Just Off Anthem and wouldnt hesitate to book 3 more cruises on her!

Here’s my review of the Anthem Thanksgiving cruise 11/22-11/30/2015. Multi-generational trip with 8 people- 2 seniors, 3 adults, 1 teen and two kids (8, 5). This was a celebration of the 50th anniversary of my parents. We were originally booked on Breakaway (on which we sailed twice in 2014) but when Anthem prices dropped about 60-70 days before travel, bringing the price almost equal, we “jumped ship” and decided to try something new. We are also avid DCL cruisers most recently on Fantasy in July and we’ve done NCL Epic and Jade and NCL Magic and Dream also in recent years so I’ll try to include comparisons whenever it makes sense.

Pre-Cruise Planning: I found the Royal Caribbean cruise planner site to work very well. When we first booked, I was concerned to find only 9pm+ dining available but within a week, it totally opened up and we were able to book 6pm or 6:30pm in the restaurants we wanted in the exact order we wanted them. We were also able to grab great times for iFly and get all the main headliner show times we wanted. Closer to travel (about 2 weeks before?), we were also able to grab a great North Star time. The documentation part of the website, the photo upload, the ability to print cruise passes and luggage tags also were fairly seamless.

Embarkation: We were going to park and decided at the last minute to use Uber which worked out really well (cheap and efficient for our 15 miles trip from Westfield, NJ). A little traffic getting up to drop off areas as we arrived around 10:15am. But luggage drop off outside was quick. As we entered the terminal, a lovely woman with an iPad got us all checked in easily in about 10 minutes. There was a problem with one uploaded photo (they wanted no glasses) but she quickly took a new one and we moved on). Boarding was ready right after that. This was incredible. Unlike NCL breakaway and DCL ships which generally board around 11:45-12pm, Anthem boarded around 10:30 and was open to all guests by 10:45am or so. We were on board a few minutes before 11am.

Ship First Impressions/Public Areas: Stunning. Very elegant and high-class. Nicer than Breakaway. Nicer than DCL too but in a different way. I like the 1920s styling of the Disney ship but, the décor and newness of Anthem was definitely more “impressive”. 16 yr old nephew with 7 cruises under his belt stated immediately “This is the nicest ship I’ve ever seen”. The elevator area with the cherry blossom mural and the glass doors is absolutely beautiful. Colors and styling throughout are top notch. Liked the main area anchored by Michael’s pub and surrounded by the long row of shops- was very nice looking and the shops were good. 270 is amazing - the nicest venue I’ve ever experienced on a ship. Great walking/jogging track and nice open deck spaces.

Service: I’ll speak to dining room service first. There was distinct lack of rhythm to it that was frustrating. There didn’t seem to be “teams” working together. It was a main waiter and then some people (or not) helping him or her. Drink service in MDRs was few and far between. Most nights, you had to ask for the drink menu or wine list and had to expressly ask for someone to take drink orders. If you got one drink, that was usually the only time you saw them unless you expressly asked again. Again, I wonder if this is due to drink packages? They don’t want to come around too often and give out drinks? We were more fortunate than others in that we had 4 great servers over 6 nights (we asked for two twice) and they were friendly, professional and skilled. One other night it was okay but no one was memorable or overly warm and friendly. One night, Thanksgiving, service was horrible. Our waiter wasn’t rude but he was horribly ineffective, possibly had trouble understanding English and simply forgot to bring many things. Despite this, dining never really took that long- our meals were typically 90-100 minutes which is normal for a meal of 3-4 courses and 8 people. Service at the bars was mixed- on other ships the bartenders usually shine, on Anthem not so much. Again, most were adequate with a few being friendly the way you’d expect a bartender to be. There was a pervasive “not my job” attitude. They didn’t seem to help each other out or work as a team across the ship. Many times (especially from bartenders), there was an unwillingness to extend themselves. For example, pool bar outside is sort of back to back with one inside, one outside. On a number of occasions, I’d ask for a certain beer or drink and be told “sorry, we're out”. When I walked around to the other bar (which for them is literally turning around and walking through the adjoining door), the other bar would have the item. Our room steward was very good and all the room stewards on our hall went out of their way to great us and get to know us.

The biggest service issue I saw was with laziness/sloppiness around the ship’s public areas. They were often strewn with garbage dirty plates, used cups. It took a long time for anyone to clean them up- multiple staff members would walk past them dozens of times before anyone did anything about it. It was actually really gross and not a level of service I expect on a cruise ship. “Not my job” seemed to be the mentality. In addition, I have never been on a ship where the pool decks weren’t being swabbed constantly. You rarely saw anyone cleaning/drying the decks by the pool unless there was a water surge from ship movement that made them extremely wet. We constantly saw dirty, wet decks (one day tons of bird poop sat unattended all over the railing and deck leading from main pool to kiddie pools for HOURS). This needs to be corrected immediately.

I’ll lump officer/management presence in here because I think it speaks to the service issues- complete lack of senior staff presence around the ship. We are used to NCL in particular where you see the Hotel Director constantly and the F&B manager is in and out of all the restaurants every single meal. I saw the captain once at the signing and saw few other officers. When you did they were moving from one place to another and not observing or coaching their staff or speaking with guests.

Food/Dining: This is a shining feature of this ship. I found both food quality and variety to be mostly excellent- far superior to both NCL and DCL with the exception of the buffet. I found the kids’ menus very limited and uninspired and this could use some improvement. One of our kids is a foodie so she was perfectly happy ordering off the adult menu. For the littlest one, a little variety may have been nice. There were typically only 3 kids entrees offered (burger, mac and cheese and chicken fingers sometimes pizza) . Other than the occasional single item like a soup, we found the food to be excellent.

- Breakfast- quality was good in all venues. Buffet had lots of choices with fresh eggs/omelettes, fresh made pancakes (back of windjammer) and great hash browns, fruits, and breakfast meats. MDR was great- very relaxed and good food but service was slow at breakfast. Café 270 was a lovely choice for breakfast.

• Lunch- again, café 270 was amazing. Great salads and sandwiches and those roast beef sandwiches were to die for! When open, American Icon was a very relaxed pleasant lunch experience with good service and good food especially appetizers and desserts. I did not enjoy the buffet for lunch (or dinner for that matter)- bland food with little variety)

• Dinner- we found the food to be excellent in Icon and Grande, very good in Chic and Good in Silk. Grande was elegant and beautiful. The menu (especially the first 4 days) was great. The lobster tails were large and delicious. The truffle mushroom risotto was absolutely amazing. On the 2nd menu, there was an osso bucco which my Italian mother said was the best she ever had. Steaks were well-cooked and desserts were delicious. Icon had excellent appetizers and very good entrees especially the first menu. Despite the service problems, Thanksgiving dinner was a stand out with a great menu including an incredible pumpkin soup and butternut squash risotto. Again, great desserts. Chic was so-so our first night but excellent the 2nd time. The lamb in particular was well-cooked and high quality. Appetizers were just okay here- not a lot of variety. Desserts were, again, flawless. Silk was a pleasant experience because we had out best server and it was a really pretty, comfortable dining room. We had a lot of appetizers and thought they were all very good especially the Vietnamese tacos and the spare ribs. Entrees were generally not great especially the traditional Chinese things like general tso’s chicken ( really bad) but the broader Asian menu was better and a few of the fish dishes and the duck were pretty good.

• Specialty- We didn’t do any specialty dining because it looked sort of boring to us. Uninspired menus- the MDR menus seemed more exciting to us. We considered Wonderland but, honestly, we walked by it one night around 8pm and it was filled with little kids in high chairs or running around. If it were adults only, we probably would have given it a try. As an FYI, most days, Jaime’s Italian was discounted to $15 pp for lunch. The pub food looked good when we saw it come out- especially the burger and the board of meats and cheese.

• Other- pizza place was absolutely terrible. It was sort of embarrassing that a NY ship would serve such bad pizza. The patisserie place (free one) was boring- same 3 or 4 crummy sandwiches and 2 or three desserts every single days. The paid coffee shop was very good- coffee was great. The Dog Haus was very good but not open enough hours a day or late enough. One big miss was lack of late night food- I sorely missed the 24 hr pub on BA and the much better room service menu on DCL.

Bars: Plentiful and nice. Service ranged from adequate to great. Some just did their job (50%) and others made great drinks with a great attitude. There was some inconsistency in drinks from one place to the next. In addition, they were out of quite a few things even when the cruise started. For example, Michael’s pub had a list of about 6-7 specialty drinks but they only had the ingredients for 2 of them. In restaurants, they were out of many of the “signature cocktails”. Another example is the piano bar (which features a whole section of “Collins” drinks), told me they couldn’t make a drink. When I asked further, she said they were out of sour mix. When I complained to my spouse she said “I could get it for you if you can wait”. I said okay, she walked through the door and emerged seconds later with sour mix. Really?!? C’mon. Best service was in Michael’s pub and 270. Outside bars had inconsistent service and drink quality. There was a lack of roaming drink waiters at the pools and at night in the different venues during shows. We all noted how odd that was- on DCL for example, I always find the drink waiters to be almost too many in number. Perhaps this is because of the introduction of drink packages and a lessened desire to “push” drinks? The Bionic Bar was fun but didn’t always work right and was missing a few main juices to make certain drinks. The kids had a blast with Bionic Bar wanting to make Shirley temples of soda concoctions every night so that was fun.

Guest Services/Shore Excursions: need their own review because they were so poorly designed and inefficient. I guess the thinking was that they wanted to create an open area and push people to do things on iPads so the set up was a small desk at Guest Services with a total of 4 computers so maximum people working was 4 (and was usually 3). Hence, there was always a long, long line. At the entrance, there were two tables with about 6-8 iPads where, presumably, you could do some of the needed things like check on-board account and make various bookings. However, many people didn’t even know what they were for or how to use them. The system would have worked MUCH better if they had had another employee manning the iPad stations, walking through the line to inquire about what people were waiting for and if a simple request, showing people how to do it on the iPad. The Shore Excursion desk was similar except no actual desk, just a bunch of iPads and a roaming employee. This area was open weird and inadequate hours. For example, the day before a port day, hours were once 6-8pm. Luckily, this was not a very port intensive itinerary so it wasn’t a big deal (and I wasn’t personally impacted by it) but the poor design, understaffing and inefficiencies are worth noting.

Teen Programming: Nephew thought this was very good- much better than DCL but not quite as god as NCL (although pretty close). They had good activities that teens were interested in and were well attended and they seemed to get the nighttime party themes right- the teens were excited by them and lots of teens went. For example, selfie party, prom were two of the themes they enjoyed. My nephew did mention that when there was an activity, that meant many times the main teen center room was closed which he found a little annoying. If you weren’t interested in the activity, there was nowhere to hang out. An improvement of a staff member always present in the teen center for teens wanting to hang out but not do planned activities would be a great improvement. He did comment that it was great how many times all the SeaPlex and other activities were set aside just for teens- they had a great time roller skating, doing bumper cars, dodgeball, football, basketball and surf simulator all to themselves. Overall, he met up with a great group of kids and they had an absolute blast. The 1am curfew was not strictly enforced and, as long as well-behaved, they were allowed to get pizza or stay in the teen center until about 2am and then it was “suggested” to them to go back to the room.

Kids Club/Adventure Ocean: DCL and NCL win hands down here. The kids were divided into groups (too many groups if you ask me) by age. However, activities for all were fairly similar and by breaking up the way they did, it meant teeny, tiny rooms for each age group. They had them playing things like gagaball in a small room. I was concerned about security on Day 1- paper sign-in sheets and no one really looked anything up when I went to pick kid up. After that, all was entered onto an iPad and photos of kid and people allowed to pick-up came up and were checked against each other- felt much better after that. I think there was some understaffing at times- I went one day and there were 2 adults in a room of about 25 6-8 r olds and one was managing the sign-in and out at the door. One kid was having a meltdown and the other adult counselor was dealing with the kid, leaving 25 kids fairly unsupervised. I think the ratio of staff should have been better at times. The dinner program was great and free of charge- from 5-7 pm, they took kids to the buffet to eat together if they wanted. My niece enjoyed that aspect of eating with her friends one night. I also found that many listed activities did not happen. She’d read the things and want to go and when she got there, other things went on instead. That was frustrating to her. I did not like the late night program- it consisted of games with prizes and wound up feeling like they were trying to entice kids into staying late. There was some sadness and frustration as other kids won prizes and most didn’t. I didn’t like the competitiveness it set up. Overall, one kid had a decent time because she is super- social and loves making new friends but she even she wasn’t all that excited about going to the club. On both NCL and DCL, she begged to go to the club constantly and never wanted to leave it. Here, she went if we asked her to but was always happy to leave or sip it. Dreamworks programming- seemed to consist of two things- 2 scheduled character breakfasts and 4-5 character appearances per day. These seemed poorly attended and my kids had no interest in the Dreamworks characters. This is a huge difference obviously from DCL where characters are a main focal point but are involved in many ways including shows, kids’ club visits. Even NCL did a better job when they had Nickelodeon, having themed games that match the shows/characters.

Pools/Outside Decks: This is the highlight of this ship. Spacious, incredible pool areas with tons of space and tons of chairs both inside and out. Pools and hot tubs are huge, plenty of deck chairs even at peak times of the day (yes, they are close together but that’s way better than never being able to find one). Solarium is gorgeous and so relaxing. Such a great design with really great relaxing furniture. The view up there is stunning. It did seem to be the most crowded pool area on the ship, though and hot tubs weren’t hot enough. The family indoor pool was awesome. Really big, cute little splash pool above and two huge hot tubs. It rarely felt crowded even when the hot tubs had a lot of kids in them. The outdor pool area was hands down the best designed of any ship I have ever been on- open and spacious. Large main pool, heated to perfection to the weather. The kids area was genius- a whirlpool thing with a circling current meant dozens of kids in there for hours (which meant fewer kids in main pool). The wave pool was great also and large so lots of kids could enjoy at once and then a cute little splash pad with a mushroom fountain for little ones. Perfect, perfect, perfect! Great, clear big screen tv (which was sorely underutilized- throw a movie on all day!) IMO, the pool area is so horribly designed and overcrowded on NCL Breakaway- it is a reason we would never sail her again. A minus 100 on a scale of 0 to 100 (LOL). This pool design is almost a perfect 100. Better than DCL as well.

SeaPlex and other Activities: I thought this was a great feature as well. Unlike others, we didn’t experience huge waits. If you went to the roller skating session about 15 minutes before, you could always get a 30 minute timeslot. For bumper cars, go first day on embarkation. We did it 3x in a row with no waits. On other days, the lines did wrap around the whole seaplex about 30 minutes before the session opened. However, the lines dwindled and were maybe 15 minutes wait deep about an hour into posted session after crowds died down. We didn’t do the trapeze and the amount of time it takes plus how few can do it seems to indicate to me, it would be better replaced with other things. The plex was also great at night for various parties and the sports sessions were well attended and fun. Ping pong tables, Xbox, Foosball on second level made this a really busy, fun space. iFly was okay- our group liked it and had no problems reserving it prior to cruising. We knew what to expect but still a bit of a letdown how little “flying” you actually get to do. The surf simulator was excellent and because our cruise was a bit cooler, it wasn’t crowded. My sister went for almost every session and got lots of wave time saying usually 5-8 people was the normal attendance. NorthStar was amazing and we had the chance to do it 3x. Once as a walk up as we left Bayonne- incredible because of the sunset we got. Then, at nght at our pre-booked time. This was a bit disorganized as they weren’t used to reservations yet. It seemed to me they scheduled too many groups into each 1 hr period. So, we waited about 20 minutes for our scheduled time. Finally, we walked up on Nassau day and it was beautiful and clear. We waited about 10 minutes as a walk up on the stand by line. The views were great, they have excellent binoculars for viewing. Very enjoyable. No other line comes close to the activities on this ship.

Entertainment: I loved We Will Rock You (huge Queen fan). It was well-staged, costumes were great and was very professional. The make lead bored me and I thought he was a weak link but, my God, Scaramouche (sp?) was absolutely incredible. She was mesmerizing- I wish she would have sung the whole show! Spectra’s Cabaret was mixed for me. It featured a very talented cast in a poorly developed story with terrible music. Since they were talented, I liked it but it certainly didn’t maximize the amazing space it was in and I think the story could have been much better along with the music. The sisters in the show were incredibly talented but the songs they were given- yuck. We never made it to The Gift. Both comedians were very good- they split the cruise with two shows by one guy first day or two and a few shows by another guy towards the end. First guy was great, second guy was very good. Bands in the Music Hall were good but I didn’t feel like there were enough performances- IMO, that space warrants a band every night (maybe even 2). The piano player was good, not great and I did not enjoy the latin band and wish that space would have had more musical variety. The singer had a nice voice but was a boring performer and they generally played some sow and depressing music. Parties were good but I missed the “club” on NCL Breakaway. I think BA and Anthem are pretty close in entertainment and are both better overall than DCL. DCL had 1 great production show per ship and the rest is pretty dull. I’ll also say this shipped lacked the energy of BA. There was a distinct, routy sort of vibe that is very “NYC- city never sleeps-esque” on BA that I really enjoyed. Anthem doesn’t have that personality and stuff is very spread out so it was often hard to find “the action”. DCL is a snooze-fest after 11pm or so, so no comparison there.

Casino: I like to gamble but I spent little time in here. Slots weren’t very exciting, the back of the casino was so smoky, I couldn’t handle it (and that generally doesn’t bother me). I also didn’t like how quiet it was in there. It felt like a quiet, boring space in the basement. NCL BA was MUCH better from a casino gambling perspective.

Ship Movement: There was a large amount of swaying and movement on this ship that I haven’t experienced on other ships. The weather outside and sea surge did not reflect what was happening on board. There was way more swaying and movement than there should have been based on sea conditions. As others have mentioned, something about the design and attempts at fuel efficiency on this ship didn’t come out quite right. There was also a lot of ship creaking and noise- it didn’t bother me and I assumed it was sort of like a new house “settling” in but is worth noting that I have never heard anything like it before.

Cabins: We had balcony cabins. Mine was a connecting stateroom. The décor was beautiful. The balcony was very large and spacious. Hands down better balcony than the tiny ones on BA. But that’s where it ended for me. Other than décor and balcony, I didn’t like these rooms. First, the connecting wall was like paper. The older woman next to us made little noise but we could hear everything she said and did through the wall. She was a tv sleeper so we listened to her tv every single nigh all night long. I thought storage was weak. I didn’t like the cabinets on either side of the bed and much prefer a full closet and then the long cabinets with lots of storage on other lines. One of these cabinets had only 2 hanging bars- the lower one was too low to be useful- if you hung a men’s shirt or suit, it dragged on the floor. So, you could either use both bars or the floor to store shoes but not both. The other cabinet was okay- a tiny long hanging bar which was adequate for my hanging clothes and very narrow cubbies which weren’t enough room for my shoes, pjs, t-shorts, shorts and undergarments. There needed to be two more of them to beiadequate. The bottom was two larger drawers but, again, they were very shallow and couldn’t fit much. Above the bed were two good-sized cabinets but one was filled with sofabed bedding and, therefore, useless. Under the bed was small- just barely fit our 3 suitcases. The “dresser” looked cool but, in reality, one whole side was the stupid minibar and the other side had 3 very narrow and shallow drawers. You could stack more than 5 t-shirts or 3-4 pairs of shorts in each drawer. The two top drawers were tiny and couldn’t be used for more than make-up and the hairdryer and a few brushes. The little desk was useless with two tiny little cubbies for storage of a phone only. The outlets were good there and the USB plugs were smart. I figured the top of the dresser would be good but there was a fixed, attached large lamp there taking up about 1/3 of it so it lost most of its usefulness and a large open surface. The sofabed was terrible- extremely hard and uncomfortable. When open, it was even more uncomfortable and it blocked the dresser and desk area. You could not open the drawers or pull out the chair when sofabed open which was an issue with a late sleeping teen sharing the room. Also, when open, there was literally about 7-8 inches to walk by that sofabed to balcony. I also felt the bedding was sub-standard. I always sleep very well on ships and find they usually have great mattresses and luxurious bedding. On Anthem, I felt the pillows were among the worst I have ever slept on- cheap, flat, uncomfortable. The bedding itself was ok but by no means luxurious. Standard cotton sheets, not too soft or comfy. Duvet/comforter was soft and a nice weight. Mattress was extremely hard- I guess since the ship was so new. I like it hard like that so it was okay for me but beware if you can’t sleep on a hard mattress- you are going to have a tough time! Bathroom had adequate storage but weren’t as big as BA’s and the split bath of DCL ships are really unrivaled. Anthem loses to both here except for décor and balcony size.

Ports/Itinerary: Going in, we knew it wasn’t a great itinerary. I wish there were better choices but that’s the NY trade-off. With 8 people, not having airfare was key for us. But, in the future, I think I’ll stay away from the NY based cruises that go to basically, nowhere (LOL). I will say I wish these lines would do something about the inaccessibility of their private islands. It seems that a high % of the time (more than 50%), the ships miss the calls at these islands. Disney is the only line that has really gotten this right and hits it out of the ballpark with Castaway Cay- that place is a reason in and of itself to cruise DCL.

Disembarkment: We opted for walk-off service and walked off the ship around 7:15 with no lines or waits through customs. There was a bit of a wait for cabs- at this time Uber was surging at 6x regular cost and there were only a cab or two trickling in every few minutes. My family left later and I understand it was much better then, from a cab/Uber perspective.

Overall: It was a great trip and there was much to do for every generation. We thoroughly enjoyed the food, the activities, the entertainment and the beauty of the ship. I would have no qualms sailing Anthem again even with the few service issues I mentioned. I would pick her over BA for food and for the amazing pool spaces. Don’t worry if you are booked on Anthem- you will have a great time.

(As a side note, we did a vow renewal for my parents 50 th -not through the ship- and hosted a small group party in the conference rooms of the ship. Both were absolutely lovely and they had an amazing time.)

I have many photos which I am too lazy to add right now but I will try to do so in the coming days.

Thank you so much. So many different perspectives on this ship and it service and amenities. Guess I will find out soon YAY! :D

Thanks for the review! Very fair and balanced!

I really want to try out Anthem, but the service issues make me apprehensive. It seems that at this point, the service is one of the most important things that needs to be resolved. It seems that almost every other issued you pointed out would be resolved if the service issues improved, mainly involving the restaurants, as well as the pool area and senior officers.

I also wanted to point out that service isn't like this across the fleet. On many ships, the senior officers are very visible and personable. I think it varies. I've also never experienced the pool deck sanitation issues. And lastly, service in the dining room and around the ships on the rest of the fleet has consistently been good to great to excellent.

Thank you for making that point- in case it wasn't clear, this was my first sailing on RCI

Thorough review - thanks. We were on the cruise before and had an excellent time overall and would also happily sail Anthem again.

Had to laugh when I saw "The hot tubs were not hot enough." My husband had the same comment so now I know he is not crazy. :)

Thorough review - thanks. We were on the cruise before and had an excellent time overall and would also happily sail Anthem again.

 

Had to laugh when I saw "The hot tubs were not hot enough." My husband had the same comment so now I know he is not crazy. :)

The outdoor hot tubs were the hottest.

OP, thanks for a thorough and concise review. I truly think you covered everything.

Any luck with the missing nook?

OP, thanks for a thorough and concise review. I truly think you covered everything.

 

Any luck with the missing nook?

No word yet on the Nook.

Thanks for the informative review!

Hi Connie, welcome back. Thanks for the detailed comments. I'm very glad to hear you enjoyed Anthem (as did we); I know you did a lot of reading up and research on here in advance! :)

Totally agree with you about the beds being hard. I love a firm bed but wow....

As someone who wears glasses, I'm just curious about this comment in your post:

There was a problem with one uploaded photo (they wanted no glasses) but she quickly took a new one and we moved on).

In my photo that I uploaded, I was of course wearing glasses, as I wear glasses, and it was fine for RCI, so just curious...

Glad you enjoyed the ship!

I wear glasses all the time. I used a professional head shot from work, in which I am wearing glasses. She singled me out at check-in specifically telling me that they want photos without glasses and made me re-take it. Only I had to re-take mine (no one else in my family wears glasses)

No word yet on the Nook.

Good luck. If it's like my experience, you will hear back in a week that they made a very thorough search and could not find anything.

I wear glasses all the time. I used a professional head shot from work, in which I am wearing glasses. She singled me out at check-in specifically telling me that they want photos without glasses and made me re-take it. Only I had to re-take mine (no one else in my family wears glasses)

How bizarre. Possibly the most absurd thing I've read about RCI yet. :eek:

(And totally contrary to the written instructions about taking and uploading your photo.)

I wear glasses all the time. I used a professional head shot from work, in which I am wearing glasses. She singled me out at check-in specifically telling me that they want photos without glasses and made me re-take it. Only I had to re-take mine (no one else in my family wears glasses)

One of the parameters of the facial recognition software is the distance between the eyes. Glasses can obscure that measurement.

Extremely thorough review. Well written and very objective. I particularly like the comparisons on each point between the various cruiselines.

Thank you for taking the time to put this together. I hope RCI is reading these things, because I certainly hope some of the service issues are addressed promptly. I don't sail Anthem until September, and I'll be reading plenty of reviews before that sail date arrives.

One of the parameters of the facial recognition software is the distance between the eyes. Glasses can obscure that measurement.

Very interesting. But RCI only needs the photo to be sure that's you getting on the ship after a port call or for other security purposes on board, to match the real you with the photo in their computer. And for that reason, if you wear glasses all the time that's how they need you to look in your photo. And nothing in the instructions said no glasses. I think the OP got snagged by a check in agent who had no idea what she was doing.

Very interesting. But RCI only needs the photo to be sure that's you getting on the ship after a port call or for other security purposes on board, to match the real you with the photo in their computer. And for that reason, if you wear glasses all the time that's how they need you to look in your photo. And nothing in the instructions said no glasses. I think the OP got snagged by a check in agent who had no idea what she was doing.

When I get on the ship, many times they ask me to remove glasses and hat.

Very interesting. But RCI only needs the photo to be sure that's you getting on the ship after a port call or for other security purposes on board, to match the real you with the photo in their computer. And for that reason, if you wear glasses all the time that's how they need you to look in your photo. And nothing in the instructions said no glasses. I think the OP got snagged by a check in agent who had no idea what she was doing.

I think you are incorrect. If anything, I think it's a policy that wasn't enforced and now will be. Heightened security may make the facial recognition even more important.

Great review conandrob240. I was on that sailing and agree with most of your comments. Enjoyed the public spaces, especially 270. IMO best dinner was in Silk. Already looking forward to my next time on the Anthem.

Thank you for a great review. I'm booked to sail Anthem in August.

I think you are incorrect. If anything, I think it's a policy that wasn't enforced and now will be. Heightened security may make the facial recognition even more important.

This isn't an episode of CSI. Do you think RCI is running photos through an Interpol facial recognition database? When? Pax don't even have to upload a photo in advance, and on most ships and cruise lines, no photo is taken till moments before you board. They are taken so the cruise line can match the passenger to the person using the sea pass card on board the ship and coming and going in ports.

As for facial recognition, the people who actually do deal in genuine security, like the State Department when issuing visas for example, say that wearing glasses in your visa application photo is fine if you normally wear them, as long as they are not dark or tinted and there's no glare in the photo.

http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/general/photos.html

Thank you for taking the time to write a most excellent and fair review. I just booked an anthem cruise last monday (Cyber monday) and was a little concerned with other reviews but not enough to change my mind. So your review reassures me. We (My wife and I, son will be just shy of 18, and DD will be 12) will be cruising in 2 adjacent balcony staterooms.

Our cruise is only in March of 2017 so perhaps the beds will have softened by then ;), and the garbage picked up :eek:.

My main concern is that we are trying to get some of our friends and family to join us on this cruise. We have cruised a few times before and are not bothered by sea sickness, but a few of our friends are very susceptible to motion sickness and are afraid to cruise because of it. With all the comments about motion, I'm not sure that this ship would be a good choice for them for a first cruise. I'm afraid that it might turn them off of cruising completely.

Thank you once again for your review.

dp

This isn't an episode of CSI. Do you think RCI is running photos through an Interpol facial recognition database? When? Pax don't even have to upload a photo in advance, and on most ships and cruise lines, no photo is taken till moments before you board. They are taken so the cruise line can match the passenger to the person using the sea pass card on board the ship and coming and going in ports.

 

As for facial recognition, the people who actually do deal in genuine security, like the State Department when issuing visas for example, say that wearing glasses in your visa application photo is fine if you normally wear them, as long as they are not dark or tinted and there's no glare in the photo.

 

http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/general/photos.html

Methinks you should worry about something else.

When I get on the ship, many times they ask me to remove glasses and hat.

Same here--all glasses, and especially sun glasses.

Thank you for taking the time to write a most excellent and fair review. I just booked an anthem cruise last monday (Cyber monday) and was a little concerned with other reviews but not enough to change my mind. So your review reassures me. We (My wife and I, son will be just shy of 18, and DD will be 12) will be cruising in 2 adjacent balcony staterooms.

 

Our cruise is only in March of 2017 so perhaps the beds will have softened by then ;), and the garbage picked up :eek:.

 

My main concern is that we are trying to get some of our friends and family to join us on this cruise. We have cruised a few times before and are not bothered by sea sickness, but a few of our friends are very susceptible to motion sickness and are afraid to cruise because of it. With all the comments about motion, I'm not sure that this ship would be a good choice for them for a first cruise. I'm afraid that it might turn them off of cruising completely.

 

Thank you once again for your review.

 

dp

On the February Quantum sailing, it wasn't so much the swaying, but the creaking noise in our cabin, elevator area, and especially in the theatre. However, we were sailing in a storm with 20+ ft. waves. Certain times, the spray reached the Solarium deck--it was a sight. The Captain kept us very informed both via the TV and announcement over the ship's speakers. The creaking question was raised to the Captain at the Captain's Quarter event in 270 area on the last day, and as the Op mentioned he compared it to the settling of a new house. By the By, at the same event it was attended also by Hotel Manager and I believe the Engineer. Many questions and educational answers.