Just off Anthem--quick review

[kenandlaura06]

Back home after the 5 day Anthem trip to Bermuda. It was a great trip and overall we were very pleased. There were 6 in our party (4 adults and 2 kids, 4 and 7 yrs old) and we had two balcony rooms on deck 8.

 

Bermuda: We took a glass bottom boat tour and visited Horseshoe Bay for a few hours on our first day in Bermuda. Horseshoe Bay was amazing of course, though very, very crowded. My husband waited in line for almost an hour to get us lunch. The line for the bar was equally as long! We took a taxi to Horseshoe Bay and had no problem getting there and back quickly--lines for buses and transfers through the cruise line seem long. On the 2nd day in Bermuda, we took the kids to Snorkel Beach. It was so convenient and a good beach for kids to swim at. Obviously not as beautiful as Horseshoe Bay but my kids were very happy. We noticed storm clouds coming and were able to get the kids off the beach and back onto the ship before the rain came!

 

Positives:

 

Service: Service was great all week and the staff was great with my kids.

 

Adventure Ocean: My kids enjoyed going there and there were lots of options for times and activities. Our cruise was for our 10th anniversary and we wanted to have some time each day to ourselves and the program was perfect. We dropped them off on 2 afternoons, 1 evening, and then utilized the Adventure Dining once and the My Time Family Dining once. It was great.

 

H2O zone: My kids could not get enough of the wave pool. We spent most our sea days there and despite the many people on board, that pool did not feel too crowded. We were not able to find a lounge chair around the outdoor pool, but with young kids that didn't really matter because we were always in the water with them. In addition, we noticed a great deal of vigilance by the staff around the pool deck due to the sad event on the last cruise. I also liked the fact that the swim diaper rules were being enforced. Another passenger on board became quite angry with the staff that her child was not supposed to be in the wave pool because the child was in a swim diaper and despite her anger, they enforced the rule.

 

iFly:We loved trying the iFly and the instructor was really great working with my children. My son was quite nervous and the instructor went out of his way to make him feel comfortable.

SeaPlex--my son took the acrobatic class and my husband and children loved the bumper cars. My son loved the Xbox, though he was only able to play once and we all enjoyed the ping pong tables.

 

Food:We liked the cafe at 270 and had lunch there on Day 1 and Day 4. My husband and I ate at Izumi one evening and enjoyed it very much. We had a nice adult meal at The Grand the first evening and all 6 of us at at Silk and even though we had two different reservation windows (6-6:30 and 6:15-6:45) we were able to get a table for 6 together. My family of 4 enjoyed a meal at Chic, as well. We thought there was a nice selection at the Windjammer and the desserts were great all week long. Sorrento's was decent for a snack. While the food wasn't amazing, we thought that it was all fine for such a large ship.

 

Movie on pool deck: They showed Zootopia. Fun way for families to spend an evening. Wish they showed another PG or PG13 movie at 7:00 pm another night on the cruise because it was a great venue!

 

Negatives:

 

Schedule changes. I made all my reservations in advance for meals and shows and there were several changes to show times which then threw off meal reservations. I then tried to make changes while on board using the app to no avail. Called ext 7000 as was advertised and couldn't get anyone to answer. The DreamWorks character breakfast was moved from Day 5 when I initially booked it to Day 2 and I had our iFly and North Star reservations for Day 2 in the morning as well, so it made it pretty busy for that morning. I would not have booked the breakfast if I had known it would be on Day 2 (and would not recommend the breakfast as I thought it was not a good value--see below)

 

DreamWorks character breakfast: I booked this in advance and paid $50 for 4 adults and 2 kids to go. Not worth the money IMO. The breakfast was the basic dining room breakfast (not surprising there) but then there were just 3 characters from Madagascar--my kids were really hoping for characters from Shrek or Kung Fu Panda, and I thought for the $50 there would be just a little more to it. Maybe more dancing or interaction or a small souvenir. Since there were meet and greet opportunities with those characters throughout the week, I really don't feel like we got anything extra for our money for the breakfast.

 

American Icon: I didn't eat there personally, but my husband and parents did and they said it was their least favorite meal of the week.

 

Great trip and we would cruise Anthem again with kids!

[Yorkvillain]

Nice recap. I'm glad to see that the bar at Horseshoe Bay is open!

[marci22]

Nice review!

[Mewissy]

Thanks for your thoughts on the breakfast. I have been considering it. At first I thought only my husband and I had to pay and thought that was great. But, then I learned only children under 5 were free. So, I really needed to weigh if it was worth $50 as my kids may be on the older side for characters - they will be 10, 8, and 8. If there are only 3 characters, I don't think we'll book.

 

Thanks! You just saved me money!