Booking Entertainment...Anthem

Thank you! (And thank you for making sense of the stupid iPhone autocorrect of Quantum to "tummy" LOL)

We booked entertainment for Anthem 12/12 cruise two days ago(103 days out)

Reservations for specialty restaurants, spa, Ifly etc have been opened for a couple of weeks

do you have to be paid in full to make dining & entertainment reservations?

do you have to be paid in full to make dining & entertainment reservations?

No you don't.

Ok, thanks. I just did the deposit an hour ago but it's saying I have to make payment to book. Maybe it just needs a bit to process. Thanks

We booked entertainment for Anthem 12/12 cruise two days ago(103 days out)

Reservations for specialty restaurants, spa, Ifly etc have been opened for a couple of weeks

I was able to make dining reservations for my 1/3 cruise but not for any activities or entertainment.

I was able to make dining reservations for my 1/3 cruise but not for any activities or entertainment.

Did you make the reservations on line or did you call the cruiseline?

Did you make the reservations on line or did you call the cruiseline?

You can do it either way, but I had no problem doing it on line.

Are the schedules for the November/December shows available to download somewhere? I'm trying to figure out if they'll fit with my dinner reservations or if I should adjust them now. I booked mainly 6:30-7pm reservations. If there are 9pm shows, I should be ok.

Are the schedules for the November/December shows available to download somewhere? I'm trying to figure out if they'll fit with my dinner reservations or if I should adjust them now. I booked mainly 6:30-7pm reservations. If there are 9pm shows, I should be ok.

The 2 theater shows are 9 pm with 1 - 2:30 matinee showing of WWRY.

I see youve done a tummy and Brekaway!

Tummy???

The 2 theater shows are 9 pm with 1 - 2:30 matinee showing of WWRY.

Now I that I think of bit there was both a 7 and 9 showing of the gift.

How far out were you able to book dining reservations?

My dining reserves for traditional was booked the day I booked the cruise via a TA.

Entertainment, I was instructed, 90 prior to cruise.

For the 12/27 cruise, was able to book entertainment almost 120 days before the cruise.

For the 12/27 cruise, was able to book entertainment almost 120 days before the cruise.

Well, they missed that for my 1/3/16 cruise.

Hi, I am booked on a 5-Night Bermuda cruise in May 2016. I'm a little confused with the Dining on the Anthem.

1. From what I am reading here I will be able to book my dining about 8 months out, is that correct?

2. For each of the complimentary restaurants...which are the ones that are most like the traditional dining on other ships?

3. Do the menus change every night in the restaurants and if that is the case how do you pre-determine which restaurant you want to dine in?

4. I've noticed that in the Grande, they have lobster...I'm assuming that you can't have lobster every night...can you eat there more than one night on a cruise?

5. I will also want to pre-book the shows. What shows are available to pre-book and what times are they? I will need to know that in order to make my dining reservations.

6. Regarding activities such as North Star, I-Fly and bumper cars...Can you pre-book the times for those as well?

Sorry for all of the questions...Thanks in advance for any help!!

Hi, I am booked on a 5-Night Bermuda cruise in May 2016. I'm a little confused with the Dining on the Anthem. !

Most of your questions are off-topic for this thread. Entertainment seems to open ~4 months before your cruise. Dining supposedly 9 months before. I'm sure you can find answers your dining questions in other threads, or start a new one.

Note I'm not trying to be mean but it doesn't do anyone any good to discuss all sorts of dining questions in a thread clearly related to entertainment.

While I thought the Breakaway was a beautiful ship, I wouldn't sail again unless it was an awesome deal. First, the food was dismal. And the service, except for a few exceptions, wasn't much better. We ate in the MDR's as well as 2 specialty restaurants, Cagney's and La Cucina. La Cucina is the worst specialty dining experience I've had on a ship and would never pay extra to eat here. I really wouldn't eat there for free.

 

We had a mini suite with an extra large balcony and it was great, but most balconies on the BWY are very small. Entertainment on BWY was decent. I enjoyed Rock of Ages and the jazz club in the evenings but the Second City Improv was boring. Not my cup of tea. I prefer stand up comedy and there is none at all on BWY. I didn't like the fact that they held many passenger favorite events, Like the Love and Marriage game, in the centrum area. There was limited seating and it was held during dinner time, as were many other events. Also, had kids' movies and other events taking place here all during the day which made the area very noisy if you just wanted a snack at O'Sheehans or paid a visit to guest services. Casino was nice but very smoky. Even in the "non smoking" side. No kids for me so I can't comment on the kids program but they did have a nice sports area up on deck that would probably be enjoyable for kids.

 

Overall, The Anthem is just more beautiful and the entertainment will be fantastic and the MDR as well as specialty dining is far superior than on BWY.

I've done both ships as well and agree with nearly everything! I did love the shows on Breakaway. I wish I had Rock of Ages to see again, rather than Cats on my future Oasis sailing. Quantum class is better designed for cold weather. It has a great indoor pool and Breakaway does not! Service was not good at all, IMO! Food was Ok but Royal is better. The Ropes course on Breakaway was fun but iFly, North Star, and Seaplex beat it out any day! Breakaway's water slides aren't a big deal to us. Our young kids never found a kids club they didn't like, but I felt Breakaway had better security to the program (though I never felt either was unsafe, and nobody beats DCL for facilities, activities, cleanliness, and security with kids clubs). The rooms are far superior on Quantum class. Breakaway was small and I'm glad we had an aft facing bump out balcony. Otherwise it would have been ridiculously small. Quantum's balcony was great and the room had tons of storage. I just wish it had an upper berth rather than just a pull out couch for my kids to share.

I've done both ships as well and agree with nearly everything! I did love the shows on Breakaway. I wish I had Rock of Ages to see again, rather than Cats on my future Oasis sailing. Quantum class is better designed for cold weather. It has a great indoor pool and Breakaway does not! Service was not good at all, IMO! Food was Ok but Royal is better. The Ropes course on Breakaway was fun but iFly, North Star, and Seaplex beat it out any day! Breakaway's water slides aren't a big deal to us. Our young kids never found a kids club they didn't like, but I felt Breakaway had better security to the program (though I never felt either was unsafe, and nobody beats DCL for facilities, activities, cleanliness, and security with kids clubs). The rooms are far superior on Quantum class. Breakaway was small and I'm glad we had an aft facing bump out balcony. Otherwise it would have been ridiculously small. Quantum's balcony was great and the room had tons of storage. I just wish it had an upper berth rather than just a pull out couch for my kids to share.

And with Breakaway being their New York ship you would think they would include a covered pool. Very poor planning there. I haven't seen CATS on Oasis yet, but I'd like to. Even if it's not everyone's cup of tea, it's a Broadway musical on a ship. That is world's better than the standard production shows on other ships. I'm actually disappointed because I would have liked to have another homeport option in addition to RCCL. Unfortunately Breakaway isn't it for me unless I get a super good deal.

And with Breakaway being their New York ship you would think they would include a covered pool. Very poor planning there. I haven't seen CATS on Oasis yet, but I'd like to. Even if it's not everyone's cup of tea, it's a Broadway musical on a ship. That is world's better than the standard production shows on other ships. I'm actually disappointed because I would have liked to have another homeport option in addition to RCCL. Unfortunately Breakaway isn't it for me unless I get a super good deal.

Well, there's Celebrity Summit and a Carnival ship, but they're not here during the winter.

As for Broadway musicals on ships, obviously NCL has them as well (and I am not an NCL fan, at all, but wanted to point out that RCCL does not have a monopoly on that). I saw Cats on Oasis earlier this year and thought it was really well done. However, it was 2.5 hours and that was too long for many people. The 90 minute abridged version they do of other shows seems to be to more to people's liking, even if it's not as well known of a show. I am disappointed that they couldn't find something better than a London show that never even made it to Broadway to perform on Anthem, but it seems that people like it, so I'll give it a try.

As for the normal production shows, I definitely agree, they are usually terrible although the single production show on Oasis (in addition to Cats and the aqua show) was pretty good. We were on Explorer OTS a couple of years ago and couldn't believe that they were performing the same crappy shows we had walked out of when we were last on Explorer 5 years earlier! And the shows on Celebrity Summit this summer was just as bad as they were last year.

I enjoyed all of the shows on Oasis and Allure, including the original theater productions. I, too, had never heard of Anthem's show but I'll go in with an open mind. Even though I'm not a fan of NCL I think it's great that they've stepped up their game when it comes to shows and entertainment. Their new Escape looks like it will have some wonderful entertainment. But NCL really lacks in the dining and service areas. I prefer the newer ships and if I were to do Celebrity, it wouldn't be the Summit. And Carnival? Well I don't need to say much there do I? I guess my flying days aren't over yet.

I enjoyed all of the shows on Oasis and Allure, including the original theater productions. I, too, had never heard of Anthem's show but I'll go in with an open mind. Even though I'm not a fan of NCL I think it's great that they've stepped up their game when it comes to shows and entertainment. Their new Escape looks like it will have some wonderful entertainment. But NCL really lacks in the dining and service areas. I prefer the newer ships and if I were to do Celebrity, it wouldn't be the Summit. And Carnival? Well I don't need to say much there do I? I guess my flying days aren't over yet.

NCL entertainment really is better. And although it's not apples to apples, on NCL I had the ultimate dining package so I thought that the food was AMAZING. can't really compare that to Royal's MDR, but I thought the buffet on NCL was a step up, too.

That being said, I think I do actually PREFER Royal.

I prefer the newer ships and if I were to do Celebrity, it wouldn't be the Summit.

NCL entertainment really is better. And although it's not apples to apples, on NCL I had the ultimate dining package so I thought that the food was AMAZING.

So basically if you buy the package that allows you to eat at pay restaurants every night, it's really good. Think about how that would work on Anthem, if you could eat at Wonderland, Chops, Jamie's for free every night.

I haven't been on Anthem yet, but hopefully their free places are good. The only pay restaurant I am planning to do is Wonderland.

Haven't done Anthem yet either but can say for 100% sure that the menus are much more varied and interesting than NCL. Last year, I found free food on Breakaway to be very good especially the buffet. A few weeks ago, I did a day tour on BA and ate at the buffet and both quality and variety was way down from last year. It was one of the final deciding factors that made me switch to Anthem. The specialities on Anthem don't really appeal to me- I eat great Italian all the time and the steak house menu looks less interesting than main dining room menus.