Help please - Adventure vs. Anthem

[mschatz]

Looking for opinions

 

While we are not "seasoned" cruisers, we have found Celebrity to generally be our favorite in terms of the ships (we are looking forward to our sailing on the Eclipse in a couple of months), the food, level of service, entertainment, etc.

 

My family went on the Anthem for a Christmas week cruise in 2017 with our teenagers and even though the ship was packed, we thought RC did a decent job of managing it all. Food is certainly a step down from Celebrity (although specialty restaurants were better than OK), and service was excellent considering the number of people on board. We however did not love the boat itself finding it somewhat charmless and found the Royal Esplanade area to be downright tacky.

 

My wife and I are considering a Canada/New England cruise on the Adventure with just the two of us and are wondering what people think. We can drive to the port so that makes life so much easier and we are looking at a time where many kids will be back at school, so I would expect a different kind of crowd on the ship. And pricing is excellent right now.

 

Looking for opinions about the Adventure given our experience on the Anthem.

 

Thanks!

[Clarea]

We sail on Adventure at least once every year and enjoy the ship very much.  However, you should know that there are no climate controlled swimming pools on Adventure, so this could be a significant difference in cooler weather.

[Biker19]

6 minutes ago, mschatz said:

Looking for opinions about the Adventure given our experience on the Anthem.

While we prefer Anthem, Adventure will work just as well - not sure the Promenade is any less tacky. It all depends on what you are looking for. On the typical NE/Canada run, there are so many port days that the ship doesn't matter as much.

Edited August 27, 2019 by Biker19

[SDA1125]

I think the dining room experience on Adventure is more elegant than on Anthem. I don't think you can go wrong here - especially if the price is right. 

 

[Clarea]

1 minute ago, SDA1125 said:

I think the dining room experience on Adventure is more elegant than on Anthem. I don't think you can go wrong here - especially if the price is right. 

 

 

I've not been on Anthem, but I know Anthem has 4 separate dining rooms as opposed to the 3-deck high single dining room on Adventure.

[fred30]

25 minutes ago, mschatz said:

 

so I would expect a different kind of crowd on the ship. And pricing is excellent right now.
 

 

 

We did this cruise starting the last day of August in 2013 on the Explorer when we were in our early fifties.  I figured since you have teenagers you may be getting close to this age.  We were pretty much the youngest people on the ship.   Mostly all the other passengers were well into their retirement.

Dining and show times are moved up.  I think the 1st seating was 5 or 5:30.  The disadvantage to this is the ship was pretty much deserted at 9pm.   Not much entertainment after that.  They were shutting down the pools and hot tubs also.    The staff just kept telling us they were being cleaned.  We did complain to guest services twice and they finally left one open longer.  Turned out there was another couple that also were complaining about this to them.

 

 

 

[marci22]

My last 5 cruises were on AD and AN. The Promenade is big and open on AD, not sure if you'd find it tacky; I prefer it to the twisting setup on Anthem, but I like 270 on Anthem. I liked the MDR food better on Anthem. I liked the WJ better on AD. 

 

Crowd will definitely be older on a Sept/Oct Canada/NE itinerary. My tip is to pick a deck near where you want to be most of the time so you don't have to depend on the elevators as much...they can get crowded on this itinerary.

[Guest maddycat]

Since you prefer Celebrity to Royal, have you looked into a fall Canada/New England cruise on the Summit?

[mschatz]

3 hours ago, fred30 said:

We did this cruise starting the last day of August in 2013 on the Explorer when we were in our early fifties.  I figured since you have teenagers you may be getting close to this age.  We were pretty much the youngest people on the ship.   Mostly all the other passengers were well into their retirement.

Dining and show times are moved up.  I think the 1st seating was 5 or 5:30.  The disadvantage to this is the ship was pretty much deserted at 9pm.   Not much entertainment after that.  They were shutting down the pools and hot tubs also.    The staff just kept telling us they were being cleaned.  We did complain to guest services twice and they finally left one open longer.  Turned out there was another couple that also were complaining about this to them.

 

 

 

That is an interesting perspective that I hadn’t thought about. You are right in about our age and while we not the late night party crowd by any stretch, it is something for us to think about. Thanks.

[mschatz]

3 hours ago, maddycat said:

Since you prefer Celebrity to Royal, have you looked into a fall Canada/New England cruise on the Summit?

We did look. It is a 12 day vs. 9, leaves out of Boston and is twice as much money, but we did love the Summit when we were on it last year. It is such a warm and cozy ship.

[gaylemh]

I've sailed many many times on Anthem and just sailed on Adventure this past April.  The WJ was the worst I've ever been on.  The food was cold and the bread/rolls were stale/hard.  I love my croissants in the morning.  They were so hard that they actually crumbled.   Not as many choices as Anthem either.  The MDR on Adventure was very nice, and the food was about the same as Anthem.  The shows on Adventure should have been retired years ago, except for the ice show, which was very good.  The entertainment can't compare to Anthem.  Same goes for the music around the ship.  I didn't like the casino either.  There are stools instead of chairs with backs - very uncomfortable when playing for any length of time.  The crew are great on both ships.

[Another_Critic]

Never mind.

Edited August 28, 2019 by Another_Critic

[Merion_Mom]

5 hours ago, fred30 said:

We did this cruise starting the last day of August in 2013 on the Explorer when we were in our early fifties.  I figured since you have teenagers you may be getting close to this age.  We were pretty much the youngest people on the ship.   Mostly all the other passengers were well into their retirement.

Dining and show times are moved up.  I think the 1st seating was 5 or 5:30.  The disadvantage to this is the ship was pretty much deserted at 9pm.   Not much entertainment after that.  They were shutting down the pools and hot tubs also.    The staff just kept telling us they were being cleaned.  We did complain to guest services twice and they finally left one open longer.  Turned out there was another couple that also were complaining about this to them.

 

 

 

 

And things have changed a lot on Royal Caribbean in general in six years.

 

Half or more of the ships have first seating in the MDR at 5:30

 

Pools close earlier than they used to because they are now required to have a lifeguard on duty at all times. 

[smokeykat]

We did Anthem last year and just did Adventure in July. Now we booked Anthem for December.

Here's my take:

Windjammer was easier to do for breakfast on Adventure. Anthem always seemed to crowded and a table for 2 was harder to find. Not so on Adventure.

Shows are better on Anthem. Not that they are bad on Adventure, they are just better as Anthem has larger production shows.

Both main dining rooms are equal in my opinion. Food is the same.

The specialty Italian restaurant is excellent on Adventure. Both ships have the same steak house and it is just OK. There are better steak houses in NY or Long Island for sure.

Anthem has Wonderland which is a must do for the experience and really different.

The casino is better on Anthem. Adventure is to "old school"for me. I like roulette and there is no electronic board to show you what numbers came in previously. People were writing the numbers down.

Anthem is better for cold weather cruising.

Keep in mind if you are not going during school breaks on the Canada cruise, you will get an older crowd. A friend of mine did this last October with her husband and they are both 65. The crowd was older but they still had a good time. We did Canada on Adventure in July and there were plenty of kids and all ages of adults. Have fun in whatever you decide!

 

[marci22]

14 hours ago, gaylemh said:

I've sailed many many times on Anthem and just sailed on Adventure this past April.  The WJ was the worst I've ever been on.  The food was cold and the bread/rolls were stale/hard.  I love my croissants in the morning.  They were so hard that they actually crumbled.   Not as many choices as Anthem either. 

We were on AD May and August of last year. Just shows how variable dining can be. We loved the theme nights and food was really good. 

[alfaeric]

WRT dining, if you are in a JS or higher, having access to Coastal Kitchen is much better than the MDR for us.  And if you dine early, getting a reservation for the week is really easy as soon as you board.  So that's an Anthem > Adventure.

 

But if you already don't like the Anthem for reason X, then is there a fear to even try the Adventure?  Seems to me, at least worth an attempt.  Canada and NE cruises are far more port focused anyway, to us, so the Adventure would be a reasonable risk to try.

 

 

[fred30]

16 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

And things have changed a lot on Royal Caribbean in general in six years.

 

Half or more of the ships have first seating in the MDR at 5:30

 

Pools close earlier than they used to because they are now required to have a lifeguard on duty at all times. 

That wasn't our last cruise on RC.  It seemed most people went back to their cabin after dinner. We would see some going or coming to the show or the staff cleaning up and shutting down for the night.

 

 

[joeconn4]

17 hours ago, gaylemh said:

I've sailed many many times on Anthem and just sailed on Adventure this past April.  The WJ was the worst I've ever been on.  The food was cold and the bread/rolls were stale/hard.  I love my croissants in the morning.  They were so hard that they actually crumbled.   Not as many choices as Anthem either.  The MDR on Adventure was very nice, and the food was about the same as Anthem.  The shows on Adventure should have been retired years ago, except for the ice show, which was very good.  The entertainment can't compare to Anthem.  Same goes for the music around the ship.  I didn't like the casino either.  There are stools instead of chairs with backs - very uncomfortable when playing for any length of time.  The crew are great on both ships.

 

We sailed on Adventure the end of Feb 2019. WJ was good our cruise, but we only hit it for breakfast each day (towards the end of breakfast service) and 2 days for a late lunch. We both gave it a "good to very good" rating, but we didn't try the croissants. WJ breakfast highlights, for me, were the fried rice, paella, blueberry pancakes. I never think their eggs are very good, but they were better than on Navigator a year ago.

 

We thought the shows were mostly good to excellent. My girlfriend is into the shows more than I am, but I enjoyed them just fine. We thought the cruise line performers, the singers and dancers, were better than the singers and comedians they brought on for the cruise. In particular, we thought the house band was excellent. We missed the ice show, but had enjoyed the one on Navigator in 2018.

 

Music around the ship... Boleros was solid but not too many people there any time we were there... Schooner drew big crowds but I thought the music was just okay... Royal Promenade music was very good every time we were there... Duck & Dog Pub, music was just okay... The DJ sessions upstairs were okay, but not a lot of nightlife when wee were there at around 11:30pm... Poolside music was the usual, just background noise to us.

 

I didn't spend any time in the casino, my girlfriend pulled a few slots, so nothing to add.

 

We agree about the crew - 3 thumbs up if I had a third thumb!

[gaylemh]

It wasn't just the croissants, the waffles, pancakes, french toast were either raw or hard as a rock.  The only thing what was decent were the omelets.  I didn't go to the the MDR or get room service for breakfast, so I can't comment on that. The shows have been around for more than 10 years and really need updating.  Can't compare to the full production musicals on the newer ships. The ice show was excellent.