just of Anthem 12/22-12/30 some hints and observations

[wilmingtech]

Thanks. That would have been helpful to know. We used the Royal IQ app and even when looking at the dining, did not see any menus or even hours of operation for dining on the app. We had to look at the printed cruise compass to see any dining times. We rarely turned on our TV and when we did, never saw on all the channels we viewed, any place to be shown a menu. As for the wayfinder screens, I looked at it in passing, for weather information but never did anything else with it.

Menus were also on the touch screens right outside the dining rooms. Using them was not intuitive and they were not always up to date there.

 

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[philpcruiser]

I think that he meant cabin doors.

No, wondered if rccl decorated their ships (trees, garland, lights, etc) around the holidays. Disney passengers are known to go out of their way to decorate their doors (in some form) year round.

[deedeetoo]

We also were on this cruise with a party of 5. We had 5:30 dining in Chic and enjoyed it and thought the service was great. Food was better this trip than on our last. We hadn’t cruised in three years mostly because the food on our last cruise was so bad. The windjammer was a zoo, but that was probably because the ship was so full. The CD did say they were at absolute capacity with over 4900 people on board.

 

We bought the 4 device streaming internet package during the Black Friday sale and only paid about $12 per device per day. It was worth it for our family. Son is a basketball fanatic and was able to stream college games on the sea days. They did have issues a few times where you got on an error when trying to sign in and had to reboot the system. We encountered this three times during the trip and it seemed to take about an hour to resolve.

 

We loved We Will Rock You, hated Spectras Cabaret, and The Gift was OK. We didn’t do much else nightlife wise as we are not partyers.

 

There were a few decorated doors on our floor. I guess it just depends on who your neighbors are.

 

All in all, we had a great time and have rebooked for next year. We love being able to drive to the port and not having to fly, especially in the winter.

[DaniDanielle]

Thanks. That would have been helpful to know. We used the Royal IQ app and even when looking at the dining, did not see any menus or even hours of operation for dining on the app. We had to look at the printed cruise compass to see any dining times. We rarely turned on our TV and when we did, never saw on all the channels we viewed, any place to be shown a menu. As for the wayfinder screens, I looked at it in passing, for weather information but never did anything else with it.

 

 

 

The menus are listed on a screen at the MDR entrances.

 

 

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[TorreGrande]

We were also on the same cruise and found the services to be very poor especially in the dining room. We ate in Silk and American Icon. The chair hogs were out in full force on sea days. We cruise a lot with Royal Caribbean and found this was one of the worst in terms of service and organization.

[EdisonFire]

My family also spent the holiday week on the Anthem. The cruise had close to 5000 guests but until we went to Coco Cay via tender it didn’t feel claustrophobic. Also we had a storm where they closed the outdoor spaces and then the bars and common spaces had people sitting on the floor. I shall echo many of the other sentiments; we didn’t need to use guest services and I was thankful because night and day there were lines. Our experiences in the dining rooms with the waitstaff were amazing; luck of the draw perhaps. The family agreed the food choices/quality had diminished. The CD and his staff seemed more like oil/vinegar than well oiled machine. The CD led music trivia in 270 was just plain handled poorly. In addition the CD seemed to preach a bit which was frustrating as if the numerous countries RCCL staff originated from and said staff getting along was unique to any workplace. Other companies should take their cue from RCCL. We Will Rock You had great talent. One positive—the bacon was crispy. One negative—the pizza is nowhere near as good as it used to be.

[lysolqn]

We are also just off Anthem, having enjoyed a lovely three generation cruise (our 54th cruise, seventh cruise with RCL). In short, we noticed a definite decline in service and the quality of RCL's product since our last cruise on Allure five years ago.

 

On the plus side - pretty ship, well maintained, lots of activities, nice balcony staterooms, generally good service, decent food considering the number of pax being fed (Chops and Jamie Oliver's a step up from the dining room), very well done embarkation and disembarkation in Bayonne.

 

 

On the negative side - crowds (negotiating the Royal Esplanade was an Olympic feat); lines (one hour, ten minute wait in line at Guest Services, one hour, fifteen minutes standing in line for a three minute [literally] bumper car ride, one hour, fifteen minutes in line for trapeze, twenty minute line for made to order omelettes in Windjammer); tendering (one hour, twenty three minutes for our tender number to be called and we had priority tendering as Diamond C&A members), My Time Dining service (we made reservations prior to sailing and never had an issue being seated, however, service was abysmal in both Silk and Chic until the maitre d' intervened and promised to seat us only with "good" waitstaff - aren't they ALL supposed to be good? Also, Silk has to be the ugliest venue on any ship, anywhere), nickel and dime-ing (almost $5 for a can of Coke, $25 to rent an umbrella at Coco Cay, constant "sales" on everything and anything that could possible be sold); entertainment - disappointing and a far cry from RCL's reputation of years past for great entertainment (read lots of hype about the three production shows, saw The Gift and Spectra's Cabaret and while the production value of each was high, we found both loud and boring. We Will Rock You was cancelled the night we had reservations and didn't bother trying to get in the following day.)

 

Anthem is a big ship but IMHO, as big as it is, it's just not big enough to comfortably accommodate the number of pax it was designed to hold, especially as a "cold weather" ship, the design of which took into consideration the fact that there would be days on which most, if not all, pax would be indoors.

[wilmingtech]

Anthem is a big ship but IMHO, as big as it is, it's just not big enough to comfortably accommodate the number of pax it was designed to hold, especially as a "cold weather" ship, the design of which took into consideration the fact that there would be days on which most, if not all, pax would be indoors.

 

I disagree with this. I think you just need to stay away from the popular places. For example - on night 1 you go stand in line for guest services it will be a 40 minute wait. The promenade will be packed an there will be no place to pass through.

 

But if on night 1 you lounge upstairs in Two70 or sit in the indoor pool area or hang out in the Solarium or go have a drink in the pub or have dinner at any one of the specialty restaurants they will often be quite empty. The ship can handle the people. The people just cant help themselves from all going to the same place at the same time.

 

I do think that the Esplanade is a bottle neck for sure. But whats funny is it will be shoulder to shoulder with people trying to raffle win a 10$ hat that costs 2.99 in a touristy beach shop in the US but you can sit right inside on any of the couches in the coffee shop and people watch and no one else is in there.

 

Our cruise was sold out and we could always go find a nice quiet place to sit and relax with not many around.

 

-Sean

 

 

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[Merion_Mom]

My family also spent the holiday week on the Anthem. The cruise had close to 5000 guests but until we went to Coco Cay via tender it didn’t feel claustrophobic. Also we had a storm where they closed the outdoor spaces and then the bars and common spaces had people sitting on the floor. I shall echo many of the other sentiments; we didn’t need to use guest services and I was thankful because night and day there were lines. Our experiences in the dining rooms with the waitstaff were amazing; luck of the draw perhaps. The family agreed the food choices/quality had diminished. The CD and his staff seemed more like oil/vinegar than well oiled machine. The CD led music trivia in 270 was just plain handled poorly. In addition the CD seemed to preach a bit which was frustrating as if the numerous countries RCCL staff originated from and said staff getting along was unique to any workplace. Other companies should take their cue from RCCL. We Will Rock You had great talent. One positive—the bacon was crispy. One negative—the pizza is nowhere near as good as it used to be.

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

To me, you lost all credibility when you suggested that the pizza used to be good. ;) :D

[sardam]

I disagree with this. I think you just need to stay away from the popular places. For example - on night 1 you go stand in line for guest services it will be a 40 minute wait. The promenade will be packed an there will be no place to pass through.

 

But if on night 1 you lounge upstairs in Two70 or sit in the indoor pool area or hang out in the Solarium or go have a drink in the pub or have dinner at any one of the specialty restaurants they will often be quite empty. The ship can handle the people. The people just cant help themselves from all going to the same place at the same time.

 

I do think that the Esplanade is a bottle neck for sure. But whats funny is it will be shoulder to shoulder with people trying to raffle win a 10$ hat that costs 2.99 in a touristy beach shop in the US but you can sit right inside on any of the couches in the coffee shop and people watch and no one else is in there.

 

Our cruise was sold out and we could always go find a nice quiet place to sit and relax with not many around.

 

-Sean

 

 

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I agree with you. Our November sailing was also a sell out and you never would have guessed there were 4900+ people on board! The theatre was often empty for the shows compared to many ships I've been on. Dining was pretty quick. The indoor, outdoor and solarium pools were well laid out and never too busy. It was fabulous.

[star65]

Hi, We haven't cruised RCCL in years and we just booked Anthem. We were told the only dining available is my time, no set times anymore, is this right? I was wondering if set times open up later on? How do you make reservations for mytime in advance, I thought the whole reason for this is to go when you choose? We do my time on other lines and don't usually wait more than 5 minutes, is a wait for 4 people standard on anthem? If we need to make a reservation time for my time dining can you please let me know how to do it? What happens if you go a different time one day?

Thank you for the help.

[Clarea]

Hi, We haven't cruised RCCL in years and we just booked Anthem. We were told the only dining available is my time, no set times anymore, is this right? I was wondering if set times open up later on? How do you make reservations for mytime in advance, I thought the whole reason for this is to go when you choose? We do my time on other lines and don't usually wait more than 5 minutes, is a wait for 4 people standard on anthem? If we need to make a reservation time for my time dining can you please let me know how to do it? What happens if you go a different time one day?

Thank you for the help.

If you want set times, call RC and ask to be put on the wait list.

 

If you want to make reservations for My Time, use your Cruise Planner on RC's website.

 

You don't need reservations for My Time, you can just show up, your choice.