Anthem random thoughts on 8 day Bermuda/Caribbean sailing

[LeeW]

OK, technically 9 day.

 

First of all, great crew, great ship. Hate the port. Harder to get to than Galveston or Port Canaveral. Also Newark is my least favorite airport. Three hour departure delay didn't help.

 

Balcony room 13540. Great location for Solarium access. Small amount of noise from Solarium area above. Decent size balcony, good storage including large bins over bed. Desk had two 110v outlets well-separated, one 220v and two USB charging ports. Card-operated power, so we stuck a bookmark in it. Bathroom lights and nightlight do not operate if card is removed. Great steward (Allison Dublin).

 

Wings over bridge were open almost entire cruise, except last morning and when winds were high. Access from Solarium lower level.

 

Do NOT book cabins 13118 and 13518. The access to the Solarium has a fire door top and bottom adjacent to each of these cabins and slam when they close. Not a ton of traffic through there but had to drive the people in the cabin nuts. Maybe thats why they put their room service dishes in the hall and you couldn't see them when coming from the Solarium.

 

Solarium buffet had shorter hours than Windjammer but similar food breakfast and lunch. Lots more convenient. Bar service in Solarium and enclosed pool very good with few lines (4822 passengers on this trip according to headwaiter).

 

Towel hogs - lots in Solarium and on sea days around pool. No enforcement even after 3 hours of no-show. Not so much a problem in the enclosed pool area. Lots of space on Deck 15 and surprising amount of shaded space usually available under the Seaplex wings.

 

Teens and young adults tended to take over Solarium hot tubs after lifeguards left in evening so not possible to go up there and relax.

 

Short lines for bumper cars. Fairly easy to get reservations for Northstar or to go standby - if people showed up early and space was available they went early. iFly had reservations open two days before end of cruise. Had people as young as 6 in our group and as old as 69 and most everyone had fun (one kid did get scared and left tube early but another spent most of his time not being held at all).

 

Food was decent, although the new menu really only changes two items in each category every night. Only saw souffle once but did have several good chocolate desserts and always-available cake. Ordered specialty steak a couple of times because no good beef items on menu. Waiters in Icon (Mytime reservation) were excellent (Hormaz and Reynold). Headwaiter Alan Rys is funny and passionate about cooking, the World Cup and everything else. There are penny smashing machines at the dining room entrance (no quarters needed) and many waiters seem to carry a handful of pennies for their guests. Dinner checkin was easy and if you had the same table they just waved you through. Hours were strange - mostly dining room opened at 5 but on formal nights (2 and 8) opened at 4:45 to help with crowds. Lots of folks dressed for dinner on most nights (maybe 50%) even on casual nights.

 

Casino - tight. Tournaments on all sea days. Slot tournament did not have enough participation to award a cruise. While there were a lot of people in there it was possible to get a machine or seat fairly easily in the evening.

 

Shows were interesting, although Gift and Spectra were strange. No real story line. Excellent dancing and stage presentation and good singing so if you like stage productions you would like these. We Will Rock You was cancelled Day 6 evening due to ship motion and rescheduled to Day 8 afternoon. Lots of music around the ship and family enjoyed going to these performances.

 

Lines at Guest Services always seemed to be short. Never needed to go there since most everything could be done with in-room TV system or on the app. While you could see your schedule and the Compass, and book items on the app it could not display operating hours of the venues. Descriptions yes, hours no. You needed to carry the paper Compass just for the hours. VOOM worked fairly well in most areas but did disconnect many times in the cabin.

 

St Maarten was in decent shape (still rebuilding but progress since we were there in April). Marigot was still pretty trashed on French side. Large $22M yacht sunk in Simpson Bay is still there - only insured for $10M. Would have thought owner would have sailed it south rather than assume the bay was safe.

 

Some tree damage and a few roofs still being worked on in Old San Juan. No more than usual construction seemed to be going on. Town seems to be fully functional.

 

Highly recommend Rising Son cat excursion in Burmuda (long snorkeling time and good crew) and Ultimate Beach and Snorkel in St Maarten (third time for us on this power rafting tour/snorkel/beach/high speed boat).

Edited July 14, 2018 by LeeW
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[LuCruise]

Great review. Never done it but 9 days sounds perfect. A week goes quickly and a couple extra days would be great. Seems like you had a great cruise overall. Thanks for sharing. We are booked on Anthem (long wait)

 

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[cb at sea]

The "production" shows seldom have a "plot"...mostly just random singing and dancing. Entertaining, if you enjoy that.

 

As far as the "chair hogs"...if I can't find a seat somewhere, I ask the folks sitting near to the "hogged" chairs if anyone is actually USING those chairs...they are happy to tell you yes or no.....if it's no, no one has been there since they've been there, I have a seat!

[LeeW]

Forgot something:

 

The "library" on Anthem was the worst we have ever seen on any ship and any line. A lady looking for reading material mentioned she had checked with Guest Services and they said that they had put 100 books in there at the start of the cruise and didn't see anything wrong. We saw less than 30 books in the "library" for the entire cruise. And no section for people leaving their own books for others. Vision of the Seas had probably 500 books throughout our last cruise and 200 left by passengers.

[LeeW]

More random stuff:

 

Bermuda port was a real pain to get off ship. Forward gangway was being used by both folks getting off on their

own and tours that met in the theater. Avoid this gangway in any port that has tours that meet onboard if you

need to get off early. We took 45 minutes to get off and were 10 minutes late checking in for our ship tour

on the dock.

 

special pricing offers (I assume all drink deals add gratuity to these prices):

 

Diamond and up photo package - five prints for $50.

 

 

Day 1 beverage package $60/day, refreshment $26/day, coffee card 15 for $31

Day 1 specialty restaurants 3 for $80, 4 for $95, 5 for $110 plus gratuity (no gratuity added if ordered online before cruise)

Connect to friends/family onboard, use iMessage/Whatsapp/Facebook $20/day (I assume this is just surf charge, but did NOT see

an onboard message-only option for $8. This was advertised price but I didn't connect to see what packages were for purchase)

 

Day 4 surf and stream VOOM price $100 for rest of cruise

 

Day 4 wash and fold bag of laundry $35

 

 

 

Day 7 ten draft beer card for $49

 

 

Day 8 ten drinks card for $79, drinks up to $12

 

Day 8 two day internet $32 surf, $40 surf/stream

Edited July 15, 2018 by LeeW
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[JPV072900]

Thanks for the review, we'll be on her in 11 days!

 

How was the snorkeling? Did you see much in both excursions?

 

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[Iamcruzin]

Forgot something:

 

The "library" on Anthem was the worst we have ever seen on any ship and any line. A lady looking for reading material mentioned she had checked with Guest Services and they said that they had put 100 books in there at the start of the cruise and didn't see anything wrong. We saw less than 30 books in the "library" for the entire cruise. And no section for people leaving their own books for others. Vision of the Seas had probably 500 books throughout our last cruise and 200 left by passengers.

It seems all of the cruise lines are limiting the book offerings and shrinking the library in favor of expanding the internet cafes where they can make money. Also electronic readers are replacing books.

[irisheileen]

Thank you for the info it was helpful.