Live Blogging Anthem of the Seas July 18 sailing!

They offered both the standard menu for that restaurant and an insert for royal night. This was not the "taste of anthem" others mentioned that had a standard menu for all.

 

We were relieved that we could order off the menu as normal!

Thanks for info. Sounds good then.

Thank you for your review. Perhaps I missed it' date=' but how did the Puzzle Break Room go? :)[/quote']

 

It was day 6 at sea - our team crushed it in 32 minutes, an unofficial ship record. Particularly since some of the people in our group had parents who had done it in 52 minutes - suffice to say they were gleeful about how much crap they were going to give them when they saw them!

 

 

We really enjoyed it, I highly recommend it.

I know I you will enjoy reviewing this log on each of your Anniversary. I know each year I review my logs of each of my cruises. Going thru them day by day it also (but no way) like being aboard the ship again

Once again, thank you for this Live review

Mary

I left on my Grandeur cruise last Friday. Now I'm back home and you're still posting away. Amazing!!

Based on your member name, you might know the answer to this question from my wife - services on Friday nights?

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I left on my Grandeur cruise last Friday. Now I'm back home and you're still posting away. Amazing!!

 

Based on your member name, you might know the answer to this question from my wife - services on Friday nights?

 

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Yes, there were, in the workshop. We didn't go, I must confess.

Great review, thanks for taking the time to post!

Do you or anyone else know what the official menu rotation schedule is for the included dining rooms? I would like to schedule our meals for this November with a chance to see both menus and not repeat.

Thanks!

Awesome review, can't wait to read the rest. Can u post picture of you and new wife so we can picture you with the review.

A quick post from Heathrow!

On to dinner! Day 13 – Devinly Decadence

Continuing our effort of closing out the final food venues, we were on to Devinly. If you recall, Devinly used to have a cover charge, but after the DD launch fiasco, they made it complementary to help relieve some of the overcrowding in the main dining rooms. The format was similar to lunch – a buffet bar (although single serves instead of vats) of salads, bread, and soups for starters. Also to note, the dinner salads/soups were identical to the lunch options. A selection of mains – both a number of “under 500” calorie options and “under 700” surf and turf if you pick two. For appetizers, we grabbed the thai papaya and Devinly “power” salad (or something like that). Both were good, I enjoyed them both but DW preferred the thai papaya salad.

For entrees, DW went with the enchiladas – the enchiladas at lunch and breakfast had both been pretty good, so DW kept the streak alive. I went with the surf and turf, picking pork and shrimp. DW said her choice was fine. One of her weaker meals across the cruise, but good enough—she did note however that the mass produced lunch and breakfast ones were actually better. I enjoyed the surf and turf – the portion sizes were normal (like, not cruise sized), so it was good to get a “regular meal” in.

Dessert was also a “bar” – the options were bundt cakes (orange or lemon glazed), flourless chocolate brownie, or raspberry and chocolate cake. All of them were actually pretty good.

So – in summary – it was a good enough meal. After 12 days of food after food, it was a nice forced break from the gorging. I would not, however, pay an upcharge for this venue should they bring the upcharge back. It just isn’t worth it.

Following dinner – it was time for The Quest! Ok, fine, we lost more money first. But then we went to The Quest! The Quest is done in the Seaplex at the Anthem, so the seating situation is crappy, but there is a two-floor setup. There’s also fewer teams – only six, due to the limited floor space. Another thing that I thought was interesting – a TON of kids. Small kids. All of the Quests we’ve done sailing out of Ft. Lauderdale on Oasis/Allure in the summer have been more of a 20’s and 30’s crowd and tend to get a little raunchy. This one was comparatively tame. I actually thought it was one of the weaker ones, but DW liked it better. Interestingly I also heard one of our team Captains saying after she thought it was one of the best she’d ever done (she was also American. Also bizarrely DW and I ran into her and her family at Earl’s Court station at the tube on the way to Heathrow today which is very weird). Anyway, a good time had by all.

I will post Day 14 tomorrow most likely with final food reviews, disembarkation, etc, and longer overall reviews in the days to come.

And… since several of you asked so nicely, here’s a pic of DW and I at the Coliseum. We’re about 30 pounds heavier now so you wouldn’t recognize us (we were still skinny on Day 7) – so if you’re all trying to stalk us, good luck (just kidding):

And in closing, a pic of the Eye last night from St. James park as we walked back to our hotel after a phenomenal final dinner at La Petite Maison - ISO distorted it a bit (it's from an iPhone) so it's a little crappy at large resolution.

PS – I didn’t have to take pictures at La Petite Maison, but I had to of one course. So here’s a non RC food picture just for fun from dinner.

Thank you again for taking the time to write so an enjoyable review.

You are a nice looking couple :)

I'm very worried about the Anthem being DIRTY.

I know that food and entertainment are very subjective, but food and glasses left on elevators and public places???

Would you be kind and enlighten us about this worrisome aspect?

Toda raba & a lot of Mazal Tov :)

I'm very worried about the Anthem being DIRTY.

I know that food and entertainment are very subjective, but food and glasses left on elevators and public places???

Would you be kind and enlighten us about this worrisome aspect?

We spent 14 nights on Anthem in June/July. The things we observed on Anthem were no different than we observed on other ships as far as food/glasses being left in public places. There were some and they were picked up and not left for long times. What gets me is that people think it's OK to leave stuff wherever they feel like.

Anthem is a beautiful ship and we enjoyed our 14 nights onboard.

We spent 14 nights on Anthem in June/July. The things we observed on Anthem were no different than we observed on other ships as far as food/glasses being left in public places. There were some and they were picked up and not left for long times. What gets me is that people think it's OK to leave stuff wherever they feel like.

 

Anthem is a beautiful ship and we enjoyed our 14 nights onboard.

Our experience was similar. Very clean but the occasional plate or glass in the elevator or other non food venue place. Food venues were patrolled pretty well (and the pool of course).

I hate to stereotype, but I do think the quantity of kids affects this as well, part I particularly as it pertains to plates and glasses in weird places. I definitely saw kids drop their stuff twice in an elevator this trip. I mean, really??

Thanks for this great blog. We are on the Anthem September 15th to the Canaries. Quick question. What are the internet options? I don't think I saw any discussion on that.

Again, many thanks.

Will

Thanks for this great blog. We are on the Anthem September 15th to the Canaries. Quick question. What are the internet options? I don't think I saw any discussion on that.

 

Again, many thanks.

 

Will

Expensive. We did the 2 device all cruise package, I want to say it was around 300 because it was around 10 per do per device. The diamond coupon Knocked off 30. They no longer have any minutes options- it's either one day for 30 (unlimited usage) or various device packages. Kind of crappy actually. DW and I both needed Internet for work, so we sprung for the expensive package. And I needed to blog, obviously!

I really enjoyed your review. Good luck on married life.

Wonderland Dinner Review

 

I have to admit some skepticism way back when the Quantum class was first announced about Wonderland. Because I’m a huge dork, and love cruising, I had paid attention to the big press release about all the new restaurants. The Wonderland stuff seemed interesting, but in many ways like they were almost trying too hard. I had liked Park 150 on the Oasis class as it seemed to deliver quality food without being too froo froo. Nonetheless, Wonderland was going to be a stop and I went in with an open mind and enthusiasm, even if it was tempered by some skepticism.

 

While much has been made (correctly) about the Alice in Wonderland theme, what I haven’t read as much was how far the theming went. The hostess is dressed like Alice, and the servers like mad hatters. Also somewhat interesting, for Wonderland, the staff do NOT have to wear their nametags. As you may know, that’s one of those strict RC rules, and outside of dancers in shows while on stage (fun insider fact, many of the theater talents – i.e., the leads of the shows -- are actually exempt from the nametag rule as well. Others, like the ice skaters and divers, however, have to wear them).

 

Anyhow, on to the food. While there is an extensive menu, the staff will offer (somewhat strongly) to order for you, after asking for your allergy/food restrictions. We went with this plan, which made sense since the portion sizes varied wildly. Many were single bites, others larger. Because this menu was so large, I’ll go by the pictures and what we thought.

 

 

Top left: liquid lobster (DW and I liked this one quite a bit). Second from the top on the left - a duck liver fritter (also an excellent bite, I would have eaten 6 more – DW also liked that one a lot even though she’s not typically a fan of liver). Third from the top left side – liquid manzinilla olive - this weird liquid thing that they had you “press up against the roof of your mouth,” releasing its contents in a “pop of olive oil.” Since this is a family blog I’m not going to describe how DW and I felt about this “texture food.” Suffice to say I don’t need any “pops of olive oil” released in my mouth during dinner. Bottom left corner - slow cooked beat salad with srichaca yogurt - it was good but not as good as some of the root vegetable dishes/beat dishes on Park 150.

 

Top middle – tuna tartar in a scooped out lime with yuzu sorbet. Not bad, but not one of my favorites on the menu. Perhaps a bit too ambitious. We both thought it was the weakest of the starters, which is saying something since we both love tartar. Dead center – eggs that were then infused in a smoked dish (we think it was buffalo smoked) – they lift the dish with a flourish of smoke, which I caught on camera. Also a great dish, although I liked it more than DW.

 

Bottom - kimchi tempura with melon. Eat the kimchi and sauce, and then the melon to cool it down. This was another of our favorites, although the portion size was huge considering all the other food.

 

Finally – right side - crispy crab cones, which were excellent, and we could have eaten another 10 of those as well. That had to be taken as a single bite, because the bottom had wasabi – DW made the mistake of eating in two, and her second bite was all wasabi. See kids, when you’re in a weird restaurant, follow the instructions of the funnily dressed people!

 

So to sum that round up – big winners – crab cones, liquid lobster, fritter. Odd – liquid olive.

 

My only critique is that the food came in a blitzkrieg. We weren’t in a rush, but all of those dishes came out in about 10 minutes of each other, overfilling the table. At that point we couldn’t really say “slow down”, although our waitress noted that the appetizers came fast, then a break, then mains, and another break before dessert.

 

So on the entrees – chicken with crispy skin, some sort of weird carrot/beet thing, bok choi and mashed potatoes. Usually I don’t order chicken out, but this was a fantastic dish, the skin was nice and crackly/crispy. Next dish - short rib with “river rocks” which were potatoes painted in squid ink (you can pick those out easily in the picture) which had an odd “Shell” from the ink, but were otherwise normal and good. The meat was great as well. Finally branzino with this crispy bread attached, which was the weakest of this round. The texture combo just didn’t work, which is a shame because the branzino itself was quite good. One thing I’ll note somewhat retroactively – while the starters were quite ‘whimsical’ and creative, the mains were a little more grounded. Not a critique, just an observation.

 

 

Then – dessert. At this point, we were waving the white flag. Nonetheless, we had to do our duty and avoid the cruise terrorist watch list. We went with the boston crème pie maze (far left) – which was these nice white cake, filled with boston crème, with certain sides having chocolate. Excellent balance. Key lime lollipops were the middle, not much to say beyond the fact they were wonderful, and then another molten lava cake with pistachio ice cream. They were all excellent, the boston crème pie and the lollipops stood out the most, but none were super amazing.

 

In conclusion – an excellent meal. I would rate it a hair under park 150, but I would absolutely do it again. I also should note that there is no wine pairing offered, but there are a variety of specialty cocktails. I got two – one was a strawberry balsamic martini – which was a nice balance of sweet and acidity, and I got some sort of Collins which had some clever name which was also a nice drink. The fact that the martini was served in a goblet was also a nice plus.

 

Following dinner, we went off to the Love and Marriage game show. We were a bit late, so we were not able to get there to try to be picked, which wasn’t happening anyway. As I told DW, “Do you really want ME up there DRUNK? No matter what I say or do, you’re the one who married me.” As the questions went on, she decided it really was for the best we weren’t up there. Not much to say other than it was quite fun to have the Brits up there, as the dry British humor of both the contestants and the cruise director Joff were fantastic. On a funny aside, one of the contestants (husband) tends to say random words like “eggs.” Joff said he would say that at the end of his announcements for the entire following day. And he actually did! Which was awesome. I guess you had to be there, but we were cracking up.

 

 

 

This evening had one of the outdoor solarium parties that we always enjoy in the Caribbean. Unfortunately, what was billed as an "Ibiza" party was just relatively weak techno blasting and a whole lot of people drinking at the bar -- no one dancing at all. I was rather disappointed, but as discussed by many, the dance scene just isn't there on these cruises. Which is probably for the best for the sake of international peace, if people see my bad white person dancing they're likely to riot. I got away with it on Silent Disco night because everyone was too busy playing with their headphones to notice me, but I don't want to push my luck.

 

 

 

Anyway - that concluded a busy day 9. More coming up to catch you all up. We just completed an awesome day in Lisbon but are contemplating a serious audible in nixing our Vigo excursion simply to relax before leaving this lovely ship.

I have question about Wonderland Dinner. There is dinner menu there are choices like earth, fire, ice, sea, wind and so on....Do you need to choose just one for exp "Wind" and they are bringing all 4 options from Wind or you can choose from every element just one option, or you can choose how many dishes you want OR something else??? Cld you pls answer my question?

Thank you for taking the time on your honeymoon to do this live review for us. Wishing you my best for the future :)

Day 14 - The Last Sea Day

Does anything suck more than the last sea day? Yeah, you've got the whole day, but there's the packing, the preparation for departure, the mental knowing it's over. I have to say by now I was kind of ready to get back to reality, whereas on a 7 day cruise the last day comes entirely too quickly.

We woke up to a chilly day - probably even chillier than the first day down. We decided to see if we could do one last Coastal Kitchen breakfast (they had told us they preferred if we came on port days) - fortunately, the restaurant was fairly quiet (maybe 5 covers) and the manager continued to be extremely nice to us. Breakfast was the egg, chorizo and cheese flatbread for me and the french toast (with caramel and bananas) for DW. Simply put, this breakfast was even better than the last at CK and probably the best on the vacation. While again not in that uber echelon, it was a lovely meal. I'll continue to put my stamp of approval on the CK breakfast. This is a really good perk, even if the hours are a bit tight - usually just a 2 hour window every morning.

After this, we decided to splurge and grab spa thermal suite passes for the day. Given that the weather was chilly, the pools crowded (as before, the two indoor pools were pretty packed, although we were able to snag chairs at one point), we wanted to see if the thermal suite was worth it. We had done a tour following our massage early in the cruise and it seemed nice enough.

Overall verdict? Not bad. I'm not sure it was worth the price ($30/pp, plus a gratuity, and no they don't let you use your diamond coupon thank you very much) for a day. The sauna was nice, although one area was decidedly warmer than the other - it was "L" shaped, and the 90 degree part/short line part of the "L" had more heaters, which maybe is a blessing in disguise if you want a less intense experience. The steam room was great but not for the faint of heart (DW lasted about 2.5 seconds). There was a rain shower but we didn't try it, although I did find it amusing when a gentleman dropped his towel and strolled into the shower nude. It is a coed thermal suite. The thermal beds were warm, but not terribly comfortable if you were trying to read in them, and there weren't many - I believe 6 total in a 4/2 configuration separated by a wall. After lunch we popped in and they were all taken, so we had to truck down to the pool. If you are a big fan of sauna/steam room, it may be worth it to you to get a full pass, but I'm not sure I'd do a repeat purchase.

Lunch was windjammer. I continued to be a big fan of the Anthem windjammer - the selection and quality was pretty good in my opinion throughout the cruise.

After a final gym session and packing, we headed off to dinner at Silk again.

Day 14 Dinner Review -- Silk

Yet again we were stymied by the menus being back to the original menu. Fortunately the menu was deep enough for us to try new things without too much trouble. Appetizers were the pork buns (the ones always featured in the pictures for Silk), which were good, although a little light on the meat. Spring rolls, which were pretty normal spring rolls - they had a nice crunch to them and weren't too greasy but were otherwise pretty standard. Another order of vegetable pakora, which was as good as the first go around.

For entrees, chicken tikka masala for me, which is one of my favorite Indian dishes, and I was really happy with it as a dinner. It had some kick to it, whereas it usually is pretty mild when served in the states, but the chicken meat was good and well prepared, as was the curry. DW did the yogurt marinated salmon (there was another spice I'm blanking on) which was also very good. The salmon was well cooked and the spice added good flavor.

Dessert was the chocolate lychee tart and macha pound cake we had last time - again - we didn't bother with pictures since they were the same in appearance and taste.

Obviously we couldn't review the other menu, but all that said, Silk had another strong showing. If I were to sum up our complementary food rankings, it would be:

Grande

Silk

American Icon/Chic

After that, we gambled some and then called it as we had an early wake up call for self disembarkation. The other thing I'd comment on is that the music offerings on Anthem pale compared to the Oasis class. Oasis had a lot more live music in more venues. The timing and quantity on Anthem seemed weaker to me. I'm not sure why that was. There was a consistent "dead spot" from 7-8 PM every night where there'd be no music which was a bit annoying to us - we usually would do drinks and music around then and often found ourselves with no options. When we were able to find music, it was great-- they had a fantastic Spanish band (Bambaleo) and the guitarist from We Will Rock You, Bob, who played Schooner, was awesome.

Day 15 Disembarkation Notes

A few notes. Self disembark was easy. There were two windows - 6:30 - 7 and 7:30 - 8:15 (or maybe it was 8:30). Rebels that we are, we went at 7:15 and walked off with no line. I'm not sure why they have that time gap. Even better, apparently the UK Border Force doesn't screen passports the way US Customs and Border Protection was, so there was no passport line to wait in-- we just walked out the port. So a quick walk off which took us all of 10 minutes, followed by a 5 minute cab ride to the train station and off we went back to London. Southampton is up there with Ft. Lauderdale for me in terms of ease of disembarkation and embarkation.

Final Thoughts

Overall this was a wonderful cruise. I still give an edge to the Oasis class for a variety of reasons (notably the neighborhoods and the open space they bring, live music, and larger entertainment venues), but this is the first ship that is a true rival to that class in my opinion (I know many people like the smaller ships and I get that - this is just my opinion). We're looking hard at a Bayonne cruise on the Anthem next year because we could drive there instead of flying, which would be an interesting experience to try. It also may make it easier for us to convince some of our friends to try cruising.

A lot of the bad things we had heard about the ship did not happen to us (service, food quality). We thought the service was excellent, with only really one night (American Icon) where we had average service. All of the other staff seemed to be going out of their way to make sure they were delivering good service and asking if we had problems. The staff did seem a bit stretched thin at various food venues, however.

The food itself was overall a solid 7, with higher variations at the venues I've spoken about. There definitely were some "misses" but it wasn't clear if those were one-off issues or not (i.e., a bad preparation vs. a bad dish), and they weren't deal breakers. I should also note that since we ate a bit earlier than the rest of the boat (8 PM vs. 9 PM), that may have also helped things.

Drinks were good, but the prices were high (yay VAT and RC raising prices), and the specialty cocktails were very hit or miss.

Excursions were expensive, but largely delivered the value and security we'd hoped for. Knowing the ports better now there were definite DIY opportunities throughout that we'd know better for next stop, but for our honeymoon where we wanted to be on cruise control they made sense. It was a good mix of "A list" and "B list" stops.

Entertainment was also very good, minus my music critique, which perhaps again was related to our dining schedule.

And that, I believe, takes us to the end of the live blog! I'm going to post a food and drink review in the Anthem forum (I'll link back here) and a regular review for Cruise Critic (I'll link here too, although it likely will be the sum-up I just posted!) for people who don't want to slog through this massive blog.

Thanks again to all who followed along, I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to post questions, I'll keep an eye on the thread.

This was so much fun to follow along with! Thank you so much for taking the time to enable all of us to cruise along with you. Definitely one of the best blogs/reviews I've had the pleasure of reading.

Thanks for posting your live blog. I enjoyed reading every entry. I'm so glad that you enjoyed your cruise. Best wishes for a long and happy marriage.

We are booked on Anthem next year and I was seriously considering cancelling due to the bad reviews, but after reading your wonderful review I am really looking forward to it. Thank you!

Thanks for spending time in giving such a indepth review/blog and tbh letting me look forward to our Anthem cruise in less than a month. We are doing the same ports as you with the 14 day Med cruise and your port reports were also really helpful.

I can't believe the amount of negative reviews on CC but shouldn't be surprised as its a new ship out of the UK ...... therefore mainly UK guests who by their nature like to moan/ complain online after the event rather than the U.S. customer who would complain directly to resolve the issue at the time.

I'm really looking forward to sailing on Anthem in September and will have an open mind to what to expect .... TBH my glass is always half full and will always see the positives rather than find problems to moan about.

Hope I can post such a positive report after our experience in September

Cheers !!!!

I have question about Wonderland Dinner. There is dinner menu there are choices like earth, fire, ice, sea, wind and so on....Do you need to choose just one for exp "Wind" and they are bringing all 4 options from Wind or you can choose from every element just one option, or you can choose how many dishes you want OR something else??? Cld you pls answer my question?

You can order as much as you want for all of the options-- the titles are just them breaking up the names. The sizes also vary considerably for each -- some are just bites, other are appetizer sized, and there are mains.

This is one of the reasons the servers offer to build the menu for you - if you were just ordering on your own, I'd make sure to ask them how big everything is and how many your group would need.

Incredible blog/review to the end. Just incredible.

Can't wait for our November 10 cruise on the Anthem.

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Thanks again for this wonderful blog, so enjoyed it and you have my family very excited for our trip! Best wishes for many more happy travels to you and your lovely new wife!

Thank you so much for your blog. I have really enjoyed reading it and getting excited about our trip on 15th August. We will only be going to the Complimentary Restaurants. We will note to check when each of those restaurants are serving Menu 1 and 2 so we get to try them both and assume that if we like one particular menu we should get back to that restaurant to try other options on the same menu.

You did not mention trying the bumper cars, flow rider or iFly. I am looking forward to trying them. I am still a kid at heart.