kenandlaura06

I cancelled on March 9th and received the FCC on the 19th.  However, have not received any of the refunds we were supposed to receive.  Called today and it took over 2 hours on the phone (with a really wonderful agent) to find out that they had to be re-processed.  Said it would be 3-10 more days.  In addition, they made a mistake with the amount (only gave FCC for 75% despite it being under the Cruise with Confidence program) so that had to be straightened out.  

We were going to re-book but they said that we could not use our FCC for our deposit.  Has anyone else heard that to be the case? 

I am not going to re-book just yet when they have so much of our money and we haven't received any refunds yet.  Not going to put out another $1000.  I understand they want cash but they have a lot of our money already with the FCC so I am not going to give them more at this point.  

Back home after the 5 day Anthem trip to Bermuda. It was a great trip and overall we were very pleased. There were 6 in our party (4 adults and 2 kids, 4 and 7 yrs old) and we had two balcony rooms on deck 8.

Bermuda: We took a glass bottom boat tour and visited Horseshoe Bay for a few hours on our first day in Bermuda. Horseshoe Bay was amazing of course, though very, very crowded. My husband waited in line for almost an hour to get us lunch. The line for the bar was equally as long! We took a taxi to Horseshoe Bay and had no problem getting there and back quickly--lines for buses and transfers through the cruise line seem long. On the 2nd day in Bermuda, we took the kids to Snorkel Beach. It was so convenient and a good beach for kids to swim at. Obviously not as beautiful as Horseshoe Bay but my kids were very happy. We noticed storm clouds coming and were able to get the kids off the beach and back onto the ship before the rain came!

Positives:

Service: Service was great all week and the staff was great with my kids.

Adventure Ocean: My kids enjoyed going there and there were lots of options for times and activities. Our cruise was for our 10th anniversary and we wanted to have some time each day to ourselves and the program was perfect. We dropped them off on 2 afternoons, 1 evening, and then utilized the Adventure Dining once and the My Time Family Dining once. It was great.

H2O zone: My kids could not get enough of the wave pool. We spent most our sea days there and despite the many people on board, that pool did not feel too crowded. We were not able to find a lounge chair around the outdoor pool, but with young kids that didn't really matter because we were always in the water with them. In addition, we noticed a great deal of vigilance by the staff around the pool deck due to the sad event on the last cruise. I also liked the fact that the swim diaper rules were being enforced. Another passenger on board became quite angry with the staff that her child was not supposed to be in the wave pool because the child was in a swim diaper and despite her anger, they enforced the rule.

iFly:We loved trying the iFly and the instructor was really great working with my children. My son was quite nervous and the instructor went out of his way to make him feel comfortable.

SeaPlex--my son took the acrobatic class and my husband and children loved the bumper cars. My son loved the Xbox, though he was only able to play once and we all enjoyed the ping pong tables.

Food:We liked the cafe at 270 and had lunch there on Day 1 and Day 4. My husband and I ate at Izumi one evening and enjoyed it very much. We had a nice adult meal at The Grand the first evening and all 6 of us at at Silk and even though we had two different reservation windows (6-6:30 and 6:15-6:45) we were able to get a table for 6 together. My family of 4 enjoyed a meal at Chic, as well. We thought there was a nice selection at the Windjammer and the desserts were great all week long. Sorrento's was decent for a snack. While the food wasn't amazing, we thought that it was all fine for such a large ship.

Movie on pool deck: They showed Zootopia. Fun way for families to spend an evening. Wish they showed another PG or PG13 movie at 7:00 pm another night on the cruise because it was a great venue!

Negatives:

Schedule changes. I made all my reservations in advance for meals and shows and there were several changes to show times which then threw off meal reservations. I then tried to make changes while on board using the app to no avail. Called ext 7000 as was advertised and couldn't get anyone to answer. The DreamWorks character breakfast was moved from Day 5 when I initially booked it to Day 2 and I had our iFly and North Star reservations for Day 2 in the morning as well, so it made it pretty busy for that morning. I would not have booked the breakfast if I had known it would be on Day 2 (and would not recommend the breakfast as I thought it was not a good value--see below)

DreamWorks character breakfast: I booked this in advance and paid $50 for 4 adults and 2 kids to go. Not worth the money IMO. The breakfast was the basic dining room breakfast (not surprising there) but then there were just 3 characters from Madagascar--my kids were really hoping for characters from Shrek or Kung Fu Panda, and I thought for the $50 there would be just a little more to it. Maybe more dancing or interaction or a small souvenir. Since there were meet and greet opportunities with those characters throughout the week, I really don't feel like we got anything extra for our money for the breakfast.

American Icon: I didn't eat there personally, but my husband and parents did and they said it was their least favorite meal of the week.

Great trip and we would cruise Anthem again with kids!

Thank you! I'm glad you commented - the positive feedback does really help. Sometimes when there are no comments I wonder if anyone is out there still reading! :eek:

 

I hope to get to some more posts either later today or tonight. If I can squeeze some in between work today as well that would be nice too! ;)

Definitely still reading! Keep the review coming!

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LOVE this review! What a wonderful adventure for you and your family! After reading this, I hope I can do a similar trip with my children in a few years.

Awesome thread...excited because we booked 1688 on Explorer of the Seas today...our first AFT!

Following this great thread! Read through your awesome review of your Canada/New England cruise...it was wonderful! We live in New England and have been to Montreal, QC, and Portland (and Bar Harbor which you didn't make it to) and you gave me the urge to book a cruise with that itinerary some day.

Thank you for taking the time to report on your cruises!

If we couldn't put the kids in a separate cabin, we wouldn't take them along on the cruise at all. Even aside from the sex issues, it just wouldn't be very relaxing or enjoyable if we needed to have an entire family crammed together in one cabin with no privacy, all sharing one small bathroom and limited storage space for a week or more. Others may enjoy that much togetherness, but it's not our idea of the way to spend a vacation.

 

Why do you think grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were invented?

You can trade off and take care of their kids or pets when they go on vacation.

 

Or, if you feel you really must take them along on the cruise, put all those strongwilled kids in another cabin with the horny grandparents.

Important: Make sure they are on another deck, on the opposite end of the ship. Then you can pretend you don't know any of them.

 

Still haven't figured out whether the kitchen utensils should go in your cabin or theirs though.

I grew up in a small house with one bathroom, so we never knew it any other way and always shared a room when we were on vacation. I don't know if we would have been able to travel as much as we did if we hadn't shared a room. It really wasn't an issue at all--I guess it is all what you are used to.

Thanks for the awesome pics, everyone!

Awesome pics...keep them coming!

I will be looking for the mugs shortly...great idea.

2) In port at Costa Maya we decided to take the tour of the Mayan ruins..It was the end of august and easily 100 degrees that day, and we were on a bus with no AC...after the tour we're waiting for everyone to get back on the bus and this woman gets on the bus with her 3 kids..we'd noticed her on the tour, she was one of those loud people...so she gets on the bus and immediately begins looking for her pocketbook (we'd been assured that we could leave our stuff on the bus and it would be safe). she's opening the overhead bins and not finding the bag, so she starts yelling, accusing the bus driver of stealing the bag. she's screaming at her kids, telling them to look, and they're just sitting low in the seats trying to hide...so then she starts yelling out the bus window to her husband "FRANK, THE f***ING BUS DRIVER STOLE MY BAG". i guess frank knew better than to come running over when she was like this cause he took his time coming back to the bus..Meanwhile she's threatening to call royal caribbean and demanding a refund telling everyone to check their bags cause the driver might have stolen their money too. the bus driver was just sitting there all confused, until someone came running to the bus to translate. Finally after screaming for her husband to get his a** on the bus, and berating the driver and his translater saying how she knows he took her bag, her husband comes back on the bus. The second he got on the bus he goes over to her seat....HER BAG WAS ON THE FLOOR IN FRONT OF HER SEAT. she's flabbergasted, and her husband just calmly goes always gotta make a scene don't u? she takes one look at him and just goes OH SHUT UP FRANK in this completely annoyed voice, since she's just made a fool out of herself..To his credit he made her apologize to the driver...to this day 3 years later, when someone is mad at another, we'll go oh shut up frank! needless to say she was quiet the rest of the way back to the ship and she hightailed it back on board

 

Her husband must be a saint for putting up with that!

I have always used the luggage under the bed locked for a safe, have known other passengers to have money and other things missing from the cabin safe.

What cruise line has this happened on???

I also love the Jennifer Weiner books (Good in Bed, In Her Shoes, and Little Earthquakes).

James patterson's Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas and Sam's Letter's to Jennifer are real tear jerkers, but excellent books.

I just finished Wicked by Gregory Maguire. It was a tough read, but I really liked it. I'm working on another one of his books right now-Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister.

I love the older books by VC Andrews. The newer ones just seem to be the same stories over and over again.

And finally....call me crazy, but I'm 29 years old and I LOVE my Harry Potter!

I keep trying to get through Wicked! I just haven't been able to get into it yet.

Sounds wonderful! Congrats!

One thing about the water shoes. At the time, we rented shoes from the vendors at the parking lot, and mine felt like a proper fit going in. But the water is so cold that my feet shrunk up a bit, and the first time I put my foot in a hole, the shoe came right off! After that, it was somewhat of a struggle to keep them on. Make sure your water shoes or socks are a pretty tight fit to your feet.

We go whitewater rafting every year and have seen many a person lose water shoes. The shoes should be a tight fit when they are on your dry feet.

Jonty - You should wear some sort of water shoe. Old sneakers will also work. Some bring a real old pair, wear them, then throw them out at the top. There are also water shoes for rent. It will probably take you about 30-45 minutes depending on the pace of the group you are with.

 

K&L - Yes, I posted to your thread as well.

 

Tarheel - You will love the falls. There are many pools to sit in along the way. At the bottom is a beach and the ocean. There are several areas along the way to exit the falls and use the stairs to climb if it becomes too much for you. You can then go up alongside and reenter if you wish. There are entrances where some of the pools are also. I am not sure about a private guide, but I bet for a price they will do anything. If you are at the front of your group the guide will help you and your DH behind can give you the scenario you are looking for as well. Each group has at least two guides, one guiding, the other filming.

Thanks.

wow i had no idea that my fiance's family had even been on a cruise! glad to hear they had a great time though.:rolleyes:

LOL! :)

I thoroughly enjoyed The Kite Runner.

Is it true that Dunn River Falls is 2 hours away from Montego Bay??

Gosh all of these are so funny,well here goes: One male guest aboard the Statendam HAL ordered all new clothes suits,tuxes, everything from the tailor; apparently his credit was denied for that amont and they entered his cabin taking all the clothes. For two days the guy walked around in shorts, a tux shirt and formal shoes. We laughed everytime we saw him. It turns out the office was calling the incorrect 800 # for the card. He finally got his clothes back but boy was he red.:p

Too funny! :)

From another bride to be planner, thanks for the link!

The cab rides were not too expensive when I was last there (2002)...and I needed the ride back after Carlos 'n Charlies!

But, it was a short ride.

More new suggestions! Thanks everyone! Too many books, too little time!

I second David Sedaris...very funny!

My points have appeared right away on my next statement every time.