Better Late Than Never: Our Anthem Journey 21 February 2016

[Gennee]

This is a review/trip report/photo essay about our cruise on the Anthem waaay back in February.

 

I meant to get this going much sooner but life just kept interfering. I even thought about not doing it at all, but then changed my mind.

 

This was a 12-night cruise to 6 islands that turned into a 10-night cruise to 4 islands, but I’m getting ahead of myself. There will be more on that later.

 

My name is Anne and I cruised with my husband, Scott. We are both in our early 50s. We live north of Boston, Massachusetts which is in the northeastern part of the United States.

 

While we’ve been on a number of cruises, I’ve only written one other review before this one. You can read it here if you like:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1709363

 

I’m going to try to post lots of pictures. After all nobody likes a big wall-o-text when reading Cruise Critic at work. [Not that I’m admitting anything…ahem. :p]

 

And while I’d love to share the compasses, I’m afraid we either mangled or lost them. However, if anyone has a question about anything that was scheduled, ask away. If I can answer it, I’m very happy to. And, if I can’t answer it, I’m very happy to say “I don’t know.”

 

We didn’t take many menu pictures or many food pictures. By the time we thought of it, we’d started eating and didn’t think anyone would like to see pictures of partially eaten food.

 

So now that the boring stuff is over, here we go…

 

The itinerary was:

 

21 FEB Cape Liberty, New Jersey (Dep 3:00 PM)

22 FEB At Sea

23 FEB At Sea

24 FEB Labadee, Haiti (Arr 8:00 AM, Dep 5:00 PM)

25 FEB San Juan Puerto Rico (Arr 3:00 PM, Dep 10:00 PM)

26 FEB Philipsburg, St. Maarten (Arr 9:00 AM, Dep 6:00 PM)

27 FEB Fort de France, Martinique (Arr 9:00 AM, Dep 5:00 PM)

28 FEB Bridgetown, Barbados (Arr 8:00 AM, Dep 5:00 PM)

29 FEB Basseterre, St. Kitts (Arr 11:00 AM, Dep 7:00 PM)

01 MAR At Sea

02 MAR At Sea

03 MAR At Sea

04 Mar Cape Liberty, New Jersey (Arr 6:00 AM)

 

 

We live about 5 hours drive from the port, but since sailaway was at 3:00 PM and weather can be a problem in the Northeastern US in February (see any recent Anthem thread if you doubt me ;)), we decided to drive down the day before and stay overnight in Staten Island.

 

This would have been quite brilliant since it is a 10 minute drive over the Bayonne bridge to Cape Liberty, but the bridge was closed that weekend so…

We had to drive the long away around through New Jersey and promptly got lost in Bayonne. Fortunately I spotted a shuttle and we followed it in the hope that any shuttle in Bayonne, New Jersey when a ship is in port would be going to the ship and guess what? It was.

 

Soon we were pulling into the drop off area and saw our home for the next 12 days (or so we thought):

 

 

Since we last sailed out of Port Liberty, things have improved in the drop off and parking situation. You just pull into a lot where the porters are, drop off your bags, then drive to the garage and park.

 

After parking we slalomed our way through the departing passengers and entered the terminal, checked in, went through security and had our boarding picture taken.

 

Anthem is a unique ship with some unique features. Therefore, they had some unique picture opportunities. For instance here we are sitting in an orange shoe:

 

 

We were then directed to sit with our boarding group.

 

And that’s where it went somewhat pear shaped.

 

First delay was due to the ship not getting a 0 count.

 

Next delay was due to the scanners crashing.

 

The third was due to the fact that they threw all boarding group order to the wind and it became every man for himself.

Edited May 3, 2016 by Gennee

[Gennee]

We got up to stand in the long line and noticed that they had opened a second general boarding gate in the suite area (I guess after boarding the suite guests). So we went over there thinking ourselves very clever and…ended up merging with the original line.

 



 

Not to worry, we got on board without injuring or being injured, so all was good.

 

And promptly found ourselves in a logjam because they were giving out free champagne right at the boarding area plus people were just parked there standing around waiting for their friends or something…with more people coming onboard into this tiny space by the second.

 

Yikes!

 

TIP: If you’re meeting somebody on board on boarding day look at a deck plan beforehand and choose a spot away from the gangway.

 

Good choices:

 

Any bar that’s open and serving.

 

The indoor pools in bad weather or the outdoor pool in good weather. The good news is that all pools have a bar…which is open on boarding day.

 

The casino. It is closed on boarding afternoon but it definitely won’t be crowded. <wink>

 

Bad choices:

 

Your stateroom. These don’t open until 1PM.

 

The Windjammer. Do I really need to explain this one?

 

The medical center. Let’s hope not!

 

Since we had a drink package we decided to skip the champagne and find someplace more peaceful. We headed aft to Two70 to get something to eat and drink.

 

And wow!

 

 

[Peeker28]

Following along. I can't wait to see 270, it looks amazing!!!

[cactusflower]

Yay! I love a review no matter how late it is. :) Thanks so much for doing this - I will be following along.

[SparklyNails]

We were on the same cruise, interested to see your review!

[OfTheSeasCruiser]

Looking forward to more!

 

You're off to a good start!

[Norway2]

Following along, fantastic writing! Can't wait for more!

[Gennee]

More of Two70:

 

 

[Gennee]

For lunch here we had some pressed sandwiches and soup as well as our first drink of the cruise.

 

The bar team here in Two70 was outstanding and the service in Café Two70 was also very good. The menu at CafeTwo70 was the same as the Park Café on the Allure of the Seas. We were especially looking forward to the soups which were delicious on the Allure of the Seas, especially the Black Bean.

 

While the sandwiches, salads and desserts in Two70 were all terrific, the soups were good not as good as on the Allure. And we never saw Black Bean at all.

 

TIP: We later noticed that the same soups were served in the Windjammer so if you like soup you can get the same options in either place.

 

Before we knew it, our room was ready and we headed down to see it. We had a D3 Balcony room number 13650.

 

The balcony is wedged-shaped which gave us some bonus space in addition to the standard D2-D8 balconies:

 

 

[Gennee]

There is no view forward but a nice view aft, if you don’t mind a few support braces and a big overhang:

 

 

TIP: Anthem has a number of humps, dips and angles along the side. When selecting a balcony I’d probably avoid the ones like our aft neighbor (see above) as there is less privacy. Also be aware of limited views if you choose a balcony in a dip vs. a hump.

 

Our room was also under the galley for Coastal Kitchen. We were aware of that going in and came prepared with ear plugs. It turned out it really wasn’t an issue at all noise-wise BUT something was constantly thumping and clanking outside and echoing off the overhang.

 

Good thing we had those ear plugs!

 

The inside was the same as all D balcony rooms. The bed was near the balcony with the closets flanking the sofa instead of the bed.

 

 

The size of staterooms on the Anthem may be the same as other ships but the layout makes it seem much roomier, and (very important!) without giving up storage. I have to say that Anthem has the nicest standard stateroom we’ve experienced on RCL, hands down.

 

After trying out a few bars we headed to muster and then to the Solarium for the informal CC get-together and sailaway.

[cactusflower]

Thanks for continuing your review - greatly enjoying it! Fyi - I think the orange shoe in your photo is supposed to be an orange bumper car. :)

[Jay-Bird?]

Gennee

 

Love the review. Can you tell us anything about the restaurants onboard? Lots of choices and can I assume the menu we see on-line for each restaurant is the menu they use for the entire cruise? We will be on the Anthem the first of October and really looking forward to it.

[Gennee]

Gennee

 

Love the review. Can you tell us anything about the restaurants onboard? Lots of choices and can I assume the menu we see on-line for each restaurant is the menu they use for the entire cruise? We will be on the Anthem the first of October and really looking forward to it.

 

In the four main restaurants they had two sets of menus in each.

 

For convenience let's call them menus A and B. Each restaurant had its own menu A and menu B.

 

On nights 1 through 4 all the main restaurants used menu A.

 

Then, on nights 5 though 8 they all changed to menu B.

 

Then back to A for nights 9 and 10.

 

And back to B for nights 11 and 12.

 

Of course they could use a different rotation on a different itinerary.

 

So there were a total of 8 possible menus depending on which restaurant you ate in and on what night.

[Gennee]

Thanks for continuing your review - greatly enjoying it! Fyi - I think the orange shoe in your photo is supposed to be an orange bumper car. :)

 

I know. ;)

[Jay-Bird?]

Appreciate the reply.

 

I hope you continue with your review as it is fun to read and very informative.

 

Joyce

[LuCruise]

Great review so far. It's never too late to post.

[vaborn2cruise]

Which nights were formal nights on your 12 day?

[Gennee]

There were no formal nights per se.

 

Instead one of the main restaurants, The Grande, had a formal dress code. So any night you ate there you would dress up for it.

 

If you were on Dynamic Dining Classic you would eat there whenever it came up in your set rotation. You don't know your rotation until you board so you won't know what nights you are in the formal restaurant until you board.

 

We were classic but there was glitch that changed our rotation. I'll explain that as I continue the review.

 

If you were on Dynamic Dining Choice you would chose what night to eat there. So you would choose your own formal nights.

[Gennee]

The solarium was an incredible space:

 

 

 

We went out to the bridge wings for sailaway. There were nice views:

 

 

 

 

[Gennee]

 

Soon we were passing under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge:

 

 

 

And out to sea:

 

 

On our way back to our room we passed the outdoor pool. Something is missing:

 

 

We saw that they had started roller-skating in the SeaPlex. Earlier they had bumper cars:

 

 

We went back to our room to get ready for dinner which was at the American Icon Grille. We had chosen DD Classic-Early Seating. They gave us a paper with our rotation listed, but we were a little disappointed that early seating was at 5:30. It was too early and also interfered with some plans we’d made, expecting dinner at 6:00.

 

Our rotation was:

 

American Icon Grille

Chic

The Grande

Silk

 

Then back to American Icon Grille and repeat the sequence.

[Gennee]

On the way to dinner we noticed this guy in the elevator:

 

 

Doesn’t he look shady to you? It turned out he was. You’d press the 5 button and the 3 button would light up. Or the right button would light up and the elevator would change its mind mid-ride. You’d be going from 4 to 13 and at 12 the elevator would stop and turn into a down elevator after the doors had closed.

 

I blame the parrot.

 

TIP: Don’t trust the parrot.

 

For dinner I chose the Red Snapper in Ham Cream at the waiter’s recommendation. It wasn’t good, not because it wasn’t prepared well; I just made the wrong choice. Scott got the surf and turf. The steak was…well…turf. Yeah. Way overdone.

 

We had no trouble getting drinks, even though we were on the Premium Package. And dessert was very good, although I forgot what I had.

We were at a table for two and made friends with two very nice folks at the next table.

 

After dinner we gave some thought to going to the Welcome Aboard Show but we were both knackered. So instead we decided to take a nap and wake up at 9:30 PM to better enjoy the nightlife.

[Gennee]

We’d read here that the show in Two70 on Night 1 was a great introduction to the venue, so we went there to see it.

 

They had the High Cs Horns playing:

 

 

[Gennee]

Then they showed off the projection screen and had some robo shows.

 

You can see where a couple of projectors were misaligned:

 

 

Robo show:

 

 

And a projection show:

 

 

Two70 is an amazing venue.

 

After the show ended we looked around for something else to do.

 

We tried the Music Hall. There was a DJ but nobody was there!

 

We went to the Schooner Bar to hang out. They had the piano player. It was almost empty but not completely empty.

 

The piano player was very good so we stayed there until about 2:00.

 

Then off to bed for good.

[erby2283]

Thank you so much for your review. And thanks for posting the balcony pics. We have the exact same cabin on deck 12 opposite side so I was really interested to see how it compared to others. Hopefully, being down one deck will have a little nicer view although I can see by pictures that those overhang bars seem to go down to deck 12. Maybe someone who has sailed on 12 around the humps can answer better?

[Gennee]

Thank you so much for your review. And thanks for posting the balcony pics. We have the exact same cabin on deck 12 opposite side so I was really interested to see how it compared to others. Hopefully, being down one deck will have a little nicer view although I can see by pictures that those overhang bars seem to go down to deck 12. Maybe someone who has sailed on 12 around the humps can answer better?

 

My pleasure!

 

The overhang bars were only really noticeable when looking aft right from the railing. Even then, they didn't bother us much.

 

And if you're on Deck 12 they should be mostly above you. :)

 

We actually chose Deck 12 for our next Anthem cruise, although we'll be much more forward, so it's not really a comparable location.