Why Anthem might just be my favorite ship!

[jdarch]

Was this your first Royal Caribbean cruise? If so, What are your thoughts? I thought it was quite different from other RCCL ships so it didn't give a true feel of the overall brand. Also...Boarding was a highly unusual experience!

 

The Anthem of the Seas different? Absolutely. Having also taken the NCL Breakaway, the cruise lines definitely make some necessary compromises on these mega-ships. DW generally likes the larger ships, I am "meh" about them because of some of those compromises. We loved the NCL Dawn, but the Breakaway was not typical of the line. We loved the RC Explorer (the Liberty not as much), but the Anthem was different from either. That said, we loved our trip to Bermuda on AotS (short as it was).

- Unlike the OP, our AotS embarkation was the smoothest of any ship we've been on. We arrived at 11:00 am or so, and with the staff carrying tablets around to check you in, we were on the by 12:00 pm. (However, I can see where if the "technical glitch" was computer related, check-in would be a train wreck).

- We had tried to pre-book ressies at Jamie's online, but the site said there were no times available. Bah. We went right up on boarding and found they had pretty much any time we wanted. Go figure. (Incidentally, our meal there was very good).

- One first day issue: they announced the cabins were all ready at 1:00 pm. Wow, that's great!

Except they weren't. The hallway doors were opened and... many rooms in our section were not finished. Oops. But no worries - we've seen a couple of times where previous pax lingered and put the cleaning staff behind schedule. Unfortunately our attendant was *way* behind (only one person per section, no assistants as with other lines). As our cabin was almost done except vacuuming, we put our carry-ons down and relaxed on the balcony until he got around to us. Not surprisingly, our fellow did seem over-whelmed...but frankly, we found later somewhat under-fast (other RCCL staff have been great). Either way, we are relatively low maintenance and we adapted.

- Considering the number of pax on the Anthem, we never really felt crowded. Well, except the solarium...it was gorgeous and unique, but also a madhouse most of the sea days.

- Deck chair hogs were out in full force but they were monitored, and we never want to sit right by the pool anyway, so really no problems finding loungers.

- Windjammer breakfasts on the Anthem were very busy as others have said, but we found the same to be true on the Explorer. We have the table finding / buffet breakfast process down to a science, so few problems there (When we couldn't find a free table, we were always welcomed to share). Nice.

- I do wish the Anthem had a longer itinerary to Bermuda, not only because we love Bermuda (um...see below) but also because I think a ship this size, with lots to do and see, would be wonderful on a longer cruise.

So. As you can see below, we enjoyed the Anthem so much we're going to forego Bermuda for next cruise (sniff...), and take the Anthem's 12-day to the Caribbean in January. Yay!

[easyboy]

The Anthem of the Seas different? Absolutely. (short as it was).

- Unlike the OP, our AotS embarkation was the smoothest of any ship we've been on. We arrived at 11:00 am or so, and with the staff carrying tablets around to check you in, we were on the by 12:00 pm. (However, I can see where if the "technical glitch" was computer related, check-in would be a train wreck).

Glad there was no glitch.