Anthem - Not quite live...

[DaniDanielle]

Last year the same thing was going on with Anthem. This must be their big turnover time. We were on the beginning of January and the crew was told us about the big change coming!

 

 

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[wilmingtech]

CHOPS -

 

 

Sadly it was back to work today. It was a great cruise and we loved the ship. Would definitely sail Anthem again. I'll leave a quick little recap but before I do, I wanted to mention Chops.

 

 

Earlier in my review I mentioned that we did the BOGO. This was a great deal for us. Normally I would not spend the extra cash on specialty dining but when we booked this cruise we got a Shipload of OBC (650$). With the 6 of us, spending OBC can sometimes be tricky. Primarily because everything is x6. So an excursion that runs about 50 - 65$ is 300 - 400$. We also could have used it for the service charge but I like having the spending cash on board and the BOGO for 30$ a person was just too good a deal to pass up.

 

 

As I mentioned earlier we had picked Chops for our second night of dining. I knew what to expect from chops. I had read all the menu's and reviews and I knew that it wouldn't quite be a Ruth's Chris, Morton's or a Fishbone's (iDrive Orlando - A Charlie's steak house with seafood) One of my favorites that I always enjoy from a steak house is Filet Mignon with Lobster Tail. There is just something about a melt in your mouth steak and fresh lobster that can't be beat. That's what my stomach was set on.

 

 

There was also another little secret on the menu as well that my wife did not know about. For those just joining my wife has recently (over the summer) changed her diet to a Ketogenic one. And with great success I may add. One thing that she can eat (And loves to eat) is seafood. She promised to have shrimp every day of the cruise and without fail she pulled it off. She also loves some stone crab claws and lobster tail as well. In another review I caught a glimpse of the Seafood Towers and little did my wife know that she was about to get quite the surprise.

 

 

We went in (All 6 of us) and the kids were excited about some of the appetizers on the menu as well as being able to order whatever they wanted off the menu all to themselves. (Typically if we go to a nice restaurant on land they will split something). Our kids are 17, 15, 12 and 10. If you do have kids, I do encourage you to take them along with you. We have always brought our kids and they know with good behaviorcomes great food [emoji2]

 

 

So we are seated and our server comes by to take the over-sized decorative plates away, he leave us some menu's and is off to get us some bread.

 

This is where the preparations for the dinner begin - Kids - "How many appetizers can we get? Can we get a salad too?" *Wifey - I'll be having 3 orders of shrimp cocktail!!" Youngest Boy - "Can I have 3 desserts?"

 

10 minutes later we are all settled on appetizers, salads and dinners. Our server comes back to the table and I place the orders for everyone. We will have a goat cheese salad, 2 Caesar salads, 3 slices of Bacon (It is fantastic), Tuna Tartare, A crabcake and a single order of the shrimp cocktail and then I point to the Grande Seafood Tower on the menu and softly say to the waiter - "We will have one of these as well". We also place our order for the dinner, (4) 9oz Filet Mignon's and 2 Spicy Shrimp plates. The waiter confirms our order and instantly my wife looks at me funny because i did not order 3 shrimp cocktails.

 

One thing that I did notice about cruising on RCI is that they want you to order everything at the same time. No ordering appetizers and then waiting for the drinks to come back to place your dinner order. Also - There is a separate waiter in the dining room to specifically take your drink orders from the bar. I believe that is his only function.

He is more*knowledgeable about the drinks thsn the server and leaves the restaurant to the bar area to get the drinks and then comes back.

 

 

I can tell my wife was a little peeved as I only ordered one shrimp cocktail and not 3. As soon as the waiter leaves wifey is on me instantly asking why I would only order her one shrimp cocktail?? My oldest speaks up and explains to her that I got the seafood tower that has shrimp on it. Now my wife is all confused. Why would we spend extra on something that is already on the menu for free? Little did she know what was coming. In the meantime, I did order a second serving of shirmp cocktail to calm her nerves.

 

 

We get our salads and shortly after our appetizers. They were all delicious. My daughter raved about the goat cheese salad. The bacon was pretty tasty. It is a 1/4" slice of bacon that has a nice layer of fat but it is slow cooked so the bacon just melts in your mouth. The crab cake was delicious as well. And of course wifey loved her shrimp cocktail.

 

 

After that the seafood tower arrives. The first thing my wifey says is "Holy Crap!" This thing is huge. Like larger than life huge. Its got 10 full sized stone crab claws and arms. It comes with not one, but two entire lobsters steamed and cut in half. They must have been about 1-1/4 - 1-1/2 pounds each. The lobsters came as the entire lobster along with the claw meat already prepped and tucked into the open top of the lobster halves. In addition the tower also came with 8 jumbo shirmp. And these were the larger 16/20 sized extra jumbo shrimp. They did not*disappoint and it did not stop there. In addition there were 12 steamed clams and a dozen green lipped mussels. This was a lot of food. Needless to say we did not make it through all of the seafood tower and steaks.

 

 

As we got close to the end of the tower the steaks and shrimp dishes arrived. Wifey and our 15 yo had the spicy shrimp and they both agreed that those shrimp were excellent. It definitely says something if you just ate through a seafood tower and shrimp cocktail and your dinner of shrimp arrives and it still tastes excellent. Our dry aged steaks were all cooked to perfection. Mine was a nice steakhouse medium rare while the other 3 had their steaks cooked medium. They also had a choice of 3 sauces for the steaks. A Burgundy Wine sauce and the Bearnaise are the only two that I have tried. Bearnaise ended up being the favorite of the 3. The sides were a little underwhelming. The sauteed mushrooms had no butter or seasoning on them at all. The asparagus was overcooked and mushy. The gruere tater tots were meh. The only thing that was a winner was the creamed spinach which my wife truly enjoyed.

 

 

While the typical practice is not to have any food to take out of the restaurant, our waiter kindly obliged and we had two small plates of steak and lobster, some leftover sides and 2 slices of cheese cake to take back to the room. The cheesecake was gone by breakfast the next morning and I enjoyed a nice little plate of steak and lobster for lunch the next day.

 

It was so good that my wife and I agreed we needed to go back before the end of the cruise as a date night and do it again. So we did. We told the kids that we were going to have a date night on night 8 and go back to Chops while they had to eat in the windjammer or main dining room. They were sorely disappointed with this news.

 

 

On our 2nd night, we ended up ordering the same - Filet Mignon, Spicy Shrimp and a smaller Imperial sized (half size) seafood tray. We ended up paying the full 42$ each and the additional 19$ for the seafood tower.

 

 

I will agree that it's a lot of money to drop on dinner on a cruise ship. It is something that I normally would not buy especially at full price. I was going to try and make a deal with the Specialty Dining Criers who are usually out in full force at Windjammer and in the Esplanade but not on this cruise. I think the specialty dining was overbooked as we only had one reservation time available when we booked for night 8. Is the seafood tower worth it? I definitely think so. Just the price of buying the seafood to make yourself at home will cost you well over 50$. To get something of this proportion in a land based restaurant it would be easily 4 times the cost of this. I did have extra OBC to burn which covered everything, but even without OBC, I think my wife and I will almost certainly do this dinner again on the next cruise. We did miss having Sabor on the Anthem but Chops certainly made up for it.

 

-Sean

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited December 27, 2017 by wilmingtech

[wilmingtech]

Some leftover pics before I close this up -

 

Sunrise... Sunrise...

 

Night 8 Yumminess -

 

One of our favorite art pieces. Painted wood screws to make 3d Faces -

 

 

The new key cards have a plastic laminate that easily peels off the card. Our kids all needed their cards replaced once or twice. It seems using your room key in the light switch causes the plastic to peel off -

 

The setup in the Seaplex for the Trapeeze School -

 

The Infamous Kummelweck Sandwich. It certainly lives up to its name. A nice crusty and soft roll that makes it delicious.

 

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[wilmingtech]

The price you pay for a day of work. Or doing a live report from the ship.

 

The Dog House. I read some bad reviews of this place as well. We really loved it.

 

Great place to grab a quick snack at 3pm while you are waiting to skate or ride the bumper cars. They had 4 tasty flavors - Regular (chicken based) hot dog, Chicken and Apple Sausage, German Sausage and Brautwurst. Tried them all and liked them all. Stay away from the potato salad though.

 

The Display Case in the Promenade Cafe -

 

 

The Sports Deck Running Track Map -

 

 

Not a good pic but some of the premade sandwiches @ Two70

 

 

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[Turqoisblu]

Thanks so much for your review. Although Hubby and I won’t be sailing until March 2019. I find your review helpful.

 

 

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[wilmingtech]

To confirm, no smoothies?

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2568030

 

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Did not see nor ask for a smoothie. I would assume they can make any non-alcoholic fruit drink you wanted - ie strawberries and peaches frozen but it wont be a real smoothie.

 

-Sean

[FirstTeacher]

Did the prices for VOOM go up? I though the Surf rate was more like $13, not $15.99/day.

The price you pay for a day of work. Or doing a live report from the ship.

 

The Dog House. I read some bad reviews of this place as well. We really loved it.

 

Great place to grab a quick snack at 3pm while you are waiting to skate or ride the bumper cars. They had 4 tasty flavors - Regular (chicken based) hot dog, Chicken and Apple Sausage, German Sausage and Brautwurst. Tried them all and liked them all. Stay away from the potato salad though.

 

The Display Case in the Promenade Cafe -

 

 

The Sports Deck Running Track Map -

 

 

Not a good pic but some of the premade sandwiches @ Two70

 

 

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[wilmingtech]

Did the prices for VOOM go up? I though the Surf rate was more like $13, not $15.99/day.

Yup. It went up. I was hoping to get a day for 12$. Didnt happen.

 

-Sean

 

 

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[Biker19]

Did the prices for VOOM go up? I though the Surf rate was more like $13, not $15.99/day.

About two weeks ago.

[Turtles06]

Some leftover pics before I close this up -

 

 

 

The new key cards have a plastic laminate that easily peels off the card. Our kids all needed their cards replaced once or twice. It seems using your room key in the light switch causes the plastic to peel off -

 

 

Note to future travelers: no need to leave the actual key card in the switch for the lights... any card will do. We carry some old hotel cards in our travel kit just for this purpose. (Also helps if you need to leave the power on when you aren't in your cabin.)

 

OP, again, thanks for your review!

[wilmingtech]

Note to future travelers: no need to leave the actual key card in the switch for the lights... any card will do. We carry some old hotel cards in our travel kit just for this purpose. (Also helps if you need to leave the power on when you aren't in your cabin.)

 

OP, again, thanks for your review!

 

Our kids grabbed starbucks gift cards (free if you have 0$ on them) when we were in Orlando.

 

Also - if you are charging your phone and the lighting is off the wall outlet will be off as well.

 

No problem!

 

-Sean

 

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