snaefell

People change as well as times,we sailed on Britannia when she was new,at the time these forums were full of posts from people saying they wouldn't go near such a massive ship,these days she is a tiddler & seems pretty popular! Last year we sailed on Arcadia,loved it,more like a proper ship than a floating hotel IMO,had some of the best meals we have ever had at sea in Ocean Grill,closely followed by Sindhu,the Rising Sun was one of the nicest bars I have been in afloat,lovely room,adults only was another plus as was decent size balcony,dated..well yes,as long as it is clean & comfortable we really don't care though. A bad side was the size of the ship can make it difficult to get away from rude people of which there were a few,both those who treat the crew like something they find on the bottom of their shoes & those who are rude to everyone,after 3 weeks of them we were pretty glad to get off! On Arcadia pretty much nothing was done on the App which only worked part time,it would seem that life on Arvia & Iona pretty much depends on using the App,me & Apps do not get on!😮😮 We are booked again on Arcadia next year,really looking forward to seeing her again,can't really see us booking Arvia or Iona,I have seen too many videos where,IMO,the atrium area looks like a cross between a shopping mall & an airport lounge,the dining area by the Keel & Cow noisy with people passing through...really not at all appealing not to mention cabins with shallow balconies,especially those alongside the running track! Large ships don't phase us,we have been on RCI's Quantum class ships & loved them,we are all different!

Sadly that is life,no matter how hard you work for it your well earned break won't always be perfect!😎😎

It is in my mind that the passenger capacity figure was in a book about Anthem that was in one of the drawers in our cabin,the book basically was about the ship & on one page detailed the ships statistics including a passenger figure of 3900+. Our first sailing on Quantum was from China to Singapore in October 2019,our Anthem sailing was her recent Transatlantic from Bayonne,both were supposedly full sailings with few children on board. Another thing that was very different on our latest sailing was the Solarium Bistro,near impossible to get into without a long wait on Quantum we headed there for Breakfast & Lunch on our first day on Anthem & it was practically empty,we stuck to the WJ after that as there is so much more variety.

Just curious,somewhere during our recent cruise on Anthem I saw something which said that her passenger capacity was less than 4000. Has this been reduced,we sailed on Quantum some years ago & there was a serious sun bed shortage during the cruise,there always seemed plenty of free ones on Anthem,could just be a different make up of passengers that didn't like sunbathing! I also have seen YouTube videos of news reports of Anthem hitting a storm some years ago where she is referred to as a 5000 passenger cruise ship. Just to muddy the waters somewhat we did experience quite serious delays with lifts on Anthem which didn't happen on Quantum,the lifts on Anthem seemed to go 'Out of service' with annoying regularity at busy times!😮

Thanks for the replies guys,pretty much as expected. Our last time on Britannia we had an aft corner suite,wonderful balcony but a waste as we hardly used the living area(never mind the butler!),we did consider going for a suite again but there is a big price difference,more thinking required methinks!😁😁

Looking at a cruise on Britannia,not our first time on her,well remember how tiny our balcony was first time,just curious to know if any of her balcony cabins are any larger please guys?

Sadly I don't think that will surprise anyone😖😖

My Wife did have the cocktail of the day a few times otherwise we stick to beer!

Because we are all different there is no real answer to this. We have just returned from Anthem's 12 night TA,the quoted price for the drink package was something like $1200+,not sure if that included the 18%,in the end we had drinks whenever we felt like it & ended up with a bill for $316,a fraction of the cost. Mind you we don't drink soft drinks or specialty coffees & are quite happy with Water out of the tap!

I used to have fixed Summer Holiday dates,we had a cruise on P&O's Britannia one year which at sailaway was announced as the kids school holiday cruise,horrendous,forget trying another cruise line they will likely be the same unless you can get on an adults only ship!😎

I have read on these forums of some who claim to go down the specialty dining route every night,may be alright on a short cruise but on a long cruise that adds one heck of a lot to your cruise price. On our recent Anthem TA there was a big sell on speciality dining,even the MDR manager one evening trying hard to convince us that we could go to Chops for a bargain $54pp + 18%,why on earth would we spend an extra $120+ when we were thoroughly enjoying what we were having? Last year we were on P&O's Arcadia & enjoyed the best meals we have ever had at sea in their speciality restaurants all for £15pp,surprisingly the prices charged on RCI are not attractive!

Just back from Anthems Transatlantic,our previous RCI MDR experience on Quantum in 2019 to be kind was not good,abysmal food & service which saw us in the Windjammer for most of the cruise,we were not optimistic! Having a decent table may have helped,I had followed a link supplied on these forums to request a window table & on our first night Sat down to dinner at window table 503 in American Icon just as we sailed out past Lady Liberty! Our servers,Cherdan & his assistant Nivesh were amazing,the choice & quality of food was superb,we thoroughly enjoyed everything that was delivered to our table. We had breakfast & lunch mainly from the Windjammer,no complaints there either,except maybe that something other than plain bread pudding would have been nice as a hot desert,it was the same every time I looked,we had breakfast & lunch one day in the Solarium Bistro,very nice but not the variety of WJ,we also had Hot Dogs from the Doghouse a couple of times which we thoroughly enjoyed. So for us a very pleasing experience dining on our latest Royal adventure!

Brilliant,thanks for that,looking again I see the gap in her schedule

Last time we were on Arcadia there was talk of a Refurb sometime this year,anybody know if that is in the pipeline at all please guys?

We travelled down from Cheshire last May,arriving just before 1300hrs,our check in time was supposed to be 1330hrs,we were led off the coach & pretty much through check in with the briefest of stops,through security & on board in no time...brilliant!

I don't for one minute think they would be daft enough to use their own card,likewise with ships now capable of holding 7000+ people that there isn't likely to be at least one dodgy person among them,hopefully it is a holiday from their 'day'job!😆😆

Not sure I would be that certain that absolutely nobody on board has the ability to open cabin doors!

We cruised on Quantum in 2019,we had a JS on 'the hump' on deck 13,beautiful ship,so much quirky artwork,the ship seems light & airy & never seemed too big or too crowded,we loved it but we are all different!

Personally speaking I would head for the Windjammer & save $100!😁

Sure you will love it,China is an amazing place,our visit was spoiled to some degree by problems at Immigration on the day we arrived,never did find out what that was all about or if it was a one off,certainly made us think twice about going back...shame.

We have a check in time of 1100hrs,normally we have a 4-5 hour journey to the ship on embarkation day so don't get to check in before 1400hrs.

Brilliant,thanks Mike!👍👍

Who do you send the request to?

Brilliant guys,thanks for your help!👍👍

Soon to embark on a cruise on Anthem,it will be the first time we have boarded early. Just wondering do groups of cabins get released or is there usually an announcement when all cabins are ready please guys?