Anthem Review (sailed 18th July 2015 - 14 Nights)

[barneymag]

Spot on, you have got it.

It is a half arsed effort at something but with no rules becomes nothing.

 

If Royal Night wasn't there, I wouldn't miss it. In fact another night was a Royal night and I can't tell you which day it was. It's that good.

 

Haha, thanks for the heads up. Tbh I had sort of expected by RCI's marketing that there was no ship wide formal night on Quantum class but instead you had formal night, every night, in The Grande ..... That would work for me ( we've pre booked 5 nights in The Grande) but I don't understand a non enfoforced formal Royal Night ship wide if only 10% go for it ????

 

RCI need to decide the Quantum class concept .... Is it DD with formal only in The Grande ... If so then stick to it and those that enjoy formal dine in The Grande a lot, those that like smart casual (or lower) use the other restaurants .... Otherwise go back to ship wide formal on x no of nights (enforced) and smart casual the rest of the cruise (in every venue)

 

I thought this was the difference with Anthem (Quantum Class) ???

[SausPud]

I'm not going to mention where I went to Breakfast or Lunch as we sometimes didn't eat lunch on ship but had Breakfast in Two70 after trying the other choices. Windjammer wasn't for us but alot of people loved all the choices available.

 

We booked ship excursions on every port of call. We always do this, and on one occasion we were 30 minutes late due to traffic and if we were not late other people would have missed the ship sailing. But as always with ship excursions, the ship will always wait for you to return. They might not be the cheapest way of doing things, but with a guide giving you the history talk as well as a driver taking you to the places you want to visit, this is the easiest way to visit a new place.

 

We did the Upper Rock Tour. I have been to Gibraltar so many times before in the Navy but only once with the wife and I promised her the Rock and Monkey's. Before anyone starts (and you will, you know who you are!!) I know they are not monkeys but are apes but the general term used on the Rock is Monkey.

Such a lovely tour that you travel to the top by Cable Car (jumping the queue) and then take a slow walk down to the inside of the Rock and you visit St Michael's Cave, the upper galleries and apes den. It was quite hot and being in the caves was cooling. There is other tours to do but if you have never been before this is a good starter to see the most for the short time you are in port. YOu can even doing shopping in the town at the end before returning to the ship.

 

Quick question - Do you want reviews of the excursions in this review or just the ship? I am willing to write about both but don't want to bore people with the excursion choices I made as there is so many options to do and I don't know if you just want to hear about the ship only.

 

That night we ate in The American Icon Grill. Little tip, visit this restaurant during the day between meal times, when it is empty. You see more of the art work, like the floor plate map. Also there is a machine for squashing pennies into fun souvenirs with a choice of designs. The machine is free (should be paid but Royal has changed the slots) and pennies are in a tub on top of the machine to use. No need to take your own coins. During the day you get to use it without a queue and get to have one of each design.

 

Service was good, staff were very friendly and food was a nice choice. Prefered this to the grande from the night before. One thing we kept noticing that is a nice touch is the little things. The knife and forks in each restaurant are a different design and pattern and fit in with the theme of the restaurant. They could have just bought in bulk enough for the whole ship but went further and had themed cutlery for each venue. Even the salt and pepper pots are not the same in each restaurant. We liked that little touch.

[SausPud]

Well seeing there is no complaints, I will carry on with my review.

Popping into spain today and doing Handicrafts & Cellars excursion. Quite an early start but back in time for lunch so not too bad. As with most Med stops, they want to give you wine and then get you spending money.

 

As we are not big drinkers, this didn't work on us. We had the Royal Replenish Package on board. This was a great package as we got the freestyle cups for all the cola drink machine flavours (still love my lime coke) and included all speciality coffees and teas. This was great as in La Patisserie which served Starbucks Coffee, we got all coffees and teas and also the hot chocolate specials & frappuccinos (A cold drink with/without coffee). Basically as you read the price boards, you get the first two free, which is all the drinks but pay for all the cakes and chocolates. To put this into context, a large (Venti) latte costs $7. My package cost me $15 a day. Didn't take long to start saving and seeing that I had 5 sea days on this cruise, well worth the money.

 

This evening we ate in Silk. Very red and orange design in the decor. Nice mix of Indian, vietnamese and chinese food on offer. Got prawn crackers before ordering anything like in a proper Indian restaurant. All food was done to our liking of not too spicy and full on flavour. Service good as always. Have to mention that we pre booked all of these months ago. I have read others complaining that their bookings went missing and they had to wait. We never experienced any hiccups or errors on this side, whilst on board. We would turn up either on time or a bit early and we were always seated (different area's every time, which was nice for a change of view) straight away and in our two and not with others as requested. The tables for two are normal sat next to a couple of tables for two and if you want to chat, you can and if not, then you don't. We never meet anyone we sat with again. Even those on the classic option where they only experienced the free venues.

We enjoyed this dynamic way of dining and we booked and ate in 5 paid venues, when we would normally only sit in the MDR and not even bother with the others. This multi venue MDR is much better but glad we made our choice and not be told were to eat. This might not suit everyone and this is where the bad reviews come from. Seeing that dynamic dining is only on Quantum Class ships, you don't have to sail on these ships if you don't like dynamic. There is choice for everyone.

[cruiserking]

Really enjoying your Anthem review Sauspud and your excursions too.

 

Can't wait to sail Anthem next February.

 

Jonathan

[Piper934]

Question on royal replenish. Do you know if there is anywhere on ship to get smoothies or milkshakes? Picture on website shows a smoothie but doesn't mention in write up.

 

Do they throttle you after so many drinks or coffee?

 

Thanks.

[marylizcat]

Enjoying this report very much.

 

Please do tell us about your excursions, including official title. We usually do a mix of ship and our own excursions. It is interesting to hear your views on them. I am sure it will be useful for others.

[SausPud]

Question on royal replenish. Do you know if there is anywhere on ship to get smoothies or milkshakes? Picture on website shows a smoothie but doesn't mention in write up.

 

Do they throttle you after so many drinks or coffee?

 

Thanks.

 

Milkshakes are only in Johnny Rockets. Did get buy one get one free, for being a crown & anchor member.

Smoothies with ice but not made with fresh fruit is at all bars, but a proper smoothie, no. Did not find it. Would have drunk it if I did. The natural sugars in one of those is like drinking 50 cans of coke at once.

 

No cut off point at all.

Edited August 6, 2015 by SausPud

[SausPud]

Thanks Marylizcat. Good point for others, so I will carry on.

[Madzulu]

Enjoying your review. Please continue to post about the Ports. Love other perspectives and also helps in planning our own. We sail September 1. Can't wait

[SausPud]

Lovely day at sea to do some more exploring. Also I need to win a quiz and get some prizes. Love the freebies.

Can't remember all the things I did to get the prizes but this is what I walked away with:

A backpack (one for wife as well) for a schooner bar (where most quizzes are played during the day) quiz. It was dingbats. (Google it of you haven't played. Easy to learn, hard to get right.) Meet a nice couple who helped and together we were brilliant.

A bandana for the Rummi card game competition.

A free dinner in Jamie's Italian - Got this doing a chef competition in Two70. Was filmed and shown on all stateroom tv's the next day. Random people were coming up to me and saying are you the chef. That was fun. Also got a backstage tour of Wonderland as well from Head Chef Bruce. More on that when that day comes up.

A notebook and pen from Cruise critic meet and mingle. And a water bottle won in a raffle there.

A free photo from the photo gallery people. Not sure where I won it but we got one so it did happen.

 

After lunch we went and watched the main show "We Will Rock You" (WWRY). We hadn't seen the stage version so all of this was new and fresh. After talking to some die hard fans of the show, they said alot (30 mins) had been cut out from the start. I felt that what they did at the start didn't affect the story at all. They agreed but you missed a couple of good Queen songs. They and ourselves really enjoyed the production. We are watching it again when we cruise in October this year for my birthday, so it had to be good for me to watch twice.

I'm not saying anymore on that show as I don't want to post spoilers, so I'm only giving opinions and not descriptions. Also why no pictures in this review.

 

That evening we went to Jamie's Italian. I managed to confuse staff by producing my Jamie's Gold Card membership and asking what special treat I get today. After a long discussion between management, they came back with the answer of not valid onboard. Well, worth a try.

Food was amazing in here and service was great. I had the sense of ordering the smaller potion of the main course i.e. the one they serve for lunch or starter instead. This meant that I could have the starter and a side with the main (Funky or posh chips are a must) and have room for pudding (Dessert for the Americans reading, I had this fun in Chop's, I'll explain that on that day review).

I was cheeky when ordering my sorbet pudding and asked for a smiley face. I got scoop on scoop to create a body and then sauce made the smiley face. The waitress (Claudia) had more fun doing it. It's little things that make a holiday for me. She didn't have to but they go that little extra.

[kevinyork]

Great review. We are on the 28th Sep sailing. Is this the same as your next trip?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[SausPud]

Great review. We are on the 28th Sep sailing. Is this the same as your next trip?

 

Not sure as my 24th October sailing is a three day mini cruise. Stopping at Bruges and Paris. It's my 40th birthday and I need the 3 points to take me over to the next crown & anchor tier.

[SausPud]

Been to Rome before and I lived there for 6 months. so we decided to do something different and went on the Italian Countryside and Olive Oil taste tour. This went up the coast to a very pretty farm where we tasted olive oils. It was so nice we bought the one with garlic added to it. I cooked sausages in it yesterday, yum yum. Say alot of sunflower farms and lovely landscapes. Made a change from the busy Rome. People from Rome were sweating buckets in the heat. They were handing out ice cold towels for the people on their return. We enjoyed the breeze instead and were fine.

 

This evening we ate at the Solarium Bistro. This was the strangest restaurant and I can see why they had to remove the cover charge. I would not have liked to have paid for this. The service was the only time I was disappointed. We ordered our drinks at the start and didn't get them until the Dessert. The meal itself was strange as you had a buffet starter and buffet pudding, but table service main course. I had no problem with it being health food and low calorie. Just how it was set up and service. Quite a small venue so why it's not one of the comp venues. Some people loved it but we didn't enjoy ourselves there.

[SausPud]

We went into Florence today. Such a long excursion doing "Explore Florence". Because Florence is so far inland, we did this excursion that took us to the town centre and gave us a couple of hours free time to explore on our own.

We took crisps (Chips for our American cousins) from two70 in the morning, they have them for lunch but just ask a friendly member of staff and they will dig some out.

It took 2.5 hours to arrive and return. So out of an eight hour trip, it left 3 hours for us. Florence is very nice area to visit with statues a plenty. Be warned all the male ones have their bits out. But that was the art style at the time. This was the place where I tracked down one of the gelato stores that sold Banana ice cream. Italian ice cream is the best but banana flavour is pure heaven. You have to try it if you haven't unless you hate bananas. We saw everything we wanted and did some great shopping, getting some murano glass and pandora beads cheaper than back home. I finished off the day having an espresso and watch in the world travel by. Just like my Rome days.

We could have done Pisa, but we went there last time in this port.

 

This evening we dined in Chic. The service in this restaurant is the fastest of them all. The food really nice and the decor pleasing to the eye. A bit like the grande but more homely. Out of the 4 MDR themed restaurants, we liked Chic the best.

Edited August 6, 2015 by SausPud

[SausPud]

This was our favourite port of call on the whole cruise. I'm not keen on France because of the French, but south of France can be Nice (read as nice or Nice the place, hehe). We went on the trip to Cassis. This is the most picturesque mariner ever. There was a small sandy beach, a marina full of little yachts and french fishing boats, surrounded by shops and restaurants/coffe shops. A impromptu art show/sale happened in the town square park, around the duck pond. We had a land train ride and then went up the mountain side to get views of the bay and islands form high above. My photos are amazing of this place, but I'm not posting any as you need the wow when you go.

 

This evening we done our second American Icon Grill. Well meant to until we found it was the same menu as they changed the menu's every 4 days. So we cancelled and went to the windjammer. We had booked restaurants for everyday and were never going to windjammer for dinner as we can do it for lunch.

The choice is overwhelming, and there is something for everyone. You just go and get what you want. There were alot of available seats, but we found a table first (after a quick lap of the choices) and then went and got our food. The only issues I have with the buffets is that the food isn't hot but warm, because of people picking it up and been out for a while (not sure when unless you see them bring it) i.e put cheese slice on a burger and it won't melt, not even a little. The other issue is that you don't pick a meal. I have to explain further on this. If you were else where and ordered Fish and Chips, you got Fish, chips and peas. In a buffet, you go up and get fish, chips, bit of a pie, salad, oh a sausage then some goulash and you end up with a little bit of everything but not a meal on your plate.

 

People love this, I don't. If we all had the same taste, then there wouldn't be all these restaurants on board. Each to their own. I don't judge but just stating my honest opinions. Had to say that before someone starts moaning. Surprised I got this far and the comments haven't hijacked this thread into an argument.

[SausPud]

Another day at sea, yippee.

This day we had picked an All Access Tour. It did cost a bit much (£100/$150) but worth every penny/cent. You get to see so much that is off limits normally. From the bridge to the laundry, including staff quarters, recycling centre, theatre backstage, control rooms and kitchens.I can't say more without spoiling it for others. I hadn't done one before and wanted to on this ship as she was new and technology advanced than any other out there. From my ROyal Navy days, alot seem familiar but I wish we had this tech in 1999 as my job would have been easier. The tour does involve alot of standing and walking, so take that in to account before you book it.

 

We also went up in the North Star after lunch (not on the tour, that finished just before lunch) and that was a great experience. There is no need for it on a ship, but you will enjoy the views of the ship you don't get on any other without taking a helicopter ride. It is a simple turn up and wait service. I was messing around with the staff as we had been with them earlier, and they weighed me. But because they singled me out, they then had to weigh everyone. That was not fun for some as they didn't feel they had gained weight on the cruise.

 

This evening we did Grande again. Love a gala dress up whilst at see, so we have a relaxing time getting ready and not rushed after an excursion. Same menu as before but there was something else I wanted to try, so not an issue. Also we managed to sample every pudding from the menu now.

 

Haven't mentioned the guest entertainers until now. There were two comedians, but they were recycling old material that I have heard so many times before. The magician who did comedy as well, was really good and entertained every age group, which is a hard task. The singers we didn't see nor the juggler, but the ventriloquist and hypnotist were great fun to watch, they really interacted with the audience well.

[SausPud]

I've posted alot this evening as I have free time before going away for the weekend. It's my niece's 6th birthday, she is having a "Strictly come dancing" themed birthday party and I'm playing the part of Bruno. In her words, "I'm too young for Len, too nice for Graig so had to be Bruno, darling!".

I will finish the last five days on my return. I should still be able to answer questions in the evenings, so get asking away.

[ratfam]

Hi enjoying your reviews it sounds like you had a great holiday! I for one would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on the excursions you did or others you heard about. We have the same itinerary, right now I have booked the "Rock of Gibraltar & Upper Galleries" (want to do the tour with the cable car that it sounds like you did but I waited too long and all the online spaces are taken, I will need to try to switch on board) and our teenagers booked on the small group tour of Pisa and Florence but that is it. We often do ship excursions, and in fact last year DH and I took a European cruise on Princess and did an excursion in every stop and were very pleased with all of them, but I have been disappointed by the selection on RCI and feel like I don't have enough information about how long we would have at each place, how long in a bus compared to on foot, etc. I think that we have reasonable DIY plans for each port and booked a guide for Rome, but would be very open to trying an excursions if there are any that stood out as I know that we won't learn as much about the cities on our own as we would from a guide.

 

Enjoy your birthday party!

[Cyclospora]

Thanks again for going to the trouble of writing up your review. I'll give it a SEV-EN!!!

 

Or actually "from Len a 10!"

[SausPud]

I think that we have reasonable DIY plans for each port and booked a guide for Rome, but would be very open to trying an excursions if there are any that stood out as I know that we won't learn as much about the cities on our own as we would from a guide.

 

The only excursion that stood out was Cassis (see above for my comments) The place is a good hours drive. The port isn't that exciting so would defo go on this one. Some ports are great like Lisbon and Vigo but others are industrial and need a shuttle bus just to get to the otherside of safety. Cadiz trip was the complete time in port so that trip was needed to get the best out of our shore time.

[SausPud]

Thanks again for going to the trouble of writing up your review. I'll give it a SEV-EN!!!

 

Or actually "from Len a 10!"

 

Thanks. That made me laugh.

I am enjoying going through the memories of my cruise and if this info helps others in making a choice for the better, than that is what this site is meant to be about.

[marylizcat]

They are offering two tours to Cassis, a shorter and a longer one. Wondered which one you did? Pleased to hear you enjoyed it as we are already booked on the shorter tour there. The longer one just seems to have more free time I think.

[SausPud]

They are offering two tours to Cassis, a shorter and a longer one. Wondered which one you did? Pleased to hear you enjoyed it as we are already booked on the shorter tour there. The longer one just seems to have more free time I think.

 

Mine was 4 hours. It was the only choice. Had about 1 hour in the port of Cassis free time. It was plenty.

[Turtles06]

Another day at sea, yippee.

This day we had picked an All Access Tour.

 

Were you able to book the All Access Tour in advance of sailing via your Cruise Planner (if so, about how far out?), or was it strictly book on board?

 

(Activities are available to book now in our Cruise Planner for the Oct. TA, but the All Access Tour is not listed.)

 

Thanks for all the info!

 

my 24th October sailing is a three day mini cruise. Stopping at Bruges and Paris. It's my 40th birthday and I need the 3 points to take me over to the next crown & anchor tier.

 

Happy Birthday! You'll be getting off as we embark on Anthem to take her across the pond. I very much appreciate your review, thanks again for taking the time to do it.

Edited August 7, 2015 by Turtles06

[Peeker28]

Thanks for your review!! Can't wait for Anthem to come to the states