---> !!ANTHEM OTS REVIEW!! <--- Complete Pictorial Guide! [June 02, 2016]

 

Please join me and subscribe to this thread as I do my best to give you a review of the impressive Anthem of the Seas!

 

PREAMBLE

 

This will now be the 3rd review of mine on Cruise Critic! I put a lot of effort into my Allure review, which I loved to make, but realized how time consuming the whole process is. I have been trying to enjoy my vacations more by forgetting about the outside world more. It has really made a difference in my travels, so while I do have a lot of content for you all, this review won't be as detailed as my former. I even 'forgot' to take pictures of the cabin, oops! Nonetheless, I can't wait to share my experience on Anthem of the Seas with you all! Oh and this review I am finally 21, so you may be a little thirsty after some of these pictures! Links to my two previous reviews below!

 

Allure OTS Review: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1877135

Carnival Victory Review: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2027401

ITINERARY

Being our 8th voyage, we were a little sick of Eastern/Western itineraries out of Florida. We live in upstate New York and thought, "why not just drive and leave out of NY?!". We also somewhat pick our trip based on the ship and having Anthem in NY just worked out PERFECTLY since we wanted to try the Quantum class!

Since 7 nights is definitely too short on a cruise vacation (how many of you are with me on that?!) we were really happy to try out a 9 night itinerary. On top of that, it was going to Bermuda and that has been a bucket list destination for a loooong time!

I get out of college (hint: WE ARE!) very early in May, so we figured early June would be perfect since most schools in the Northeast are still in session and it should be better weather by then. The only issue with this itinerary that we foresaw and experienced were short lengths of time in the ports. Either way, part of the destination is the ship itself!

We booked this a year and a couple months before the sailing, so as you can imagine, we were extremely eager to get on board the beautiful ANTHEM OF THE SEAS!!

Will be on her in a month. Look forward to your review .

Can't wait to hear all about it! Thanks for doing it!

Looking forward to your review. Thanks!

ROOM SELECTION

Usually we chose to sail in a balcony stateroom however, this time we were intrigued to try a VIRTUAL balcony! :p I stayed in the room with my mom and step dad so we had a large inside category. It was set up essentially the exact same way a standard balcony stateroom would be without the door and extra outdoor space.

I don't recall why Deck 8 was chosen. It was a good deck, but I think something closer to Deck 5 or Deck 11 would have been more favorable. We were quite close to the forward elevators, which was really nice since we often went to the Solarium or Schooner Bar!

Cabin #8179 served us great. I really love the new design of RCI staterooms. There is truly a lot of space to store your clothing and luggage. The cabins have an outlet on one side of the main bed under the side light. The mini fridge has a lock that can be coded by you to keep kids out. The bathroom has a nightlight that stays on as long as a card is in the slot to power the room. The shower glass was designed really nicely to maximize the space! I am 6'2" and had no issue with ceiling height.

To enter the stateroom, all you do is tap the small black reader of above the door handle with your sea pass. No more magnetic swipes! You can even purchase the waterproof WOW Band for $4.99 from Guest Services. I ended up purchasing one and it was kinda cool to tap my wrist on the door to open it! :p

Anyway, bravo to Royal Caribbean on the stateroom designs with Quantum class! You'll have to wait and see how we liked the "virtual" balcony! :cool:

Thanks for posting. We will be sailing her September. Please give a full review of the ship and Please enjoy your time off from the world of work.

DAY 1

Are We In Bermuda Yet? -

It was the point of no return. Staring at my ceiling, (I think... the view didn't differ from open eyes or shut eyes) intoxicated with excitement of getting on another cruise! I was also frustrated as I rolled over and found that it was about 1:00 am while blinding myself with the phone light. I had to get up in just 4 and a half hours to start getting ready and there was no way I could take melatonin at this point! :eek: I somehow drifted to sleep and woke up promptly as 5:30 am. I must understand how I can be so awake after such little sleep before a cruise so that I can utilize this at school, haha! :p

It was a great day for driving and the 4 hour journey didn't seem too bad. I was finally watching the new Star Wars movie on the iPad. I am no Star Wars fanatic, but it was entertaining! There is a bit of road construction going on near the port so we did get caught in that, adding about 30 minutes to the terminal.

Traffic was also backed up right near drop off. I'm not too sure why because the design of the new terminal roads seem like it should flow easily. Boy they like to tease you! There is a nice view of her while you wait to unload the luggage. I had to go to the bathroom so bad that I was contemplating using my dunkin donuts cup as the pain became unbearable! I then got a eureka moment and realized I could just hop out of the car and walk to the outdoor restrooms near the parking garage. I wonder if people thought, "wow he is eager to get on the ship" after getting out in the middle of stand still traffic! :p

We dropped our bags off and then continued to the parking garage, which is right next to the terminal. It cost $189 for all 9 nights and you pay before you park.

The terminal is like a large warehouse. We got checked in by a lady with a tablet while we sat in some comfortable seating. Honestly I understand Royal is trying to create a new and quick experience, but it is just not working that well. It took awhile to scan all of our passports. We only had to briefly wait in the security line so it was still quicker than some experiences in the past, but nothing will beat our Allure OTS check in experience. We just wanted to go to a desk. You don't get your sea pass cards until the rooms are ready on board. In the meantime you will get a piece of paper to scan for entrance to board. We did not like this at all. We just wanted our sea passes. The crew have to do extra work with paper receipts until people get their cards too. Once the rooms are ready (1:00 pm), there will be only one persons card in a sealed envelope where the room number is. Use that to get into the room and the other sea passes will be on the bed. They are trying to make the whole check in quicker, but as I said before it is just not working the way they hoped. The lady checking us in said we would put the credit card on our account while on the ship, but it was ridiculous because the line for guest services the first two days is pretty bad. Royal - please just let us check in like we did on Allure in the Ft. Lauderdale terminal, it is so much easier and quicker! If you are sailing out of Cape Liberty, just do pre check-in before you arrive to the terminal if you can!

The view from Cape Liberty is AWESOME! I've been to NYC about 6 times and have yet to see the Statue of Liberty. This time I finally got to see her even though you are not that close! We did some ship exploration and had lunch. I will let some pictures do the talking now.

Following :)

Sailing on Anthem in 11 days ... following! Thanks for the review!

Love it! Can't wait for the rest! :)

The pool area you are in above, is that the solarium?

Sailing under the Verrazano Bridge was a really neat experience! The ship has specially built funnels that will fully retract so the ship can get more clearance.

Now don't worry I have plenty of pictures from around the ship, especially the last day. I turned my camera off tonight and just enjoyed it all! Some other things to note about Day 1...

We were traveling with people from another stateroom and had requested to be with them for dinner. We chose Classic seating two where you're supposed to rotate between the four complimentary restaurants with your same server and table number @ 8:30 pm. We noticed we were not together and went down to Guest Services to fix it as quickly as possible. We got in the 20 + minute line and were eventually next up. We got told we were in the wrong line and needed to move over to the hospitality line. How were we supposed to know we were in the wrong line?! In fact it continued to happen to other people and everyone was getting pretty angry! All the people after us had done exactly what we did. I ventured off to take a look at the restaurants and noticed there were people at two of the hostess stands. They were able to request classic dining at the same table for both rooms and then I was told that we would be switched to Dynamic, but with the same rotation if the request was denied the next day. I went back up to tell my family I fixed it and of course it worked out perfect as they were still waiting in line!! I went ahead and told other people in the line about what they can do since none of the other staff was! :confused:

They should really put some signs out before people waste a lot of their time in those lines. We have been on 3 Royal ships before and were asked by the crew if it was our first cruise as if we didn't know what we were doing (which I must say isn't a very friendly thing to say with the sassy tone they had!)... No, we have just been blessed with the main dining room on the other ships and have never had to go to guest services!!

More on dining with Day 2 as there was more trouble ahead... Anyway we ate at Chic (pronounced as SHEEK) that night and I had the Chicken Parm. It was very good in my opinion. I will not be talking about food much in this review as I have found it to be extremely subjective. I've eaten $1 meals and I've also eaten $120 meals. I have never had terrible food on any ship, I guess I am just not as critical as many "foodies" on CC! The decor and design of Chic was nice, I really liked it! Service was pretty good.

We checked out the Intro to Two70 show after dinner. It was really neat! The cruise director basically shows off and explains Two70 as a whole. A few of the performers in the shows they will hold in the coming nights perform small skits. Don't miss it, especially since there is not much else to do on the first night!

The ship was rocking, but not too bad. We went back to the room to sleep. The pull out sofa is actually pretty large, which I enjoyed. The beds are more firm on this ship than the others, but it is hard to not have a good nights sleep while at sea!

Time for dinner. I will upload some cruise compasses when I get back! :)

Love it! Can't wait for the rest! :)

 

The pool area you are in above, is that the solarium?

Yes! The most perfect pool area. More on that later! :cool:

Thanks for posting

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Wonderful review! Looking forward to more. We are on Anthem the end of July.

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

For all of my cruise planners out there, I saved about half of the compasses and spa information! Here is everything from Day 1. ;-)

Will be on her in a month. Look forward to your review .

Welcome! You're going to have a great time!

Can't wait to hear all about it! Thanks for doing it!

Of course, glad to have you!

Looking forward to your review. Thanks!

Thank you. Welcome!

Thanks for posting. We will be sailing her September. Please give a full review of the ship and Please enjoy your time off from the world of work.

Thank you! I'll be telling you everything I know about the ship. Of course don't hesitate to ask any questions!

Sailing on Anthem in 11 days ... following! Thanks for the review!

Jealous!!

Wonderful review! Looking forward to more. We are on Anthem the end of July.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

Thank you and welcome to the review! Any extra space in your suitcase? :-D

Thank you so much for the review!

...but I need more in a hurry. We will be boarding Anthem in approx. 36 hours and can hardly contain ourselves:D

Alright I will be back tomorrow with Day 2 everyone! I will most likely start mid afternoon since I work in the morning! See you then! :)

Thank you so much for the review!

 

...but I need more in a hurry. We will be boarding Anthem in approx. 36 hours and can hardly contain ourselves:D

I. Am. So. Jealous! I most likely won't finish it by then however, if you have any pressing last questions I can answer them for you! I'll give you a link to a video I just finished making recently to help excite you even more!!

Following

Subscribed. Thanks for your time and efforts!

Kathy

Looking forward to your next day and day in Bermuda. I love Bermuda but can't imagine only being there as a one day port of call. But I an excited to read about the rest of your trip.

Thanks for the review and I enjoyed your video. 120-something days!!!!

Thanks for taking the time to put together an Anthem review. Will be following along to prepare for our Anthem journey this fall.