Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Mom.to.2

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,815

  • Joined

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Mom.to.2

    Anthem of the Seas - Any Questions?

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    We were on this sailing too (debarking 4/18.) Here's my 2 cents on the questions that have been asked:

     

    Arrived shortly after 10 AM and parked in the garage. Easy peasy. There were 2 check-in agents at the bottom of the stairs/elevator in the garage. As others have mentioned, no baggage check in the garage, but it was no problem to check luggage curbside with a porter before entering the garage. I tipped $20 to cover luggage for the 4 of us on a 10 day cruise.

     

    When we arrived at the port, there was no line at all for luggage drop-off or check-in. However, we could see a loooooong line on Port Terminal Blvd as we sat in Windjammer enjoying lunch, about 11:45. Get there early.

     

    Bob - There were no drink cards being offered, that I ever saw. And the drink packages were full price on board, even though they were 20% off if you purchased on-line pre cruise.

     

    They were most definitely pushing the specialty dining with various packages (that required day 1 or 2 dinner) and roving salesman asking if we'd like to book, throughout the 10 day cruise.

     

    We ate at all the complimentary restaurants and enjoyed each. Silk was our favorite food. We had classic 1 dining (5:30 seating, rotational dining.) Our waitstaff was actually the least attentive we've ever had on a RCL cruise, but still adequate. Just not wow. It was the first time we didn't tip above and beyond the standard gratuity to our waitstaff.

     

    Our cabin attendant was the best ever. He earned his extra tip:)

     

    In general, we found the staff on board to be very helpful and friendly.

     

    We didn't do puzzlebreak.

     

    Grande was casual 1st and last day.

     

    I didn't notice any residual damage from the storm, not even the hole in Gigi's neck that Barbara noted.

     

    DH and my older daughter did the behind the scenes tour and thought it was fabulous.

    ANTHEM - What's going on with DD/Classic Dining?

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    Silk has been a disaster for a while. I spoke to one of the head chefs (from the specialty restaurants, I believe) while on board in January and he claimed it was because they had a curry-based menu while in the UK and that was not popular in the US. Maybe that was their excuse for having such terribly prepared dishes on it when I sailed, but I can tell you that the best items on the menu was stuff that was mildly Asian influenced, like the Five Spice Lamb Chops and the Hibachi Steak.

     

    A co-worker was on board in March and got me copies of some of the menus and it appeared that there had been significant changes since January and the choices looked better. I am very interested to see how this all plays out, since I really do like the idea of different menus. The only thing we missed from the standard Royal menus were the cold fruit soups.

     

    We sailed last week on Anthem, and Silk was my family's favorite restaurant. They were shocked when I told them the consensus on Cruise Critic is that Silk has the worst menu. Not true for us!

     

    We missed the cold fruit soups too. Only place we found it was in the Solarium Bistro.

    Kids in their own room

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    my kids are 9 & 13 and I still insist on a connecting room (interior door.) The 13 year old babysits other children and is very responsible. However, when it's siblings together, I'm not so trusting. They fight.

     

    And even though their bedrooms at home are much further from me than they would be across the hall on a cruise ship, there aren't strangers walking up and down my hallway at home, and employees with a key to their room.

    Live review Anthem of the Seas - 18th April 2016

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    What he actually did was give a non-answer. He basically said there are no current changes, not that there weren't going to be in the future or any plans to. It was a very carefully worded answer. I looked at DH and said "well, that was a non-answer". The person who asked the question, let it go at that and didn't pursue a more specific question.

     

     

     

    Agreed. He completely skirted the issue and did not answer the question being asked. Instead of commenting on whether there are changes to dynamic dining planned for the near future, he answered we currently have dynamic dining.

    Anthem Of The Seas Review w/ 112 photos & 17 videos!

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    Category DO: Obstructed views

     

    Category D8: Balcony cabins on decks 6, 7, & 8

     

    Category D7: Balcony cabins on decks 9 & 10

     

    Catebory D6: Balcony cabins on deck 11

     

    Catebory D5: Balcony cabins on deck 12

     

    Catebory D4: Balcony cabins on deck 13

     

    Catebory D1: Balcony cabins on deck 6 & 7 with unusually large balconies

     

     

     

    Generally, the cabins that are on higher decks are more desirable than the ones on lower decks... so the price for a D5 tends to be slightly higher than a D8, for example. D1 will usually be the most expensive and the first to book up... as they have larger balconies.

     

     

     

    However, I would caution people about category D4. You have a public deck right above those cabins... which might tend to increase the amounts of noise coming from above.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Yes... that's what I was saying... that the creaking was when the ship was in rough seas, not every day. And for some reason, the cabins in our particular area didn't creak at all, even when the ship hit rough seas. I walked down the hall and could hear creaking in certain sections of deck 12, but not in others. So, as a helpful note to anyone planning to book a cabin on deck 12, cabin 12182 and the other neighboring cabins within a few cabins of it did NOT seem to creak even when the ship hit rough seas... while others just down the hall did creak.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    I noticed this too, as I walked the length of deck 12 many times (Adventure Ocean is deck 12 forward, my cabin was aft.). Wish I had paid attention & took note of which section was creaky. I believe it was just forward of midship.

    RCI needs to do something about self disembark.

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    Apparently it also extends into excursions from the reviews I've read of some. More than one that is clearly marked as "strenuous" and lists things such as "walking for up to 2 miles over cobblestones and uneven surfaces" and/or "standing for long periods of time" and/or "Those with limited mobility should not take this tour" has reviews stating that there were people who clearly were not up for the activity level of the tour and hence held everyone else back as the guide had to keep waiting for them. I've booked a couple because other reviews were extremely positive and the excursions are things I want to do - I'm just crossing my fingers that people really evaluate their limits before booking.

     

    Trust me - having dealt with knee and foot things in the past, I get that it sucks when you can't do things you would like to do because of either temporary or permanent challenges to mobility - but it's not fair to punish everyone else who reads and follows the rules and advice!

     

     

     

    This happened for my husband and teenage daughter last week. The excursion was a 12 mile bicycle tour listed as strenuous. The whole group ended up repeatedly waiting for a couple who clearly hadn't heeded the restrictions.

     

    I wasn't on the tour since I know my limitations:). And our youngest didn't meet the age requirements.

     

    Crazy what some people think they can handle on self-assist debarkation. It's not for those with young kids, mobility challenged, over-packers, those carrying alcohol, or anyone else who absolutely doesn't NEED to get off the ship at the crack of dawn.

    Live review Anthem of the Seas - 18th April 2016

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    thanks for the review....did you sign up for the voom ahead of time or on the ship? Curious if the price is the same once on board

     

     

     

    If you have a loyalty level coupon, that can only be applied if you purchase the package on-board.

     

    It's quite easy to purchase the package on board, right from your device. No need to do this in advance IMHO, unless you don't want the fee to be on your Sea pass card

    Parking at Cape Liberty

    in East Coast Departures

    Posted

    We embarked on 4/8 and no luggage drop-off in garage, but the iPad guys were by the elevator. For debarkation today, we had a 7:00 number and once they called us we walked right on through to our waiting luggage, through customs and to our car. No lines anywhere. Must have missed the self assist line Lou mentioned above. We were in our car on our way by 7:30! Of course then we sat in NYC traffic for quite a while on our way back to CT.

     

     

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

×
×
  • Create New...