Review - Anthem of The Seas 3rd January 12 day cruise

[JezzaC]

I wrote a review about our cruise to Cruise Critic and will also share it in here. If you can have some questions - will also do my best to answer those.

 

This was our 6th cruise - first one on Royal Caribbean. We have mainly cruised on Celebrity Cruises before. We chose the cruise due to Quantum Class - no formal nights nor main dining room.

 

As new ship should it was in very good condition and clean. Ship reminded a lot of Solstice Class on Celebrity which was really pleasant.

 

Ship has endless amount of activities - besides the attractions as North Star, iFly and so on there are lots of trivia sessions, dance classes, fitness classes just to mention few activities. So the choices are nearly endless - you can be very active if you want - and if not, then just relax and enjoy your vacation. We didn't take part in activities despite the attractions but those seemed pretty popular based on the participant amount - places were packed.

 

There is also wide amount of entertainment on board - there is daily numerous amount of live music events, We Will Rock You - musical, Spectra's Cabaret, Gift, visiting artists, game shows and parties. We Will Rock You is great musical and worth seeing. We saw part of the Spectra's Cabaret and it was a mismatch collection of everything possible. We saw few game shows Name That Tune Live, Quest 2.0 and Love and Marriage - those were all greatly presented and produced - so worth seeing absolutely. However have to say that man dressed as a woman hasn't been funny any more for a long time - just as hint to Quest 2.0. Visiting artists on our cruise were Beatlemaniacs, couple comedians and aerial acrobats. We only went to see the Beatlemaniacs and it was also very entertaining. Parties were Groovy Town, Anthem Rocks, Silent Disco and Red. We didn't participate any but based on seeing from television they didn't seem to be very entertaining.

 

Dining has caused a big discussion related to Quantum Class - mainly speaking food was surprisingly good. We visited all free restaurants and Chic and American Icon were our favorites. Silk wasn't that good on first visit, but on second visit food was really good. We visited Grande on first night and things were a bit unorganized.

 

We tried all of the specialty restaurants despite Johnny Rockets. Izumi and Chops Grille were most to our liking. Wonderland wasn't that good - they had few good dishes and then also quite many misses - they are trying to be too complex. Jamie's was our least favorite - food was really basic, homestyle food which can be done easily at home (and even better).

 

Windjammer was usually quite packed but food was quite nice for buffet. We also tried to try Solarium Bistro once for lunch - but had to walk out after couple bites - food was quite bad. Solarium Bistro seems to be Windjammer copy with less selection and worse taste.

 

270 was absolutely our favorite place on the ship. It was great venue for having a breakfast and lunch or having coffee at afternoon and just sitting and relaxing. Cafe 270 has a good quality selection of items available - they serve Seattle's Best Coffee, while La Patisserie serves Starbucks - both went down pretty well for us.

 

There is also a huge amount of bars throughout the ship. Since we are into wine our favorite was Vintages. We visited all others than North Star Bar - and service was good in all of them.

 

Embarkation and Disembarkation processes were the easiest we have seen. When ship was ready for embarking we were in ship in less than 15 minutes and whole embarkation process from Royal Theater to outside terminal took less than 20 minutes.

 

We had regular Superior Balcony Cabin - cabin is nice size and has plenty of storing space.

 

We took few Shore excursions through the ship and they were good. On one tour guide and driver were all the time coming back a bit late - but otherwise everything went fine.

 

Personnel was smiling and really helpful throughout the ship. Didn't see grumpy faces or bad service. We had some issues related to billing during the cruise, but all of those were handled right away and promptly. Managers were asking feedback constantly and were also taking notes about the comments. They also returned to our questions and comments later on - seemed that they appreciated customer opinions.

 

After being on Celebrity Cruises we were a bit unsure how experience would be - especially after mixed reviews on Quantum Class - but we are really happy about taking the cruise and will surely get back to Quantum Class again!

[CruisingChick]

Thank you so much for your review. We are sailing Anthem in 48 days.

 

What time was your disembarkation from the ship? Just wondering as it seems if you get off early enough there are no problems but later on things start to back up.

 

We have been on over 20 Celebrity cruises. This will be our 3rd RCL cruise as we don't like to fly any longer and can drive to Bayonne (58 miles from our home).

 

Thanks again.

[jonj]

Thank you for your review

 

Did you save any compasses or menus you can post?

Would you mind sharing which shore excursions you took through the ship?

[emileg]

Thank you so much for your review. We are sailing Anthem in 48 days.

 

What time was your disembarkation from the ship? Just wondering as it seems if you get off early enough there are no problems but later on things start to back up.

 

We have been on over 20 Celebrity cruises. This will be our 3rd RCL cruise as we don't like to fly any longer and can drive to Bayonne (58 miles from our home).

 

Thanks again.

Hi there fellow Celebrity Cruiser. We just got back from the Anthem. You can pretty much choose anytime you want to disembark, but have to fill out the requested form. Disembarkation starts at about 7:00 a.m. and continues until 10:30. We choose 8:00 and were in our car by 8:15. The new terminal and parking garage are a pleasure.

Edited January 20, 2016 by emileg

[JezzaC]

Thank you so much for your review. We are sailing Anthem in 48 days.

 

What time was your disembarkation from the ship? Just wondering as it seems if you get off early enough there are no problems but later on things start to back up.

 

We have been on over 20 Celebrity cruises. This will be our 3rd RCL cruise as we don't like to fly any longer and can drive to Bayonne (58 miles from our home).

 

Thanks again.

 

We picked time 8:15 - it was group 25 of 40someting, so could say we were in the middle.

[JezzaC]

Thank you for your review

 

Did you save any compasses or menus you can post?

Would you mind sharing which shore excursions you took through the ship?

 

We didn't save any Compasses. Menus haven't changed from what they were before Anthem coming to US, so those can be found from internet.

 

Labadee: We booked Cabana

Barbados: Concorde experience

St Kitts: Catamaran to Nevis and snorkling