jptoz

Hi!

 

We usually don’t book excursions on our cruises but we got a good on board credit deal and already prepaid our gratuities! Anthem of the seas 9 night August ‘18 sailing Our ports of call are:

 

 

Bermuda

St Marteen

Pueto Rico (only in port 7am-2 so probably won’t do one here)

Labadee Haiti

 

 

 

Looking for suggestions for 4 active adults !

Was just on july 12 sailing and did the following.

Bermuda Took a taxi to Horseshoe Bay $7 per person each way.

St Marteen Capt Bob (Soualiga Destinations Boat Tours) Great tour. Family and I loved it.

Puerto Rico Just walked around. Went to forts, stopped at Barrachina ,had a couple. lol Love old San Juan.

Labadee Zipline and coaster.

The only ship excursions i would do would be at labadee. Because you have to. After that I'd take the cash back.

Eat there. It's the best food and service on the ship!

Never Had a problem getting them adrink with my card if you have the deluxe drink package. I think the bartenders look the other way with soda /water/ juice.

Just got home from our 9 night cruise to Bermuda and the Caribbean on the Anthem out of Bayonne. We had a great time, and its a great ship. I thought I would give you the good, the bad, and the ugly, but I will preface this by saying everyone had a good time and none of the problems were trip-ruining, or even close.

 

 

THE GOOD:

 

 

- The ship. Beautiful, clean, spacious...everyone in our group loved the ship. For a full sailing it never felt packed until disembarkation. Even the buffet which I thought was going to be a disaster, but it was fine. Even though it didnt have the waterslides, our kids (9 and 7) loved the pool deck. Never a problem fining chairs. Solarium was nice as well. Seaplex was awesome, we did trapeze, bumper cars, roller skating.

 

 

 

- Coastal Kitchen. We had 2 meals there (my parents stayed in a junior suite and were able to get us lowly balcony cabiners in on a couple nights). The food was great, lobster perfect, chocolate tart on the final night best dessert of the cruise. Service was spectacular.....I think if I ever took this ship again, or maybe any other Royal ship, I would book whatever cabin necessary to eat here, at least for dinner. It was that much better.

 

 

- The Ports. We had amazing weather, so maybe I'm biased for this trip, but the islands were amazing. Bermuda we went to Horseshoe Beach, St Maarten we did a private all day tour, San Juan we walked around and did shopping, and Labadee we did aqua park, beach, and dragon coaster. Labadee was way better than I remember it from like 10 years ago, and I really liked how they have multiple huts for lunches, really spaced things out. This was probably, out of like 10 cruises, my favorite port stops, they just all were really nice.

 

 

- Wonderland and Chops. Had very good meals at both, certainly worth the upcharge IMO.

 

 

- Windjammer. My only complaint is that they should be open longer at night, or have some small buffet out so that you aren't stuck only eating pizza. Besides that, it was very good, and the different stations kept crowds down. We never had much trouble finding a table for 4.

 

 

 

- Kids Club. My kids couldn't stand leaving there at night, they had a great time.

 

 

- Shows. We saw Mosaic, and I think Royal flew them in from Vegas to do one headline show, and it was amazing, same with DSB the Journey Band. The Gift, Spectra's Caberet, and We will Rock You were all enjoyable as well. Different people in our group liked different shows the best, but they all were good.

 

 

-The Crew. Impossibly friendly, always courteous. I found this, by far, to be the most laid back cruise I've been on (which I like), no constant haggling for drinks around the pool..very relaxing.

 

 

- Ripcord, Northstar, Flowrider...just amazing you are doing these things on a cruise, all were very fun, esp the skydiving.

 

 

THE BAD:

 

 

- Activities. The actual activities are good, but I thought the schedule was a little light, which made trivia sessions jammed etc. Things like the ping pong tournament would fill up in 2 minutes and people would get shut out. This wasn't a huge deal breaker as we had a ton of fun just swimming and relaxing, but I've been on much smaller ships that I felt had as much, if not more to do. On a related note, we felt the Music Hall venue was awful. If there is anything you want to see there, get there early because half of the seats there you really can't see anything.

 

 

- Disembaraktion...kind of a mess. We were in the theater and it wasn't run well. We were off the boat early enough, but I've been on many ships where this was run smoother.

 

 

- Solarium for dinner. I really had my hopes up for this place, but the dinner entrees were bad. Spend the 20 to get the lobster, because the skirt steak is borderline inedible. Very nice buffet though for apps and desserts. If I did this cruise again I wouldn't go back here for dinner. Lunch was fine though.

 

 

- Sorrentos. The pizza was fine, but the crowds were pretty crazy though because its the only option past 9PM, unless you count the ridiculously small Royal Promenade cafe. I swear when I was on the Voyager a while back this cafe was a lot bigger, I dunno. (Cafe 270 had mixed reviews from our group. I loved it, but others found it confusing, esp for lunch.)

 

 

- Drinks. This is a weird complaint, I guess, but again, after like 9PM...unless you want to pay for a drink or have the soda card, your only option is a water machine on deck 4. I swear on other ships you could get iced tea/lemonade at the buffet much later than 9PM. I think if I did this ship again I'd almost have to get the coke package for the freestyle machines. We often talked about how thirsty we were., esp at night..I dunno. Bar staffs were great though, my wife loved the cotton cantini at 270.

 

 

THE UGLY:

 

 

My time dining: Bad. Really bad. I made reservations for most nights a while back, it didn't matter. The no-reservations line would often move faster. It is inecusable to have 5:30 reservations, get sat at 6:00, and not get waters until 6:15. Its the only time I ever walked out of dinner...at that point we gave up (this was the third night we tried it) and went to buffet. First two nights the food was pretty blah, and dinner was slow. After this third night with the awful wait and no service, we did specialty, buffet, and coastal kitchen. (we asked after day 1 if we could get a table for 8 same table same waiter, but we were told only if we would eat at 5:15..and that was too early).

 

 

 

Again, this didn't ruin the trip, but if I went back on this ship and didn't get traditional, I wouldn't even bother with any MTD nights.

 

 

 

So...we had a great cruise, one of my favorites that I've ever done. Apart from the MTD mess, nothing was really that bad, and the good parts of the trip were REALLY good.

 

 

 

We did just about everything on the ship, so if anyone needs any pointers, ask away. I don't have menus or compasses though, sorry.

Just curious. What tour did you do in St. Marteen.

Thanks! It does sound like a lot of fun. Just wanted someone to tell me if it was really worth the visit.

Should be perfect for 13-14 yo. My 7 yo might have been alittle to young, but I throw her on everything. lol

Also a nice pool area to lay out if your not into the ziplines-waterslides.

Went to theAdventure Water park and zipline(Costa Maya) with my daughters,11 and 7 at time. It was great. My kids and I had a blast. Kids still talk about that place. Highly Recommend.

First year team. In name only. The whole team is 2 line players. would take that anyday.

I guess the web site was looking at was high. still expensive.

Grand Loft Suite 22 k on another site.

Are those Canadian prices that you are quoting?

 

 

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Just checked USD

I normally don't jump into discussions like this but this one has me wondering...how many people is this reservation for?? Those prices seem ridiculously high.

 

We just sailed Anthem over spring break in a family Junior Suite, 4 people, it was about $3900 total. That was with KSF.

 

We sailed Harmony in the height of summer, when prices are high, in a GS and it was $4600 for my husband and I.

 

We have a JS booked for Symphony for 2 people in July 2019 and it's $4900. And that is high I'm guessing because it's Symphony and it's summer.

 

We are sailing in a Star Loft in March 2019 for 4 people, Harmony, and we are paying less than that price for the JS quoted above.

 

Something doesn't seem right with those prices. I have found Anthem to usually be less expensive than the Oasis class ships. Is this sailing that you are trying to price out a really long sailing? Like a 12 night? That would be the only way it might make sense?

 

 

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July 12 2018 9 night bermuda/Caribbean cruise, 4 people (2 adults, 2 kids)

Is anthem just more expensive then other ships. I payed 5200 with the ksf promo for a jr suite 9 night cruise. (I thought I got a good deal).

Just priced again .

Jr Suite $14,144

Grand suite 1 br-$18,745

Grand Loft suite $26,545

I don't know, but I've got to find out where you guys shop.

Would like to try and get the full suite benefits one day, but at these prices forget it.

Maybe they didn't include the discount for balcony's & suites. Lol

Pricing a Grand Suite on anthem. Its 10000 more then my jr suite that i have booked. Do people really pay these prices or are there some tricks to getting a better deal on suites. I could see 1 or 2k more, but 10k you've got to be nuts.

You will get your bungalow tix on day 1 with any other excursions that you have booked. The bungalow tix is your tender ticket. You should be able to get on a tender right after suite guest. Go early or you could wait awhile.

Was on anthem in nov. In florida we did the Air boat ride/jungle adventure , and loved it. Have been to disney many times. Wanted to go to universal, but didn't think ther would be enough time. My kids really liked the Jungle adventure park.

You realize this is for November when the ship was still in Europe 2 years ago.

All I was trying to do was tell kendevjay how I found it. I do realize. thanks

I found it for my cruise in november. Go to th cruise planner dashboard. Half way down the page you will see a picture of the ship you will be going on, and the name of ship under the pic. Click on name of ship. Next page scroll down and click showtimes at a glance. Page was upto date in november.

If we have a Beach Bed rented on CocoCay, do we get a priority tender ticket? If so, do we have to stand in line for it, or do we automatically receive it in our room? Thanks for any info--first time cruisers here! :cool:

You should get your beach bed ticket on the first day of your cruise. You will use that as your priority tender ticket. People without RC excursions will have to get a ticket. I would get to the tenders first thing or you could wait awhile.

A few months ago I found a pdf document listing all the shows on Anthem, including the ones that don't require reservations, on the RCCL website. It was the full schedule with dates and times through May 2018.

 

I can't find that pdf now and would like it to help figure out our schedule for our June 14 sailing on Anthem.

 

Does anyone have this pdf or a link to it on the website? Or any recent Cruise Compasses I could use to estimate what we could expect in June. It would be really helpful. Thanks!

Is this what your looking for.

http://media.royalcaribbean.com/content/en_US/pdf/showtimes/showtime_anthem.pdf

Didn't stay in either of those rooms but did stay in 10570 which is across the ship from 10166. I loved it there, never heard any noise.Being by the elevators are very convenient.

Anyway to find out who will be the cover band on anthem for 7/12/18 sailing. Am I to far out?

There is a hand wash station on anthem right next to ice cream machine. And a crew member making sure people washed

yep right by the outdoor pool

No mini golf on Anthem

Don't know about 10224, but 10206 has a full size tub/shower in one bathroom and a half bath( toilet/sink)

10224 and 10206 same category. hope that helps you.

Was on the same cruise in november. Had the same problem when we went, not enough time to go to disney so what do you do. We went on the airboat ride/jungle adventure park/zoo. We loved it (kids age 7,11). Very fun and eductional. The staff at the zoo really love the animals. highly recomend.