Anthem Of The Seas Review w/ 112 photos & 17 videos!

[Spaniel Lover]

San Juan, Puerto Rico

 

We've been to San Juan many times before. The thing that's really cool about cruising in to San Juan is the beautiful view as the ship enters the harbor. If I were to put together a list of the ports with the most interesting views as you arrive, San Juan would be right up there at the top of the list along with places like San Francisco and Acapulco. If you book a cabin on the left side of the ship, you'll have a fantastic view from your balcony as the ship pulls in to San Juan.

 

I'm such a fan of the whole sailing-in-to-San-Juan-Bay experience that I put together a little video about it, and narrated it with a little history lesson, and a few tips. Please take a look at the video:

 

[YOUTUBE]NoDJkpkNKuM[/YOUTUBE]

 

When I go to the Caribbean, what I really like to do is swim and snorkel at a nice beach... and there aren't any that you can get to very easily from the cruise ship dock in the old downtown of San Juan. As I mentioned in the video, the cool thing to do in San Juan is to visit the beautiful old stone fort they call El Morro... but we did that less than a year ago, and didn't feel the need for another visit this time around. So, we took it pretty easy during this visit to San Juan.

 

We made a brief trip ashore for lunch at Señor Frogs restaurant, and then walked just a few more steps over to the CVS pharmacy to pick up a few supplies... and then we got right back onboard the ship. Total time ashore: about an hour and a half. Remember, Puerto Rico is a territory of the USA, so don't be surprised by American-style conveniences like having a CVS store right across the street from the ship. I picked up a new pair of flip-flops there, plus a six-pack of Diet Pepsi... at substantially lower than cruise ship gift shop prices.

 

Once we got back onboard the ship, it was nice to enjoy some of the ship's more popular features without having quite so many passengers around.

 

Later this year, we'll be back in San Juan once again... but instead of arriving by cruise ship, we'll be arriving by airplane. We're very excited about a cruise this Fall on

cruise ship... and that cruise begins and ends in San Juan. So, flying in and then beginning our cruise in San Juan will be an interesting new experience for us. Plus, Viking Ocean cruises offers a very different cruise experience than you get on a mass-market line like Royal Caribbean, Norewegian, or Carnival. The minimum age to sail on the Viking Star is 16 years old. Every cabin on the Viking Star has a balcony... they don't even offer "inside" cabins or "ocean view" cabins at all. There are no restrictions on bringing your own booze aboard... so for the first time ever, I'll be able to legally carry aboard some Malibu rum and some diet Pepsi in order to avoid paying sky-high ship cruise ship prices for my vacation beverage of choice. Also, the Viking Star has a really nice indoor spa thermal suite that is available to all passengers at no additional charge. We're looking forward to that, as the spa thermal suite on Norwegian Escape and Norwegian Getaway were right up there at the top of my list of favorite features I've experienced in my previous cruises.

 

[Spaniel Lover]

St. Maarten

 

St. Maarten is one of my favorite places in the Caribbean. I've been there two times before, and I hope to be back many, many more times. One of the things I like about St. Maarten is that there are things you can do there that don't require booking an expensive shore excursion through the ship. On one previous visit there, we took a taxi over to the world-famous Maho Beach... which is located right at the end of the runway for the island's big international airport. You can sit under an umbrella on the beach, and every once in a while a big airplane will come right over your head and land at the runway just behind you. It's fun! It also happens to be a really nice beach with a restaurant and bar (and restrooms) just a few steps away.

 

For this visit to St. Maarten, however, we elected to visit a different beach. We had been there last year and had a really nice time, so we decided to just do the exact same thing again. It's fairly simple to get to... once you get off the cruise ship, you just walk over to a fairly well-marked pier where you get on a small ferry that takes you over to the beach. It's just a short and inexpensive ferry ride to the other side of the bay from where the cruise ships are.

 

The ferry drops you off at a little pier in downtown Philipsburg. There's a fantastic beach right there, as well as many shops, restaurants, and bars. You can rent loungers and umbrellas from any one of dozens of places along the beach. Just find a spot you like. We like to make a left as we come off the pier, and walk down to a little restaurant called Lizzy's.

 

 

On the beach, right in front of Lizzy's, is the place we like to settle in for the day. We rent a pair of loungers and an umbrella, and then spend the day at the beach there.

 

 

This is one of my favorite beaches out of all the ones I've been to in my exploration of the Caribbean. Perfect sand, gentle surf, food/drink/bathrooms just a few steps away, and during most of the year the water is wonderfully warm. I didn't spend as much time in the water during this particular visit as I did the last time I was here, as it was just a little cooler at the end of March than it was when we were here towards the end of April last year. The warmest water temperatures, of course, will be found during hurricane season... August and September. The whole reason that hurricanes form at that time of the year is because of the warm tropical ocean water conditions that are common at that time of the year.

 

I mentioned earlier in the story that I had broken my glasses two days earlier at the beach in Labadee. Kellyn had a spare pair of sunglasses with her, and she let me borrow them for the rest of the cruise. They weren't prescription sunglasses like I normally wear, but they worked out fine for sitting on the beach and relaxing.

 

I was having a good hair day that day, and between that and the new sunglasses,

I kind of like the way this photo turned out. Thanks to Kellyn for snapping it!

 

[Spaniel Lover]

Martinique

 

With each day of our cruise, the ship headed further south and got in to warmer waters. While the water was a little cooler than I would have liked in Labadee and in St Maarten, by the time we got to Martinique it had warmed up to a very comfortable temperature that allowed me to spend hours in the water without being cold at all.

 

We had never been to Martinique in any of our previous cruises... so I didn't know what there was to do there, and I was kind of excited to explore somewhere new. The safest move when visiting a port you don't know is to book a shore excursion through the ship, and that's exactly what we did. We booked an excursion that was simply known as the "beach and snorkeling" excursion.

 

 

This was one of the better snorkeling excursions I've been on. There were thousands of small fish. Unfortunately, I didn't see any big fish, but that was fine. There was LOTS of underwater plant life... more than I had seen on almost every previous snorkeling excursion. Take a look at this video I shot with my underwater camera while snorkeling in Martinique:

 

[YOUTUBE]_jyLa3rvhwc[/YOUTUBE]

 

There were actually two stops during this excursion. The first was at the area known as the bat cave. That's where the video was shot... and no, I didn't see any bats in the cave, because they were sleeping at that time of the day. But the snorkeling was certainly good.

 

Our second stop was at Anse DuFour Beach, which is home to a small traditional fishing village. There was some nice snorkeling there, too. I especially liked that the tour guides didn't require us to all stick together in a big group. I hate it when they do that on a snorkeling excursion, because you end up running in to all your fellow snorkelers and getting kicked a lot. They didn't seem to care if we all snorkeled off on our own, so I headed over to an area of the cove where I noticed a lot of the local folks were hanging out. The snorkeling was good, but I missed out on seeing a pair of sea turtles that some of the other people in our excursion group saw on the other side of the cove. Little did I know that the very next day, I would have a VERY close encounter with a sea turtle on another snorkeling excursion!

 

Kellyn shot this photo of me snorkeling in Martinique

 

My only complaint about this shore excursion in Martinique is that it was really difficult to understand instructions given by the crew. Creole was their native language, then French. English was spoken with a very strong accent, making it difficult to understand at times. I wish these tour companies would hire one crew member with perfect English skills and make him the one to give instructions to the passengers.

 

All things considered, we had a real nice day in Martinique, and I hope to get back there someday.

 

[atnolan94]

Great stuff so far! Never thought I would consider a cruise on the Quantum Class, but after seeing this I just might give it a shot!

[Spaniel Lover]

Barbados

 

Docking in Bridgetown, Barbados, meant we had reached the most southern point of our 12-day cruise. It wasn't our final port-of-call, but it was the one that was deepest in to the Caribbean and closest to South America. Because of being so far south at this point, we also hit the best weather and the warmest ocean water of the entire cruise.

 

Barbados is another place that we had never been to during our previous Caribbean cruises... so that was another great thing it had going for it. Since the thing I love most about a Caribbean cruise is spending time in and on the water, we booked another snorkeling excursion through the ship. It was known as the "Tiami Five Star Catamaran and Turtles" excursion. Tiami is the name of the company that provided the excursion, through Royal Caribbean.

 

 

 

While snorkeling during this excursion, I had a close encounter with a sea turtle

and I managed to catch it with my underwater camera. Take a look at the video...

 

[YOUTUBE]H5oSmMezoG8[/YOUTUBE]

 

There was also a funny incident during this excursion! The catamaran featured an open bar on the way back to the ship, after we had finished snorkeling. I noticed that they had my rum of choice, Malibu coconut rum, which I like mixed with diet Coke or Pepsi.

 

 

So, I stepped up to the bar and ordered a Malibu and diet Coke. The bartender was what the British would call a "cheeky sod", and he said to me that diet Coke and Malibu is a "girlie drink", and that he suggested a different drink made with a local rum. I agreed to try it, and it was total crap! I drank Malibu and diet Cokes for the rest of the trip back to the cruise ship. But I will never forget that manly man that told me my favorite drink was a "girlie drink"! And no, I was not offended... I thought the whole thing was hilarious!

 

It was a beautiful day in the southern Caribbean and I think you can see from this next picture that sailing around Barbados on a catamaran on a day like this is a pretty great way to spend a vacation day... especially when they're pouring unlimited Malibu and Cokes!

 

 

Bridgetown is a busier cruise port than I realized. There were four cruise ships in port that day, three of which you can see in this next picture...

 

 

That's the "Serenade Of The Seas" on the left, the "Costa Favolosa" in the center, and "Anthem Of The Seas" on the right. Upon seeing the Costa Favolosa, I made a witty remark to Kellyn that it was good to see a Costa ship that was not lying on her side, run aground! That was, of course, a reference to the Costa Concordia incident which turned a $570 million cruise ship in to a pile of scrap metal after about a $2 billion salvage operation. Costa Concordia references are a staple for me when cruising. I especially like it when I walk in to an elevator on a cruise ship and some passenger says to me "going down!" My standard reply is "like an Italian cruise liner"!

 

I mentioned there were four cruise ships in port that day, but you could only see three of them in that picture. That's because Anthem Of The Seas is so gigantic, and the ship that was behind her was so tiny by comparison. Here's the "Thomson Celebration" which was totally hidden by Anthem Of The Seas in the previous photo.

 

Notice at the very top of the picture that there was a regatta going on that day just off the coast of Bridgetown

 

I was kind of amused by the fact that the Thomson Celebration was docked right next to Anthem Of The Seas. Talk about a study in contrasts! You had 32 year old cruise ship made up of mostly interior and porthole-view cabins docked right next to one of the newest cruise ships in the world, featuring just about every possible cruising innovation you could cram in to a ship. Thomson Celebration started out as a Holland America ship and is actually still owned by Holland America and the Carnival corporation. They lease her under a long-term charter to UK-based Thomson cruises. Why anyone would sail on an old dinosaur like the Thomson Discovery when there are so many great newer cruise ships to choose from is beyond me!

 

[Spaniel Lover]

St. Kitts

 

Our final port-of-call was the city of Basseterre on the island of St Kitts. We had been to St Kitts one time before, and weren't that impressed with it. It's a very rocky island without a whole bunch of nice beaches, so that's not normally the kind of place we like to hang out on vacation. We decided that for this visit, we would take an excursion over to Nevis, a neighboring island. I had read about a Catamaran excursion that stopped at a nice beach in the neighboring island of Nevis for a barbecue and a chance to swim in the warm water. It was called the "St. Kitts Catamaran Sail and Nevis Beach Getaway" excursion.

 

This was about a four-and-a-half hour excursion. About an hour and a half of that was sailing on the catamaran from St. Kitts to Nevis, and another hour-and-a-half was sailing back. So that's three hours of sailing right there. If you like just hanging out on a catamaran and enjoying the views, this may be the shore excursion for you!

 

Once we finally reached Nevis island, they had a barbecue lunch waiting for us...

 

 

However, the real fun at Nevis came after lunch, when most of us went swimming and playing in the water next to the catamaran...

 

 

The beach had nice sand, gentle surf, and the water was nice and warm. I totally loved just swimming through the water, or standing around listening to the other passengers chat. A lot of them were British, and I sure love hearing those beautiful accents! The water was so warm and I was having such a nice time that I was just about the last guy back on the boat when it was time to leave.

 

Everyone was feeling good during the sail back to St Kitts.

These ladies even danced the Macarena for us!

 

It seemed odd to spend three hours sailing back and forth just to spend 90 minutes on a beach that doesn't really have a lot going for it. It was a pretty desolate stretch of beach compared to other beaches in the Caribbean. There were no loungers or chairs or umbrellas... just some picnic tables back under the trees at the lunch spot.

 

Rum punch, beer, and soft drinks were included. The beer drinkers seemed to like this excursion a LOT more than I did. If they had offered some rum to mix in with the Coca-Cola they served, it probably would have changed the entire tone of the long catamaran ride for me. As it was, I found this to be the least enjoyable excursion of our 12-day cruise. The 60-90 minutes we actually spent at Nevis was enjoyable, because I love to swim, but all the sailing time getting there and back was way too long for me.

 

As St Kitts was our last port-of-call for this cruise, once we got back onboard Anthem Of The Seas, the ship headed north for three straight days of sailing to get back to our home port of Bayonne, New Jersey.

 

[Spaniel Lover]

Rough Seas!

 

On our way back to New Jersey, Anthem Of The Seas hit some rough weather off the coast of the Carolinas. This was something I expected, as that stretch of the Atlantic is known to be a bit nasty. About 7 weeks before our cruise, Anthem Of The Seas made national news when her Captain, Claus Andersen, made a bad decision to sail directly in to a storm that was much stronger than he realized. The ship encountered 30 foot waves and winds over 100 miles per hour. Four passengers suffered minor injuries, as the rocking of the ship overturned furniture and caused damage in public areas and cabins, as well as rendering one of the ship's two Azipod propulsion units inoperable. They had to cancel the rest of the cruise, and limp back to New Jersey with just one operable Azipod.

 

With that earlier incident very much in my mind, I started noticing deteriorating ocean conditions on the morning of the second of our three sea days heading back to New Jersey. It was tricky just walking down the hallway on the way to breakfast, the ship was rocking so much... and then I noticed that the crew had placed barf bags near all the stairwells. Later in the morning, I decided to spend some time in one of the ship's swimming pools. I had wanted to find a place to relax in the Solarium, but I got there too late and it was completely packed and there wasn't an available lounger anywhere. So, I moved over to the indoor pool... which for some reason was not at all crowded that day. In fact, about 75% of the loungers were empty. I jumped in to the pool, and that's when the fun really began!

 

There's something about the design of the indoor pool that seems to amplify the waves in the water. While the water in the Solarium pool and the outdoor pool wasn't moving much, the water in the indoor pool was something like a wave pool at a water park on land. It was sloshing back and forth from one end of the pool to the other, with enough force to create kind of a fun ride for the 4 or 5 of us who were in the pool at the time. I was actually surprised that there weren't any kids in the pool at that point, because it was the kind of thing that any 10-year-old boy would have loved. The 10-year-old boy inside of me sure did! I enjoyed getting tossed back and forth in that pool for a good half hour or so before I finally decided I had enough. I figured it was just a matter of time before they closed the pool, since it was getting close to being dangerous in there.

 

I went back to the cabin to dry off, change clothes, and grab my camera. I wanted to shoot some video of the water sloshing around in the pool. By the time I got back to the pool with my camera, conditions had gotten quite a bit worse! Here's a video of what I saw...

 

[YOUTUBE]FHDPKu6AmuM[/YOUTUBE]

 

The truth is that I wish I had been on that February cruise that ran in to those 30 foot waves and 100+ mph winds. Think of the money I could have made off YouTube videos shot in those hurricane-like conditions! The video I captured of the water sloshing out of the pool has only had a few thousand views on YouTube. I bet if I could have shot video during those horrible conditions in February, I would have had millions of views, and generated an awful lot of ad revenue! I'll just get going on cruises and shooting lots of video. Eventually I'll be in the right place at the right time to get another viral video for my YouTube channel.

 

You may be wondering if the same Captain was at the helm of our cruise as was responsible for sailing in to that big storm in February. No, after the February incident, Captain Claus Andersen was called back to Royal Caribbean's headquarters to discuss the lessons-learned with RCI's management team. As of our sailing date, he had not yet returned to Anthem Of The Seas. The Captain for our cruise was Henrik Soerensen. He seemed like an excellent Captain to me... briefing the passengers at noon each day over the public address system, posting video updates on the ship's TV system, and answering questions at a Q&A session.

 

I didn't get a picture of Captain Soerensen, but I do want to share this photo of the Cruise Director, Abe Hughes...

 

 

I started off this section of the story by talking about the one day of rough seas we encountered during our cruise, and about that incident 7 weeks prior where the ship hit some of the worst conditions a cruise ship would ever encounter. While we were impressed that they had done such a great job of getting Anthem Of The Seas back in to near-perfect condition in the 7 weeks following the incident, we did spot what we think was one remaining bit of damage that they hadn't gotten around to repairing. On deck 13, in the aft stairwells, there was a large shattered section of glass that was never replaced during our 12-day cruise. My guess is that it was damaged during the February incident, and they've been having trouble finding an exact replacement. Here's a photo:

 

 

[kandj05]

The trapeze looks so fun!

[Spaniel Lover]

Sunrise and Sunset

 

As a serious-amateur photographer who had just picked up a brand new camera two days before flying to New Jersey for this cruise, it should probably come as no surprise that I got some nice photos of the sunrises and sunsets during our cruise. Here are a few of my favorites...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a time-lapse video I shot of one of the sunrises...

 

[YOUTUBE]1ggLMgCl0YI[/YOUTUBE]

 

 

Speaking of sunsets, I snapped this photo of Kellyn one night at sunset...

 

 

Then we traded places for this photo...

 

Anyone who is serious about photography will recognize that those last two pictures were a little tricky to get. Shooting someone's face with a very strong light behind them (in this case, the sun) usually doesn't work out too well. I was testing out a new accessory I recently bought, which should help me solve some of the lighting problems I run in to when shooting both still photos and videos. I think it worked quite well in this tricky lighting situation.

 

[Spaniel Lover]

Entertainment

 

Much earlier in this story, I mentioned how great the entertainment was in Two70... the high-tech theater at the back of the ship. Two70 is just one of two theaters onboard the ship, though. There's also a traditional theater up at the front of the ship, which is known as the Royal Theater.

 

One of the shows we saw featured juggler/comedian Mike Price. (I think the blurb in the Cruise Compass actually referred to him as "Rock Star Juggler Mike Price".)

 

 

That still photo does absolutely nothing in the way of communicating how funny his act was. To get a sense of what this guy brings to the stage, you have to see a short video:

 

[YOUTUBE]hMzZjfriEZA[/YOUTUBE]

 

 

Another act in the Royal Theater that we liked a lot was a Motown show by a 3-man singing group called "Horizon"...

 

 

 

Here's a funny video clip of a magician who performed for us...

 

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There was also a late-night adults-only comedy performance in the Royal Theater by comedian Steve Caouette:

 

 

 

Royal Caribbean and Carnival Cruise Line have completely different philosophies about comedy. Carnival prefers to present comedy in a small intimate setting. Many of their ships have dedicated comedy clubs, and their other ships host their comedy shows in small lounges. This creates an intimate vibe like you'd typically have in a comedy club on land. Only the world's most successful comedians would typically do a show in a big theater on land. Most comedy shows are done in small clubs... and that creates an environment where almost every seat in the house is filled, and where the comedian can easily include audience members in their act and improvise material depending on what happens with that particular audience. The downside to doing cruise ship comedy in a small comedy club or lounge is that there's not a lot of seating, and sometimes it's hard for the passengers to get in to see one of the shows. So, they usually have a whole bunch of shows each night, and all throughout the cruise, so that everybody can eventually attend a few. In fact, on a typical 7-day Carnival cruise, there are usually FOUR different comedians that perform multiple shows all throughout the cruise. If you love stand-up comedy, Carnival is the cruise line for you.

 

Royal Caribbean goes completely the other way. The comedian did his act in the 1300-seat Royal Theater. I think he only performed two shows the entire time he was onboard: the late-night show we saw, and the "welcome aboard" show on the very first night of the cruise. Instead of focusing on stand-up comedy, Royal Caribbean seemed to prefer to offer a wide variety of entertainment acts throughout the week. A little something for everyone.

 

The least interesting show I saw in the Royal Theater was a big musical production show called "The Gift"...

 

 

The story basically revolved around the older man you see in the photo. His wife passed away, and at first he only saw the tragedy of it all. Eventually, however, he came to understand "the gift", which was all the love that he had to share with his children. Frankly, I was kind of bored by most of it, but I did enjoy the excellent lighting and stage production effects that Royal Caribbean stage productions always feature.

 

During the Welcome Aboard show in the Royal Theater on the very first night of the cruise, we saw a little preview of the next night's musical entertainment. It was a Led Zeppelin tribute band called "Led Zepagain"...

 

 

Honestly, I didn't like Led Zeppelin enough back in the 70s to have any interest in hearing a tribute. The two or three songs they did during the welcome aboard show convinced me not to go to their full show the next night! But if you're a Led Zeppelin fan, you probably would have LOVED these guys!

 

One thing I should point out about the Royal Theater... watch out for the poles. Make sure you don't sit in one of the seats directly behind them. It was kind of funny to watch people come in late to the theater, see a packed house, and then finally spot a couple of empty seats. They'd work their way over to them, sit down, and then be right back up again within a minute or two! People watching is fun on a cruise ship.

 

 

[Spaniel Lover]

The Daily Planner

And Other Interesting Things to Download

 

 

Anthem of the Seas' daily newsletter, delivered to your cabin each evening, is called the "cruise compass". Inside each edition of the cruise compass is a one-page summary of everything happening on the ship, which Royal Caribbean calls the "daily planner". Kellyn and I don't think that's a catchy enough name, so we came up with our own name for it. Since that's where you get the scoop on everything happening throughout the ship, Kellyn and I call it "The Scooper"... a joking reference to a pooper scooper from two former Cocker Spaniel breeders.

 

I saved all the Scoopers from each day of the cruise, and scanned them in to one big PDF file for anyone interested in taking a look at them. It gives you a pretty good idea of exactly what happens throughout the week, when and where it happens, and it also shows all the operating hours for the various dining options. I also scanned two other documents that I thought might interest people. Click these links to view or download them:

 

Daily Planner (a.k.a. "the scooper") 10.7 megabytes

 

Anthem Of The Seas deck plans 7 megabytes

 

Disembarkation information .4 megabytes

 

[Spaniel Lover]

Before The Cruise

 

We flew to Newark airport on a United Airlines Boeing 757 jetliner. Those United 757's are pretty cool! They have a nice seatback entertainment system with a lot of great free programming. On the eastbound trip, I watched the movie "Bridge Of Spies" starring Tom Hanks. We were on a 757 on the return trip, too, and I watched the Academy Award winning best picture of 2015, "Spotlight". Watching a great movie with a good pair of noise-cancelling headphones really make a long coast-to-coast flight go by quicker!

 

Whenever we fly to get on a cruise ship, we always like to get there a day or two in advance of the cruise... just to leave some wiggle room in the travel schedule in the event of any kind of delays or snafus. This is especially critical when flying during months when the weather can be stormy. For a cruise out of New Jersey in the month of March, we figured that there was a definite possibility of travel delays due to bad weather... so we flew in two days prior to our cruise. If everything went according to plan, we would have plenty of time to relax in New Jersey and would be rested and refreshed when we boarded the ship.

 

My pre-cruise research led me to book us in the Embassy Suites in Elizabeth, New Jersey... just across the freeway from Newark International Airport. According to my research, there was a free shuttle bus from the airport, the hotel was just a few years old, they served a free breakfast in the hotel, they served free cocktails during happy hour, and there were several restaurants plus a gigantic shopping mall within easy walking distance. This all turned out to be true, although some of those things turned out to be even better than I expected, and some turned out to be relatively unimportant in the end.

 

 

I worried that being so close to the Newark airport would create some noise problems. What actually happened was that it ended up being quite entertaining! I really like airplanes and airports, and our room was high enough and facing the right direction that we had a fantastic view of the airport if we used a pair of binoculars (which we always take with us on a cruise vacation) or if I put a big zoom lens on my camera. Using my biggest zoom lens, and shooting right out our hotel window, this next photo makes it look like we were REALLY CLOSE to the Newark airport. We really weren't.

 

 

We got very lucky and during our first night at the Embassy Suites, the winds were blowing in such a direction that had the planes landing in our direction and taking off in the other direction. This kept things nice and quiet on the first night, when we were the most tired and needed a good night's sleep. Sometime during the second night, however, the winds shifted and they had to reverse the landing and takeoff pattern. This caused the airplanes to take off in the direction of our hotel, which made things a little noisier as the airplanes applied full power as they flew past us, or in some cases directly over us. There really weren't a whole lot of planes overnight, so it didn't really bother us... and once we woke up, it was fun to see the planes take off right past our hotel.

 

Here's a video I shot of a United Airlines plane taking off towards us...

 

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And here's a time-lapse video of the action at Newark airport...

 

[YOUTUBE]BlS7QnYXxwE[/YOUTUBE]

 

As someone who gets a kick out of flying and even just watching airplanes, it was a pretty cool view out our window!

 

Another cool thing about the Embassy suites was that from our bedroom on the top floor of the hotel, we could actually see (way off in the distance) the skyscrapers of Manhattan, and (also very far off in the distance) the Statue Of Liberty! I should also mention that the bed in our room was fantastic... maybe even more comfortable than the one we have at home. The only negative thing I noticed -- and this really surprised me -- was that there wasn't a safe in the room. I can't recall staying in any other hotel in recent years that did not have a safe in the room somewhere.

 

It was pretty darned cold in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in March! We're California coastal people... where a normal day in our backyard is 70 degrees, and where a normal overnight low might be 50. So when we stepped outside our hotel and it was in the 40s with a pretty stiff wind chill making it feel more like the 30s... it was a bit of a shock! But we had come pretty well prepared with winter clothing... an odd thing to pack for a Caribbean vacation!

 

We didn't use the swimming pool at the Embassy Suites, but I snapped a photo of it just in case anyone reads this page and might be interested.

 

 

We had two nights at the Embassy suites prior to our cruise. The first morning we tried the free breakfast in the restaurant within the hotel. It was OK, and if nothing else had been available, it would have been fine for even a longer stay. They had made-to-order omelettes, as well as all sorts of other normal breakfast stuff like scrambled eggs, potatoes, sausage, bacon, cereal, and pancakes. It wasn't a fantastic breakfast, but the price was right.

 

But what really got this breakfast lover excited was that right next door to the Embassy Suites, there was an International House Of Pancakes. So, on our second morning in Elizabeth, New Jersey, just a few hours before heading over to the cruise ship port in Bayonne, we had an incredibly great breakfast at IHOP. Man, I miss IHOP! They used to have one two blocks from our house, but it went out of business a couple of years ago. I guess I should have eaten there a little more often! Anyway, even though I would be on a cruise ship for the next 12 days... where food is far from scarce and "diet" is a word we never speak... I had the most delicious breakfast at IHOP just a few hours before we got onboard Anthem Of The Seas. I should have taken a picture of it, but I didn't carry my camera with me to that particular meal.

 

IHOP wasn't the only restaurant next to the hotel, either. There was also a Ruby Tuesday, and we had a pretty nice dinner there the night before the cruise. Kellyn was very excited about their salad bar, so I snapped a picture of it.

 

 

I'm not a salad lover, so I had some nice spare ribs that night. After dinner at Ruby Tuesday, we headed back to the hotel for free drinks at their happy hour. We got there right when it started, which was lucky... because at that point, we had no problem finding a place at the bar and ordering a drink. But not surprisingly, when free drinks are advertised, EVERYBODY in the hotel shows up... and by the time we were ready for a second drink (which was about two minutes later, because they were so small) there was absolutely no chance of getting the bartender's attention due to the large crowd that had showed up. So that turned out to be a less-than-great perk of staying at the Embassy Suites.

 

Nevertheless, we enjoyed our stay there very much and would not hesitate to stay there again if our travels bring us to Newark airport. If you're super sensitive to noise at night, though, you might want to look for a hotel a little further away from the airport.

 

[Spaniel Lover]

What Camera Do I Use?

 

Whenever I post these cruise reviews, I always get questions about what camera I used to take the photos. I was very fortunate that just two days prior to heading out on this vacation, I was able to pick up a brand new camera: the Canon EOS 80D.

 

 

All the still photos you saw on this page were shot with that new Canon EOS 80D. For videos, I had three cameras with me that I used for various different situations. Any video that involved walking around and shooting with the camera in motion was shot with a DJI Osmo motion-stabilized video camera. Any underwater video was shot with an Olympus TG-830. That's a slightly older model now... so if you're in the market for a waterproof camera for snorkeling, you should get the new version which is the Olympus TG-850. All the other videos were shot with my new Canon EOS 80D.

 

If you're in the market for a high quality digital SLR camera, the truth is that the Canon EOS 80D is probably too much camera for most amateur photographers... so the one I actually recommend for most people is the Canon Digital Rebel T6i. If you get one, make sure you get the T6i with the 135mm lens, not the cheap version with the 55mm lens.

 

I also like to have a Canon EF-S 10-18mm lens with me when I'm on a cruise ship. This is a wide angle lens, which is extremely useful when trying to shoot in small spaces (for example, inside a cruise ship cabin) or when shooting something very large (like a cruise ship, when you're standing on the pier next to it.)

 

I also bring along a tripod with me, to allow me to shoot long-exposure shots in low-light situations. It's also handy to have for shooting "selfies". I've got a tripod that is just the right size to fit inside my big suitcase but which is heavy duty enough to be stable. It also has a fluid head, which is something that's very important to look for in a tripod if you intend to use it when shooting video.

 

One important technique that I use, since I'm looking to getting the highest quality photos possible, is to shoot in RAW format rather than JPG. This preserves the photos with the highest possible quality, and gives me the greatest ability to tweak them after shooting them. However, it does require a lot of extra work. Any photos which I want to share (via email, Facebook, or on this web site, for example) have to be converted from RAW to JPG. This takes some time and effort, but it's worth it to me in order to get the best end results. Just about all the photos you see on this page have been tweaked to some extent to give them the best finished look. For most photos, I do some sharpening and color correction. On some photos, I have to do even more tweaking than that to get them to look just right.

 

[kandj05]

Jim, thank you for taking the time to do a great review. It was very informative. And, as a previous person posted, my DH and I have always avoided the big ships. Your review shows me they are great also.

[Spaniel Lover]

And that's it! That was my review of our cruise on Anthem Of The Seas... a pretty great cruise ship. You should definitely check it out.

 

If you'd like to read some of my other cruise reviews, you'll find links in my signature, below. Or just head over to my web site at www.jimzim.net

 

Now it's your turn to chip in with comments and questions.

 

Go!

 

[Hoopster95]

Just WOW! Have been quietly following along this evening so to not interfere with your posts... you are a machine!!! Thank you for the effort put into this outstanding review :)

[Cruisin'Newlyweds]

Fantastic review!!! I especially loved the videos! I'm even more excited now and didn't think that was possible! Thank you for taking the time to put this together! And thank you for the insider tips (ex Deck 13 solarium entrance and viewing platform)!

[How'sBartCruisin'?]

Thank you. We will be on Anthem in July and appreciate this photo and video tour. It looks like you had a great time!

[LMaxwell]

Easily in the tip 5 reviewers on this site [emoji1] [emoji568] [emoji267] [emoji16]

 

Sent from my B1-730HD using Tapatalk

[CarpeCerevisi]

Thank you, Jim, for your wonderful review. I'm sailing on Anthem tomorrow so this just whets my appetite even more for what should be a great cruise.

 

I was wondering about the video linked on post 10 of this thread. You mentioned George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" but the video is of Camille Saint-Saens' 3rd Symphony, both great pieces of music so I'm not complaining. I just wondered if the links were mixed up.

[RadioRob]

An absolutely amazing review. We're going to be on the Anthem this October for a 5 day cruise to Bermuda. Seeing two70 and the rest of the features have us that more excited! Thank you for sharing such great photos and videos! You mentioned you enjoy amateur photography, but you also have a great voice and narrate very well as well!

[jonj]

Thank you for the lovely review. FYI the links to the daily planner is not working

[hapster85]

Lovely review. Enjoyed the pictures and videos. After reading your comments about the Columbus Cove on Labadee, I'm starting to rethink the the beach bed we've reserved on Adrenaline Beach. The Cove may just be more to our liking.

 

Thanks for taking to time to post it all.

[Board_Shorts]

Wow! Another Jim Zim review! Just wonderful. Thank you so much for all your hard work on these photos, videos and commentary. Your cruise, and the ship, looks fabulous, and I absolutely love your great attitude to life. Thank you!

[JayS]

Hi

I was on the same cruise. I think you caught me in one of your pictures.

 

A few words about the dining on the A O T S. I am for the most of the last 10 years a HAL cruiser and would have said the best overall meals are on HAL. After these 12 days the Anthem is at least the equal to HAL on the non extra cost service. :D