Anthem of the seas to Bermuda for the 4th - I was surprised

[turbobob]

I have found that I prefer smaller, more "intimate" ships in part because they are smaller and more "intimate" and also because they can go where larger ships cannot. When my wife suggested Anthem to Bermuda for the 4th of July I was not thrilled but not having been to Bermuda.....what the heck? It was not fantastic, but it was so much better than I imagined that I am reconsidering big ships for some itineraries.

 

The first and last downside is dealing with EWR; our flight in was hours late the night before boarding and getting a cab at that time took a while and was expensive (but what cab ride isn't?). Hotel was great, cab to the Bayonne terminal was fine (and expensive). The Bayonne terminal.......I've seen better, much better, and I've seen worse... aside from being on the fringe of Nowhere it was OK as was the boarding process, expedited by having booked a mini-suite. I had two bottles of wine in my carry-on and we walked straight on. Using the ship's transfer back to the airport had us sit for over an hour at the terminal, then with traffic and stupid airport design we barely made our flight on time (Yay for Delta and their counter service and priority security screening).

 

I think a ship should take you in comfort from port to port and provide "entertainment" while at sea; having a real grass lawn or row after row of shops selling stuff you can buy on shore isn't my cup of tea. Therefore the upper deck activities on Anthem were not draws......but the bumper cars were great (reliving my youth?) and the Ripcord by iFly was a blast. Ripcord was great fun and seemed pretty safe even for someone my age (>65) and weight (<100 kg).

 

We did "luck of the draw" mini-suite and got a spa suite. Good space, good storage; this could work for an extended cruise. Having two separate sinks keep my junk near my sink and my wife's junk near her sink but having the commode "room" across an aisle from the bathroom was a little strange. We were right under the teen center and worried about noise but only had one time when we heard anything.

 

For me food is part of the comfort of cruising. We did Coastal Kitchen, the Chef's Table, Chops and tried to do Jamie's Italian but walked out after an hour only having gotten our appetizers. Coastal Kitchen was excellent, if the cruise had been longer (only 5 nights and we ate ashore one night) we would have gone again. Food was good, service was fine; everything I could ask for. Chef's Table was a big step up from our last RCI Chef's Table in the Adriatic (which was terrible); the food was OK, the wine pairings were OK, the wines were decent quality, the service was fine. Chops is what it was, which is a compliment considering where some similar venues have gone, with good food and service; it was worth taking a good bottle of wine to drink with the food. Jamie's was simply mismanaged; we left because service was so slow and uneven; people who arrived after us were done before we got our entrees. One secret we discovered was the Solarium Bistro - a great place for breakfast away from the confusion of the buffet.

 

We tried a number of activities and weren't "wow"ed. We tried one ballroom dance experience and were the only ones on the floor which is both good and could have been intimidating if anyone had been at the bar. Most of the live music venues had dance floors that were too small for the crowd and too limited a music selection for our taste and venues where the music was more interesting didn't have dance floors and were packer with people listening.

 

I was pleasantly surprised. We are thinking about booking longer cruises on the bigger ships as well as smaller ships for more interesting itineraries.

[Biker19]

I think a ship should take you in comfort from port to port and provide "entertainment" while at sea; having a real grass lawn or row after row of shops selling stuff you can buy on shore isn't my cup of tea. .

Anthem has real grass? I thought that was limited to Solstice class ships at Celebrity?

[DaniDanielle]

No real grass on Anthem.

 

 

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[turbobob]

Anthem has real grass? I thought that was limited to Solstice class ships at Celebrity?

 

Sorry for the confusion, you are correct Celebrity has the grass I was including the arm and iFly in the same "silly" category as the grass; something that has no relevance to getting from port to port. Unlike the grass I found some fun in some of the "silly" attractions of Anthem.

[cb at sea]

I have to agree that for us, too, the "bells and whistles" aren't the draw. But, if you want to go to a specific place, and that's the ship that's going there...what'cha gonna do?

[raydavies]

is there a formal night on the Bermuda Anthem cruise and which night is it - thinking the 2nd night?

[turbobob]

Yes, there is and yes it is the second night. There were about as many people in formal dress as there were in ripped jeans, I guess they were formal ripped jeans.