What's wrong with the Anthem?

Yes, the Quantum-class had the lowest rating last time I could see the Cruise Critic ratings presented this way:

 

 

I see it for the Allure now, but not for the Anthem.

It would be interesting to see how it looks now.

"% loved it" is not a reliable score, but at least it tells you how CC members rate the ship.

As far as I remember, the rating was below Majesty of the Seas.

 

I am familiar with the ship since I saw the Anthem in the shipyard in Papenburg.

The ship is without a doubt a remarkable piece of engineering.

 

 

I have followed the class since then and even spent a lot of time

(still much work to do, but no time...)

How good is it as a cruise ship?

That is a different story.

 

What is wrong with the Anthem and why was it's rating below the Majesty?

The answer is on the surface.

 

The Royal Caribbean cruising community was offered a new ship that appeared to be "a hybrid of Celebrity Solstice and Norwegian Epic".

This is neither good, nor bad.

But it's not a Royal Caribbean ship. This is what it is.

A mixture of Volvo and Cadillac could be a great car, but why sell it as Mercedes-Benz?

Let me assume that the MB followers expect a new MB to be a MB.

A popular (rather malignant) mantra of these days says: "some people don't like changes".

I think that cruisers like changes, but they don't like gimmicks.

What is a "smart ship"?

Is it a ship that offers larger cabins, better food, larger open decks, better spa?

No. The "world's first smart ship" offered an array of gimmicks from WOW "dinamic dining" to WOWbands.

Behind the wows, more attentive cruisers will find narrowed cabins, lack of proper promenade deck, lack of observation deck, lack of space on open sun decks, no privacy, roofs everywhere ("a ship of roofs"), closed-in feel, obstructed views from balconies, no more "traditional" RCI Royal Promenade, less connection to the sea...

The ship has been designed to make more money and it shows.

This is what is "wrong" with the Quantum-class.

Subjectively (I mean subjectively) I felt the ship more prone to rolling vs other ships of this size.

 

On the positive side?

Of course, RCI shows are top class. "Mamma Mia" is incomparable. The shows in the Two70 are hard to forget.

 

Many people rave about cruises on the Anthem.

No surprise.

Cruising is a pleasure. I love all cruises I've been on (from 2.5* to 5* ships).

All cruise ships sail full.

So does the Anthem.

 

The difference in one picture (L- Royal Caribbean, R - Quantum-class)

 

 

Hope I answered your question ("What is wrong..."). This is not a full review of the ship.

 

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A lot of those complaints identified is not to the Anthem, but more to the Quantum when it was introduced. For instance Mamma Mia is not on the Anthem (wish it was) but was on the Quantum. Rather than the rolling I found it to be creaky especially when we went thru 25 ft. waves.

I'm more disappointed that DD is not around and the entertainment on Anthem is the pits, however, I spend more time in the casino.:D

We sailed on her in Sept of '17 and had a great time. First time on RC and I wasn't disappointed. Looking forward to trying one of the smaller ships this December, just booked the Majesty of the Seas last night, but I would go back on the Anthem in a heartbeat.

It's a part of the Anthem (all Quantum-class ships) design:

Behind the wows, more attentive cruisers will find narrowed cabins, lack of proper promenade deck, lack of observation deck, lack of space on open sun decks, no privacy, roofs everywhere ("a ship of roofs"), closed-in feel, obstructed views from balconies, no more "traditional" RCI Royal Promenade, less connection to the sea...

.

This is what is "wrong" with the Quantum-class.

Can someone explain what "no privacy" and "roofs everywhere" means.:confused:

As a shareholder, I hope all ships are there to make more money. But what makes the Q class any different than other ships that the individual would make the statement of "The ship has been designed to make more money and it shows"

What shows?

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2648543

Just got home from our 9 night cruise to Bermuda and the Caribbean on the Anthem out of Bayonne. We had a great time, and its a great ship. I thought I would give you the good, the bad, and the ugly, but I will preface this by saying everyone had a good time and none of the problems were trip-ruining, or even close.

 

 

THE GOOD:

 

 

- The ship. Beautiful, clean, spacious...everyone in our group loved the ship. For a full sailing it never felt packed until disembarkation. Even the buffet which I thought was going to be a disaster, but it was fine. Even though it didnt have the waterslides, our kids (9 and 7) loved the pool deck. Never a problem fining chairs. Solarium was nice as well. Seaplex was awesome, we did trapeze, bumper cars, roller skating.

 

 

 

- Coastal Kitchen. We had 2 meals there (my parents stayed in a junior suite and were able to get us lowly balcony cabiners in on a couple nights). The food was great, lobster perfect, chocolate tart on the final night best dessert of the cruise. Service was spectacular.....I think if I ever took this ship again, or maybe any other Royal ship, I would book whatever cabin necessary to eat here, at least for dinner. It was that much better.

 

 

- The Ports. We had amazing weather, so maybe I'm biased for this trip, but the islands were amazing. Bermuda we went to Horseshoe Beach, St Maarten we did a private all day tour, San Juan we walked around and did shopping, and Labadee we did aqua park, beach, and dragon coaster. Labadee was way better than I remember it from like 10 years ago, and I really liked how they have multiple huts for lunches, really spaced things out. This was probably, out of like 10 cruises, my favorite port stops, they just all were really nice.

 

 

- Wonderland and Chops. Had very good meals at both, certainly worth the upcharge IMO.

 

 

- Windjammer. My only complaint is that they should be open longer at night, or have some small buffet out so that you aren't stuck only eating pizza. Besides that, it was very good, and the different stations kept crowds down. We never had much trouble finding a table for 4.

 

 

 

- Kids Club. My kids couldn't stand leaving there at night, they had a great time.

 

 

- Shows. We saw Mosaic, and I think Royal flew them in from Vegas to do one headline show, and it was amazing, same with DSB the Journey Band. The Gift, Spectra's Caberet, and We will Rock You were all enjoyable as well. Different people in our group liked different shows the best, but they all were good.

 

 

-The Crew. Impossibly friendly, always courteous. I found this, by far, to be the most laid back cruise I've been on (which I like), no constant haggling for drinks around the pool..very relaxing.

 

 

- Ripcord, Northstar, Flowrider...just amazing you are doing these things on a cruise, all were very fun, esp the skydiving.

 

 

THE BAD:

 

 

- Activities. The actual activities are good, but I thought the schedule was a little light, which made trivia sessions jammed etc. Things like the ping pong tournament would fill up in 2 minutes and people would get shut out. This wasn't a huge deal breaker as we had a ton of fun just swimming and relaxing, but I've been on much smaller ships that I felt had as much, if not more to do. On a related note, we felt the Music Hall venue was awful. If there is anything you want to see there, get there early because half of the seats there you really can't see anything.

 

 

- Disembaraktion...kind of a mess. We were in the theater and it wasn't run well. We were off the boat early enough, but I've been on many ships where this was run smoother.

 

 

- Solarium for dinner. I really had my hopes up for this place, but the dinner entrees were bad. Spend the 20 to get the lobster, because the skirt steak is borderline inedible. Very nice buffet though for apps and desserts. If I did this cruise again I wouldn't go back here for dinner. Lunch was fine though.

 

 

- Sorrentos. The pizza was fine, but the crowds were pretty crazy though because its the only option past 9PM, unless you count the ridiculously small Royal Promenade cafe. I swear when I was on the Voyager a while back this cafe was a lot bigger, I dunno. (Cafe 270 had mixed reviews from our group. I loved it, but others found it confusing, esp for lunch.)

 

 

- Drinks. This is a weird complaint, I guess, but again, after like 9PM...unless you want to pay for a drink or have the soda card, your only option is a water machine on deck 4. I swear on other ships you could get iced tea/lemonade at the buffet much later than 9PM. I think if I did this ship again I'd almost have to get the coke package for the freestyle machines. We often talked about how thirsty we were., esp at night..I dunno. Bar staffs were great though, my wife loved the cotton cantini at 270.

 

 

THE UGLY:

 

 

My time dining: Bad. Really bad. I made reservations for most nights a while back, it didn't matter. The no-reservations line would often move faster. It is inecusable to have 5:30 reservations, get sat at 6:00, and not get waters until 6:15. Its the only time I ever walked out of dinner...at that point we gave up (this was the third night we tried it) and went to buffet. First two nights the food was pretty blah, and dinner was slow. After this third night with the awful wait and no service, we did specialty, buffet, and coastal kitchen. (we asked after day 1 if we could get a table for 8 same table same waiter, but we were told only if we would eat at 5:15..and that was too early).

 

 

 

Again, this didn't ruin the trip, but if I went back on this ship and didn't get traditional, I wouldn't even bother with any MTD nights.

 

 

 

So...we had a great cruise, one of my favorites that I've ever done. Apart from the MTD mess, nothing was really that bad, and the good parts of the trip were REALLY good.

 

 

 

We did just about everything on the ship, so if anyone needs any pointers, ask away. I don't have menus or compasses though, sorry.

Suck it up, of you can't afford it stay home

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It's a part of the Anthem (all Quantum-class ships) design:

Behind the wows, more attentive cruisers will find narrowed cabins,

lack of proper promenade deck

lack of observation deck,

lack of space on open sun decks,

no privacy,

roofs everywhere ("a ship of roofs")

closed-in feel,

obstructed views from balconies,

no more "traditional" RCI Royal Promenade,

less connection to the sea...

The ship has been designed to make more money and it shows.

This is what is "wrong" with the Quantum-class.

"What shows?'

This is a trick that cruise lines use to build their floating anthills (Quantum-class is used as an example):

The trick to that video is that it compares a cabin that only existed for a few years in the cruising industry (like Radiance class). Even with that trick, balcony cabins on ships for 10 years have been bigger overall than Vision class and back (bigger than Voyager class too). And unlike Voyager and Freedom class, all balconies are of the bigger variety.

Honestly the complaints I have seen come from people who just don’t like the big ship experience- or from NCL or Carnival - Royal has always done a nice job on the ships - in regards to upsell dining its an option - some people ( me included) dislike the MDR experience and don’t find it unbearable to pay extra for a better meal - I think that more cruise lines are going to move away from the Traditional MDR experience and offer more upcharge dining like NCL - just my opinion - and for private sundecks - they are on the ships you just have to find them - and the Q class still has plenty of sun space - albeit not near the pool but really folks it’s not a long walk to get to a pool - and crowds on every ship I have been on we have never felt the crowds to be over the top ( except Carnival - but that’s a different over the top) so if you don’t like a big ship stay on your small ship and give us the extra lounger!

I will have to agree with macfin, although I think the Q Class feels more crowded then Oasis or Freedom class there is no comparison on how crowded I feel on Carnival Ships so it is all relative.

Also, for those who complain about the crowds in Windjammer don't get near Dream class Carnival ships. I thought I was going to lose it after day 2, buffet islands are the answer.

The Windjammer on Anthem although seating could be limited (No matter what time I could find seats in the Aft) the serving areas moved fast and was very manageable.

I also remember some folks saying the hand washing stations looked grimey. I did a little investigation, most of what i thought was grime was actually designs in the surface even inside the sinks. Just a bad choice of design. It was pretty clean for a 1000 people going through in a meal.

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Thanks everyone for your input! We’re sailing to Bermuda for 5 days on 7/7, so I’m excited to try something different. We’ve become pretty regular on Royal, so I’m looking forward to mixing it up on a ship without the same Oasis class or Freedom class layout.

I’m hoping to find out who’s playing in the Schooner Bar... anyone know?

Misso (sp) was the 930pm - Late paino/sing along entertainer. The 6/14 sailing was his first week on the Anthem. He did pretty well, he did follow the same song pattern most nights. The Bar service in Schooner was excellent!!

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Is there a deck that is better then another, that doesn't have anything right above it or obstructed balconies?

Also, which ship would be more fun for teenage boys, 17 & 18?

Thanks!

Is there a deck that is better then another, that doesn't have anything right above it or obstructed balconies?

Also, which ship would be more fun for teenage boys, 17 & 18?

Any deck between 7 and 12 would be fine. Not sure which you are trying to compare but Anthem has lots of stuff an older teenager to enjoy.

Yeah, I was reading these "reviews" and I'm suspicious of most of them, specifically the accounts that were create 2018 with 1 review. They're not reviews but more bitching about "$3.00 water" and things like that that I don't consider a review. Also, the one post that stated " The announcement came on the loudspeaker making emphasis on the fact that you need to give more money (gratuity) for the service you received". I've been cruising since the Old Rotterdam and I've NEVER heard that type of announcement nor any announcement other than an emergency ones in the MDR.

They did make an announcement on our sailing (just returned on June 23). Announcement did not say you needed to give more. It informed you how you could give more(adding to your account or cash in envelopes). Maybe that poster misunderstood.

Anthem is different. Not bad, but different. Some did not like different, especially when it came to dynamic dining. There were also implementation problems with DD reservations. Passengers could not get reservations on ifly and the pod, particularly on shorter cruisex

Personally, we liked DD and the ship. Two of the three shows were a bit too abstract for our tastes

 

Personally, we liked DD

Same here

Honestly the complaints I have seen come from people who just don’t like the big ship experience- or from NCL or Carnival - Royal has always done a nice job on the ships - in regards to upsell dining its an option - some people ( me included) dislike the MDR experience and don’t find it unbearable to pay extra for a better meal - I think that more cruise lines are going to move away from the Traditional MDR experience and offer more upcharge dining like NCL - just my opinion - and for private sundecks - they are on the ships you just have to find them - and the Q class still has plenty of sun space - albeit not near the pool but really folks it’s not a long walk to get to a pool - and crowds on every ship I have been on we have never felt the crowds to be over the top ( except Carnival - but that’s a different over the top) so if you don’t like a big ship stay on your small ship and give us the extra lounger!

"Honestly the complaints I have seen come from people who just don’t like the big ship experience"

See we are the opposite. We loved Oasis and Allure. We just felt there was more free space to roam around. We love Central Park how nice and quiet and relaxing it is.

When we sailed they still had Dynamic Dining-we liked the different menus as Royal's spice menus were getting a little long in the tooth and we had no problems making reservations before we boarded. We had some gorgeous and delicious entrees, but also some real clunkers.

We loved the redesigned Windjammer and are very glad that they took the inspiration to Harmony and Symphony. I know this sounds like a small thing but the bread was so much better (and on Harmony when we went on her) then the bread on the older ships.

We loved 270 but missed Studio B with its ice show.

The last thing was I certainly felt like there was more ocean motion felt on this ship more than others with same wave heights.

I cannot say that Anthem is all bad, but it definitely needs some improvement, mostly in food and service areas. I wrote a review giving it 3 stars, but it's not published yet. Strange. Usually the reviews are published within 2-3 days. I wrote mine almost 2 weeks ago and it is still not there. To me this ship lacked WOW factor. Comparing to other ships, even older Freedom of the Seas, Anthem feels like 3 star hotel - like Days Inn vs Hilton. The activities for kids of all ages are also subpar, comparing to other ships. My daughter loves cruising, she found friends on the first day and was spending time with them around the ship. But even she told me that the activities were few and boring. Last year we were on Allure and it was totally different experience. Even Freedom was more fun.

Any deck between 7 and 12 would be fine. Not sure which you are trying to compare but Anthem has lots of stuff an older teenager to enjoy.

My favorite spot so far has been just forward of the forward elevators on 6. No obstruction and very convenient to the stairs to go down to 4&5. Personally, I feel any of the cabins on deck 7 that are over lifeboats should be labeled obstructed, though they are not. The hallways are really long on Anthem. Being close to the stairs/elevators is a big advantage. Noise is not an issue.

Going on Anthem for a 9 day Canada and New England cruise in September 2019. What is the best hotel (price and convenience to Cape Liberty) you have stayed at? Drink package ( worth it for this itinerary)?

Going on Anthem for a 9 day Canada and New England cruise in September 2019. What is the best hotel (price and convenience to Cape Liberty) you have stayed at? Drink package ( worth it for this itinerary)?

Hotel info here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=415

With regard to the drink package, tell us exactly what you would be drinking for the entire cruise, and we can tell you if you would be saving money.

Hotel info here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=415

 

With regard to the drink package, tell us exactly what you would be drinking for the entire cruise, and we can tell you if you would be saving money.

Hi Bob! We were on the Harmony in April- 6 retirees- everyone loved the convenience and I kept track of my husbands and mine- we were about $150 ahead. We are social drinkers- not every day, but, this was vacation! We had beer, mixed drinks and bottled water. Are the drink prices on Anthem the same prices as Harmony-$15,$13,$10? Thanks!

Hi Bob! We were on the Harmony in April- 6 retirees- everyone loved the convenience and I kept track of my husbands and mine- we were about $150 ahead. We are social drinkers- not every day, but, this was vacation! We had beer, mixed drinks and bottled water. Are the drink prices on Anthem the same prices as Harmony-$15,$13,$10? Thanks!

Yes, pretty much the same prices.

Any deck between 7 and 12 would be fine. Not sure which you are trying to compare but Anthem has lots of stuff an older teenager to enjoy.

I meant in comparison to the symphony of the seas! There are so many positive and negative reviews for both ships!