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

[A Pisces]

Are the free drinks only available in the windjammer?

 

 

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If by free drinks you mean Regular coffee, tea, ice tea, milk or water, they are included at all eating places. You may even be able to get lemonade in the dining room.

[FishonEd]

Minimum pass line bet on the craps table ?

How many times odds on the pass line bet?

If you get a chance can you find out for me.

Thanks in advance

[gaylemh]

How many formal days on the 5 Day Bermuda and what day is it?

 

Thanks,

 

One formal night - usually night 2.

[Pbwong]

Are iFly and Northstar the only activities with hour waits? If not, what others? I would like to try Anthem with my family but not quite sure routinely standing in line is what I want to do on a cruise.

 

Someone told me bumper cars and roller skating were at least an hour wait as well. I watched from the deck above the bumper cars and the line stretches for a few hundred people around the Seaplex. Plus, not sure it's worth the wait when the actual alloted time in a bumper car is around three minutes.

 

Even if you were willing to wait as a standby for iFly and Northstar, there's no guarantee you would get on for hours on end. I did the iFly and they were turning away people without reservations.

[Pbwong]

Oh one odd event, the boat observed daylight savings time last night for some reason instead of its normal Sunday morning change. So technically we on the boat are an hour ahead. I'm not sure why they did this, maybe to get passengers adjusted earlier and have a smoother Sunday disembarkation.

[LibrarianBecky]

Anyone have opinions on thermal spa pass on Anthem? It is something I am considering, but haven't read very good things on the few reviews that mention it.

 

 

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[toras]

Anyone have opinions on thermal spa pass on Anthem? It is something I am considering, but haven't read very good things on the few reviews that mention it.

 

I hope you read this thread http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2376414

It sounds like the same setup as Oasis which I did not enjoy.

[ladyj_46]

It's not there...it was for. Hot second and then it's been gone for a month or so.

 

 

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I just double checked, and it is there for my 4/17 embarkation sail. Perhaps it sold out for yours. I would try calling the cruise line, and/or check with guest services, as soon as, you board the ship.

[gaylemh]

Oh one odd event, the boat observed daylight savings time last night for some reason instead of its normal Sunday morning change. So technically we on the boat are an hour ahead. I'm not sure why they did this, maybe to get passengers adjusted earlier and have a smoother Sunday disembarkation.

 

Actually it's probably because you need to be up and off the ship early in the morning, gives you an extra hours sleep on the last night.

[ladyj_46]

ladyj-46 we will also be on your cruise. Did you join our meet and mingle? I joined but I might be showing up alone as my DH is not a MM person, lol. We signed up for puzzle as we did not do it last cruise. We also have pretty much all our beach stops planned. Now I just have to hope and pray my summer stuff fits, it was a long winter, lol.

 

 

Hi, can I assume that your first name is Sharon? Yes, I joined the Meet and Mingle. I joined the one on my Breakaway cruise Christmas '15 and was very glad I did. It was nice to run into a friendly face here and there during the week. I still write to one person from the group. A lot of people didn't show to that gathering because we had rough weather the first night, and people were either green or sleeping in. My own daughter sat it out. This cruise, my husband has been told he needs to attend, as if the cruise line required it, like muster drills.

 

I think I must have missed the sign up for Puzzle, it says to check on the ship. It sounds like a fun activity, so I will continue to recheck on it. Otherwise, I will head up to Sea Plex to look into it. We've booked several sight seeing trips, but two days unplanned. Hubby would like us to roam around on our own. He is the more spontaneous soul of the two of us.

 

As for my cruise wardrobe, due to weight gain, I had to order a few new items. Isn't that a shame? LOL

 

Jeanne

[alwalaska]

One formal night - usually night 2.

Thanks. I just saw there is one formal and one smart casual. Do you know when the smart casual typically is?

 

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[geekjason]

I've read they are included with the Deluxe, but not the Refreshment. Kind of a bummer, cause my kids would love to have them, too.

Hopefully someone else can chime in a confirm?

 

 

I was on this sailing as well and my wife, my older children and myself all had the refreshment package and we all enjoyed smoothies at no charge. Starbucks as well.

[alwalaska]

Dang, Ann! I see that you are sailing on Anthem on May 20th. We will be getting off on May 20th. We are doing a B2B, May 6 & May 11. You will enjoy Anthem. You have to do the bumper cars.

 

 

Eileen

Darn, don't you want to add another cruise on?

 

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[alwalaska]

we are on this sailing as well, puzzle break is no longer available to be booked online. It was specifically marked when I was in cruise planner this morning.

 

Not sure about the breakfast.

I fly and Northstar say reserve onboard, but puzzle break isn't even there. Is it a free activity?

 

If we have an early boarding and head straight to make reservations, should we be able to get some?

 

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[WillowHaven]

I was on this sailing as well and my wife, my older children and myself all had the refreshment package and we all enjoyed smoothies at no charge. Starbucks as well.

 

Oh, that would be awesome! I hope it's that way on our sailing. :cool:

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[SportsFanatic]

I've read they are included with the Deluxe, but not the Refreshment. Kind of a bummer, cause my kids would love to have them, too.

Hopefully someone else can chime in a confirm?

 

 

Smoothies are included in the refreshment package.

 

 

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[rcclmiami]

How was the weather out of NJ and for your day getting to Florida? We leave on the 19th and want to pack appropriately.

 

Thanks! Can't wait to hear about your experience.

 

Stephanie

Weather was sunny and cold. Didn't warm up until Nassau.

[seba1]

Weather was sunny and cold. Didn't warm up until Nassau.

 

Yikes. After this snow storm that is heading our way I was hoping for spring to settle in just in time for our sailing on the 19th. Fingers crossed it warms up!

 

Stephanie

[Life is Good Cruising]

I fly and Northstar say reserve onboard, but puzzle break isn't even there. Is it a free activity?

 

If we have an early boarding and head straight to make reservations, should we be able to get some?

 

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The puzzle break is a free activity. Since it's only offered on Sea days and only takes 12 people per time slot, it does book up quickly. Download the Royal IQ at home, once you board, immediately try making a reservation on the app. If you can't book via the app, upon boarding, I would immediately go to the back of the Royal Theater on Deck 4, crew members are standing by assisting with reservations for this activity or other activities, along with dining and the 3 production shows. If slots are still all booked for the Puzzle Room, ask if you can go on their wait list. We had people waiting outside of the Puzzle Room before the start of the challenge and they were able to get in as we had some no shows.

[joustingarch]

Can you let me know if they offer a dining discount for a specialty restaurant on the first day? I didn't buy the BOGO dining in time and we were going to use if for Wonderland. Thanks

 

I was also on this sailing. We had someone come to our table the first night and offer 30% off at Jamie's Italian. Don't remember seeing any other dining discounts offered, though.

 

They also kept coming around trying to sell a wine tasting package and the galley tour. Several in my party bought the galley tour for $35/pp, which included brunch (with various dishes from each of the specialty restaurants) and all you can drink champagne.

[joustingarch]

Yes I bought one and so did my sister and son. They have not billed our room for them yet. So far it has worked great!

/quote]

 

My wife and I also got them...and seeing this made me realize that they never showed up on our bill, either! I already got my final statement emailed to me from RCI, and the charges were not included.

 

We initially stood in line at Guest Services to get them, but found out they were selling them across the way in Boleros. They crew member selling them had a computer to activate/link them to your room, but then wrote our stateroom details down on a sheet of paper - maybe he lost the sheets or forgot to enter them into the billing system?

 

On a positive note, I pre-purchased the alcohol package and was able to immediately use my WOW band at the bar in Boleros to get my first drink! This was before staterooms opened so it was very convenient as I didn't have my seapass card yet!

[joustingarch]

Thank you! Let us know if you have any favorite bar tenders while you are making your rounds :D

 

Have a wonderful time!

 

I had several different drinks that rang up at $13 - and all were fully covered under the package.

 

My wife and I both independently determined that our favorite bartender was Oleksander in the Boleros bar. He's a young Ukranian guy and he was always happy and friendly....and his drinks were on point! I became slightly addicted to Patron margaritas during this trip, and my wife loved the South Beach Iced Tea.

 

All of the pool bartenders were really good in my opinion, too. It was hit or miss at other places - my wife said one of the bartenders at the Schooner Bar never spoke - just looked at her and waited for her to order, and took her card and swiped it without saying a word to her. One of the bartenders in the casino bar always remembered my drink - sadly I can't remember his name though! LOL

 

And I have to give a big shoutout to our bar guy Leonard in the American Icon dining room - he basically gave me "Linus" service all week. (Bonus points to you if you get my HIMYM reference!)

[joustingarch]

Thanks so much for all this great information! Sounds like for our cruise in 2 weeks we should plan on warmer clothing for the trip down and back.

 

Let us know at what point the weather gets warmer. My kids will want to be in the pool!

 

Stephanie

 

My kids were in the indoor pool for several hours during the sea day on Monday. There's a hot tub there, too, so they just ducked in there if they got chilly.

It was plenty warm on Tuesday morning - probably around 75 degrees - and the kids spent the morning at the outside pool while we transited into Port Canaveral. It was overcast but warm - I didn't even think about suncreen and all 3 kids went to dinner with sunburned faces!

It was 80+ when we were at CocoCay (Wednesday) and Nassau (Thursday).

It was still plenty warm on Friday morning. My son did the FlowRider around noontime - and I could notice that things were starting to cool down. That's also when the weather started to pick up - we ran into some storms and bigger seas on Friday afternoon/overnight.

It was cold and windy when we got up on Saturday morning. We were supposed to do 9am iFly, but everything was closed down due to high winds and heavy seas.

It settled down after we got passed Cape Hatteras, probably around noon or 1pm on Saturday. We did NorthStar at 4:30 and it was windy and cold, but sunny/clear and light seas.

Sunday morning getting off the ship was like 28 degrees and some wind!!

[joustingarch]

We will be on the Anthem 5/11/17. Did you see any of these fancy glasses? We didn't see any on our November cruise last year. I wonder if they stopped selling them.

 

 

Aileen

I saw glasses shaped like that, but they were a little different design. They were blue, but had multi-colored speckles around the bottom and on the rim of the glass. They had some in one of the bars - that I assume you could purchase with a specialty drink - and then they were also selling them from a a table in front of Michael's Pub on Friday or Saturday.