karmacats

We love the promenade ..... we will be on Anthem on our next cruise. Will we be disappointed with the inside of this ship without a promenade ?.... all of you that have cruised Anthem describe any areas like the promenade please ......if any?

we were on quantum (not on anthem until next week :D ), but the basic layout is the same on quantum and anthem. there is a promenade, they just call it an esplanade. it feels about the same width as on freedom class, and is maybe a little shorter, but it ends at michael's pub instead of at an elevator bank, so you can continue walking around the pub to get to other venues, like the music hall. in any case, the promenade served the same purpose to me as on freedom and oasis class - it's down the center of the ship, and has the usual suspects (cafe promenade, sorrentos, shopping) and some new venues (la patisserie).

unlike other promenades, the level above the main promenade is not cabins, it's a second level of restaurants and other services. so, that is different. and the decor on quantum/anthem is quite different from previous classes. despite that, it still felt like the familiar promenade to me.

Depending on how many crawlers we assemble, and what kind of mood we're in, the trivia questions seem like fun. Do you use cards from the Disney Trivial Pursuit game (borrowed from the ship's library)? Or make up the questions before-hand/off-the-cuff?

our friends who organize the crawl just watch the movie again beforehand and come up with the questions. they write them down and bring them along, and then read them out in each bar. they bring paper and a bunch of pens and each person or team writes down their answer, then turns it into the questioner/judge, who reads the answers aloud and tallies up points.

it's easy to make up the questions when it's themed to a particular movie. for general disney trivia, i'd probably use the game cards, unless someone in your party already knows a lot of trivia they could turn into questions, or unless you want to watch a *lot* of movies... :p

Sailing my first Freedom Class ship next week and looking forward to trying Sorrento's. Is their pizza good...I mean a lot better than what they serve in Cafe Promenade or Windjammer? Do they serve other items or just pizza by the slice or pie? Would like to see a menu if they have one.

occasionally they have a delicious chocolate mousse. i may or may not eat two of those at once. :p they also have sandwiches which look good, though i don't think i've ever eaten one.

the pizza is ok, as long as you're not expecting, say, real new york pizza or anything. it's probably better than most cafeteria pizza i've had, but nothing great. the quality seems to vary by ship, too - it was better than usual on my last liberty cruise a few months ago. in addition to cheese, they sometimes have some interesting flavors/toppings - i like the white pizza with chicken and potato. on some ships you can customize your pie, but i can't remember if they do that on freedom class.

Some friends and I are sailing on next week's (12/7-11/15) four-day Bahamas itinerary. The last full day is at-sea, so we're planning a "Club Crawl" -- an on-board pub crawl -- .

we've done this on our past 3 disney cruises - two on dream and one on magic. a friend we travel with organizes it. we don't tell disney ahead of time; just meet at the first bar (usually the cove bar in the adult area) and switch bars every half hour.

we do themed trivia (first year was peter pan, then mary poppins, and this year was finding nemo). so at every stop we answer 3 questions and the judge reads the answers out and allocates points. it's all very silly - you can get points for the right answer, but also for dressing up in the theme, or for a funny answer. at the last bar the judge tallies up the points and the winner usually gets a small gift (like a $20 disney gift card). we also have a specialty drink at each bar, that usually matches the theme.

it's been a really fun way to get to know people. the bartenders seem to like it ok because they get a lot of orders/tips. we've never gotten the stink-eye or anything from any crew.

we do it at night, from 10-midnight. maybe that's why no one cares if we crowd the bar. :D

OK thanks, I'm not familiar with the music or the band called Rock the Boat.

there will be a journey cover band on the dec 12 anthem cruise. (we know because we met them in sorrento's on liberty a couple of months ago, which was their first time playing a royal ship. they were excellent. :) ). They played in the large theater on liberty; we met them the next day grabbing a snack and talked to them for a while before realizing they were the band.

rock the boat is the house band that stays onboard the ship. they are supposed to be quite good. i presume that, like most house bands, they pretty much do covers.

What venues are open for lunch upon boarding. I was hoping to avoid the always crowded buffet.

Thanks

we went to jamie's on quantum and plan to do the same on anthem. it's got an upcharge (i think $15 or $20 for lunch), but was a really relaxing way to start the trip, and the food is fantastic.

we're on the same cruise, so if you do that, we'll see you there. :p

We booked a cruise of October 2016-Bermuda on the Anthem! We are so excited. My question is: Is it possible to book a specialty restaurant for lunch on boarding day? We cruised a few years ago on the Allure and the windjammer was nuts boarding day. This time It will be me, my husband, and my son who will be almost 2. Im nervous about windjammer chaos with a almost 2yr!

We ate at jamie's on quantum and plan to do so again on anthem in a couple of weeks. it didn't open until 12 on quantum and we boarded at 11:30-ish (we were in a suite so got early boarding), but there are comfy chairs right outside of jamie's to wait in.

Many people do not know it's open so it was relatively uncrowded - we left at around 1:30 and it was still only half full. The restaurant was big enough that we were able to fit our carryons along a wall next to our table, so didn't have to worry about them getting in the way.

it's a great time to try jamie's, because once the word is out that it's good, getting reservations for dinner or getting in for lunch gets a lot harder. :) fwiw, it was my favorite restaurant on quantum, and although lunch carries a charge, i found it well worth it.

Having received one of the last "free" WOW bands (we were on the TA, the last saiing before they started to charge for them), I feel as though I should mount mine in a display case. :p

Ebay! :p

This is an amusing story but are you really saying that prices in the on-board jewelry shops are negotiable?

Well, I have limited experience (i'm not really a jewelry gal, and what i do have tends to be on the more casual, bought-it-at-a-craft-show side, except for my fancy formal night jewelry which we bought at a local jewelry store we trust), but twice on ships i've gone into the more upscale jewelry shops with friends and both times the sales clerks have magically dropped prices when it appeared we weren't interested. The first time was a friend looking at diamond earrings on the norwegian gem; the second was this time on the quantum. and on a recent disney cruise, a salesclerk noticed my watch (a movado, so reasonably nice, though not uber-fancy), and tried to get me to buy a couple of some watch brand they were featuring, and said she'd give me the second one cheaper if i bought two (i didn't buy any - they weren't really my style). so i'd say, yes, in my limited experience, the prices seem to be negotiable. just don't wear your gold wow band. :D

Also, what was the card you showed for the Northstar with a 1 on it? Can you book now or did you get that because of your status?

we're on anthem dec 12 and were able to pre-book northstar using the cruise planner, but only two port days were available for that pre-booking. i guess the rest will be first come first served.

Is there a Coke Freestyle Machine on Anthem? My husband is dying to know since he loved having it on Freedom of the Seas.

yep. a couple in the windjammer, a couple in sorrentos, one in the seaplex dog house. someone mentioned there's one in the escape room, too.

How early do they start taking bags for Anthem?

we've gotten there about 10:15 - 10:30 for both anthem and liberty and there have been porters taking bags in front of the terminal. some already had bags heaped high, so it seemed like they'd been taking them for a bit already.

Notice a difference???????? #firstworldproblems

hahahahaha. first world problem for sure! :D

(on our first cruise as suite guests a couple of years ago our friends and i made up a whole song about our first world problems - "oh, the cushion on my lounger is only 8 inches thick" and "oh, my shrimp cocktail only has two dozen shrimp" and that kind of thing. apparently last year weird al came out with a song called "first world problems" so now we joke he was listening over our shoulders in the allure concierge lounge....)

thank you for the pictures! just the size of the room is getting me psyched - our last cruise was in a very, very cramped cabin on the ol' disney magic. it looks like in the OS i'll be able to walk around without hitting my shins on the bed or couch about 10 times a day. :)

does it look like the balcony dividers between the OSes open up? our friends are in the suite next to us and we were thinking of opening them to make one mega-balcony....

I recall them talking about an incredible beef wellington they ate.

fwiw, there is a beef wellington on one of the Chic menus for the Dynamic Dining ships. so maybe some of those dynamic dining dishes will get integrated into the new menus.

i for one was not a new fan of the new MDR menus (the ones from the last 3 years or so), so i'd be interested to try something new. as long as they keep the pumpkin seed rolls. we took my mom on her first cruise last august and she still talks about the rolls... :D

This is exactly the type we got on quantum - i didn't even realize there were other styles. I don't think ours had the muster station printed on it.

These do come in multiple colors. The gold ones were supposed to be reserved for suites, but my entire group of friends on quantum ended up with gold ones, even though half of us were in suites and the other half were not. At some point i was browsing through the jewelry store with a friend and the guy who worked there made some comment along the lines of "you can afford this necklace, you have a gold band!" which i thought was kind of obnoxious. So, i am kind of hoping they stopped the gold-bands-only-for-suites thing. (FWIW, my friend told the guy she was not in a suite, and the price of the necklace magically dropped by 50%. needless to say, she still did not buy it.)

Thanks for your review. All your information was very helpful.

 

We will be sailing the Anthem shortly and are in a junior suite. Just wondering if you're expected to tip extra for dining in Coastal Kitchen?

FWIW, when we ate at coastal kitchen on quantum, we were never given any slips or anything (probably because we mostly drank water), so after our last meal there, we just thanked our server and handed her some cash, as well as the servers who had served us at some of our other meals. there only seemed to be 2 or 3 main servers and a couple of assistants, so they weren't hard to track down. :) despite the small staff, service was wonderful, and i'm really hoping some of the former quantum staff came over to anthem.

No window. I'll post a pic

You mean the round window that looked out onto the wrap-around area of the balcony? i'll be bummed if that's gone - we had an SGS on quantum, and it was quite cold for half the cruise so we were inside a lot and loved looking forward out that window. :(

oh well, i'm sure i will love the OS regardless.

I just returned from a wonderful 4 night cruise on the Enchantment of the Seas. While on board I attended a Brunch and Galley Tour hosted by the Executive Chef. During the Q & A session he mentioned that there all new MDR menus beginning after the first of the year. He said they were rolling out these menus fleet wide. Has anyone else heard this? Hoping it's true. Growing kind of bored with the current menus.

On Liberty in August, one night was a new menu which they apparently offered for the next few trips (not sure if it's still being offered, but i haven't heard anyone else comment on it recently). Someone surmised it might be a test for a menu change. It was pretty comparable to the current menus - I had steak diane which was ok, and a vegetarian dish which was good (sorry, can't remember what it was now).

Ken, thanks for the review! i love your live reports. :)

We're in OS 12234 (same room as you, i think, but on the port side) in a few weeks. Any particular advice re the room? Is it pretty similar to the OS you reported on in your previous quantum review?

Thanks again!

In your picture on page 2 of the "dancing" at 270- what time was that? I am surprised and a bit disappointed at how empty it looks. One of the things we liked most about Breakaway was how lively it was until the wee hours of the night- I was hoping being a NYC area based ship that that lively atmosphere would be similar Thoughts?

i think most people go to the music hall. on quantum it was hopping 'til 1 or 2 a.m. every night. tbh, i loved 270 but never would have thought to go there for late night dancing.

Hopefully they are free, if not a suite perk.:) I will report first hand, for the first full sailing in the Caribbean, if they are free or not.

royal has said they are included for suite guests (on anthem, at least). :) you can also re-use old ones if you have them already.

excited to see harmony coming together. i really love the new decor. less than a year 'til we board - i can't believe it!

I wonder whether I can take my old ones with me and get the reprogrammed... ("old ones" from the "pre fee aera").

 

steamboats

Yes, you can (or that's what royal is saying, anyway).

So what exactly does the WOW band do other than unlock your door? Is it like Disney where you can charge etc with it?

 

For example if I have the pop package and I go flowriding can they read my band at the bar to give me my pop? I'd rather not have to keep my room card in my pocket while I ride. Can I buy a coffee at Starbucks or purchase something at one of the stores? My DW usually gets the Royal Replentish package, which like to pop package, has the sticker on the card. I wonder if this will be transferred onto the WOW band.

yes, you can charge to your room with it, and unlock your door. it's very similar to the disney magicbands. when i was on quantum last year you still had to show your card for the drink packages, though - they were not programmed onto the band.

fwiw, i found it much lighter and more comfortable than the magicbands.

also, you are supposed to be able to buy them at the gift shops, so no need to stand in line at guest services. it sounds like passengers on the current cruise did need to get them at GS, though.

FWIW, just read a blog entry saying the bands are $4.99 but, to answer my original questions, 1) can be reused on multiple cruises and 2) are included for suite guests. (i did not attach a link because i think it's the blog we can't link to from CC.)

we found them handy for bringing to the pool deck and for opening the door when our hands were full, but even so i can't see paying five bucks for them. if i can dig them up maybe we'll bring our quantum ones to see if they actually work. (we're in a suite so should get new ones, too, but at this point i'll believe it when i see it.) certainly not going to make-or-break our cruise, but the charge just seems like needless nickle-and-diming to me.

Just wondering if its possible to pre-book entertainment (Ice-shows) on the LOS?

I sailed on the FOS last year, and know its wasn't possible to pre-book.

 

Thanks.

Nope, not anymore. They used to allow prebooking of just the ice show, but stopped a couple of months ago.

We've never sailed on Disney, but how could a band work from a prior cruise? As with a key card, it's embedded with specific info for your current cruise, including the info necessary to open your current cabin door, the info about any beverage package you might have, etc. Do you mean "work" in the sense that the chip embedded in it could be re-programmed for the current cruise?

Sounds like others have pretty much answered this, but yes, the disney bands from previous trips work on subsequent trips. This is for land-based disney world trips - they do not use the bands on their cruises yet, though rumor is they will eventually.

From what i understand, the bands are not so much reprogrammed as they pull info from your back-end guest account, so they can see if you are currently staying at a disney world hotel, have X many days left on your tickets, have a dining package or not, etc. So, it lets you open your hotel room door, buy meals/beverages on your dining package, charge to the credit card you used at your hotel, etc - basically all the same functions as a cruise key card. You can use the band for 2 years or so (that's the battery life), on however many trips you take. Doing something like this might be more difficult on a cruise, especially given royal's stellar IT :p , but who knows.

A little more on the JS for those who wish to know. The cabin comes with a coffee maker although it was a poor machine. It had (2) robes, a nice walk in closet. Bathroom toiletries were there as well. A surprise to us were two loungers instead of one. It was a larger space than a D1 Balcony, as was the balcony. It was offered quite a lot of storage, drawers, etc. It did get very warm in the room in the late afternoons. We also enjoyed double the points for Crown & Anchor. I do believe our next sailing will be w/ a JS !!!

 

Junior Suite #9634 gets 9 out of 10 Good Times.

thank you for the JS info! we will be in an aft JS on indy in feb - our first JS (though we've been in other suites) and first time on indy, so this thread is like gold for us. :D

J the free WOW bands were discontinued and they are now only for sale for $4.something.

How odd.

Please do NOT go out of your way to find this out, but if it happens to come up, i'm wondering if we have old bands from a previous cruise if they would work (i'd suspect not, but disney's do, so who knows), and if suite guests will still get them complimentary. I quite liked them on quantum and was looking forward to having them again - so much easier than dealing with a card in certain circumstances (as a previous poster said, when hands are full, or when going for a swim).

enjoy your cruise! :D