Anthem 12 night - just like Quantum, but with a different spin

[Froedrick]

Disclaimers and Background:

• If you don't like physics jokes (they started it by naming it "Quantum") or if you only want to hear that everything was perfect, stop reading now.
  
• The review represents my observations and opinions and, just by making the observation, I'm sure it's changed, so form your own opinions.
  
• My sample size for the review is n=12, with 2 from Quantum class (one on Quantum last Thanksgiving and this one on Anthem).
  
• Wife and I are mid 40's and currently Diamond Plus. I'm providing this for background and context, cruise "status" has no relationship to the value of my review and makes us no better or worse than anyone else on the cruise.
  

 

Abstract:

Overall we had a fantastic vacation. The ship is aesthetically pleasing and has several innovations and features that kept us busy for the entire cruise. As a fan of Explorer, the crew has always been more important to me than the physical nature of the ship and there were multiple Anthem crew members that carried on that tradition. We did, however, encounter challenges during the cruise in execution, communication, and crew empowerment that I believe could have been avoided given a little planning on Royal's part.

 

Embarkation:

We've been to the port may times, but never used the parking garage before. There is a new (from last November) path to drop off the luggage, but it's the same "follow the leader" process. We arrived around 11:00 and the line was about 20 cars deep. We dropped off the luggage with a porter and I took the car into the garage (maybe 20 yards past the terminal). I paid for parking on the second level and found a space without much difficulty. It's still $19 a day, and it took me about 15 minutes total from leaving the luggage drop off to waling up to the terminal. Check-in was uneventful and we were on the ship 15 minutes after that. There were no lines like those we experienced last year on Quantum.

 

Cabin:

We were in cabin 10642 (Grand Suite). The cabin had more than enough space for the two of us, but would have been a little tight had our daughter joined us. If we would have used the sofa bed, there would have been no room between the end of the bed and the dividing wall in the cabin. There were multiple US and EU power outlets and at least 4 USB outlets. Compared to similar cabins on other ships, there seemed to be more storage space. There were two large closets, multiple drawers and multiple sets of shelves. The bathroom had two entrances, two sinks, one toilet, and one bathtub with a shower head. As usual, the ceiling height in the bathroom, combined with the highest position the shower head wasn't enough for me (6'3") to have a comfortable shower. The drain for the tub was also in the true center (not in the center of the short axis at the deep end) and this caused me to frequently step on it and close the drain when I didn't want to. Our steward, Teddy, was everything we could expect and kept us supplied with towels (both regular and animal) and ice. We occasionally heard noise from the cabin above, most likely from them dropping something, but did not experience the "creaking" sounds that others have heard on Anthem and that we experienced directly on Quantum.

 

Shows:

We Will Rock You - I saw this show in Las Vegas and was very much looking forward to seeing it again on Anthem. We sat in the middle of the second row behind the sound equipment. The sound seemed to not be balanced appropriately as the music often overpowered the singers and made it hard to to understand them. The female vocalists all had fantastic voices, which made this all the more frustrating. I am a fan of Queen which, in this case, was actually a detriment. The Anthem version made changes to both the lyrics and music (Who Wants to Live Forever almost seemed to be in a different key) which was jarring and detracted from the flow of the musical. The rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody as the encore seemed strained and "thin". I couldn't tell if this was because of the technical issues (at least one of the vocalists headset mics failed mid-show), or that they shifted the range of the song to match the male vocalist and it changed the entire dynamic.

Spectra's Cabaret - I was not a fan of Starwater on Quantum and this show didn't change my mind. I appreciated the prowess of the dancers and the vocalists, but the combination of the electronics in two70 with the performers seemed forced and over the top.

The Gift - I had heard good things about this show and went in with high expectations. There were definitely parts that I enjoyed, the music was good and the balance with the vocalists was much better than "We Will Rock You" but the combination of a story set in Victorian England and Van Halen's (Van Hagar's) "Right Now" just didn't fit together. The explanation of what's going on comes in the form of a movie near the end of the musical and still doesn't fit it all together. The encore piece "Kyrie Elesion" was very well performed.

Virtual Concerts - I went to two of these (in two70). One was a group of musicians and singers from Las Vegas. They were all very talented, but the music wasn't my style. The technical presentation, however, was very well done. I did thoroughly enjoy the American Philharmonic concert, If you do happen to see it, pay attention to the blonde violinist on the left, second row from the wall. Her output of kinetic energy as she played was...impressive.

 

More to follow soon on restaurants, puzzle break, and more. I'm also happy to answer any questions.

[Guest maddycat]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review. I'm looking forward to reading your next installment.

[Wildcatfish]

Thanks for the review! We're looking forward to hearing more about Anthem... any and everything:D

[Dave85]

Thanks for the review! Looking forward to reading the rest.

[jonj]

Thank you for posting, looking forward to the rest of your thoughts. If you kept your compasses and can post them I am sure most of us would appreciate it

[njmomof2]

Looking forward to more of your thoughts and review. Leaving on Saturday for the 8 night Christmas cruise. Our first time sailing over this holiday and our first on a Quantum class ship. We've sailed on Freedom multiple times, and have developed a rapport with several crew members, not to mention knowing exactly where everything is and how things work.

 

This will be a new experience for us. Going with an open mind, but appreciate information in the event things don't go as we'd expect.

[Froedrick]

Drinks:

I pre-purchased the premium package and had no problem using my set sail documents to get drinks before the staterooms opened up. Once we got to the stateroom, I noticed that my sea pass card didn't have the usual "PP" sticker or printed indicator. We did get WOW bands in the stateroom, but I never used mine as I think they're more trouble than they're worth. I can never quite get the right alignment between the chip and the door lock with the band and when I'm getting a drink I either have to take it off so they can use the POS terminal (that's Point of Sale, everyone out of the gutter, this is a family friendly review) or move to that section of the bar (yes, I'm on vacation and I am that lazy).

When I went to get a drink with my card, the terminals didn't recognize that I had the drink package. I went to guest services and was about 15th in line and both the people in front and behind me were having the same problem. Once through the queue, it was a 5 minute fix, but it's a failure in execution that didn't need to happen. Royal knew I had the package before the cruise, why couldn't the card be set up that way from the beginning? One positive note is that the stickers are now plastic and not paper and my original sticker made it through 12 days of pools and hot tubs with no degradation.

Getting drinks at dinner was hit or miss. There's not much organization of bar staff and, since we moved to multiple venues, they had to ask about bar service - some waiters did, some didn't. The specialty places like Wonderland and Chops didn't have this same issue, they seem to be small enough that the waiters take care of the bar drinks directly. My wife had issues getting iced tea for much the same reason - assistant waiters were practically nonexistent.

Lastly, it appears that Royal signed a new contract (I suspect with Diageo), because several brands of bourbon (Blanton's and Booker's among them) weren't to be found anywhere. On the positive side, I found an entire new universe of dark rums - I especially recommend Papa Pillar, although Goslings and Zacapta were also quite nice. On the most positive note, Michael's had Dogfish head 90 minute in bottles! On the first day, after about 6 of these fine brews, we were told that there weren't any more to be had but, somehow, more magically appeared after day 3 and there wasn't an issue getting them for the remainder of the cruise.

 

Food:

For background, I'm not a picky eater, and I don't really expect too much when they're making dinner for 4,000.

Our reservations were linked to another cabin (total of 5 people) and were made well in advance of the cruise. When we compared schedules on the ship, the reservations weren't linked and no one on the ship could figure out how to "re-link" them. they did make notes in the reservations, but it ended up being hit-or-miss as to whether anyone read them. This is another minor execution issue that really shouldn't have happened. Lastly, we had multiple "mystery" reservations show up on our schedules that we had never made. Our leading theory is that these were because we were in a suite and it triggered a reservation at Costal Kitchen for most nights. This really isn't a problem, but also wasn't necessary. It can cause unnecessary confusion, especially if guests aren't savvy with that level of automation.

 

Wonderland - Try it! We didn't go there on Quantum (the menu put us off) and now know we should have. Our waiter, Vlad, was fantastic and we let him pick all of the courses after a brief discussion of our preferences. Everything was far better than I expected: the liquid olive tasted good and had a very odd texture as did the lobster. The beef was incredibly tender and fell right off the bone. There were small, meatball-like, objects that I think were duck liver and, even though I'm not a liver fan, they were very tasty. We enjoyed it so much that we changed our plans and went for a second dinner there later in the cruise, requested Vlad again, and let him pick new things for us to try. We're on Anthem again in March and will definitely be back.

 

Silk - In contrast, Silk was underwhelming (other than the "seafood chips" in the beginning which are highly addictive". I had the General Tso's chicken which was unlike any other version of this dish that I've ever had and was, for all intents, tasteless. My wife had the duck and couldn't finish it (she described it as both dry and chewy). Deserts were OK, but unremarkable.

 

Grande - We ended up in Grande for three nights, not so much because of the food, but because we knew the manager from Explorer. The food was very good considering what they're trying to do. I liked the escargot, but the lobster bisque was not as good as I remember having previously (no lobster chunks and not a very tasty base) and the lobster tail was OK. The key lime tort, however, was excellent.

 

Coastal Kitchen - Ate most breakfasts there and enjoyed my eggs Benedict until they "ran out of poached eggs". When I asked "Does that mean you're out of eggs?", the response was "No, we just ran out of the poached ones" <insert facepalm here>. After a little investigation, it turned out that their egg poaching machine broke and wasn't holding an acceptable temperature and they didn't have the parts on board to repair it. One other interesting thing that I've found to be common on all Royal ships: their concept of "crispy" bacon and mine exist on different, non-intersecting, dimensions. We finally agreed that when I asked them to "please burn the bacon", I got a decent approximation of crispy, otherwise it was, well...not.

We had two dinner reservations, both for 5:30 and, when we showed up, we were informed that they didn't open until 6:00 and this change had been made "months ago". We explained that we had made the reservation several months ago and had the printer confirmation from Royal with us. No solution was offered and when we asked "Well, can we sit at a table and wait rather than wander around the ship?" we were told "No, there's a meeting going on inside". This turned out not to be true and, when several other tables of folks showed up for their 5:30 reservations, they were suddenly able to open right away. Again, not earth-shattering, but easily avoidable. Royal knew when our reservations were and if they wanted to change the hours, fine, but let us know and move our reservations back 30 minutes. Also, for the crew to not be able to work out what to do in this situation didn't meet my base expectations for customer service. "No" is almost never the right answer, especially when we didn't cause the issue.

 

Michael's - Indy (you can call him "Dr. Jones") is not only one of my favorite bartenders with outstanding service, he makes a mean deviled egg. We tried these, the fries, the scotch egg (yum!), the pub burger, and the fish and chips, and all were excellent (yes, we may have spent a little time there over the 12 days). The entire bar staff there was great and, corny as it might sound, we always felt we were Norm walking into Cheers.

 

Windjammer - I'm normally a big fan of Windjammer and go in expecting food from a buffet set up for thousands of people. My recollection of meals there on Quantum was generally positive. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but on Anthem, "chaos theory" doesn't even begin to describe it. There was no discernible line for anything and I've never experienced that level of guests just pushing their way in front of people to get whatever they wanted at the time. The staff didn't seem to be able to control it and, after about 15 minutes of trying to get a quick bite, I left and never came back for the rest of the cruise.

 

Johnny Rockets - Good burger and shake. I much prefer the setup on other ships ("Everybody say 'Hello!'"), but no complaints here.

 

Dog House - Can't remember if this is the real name, but it's one of my favorites! A German hot dog with sauerkraut and mustard to go (to Michael's for a beer) - what could be better!

 

American Icon - I saved this for last because it should be called "Shroedinger's" because our meals there were both good and so very, very bad. Our first meal was fairly standard, but very acceptable and the waiter, Ramprakesh, was a delight. We did notice a decline in speed when they started getting busy, around 6:00, but still a very nice meal overall.

We also ate there on the last night and it might as well have been a completely different place. The service (not Ramprakesh) was as bad as I've ever had it, including the waiter arguing with us over the food. Not only was our food cold, but while we were waiting for our main course, we saw waiters for other tables place dishes from the delivery cart on the floor to sort them. Remember when I said I'm not a picky eater? Well, that was my limit and out table just got up and left (never even considered doing anything like that before). There was a half-hearted attempt to ask why, but they were clearly completely overwhelmed and there was no point in starting a discussion. Honestly, I do consider myself fairly tolerant and I know how hard all these folks work to allow us to have the best cruise possible, but I've never seen anything like that and hope never to see anything like that again.

 

Puzzle Break:

An absolute must do! This was one of the best things I've ever done onboard. You've got a set time to solve a series of puzzles in order to get the key to get out of the room (no, not really, you can leave at any time). We had a group of about 8 across a wide variety of age ranges, and everyone contributed. Nicholas was our guide and he was funny and helpful - he won't lie, but he may not tell you all the answer. I won't give anything away, but when they say "look everywhere" for clues, and you think you've looked everywhere, look again. Most of the trouble our group had was orienting on how all of the smaller puzzles went together in the final task. It was well worth the time and if they had different scenarios, I would have signed up for all of them.

 

OK, that's it for part 2, I should have time tomorrow to talk about excursions and other random things (yes, Anthem has a "deck leben", just like Quantum).

[jsswish]

Dogfish 90 minute???!?!?!?!?! One of my all time favorites, hope it is still there when we cruise in March!

[Froedrick]

Thank you for posting, looking forward to the rest of your thoughts. If you kept your compasses and can post them I am sure most of us would appreciate it

 

Sorry - We didn't keep them. Other than the show information, most of the events were the same as we've seen on many other cruises.

[The_Big_M]

Nice review. It's helping me learn stuff about Quantum as well so thumbs up from me.

[denatravels]

Nice review. It's helping me learn stuff about Quantum as well so thumbs up from me.

 

 

I think the quantum experience is VERY different now from many reviews, as it's now based in the Asian market but many reviews here were before it moved.

[njmomof2]

Drinks:

 

Food:

Wonderland - Try it! We didn't go there on Quantum (the menu put us off) and now know we should have. Our waiter, Vlad, was fantastic and we let him pick all of the courses after a brief discussion of our preferences. Everything was far better than I expected: the liquid olive tasted good and had a very odd texture as did the lobster. The beef was incredibly tender and fell right off the bone. There were small, meatball-like, objects that I think were duck liver and, even though I'm not a liver fan, they were very tasty. We enjoyed it so much that we changed our plans and went for a second dinner there later in the cruise, requested Vlad again, and let him pick new things for us to try. We're on Anthem again in March and will definitely be back.

 

I wish that my family (other than my older son) were more adventurous so I could try this out but sadly it's not going to happen. But I'm glad that you did and really had a great meal.

 

Silk - In contrast, Silk was underwhelming (other than the "seafood chips" in the beginning which are highly addictive". I had the General Tso's chicken which was unlike any other version of this dish that I've ever had and was, for all intents, tasteless. My wife had the duck and couldn't finish it (she described it as both dry and chewy). Deserts were OK, but unremarkable.

 

Seriously, this is just sad. While I know many of us have wonderful restaurants near home that serve Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, etc. cuisine, you'd think that perhaps they could get a well known, mostly Americanized dish straight. We have this booked for Christmas day (for our traditional Jewish Christmas meal) but it sounds like it could be a bust.

 

Grande - We ended up in Grande for three nights, not so much because of the food, but because we knew the manager from Explorer. The food was very good considering what they're trying to do. I liked the escargot, but the lobster bisque was not as good as I remember having previously (no lobster chunks and not a very tasty base) and the lobster tail was OK. The key lime tort, however, was excellent.

 

I've heard so many mixed reviews of Grande, and it sounds like many meals are hit or miss. Guess we'll give it a try and go from there.

 

Michael's - Indy (you can call him "Dr. Jones") is not only one of my favorite bartenders with outstanding service, he makes a mean deviled egg. We tried these, the fries, the scotch egg (yum!), the pub burger, and the fish and chips, and all were excellent (yes, we may have spent a little time there over the 12 days). The entire bar staff there was great and, corny as it might sound, we always felt we were Norm walking into Cheers.

 

I know that this is an ala carte restaurant, but the reviews sound so tasty that I think we may give it a try.

 

Windjammer - I'm normally a big fan of Windjammer and go in expecting food from a buffet set up for thousands of people. My recollection of meals there on Quantum was generally positive. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but on Anthem, "chaos theory" doesn't even begin to describe it. There was no discernible line for anything and I've never experienced that level of guests just pushing their way in front of people to get whatever they wanted at the time. The staff didn't seem to be able to control it and, after about 15 minutes of trying to get a quick bite, I left and never came back for the rest of the cruise.

 

Many have said it resembles the Celebrity S class buffet, which I've encountered after sailing on Eclipse. But seriously, if there is pushing and shoving, someone will hear from me. On our recent Freedom cruise, I was in line for something from the Jade section (others in line after me) and someone simply came from the opposite direction and started to step in to grab food. Told him that the line started to the left. He looked at me like I had 2 heads but after saying it again, he walked to the back of the line. Others next to me almost applauded but it surprised me that everyone was willing to give him the stink eye but no one wanted to say anything. I grew up in NYC and not that we're rude or anything LOL, but I just don't accept when others try to take advantage and plead ignorance.

 

Dog House - Can't remember if this is the real name, but it's one of my favorites! A German hot dog with sauerkraut and mustard to go (to Michael's for a beer) - what could be better!

 

Really looking forward to trying this out. I have heard that the hours are short and often they are understaffed, but I'm hoping for the best.

 

American Icon - I saved this for last because it should be called "Shroedinger's" because our meals there were both good and so very, very bad. Our first meal was fairly standard, but very acceptable and the waiter, Ramprakesh, was a delight. We did notice a decline in speed when they started getting busy, around 6:00, but still a very nice meal overall.

We also ate there on the last night and it might as well have been a completely different place. The service (not Ramprakesh) was as bad as I've ever had it, including the waiter arguing with us over the food. Not only was our food cold, but while we were waiting for our main course, we saw waiters for other tables place dishes from the delivery cart on the floor to sort them. Remember when I said I'm not a picky eater? Well, that was my limit and out table just got up and left (never even considered doing anything like that before). There was a half-hearted attempt to ask why, but they were clearly completely overwhelmed and there was no point in starting a discussion. Honestly, I do consider myself fairly tolerant and I know how hard all these folks work to allow us to have the best cruise possible, but I've never seen anything like that and hope never to see anything like that again.

 

Now this is disturbing on so many levels. Putting plates on the floor in order to sort them, in the middle of the dining room, in front of guests? Cold food, waiters arguing with you? This is absolutely not what we've come to expect from Royal.

 

Puzzle Break:

An absolute must do! This was one of the best things I've ever done onboard. You've got a set time to solve a series of puzzles in order to get the key to get out of the room (no, not really, you can leave at any time). We had a group of about 8 across a wide variety of age ranges, and everyone contributed. Nicholas was our guide and he was funny and helpful - he won't lie, but he may not tell you all the answer. I won't give anything away, but when they say "look everywhere" for clues, and you think you've looked everywhere, look again. Most of the trouble our group had was orienting on how all of the smaller puzzles went together in the final task. It was well worth the time and if they had different scenarios, I would have signed up for all of them.

 

I think my kids are definitely going to enjoy this. It's something we've never done before on any of our prior trips.

 

OK, that's it for part 2, I should have time tomorrow to talk about excursions and other random things (yes, Anthem has a "deck leben", just like Quantum).

 

Thanks for all of this information.

[Froedrick]

About the dog house - the hours were something like 1100 to 2100 on sea days and 1500 to 2100 on port days.

 

Excursions/Ports:

 

Labadee - Our typical day is to rent a cabana and relax and float. This time we had S9; it was in the shade for the time we were there and 100ft to the water and lunch. We had been told that there would be transportation available at the gangway for guests needing assistance, but when we disembarked and asked, all we got were blank stares. The day was also very short - we're used to 0900 to 1600 and this time it was 0730 to 1430. No reason was given and when I asked some of the crew, they said it was odd and they weren't told why either.

 

Jamaica - We hired a private tour and had a nice drive to Ocho Rios and lunch at Scotchie's, which I highly recommend.

 

Grand Cayman - We did the submarine tour which we enjoyed. It went down to about 127ft and lasted about 30-40 minutes. We've dived that area before and the view from the sub was very similar to what we've seen. We did manage to get really good views of a large turtle, which is always a bonus.

 

Honduras - We were signed up for the BOSS tour, but the organization was so poor that we bailed before the tour left. The ship never changed time for the duration of the cruise, and we were told that the ship communicated with all of the tour operators. Some got the message, some, apparently did not. We were scheduled to meet at 0715 and leave at 0730 and the tour operator didn't show up until after 0830. No information was provided about the delay and when they came out with "it will be another 45 minutes, so just walk around for a while", we left (and did get a refund).

 

Costa Maya - We went on a Mayan ruins tour. It was about an hour ride there, two hours walking around, and an hour back. It was raining on and off during the tour, but it was still fun and something worth experiencing. When we got back we had a few hours left and started to walk around the shopping area. There was a stand that had "fish pedicures" - small fish from Turkey (according to the brochure) that are supposed to remove dead skin. I was "asked" to try it with the wife and it was certainly...interesting. Mostly it just tickled, but there was one woman who apparently was very ticklish and her laughing was so loud that her husband came running from the other end of the shopping area because he recognized the sound and wanted to make sure she was OK.

 

Cozumel - No tour here, just lots and lots of rain. We did end up taking a cab to the main shopping district, but there wasn't anything special (at least from my perspective).

 

Last Random Thoughts:

 

Elevators - I do like the fact that the elevators have a "Gangway" button so that you don't have to remember which deck was in the announcement. Several times during the cruise, various elevators went "out of service" and some didn't "ding" when they opened. This was only an issue because I became conditioned to that sound and missed a few elevators that were silent.

And, through 12 days of rigorous experimentation, I empirically proved that the starboard side elevator banks knew when I was coming and, if I wanted to go down, all of the cars were below my deck, and when wanting to go up, they were all above me. The port side elevators are much more friendly. I don't know what I did to cause this, and yes, i know it's not really true, but it certainly seemed that way.

 

Watch/shirt/handbag sales - This was probably one of the most annoying things. Deck 4 right outside Michael's was the location of what seemed to be constant sales and they caused a massive traffic jam. There definitely needs to be some type of temporary dividers set up here so that there's a shopping lane and a thru lane.

 

Bumper Cars - They didn't seem to run these very often, but it's always a fun time. There's no rules (no driving direction and head on collisions are allowed), but it was funny to see how some groups played follow the leader and others were pure mayhem.

 

That's about it. It was a great time and we can't wait to be back onboard in March.

[Mar56]

Can you tell me how you sign up for the puzzle room? And thanks for a very informative review.

[mets07]

Can you tell me how you sign up for the puzzle room? And thanks for a very informative review.

You can sign up at the SeaPlex.

 

Enjoy!

[Turtles06]

Can you tell me how you sign up for the puzzle room? And thanks for a very informative review.

 

You can sign up at the SeaPlex.

 

Enjoy!

 

You can also sign up at or by calling Guest Services.

[Turtles06]

Last Random Thoughts:

 

Elevators - I do like the fact that the elevators have a "Gangway" button so that you don't have to remember which deck was in the announcement. ...

 

That's about it. It was a great time and we can't wait to be back onboard in March.

 

We were on the Anthem TA and absolutely loved the ship. I've enjoyed reading your review and glad you had a great time! (Re the lobster bisque that you did not like in Grande -- ours was totally inedible.)

 

Your comment above about the "Gangway" button in the elevators made me smile. Our 8-night TA had no ports, thus I never noticed a Gangway button as we never got off the ship (until Cape Liberty of course, and then we were all herded out of Two70).

 

Have a great time in March!

[Froedrick]

Can you tell me how you sign up for the puzzle room? And thanks for a very informative review.

 

As a third option to those already provided, we signed up directly through the Royal iQ app. We never found out how to sign up before the cruise (like you can with excursions). One interesting thing was that there was no location given for the activity. We joked that this was actually the first part of the puzzle - find out where to go. After asking around, we did find out that it was just forward of the port side door to the seaplex on deck 15.

[Turtles06]

We never found out how to sign up before the cruise (like you can with excursions).

 

That's because you can't book Puzzle Break before you sail. :)

[goodycruising]

Great review. Thanks for taking the time. We are looking at Ovation in January 2017, so interested in the Quantum & Anthem reviews.

 

Your comment about Johnny Rockets seems to me like there might be a few of them that no longer do the greeting, and I know you can't always guarantee a song with dancing, but the whole atmosphere was flat. At about 6.30-7.00 pm we were a bit bemused to find we were waiting while a continual run of staff were at the end table getting take away boxes given to them, with at one stage one of the security staff standing over the waiter telling him what to put in the box. There was only about 4 customer tables, and while we didn't wait a very long time, we were left underwhelmed, and we passed the comment on to the diamond concierge later that evening. She let the manager know and we did get a phone call apology about the food. They didn't even understand what we were disappointed in the experience. The food was okay, but we were there for the fun experience that we had enjoyed before. Anyhow, on Explorer next year we might try it again.

 

Did you go to the Concierge Lounge at all? We are looking at booking a room on Deck 12 near the lounge and wonder if by the time we get on board there will still be access for D+? Did you go to the Diamond Lounge also? How was it of you did go to either? Thanks in advance :)

[Froedrick]

Great review. Thanks for taking the time. We are looking at Ovation in January 2017, so interested in the Quantum & Anthem reviews.

 

Your comment about Johnny Rockets seems to me like there might be a few of them that no longer do the greeting, and I know you can't always guarantee a song with dancing, but the whole atmosphere was flat.

 

Did you go to the Concierge Lounge at all? We are looking at booking a room on Deck 12 near the lounge and wonder if by the time we get on board there will still be access for D+? Did you go to the Diamond Lounge also? How was it of you did go to either? Thanks in advance :)

 

The Johnny Rockets on Anthem (and Quantum as of last year) wasn't set up like the one on Explorer. It's a walk-up stand with no waiters, so no chance for the same type of atmosphere.

 

We did stop in the Concierge Lounge almost every night. The Lounge is nice, with a view across the entire aft of the ship and lots of comfy chairs, and there are restrooms in the lounge on the starboard side, but the walk through deck 12 to get there always seemed odd to me. It's not a ton of traffic, but there's definitely more passengers than usual in that hallway between 1630 and 2030. The first two nights were crowded, so some of our party started to get there for seats around 1630, and then attendance seemed to drop a bit. They started serving drinks by about 1645 and the food usually came out right before 1700 (same type of food as I've always seen). Both Concierges (Conciergii?) had computers by day 6 or so, so that helped cut down on the line of folks requesting reservations, etc. As far as I know, D+ were still allowed in that lounge.

 

We didn't stop in the Diamond Lounge, but I did look in one night early in the cruise and it looked pretty packed.

[njmomof2]

The Johnny Rockets on Anthem (and Quantum as of last year) wasn't set up like the one on Explorer. It's a walk-up stand with no waiters, so no chance for the same type of atmosphere.

 

 

No joke, this is the first time I've heard this on any report. It's not a sit down restaurant but a take away stand? This is totally different from any that I've encountered on other ships.

 

I always book with a card that offers up to 4 cover charges at JR per cabin so we enjoy eating there. Since they are a la carte on Anthem, I used a different card for points, figuring we didn't need to buy by the piece. If this is the setup, I'd doubly glad I did that this time.

[Froedrick]

No joke, this is the first time I've heard this on any report. It's not a sit down restaurant but a take away stand? This is totally different from any that I've encountered on other ships.

 

I always book with a card that offers up to 4 cover charges at JR per cabin so we enjoy eating there. Since they are a la carte on Anthem, I used a different card for points, figuring we didn't need to buy by the piece. If this is the setup, I'd doubly glad I did that this time.

 

I like food too much to joke about something like that :D. To be clear, there are booths and seats (different than the typical pool deck seats) near the area where you order and pay for the food and the flooring is different and somewhat defines the "boundary" of the eating area. There is no separate cover charge and no waitstaff that takes your order and brings food to you. I looked through our pics of Anthem and Quantum and unfortunately couldn't find any that clearly show the setup.

[dada2199cc]

Requesting a 5-6 paragraph review in detail of that key lime tort!

 

My #2 reason for cruising...key lime pies.

[Froedrick]

Requesting a 5-6 paragraph review in detail of that key lime tort!

 

My #2 reason for cruising...key lime pies.

 

OK, I've admitted I like food, but even I don't think I could stretch that review to 5 or 6 paragraphs...

 

It was indeed a tort and not a slice of pie. It was about about 8cm in diameter and 2cm high, graham cookie base (5mm thick), and topped with what appeared to be a toasted meringue and thin slice of lime. Yellow/green in color (as it should be) and not as tart as I prefer, but tasty nonetheless.

 

Hope that's enough detail to hold you over.