Just off Anthem 12/23 holiday sailing! Detailed review here.

The ship is beautiful and spotless. We really had a wonderful family trip!!!

My overall reason for giving 4 stars instead of 5 stars is for the reasons below. Enjoy reading and please contact me if you need any other info!

We were in a balcony cabin (#9570) and had our kids (age 4 & 6) sleep on the pull out couch. It was great to have the angled larger balcony since there wasn't much space in the cabin with the four of us. I was under the impression that the sofa bed would get folded up each day to make more room --- However, it was left open for the entire cruise causing a very cramped cabin. With that being said - we hardly used the cabin so it wasn't much of an issue. However, I would seek out a larger cabin or a different set up (perhaps 2 adjoining cabins?) -- but only if the price made sense. Please note that the beds are super firm. We asked our cabin attendant to put a topper on it, and she did - which helped a little bit.

The public areas of the ship seemed crowded and cramped at times, but those crowded areas were easy to avoid. The Esplanade area of shops was a traffic flow nightmare and there were usually people wall-to-wall unless it was first thing in the morning. Again - this was easy to avoid, but worth noting.

Having 3 pools (one of which is adults only) was GREAT. This greatly dispersed guests and we were always able to find a lounger or two on the deck. If you prefer a chair (or group of chairs) close to the pool you will have to wake up very early (before 8am) and put personal belongings on chairs. Chair hogs were in full effect and the staff would not move these belongings even if the chair was not occupied for 30 minutes or more. So, you have to "play the game" if you would like a chair right by one of the pools.

The Sunshine Bar in the solarium was wonderful. One of the bartenders (from Ukraine, but I can't remember her name) would make the most delicious protein/banana/granola/almond smoothies for me each morning and they were WONDERFUL! (The smoothies are included on the Royal Replenish drink package.)

Dining was hit or miss. We ate in our main dining room Chic for 7 out of 10 nights. The dining staff worked very hard to accommodate everyone and really wanted everyone to have a positive dining experience. With that being said, the food was hit or miss. Sometimes the main dining room food was amazing, and sometimes it was simply not good. The positive meals definitely outweighed the bad ones, though.

We ate breakfast daily in 270. It was never crowded and the coffee was so much better here than in the other areas of the ship. The coffee barista here was amazing. He would make the most beautiful cappuccinos for me each morning.

Windjammer was always packed. Too many people all in one spot for my liking, so I never ate here. Plenty of other places to eat. 270 was great for a quick lunch. The dining room Grande had a really nice salad bar and sit-down lunch options too.

We ate in Chops twice and Jamie's once. Both restaurants are exemplary.

Overall, service on the ship was great. Yes, there were a few staff members that didn't seem to have much personality, but none of them were rude or surly. Only one staff member rubbed us the wrong way - I can't remember his name but he was one of the "Next Cruise" staff members. He was very annoyed that we were asking questions about future cruises and and he really didn't want to give us multiple price quotes on different future sailings. So, we left the desk and came back later in the day and worked with another agent who was very helpful and beyond nice. We ended up putting down a deposit for a future cruise with him. All other employees were really great.

I read many reviews on Cruise Critic bashing the bar staff on the ship. We never had a negative experience. Some of the bars are grossly understaffed (only one bartender during busy times) but that is not a knock on the bartenders, but on overall management. All alcohol is strictly measured out, so you don't have to worry about "short" pours.

We were on the cruise for Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years. All of the holidays were lovely and the cruise really tried to make it festive for the holidays with special event. They had menorah lighting ceremony every night, Santa giving gifts to all children on Christmas day, big NYE parties in multiple locations on the ship. (To note: even if your family doesn't celebrate Christmas they had a time during the day for the kids to pick up their holiday gift without Santa too!)

Cleanliness is paramount on this ship. They are constantly reminding people to wash their hands with a cute music video and jingle that is played over and over and over and over. I loved it! We had a very bad experience at a Beaches resort last year with a norovirus outbreak that was horrendous. The amount of cleaning and hand washing on this ship is so far and above anything we encountered at Beaches. I really think the Anthem staff is doing everything they can to minimize the spread of germs.

Entertainment was good. We Will Rock You had a terrible plot, but the music was fantastic. Even my 4 and 6 year old kids loved it! The live music that was on the ship was good but not great. My husband went to the Led Zepplin cover band and he said they were amazing. The ventriloquist was awesome. The house band "Synergy" is exactly what you would envision as an old-school house cruise ship band. We really enjoyed them.

My husband and I are in our late-30s and we traveled with my in-laws (early 70's) and our kids (ages 4 and 6). It's hard to make all generations happy --- and I think the Anthem did this very very well! Our 6 year old had a ton to do (iFly, rock wall, trapeze, bumper cars) but there was not much for the 4 year old as far as activities. However, she really enjoyed the kids' Adventure Ocean program. The camp staff didn't seem to have the best personalities, but my daughter was happy and requested to go play there, so I can't complain :)

As far as motion on the ship - yes, we felt motion at times. None of us ever got full-on sea sick, but our son got very nauseous one day when it was particularly rocky. We gave him a kids Dramamine and within a hour he said he felt better. He's not a kid who complains about that stuff, so the Dramamine must have worked. I found that taking "Sailors Secret" ginger pills helped me a ton. There was only one day out of the 10 that really bothered me - I think it was the 2nd sea day. Of course, this all depends on the wind and sea conditions.

Our North Star ride was cancelled for high winds and we got rescheduled to Day 10. However, when Day 10 rolled around, it was canceled due to high winds again. BOO!!! Of course, this was out of everyone's control. Oh well. Now we'll just have to sail on the Anthem again in order to try it out!!! ;)

As far as activities, you MUST pre-reserve your activities before getting on the Anthem!!!!!! I can't stress this enough. There are simply not enough spots for the amount of people who want to participate. Period. For the activities that you cannot pre-reserve such as bumper cars, rock climbing, trapeze -- you MUST show up 20 to 30 minutes before the "opening time" or else you will be waiting on a very very long line. Again, simply not enough spots for the amount of people who want to participate. This annoyed me, but my son and husband didn't really care so they would just show up half an hour early and hang out before the activity opened up. They both got to try all of the special "adventurous" activities on the ship except for the FlowRider because my son did not meet the height requirement :)

The Royal IQ app is a joke. Do NOT spend the $7.95 for text messaging. It simply is not reliable and does not work over half of the time. The phone calling to another passenger w/ the Royal IQ app does not work. Ever. The only thing the app is good for is to change/view/cancel any dining or activity reservations. Also good to view the daily Cruise Compass so you don't have to carry around the printed paper.

You must check your account statement and make sure you get credit for any reservations you pre-reserved and canceled. We found many many errors on our account and had to have them rectified. RCCL's pre-cruise website is absolutely terrible and we had many errors on our account. Just be on top of it.

We would not hesitate to go on the Anthem again. We live in NJ and it was so easy to get to the port and back. Bayonne has everything down to a science and both embarkation and disembarkation was totally smooth.

Sounds like you had a great cruise! Thanks for sharing info! As far as breakfast in 270, do you remember what kind of things they offered? Did you try the complimentary coffee here or just the additional cost coffee? Coffee is semi-important to me, and I'm thinking about purchasing the coffee card. However, I don't drink lattes and such--just want a good regular cup of coffee.

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Sounds like you had a great cruise! Thanks for sharing info! As far as breakfast in 270, do you remember what kind of things they offered? Did you try the complimentary coffee here or just the additional cost coffee? Coffee is semi-important to me, and I'm thinking about purchasing the coffee card. However, I don't drink lattes and such--just want a good regular cup of coffee.

 

 

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Hi there! Coffee is VERY important to me - so I will give you my two cents:

- The regular coffee in 270 is very good. With that being said - this was the only place on the ship that brewed this particular coffee in the whole ship (to my knowledge). (I think it's Seattles Best.) Anyway - with that being said, I also nabbed the "Royal Refreshment" package while it was on sale a number of weeks ago and I'm pretty sure it was $16/day when I booked it. It was WELL worth $16/day for just premium coffee drinks, fresh juice, bottled water, and smoothies for me. However, I'm not sure I would have bought it for the $26 or $28 per day for the usual charge. My suggestion would be to watch this price and book it when they are running a sale.

- The coffee in the main dining rooms was not very good, and the coffee available at locations around the ship was terrible. Very watery. If I wanted a regular cup of coffee, I would usually either walk to 270 or just wait in line at the Starbucks. There were times when the Starbucks line was very slow though. They usually only had one barista there.

- The Royal Replenish worked on ALL specialty non-alcoholic drinks on the entire ship. Zero extra fee for frappachinos, mocha, cappuccino,smoothies, bottled water, etc.

- With Royal Replenish you can get one specialty drink at a time or two bottles of water at a time.

I hope this helps!!

The ship is beautiful and spotless. We really had a wonderful family trip!!!

Thanks for taking the time to pass on this information. I hope to do this class someday.

Thanks for the review! We are booked on Anthem for March 2018. Until then, I'll live vicariously through reviews. :-)

Wow, thanks for the review. We are looking so forward to stepping on Anthem in a few weeks.

Quick question for the OP. I have seen conflicting reports about the sailaway. Did you sail up past the Statue of Liberty before heading out or no? This is our first time to NY/NJ and I have read in other posts that the Anthem may request a "driveby" if permitted before sailing out to sea.

Just curious if this is something we can expect?

Thanks :)

Hi there! Coffee is VERY important to me - so I will give you my two cents:

 

 

 

- The regular coffee in 270 is very good. With that being said - this was the only place on the ship that brewed this particular coffee in the whole ship (to my knowledge). (I think it's Seattles Best.) Anyway - with that being said, I also nabbed the "Royal Refreshment" package while it was on sale a number of weeks ago and I'm pretty sure it was $16/day when I booked it. It was WELL worth $16/day for just premium coffee drinks, fresh juice, bottled water, and smoothies for me. However, I'm not sure I would have bought it for the $26 or $28 per day for the usual charge. My suggestion would be to watch this price and book it when they are running a sale.

 

 

 

- The coffee in the main dining rooms was not very good, and the coffee available at locations around the ship was terrible. Very watery. If I wanted a regular cup of coffee, I would usually either walk to 270 or just wait in line at the Starbucks. There were times when the Starbucks line was very slow though. They usually only had one barista there.

 

 

 

- The Royal Replenish worked on ALL specialty non-alcoholic drinks on the entire ship. Zero extra fee for frappachinos, mocha, cappuccino,smoothies, bottled water, etc.

 

 

 

- With Royal Replenish you can get one specialty drink at a time or two bottles of water at a time.

 

 

 

I hope this helps!!

That is very helpful! Thank you!

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The ship is beautiful and spotless. We really had a wonderful family trip!!!

 

My overall reason for giving 4 stars instead of 5 stars is for the reasons below. Enjoy reading and please contact me if you need any other info!

 

We were in a balcony cabin (#9570) and had our kids (age 4 & 6) sleep on the pull out couch. It was great to have the angled larger balcony since there wasn't much space in the cabin with the four of us. I was under the impression that the sofa bed would get folded up each day to make more room --- However, it was left open for the entire cruise causing a very cramped cabin. With that being said - we hardly used the cabin so it wasn't much of an issue. However, I would seek out a larger cabin or a different set up (perhaps 2 adjoining cabins?) -- but only if the price made sense. Please note that the beds are super firm. We asked our cabin attendant to put a topper on it, and she did - which helped a little bit.

 

The public areas of the ship seemed crowded and cramped at times, but those crowded areas were easy to avoid. The Esplanade area of shops was a traffic flow nightmare and there were usually people wall-to-wall unless it was first thing in the morning. Again - this was easy to avoid, but worth noting.

 

Having 3 pools (one of which is adults only) was GREAT. This greatly dispersed guests and we were always able to find a lounger or two on the deck. If you prefer a chair (or group of chairs) close to the pool you will have to wake up very early (before 8am) and put personal belongings on chairs. Chair hogs were in full effect and the staff would not move these belongings even if the chair was not occupied for 30 minutes or more. So, you have to "play the game" if you would like a chair right by one of the pools.

 

The Sunshine Bar in the solarium was wonderful. One of the bartenders (from Ukraine, but I can't remember her name) would make the most delicious protein/banana/granola/almond smoothies for me each morning and they were WONDERFUL! (The smoothies are included on the Royal Replenish drink package.)

 

Dining was hit or miss. We ate in our main dining room Chic for 7 out of 10 nights. The dining staff worked very hard to accommodate everyone and really wanted everyone to have a positive dining experience. With that being said, the food was hit or miss. Sometimes the main dining room food was amazing, and sometimes it was simply not good. The positive meals definitely outweighed the bad ones, though.

 

We ate breakfast daily in 270. It was never crowded and the coffee was so much better here than in the other areas of the ship. The coffee barista here was amazing. He would make the most beautiful cappuccinos for me each morning.

 

Windjammer was always packed. Too many people all in one spot for my liking, so I never ate here. Plenty of other places to eat. 270 was great for a quick lunch. The dining room Grande had a really nice salad bar and sit-down lunch options too.

 

We ate in Chops twice and Jamie's once. Both restaurants are exemplary.

 

Overall, service on the ship was great. Yes, there were a few staff members that didn't seem to have much personality, but none of them were rude or surly. Only one staff member rubbed us the wrong way - I can't remember his name but he was one of the "Next Cruise" staff members. He was very annoyed that we were asking questions about future cruises and and he really didn't want to give us multiple price quotes on different future sailings. So, we left the desk and came back later in the day and worked with another agent who was very helpful and beyond nice. We ended up putting down a deposit for a future cruise with him. All other employees were really great.

 

I read many reviews on Cruise Critic bashing the bar staff on the ship. We never had a negative experience. Some of the bars are grossly understaffed (only one bartender during busy times) but that is not a knock on the bartenders, but on overall management. All alcohol is strictly measured out, so you don't have to worry about "short" pours.

 

We were on the cruise for Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years. All of the holidays were lovely and the cruise really tried to make it festive for the holidays with special event. They had menorah lighting ceremony every night, Santa giving gifts to all children on Christmas day, big NYE parties in multiple locations on the ship. (To note: even if your family doesn't celebrate Christmas they had a time during the day for the kids to pick up their holiday gift without Santa too!)

 

Cleanliness is paramount on this ship. They are constantly reminding people to wash their hands with a cute music video and jingle that is played over and over and over and over. I loved it! We had a very bad experience at a Beaches resort last year with a norovirus outbreak that was horrendous. The amount of cleaning and hand washing on this ship is so far and above anything we encountered at Beaches. I really think the Anthem staff is doing everything they can to minimize the spread of germs.

 

Entertainment was good. We Will Rock You had a terrible plot, but the music was fantastic. Even my 4 and 6 year old kids loved it! The live music that was on the ship was good but not great. My husband went to the Led Zepplin cover band and he said they were amazing. The ventriloquist was awesome. The house band "Synergy" is exactly what you would envision as an old-school house cruise ship band. We really enjoyed them.

 

My husband and I are in our late-30s and we traveled with my in-laws (early 70's) and our kids (ages 4 and 6). It's hard to make all generations happy --- and I think the Anthem did this very very well! Our 6 year old had a ton to do (iFly, rock wall, trapeze, bumper cars) but there was not much for the 4 year old as far as activities. However, she really enjoyed the kids' Adventure Ocean program. The camp staff didn't seem to have the best personalities, but my daughter was happy and requested to go play there, so I can't complain :)

 

As far as motion on the ship - yes, we felt motion at times. None of us ever got full-on sea sick, but our son got very nauseous one day when it was particularly rocky. We gave him a kids Dramamine and within a hour he said he felt better. He's not a kid who complains about that stuff, so the Dramamine must have worked. I found that taking "Sailors Secret" ginger pills helped me a ton. There was only one day out of the 10 that really bothered me - I think it was the 2nd sea day. Of course, this all depends on the wind and sea conditions.

 

Our North Star ride was cancelled for high winds and we got rescheduled to Day 10. However, when Day 10 rolled around, it was canceled due to high winds again. BOO!!! Of course, this was out of everyone's control. Oh well. Now we'll just have to sail on the Anthem again in order to try it out!!! ;)

 

As far as activities, you MUST pre-reserve your activities before getting on the Anthem!!!!!! I can't stress this enough. There are simply not enough spots for the amount of people who want to participate. Period. For the activities that you cannot pre-reserve such as bumper cars, rock climbing, trapeze -- you MUST show up 20 to 30 minutes before the "opening time" or else you will be waiting on a very very long line. Again, simply not enough spots for the amount of people who want to participate. This annoyed me, but my son and husband didn't really care so they would just show up half an hour early and hang out before the activity opened up. They both got to try all of the special "adventurous" activities on the ship except for the FlowRider because my son did not meet the height requirement :)

 

The Royal IQ app is a joke. Do NOT spend the $7.95 for text messaging. It simply is not reliable and does not work over half of the time. The phone calling to another passenger w/ the Royal IQ app does not work. Ever. The only thing the app is good for is to change/view/cancel any dining or activity reservations. Also good to view the daily Cruise Compass so you don't have to carry around the printed paper.

 

You must check your account statement and make sure you get credit for any reservations you pre-reserved and canceled. We found many many errors on our account and had to have them rectified. RCCL's pre-cruise website is absolutely terrible and we had many errors on our account. Just be on top of it.

 

We would not hesitate to go on the Anthem again. We live in NJ and it was so easy to get to the port and back. Bayonne has everything down to a science and both embarkation and disembarkation was totally smooth.

Do you know what the name of the smoothie was?? It sounds delicious

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Wow, thanks for the review. We are looking so forward to stepping on Anthem in a few weeks.

 

Quick question for the OP. I have seen conflicting reports about the sailaway. Did you sail up past the Statue of Liberty before heading out or no? This is our first time to NY/NJ and I have read in other posts that the Anthem may request a "driveby" if permitted before sailing out to sea.

 

Just curious if this is something we can expect?

 

Thanks :)

I would not expect a driveby the Statue of Liberty. You can see her, but on our cruise in Oct we did not especially close

Wow, thanks for the review. We are looking so forward to stepping on Anthem in a few weeks.

 

Quick question for the OP. I have seen conflicting reports about the sailaway. Did you sail up past the Statue of Liberty before heading out or no? This is our first time to NY/NJ and I have read in other posts that the Anthem may request a "driveby" if permitted before sailing out to sea.

 

Just curious if this is something we can expect?

 

Thanks :)

There were a couple of sailings in the fall that sailed by the Statue of Liberty. They were the 9 night NE/Canada sailings. We were on a 5 night Bermuda sailing in September, it did not sail around the statue. I have not read of any of the recent sailings doing a driveby.

T

You must check your account statement and make sure you get credit for any reservations you pre-reserved and canceled. We found many many errors on our account and had to have them rectified. RCCL's pre-cruise website is absolutely terrible and we had many errors on our account. Just be on top of it.

 

We were on the same cruise and had a fantastic time! I booked the North Star pre-cruise as soon as they opened up the reservations (90 days before).

Yes, check your accounts often. AND if you prebooked anything online pre-cruise BRING THE PRINTOUTS with you as a proof.

We checked our accounts daily on the in-room interactive TV which is very convenient.

Anyway for a few days everything was correct but the day before the North Star the reservation just disappeared. I went to the Guest Services, the guy couldn't find any reservations for our cabin.

I had the printout with me which showed the exact day and time I booked the North Star online. Thankfully he said that someone just cancelled and he could put us in a different time slot, everything else was completely booked. We grabbed it. Don't forget to get a printout with a new rescheduled reservation. You'll need it.

When we showed up at the North Star the next day the guy who let people in didn't find us on his list of booking BUT because we had a new printout with us he let us in on the ride.

Whew, the whole story was five times longer that the ride itself :) but it's well worth it.

Did I mention to check you accounts often? On the last day of cruise we were charged $20 for a day of Internet which we supposed to get free as one of Diamond perks. The error was corrected immediately after I called Guest Services, the refund was issued right away.

Besides these and a few other very minor hiccups we loved the cruise and the ship!

Wow, thanks for the review. We are looking so forward to stepping on Anthem in a few weeks.

 

Quick question for the OP. I have seen conflicting reports about the sailaway. Did you sail up past the Statue of Liberty before heading out or no? This is our first time to NY/NJ and I have read in other posts that the Anthem may request a "driveby" if permitted before sailing out to sea.

 

Just curious if this is something we can expect?

 

Thanks :)

Hi there. I don't think we sailed past the Statue of Liberty. We certainly went under the Verazano Bridge, but right after that I ran up to the Seaplex because my son was next in line for the trapeze and I certainly didn't want to miss that!!! Ha! It was freezing outside when we left the port and we were all really cold outside. So, instead we went to 270 and watched the view through the big windows. It wasn't exactly the same feel as being outside, but it was nice to relax there with a cocktail :)

We were on the same cruise and had a fantastic time! I booked the North Star pre-cruise as soon as they opened up the reservations (90 days before).

 

Yes, check your accounts often. AND if you prebooked anything online pre-cruise BRING THE PRINTOUTS with you as a proof.

 

We checked our accounts daily on the in-room interactive TV which is very convenient.

 

Anyway for a few days everything was correct but the day before the North Star the reservation just disappeared. I went to the Guest Services, the guy couldn't find any reservations for our cabin.

 

I had the printout with me which showed the exact day and time I booked the North Star online. Thankfully he said that someone just cancelled and he could put us in a different time slot, everything else was completely booked. We grabbed it. Don't forget to get a printout with a new rescheduled reservation. You'll need it.

 

When we showed up at the North Star the next day the guy who let people in didn't find us on his list of booking BUT because we had a new printout with us he let us in on the ride.

 

Whew, the whole story was five times longer that the ride itself :) but it's well worth it.

 

Did I mention to check you accounts often? On the last day of cruise we were charged $20 for a day of Internet which we supposed to get free as one of Diamond perks. The error was corrected immediately after I called Guest Services, the refund was issued right away.

 

Besides these and a few other very minor hiccups we loved the cruise and the ship!

Yes - I agree with you. RCCL really needs to do a major overhaul of their entire computer systems. We had MANY errors as well. In the end, RCCL owed us about $300 of refunds that did not post to our statement. Guest Services worked most of it out, but it was pretty painful. We had to refer to our old emails that showed proof that we prepaid for certain dining and activities -- and after showing them those receipts they were able to refund us.

I totally agree with you and recommend to all future cruisers to check your statement often and keep a close eye on your account!!

Do you know what the name of the smoothie was?? It sounds delicious

 

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I don't think it had a name. I remember reading here on CC previous passengers saying that the Solarium bar made great morning smoothies. On Day 2 of the sailing I strolled over to that bar and simply asked if they indeed make protein smoothies. The wonderful bartender from Ukraine was so nice and just started asking me what type of smoothie I was looking for and she whipped that banana/granola/almond one up for me. It was so so good!!!

I don't think it had a name. I remember reading here on CC previous passengers saying that the Solarium bar made great morning smoothies. On Day 2 of the sailing I strolled over to that bar and simply asked if they indeed make protein smoothies. The wonderful bartender from Ukraine was so nice and just started asking me what type of smoothie I was looking for and she whipped that banana/granola/almond one up for me. It was so so good!!!

I found this pic of their smoothie menu.. they all look good

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Thanks for your review and all the smoothie talk! We sailed Anthem in September and I totally forgot to go try one of the smoothies.:( I just booked Anthem again for February, so I will have to remember to try at least one of these smoothies this time. Funny thing is though, I don't even remember seeing a bar in the Solarium:eek: We went to the Solarium Bistro a few times but stayed out of that area for the most part because we had really bad seas and were afraid that my Mom would fall.

Ahh!! I never saw that smoothie menu!!! I totally would have tried all of them!!! Oh well- sometime else to try next time ;)

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Thanks for your review and all the smoothie talk! We sailed Anthem in September and I totally forgot to go try one of the smoothies.:( I just booked Anthem again for February, so I will have to remember to try at least one of these smoothies this time. Funny thing is though, I don't even remember seeing a bar in the Solarium:eek: We went to the Solarium Bistro a few times but stayed out of that area for the most part because we had really bad seas and were afraid that my Mom would fall.

February 2018?? Or this February?

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I am sailing February 7th

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This is a great write-up. Thank you for taking the time and work this entails.

Just two quick things:

 

We were in a balcony cabin (#9570) and had our kids (age 4 & 6) sleep on the pull out couch. It was great to have the angled larger balcony since there wasn't much space in the cabin with the four of us. I was under the impression that the sofa bed would get folded up each day to make more room --- However, it was left open for the entire cruise causing a very cramped cabin. With that being said - we hardly used the cabin so it wasn't much of an issue. However, I would seek out a larger cabin or a different set up (perhaps 2 adjoining cabins?) -- but only if the price made sense. Please note that the beds are super firm. We asked our cabin attendant to put a topper on it, and she did - which helped a little bit.

 

<snip>

 

We would not hesitate to go on the Anthem again. We live in NJ and it was so easy to get to the port and back. Bayonne has everything down to a science and both embarkation and disembarkation was totally smooth.

Did you ask your cabin steward to put the sofabed away?

If you live in New Jersey, maybe you could go into your User CP and change that. ;) :D

Glad that you enjoyed your cruise. Thank you for the feedback.

Thanks for the report. Sorry to hear the RoyalIQ app was not reliable.

Wow, thanks for the review. We are looking so forward to stepping on Anthem in a few weeks.

 

Quick question for the OP. I have seen conflicting reports about the sailaway. Did you sail up past the Statue of Liberty before heading out or no? This is our first time to NY/NJ and I have read in other posts that the Anthem may request a "driveby" if permitted before sailing out to sea.

 

Just curious if this is something we can expect?

 

Thanks :)

No, don't expect it. I have not had it happen on any of my RCCL cruises out of Cape Liberty, only my Celebrity cruises on Celebrity Summit did we sail up river and around the Statue of Liberty.

Plus it adds on almost an extra hour, by the time the get up river and come back down and get to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

This is a great write-up. Thank you for taking the time and work this entails.

 

 

 

Just two quick things:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did you ask your cabin steward to put the sofabed away?

 

 

 

If you live in New Jersey, maybe you could go into your User CP and change that. ;) :D

Ha - I never even thought to ask my cabin steward to fold up the sofa bed each day!

I do live in NJ. What's the User CP?????

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Are the smoothies part of the deluxe beverage package ?