Anthem of the Seas - New England 8/25 Review

[awestover89]

We just got back this morning from the first Anthem New England cruise, 8/25 -9/3 and I thought I'd post a quick review. Haven't uploaded any photos yet, so this will just be a text review for now.

 

Boarding

 

Our hotel didn't have a shuttle and we were advised that taxi's charged a flat rate of around $65 to get to the port from our hotel. This was insane as it was less than 10 miles. We ended up booking an Uber car, it was free except the tip since it was our first time using the app, but the price was less than $20, including tolls and tip. If you don't have a Royal transfer or a hotel with a shuttle, I highly advise using Uber to get to Bayonne/Cape Liberty. It was a much better price than we were quoted for a taxi.

 

I would describe the boarding as "organized chaos". We did not upload photos so we had to get a picture taken, but that and the medical questionnaire process went quick and smooth. We then had to wait in auditorium like seating while one row at a time was allowed to board. It reminded me of my high school graduation. We didn't have any cell coverage inside the waiting area, and I couldn't get Royal IQ to work at that point, but it went fairly quick. We were on board maybe 30-45 minutes after arriving at the port.

 

On Board Activities

 

There was a lot to do on the ship, but at the same time it often felt like there was nothing to do. The SeaPlex had bumper cars, roller skates, and gymnastics, but the times felt extremely limited. The activities were typically only offered for a small 2 hour window about half of the days of the cruise, and they were limited to how many people could participate. We did not end up getting to do anything in the SeaPlex, based on the person and time limits I would estimate that at most 600 people out of the ~5000 on board were able to do the activities.

 

The Ripcord was a lot of fun. I was at the upper limit of the weight restriction (about 10-15 pounds below the max) and was able to enjoy it, but I doubt if I ever got more than 2 feet off the ground. Weight does play a factor, and they will refuse you if you are over the maximum. I will also say that it can be a bit rough on your back, so maybe think twice if you have a bad back. My head and legs were higher than my stomach, so I was almost in a slight U-shape for most of the time, which did cause me some lower back pain.

 

North Star was interesting. We did it on a sea day and there really wasn't a lot to see. Doing it at a port might be better, but the lady running it did tell us that they don't do the side-to-side unless the ship is well under capacity, or there is enough of a demand that they can charge for it.

 

The Puzzle Room was amazing, a lot of fun, but we had a good group. We missed the all time record for escaping by 4 minutes :cool:

 

Entertainment

 

We have never done any shows on a cruise before, but with all the hype of 270 and it being a bigger ship, we set up reservations for all three shows, and we also did another show in the 270. Overall I was incredibly disappointed. The Gift and Spectra's Caberat felt like a lot of the scenes didn't fit. There was a lot of showing off what they could do, no matter if it made sense or not. I've only been to maybe 6 or 7 musicals before this cruise, so I'm not the greatest judge, but I was not impressed. We ended up skipping We Will Rock You because of how disappointed we were in the other shows. There was also a Virtual Symphony in the cruise compass one day, supposedly starring the American Philharmonic, but when we arrived at 270 it was actually some sort of virtual Jazz concert. 270 was full at the start of the show, and I think maybe 10 people were still there at the end.

 

Dining and Beverages

 

This was our first cruise doing a beverage package, we went with Royal Replenish. I'm still glad we went with it, but there was some problems. For such a large ship we were told that there were only 6 free style machines. One was in maintenance mode the entire cruise, one was locked in the nightclub and only accessible when the Nightclub was open, so most of the time there was only 4 machines available. A lot of drinks were out the entire cruise, and the coffee shop was out of a lot of syrups. About half of their hot chocolate flavors were unavailable for the entire cruise.

 

Overall we really liked the food in the four main dining rooms, and we enjoyed our waiter as well. Windjammer was a bit lacking in variety, and the two times we went to the Solarium Bistro it basically felt like just another, smaller Windjammer.

 

We ate at Johnny Rockets a few times, for being a paid restaurant the prices were actually really good. I get the feeling it would be more expensive to eat at a Johnny Rockets on land than on the ship, and the quality was phenomenal.

 

I think that about sums up the basics of our time on board. I'll do ports in the next post.

[awestover89]

Boston

 

In Boston we just did a self guided tour, walking along the Freedom Trail and stopping at a few places along the way. There is really good public transit right near the ship, which was great. Overall we didn't feel rushed at all, getting off and back on went smooth.

 

Portland

 

We did a lobster boat tour in Portland, and went to the Observatory, a building that looks like a lighthouse but was used to signal flags when ships were coming in so dock workers could get a head start preparing to unload the ships. The city is very walkable. The only small downside was that we were there on a Sunday, and Maine has a state law prohibiting commercial lobstering on Sundays. We still got to go out on a lobster boat and pull in the traps, but all lobsters had to be thrown back since it was a Sunday. We went to a water front floating restaurant called Dimillo's. It was amazing.

 

Bar Harbor

 

Here we hiked Cadillac Mountain. We felt a little rushed for time, the hike took longer than we anticipated, but it was still a lot of fun. There were some problems with the tenders getting tied off to the boat, which delayed the first group off. There was also a lot of fighting from people trying to cut in line. They did issue tender tickets, but the first tender (scheduled at 7:30) was a first come first serve. We got tickets to be safe, then went down at about 6:45AM to start waiting and there was already a small line. A few people showed up with tender tickets and started yelling when the staff told them they still had to go to the back of the line. Security wasn't called, but it took the staff a while to get order back. I'm not sure if it went smoother for the later tenders.

 

St. John

 

We rented a car and did a self tour of the Bay of Fundy. We did the reversing falls, and went up to the Sea Caves at St. Martins at low tide. The caves were a little crowded but not too bad, I'd recommend either going bare foot or wearing boots. You are walking along the ocean floor and there are a lot of wet spots, clay, and slippery rocks.

 

The hours here were odd. We were in port from 11AM to 11PM, which meant we barely missed the first low tide. There was also a problem; non-US/Canadian citizens had to report to immigration before we could be given clearance to disembark. There were maybe 20-25 people who did not report to guest services, so we were delayed quite a bit. It was around noon before they were able to track down all the people and get us clearance to start disembarking. I understand the laws and that we couldn't get off until the border patrol (or whoever was in charge) allowed us, but it was poorly communicated in my opinion and a lot of people were getting angry.

 

Halifax

 

We rented a car here as well and went to Peggy's Cove and the Swiss Air 111 memorial, and up to Burntcoat Head Park. Burntcoat was amazing, it's also along the Bay of Fundy and you can walk the ocean floor at low tide. They have the largest tide differential between low and high tide in the world, and we got to see it first hand. We were taking pictures of a seagull on a rock maybe 5-10 feet out into the sea from where the water currently was. We were standing at the edge, and went to switch lenses on our camera. It took less than 2 minutes and we realized our shoes were covered with water. The rock we were taking pictures of had vanished, completely underwater. There is also an island there that at high tide is clearly an island, but at low tide you can see the cliffs leading up from the floor. It was a great sight.

 

Unfortunately, we almost missed the all aboard. There is heavy construction, and we couldn't find a gas station in the downtown of the city to refuel our rental. We made it right at the all aboard time, but there was still a huge line on the gangway and an announcement was made that there were 300 people on a RCCL excursion that weren't back yet, so we ended up being safe. We gave ourselves 45 minutes from when we left the public gardens until the all aboard, and it almost wasn't enough. Definitely got the heart's racing, but overall was a good day.

[hansolosmom]

thanks for the review - I'm not a show person either so I keep going back and forth on if we'll see them.

 

It's weird they were out of all those syrups and stuff for both coffee and the issues with the freestyle machines. It sounds like they really need to inventory better!

 

I love Peggy's cove it is so pretty out there. I'd love to do that itinerary and try that Burntcoat place you visited - sounds cool

[cidymom]

Thanks for your review. Always wanted to do this itinerary but worried about the seas at that time of the year as I always get seasick. How did you find the sailing from Boston to Canada? Were the seas rough? Thanks for your comments.

[awestover89]

Thanks for your review. Always wanted to do this itinerary but worried about the seas at that time of the year as I always get seasick. How did you find the sailing from Boston to Canada? Were the seas rough? Thanks for your comments.

 

We lucked out, the storms all stayed away. There was one night, I think the sea day from Bar Harbor to St. John if I remember correctly, where we had some strong winds and high waves, but nothing bad at all. Neither my husband nor I got seasick at all, and we normally have at least one day where we start to feel a little queasy.

[cincicruisers]

Thanks for sharing your review with us.

[defiant]

Very nice review. I was on there with you. I was wondering why they don't swing the North Star far over the side like you see in the ads.

 

The odd time from being in Saint John from what I am told is that the ship needs to enter and leave the harbor at high tide because there is a 30 foot difference in the tide.

 

The Captain's Corner is always my favorite. There is usually one or two know it all's there. Like the Coast Guard Auxiliary guy who was lecturing the Captain about water depths around Liberty Island and wanted to know if he had wrestle the wheel away from the Pilot. LOL.

Edited September 7, 2016 by defiant

[cyndepet]

Thanks for your review - we go in a month. So excited!

[easyboy]

Thanks for the review.

[Clarea]

Nice report, thanks.

[loubetti]

North Star was interesting. We did it on a sea day and there really wasn't a lot to see. Doing it at a port might be better, but the lady running it did tell us that they don't do the side-to-side unless the ship is well under capacity, or there is enough of a demand that they can charge for it.

 

 

Not surprising as Anthem is very much a top-heavy ship, and they don't need that thing swinging over the side when the ship is at heavier weight with pax, most of whom will be in the superstructure, not low in the hull.

 

A very nice "Fox" review; fair and balanced. :D

[FM]

Appreciate the excellent well-rounded review. We have the Canada/New England tentatively booked for next fall aboard the Anthem so it was quite informative to read about your experiences.

 

How did you find navigating around on the ship was ... family member has mobility issues so wondering if it took a while to get around to the various venues etc ...

[cruisercathy]

I will be sailing on the Anthem next August for New England/Canada.....Where do you suggest to eat lunch on embarkation day of the Windjammer is so crowded, what else is opened?

 

I am getting so nervous as the last time we cruised on RC was over 10 years ago and the food was not good...always cool.warm, never hot and I have read so many reviews saying the same about the Anthem.

[awestover89]

Appreciate the excellent well-rounded review. We have the Canada/New England tentatively booked for next fall aboard the Anthem so it was quite informative to read about your experiences.

 

How did you find navigating around on the ship was ... family member has mobility issues so wondering if it took a while to get around to the various venues etc ...

 

Except late at night the elevators were often fairly crowded and seemed slow to arrive. Might have just been our bad luck, whenever we were on decks 14/15 all the elevators were on 3-5, and when we were on decks 3-5 seemed like all elevators were on 14/15. Aside from the elevators we didn't have any difficulties navigating the ship. Around the shops and Royal Esplanade on deck 4 there were often large crowds and getting through them was a little difficult.

[awestover89]

I will be sailing on the Anthem next August for New England/Canada.....Where do you suggest to eat lunch on embarkation day of the Windjammer is so crowded, what else is opened?

 

I am getting so nervous as the last time we cruised on RC was over 10 years ago and the food was not good...always cool.warm, never hot and I have read so many reviews saying the same about the Anthem.

 

Cafe 270 on deck 5 had salads and sandwiches, Sorrentos on deck 4 had pizza, the Solarium Bistro on deck 14 was open, though I'm not sure what their lunch menu was, and Johnny Rockets was open if you don't mind paying. Burgers were $2.50 each, fries/onion rings were $1.50 each.

[loug1601]

I was also on this cruise. I was told that they only swing the North Star over the sides of the ship on sailings of 12 nights or longer.

[Addictedtocruising]

Appreciate the excellent well-rounded review. We have the Canada/New England tentatively booked for next fall aboard the Anthem so it was quite informative to read about your experiences.

 

How did you find navigating around on the ship was ... family member has mobility issues so wondering if it took a while to get around to the various venues etc ...

 

We were on this sailing also!

 

To avoid the crowds in the Esplanade we always took deck 5 to get from one end of the ship to the other, it's open and goes through Bionic bar on one side and outside Wonderland on the other.

You can look down and thank yourself for not getting caught up in the "clusters" that sometimes happen on the Esplanade :D

[makunc1]

I was also on this cruise. I was told that they only swing the North Star over the sides of the ship on sailings of 12 nights or longer.

 

That makes sense. We were told that it is a longer trip when they go side to side, so to make sure everyone gets a chance to do it, they shorten the trip and make it available to more people. On a 12+ night sailing, there would probably be enough availability.

[beezer248]

Great review! I will be on the Anthem in a few weeks, and wanted to mention that the lobster boats can take lobsters after early September. It is not a "Sunday" law rather a seasonal one.

[bbahorik]

How was the weather at each port? I am packing for a September 21st cruise and wondering what to pack...haven't done the Canadian/New England route before...

[DaisyL]

How was the weather at each port? I am packing for a September 21st cruise and wondering what to pack...haven't done the Canadian/New England route before...

 

Having cruised several times on the same route during Sep. 21, I can say it's unpredictable. It can be cool or hot! I live in NY and the weather is very similar

at these ports; except maybe a little cooler. Fall can be wet or damp too.

 

First look at the weather forecast right before leaving. Prepare to dress in layers; you may need a jacket in the morning but short sleeves in the afternoon. Have an umbrella or raincoat, just in case. Once, we had a boat excursion in the rain and it was cool; it wasn't cancelled so a raincoat was needed also for a outside walking tour in Halifax. I always pack a lightweight fitness fleece, and layered with the rainjacket, it covered all cooler weather. Another, we had a heatwave in Boston and Halifax (90's but rare) but we were prepared by looking at the forecast. It was fantastic to sit by the pool while in Boston when the ship was empty since we've been there so many times. But on another cruise we toured the Freedom trail, also 90s. The Solarium is enclosed and gets very hot, also the indoor pool; so a bathing suit, or shorts are needed. This time of year is very unpredictable in the Northeast.

 

Have a great time! I'm jealous... it's my most favorite time and cruise.

[awestover89]

How was the weather at each port? I am packing for a September 21st cruise and wondering what to pack...haven't done the Canadian/New England route before...

 

For us it was quite warm, but we are so used to Alaska weather that low 70s tends to feel rather warm. It was a little chilly around the Bay of Fundy when we were at the Sea Caves, but that was largely from the wind coming off the bay. When we were in Canada the temperature ranged from 19-21c (66-70F) I think Boston was low 80s, Miane was mid-70s. Sunny at all ports, a bit of fog when we were in Halifax and the sea day heading back to Bayonne.