Anthem 5 Night Review (9/1/18)

[Jozpankey]

I have been stalking Cruise Critic for years, but rarely post. However, I thought it would be fun to give my review for you all. Sorry, I am not a picture person except for ones of my kid! So I don’t have any menus or compasses.

The Group: This is our (husband and myself) 5th cruise, with 3 of them being Royal Caribbean. We had our 3 year old with us and my in-laws who cruised for the first time. I am 34, husband is 37 and his parents are in their 60’s. We live in Portland Oregon, in-laws live in Fishkill NY.

Pre-Cruise: We flew in the day before into Newark. I picked the Embassy Suites for location, free morning breakfast and a separate bedroom to enjoy before we’d have to pretend “go to sleep” at the same time as our 3 year old, haha! We ended up going to sleep at the same time with him most nights anyway, cruising with a toddler is exhausting! We thought the accommodations were just fine for one night. The Ruby Tuesday across the street had terrible service.

Embarkation: The in-laws picked us up at 9:30am and we headed to Bayonne Cruise Parking. It was a little cheaper than port parking- I believe it was $80 total for Saturday-Thursday. The shuttle van was already there, grabbed our luggage and we were off to the port. I headed to my gold Crown and Anchor status line, walked right up to checkin. We did everything online, including uploading our pictures so the process was really fast. When we were done, we were directed to head towards the entrance for suite guests which allowed us to completely bi-pass the other line that was snaked and long. We were on the ship by 10:30.

Our first plan once we got onboard is to login to the Royal IQ app to sign up for shows, iFly and North Star. Now, I feel like I am pretty tech savvy, but I could not find where to register for anything. So we headed to the kiosks...yet again, couldn’t figure it out! After peeking over at someone else, it’s not as easy as selecting the first “onboard activities” icon you see. You had to dig a bit. I was able to sign the group up for North Star, but gave up on everything else. We were in Two70, and it was so hot and crowded. Figured if we wanted to see shows, we’d attempt the walk up line. Went for lunch in the Windjammer, didn’t seem packed or busy at all.

Room: It opened up right at 1:00pm. We were in OV Balcony 9180, and the in-laws were next door in 9182. One of the many tips I learned about here on Cruise Critic is the ability to remove the balcony divider. It is only the first part, but was awesome for all of us to sit/stand together as well as the grandparents to peek in on our son while we went out for the night (we still had a monitor for them to hear him). I was surprised at how much storage there was in the cabin, they really made good use of the space.

Food: Always subjective, but I’m not picky at all. However, I feel like I’ve had better food in years past on the ship....well, the quality was the same, I guess it was the choices. I had a hard time finding something that sounded good. We did main dining room 4/5 nights. The rest of the group did Jamie’s and said it was amazing. I stayed in with the little one and did room service. I ordered way more food than I really should have, but figured if I’m paying $8 delivery charge, better make it count haha! All the other free places were fine-Sorrento’s, Windjammer, Two70 etc.

Pool: Yeah, there was plenty of chairs with a towel on it and no one in sight, but didn’t bother me. We found some chairs along the outskirts of the pool and sat our stuff down and went enjoyed the pool.

Adventure Ocean: My son never wanted to go into the program on his own, however we visited the play area several times a day where you stayed with your child, my son loved it! You would think there would be more slides, jungle gym type stuff for kiddos but there wasn’t.

Entertainment: I am an activities girl when it comes to cruises. This has been my least favorite cruise for that. The 4th night of the cruise they stacked all 3 RCCL staple shows to where it was really difficult to get to all- Battle of the Sexes, Love and Marriage and The Quest. Was surprised at this. However, cruising with a toddler made my desire to attend the other shows a little lower since it took coordination between everyone. The only “main” show I saw was Spectras Cabaret. It was so bizarre. It’s unfortunate that they have amazing singers and dancers, yet they’re stuck performing something that I didn’t find enjoyable. The We Will Rock You shows were at 6:30 so we never made it to one. With the reviews I read, we didn’t bother with The Gift.

North Star: My son was a hair too short and they wouldn’t let him on. I read quite a few times on here that the staff never followed that rule, so I made the mistake of telling him about it and he was excited. Made up a mommy lie that it was broken and he couldn’t ride it.

iFly: My husband did it and said it was awesome. It was a long training period, and only in the air tube for 1 minute, but he said that it’s kind of stressful on the body and you don’t want to do much more than that.

Voom Internet: We got it for my son to be able to watch his Netflix here and there. Definitely not the fastest internet, but worked ok. We all have iPhones so we could text each other free without paying for it. Just turn on the WiFi and select the Royal Caribbean connection that you need to use Royal IQ.

Bermuda: The first day we did sightseeing. We took the ferry to St. George. It was hot and felt like herded cattle. This was on my father-in-law’s list to hit up. But what I wasn’t anticipating is how hard the streets are to navigate with a stroller, and with the heat-walking around without a plan was a dumb idea haha! We quickly discovered that Bermuda celebrates Labor Day and nothing was open. FIL is a Pastor so he was really bummed he couldn’t tour the church. He ended up going again day 2 while we went to the beach. After St. George we took a $24 cab ride to the Crystal Caves. We had to wait about 45 mins before our tour started. It was amazing to see, but felt like it could have been 10 mins long. Instead it was closer to 40. We just did the Crystal cave and skipped Fantasy. Glad we did! From there we went to the Swizzle Inn. I wanted to go there because I read it’s a “When in Rome” thing. Food was yummy, AC was nice and cool, and the rum swizzle was delicious! Just be prepared to pay $20 for an entree. Food was plenty that we could have split something though. Not wanting to deal with the ferry again we decided to take a cab back and enjoy driving thru Bermuda. Another couple asked to split it since they were heading back to the ship as well. From Swizzle Inn to Dockyard it was $80, but was so worth it. The driver gave us a nice talking tour and saw a lot of the island.

Day 2 was for Horseshoe Bay. We did the minibus for $7 each way. This beach is amazing! I haven’t seen water and sand like this anywhere else in the Caribbean.

Disembarkation: They were about 30 mins behind schedule. Once our number was called, the line we were in only had 1 machine. We had a lot of luggage so we got a porter. With them, we got to skip the long lines and went straight to customs where they verify ID. It was a mad house to get on the shuttle back to parking. Very unorganized and took forever.

Overall, I enjoyed the other smaller ships more. I feel like every common area had a small feel to it. I like the grande atriums, and open main dining rooms. I will be sailing on Allure in November so I’ll have another chance to sail on a big ship before I rule them out. However, all opinions aside I had a great time! I love cruising and Bermuda made it worthwhile!

 

I’m sure I left out plenty of other stuff, so feel free to ask me any questions you have!

[Dina7]

Thanks so much for sharing your review! Lots of good info.

[lulugirl68]

Thanks for the review!

 

We are from Portland too, and will be on Anthem in March!