My thought on my 11-22-2015 cruise

[Heather1972]

Hi all,

 

My husband, my 10 year old son (he's adopted from a foreign country and his real age is probably closer to 12 going on 13. This is important later) and myself. This was hubby's first RC cruise, and me and my son's second. Our first was on the Grandeur. While there weren't any bells and whistles on that ship. Me and my son had a good time. The worst part on that cruise was the food, but that's subjective. The Anthem cruise was my 8th cruise. So, I've seen a lot from ship to ship.

 

I have mixed feelings about the cruise. While it's a beautiful ship, how the activities were executed were a failure in my opinion. Customer service was lacking because of the reservation system and the computer system. Also we were given a lot of misinformation from staff. I know this was the second sailing out of the US, but I thought things would have been worked out on the Quantum ship and this ship is approximately 6 months old right?

 

Our biggest complaint was in 3 out of 4 complimentary dining rooms, we had problems with getting food and the service was lacking in 2 of the dining room (rude waiters). Example - Waiting 45 minutes to get a salad in The Grande. Let's just say the dinner went down hill from there. On the flip side, everything was perfect in Chic. So, I don't know where the problem lies.

 

I don't mind making reservations via aps, and all that jazz, but they better make sure the stuff works! I made iFly reservations on my iPad on the ship, but at the end it said "Unable to process your request." So, as you might guess that means a trip to the long customer service line. In the end, the reservations did go through when I made them.

 

While we were there at guest services, we tried to make North Star reservations. As I expected, nothing worked in with our reservations or port days. We were told that Saturday and Sunday were no reservations, so first come first served. On Thursday since we were now docked in Nassau rather than Coco Cay, we took advantage of the ship being a bit emptier with shorter lines. I noticed while North Star was running, that only 4 people were onboard and there was no line. We went up to the person running North Star to ask if we could get on. She said you need reservations. Hmm, okay. Literally 2 seconds later as we were walking away, she said we could get on. Son missed this. We did try again on Saturday, but it wasn't running. Sunday, the lines were well over an hour wait. He didn't want to stand in line any more. I agreed. We spent too much of our vacation standing in line, which was truly a big downer.

 

I'm okay with lines to a point. When it's because the activities aren't open enough hours to get nearly 5000 people thru them, something is wrong. As others have suggested, do bumper cars the very first day. Otherwise expect to see a line that completely wraps around the Seaplex. Most of the time I'd say roller skating was going on in the Seaplex.

 

I'll finish this later today. =)

[Submariner]

your post is exactly how our party of 8 felt throughout our trip too. Nicely said.

I got my survey link yesterday and emphasized the points mentioned.

[cruiserhal]

Hi all,

 

I don't mind making reservations via aps, and all that jazz, but they better make sure the stuff works! I made iFly reservations on my iPad on the ship, but at the end it said "Unable to process your request." So, as you might guess that means a trip to the long customer service line. In the end, the reservations did go through when I made them.

 

=)

 

I found this comment interesting because the same thing happened to us on the Quantum last March. It is amazing how such a major corporation can't get anything connected to technology correct. Must be the same people working on the reservation system as they have on the corporation web site. And we all know how reliable that is!

[Heather1972]

I'm waiting on my survey link. I wonder why I haven't gotten it.

 

back to my thoughts...

 

On the first sea day, I think, my kid wanted to do the trapeze. The gist of it was from the time we got in line until the time he did it was 3 hours. No I'm not making that up or exaggerating. All for about a minute on the trapeze if that. Bummer.

 

My son was not allowed to do roller skating, bumper cars, flow rider or rock climbing without an adult present because he was not 13 or older. While I do want to watch my kid do things, we also want time to do things around the ship. He is old enough to sign himself out from kid's club, but can't roller skate without us being in the sea plex. Really? We have not had this happen on other ships. We would sign a waiver and he was free to do what he pleased on the ship. He's got 7 cruises under his belt and the only new things to him were the iFly and bumper cars. Kicker is that he could go on North Star with someone 14+. Shakes head. Gimme a break Royal Caribbean.

 

This was the worst part of the cruise... the lines, the waiting, not getting to do things because of this.

 

Dislikes:

Guest Services - lots of incorrect info and long lines

Lines, lines and more lines for activities.

The wind and missing Coco Cay, but they can't control that. (Build a pier!)

The cafe at Two70 needed to be open more often. They also need a Coke Freestyle machine near there.

Bed was so hard!

The hot dog stand wasn't open a lot and when it was, service was slow! Freestyle machine frequently out of soda here.

Being charged for a WOW band. We only bought one for the kid.

 

Anyway... things we liked:

Buffet - short lines, great food

Shows were awesome. What was going on in The Gift was confusing, but the music is great. It's the same cast from We Will Rock You.

I liked the ottomans under the chairs on the balconies. It's like getting a lounger and a chair!

I like how the bed folded out into a bigger sofa bed, but I wished they would put it back like a couch during the day.

Two70 was the best use of space I've seen on a cruise ship.

All the pools were great.

Food mostly great, a couple of misses. I had some of the best desserts on this ship. (Candy bar, Candy bar, Candy bar!)

Peter at Wonderland is outstanding and if I ever get that darn survey, I'll let them know!

 

I got to know.... who buys the $27,000 Hublot watches on cruise ships? =)

[conandrob240]

I don't know who buys the Hublots but my husband sure did enjoy having them on his wrist for a try on almost every day! ;)