Anthem of the Seas Review - 2/3 -2/15 (Long Post)

[tbillcruising]

February 3 – 15, 2019 – 12 Night Cruise to the Caribbean - Anthem of the Seas

The following is my review of our most recent experience on the Anthem.  Please do not leave rude comments.  Thank you.

 

We are Diamond on RCCL and Prime in the Casino.  This was our 4^th voyage on the Anthem.  We were a group of 3 couples that travel very well together.

 

After reading on these boards and Facebook that there was an outbreak of the flu on the Anthem the week prior to our cruise and that they were going to delay embarkation for up to 3 hours to clean the ship we decided to push back our time to arrive at the pier by an hour and a half.  This was a huge mistake.  First of all the traffic from when you turned onto the road that leads to the pier was horrendous.  It took more than an hour to get to the drop off point.  Cars were cutting in line.  People were getting out of cars and walking with tons of luggage due to the wait being so long.  They really need to find a way to control and expedite this process.  It is not a fun way to start a vacation.  We dropped our luggage, waited for our friend to get back from the parking garage and walked into the terminal.

 

By now it was about 12:30.  We were in suites so we went to the suite lane and literally walked right up to the check-in counter.  It took all of 2 minutes to check in and we walked directly onto the gangway to the ship.  Once inside we went right to our cabins.  We waited in the stair area for 5 minutes and the doors were opened and we proceeded to our cabin.  Easy-peasy.  Our suites were on Deck 6.  We dropped our bags, grabbed our drink cups included in our pre-paid soda package and walked one deck down to the 270 Café for our Roast Beef Sandwich embarkation lunch.  Here is where I am going to insert that as I stated we have sailed on this ship several times and have been very happy with everything.  This cruise, although we had a great time, things were “off”.  There will be several examples of this ahead in the review.

 

So we got our food in 270, found a place to sit and then took our drink cups up to the bar to be filled with soft drinks.  Alvin, the bartender started walking toward us and saw the cups, turned around and walked over to other guests who came up to the bar after us and waited on them instead.  Crazy!  He waited on several others as we stood there watching and getting madder by the minute.  This is not the first time we have been ignored with our cups on RCCL cruises.  You spend all of this money on beverage packages and this is how you are treated when you try to get a drink.  I will also mention that there is not a self-serve beverage station in or near 270 or we would have just served ourselves.  The food was good and we finally enjoyed our first lunch on board.

 

The muster drill was routine.  It does bother me that you cannot see the tv’s or the crew demonstrating from every seat in the room but we have been on many cruises and know what we are supposed to do.

 

After the muster drill we proceeded to the dining room because even though all 3 couples shared booking numbers with our travel agent so that we would be connected for dining and such we were all assigned to different tables.  It was not an easy task, it took 3 crew members and us refusing to leave the area until the issue was resolved until they finally found us a spot for the time we wanted to dine, together.

 

When we got back to our cabin our luggage still wasn’t there.  My husband and our friend went looking for it.  They found our bags on different floors all over the ship.  Now all of our bags were clearly tagged with the color coded deck tags provided by RCCL.  We were on Deck 6.  They found some of our luggage on Deck 8, 9, 3 & 4.  WTH???   Like I said, there were many things that were “off” on this cruise.

 

Our cabin steward never came to introduce himself until the middle of the second day.  There were 2 days when our room never got made up.  We are early risers and go to breakfast around 8ish every morning.  On other cruises our steward knew when we usually went out and our cabin was always made up by the time we would come back.  Not this cruise, our cabin was never made up until after we returned from LUNCH!  It was so weird…. and we were in a Jr Suite.

 

More about dining… dinner and service in the main dining room was way off.  The first 2 nights the food came out cold, not even luke warm, down right cold.  On the third night we said something about it to the waiter and head waiter and we finally got some pretty hot food.  The next night we went to a specialty restaurant (we ate at 3 thoughout the cruise, Wonderland, Jaimie's 2x, Chef’s Table and Chops.  Food and service were wonderful each time).  The next night we go back to our table in the main dining room and our server is mad at us. Yes, you read that right.  He was not speaking to us.  We asked what is wrong?  You are upset because we went to Jaimie's last night?  Yup! He was mad that we went to another restaurant.  Can you imagine?  He was cold to us for 2 nights.  My husband talked to the head waiter about this, the cold food and the fact that we were almost run down by food carts 2x in the last couple of nights.  We were taken care of very well as the head waiter was not happy with the way the server acted towards us and the fact that we had cold food served to us for several nights. He met my husband for coffee the next morning and said he was going to make it up to our group.  We were treated like royalty for lunch (on him at Jaimie’s) and dinner (special appetizers, filet mignon, wine, champagne for everyone).  The food and service were amazing.

 

We ate breakfast and lunch in the Windjammer almost every day and the food was excellent.  So many choices.  We were never disappointed up there.

 

We hang out in the casino every night and the crew in there were great!  We had a great time every night!  Stephan, Lutzie, Alexandra, Joel, Charlie and everyone else working in there were so much fun.  We do not buy an alcohol package as we get free drinks in the casino.  The drinks were awesome as were the people serving them!!

 

The ports were nice.  We had some cloudy days and a little rain but it was still better than being back home in winter weather.

 

San Juan - took a cab to the Marriot.  Did a little gambling and had some drinks.

 

St. Maarten - Did the Beach Rendezvous excursion through RCCL.  It was ok.  The extremely pushy people walking the beach selling things and trying to give massages were very annoying and really took away from the enjoyment.  At one point a toothless extremely dirty guy carrying a bag came up to us and said to my husband “I want to show your wife what I do”!  WTH???

 

Antigua - Did the Beach Catamaran with Lobster Lunch tour.  It was not at all what we expected.  It turned out to be a booze cruise with people pulling down their pants and mooning each other, falling down drunks.  The lobster was not good.  It was pre cooked, thrown in a cooler and then they throw them on the grill until they are the consistency of rubber.  They had no taste and you couldn’t chew them.  Gross!  This excursion was not cheap and it was horrible.  We canceled the excursions we had for the next 3 islands after these two.

 

St Lucia - We got off the ship and walked around the shops at the pier, had a couple of local beers and went back and enjoyed the empty ship.

 

Barbados - We only got off because my friend need to pick up a couple of gifts.  We went right back to the ship and enjoyed the day.

 

St Kitts - We took a cab to the Marriot.  We were going to go to the beach there but it was very windy so we just walked around, checked out the casino and then went back to the pier and shopped a little.

 

We had a great time on the cruise.  I love that we were on the ship for 12 nights and we really enjoy the Anthem.  I don’t know what the problem was this time around but a lot of things were different.  I think we are going to take a break from the Anthem for a while. We earned a free balcony cruise in the casino and we will be picking a different ship for that cruise.  

 

Thanks for reading.  

Edited February 28, 2019 by tbillcruising

[loudbmw]

Thank you for posting your review and are sorry you experienced so many issues, we were on the Anthem the week before your cruise (we did not become ill).

 

I agree with you that there is no excuse for cold food being served in the main dining room.  I normally do not complain much but draw the line on cold food.  A good waiter will usually remedy the situation right away by using the asst. waiter or even the head waiter if necessary to replace the entree immediately.  I'm glad the head waiter took care of you at Jaimie’s later.

 

Like you, we are early risers in the morning, we always make it a point to make sure our stateroom attendant is aware of our early habits as soon as we meet him.  Most times it works.

 

Lou

Edited February 28, 2019 by loudbmw

[Cruiselover0426]

Great review.  So glad you enjoyed your vacation in spite of the mishaps.  Royal really has gone downhill in many ways.  Nickle and diming, food quality (unless you are willing to pay extra), service, attitude.  It is sad.  So many are Loyal to Royal and sadly Royal takes advantage of their loyal passengers instead of rewarding them.  Service, food, attitudes should be excellent.  Without loyal customers, there would be no Royal Caribbean Cruise Line.

[oddly excitered]

Sorry about the "misses" on your voyage, We went on the cruise after and had great experiences with all aspects of our trip. this was the school vacation week so the ship was totally packed. got to port early(about 10:30) and waited in traffic about a half hour, checked in at entry to the building with a I PAD rep and got our customs stamp, seemed like that stamp was all that mattered as we walked past every single line and right onto the ship. Room steward was very attentive all week, dining staff fabulous and food was good if somewhat repetitive. Glad you still had a great time!

  Oh yeah, did you use the magnetic sign for your door saying you were in or out? steward showed us that on the first day and it worked great for him to know when we were away and he could clean.

Edited February 28, 2019 by oddly excitered

[Cruiselover0426]

42 minutes ago, oddly excitered said:

Sorry about the "misses" on your voyage, We went on the cruise after and had great experiences with all aspects of our trip. this was the school vacation week so the ship was totally packed. got to port early(about 10:30) and waited in traffic about a half hour, checked in at entry to the building with a I PAD rep and got our customs stamp, seemed like that stamp was all that mattered as we walked past every single line and right onto the ship. Room steward was very attentive all week, dining staff fabulous and food was good if somewhat repetitive. Glad you still had a great time!

  Oh yeah, did you use the magnetic sign for your door saying you were in or out? steward showed us that on the first day and it worked great for him to know when we were away and he could clean.

School vacation weeks are usually very packed.

Edited February 28, 2019 by Cruiselover0426

[oddly excitered]

2 minutes ago, Cruiselover0426 said:

School vacation weeks are usually very packed.

Insane amount of people! We have to go when school is closed due to my wife's job, ship did not seem overcrowded, no long lines except for tendering at coco cay and service was spot on. I was very impressed with how the crew handled everything.

[boscobeans]

Same exact cruise 02/03.

 

Arrived around 11 and waited a few minutes to drop off luggage and park in the lot.

 

Walked to the terminal went right to a check in station, had our pictures taken  (even though we submitted them online).

 

Went right up the escalator and onto the ship and headed to the MDR (Grande) to check out our table, a two top next to a window.

Walked a little around the ship to get acquainted with it and hit the Windjammer. 

Relaxed over a very nice lunch and soon the rooms were ready.

Our luggage was at our door when we got there (a nice surprise).

 

All our morning and afternoon meals if we decided to eat were in the Windjammer.

All our dinners in the Grande. Could have been a little more variety in the menu however all the meals at our table as well as a nearby table (great folks) were timely and were never cold, always hot.

Had a little trouble getting the beer I wanted the first night, but after that there were two big glasses waiting for me when we walked in.

The room---Very clean, small bathroom and in general narrower than most or so it seemed

The veranda--(7290) was very large and very clean

The bars--never had an issue getting drinks at any (both of us had packages).

The Casino--Clean, neat and a nice place to have some fun and make our donations.

Shows--Too loud (painfully so) but the Juggling act was fantastic.

The Ship--Had just about anything anyone could want on a cruise.

The staff--No problems but bartender service in the theater and casino could have been better.

Room steward--Rosnet, was wonderful.

Itinerary--Been there dozens of times but always something new to see or to do.

Departure--Our number was called when it was due and we walked off one of the two gangways.

Luggage--Separated and laid out and found with no trouble.

Customs---Stood in front of a scanner for 3 seconds and were welcomed home.

Porter--Took all our bags to our car.

Paid at a kiosk and drove home.

 

Wonderful way to spend 12 nights on a wonderful and well designed, functioning ship.

Thank You Royal Caribbean. 

 

[LBumb]

Thanks for review