Tatka

We sailed 1 week before you and I agree with your points. We noticed improvements in service, food(buffet) and especially internet which was abysmal for Thanksgiving 2022 and January 02.2023.

14 cruises since restart, no Questions, but we do check-in online and questionaire. Less and less questions asked now. Not even about vaccines.

Thank you. I do not have kids, but I am concerned about absence of a roof over pool adjacent to Solarium. It will make it colder to get towels while on our way to Solarium. Indoor pool was that place between outside and Solarium. Also it will be interesting to see pool situation during first 2 days out of NJ and last days. For our sailings on Thanksgiving (still should warm up fast) and in January (not many kids on board) I suppose it will be not bad, but for Christmas and New Year it can get interesting. Maybe I'm overestimating the importance of an indoor pool?

Last week on Anthem there was medivac on our way down to Coco Cay.

For some time after pandemic you had to scan QR code unless you asked to bring a menu. Now it is back to old ways.

I do not hold hopes after that event on Freedom...

I so agree with you. I cannot even imagine paper program now! I love how we can "schedule" events and get notifications. And service is terrific and ship is in good shape. I don't want Anthem to go after this season 😞

Maybe parents who know that balcony is something absolutely new for their kids/teens and they won't be able to make good judgement of what may happen if they climb need to explain consequences. Although it is difficult to predict of course. 😞

I so agree. I constantly hear some weird things about cruises. Mostly from people who never cruised. It is so unfair.

As you said it was not really cruise specific. This situation is no different from any other on land. I also read that persons under 18 should not be alone on balcony. This is another strange suggestion really. All over the world people LIVE in condos with balconies and kids don't just fall from them!!!

Why do cruises attract such a special attention?!?! Balconies exist in various buildings in various resorts. Why cruises? 😞 My heart goes to the family of 16 years old... RIP.

Sea rules are different than land rules. Not only regarding to jumping. Diapers are also not allowed into the pool. Also life guards were introduced after several passengers drown. One was on Anthem btw.

We use this one. Cordless. Just to be on a safe side https://a.co/d/5eOoEk9

- I agree about Liberty’s entertainment being truly amazing! In the Air, Saturday night Fever, Encore (Ice show) were great!!! I still preferred Anthem’s smaller scale entertainment and two70 is simply amazing. - What do you mean by Inside Promenade View? From your description it’s inside room with virtual balcony? Am I right? - Agree about WJ!!! It is better than on any other class in terms of layout and menus Beef Wellington from the last night of Thanksgiving cruise.

Was it like this?

We just disembarked from our cruise #10 on Anthem (Thanksgiving week). I agree about service & food being great in MDR. We thought buffet was not crowded, but we eat breakfast between 7 and 8 AM. We loved entertainment. Of course we watched main shows bazillion times, so only rewatched Spectra. New Spectra was as talented as Terry Lavell and very enthusiastic. Latin band Acapulco Gold was very professional and energetic. Iconic band in Music Hall was nice. Nick Reeves in Schooner is talented & entertaining, Juggler Pete Mathews entertaining and funny!!! Funnier than comedian. Love orchestra performances in two70. We loved Christmas Tree lighting ceremony. They just started doing it on Anthem since last year. In some reason image attaches upside down

We do not book GTY .. We did in the past with various lines and always made sure it was assigned before our cruise.

On board it depends on how many days you are buying. More days you buy less each day costs less. If you are not D or especially D+ and want to have internet for whole cruise 100% buy before.

We used to cruise with 8 lines 2 or so times per year (5 since 2016)... and it took us 15 years. In March we will have 31 Royal cruise vs 31 other line cruises. 🙂 Most people around us do not cruise at all. They travel all over the world just not via cruises, but if they cruised they would be like us or ahead. It is a personal choice of course, but nothing very special in modern world.

It has been like this for about a year on all ships. For our upcoming 11 day cruise we will use one of our 2 free days D+ discount and then buy remainder of the cruise with 2 free days discount. It is still better for 11 days cruise than $17.99 per day precruise. 🙂

Well.. we are glad there is Bayonne! We cruise 4 times from Bayonne (11, 5-7, 9, 7) and once 12 days from Baltimore. We probably need another 8 years. We'd rather keep excitement up than cruise nonstop to reach level (we can as we can work remotely).

Just off of Anthem. There was 10 people max in Crown Lounge. Usually there was more even during Thanksgivings. Not sure if this is due to restriction to Diamonds or just a coincidence.

We just returned from our #10 on her. If picking balcony I recommend 10 - 12 midship to avoid any possibility of obstruction any directions including beneath. (Lifeboats)

Depends on ship. On Grandeur for example we had decorations for Christmas & New Year. On Anthem they took it down during Christmas cruise and we didn’t have it for New Year because they use space for crowd during NYE celebrations.

Not on all ships. They started decorating Anthem on Thanksgiving cruises only since last year. We will have Tree Lighting today though!!!