Anthem OTS review 2/19 -2/26

[matrixpeanut]

Hey all,

 

Ive been lurking for a little while and I thought I would share my recent trip to contribute. First of all, I would like to say thank for you for all of the help you guys have provided. We just got off the Anthem of the seas and completed a 7 night journey from bayonne, NJ to orlando and the bahamas and back. I will try to give as much useful info as possible. I should say that there was nothing really negative, just things that I noticed. Please feel free to ask questions and I will try to respond.

 

Pre-trip report:

Me and the wife have recently started cruising. We have only been on royal caribbean and seem to love it so far. While we were on the Oasis of the seas back in July 2016, they had a deal that kids go free, so we decided to book cruises that would allow us to take our one year old son for free. Because of the good deal, we also brought our in-laws with us (yes, they also did provide some baby-sitting :halo:).

 

Since we were driving to new jersey, we drove in the night before and stayed in a best western at the newark airport. The hotel was about 15 minutes away. Nothing special to really say about this, just your average hotel. They offered free breakfast which was nice.

 

Embarkation:

We could barely sleep (who can!?!?) and got out of the hotel around 10am after a light breakfast. This is where things started off a little rocky. Anyone who has gone to the fort lauderdale port would not like this. The roads are being redone and the GPS did get confused. There were some small signs with a picture of a boat and an arrow. After guessing a few turns, we ended up on the long, torn apart, single lane road that leads to the port. Its all designed to have one way traffic to go straight to the port drop off area, which meant that we waited for about 20 minutes in a small line while cars in front would drop off there luggage and then go forward. Eventually, we got to drop off our luggage at the porter and then went straight to the garage.

 

This is where things felt like they got worse. In the ft. lauderdale port, they have a system - i.e. everyone goes through security, then goes to a counter, then heads upstairs. Here they had some people checking in as soon as they walked in, others went to the security, and others went to wait for a counter. What was also annoying was that they wanted my son to go through the special security line because of the stroller, which is fine, but they wouldn't allow the rest of my family to go through and had to go through their own line. Even after security, it just seemed confusing as what to do or wear to go. Eventually after asking multiple people for help, we got through, got checked in, and got to the ship at about 11:30.

 

Ship:

What a nice ship! You can obviously tell how modern and new the ship looks and feels even compared to oasis. After reading through the forums, I had pre-booked everything and was glad I did as iFly and Northstar were completely booked. Both are a lot of fun. We never did get to the bumper cars because the line was too long. Even though it was a full ship, it didnt feel that full. 270 cafe was a highlight. Its a beautiful space and we spent a lot of time there.

 

One thing though was that I did get the feeling that this ship is less about "all-inclusive" than oasis. It felt that there was less complimentary stuff and that it was lower quality, and that RCI wanted up to buy the better coffee, get the snacks from the pub. They also pushed the specialty restaurants hard.

 

One thing that bugged me was the room service. On oasis, the room was service had many complimentary options such as burgers, steak sandwich, etc, but on anthem, they now charged $4 for a burger and the only things that were free were kids items like french fries and basic drinks. Is this an anthem specific thing or fleet wide?

 

Kid stuff:

I like their adventure ocean stuff. Because my son was so young, we did not utilize most of their stuff. They had a nice play area for my son that was never too busy.

 

Shows:

The shows are decent. We saw the gift, Spectra's cabaret, and we will rock you. I will warn you that they are a little abstract but they are fun to watch.

 

Room:

We had two rooms: A superior ocean view room and interior room with virtual balcony. The interior room was nice and virtual balcony is a nice addition; it adds a nice sense of night and day to the room. There is more storage in this room than in rooms on the oasis. The superior ocean view room is HUGEEEEE!!!. Since its the corner room on the front of the ship, it has tons of extra space and made having 5 people in a room feel comfortable. Both attendants were really nice. Beware though, we were victim of the "mysterious" $12 mini-bar charge for water bottles we did not use. I found the charge after we left the ship and had to call RCI to have them reversed.

 

Food:

Overall, the food was pretty good. Sure, there were things that we did not like, but there was always food we enjoyed in the WJ and the MDR every night. We did MTD and did not have problem getting a table. The staff was accommodating and I don't think we waited more than 5 minutes for table. We did not do any specialty restaurants. 270 was also a nice place to get food and was never that busy. Its menu consisted of mostly of sandwiches and salads. One thing I liked was that they had a lot of hand washing stations which they made people use.

 

Staff:

This was the highlight of the ship. Everyone was super nice on the ship! The food staff were extremely nice, even bringing my son certain dishes such as different soups to the MDR even though they were not on the menu. The room attendant was also very nice and helped us with getting hot milk for my son. One example that shows how far they went: We booked MTD every night and we asked for a booster seat for my son. After that, every time we came to our time for dinner, there was always a booster seat in his chair already there. Even though its not that big of a deal, its those little details that made us feel special.

 

Ports:

We did not get off in orlando since we have been there multiple times. Nassau was nice. We visited atlantis via taxi. CocoCay was also pretty good, except for tendering which is not fun but a necessary evil.

 

Debarkation:

We chose to the express self-carry check out and it was a breeze. We were out of our room at 7:15 and went through customs by 7:30. For us, it was just easier to get out before the rush.

 

 

Overall

We thoroughly enjoyed the trip. The points about embarkation and the room service were minor and not deter us from having an excellent time. Would I do this trip again? Absolutely! My family and I would do this again in a heartbeat. I hope this information helps and let me know if you have any questions.

[CruisinCons]

Bayonne isn't the most fun to sail out of, we've done it a couple times. Once before the construction started, and once just after it started. Hoping by the time we sail out of there again they are done. Ha.

 

Very surprised on the charge for room service. A late night/overnight charge was institutetst got off Allure today; once she's rested I'm going to ask if she noticed the same thing.

[Clarea]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

With regard to the charges for room service, it started on Quantum and every new ship has had it, including Harmony.

[LibrarianBecky]

Thanks for the review! We are on Anthem in a month! Did you happen to notice any no sugar added desserts on the MDR menu? The menus I have seen online list sugar free ice cream, but no other sugar free option. If not, no biggie. Glad you had a good cruise!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[CruisinCons]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

With regard to the charges for room service, it started on Quantum and every new ship has had it, including Harmony.

 

 

We noticed the over night charge on Quantum in March 2015, but nothing during the day. I'm on Oasis in September, who knows what they will charge by then. We don't usually use room service, but will make a point of looking for it.

[Clarea]

We noticed the over night charge on Quantum in March 2015, but nothing during the day. I'm on Oasis in September, who knows what they will charge by then. We don't usually use room service, but will make a point of looking for it.

 

 

So far, Oasis and Allure still have complimentary room service, except for between midnight and 5am.

[easyboy]

Glad you enjoyed your cruise!

[matrixpeanut]

Thanks for the review! We are on Anthem in a month! Did you happen to notice any no sugar added desserts on the MDR menu? The menus I have seen online list sugar free ice cream, but no other sugar free option. If not, no biggie. Glad you had a good cruise!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

 

 

Great question. In the MDR, you are correct that they only have sugar free ice cream. However, in the WJ, they have more options such as sugar free cakes, cookies, etc. you could just ask the waiter while you are at the MDR if they could find out what there is or just go there afterward.

 

Also, it's nice to hear that the room service hasn't changed on the other ships. It's nice to have room service options other than kids menu stuff

 

-Matrixpeanut

Edited February 27, 2017 by matrixpeanut
adding text

[cruisin0504]

Does anyone have a link to the current room service menu? The one that I have found does not seem to be the same as the OP mentioned - with basically nothing included. :(

[matrixpeanut]

Does anyone have a link to the current room service menu? The one that I have found does not seem to be the same as the OP mentioned - with basically nothing included. :(

 

 

I wish I had taken pictures. From what I remember, the standard free drinks available everywhere were available, I think for desserts they had cookies And something else. For the kids menu they had chicken fingers, french fries, mac & cheese, and personal cheese pizza. They also had a garden salad and a wrap available. Things like a cheeseburger or chicken sandwich cost money.

 

So not totally nothing :rolleyes:, but noticeably less when compared to oasis.

[panjabi]

Hey all,

 

<snip>

Debarkation:

We chose to the express self-carry check out and it was a breeze. We were out of our room at 7:15 and went through customs by 7:30. For us, it was just easier to get out before the rush.

 

.

 

 

Dear Matrix,

 

Good Morning. How was the weather/wind/seas during your last day at sea and when you got in yesterday? I have a large family group that sailed out yesterday on the AOTS for a 50th wedding anniversary. It was cold and blustery in NYC when they left yesterday and they were worried about the sailing conditions

 

In fact, that makes me wonder, how does one check sailing conditions/weather

 

Warm Regards,

 

Panjabi

[matrixpeanut]

Dear Matrix,

 

Good Morning. How was the weather/wind/seas during your last day at sea and when you got in yesterday? I have a large family group that sailed out yesterday on the AOTS for a 50th wedding anniversary. It was cold and blustery in NYC when they left yesterday and they were worried about the sailing conditions

 

In fact, that makes me wonder, how does one check sailing conditions/weather

 

Warm Regards,

 

Panjabi

 

 

Good morning Panjabi,

 

 

The weather wasn't too bad. Going north of Florida, the weather started to get cold and windy, but still enjoyable. The last night was too cold to really enjoy the outside decks. The sailing conditions were also OK. There were some swells but overall movement on the ship was not that bad, and we also had cabins at the front of the ship. You could definitely tell the ship was moving but nothing overly dramatic. I used my weather channel app with the internet to get an idea of weather. Hope that helps:)

[panjabi]

Good morning Panjabi,

 

 

The weather wasn't too bad. Going north of Florida, the weather started to get cold and windy, but still enjoyable. The last night was too cold to really enjoy the outside decks. The sailing conditions were also OK. There were some swells but overall movement on the ship was not that bad, and we also had cabins at the front of the ship. You could definitely tell the ship was moving but nothing overly dramatic. I used my weather channel app with the internet to get an idea of weather. Hope that helps:)

 

 

Dear Matrix,

 

Many thanks for that update! Greatly appreciated!

 

Warm Regards,

 

Panjabi

[A Pisces]

We will be taking a taxi to the port, from our hotel. I was wondering about the 20 minutes you waited in line, just to drop off your luggage, in your opinion, would we be able to get out of the cab at that point, and safely walk toward the drop off point?

 

Thanks for your review, it had some helpful information!

 

Kathy

[matrixpeanut]

Interesting idea Kathy. I suspect not as I did not see any other taxis doing it and there're really is no space to walk until you get to the dropoff point.

[Addictedtocruising]

Does anyone have a link to the current room service menu? The one that I have found does not seem to be the same as the OP mentioned - with basically nothing included. :(

 

 

Someone put up room service menus, they are from June 2015 but pretty much looked the same when I was on in August also.

Post 39 http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2227448

[cruisin0504]

Thanks - it looks like room service menu does have minimal options as complementary, but no problem. It is more for the novelty factor that we enjoy them arriving with our goodies. We can certainly go up to the buffet and bring down something to enjoy on the balcony.

[RRLLAL]

Nice review.

 

What made the tendering to Coco Cay so difficult?

[mizLORInj]

We will be taking a taxi to the port, from our hotel. I was wondering about the 20 minutes you waited in line, just to drop off your luggage, in your opinion, would we be able to get out of the cab at that point, and safely walk toward the drop off point?

 

Thanks for your review, it had some helpful information!

 

Kathy

 

 

We've seen people get out of the cab at Cape Liberty when the line wasn't moving along. You would have to cart all your luggage to the terminal and it can turn out to be quite a long walk.

It's not designed very well and the line into the port can be quite annoying as it crawls along at snail's pace. Maybe someday there will be a taxis/dropoff section.

Our 3 or 4 experiences there to check in have been very good and quite fast. Checking in as you enter the terminal with a port person's iPad, then through security, and right onto the ship.

---

We are fans of ANTHEM!

[A Pisces]

Interesting idea Kathy. I suspect not as I did not see any other taxis doing it and there're really is no space to walk until you get to the dropoff point.

 

We've seen people get out of the cab at Cape Liberty when the line wasn't moving along. You would have to cart all your luggage to the terminal and it can turn out to be quite a long walk.

 

Thank you both! I guess we will have to make that decision, once we are there.

Kathy

[matrixpeanut]

Nice review.

 

What made the tendering to Coco Cay so difficult?

 

 

Im not sure what exactly happened, but ended up waiting about an 45min-1 hour right next to the door when our tender number got called, leading to mass confusion and chaos for a short time on deck 4. It actually worked out because we got a decent show while waiting. Two people started arguing with each other when one lady tried to cut in front of the line. It somehow started with simple bickering and ended up becoming a "race-war between white and black people":o. Security showed up quickly after that.

[RRLLAL]

Im not sure what exactly happened, but ended up waiting about an 45min-1 hour right next to the door when our tender number got called, leading to mass confusion and chaos for a short time on deck 4. It actually worked out because we got a decent show while waiting. Two people started arguing with each other when one lady tried to cut in front of the line. It somehow started with simple bickering and ended up becoming a "race-war between white and black people":o. Security showed up quickly after that.

 

 

Yikes!