Anthem of the Seas - Live Review 3/5/17-3/12/17

JessyCruises · March 3, 2017

I was not planning on doing a live review for this trip as I did not think I was going to get internet, but seeing as I managed to get lucky and buy the Sip & Stream package last week without it completely cancelling my cruise and wasting a week of my life as I tried to fix it, I figured I would use the VOOM to its full advantage!

Here is a link to my one and only previous live review on the Freedom in November 2016 in case you wanted to check out what I did last time:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2425744

Please feel free to ask me any questions and I will try to find the answers when I am onboard. I have only sailed Oasis and Freedom class so this is a new ship for me too :)

JessyCruises · March 3, 2017

A Little Background

We (me Jessica (40), husband Paul (42), son Ethan (15) and my sister Jennifer(42)) will be travelling from Quispamsis, New Brunswick, Canada. Quispamsis is a suburb of Saint John - some of you might have stopped there on your NE/Canada sailings.

We had originally planned on going on the Freedom of the Seas for this week but somehow lucked into a great price on a Balcony Guarantee on Anthem some day when I was checking pricing online for the 50th time that day. I am not sure what promotion I had originally booked the Freedom under, but apparently at the time the port fees and taxes were free. When I moved the reservation to the Anthem I got the great price on the balcony and I got to keep the free port fees. It was significantly less for us to stay in a balcony on the Anthem than an interior on the Freedom.

A day or two after I booked, we were assigned a D3 - 9164. This seems like a good location to me. It is near the elevator bank and I have heard that even though it is classified as a "smaller balcony", this one is a little bigger than the norm for D3 because it is right as the hump begins. We know it will be tight with 4, but we have done interiors with 4 and not had an issue. We will only be in the room to change and sleep. The plan is to have the king separated. Ethan and Paul will take the twins and Jen and I will take the sofa bed. Works for us!

Another bonus, besides the great price on the cruise, is that NYC/NJ is driveable for us. We are about 10 hrs away from Manhattan with no stops. Because there are 4 of us going this time, we decided to try to drive to see how it was. We are leaving today as soon as Ethan is finished school and will be driving down to just south of Hartford CT tonight. We are staying at the Best Western Danbury/Bethel tonight. We will head to Manhattan in the morning and will be staying at Best Western Herald Square. It is a newer hotel that we have stayed at before. We are actually using points for tomorrow night as Paul is a Diamond Best Western Reward member so we are avoiding the high cost of a night in Manhattan. The NYC hotel is just a block up from the Empire State Building (some rooms have a view of the ESB) and it is also just a few blocks from Time Square. The hotel has preferred pricing at an indoor parking garage a few doors down which we used last time.

The plan for tomorrow (Saturday) is to hit the Lincoln Center TKTS booth as soon as we get to town around noon and try to score some good theatre tickets for tomorrow night. Wish us luck :)

Sunday we will be parking at the pier. Our check in time is 11AM. I wanted to get on the ship as soon as possible to enjoy all it has to offer!

JessyCruises · March 3, 2017

Pre-Planning

As I implied above, I am an RCL website stalker. I check it multiple times daily for Cruise and Cruise Planner deals. As such, I have a tendency to catch Cruise Planner stuff as soon as it can be booked.

We changed our reservation from Freedom to Anthem on Oct 16 2016. I was immediately able to make our MTD and show reservations for The Gift, Spectra's Cabaret, and We Will Rock You. I was able to book North Star and iFly on 10/22/2016 and the Escape Room on 12/22/2016.

We have North Star booked for a Sea Day. My sisters friend says they did it on a Sea Day and wished they had picked a port day instead. I looked into changing it but it is too late now as all the pre-book reservations are gone. I think I have it for Monday so we will do it on the Sea Day and then maybe try to get another one later in the week by going stand-by.

JessyCruises · March 3, 2017

There was lots of debate about what to do for drink packages. We used to get the select package. Once in while I would get the premium. I did have the ultimate once when I got it free as a MyVegas reward.

On our last sailing, I had the new Deluxe Package while Paul had the select. He was pretty perturbed that the select package went away. He likes drinking beer in the pool and started enjoying ciders in the evenings. Once he found out he would not be able to get the Select anymore and would have to pay for the Deluxe, he decided to forgo the package altogether. I purchase my Deluxe package when it was on sale for 20% off. I eventually convinced him that it was a bad idea to not get one and he ordered one as well - it was still @ 20%.

My sister is not a huge drinker but loves speciality coffee and bottled water. When the Refreshment package went on sale a few weeks ago, she snapped it up for 30% off. She is planning to bring on a few bottles of wine and pay for any other drinks she wants. We ordered the Soda package for Ethan.

I mentioned above the Sip & Stream. As most of you know, there was a HUGE issue last week that seems to have been caused by RCL and an error they made with this package.

On Thursday 2/24/17, I went into my Cruise Planner like I always do. I noticed that the Sip & Stream Package was there for about $2 CAD a day more than we were paying for our Deluxe packages. Because the S&S package was only charging around 14.5% grat, the S&S package actually turned out to be about $5 less per person than the Deluxe package was alone. $10 less and two devices worth of internet packages? Seems like a no brainer. I immediately cancelled the Deluxe Packages and booked the S&S packages for Paul and I. It turns out to have been an error on RCLs part and the S&S package should never have been loaded last weel. It was there for less than 24 hrs and they shut off the ability to order it sometime Friday morning. It appears they are letting those of us who were able to purchase keep the packages we paid for (they better be)!

We were lucky, making this change seems to have had no impact on our cruise reservations. I am sure you have all read the nightmare stories of the folks who had their entire cruises cancelled, some of them multiple times. It appears after much going back & forth and dealing with TAs everyone that we know of was able to get their reservations fixed. I did not use a TA and booked on my own, although that probably has nothing to do with why my reservation was fine. I was just lucky.

I am going to shut up now. More to come...

skrapngal · March 3, 2017

I'll be on with you. I won't have the Internet package, but look forward to reading your thoughts when I come back. See you on the Anthem!!!

RoyalC · March 3, 2017

How were you able to manage to get Royal to transfer the free tax deal to the new reservation? Enjoy your vacation.

A Pisces · March 3, 2017

Can't wait to follow you on your cruise! I hope you all have a wonderful time!

clochette · March 3, 2017

looking forward to your review, we were on the anthem in January and loved it, we had also booked the freedom at first which we really enjoyed, but later changed to Anthem as we could easily drive to the port.

JessyCruises · March 3, 2017

How were you able to manage to get Royal to transfer the free tax deal to the new reservation? Enjoy your vacation.

I have no idea!

The website showed a price with fees that was pretty decent. I called RCL to see if I switched my onboard booking to the Anthem, how much it would cost. The price they gave me was $796 CAD less than the website. When I asked him to confirm the price he quoted was in CAD because I was seeing a higher price online, he said it was CAD and that the difference was the port fees. The fees are set when I book the cruise (which I knew) and because I booked when the fees were $0 then I got to keep the $0 fees. To be honest, I did not even realize my fees were $0 when I booked originally. I honestly think he made a mistake but I certainly was not going to tell him that!

JessyCruises · March 3, 2017

Can't wait to follow you on your cruise! I hope you all have a wonderful time!

Thanks!

JessyCruises · March 3, 2017

looking forward to your review, we were on the anthem in January and loved it, we had also booked the freedom at first which we really enjoyed, but later changed to Anthem as we could easily drive to the port.

This will be my son's first time on an RCL ship that is not a Freedom class so I am excited for him to see it and what the newer ships have to offer. I still love Freedom though. We are sailing on her again in November in the Ben & Jerry Suite. Right now we are also booked on her for next March Break as well, but that may change :)

Jenjer · March 3, 2017

Looking forward to this. We are sailing her in June with my DS Ethan......great name by the way.

tangled1010 · March 3, 2017

Have a great trip! We are sailing the end of April to Bermuda. We also were able to get the Sip and Stream package,thankfully without any issues like I have been reading about. Cant wait to follow along with you.

Frick_&_Frack · March 3, 2017

I'm definitely looking forward to this review! I board when you disembark.

Debitoo · March 3, 2017

Subscribed! Looking forward to this. I need something to keep my mind occupied while I wait for my HOTS cruise in 2 weeks. When you get back, I'll only have 1 week to wait! :eek: Thank you!!

teddybear231 · March 3, 2017

Looking forward to the review and pics! Please post food pics if you can!:D

JessyCruises · March 3, 2017

Looking forward to the review and pics! Please post food pics if you can!:D

There will definitely be food porn!!