johnjen

1 minute ago, crzndeb said:

You turn Diamond on the Anthem cruise, or will be your first cruise after turning Diamond?

We are Emerald but turn Diamond on the next one. Hoping the line shows improvement by next year.

7 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

We had some long meal waits on grandeur too and a waiter with a attitude. They are short staffed. I was hoping it was better. All the lines are short. Give it time.

 

Yes I like diamond benefits.

I agree; it'll be some time for RCL to get back on their feet again. Perhaps it was my fault to revisit cruising this early. 
On Diamond benefits, we get that on our next cruise if there is to be one. I'm thinking now, cancel the Anthem cruise next year and do Virgin instead.

8 minutes ago, HicksRA said:

Seems to be pretty much the status quo for all Royal ships since they maxed the passengers without the staff to accommodate them. 
 

We’re booked for AD in October. Hope it’s better by then. 

We wish you have a great cruise.

10 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Given your expectations, try another line. Why in the world would you even book such a sailing given your first paragraph?

 

Biker, who wonders if this will be 🍿worthy.

We booked via the "nextcruise" on our second day. Today is what...Sunday? May just cancel it.

Overall, a questionable itinerary (Bermuda, St. Maarten, San Juan, Labadee). Questionable due to extremely shortened times in port. The cruise line is trying to save money at the cost of customers.

Night before hotel - This isn't RCL's problem, it was mine. Avoid "Springhill Suites by Marriott" at Newark/Elizabeth. Terrible routing. Massive pot holes. No shuttle service to the port. We paid $65 on a car service there, and $18 back on an Uber. I'm miffed at myself over the poor planning on that leg of the trip. Avoid Newark. On our way out, we thought we wandered onto a zombie scene (need I say more).

Check-in - GREAT!! We were onboard by 1015am. Suite wasn't ready until 1pm but we snuck through 15 mins early. It was ready and our cabin attendant was a great guy who really took care of us. Always ice in the bucket. Always a clean stateroom. I felt bad for him having to take care of cluttered rooms. We never leave ANYTHING out. This helps the attendants get their work done and ours did everything right. Well deserving of a couple of extra $20's on top of our pre-paid gratuities.

Concierge - We had three. The first one was only via email contact. The next two were outstanding. Very good with communication and any needs were met promptly.

Suite lounge service - Outstanding. Sofyan. We will miss you greatly. Such a good man and dedicated to the service. He headed back home to Indonesia for a break the day we pulled back in.

Dining - Overall, a C. And I am being generous. Like a 9th grade teacher grading on a bell curve.

Giovanni's - With the understanding they were short staffed, we were ready for delays. Not for 2.5 hours of dining though. Food was good. The Vongole was a bit bland; lacked color. It was much better on other ships. Steak was decent. I'd give Giovanni's a C. Again, generous on grading.

Chops - OUTSTANDING. Filets were amazing. Wait staff, same. Gruyere tater tots? WOW! Dessert, I think Jen had the chocolate cake. She loved it. I skipped out on dessert. Chops ended up being the place for dinner. An A is well deserved.

MDR - Some comments on noted dishes..
* The NY Strip steak looked like a lung. Lacked flavor, color. and presentation. Literally, it was GRAY.
* Beef Bourguinon, however, was very tasty!
* Seafood fry, it lacked appeal, appearance, and taste. It looked as if someone found some bits of seafood from the floor and placed them randomly on top of...mashed potatoes.
* Charcuterie board - Mortadella and a piece of random lettuce - an olive....and brown prosciutto, which USED to be healthy pink - told me a sad story about that board. It also told me that food preparation was appalling and done in haste. That's due to lack of staff. And, a lack of CARING.

* Chicken Parm - Bland. Lacked tomato sauce (except for the small dry spot). Chicken was thick. No taste to it.
*Scallops served in an escargot dish - greasy, TINY....I think they were chunks of a single scallop floating in butter and garlic. Not good at all.

The rest of the dishes were okay at most, but they needed more flavor. Blandness throughout, but overall I'd give the MDR a C-. Quantity per serving has definitely been cut back, but I prefer that; some, however, do not....this is the cruise line, again, trying to save money at the cost of the customer.

Table staff were outstanding, hard working and friendly. That Head Waiter we had, she needs work on manners while we were talking. Besides walking up and interrupting the table discussion, what does the HW actually DO? And, why do they even deserve to be part of the gratuity distribution? Royal needs to simply ditch that position.

Izumi's - Took me 25 mins to get the Sapporo I ordered once seated. Dinner arrived nearly an hour later. Sushi had a sauce all through it. Ketchup with mayo stirred in?? I forget the name of the roll, it was a "chef's specialty" one. Had the decorative hair all over it. Wasn't impressed. C- grade.

Windjammer - we literally ate there 2 times for breakfast, I can't say much, except it's a place loaded with very hangry people wanting to cut in line or literally bump into me while trying to find a seat with a bowl of cheerios and milk. The service staff (given the situation) were doing their absolute BEST in trying to serve drinks or wipe off the tables. There were far too many people in it.

Venues - The bars, casino, nicely laid out, good experiences in there playing trivia, getting a drink, etc. Typical RCL venues that may need updating.

Entertainment - Campy. Terrible. This comes from a musician in a rock band. ROYAL - Where are the Rock & Roll bands?? One of the bands called Blaze were very good; the Latin band (I forgot their name) they too, did a fine job, I enjoyed hearing them all over the ship, no matter where they played at. It must be the acoustics! A juggler though? Come on. We passed that up. Get us a decent comedy act instead. Games and contests were pretty cool. Had a great time at one of them. I think I might've been drinking too much, haha.

Cruise Director - Campy announcements, but she was all over the place doing her job. Very involved. 

Condition of the ship - Absolutely terrible. This comes from a 20 year Navy veteran. The appearance of our balcony showed multitudes of rust. The wooden rails were badly needing sanding and coating. All of the exterior windows on Adventure were.....filthy with salt. I should've taken pics of the decay. Adventure badly needs to be drydocked. They were painting over rust instead of treating it properly using needle guns and some good grinding and priming. This is the cost of a cruise line trying to save money and cut corners.

By the 7th day we were ready to get back home!

We have rebooked on Anthem for June 2023 on a Canaries cruise out of Southampton. We turn Diamond. Is it worthwhile that we use it to experience Diamond, or head off to another cruise line? These are the questions on our minds today.

On 7/7/2022 at 12:29 PM, tennislvr8 said:

Was parking in the garage an issue?

We didnt park there, just did a park and cruise at the hotel in elizabeth, but i noticed parking wasnt a hassle. I thino it was $225 for 9 days.

On 4/24/2022 at 4:37 AM, JeremyK1956 said:

I have read many earlier threads regarding the "bed position", (close to the bathroom or balcony), on Anthem of the Seas. Some of the information is contradictory so I was wondering if anyone on here had actually stayed in stateroom 10650 and, if so, is the bed near the balcony doors or the bathroom/corridor end of the room? 

Thanks.

Any pics of your 10650 cabin and balcony? We just booked a canaries cruise for next year on Anthem in that cabin!

51 minutes ago, tennislvr8 said:

What ship are you on today?

Adventure...easiest chexk in ever....no issues! Sitting near the suite access!

On 7/6/2022 at 5:43 AM, mpdog42 said:

Does RCI do anything special for Halloween? Do most people dress up? How about on the Bigger ships?

Thanks

I'm literally LMAO at this randomly odd query in JULY....thanks for the great laugh!

Our negative tests don't have the CLIA nonsense and we check in at 10am today. If we get refused boarding over THAT, you'll hear me all the way from Cape Liberty!

11 hours ago, sjb317 said:

We’ve done this 12 times now since August at various labs, no one has ever been interested in the CLIA number.   The checkin agent looks for name, DOB, date of test and result.  
 

Sherri🙂

Has anyone ever been denied boarding for a negative test result without a CLIA?

I think the general population has had enough of COVID restrictions - suddenly we're all free, unrestricted. Couple that with the fact that all of the drugs we take are passed through our water supply and cannot be filtered out.

I have seen remarkable evidence of anger issues in other scenarios. About six months ago as I was pulling in to a gas pump, this massive pickup truck pulled in front of me and he began screaming obscenities at me as I proceeded forward (I was there before he was).

We got the bid for a Grand Suite (upgraded from a Jr. Suite). Question: Would we be paying extra in gratuities since "winning" this bid? I am not sure if we are to fork out more in gratuities now. No one has mentioned this; we have paid gratuities in advance as we always do.

2 hours ago, Cruise a holic said:

My DH and I did dress for dinner- we didn't wear evening gowns or Tux's, but decent CLEAN long pants and collard shirts.  I cannot understand why people have issues dealing with pants?  In the evening the ships are typically cool.  

Well, we've been cruising for a long time and noticed the gradual allowances of people slipping through even when the rule was still active. I prefer wearing shorts to the MDR. So now you have an understanding that, some people, incredible as it may seem - may host differing opinions. I cannot understand why you have issues with me wanting to wear shorts to dinner. That is YOUR problem.

Are they still enforcing the ridiculous "no shorts allowed in MDR" rule?

On 6/24/2022 at 2:17 AM, Coralc said:

 

Wow! Thanks. That sounds pretty bad. I appreciate the warning. 

 

I am so hoping that by September, this pre-cruise testing will be over with. 

We noticed that the test collection times were off by an hour. Now I will go back to confirm they have the date right. JEEZ. Customers shouldn't need to double check for idiot companies that are incompetent.

22 hours ago, Babyjax12 said:

My only issue with all this was that the email links/codes went to my junk mail and I didn’t notice. They ended up sending the link multiple times because of my mistake. Duh, me! 

DW's test appointment time was cancelled three times then rescheduled for the same time. That, alone, created some panic because it meant digging through multiple emails for numbers, etc. What nonsense, totally agree!

My mini critique of "On Point" testing:

My proctor asked me to confirm the confirmation number. I had to scramble through emails to find it. Then, the testing commenced. I could barely understand what she was saying. "Search for hilltrack" should've been "search for healthtrack". Glad I served in the Navy and understood tagalog pronunciations - but I was apparently out of practice. My patience was thin over stress. Took the test, negative. All good.

Then, DW's test, the proctor asks for her confirmation number. Found it on her phone (we tested on the desktop). THEN, he asked, "what is your order number" and made her dig further through emails. I couldn't find it either. MY test proctor didn't ask for that....

There's inconsistencies. Both proctors kept talking about a "passport pdf" which we didn't have. Turned out they were asking for our passport NUMBERS so that they could send us a "passport pdf" which didn't make sense.

Overall, ridiculously cumbersome! They need to have a meeting on training, consistent testing queries. If someone queues up into the assigned virtual room and states their name, and their confirmation number, they shouldn't require a "order" number.

We'll just wait for this testing crap to end before going on another cruise. The stress from these stupid tests sucked the wind out of our excitement and anticipation. Please make this crap go away. The CDC no longer requires cruise lines to test anymore. But here we are.

...booking that "next cruise" whilst on a cruise? Or is that just sales pitch? We're about to embark in two days but haven't given much thought on what region our next cruise would be. Leaning towards Baltic with hopes we can visit St. Petersburg Russia next year. Or, another med. Trying to decide - book whilst onboard, or, just wait? Is the "savings" really all it's cut up to be?

I have heard that the cruise lines no longer need to kowtow to the CDC. They're just being overtly cautious and this is expected.

I'm hoping this testing crap ends before July 7th!

Keep us posted. We test next month pre-cruise with them. I dumped "Rapid Test & Trace USA" over their slowness, vague answers, and inability to call back on questions I had. After SEVERAL emails asking for refund they came back with the theme of "instead of refunding you, we'd prefer you keep us for credit and we will add another 25% credit." NO. Avoid this.

4 hours ago, Tlbecker1 said:

There are times that having a TA in place is helpful. Ours does all of the negotiating for us.😀  

I agree, but it's rare finding one nowadays that actually keeps up with initiatives like yours.

Just reading the OP's post made me angry. I pity the OP. Absolutely horrid experience. OP, you are deserving of a massive make-up from this in the form of monetary compensation (even a free drink package). I'd be arguing to the hilt over the added stress over that nonsense.

On 6/13/2022 at 1:57 AM, happy cruzer said:

Wonder if they will ever treat it like other illnesses that they cover in the health questions pre-boarding?  They always have had the option to deny boarding with refund for health issues.  Sure some people will lie just like they might with noro or flu.  But many if they knew they were going to get a refund would choose not to cruise if ill.  One would still have the option to self test before a cruise vs. proctored and having to carry proof at boarding.  If you turned up positive, answer the health question truthfully and get refund (could even at that point get a proctored test as proof for refund).

The entire COVID process requirements for cruising turned into a nightmare for a LOT of people and I felt it was overrated, panic-driven. I'm glad things are letting up, this two year period of idiocy and inconveniences was getting so ten minutes ago.

On 6/13/2022 at 5:56 AM, Leosmom said:

I am planning on using Rapid Test and Trace with my IPhone for my cruise in two weeks.  This is the first time I am hearing I need Microsoft Teams to do the test?  Sorry, I’m a bit confused,   what is Microsoft Teams?  Is it 

something that is already installed on an IPhone?
 

 

A meeting app you might have on your work laptop. Much alike Zoom.

So, FINALLY getting my refund after I cancelled out with them. Godspeed, hope it goes well, I just wasn't getting questions answered and there's NO WAY to actually speak to them.