inside, our total time waiting was less than 10 minutes outside. Derick and the porter walked us though security with our bags into the terminal ( they took my power strip! ) For those asking we tipped $200 bucks we had 9 bags for the four of us!

We didn't stay in the lounge long and we were escorted right on the ship, I would say total time from when were dropped off to the time we walked on the ship was less than 45 minutes.

Our Room---- We stayed in Sky Loft 10322, great room, my Wife and I went with our daughter ( just turned 18 the day before) and niece ( 17 ) the best part of the room was 2 bathrooms, I was a little worried about being on the back of the ship but we hardly felt movement. There is a lot of closet space and everything was very comfortable! The only complaint I have is the sink size upstairs, you don't have a lot of room on the counter for 2 peoples things. I asked before we left for some beer and other alcoholic drinks to be in the minibar; however, Derek said that they can only stock with sodas and juice. I then asked for a bottle of GreyGoose and Jack Daniels be delivered to our room at my cost, FYI Royal doesn't like to do this but Derek got it done. I thought that was weird mainly because a perk with star class is unlimited drinks and I was going to pay for the bottles in my room ( this is one thing Carnival has over Royal) Derek arranged for so many special things to be delivered to our room daily, including a Birthday present for our daughter! We had two room attendants and they were very nice, our room was always clean and our laundry was done everyday ( we tipped them each $250)! I didn't really notice anything special between them and other room attendants on other sailings, we have always had great folks who have taken care of us!

Our Genie----Derick was amazing, we had a questionnaire prior to our cruise and we emailed a few times before the cruise. I normally obsess on what were will be doing during our cruise, not this one! Ever reservation, excursion, dinner reservation and show was taken care of, each night I would get an itinerary of what we were doing the next day! Each morning we would receive the compass highlighted with things we might like to do, we just showed up and Derick was waiting to take us right in. Every show Derick reserved great seats for us and make sure our drinks were ordered, every onboard activity he took us to the front of the line and stopped by every dinner to say hello and ask if we needed anything! My Sister and her husband sailed with us and he treated them like gold, he made all of our vacations very special and I cannot say enough about him and the job he did for us! ( FYI we tipped him $1000, I really don't know if that was too much or to little).

Coastal Kitchen---- I really didn't think we would eat here much but Derick had us scheduled for the first night so we went, that became the first of three night and some breakfasts! The food was very good and the service was much more that I thought it would be!

Some final thoughts on our cruise---- We were able to do the Chef's Table, I would totally recommend this! The food is very well prepared and you have a wine paired with every course! This was the only cruise where we didn't eat in the main dinning room or the windjammer, one of our favorite places to eat or grab a snack was Michael's Pub the 3x cooked fries are insane they even have Dogfish Head beer, this beer is made down the road from our business!

Drinks are included with our room but we still tipped atlas $1 with every drink some folks we tipped more! and in the Restaurant we normally tipped $50 buck to our server

So I included tips in the review because like I said before we searched for what to tip in Star Class and nothing was very helpful. I don't know if we wne overboard or not enough, I hope this is helpful to those of you wanted to know about StarClass on the Anthem, if you have any questions I would be more than happy to answer if I can!

I love reading these and dreaming. Thanks for sharing, sounds like you had an amazing time and that's all that matters.

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Thank you for your review!

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I'm very surprised to hear that they would not stock beer or wine in your suite. They did, for us, on Harmony earlier this year. We had a similar result with the liquor though. They really discourage having bottles of liquor in the suite. I also found that very odd, given that you are going to get it "for free" (I know...nothing is free...you pay for it one way or another) anyway. I guess they just don't want you wasting it. Whatever.

Your tipping is in line with what we did as well. We only seemed to have 1 room attendant (we were in an Aqua Theater Suite). I believe our friends, who stayed in a Sky Loft Suite (not renamed Star Loft) also only had 1. We tipped our attendant $100. Our friends tipped their room attendant $500 each (total of $1000) but they were very "needy" and I think they ran their attendant (and their Genie) ragged all week. LOL

wow!

I'm very surprised to hear that they would not stock beer or wine in your suite. They did, for us, on Harmony earlier this year. We had a similar result with the liquor though. They really discourage having bottles of liquor in the suite. I also found that very odd, given that you are going to get it "for free" (I know...nothing is free...you pay for it one way or another) anyway. I guess they just don't want you wasting it. Whatever.

 

Your tipping is in line with what we did as well. We only seemed to have 1 room attendant (we were in an Aqua Theater Suite). I believe our friends, who stayed in a Sky Loft Suite (not renamed Star Loft) also only had 1. We tipped our attendant $100. Our friends tipped their room attendant $500 each (total of $1000) but they were very "needy" and I think they ran their attendant (and their Genie) ragged all week. LOL

They did have a bottle of wine and champagne in there when we arrived!

Thank you for your review. I just got my email last week that Derick will be our Genie on Anthem as well. Our cruise is 3/9/18, and I’m very much looking forward to it! (Aren’t we all!) This will be our first time doing Star Class as well.

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Wondering if anyone else has had same experience with no beer being provided in room. When we sailed star class on Allure in 2017 beer was provided.

Can you detail which activities you were able to have direct access to? Bumper cars? North Star? Roller Skating? Ifly? Trapeze classes?

Thanks!!

I seriously hope that was just on that ship. We are booked on oasis in April and if we don’t have beer and wine for the room I’m going to be quite annoyed. We had it delivered daily last year so I assumed we would have it again and actually was part of my decision (among several other things) to splurge and pay the significantly extra $ for star class over sky class. It is a long walk to an aqua suite to for a drink.

If I had to guess, I would assume that because they had people younger than 21 in their suite, they couldn't stock alcohol in the room. I was in an aquatheater on the Allure in January and our genie kept our room full of beer and wine!

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Never think you did not tip enough. I am a waitress and you are a dream customer. You did not just make their day or their week you made them smile for a month. Every time something out of their control went wrong i can guarantee they remembered you and your family and felt the stress melt off their back. Thank you from all the people who work in the service industry.

I seriously hope that was just on that ship. We are booked on oasis in April and if we don’t have beer and wine for the room I’m going to be quite annoyed. We had it delivered daily last year so I assumed we would have it again and actually was part of my decision (among several other things) to splurge and pay the significantly extra $ for star class over sky class. It is a long walk to an aqua suite to for a drink.

We are currently in a 2BR ATS on the Harmony and have a 16 year old in the room. They gladly stocked our fridge and the adjoining cabinet with beer, wine, soda and water. Much more than we will ever drink. We did not ask for bottles of liquor so I can’t comment.

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I want to be a genie, if everyone tips like that every week!

Jimbo:)

Thanks for the review.

FWIW I was on the Anthem and my fridge was stocked with more beer than I could drink.

But I drank it anyway.. Any beer I wanted would have been delivered.

I’m sorry but I have a question about tipping.

I know it is a personal choice but the amounts you list seem very high at least to me. Especially since tips are supposed to be included with star class. I have cruised on other all inclusive cruise lines where tips are included and never felt any requirement it tip. It also seems quite high when compared to other lines which have butler programs such as MSC Yacht Club. So can anyone else provide alternative amounts that were tipped for their genie?

Thanks. DPR

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I’m sorry but I have a question about tipping.

 

I know it is a personal choice but the amounts you list seem very high at least to me. Especially since tips are supposed to be included with star class. I have cruised on other all inclusive cruise lines where tips are included and never felt any requirement it tip. It also seems quite high when compared to other lines which have butler programs such as MSC Yacht Club. So can anyone else provide alternative amounts that were tipped for their genie?

 

Thanks. DPR

 

 

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Tips are not included for the genie. Just for everyone else.

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Did you use the suite sun deck at all? I know it doesn't look that big on the Anthem compared to the Oasis class ships, but was it decent? I don't see too many people post about it. Thanks!

I’m sorry but I have a question about tipping.

 

I know it is a personal choice but the amounts you list seem very high at least to me. Especially since tips are supposed to be included with star class. I have cruised on other all inclusive cruise lines where tips are included and never felt any requirement it tip. It also seems quite high when compared to other lines which have butler programs such as MSC Yacht Club. So can anyone else provide alternative amounts that were tipped for their genie?

 

Thanks. DPR

 

 

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Tipping is always a personal choice, but that if you are in star class, the Genie isn't included. That does sound high, though. For a 7 night cruise (this was maybe a 9?) I would generally say $50-75 pp, so maybe $75-$100 pp for 9 nights. They had four people, plus it said they also treated the two people not in their cabin like gold, so essentially they were tipping for six. Then the Genie did all the planning for them as well, and did things like pre-order drinks. So yeah, definitely a nice tip was warranted. But I think the genie would've still been happy with half that tip amount. The OP was nicely generous. That's not a bad thing!! :)