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Anthem, 6/14/18 for 9 nights. A quick overview and thoughts.

Meatonabun
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Meatonabun

Meatonabun

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This was acelebration cruise for our 25th wedding anniversary. Wise choice forsure. Thank you to all of you who have completed reviews and/or answeredquestions. I felt confident of what I was getting into before I boarded.

I am doing my best attempt of giving you the opinions I consider important. So thankful for this site and the opinions and suggestions made to help each other in our vacation/cruise purchasing options. I know my writing style is boorish but it is my opinion and maybe it will help one person. Pay it forward and all that.

We left central CT at 6:15am. Stopped for Dunkin after an hour. Hit major delays going over the GW. Thursday morning and the bridge down to 1 lane both upper and lower. Woot Woot! No time to stop for breakfast. No big deal, we hear there is some food on board.

Arrival -Pulled into the Port area at 10:30, dropped off the bags. Parked and thenwalked into the terminal. Checked in and sat down for 10 minutes. On board by11:00. Went direct to Jamie’s, made reservations for the 4 night specialtypackage. Started touring the ship at 11:05

Layout – So easyto get around this beautiful ship. It is huge!

Cabin - Roomwas ready at exactly 1:00pm. Very nice. Plenty of storage. Put the suitcasesunder the bed. We had plenty of room for 9 days of clothes.

Muster – It shouldbe so easy on every ship. Go to 270 (or wherever your station may be), have abeverage and sit down, watch a 5 minute movie. Go do what you do for sail away.

The Captaindid turn us around in front of Lady Liberty. What a way to kick it off.

Champagneand Chocolate Covered Strawberries ordered prior – Well the champagne was great. The deliveryhappened sometime after 7:00pm and we didn’t get back to find them until aftermidnight. I personally do not drink champagne or eat strawberries. My wifeenjoyed one strawberry before bed and one in the morning. We had a full fridgeand couldn’t figure out how to store them for longer. I noticed she completedthe champagne during the course of day 2.

Dining – Thefood was good. We are night owls and wish there was another late night option thanSorrento’s. However, we never went hungry, hahahaha.

MTD –Millicent and Ida were awesome the 5 nights we ate in the MDR (7:30 all 5nights). Love them both. Food was good. All of the supervisors we came incontact with were incredible. Zero issues. Wonderful job by all.

We bothdressed up for formal nights (Suits and dresses). All other nights for dinner,I wore jeans and button down or polo shirts. My wife for casual nights wore sundresses or jeans/capris with nice blouses. We were comfortable every night. Icannot tell you what anyone else wore on any of the nights since I can’t takemy eyes off my wife. So I do not care what others are wearing.

Windjammer –Food was good. Even when busy, we did not have an issue finding seats. Almostalways by a window or outside. (Tip: If you are a party of more than 5 and wantto eat together at the buffet, come off peak times or be patient and wait a fewminutes, should not be a problem)

Jamie’s –Well, for us, this was one of the top surprises of the 9 days. Food was great.Service was phenomenal. Milan, Boryana and Raluca were fun and helpful. OK, wescheduled 2 nights at Jamie’s and 2 nights at Chop’s. We did switch over thelast night of dining to make it 3 times at Jamie’s.

Chops –Fabulous! Froud was very funny and provided perfect service. The food was good.Great Father’s Day meal.

Sorrento’s –The pizza was fine. Nice snack. Maybe not quality but at least fresh.

270 Café –Great place for soups, salads, wraps, sandwiches, sweet treats and coffee’s (thespecialty coffees cost a few $s)

SolariumBistro – So nice for breakfast or lunch when the Windjammer just seemed too faraway :o)

Shopping –OMG, my wife had fun and so did I (Almost bought an Omega watch, the same oneDaniel Craig wore in a JB film, just a little too expensive). Something for everyone.Of course some of the prices are a little high but something for everyone!

Entertainment– The entertainment was great on this ship. The best of the 7 we have been on.

Theatre – Wewill Rock You, was great fun (Make reservations). The Gift was fine. Fantasticand talented people in both shows. I am not a Broadway type fan and the showstories were both a little eccentric. But great music and great performers

270 – What agreat room on so many levels. I like it better than the Viking Crown Lounge onthe Freedom, personally, for just watching out the window. Wonderful for adrink to just get away. But the technology was incredible. This room shouldchange entertainment venues on new builds. Spectra’s Cabaret has so manywonderful cast members. The show, just not my cup of tea, was still an amazingthing to watch and hear. Great singers, dancers and choreography. We were luckyenough to have DSB play in the 270 one night. Best show that I have seen atsea. They sounded like Journey. You really felt like they enjoyed entertainingyou. Felt 15 again for an hour. I wish that I had a camera with me during thisshow. In front of the stage, a 90 year+ gentleman was on the floor dancing atthe same time two young ones, less than 10 years old, with 25 others alldifferent ages. Lots of fun!

Pools – all fantastic.With 14,092 kids on this cruise, we could still find seats anywhere. We did getout of the room by 7:30am every day and found something somewhere. We only leftour chairs for breakfast and had zero issues with chair hogs, but we did go outat 7:30 to start. Whether in the solarium or outdoor pool, we are done by1:00pm when we go to lunch

Solarium – Ido not mind kids yelling or running or whatever kids do (except whiningirritates me). My wife, well, she likes her peace and quiet. We loved the fivemornings we spent in the Solarium.

NorthStar –Just do it! No excuses. I am very uncomfortable up high. It was awesome. Lovedit!

Galley Tour –Adults who like cooking/baking and Mimosas should do this. It was informativeand we liked it.

Room Steward– Stanley for room 10702 was a great guy and did a good job.

Bar staffeverywhere – All were fantastic. Best all-around bar staff at sea that I havehad the privilege to sail with.

Sea Plex –We did not do anything but people watch here. Fun times galore for kids andadults. Cannot wait to bring my teenagers on this one. Bumper cars and trapezelooked fun. We did not eat any hot dogs here, booooooo. Just not enough timefor everything.

Walking/runningtrack – All of deck 15 works for me. Easy access to the pool via stairs. No onein the way whether running or walking the track.

Casino –Great staff. Great bar. Fun dealers and slots. At first, we thought it seemed a littlesmall for 4,000 people but it never came off as overcrowded until the lastnight. Even then a little patience got you to whatever you wanted.

Sold out/lots of kids – Did not notice kids, nor did my wife, any more or less than anyother summer cruise. Actually maybe less than normal. Kids have a lot to do here.

Photography –We did buy two pictures. Easy peasy. The formal nights are a little overboard.I had to whisper to the photographer that 3 poses were it, make it count,hahaha. Some of the families were ridiculous with the number of photos and thenumber of poses, number of people, blah blah blah but hey they are preciousmemories. All in all a lot of fun. Best photographers we have had as awhole.

Next Cruise –Loved every one of the people we met here. Carol and Inga were both fun. We aredoing a 12 day on the Grandeur next year, woot woot.

CaptainSrecko – We had two passing by run-ins with the captain. At Jamie’s, he stoppedat our table and asked us how we were enjoying our meals, the ship and lettingus know the weather looked fantastic for the next day. Another time, we weregetting off the ship and he was discussing some stuff with supervisors onthings that could be made more efficient. The team seemed to genuinely respecthim and more importantly he seemed to respect them. We like him, he is akeeper. It did seem to us that a lot of the staff enjoyed working on this shipand for Royal.

Ports

Bermuda –Loved it. $9 roundtrip on the water taxi to Hamilton. Fun times. Dockyard wasgreat too.

St Maarten –Oh my. 1st time here since the big storm. Not a great place to visitfor us anymore. Locals are way too “in your face”. Not dangerous, just intenseand aggressive. Until massive change occurs, Isee no reason to leave the ship at this port, unless you have an excursion set.

San Juan –Loved it. Lots of recovery completed and lots more still being worked on in thearea around port. Cannot wait to come back. Great shopping, food and drinks! Something for everyone.

Labadee –Fun place for the beach, zip line and many other things. Great buffet lunch.Shopping outside of the one big building very tough. It was uncomfortablespeaking with the locals outside of Royal’s area. Again, not dangerous, justintense and aggressive. God Bless them all. I do not have an answer but it doesappear that anyone else does either.

CruiseCritic m&m on Day 8 – CD told us that there was a computer glitch and theythought there was less than 8 of us. We finally got our invitation on Day 7. Itwas a fun meet and mingle. I am guessing 45 or 50? Pretty successful that late,I thought.

Departure –I think we were slated for 9:00ish and didn’t get called until 9:30ish. In carat 10:15. Could have been worse.

Great 9 days. We met a lot of great fellowcruisers. Made friends with at least 4 members of the staff. Plus we walked offwith an upcoming cruise. Not bad baby.

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sprshop

sprshop

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Thanks for the review; my DH and I are going July 12 and this is our first on RCL and a huge ship. I was nervous about the crowds that some reviews mentioned. I feel much better after reading your review. Sounds like you had a great time.

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nelblu

nelblu

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Nice review. So glad the Captain made the u turn so that Pax can enjoy the St. of Liberty and the downtown NYC skyline. We were fortunate that our Captain did the same on our sail a few years ago to NE/Canada. Hope that happens again on our upcoming 9 nite sail in late August.

 

14,000+ kids:confused::confused:

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NewSalt

NewSalt

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Meatonabun,

Thank you for a perfect review!

Loved reading that you can’t take your eyes off your wife [emoji5]

 

 

 

+1

 

I’ve been looking for a current Anthem review so I could ask how much the arcade games cost so my DD could decide if she wanted to pre-buy the tokens, but then I saw this was an anniversary cruise and I realized you probably didn’t waste much time on arcade games. :D

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Meatonabun

Meatonabun

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Thanks for the review; my DH and I are going July 12 and this is our first on RCL and a huge ship. I was nervous about the crowds that some reviews mentioned. I feel much better after reading your review. Sounds like you had a great time.

 

Enjoy! You are going to have a great time!

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Meatonabun

Meatonabun

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Nice review. So glad the Captain made the u turn so that Pax can enjoy the St. of Liberty and the downtown NYC skyline. We were fortunate that our Captain did the same on our sail a few years ago to NE/Canada. Hope that happens again on our upcoming 9 nite sail in late August.

 

14,000+ kids:confused::confused:

 

Wishing you the best on the Statue of Liberty in August, have fun either way. We watched from the port side on deck 15 then ran downstairs to our balcony starboard for both views.

 

hmm, 14,000 is a little high. We were lucky to sail with 1,000+ very well behaved people under the age of 16. I love speaking with young people and the few I encountered were wonderful.

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Meatonabun

Meatonabun

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When is your Grandeur cruise?

 

Next time you are in St. Maarten, try this tour. I had a great time. http://stmartinfoodtours.com/culinary-road-trip/

 

(and I assume that you mean "boring" not "boorish" :D

 

Nov 30, 2019 - Joined the CC Roll Call and so happy it was started by DeltaBlue!

 

Thank you so much for the link in St Marrten. My wife and I will be doing that for sure. Beautiful!

 

You are correct, boring is the word. I am not sure why some of the words are missing spaces between them but it makes it less boring when trying to read the review. Thank you again for the culinary tour link!

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nelblu

nelblu

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Wishing you the best on the Statue of Liberty in August, have fun either way. We watched from the port side on deck 15 then ran downstairs to our balcony starboard for both views.

 

hmm, 14,000 is a little high. We were lucky to sail with 1,000+ very well behaved people under the age of 16. I love speaking with young people and the few I encountered were wonderful.

 

We were in 2x70 and it was a thrill. When the Captain turned the ship around, 2x70 shook like crazy.

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Merion_Mom

Merion_Mom

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Nov 30, 2019 - Joined the CC Roll Call and so happy it was started by DeltaBlue!

 

Thank you so much for the link in St Marrten. My wife and I will be doing that for sure. Beautiful!

 

You are correct, boring is the word. I am not sure why some of the words are missing spaces between them but it makes it less boring when trying to read the review. Thank you again for the culinary tour link!

I sailed with "Delta" in April. You will have a great time. I'm on Grandeur in January.

 

Did you prepare your review in a Word document (or similar program) then paste it into Cruise Critic? That's the usual reason for the spacing.

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dbancroft

dbancroft

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We were also on this cruise and our grandchildren loved the adventure ocean area on deck 12. We also liked the free play area on deck 11 in the adventure ocean area. There is a circular stair that you can use to get from deck 12 to deck 11 and at the bottom is a play area not monitored by ship staff. We were there with 3 year old most evenings and he loved being able to run and play with the toys provided by the ship.

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RTPGiants

RTPGiants

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I keep seeing people post about dining packages, but if I look on cruise planner (for a November Anthem cruise), I don't see any sort of packages, just individual reservations. Is this something that's only available once onboard?

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Clarea

Clarea

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I keep seeing people post about dining packages, but if I look on cruise planner (for a November Anthem cruise), I don't see any sort of packages, just individual reservations. Is this something that's only available once onboard?

You may see more choices appear as the cruise gets closer. Keep checking the cruise planner.

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Merion_Mom

Merion_Mom

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Merion_Mom: Can you book that excursion through the ship? Thanks in Advance!

In a rare break from my usual habits, I DID book it through the ship, although you can book it privately. The link I posted is directly to their website.

 

Here it is on the RC site: https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/cruiseplanner/category/1002/booking/product/100000003258680962

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Meatonabun

Meatonabun

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I sailed with "Delta" in April. You will have a great time. I'm on Grandeur in January.

 

Did you prepare your review in a Word document (or similar program) then paste it into Cruise Critic? That's the usual reason for the spacing.

 

Enjoy that trip in January!

 

Yes, that is exactly what I did do.

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JPV072900

JPV072900

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When I saw your review title, I thought you were going to tell us how boring the cruise was!!

 

Glad to hear it wasn't boring at all.

 

Looking forward to going in 3 weeks!! WOOHOO!!:D :D:D:D:D

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Meatonabun

Meatonabun

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When I saw your review title, I thought you were going to tell us how boring the cruise was!!

 

Glad to hear it wasn't boring at all.

 

Looking forward to going in 3 weeks!! WOOHOO!!:D :D:D:D:D

 

Wish I could change the name of the thread and fix the spacing.

 

You are going to have fun. Enjoy!

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