Anthem 1/25, I mean 1/26-2/6 review

This is my first review on CC, but I have lurked on these forums for years and appreciate all of the quality information I have received over the years from fellow members so I thought I would leave my thoughts. This is purely my opinion and everything is subjective so please keep that in mind. I am a diamond member with Royal and have done my last 12 cruises with them. I think this Anthem sailing will be my last unfortunately.

Let me start by saying as many of you know, this cruise was delayed 1 day due to winter storm Jonas. No big deal, RC can't control the weather, I get that. I was aware of this due to CC, thanks everyone, but never received a single email, text or phone call from RC, and yes, I checked spam folders. I was also aware of the itinerary change from a CC member doing a b2b, but again, no communication or confirmation from RC until we were checking in at the port. During the check in process, which by the way was effortless and fast, no information on compensation for loss of day or itinerary change until receiving a letter once actually in our stateroom. Now, I understand per the cruise contract, they don't have to do anything, but please have some reasonable goodwill toward your loyal customers. I heard from both CC posts, and speaking with fellow passengers onboard, they were polling some customers before boarding about the itinerary change. As far as I'm concerned, we were all polled when we booked, and chose the western Caribbean. I also thought the compensation, which was $300 for our balcony was laughable considering what happened. RC has apparently offered only b2b passengers 15% future cruise credit since they had to do the same itinerary twice, but keep in mind, they didn't lose a day. I just so happen to have done the same itinerary several months ago, but I don't get the same treatment? Just bad business, but again this is just my opinion!

Like I said, check in was easy, quick and painless and we were on the ship approximately 10:40, one of the few parts I give praise to.

Our stateroom, balcony cabin 6520, which is second from the front on deck 6 starboard side, was great. Lots of storage, clean, nice size television and balcony. Balcony had adjustable loungers with foot rests and a small table. My one complaint with the room was the balcony dividers were very noisy rattling in the wind and the balcony door had lots of wind noise and cold air drafts in the wind. Our stateroom attendant Junichi was great. Very efficient, friendly and did a nice job. Always available by phone or just in the hallway and all of our needs met very quickly. There is a $2 stateroom service charge when they bring you pretty much anything, including bottled water.

The ship itself is beautiful, very modern and mostly clean. Attractions are neat, northstar and ripcord both cool but not earth shattering. Definitely something new and I enjoyed. Bumper cars were a blast. I recommend doing northstar and bumper cars as soon as boarding as no lines. 270 is an amazing room, probably the best space on the ship in my opinion. I enjoyed Spectras Cabaret, didn't go to WWRY or The Gift. All of the live bands I saw, I enjoyed. The music Hall is a cool venue as well. The thought the layout of the ship was not as thought out as it should have been. Lots of high traffic areas with narrow areas for people to pass. This could have felt this way due to a very large population of elderly people that would walk very slow and stop in walking areas and lots of scooters as well. I felt like the Via and Esplanade wasted a lot of space that could be used in a better manner, but just my opinion as both areas are visually beautiful.

Now onto the food....biggest disappointment of my cruising history. In all complementary restaurants, the food was luke warm to cold, bland, and just poor. I am not a picky eater at all and have generally been very happy with the food on my past cruises. I get one bad night here or there and I get food is very subjective but in my opinion, it was flat out poor. The skirt steak in the solarium bistro was the worst meal I've ever had on a cruise. Not warm, very rubbery, inedible. The only meal I thought was decent was the Nebraska short rib in American Icon. The majority of what I ate just seemed reheated and almost stale. I thought Jamie's Italian shouldn't even pass as a complementary restaurant. More rubbery chicken, pasta didn't seem fresh, however the appetizers/planks were good. I think Giovanni's Table and Portofino on other ships are worlds better in my opinion. We cancelled our 2nd reservation at Jamie's after round 1. Chops was also mediocre, certainly not worth $78 for 2 people. In my opinion it went downhill after the menu change several years ago. Service was spotty, had one or 2 decent servers, but more bad than good. Some nights we waited 20-30 minutes for our plates to be taken away and another 5-10 to get dessert menus and we ate at 5:30-5:45 every night when it wasn't even busy. There were numerous occasions of dirty silverware, plates and cups on our "clean" table when we sat down. I'm talking hairs on plates, food chunks on silverware and lipstick smudges on glasses-saw this at bars as well. It seems they really need to inspect this stuff while setting the table. Also the menus were not in good shape, some had fresh food stains on them as well. I got the impression that the staff was getting lots of complaints as they were very pushy with telling you repeatedly that the survey was a reflection of them and not the food or anything else. Again this is all just my personal observation and opinion and hopefully not everyone's experience.

I will sum this up with saying I had read and heard of a lot of what I experienced before I went but went with an open mind as in the past I have found that a lot of complaints I had read about other ships were unfounded in my experience but unfortunately I concur with most of what I have read about the Anthem of the Seas and based upon that I do not recommend this ship.

We just got off the same cruise. I agree with you regarding the complimentary restaurants. We only tried chic, American icon and solarium. Chic and AI had really bland food, though the service we had was great and the desserts were good. We loved what we had at solarium, especially the salad bar, though we never tried the steak there. We ate mainly at the specialty restaurants or the solarium. We really enjoyed Jamie's and had great service at chops so I guess it depends on what you order and who is serving you. We also ate at Chefs Table which was an absolutely outstanding meal.

Regarding the way they handled the obc for the delay, we will be reaching out to RCI to ask for further compensation since the credit didn't even cover the cost of the lost day. Even though we did the exact same itinerary on Quantum last year, we got over the switch pretty quickly since we love St Maarten.

Other than that, we really had an amazing time. We are booked again on Anthem next January for southern Caribbean.

We also felt that $300 was not appropriate compensation for the missed day and totally changed itinerary. That said, we had great weather and a fine cruise, once over the disappointment. We received an email the night before on the changed itinerary, so we had some time to bitch a bit and then make the attitude adjustment before coming on board.

Although we've been to St. Thomas and St. Kitts many times, we chose to go to beaches we'd never been to before, so it felt fresher. San Juan was a ridiculous port with all aboard at 12:30. I also love St. Martin, so any trip there is fine with me.

At the risk of hijacking your review - I may submit my first review ever later today after 8 cruises with RCCL and 16 total.

Overall, shows were terrific (theater is poorly designed unfortunately, but we knew that from Quantum so it was our own fault that we had bad seats for The Gift as we didn't get there early enough.) Abe Hughes, the cruise director, was one of the better ones - we're Ken Rush fans - and we liked Abe's lower key and very kind persona better. My husband kept saying, "this guy is soooo smooth and articulate."

Unfortunately, I won't be giving 5 stars because of the restaurants. While the service overall was good, and servers were very pleasant, the service itself was sometimes amateur hour - reaching across my face, pulling food away before it was finished, etc. Showing annoyance when I asked for berries and whipped cream for dessert. (Which I have had consistently for dessert during my previous 7 RCCL cruises.)

The service in Silk in particular was pleasant, but bad. The food mixed. I liked my hibachi steak, but I like well done meat; my friends asked for medium rare and it came well done, so they didn't eat theirs. Spring rolls were dripping with oil. Gross. Same with the "recommended" crab Rangoon. We only ate there once - no one wanted to go back.

Grande was fine - same meal each time - lobster (3X). They need to understand what we mean when we say butter on the side, and bring a small ramekin of melted butter, rather than trying to pour butter all over the lobster from a gravy boat. But no big deal. Also, dishes were not always reflective of the description - i.e. no candied walnuts in the brie salad. No leeks under the lobster. Steamed vegetable plate was whatever was on hand, not what was described.

American Icon was OK. Liked having breakfast there - more civilized than WJ.

Chic - inedible. And we got different things. No one ate their food. Once was more than enough. This was a particular disappointment because we liked Chic a lot on Quantum - so I don't know what they were doing in Anthem's kitchen.

Solarium bistro - we all liked this. The appetizers were fantastic and baklava for dessert - wonderful. My chicken kabobs were cooked perfectly.

Windjammer for dinner was fine, but no staff to take your dirty salad plate away. We had to bus our own tables. This was a departure from other windjammers where although you went up to get your food yourself, there was staff to take a drink order and certainly someone there to take away the dirty plates. Although they had cookies in the Windjammer, they didn't seem to be baking them on site the way they did on Quantum (maybe that's a good thing.)

Jamie's - Mixed. Friends liked their lamb chops. Spaghetti with clam sauce is better at our local pizza place. Eggplant parm was mushy. Husband asked for it with no parmigiana cheese, just the mozzarella. Came out first with all the cheeses. Sent back, then came out no cheese at all because the chef said "No cheese is vegan" and that would be what my husband wanted. He was pretty clear about what he wanted; the chef disagreed. Went back again for the mozzarella. Maybe that's why it was mushy - too much nuking. But of course we had all finished our dinners by the time they got his right.

Chops. This was the best meal. Best service, hottest food, nicest presentation. We got in at the last night by going back and asking for a reservation every few hours. The hostess took pity on us and seated us.

We eat a lot of salads at home and I was looking forward the selection of vegetables I had come to expect at WJ and other restaurants on board. Every single salad - with the exception of Chops - at any venue on the ship - had lettuce swimming in water. Hard to believe that there's no salad spinner on board. Also, raw broccoli and cauliflower were few and far between.

I guess it doesn't matter to RCCL, since we booked a next cruise. Not sure it will be on Anthem though. Next year they aren't doing the Western itinerary we were supposed to have done this time.

Our stateroom attendant Junichi was great. Very efficient, friendly and did a nice job. Always available by phone or just in the hallway and all of our needs met very quickly. There is a $2 stateroom service charge when they bring you pretty much anything, including bottled water.

 

.

Sorry you had a bad trip. Does your comment above mean room service? Or getting something from the attendant, such as ice?

We simply asked for the Evian bottled water from our minibar to be replaced as we drank it all and more was brought and we were just charged for all of it upfront plus a $2 room service charge instead of being charged for what we subsequently used. Also, my wife had to get some unexpected medication from the ship medical facility and our room attendant accidentally threw away part of it somehow, so we called the medical center and they said they would send a replacement to our room. The day after it arrived, not only were we charged for the replacement medication, which we wouldn't have needed if the attendant didn't throw it away, but also a $2 room delivery fee.

I agree with the reviewer. This was by far the worst cruise my wife and i have been on. This has completely turned me off from RCL and i think it will be the last cruise we ever take with them unless they offer something ridiculous