jflatto

When we were on Anthem over Christmas, my simple extension cord was confiscated from my CPAP case by security as we went into the building in New Jersey. I was offered to be given a tag to retrieve it when I got off the ship but since it was maybe $5, I said "thanks but no thanks".

Also, I had a plain extension cord (no surge) in my carry-on for my CPAP. That was taken by Port Security when checking in to the building itself. Asked if I wanted it tagged to be returned when we got back and I said to "keep it". I had some multi-tap power and USB adapters in my checked in luggage (no surge on those either) and they were not taken.

We just got off of Anthem. I had my laptop with a HDMI cable. It obviously depends on configuration but on my balcony room, the TV was mounted to the wall with no way to adjust the angle or position of the TV. I didn't see any way to reach any HDMI ports; not even sure that there was an available port to use. I also had the standard voom package and averaged 500k at best for download speeds.

We were just on the Anthem over Christmas for an 8 night. First formal night is the second night (first full day at sea) and the seventh night. Regarding the second formal night, there are two full days at sea heading back to NJ. It was the first night of the two days. The next night is the last night onboard and everyone is getting packed.

Menus are available on the Royal IQ app, on your stateroom TV and on the wayfinder screens located near the elevators. We liked being able to check the menus in the Royal IQ app.

Thanks. That would have been helpful to know. We used the Royal IQ app and even when looking at the dining, did not see any menus or even hours of operation for dining on the app. We had to look at the printed cruise compass to see any dining times. We rarely turned on our TV and when we did, never saw on all the channels we viewed, any place to be shown a menu. As for the wayfinder screens, I looked at it in passing, for weather information but never did anything else with it.

We were on the same cruise. Take these as some general comments. We were a party of 4 with our twin son & daughter (15). I did not find the cabin doors decorated. DW and I were surprised. Two years ago we were on the Disney Fantasy for Christmas and many of the cabin doors were decorated. Didn't see that many decorations on the Anthem.

The Royal IQ app was poor overall. Eating in Windjammer and no signal. No ship map. We had the texting package for Royal IQ (roughly 9 dollars for the each of us for the week). It was okay and helped but many times, no signal various locations on the ship.

We ate in the early dinner seating in Chic (one of the dining rooms). The food was fine there although our waiter had a habit of bringing us food we didn't ask for, just to try it. This seemed to us a waste. I really wish the dinner menus were posted ahead of time (or even at the entrance to the dining rooms) to help us decide if it we wanted to eat in dining room. At least once, the folks at the table next to us, got up and left the dining room right after they were given the menu by the wait staff. Disney had the menus posted at the entrances.

I had the basic wi-fi for my laptop. Did what I needed but slow. Typical download speed was 400 to 500 kbs. Never any faster. Worked for emails and websites but any picture intensive web sites were too slow to load.

DW and I had a balcony on the 8th floor, kids had an inside across the hall. Really thought their virtual window was really nice. My wife is more into the shows than I am but we went to the major shows. Liked the music from "we will rock you", "the gift", Spectre Cabernet" but the stories were a little weird. We are not drinkers nor party animals nor gamblers nor late nighters nor shoppers so many of those type of activities, we didn't care about. My kids, especially my son, loved the trivia. Only two sets of elevators - one forward, one mid-ship. Never any real issues. It could take a few minutes but not bad.

My kids did ifly and enjoyed. Each individual literally gets 1 minute of flight time.

Service was generally fine. All the crew seemed to be helpful and pleasant. Did notice that plates and similar were left outside the cabins, they would sit there, many times overnight before being picked up.

P.S. Ship was at Port Canaveral for Christmas day and all-aboard was 8:30 pm. We did eat in the Main Dining Room and didn't have a special menu.

We will be on the Anthem in a few weeks. After the cruise, we have a 12:15 pm flight from Newark back home. By all rights, that should be more than enough time to take a RCCL transfer from the ship to the airport. While I realize that things can happen, are there typically delays using the buses to the airport?

I am asking because a few years ago on Radiance on an Alaskan cruise, all the buses were delayed for some reason (not due to docking or custom issues) and many passengers missed their flights home. We had an 11:30 am flight and didn't make it. Some folks had 9:30 am flights and really didn't make it. :)

Thanks.

Thanks for the quick responses.

Do we get any closer as we sail away or do we get farther away? Thanks.

We are sailing on Anthem from New Jersey over Christmas this year. Will we be able to see the Statue of Liberty as we sail out or are we too far away? I am thinking I saw that we will not but wanted to confirm. Thanks.

The problem is most people think a 7 or 8 is pretty good, but the reality is 1-9 may as well be a 0 or failure and only 10 is a passing grade. That's a shame because things in life are rarely so perfect to warrant a 10 or can not be improved upon.

I agree. If the cruise line uses the logic that 1- 9 is a failure and only a 10 is acceptable, then just include the two values and don't have us waste our time. I also would consider an 8 or 9 good.

Thanks for the responses. It is frustrating that there are limited rooms that can book 4 without having 2 in the pull out. We ended up reserving two rooms and that was considerably cheaper by thousands than a junior suite.

I kind of like that I have never experienced a "waiter parade" on Disney. One more point for them. [emoji6]

 

FWIW, we were on the Disney Fantasy over this past Christmas and while they did not have a waiter parade, the last night, both the waiter and assistant waiter were pretty pushy about receiving good grades. It was kind of obnoxious and we would have given them good grades regardless.

This whole process bothers me. Like Lake Wobegon where every kid is above average. :p

Thanks but we were trying to avoid a suite to make it a little cheaper. We typically like ocean-view balcony staterooms on higher floors. Thus, we were wondering if certain classes of staterooms sleep 4.

We are looking at sailing on the Anthem for December 2017. From a quick look at the floor plans, DW was not seeing much for rooms that slept four using a pull down bed. We have B/G twins who will be 15 next year and will each need their own beds, not a single pull out sofa.

Are there options for 4 in a room where the kids can have their own beds?

Thanks.

If it helps, Ant Man was being shown in the BVT during our cruise last week to give you an idea of how long some movies long since out of theater on land will still be shown at sea. We also saw the Good Dinosaur in WDT during our cruise. Inside Out was also showing but can't remember if it was in BVT or on Funnel Vision as I didn't care to see it again.

The thing here is that you were not on the ship on the US release date of December 18. Thus' date=' I'm not surprised that you had no midnight PremEar at Sea. I'm also surprised that it was not shown until the 22nd, but 5-6 showings on a 7 night cruise seems about right.

 

On the cruise before yours, there was a PremEar at Sea at midnight 12/18 (when it was turning from 12/17 to 12/18). This was the same as many shoreside theatres.[/quote']

 

My comments were not meant as a complaint, in case they were accidentally taken that way. :) Rather, someone who is taking a cruise in early January was wondering if they would need tickets like those folks who were on a cruise on Dec. 18th. I was just trying to explain that when we went the next week, it was no longer a ticketed movie or event.

 

Hope folks had a great New Years.

 

Jerry

We were on the Fantasy on the Dec 19 to 26th cruise. They did not show Star Wars until Tuesday, Dec. 22 which was also our first port day as well as pirate night. We guessed this was to cut down the demand for people seeing the movie and overflowing the WDT. There were no tickets and the first showing was at 8:00 pm. I was there about 7:05 pm and was near the front of the line (third or fourth person). It was in 3D. The theater was full but not crazy. We got out of the movie just in time to see the fireworks.

The movie was shown another 4 or 5 times over the rest of the cruise. It was definitely not being shown continuously. I took my son the next day to a showing in the BVT. This was not supposed to be 3D. They still showed it in 3D, whether deliberately or a screw-up was not sure. A bunch of people rushed out of the theater at the start and returned with the 3D glasses for everyone in BVT.

To be honest, I was surprised at the relatively small number of showings of the movie and I expected it to be shown on Dec 19th (midnight maybe) or the next day. As I said, we had two sea days for the first two full days and it was not shown at all then. Now that the movie has been out for a few weeks, it may be shown earlier in the cruise than it was for us.

Hope this helps.

For Pirate night, we bought some costumes along with some fake swords. For the swords, think the cheap plastic kinds that kids will carry on Halloween. These would be in our checked luggage.

We know the Disney website says no weapons allowed. Anyone have experience bringing these plastic "weapons" onboard. If they will be confiscated, we won't even bother to bring them.

Thanks.

We are on the Fantasy over Christmas week and assuming the weather cooperates, are scheduled to be on Castaway Cay on Christmas day. Has anyone experience with this? We are looking at planning our excursions but are wondering if there are special Christmas day events occurring on both the ship and the island that we should factor into any plans for excursions.

Thanks for any feedback.

Paint thinner. Really!! I am not sure that is sufficient by itself. You should also bring one of the heavy duty heat guns (i.e, hair dryer on steroids) or better yet, a propane torch to help remove the paint. That shouldn't be a problem, should it? :D:D

Thanks for all the responses. One less item to wonder about. :)

We are sailing on the Fantasy later this year and have two rooms - 6A Deluxe Oceanview with Verandah and an 11B standard inside stateroom. This may seem like an odd question but anyone know the height to the underneath of the bed?

We are looking at replacing our suitcases at some point and one consideration would be whether our suitcases would fit under the bed.

We currently have some 29" TravelPro spinner suitcases which are nice but huge. :) In some cases, that may not make a difference but since space will be more limited on the ship, we figured we might as well check. Our current suitcases are 29" long by 20" wide by 12.5" high.

Thanks.

We are flying into Fort Lauderdale a day before our cruise on the Allure. We are booked at the Hilton Marina. What is the best way to get from the airport to the hotel? There will be four of us with lots of bags so didn't know if a regular taxi was the best choice because of the amount of luggage.

Thanks.

Following along. Were you an an Eastern or Western cruise as we are taking a Western cruise at the end of June?