Anthem from NY in winter?

My husband literally just told me to start looking at Thanksgiving cruises from New York (we live an hour outside of the city). I doubt it will actually happen, but figure I should actually look as he requested. We will be sailing with our 8 year old daughter. We have done Royal, Celebrity and MSC. We had a bad experience with Royal on the Allure for our daughter's first cruise at 15 months, and have stayed mostly with Celebrity since then, but it looks like Anthem has a cruise that would fit our needs, so we may be ready to come back. My main question is whether the indoor pool on Anthem is opened up to children on those days when it is too cold to swim outside. Additionally, are the outdoor pools and slides heated to a comfortable temperature? Finally, and quite simply, is there enough to do to keep our daughter entertained on those days at sea, considering that it won't be as warm as we are used to with a typical Caribbean cruise?

Thanks in advance for the help. I know my questions are likely repetitive, but I just don't have much time to research on my own at this point!

The indoor pool is all ages. Only the solarium is adults only, so you will have no problem bringing your daughter to the indoor pool.

Don't remember which pools are heated, so I'll let someone else answer that

If past experience is any indicator, by the time you are about a day south of NY temperatures are warm enough to swim outside.

To save space, we leave our winter coats in the car, wear our lighter jackets to the ship and hope we don't have to spend too much time outside.

As I remember none of the pools are heated. There are hot tubs that are heated. The solarium (adults only) has multiple hot tubs. I sailed a 7 day Bahama intinerary in December and only used the solarium hot tubs. However while we were in warmer climates there were people in the indoor and outdoor pools. A lot of kids... way too cold for me. Water was probably in 60s.

There are no slides on Anthem

The indoor family pool will be available for your daughter. Not sure if it is heated though. Anthem also does not have any slides that I can remember. When you look at the cruise lines website, one of the pool pictures does have slides in it, but there is an asterisk that says, not all ships have slides.

We left from NJ in a snow storm once. It's kind of cool to see the ship covered in snow and wake up the next morning and it's all gone. Way different than Chicago.

Your daughter will definitely not be bored. By 2nd day will be warm enough for H2O zone water park. Indoors she'll love bumper cars, roller skating, circus school, sky diving, etc, etc, etc. Great ship for families.

Just an FYI...I took a look at the Anthem for November 18th (Thanksgiving week) and there are no triple cabins available for booking. So it appears that lifeboat capacity has been reached for over double cabin occupancy at this time.

Unless you have someone to bring along so you would book two (2) double cabins, I don't think Anthem is going to work for you for Thanksgiving. There are plenty of double cabins available, and frankly, the rate is quite good considering it's a holiday week, so maybe think about bringing along someone.

Sorry...

The Thanksgiving sailing on Anthem is among the deals in the Going, Going, Gone flyer for this week:

http://www.creative.rccl.com/sales/royal/Multi_Dest/Special_Offers/rci_sales_event.pdf

Just an FYI...I took a look at the Anthem for November 18th (Thanksgiving week) and there are no triple cabins available for booking. So it appears that lifeboat capacity has been reached for over double cabin occupancy at this time.

 

Unless you have someone to bring along so you would book two (2) double cabins, I don't think Anthem is going to work for you for Thanksgiving. There are plenty of double cabins available, and frankly, the rate is quite good considering it's a holiday week, so maybe think about bringing along someone.

 

Sorry...

We currently have the same issue on our Dec 14th sailing which I find strange as I figured it would be less kids on that one but if you go to make a reservation it states that only cabins for 2 persons are left. Even the Jr. Suites are listed as two people only. They must be out of berths on the lifeboats.

-Sean

Just an FYI...I took a look at the Anthem for November 18th (Thanksgiving week) and there are no triple cabins available for booking. So it appears that lifeboat capacity has been reached for over double cabin occupancy at this time.

 

Unless you have someone to bring along so you would book two (2) double cabins, I don't think Anthem is going to work for you for Thanksgiving. There are plenty of double cabins available, and frankly, the rate is quite good considering it's a holiday week, so maybe think about bringing along someone.

 

Sorry...

If we go, and that's still a big if, our mother-in-law would be joining us. In fact, that is the only way we would be going, is if she agrees to join us as our guest. So we would likely be able to book 2 rooms. I won't comment here on how crazy I find it that my husband has suggested a cruise for the holiday, but only if his mom agrees to join us. :confused:

Anthem is awesome. She was built for cooler weather. She is a very different cruising experience than a traditional ship, but we found her amazing!.

Great ship for the cold weather. Last year in February it was 68 degrees when we left Bayonne. Year before it was 6 degrees. Plenty of enclosed space and activities. Go for it!

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