Anthem Feb 23 - Mar 3, 8 Night Cruise

[Jcol5786]

Hello,

Just back from our first cruise on Anthem as well as our first cruise out of Bayonne NJ. Happy to answer any questions and over the next few days I will add some details and observations that we made during our cruise. Some background - we are from Kingston Ontario and are close to the border. We usually take 16 days and drive to Florida do  a cruise and then spent time in Florida with friends. This year my holiday time was limited to just over a week so we decided to drive to Bayonne and take this cruise. The drive was 6 hours and we stayed at the Embassy Suite near the airport. We left on Friday Feb 22 at 6 am and were in our room by 1:30 pm. Very easy drive compare to 25 hours to Florida. The hotel and room were very nice and we took advantage of their stay and cruise program which allowed us to leave our car in their parking lot and be shuttled to and from the cruise port. Along with a managers reception and breakfast it was a very good experience. We woke up Saturday morning relaxed and ready to cruise. The first shuttle trip left at 10 am. The shuttle left on time and we were at the terminal by 10:30. Check in was straight forward however not getting the Sea Pass card at the counter was a little different. Instead we were given a piece of paper with a bar code and an official stamp which was our boarding pass. We were told time and time again not to fold this paper as it needed to be shown multiple times during the boarding process. We were directed to a large sitting area and were sat in the order that we arrived. As this was about 10:45 and there were lots of people ahead of us. This was slightly different for us since when we drive we usually park at the terminal and arrive earlier. Around 11 am they started boarding and after the Diamonds and Suite people were boarded general boarding starting shortly after. Boarding seemed to start and stop with only one or two rows going followed by a wait of a couple of minutes before the next batch was allowing to proceed. This resulted in us not boarding till after 12 pm. As I mentioned this was the first time we were this far back in the line so it may have been typical but I felt that the process was somewhat longer then our previous boarding out of PC in Florida. There seemed to be lots of delays with people not having their paper boarding passes out however these needed to be shown at least 3 different times as we got closer to the gang way.

 

Once on the ship we started to explore. We post more later today. Thanks.

[suesnake2002]

When we boarded in nov, it went fairly quick. Yes they did go by rows, and people there telling you to have your pass out and keep them out. 

We had arrived at terminal a little before 10. And if i remember boarding did start at 11

[janetz]

We have just booked the 11 night fir next January

How long before you could venture outside without winter clothes on? 😊

Also do you know how much the drink package may have been?

Thank you 😊

[LBumb]

Great start

[Jcol5786]

As for the questions - the weather was in the low 40's F at the port when we left on Saturday. By Sunday afternoon we were in the low 60's however it was a gray day and the wind made in worse than it really was. By Monday the sun was back and the temps were in the low 70's.

 

As for the beverage package we watched and watched the price and just after Christmas it dropped to $57 Canadian which is around $48 US$ which is what we purchased it at.

 

Thought I would share a couple of pictures from our embarkation day. Not done pictures before so bare with me.

[Jcol5786]

As I mentioned we did some exploring as soon as we got onboard. Above are pictures of the ship and a view of NY habor as well as us going under the bridge. After we did our initial exploring we ended up having lunch in the Solarium Bistro. It was busy but not overly crowded and the food was fine. At 1 pm they announced that the rooms were ready early so we made our way to our room. The room we selected for this cruise was a spacious ocean view. We have always had a balcony before however I thought with the cool weather at the start and end of the cruise an ocean view might be a better choice. I was also intrigued by this room because it is forward facing and has a large sloping window. The room is basically a standard room with the space of a balcony added. We ended up moving the small table that normally lives under the mirror and placed it under the window. This made for a nice area to sit and watch the view. We ended up really liking the room as it has much more space and the view out the front is very nice. Did not miss the balcony.

[Jcol5786]

Our first night we did Wonderland. We really enjoyed the food and the presentation however we allowed our server to select for us and she basically brought us everything from the menu. It was too much food for  two people and we are not small eaters. I would suggest that you might specify your entrees and desserts. As it was we received a beef, pork and fish entrée. Desert included 3 separate items including the popular chocolate ball that melts. All were very good but as I mentioned way to much food.

 

We did not do a show on the first night so we did some more exploring and ended up at 270 for a drink. It was an early night for us. More in a bit.

[pacruise804]

Thanks for the review 🙂 We are sailing in June.

 

I saw you mention Kingston, ON - we are thinking about possibly traveling there next year for the Curling Championship 🙂 

[acthorson]

Thanks for sharing!  Really want to go on Anthem, but I am on the fence bc of cooler weather.  I want it hot the whole time! lol

[Gr123]

Hi, we are coming from Ireland to the anthem next Jan.  One thing I am interested in is the price of the drinks. Did you find that the cocktails went over the amount per beverage that the deluxe package covers I think it's $12 at the minute? I keep seeing various different information on this. Thanks

[xadidas20x]

3 hours ago, Gr123 said:

Hi, we are coming from Ireland to the anthem next Jan.  One thing I am interested in is the price of the drinks. Did you find that the cocktails went over the amount per beverage that the deluxe package covers I think it's $12 at the minute? I keep seeing various different information on this. Thanks

 

Not to hijack the thread but I was also on the same cruise with the drink package for the first time.  We did not find a cocktail that was not covered by the drink package.  My wife and I, along with our two friends that came along tried a large amount of drinks (no we were not drunk the entire time).  It ranged from crown and coke, to long islands, to martinis, to multiple types of frozen concoctions, and anything we threw at the robot bar.  Everything was covered.

 

We snagged it for $44 per person, per day, and it was well worth it.

[Jcol5786]

We also had the beverage package and never had to pay any additional amount for our drinks. 

[Jcol5786]

We had a fairly smooth sail down to Port Canaveral. We have been to this area many times so we did not do much other than get off the ship and wander around the port area. We did take a quick side trip to Walmart via the 888 shuttle which worked well. We got back on the ship and enjoyed the Solarium for much of the afternoon. We also had our North Star ride booked which we did first thing in the morning. It provided a nice view of the port. Unfortunately my camera was back in the room so no pictures however we did get on a second time later in the cruise so below is a picture from that trip. Also I wanted to include pictures of the outdoor part of Wind Jammer. This quickly became our favorite spot for lunch as the views were amazing.

[Sizzlechest]

On 3/4/2019 at 1:09 PM, Jcol5786 said:

After we did our initial exploring we ended up having lunch in the Solarium Bistro. 

 

 

What did they offer? Is it just sandwiches? Was it different for embarkation day vs the rest of the cruise?

[mets123]

for breakfast and lunch the Bistro is a slimmed down version of the Windjammer with less crowds.

[Jcol5786]

Getting back to the cruise in our second night we dined at Chops. The service and steaks were very good. After dinner I think we went to the show in the main theater which was The Gift. The production was good as were the sets and the performers were fine however I did look at my watch a couple of times.  I guess I'm getting tired of this type of entertainment so I'm probably not a good judge. Most of the people there seemed to enjoy it but for me it was only so-so. 

 

After the show we fell into a pattern that we repeated throughout the cruise. We quickly discovered the great live music available in several venues. It seemed that on most nights there were two or three performances going on and we would simply move from one to another. In no particular order we would often check into Boleros and see a band called the Royal Swedes. They also appeared in the Music Hall and at pool side one day. They played a wide verity of older rock songs which everyone knows and they are funny as well. We also liked the performances in the Schooner Bar. Our favorite was Bob Wegner who is the guitarist from the We Will Rock you show. He is an amazing guitar player who manages to play very complicated songs with no singing. As a guitar player myself I was very impressed with his natural ability. He played several times in the Schooner Bar and most nights were theme nights. Our third regular stop was at the Brass and Brock pub to see Tommy Green Jr. He is from the Canadian east coast and brings with him the tradition of a one person party every night. He is funny and a great performer. The bar was packed every night waiting for him to appear.

 

While this was not a regular show we really enjoyed the show in 270 call Spectra. I think it was presented 3 times throughout the cruise and it is excellent. It an amazing combination of recorded music through a great sound system,  projections on multiple screens and performers dropping down and or popping up from the floor and ceiling. Very entertaining show.

 

 

[mets123]

Spectras Cabaret is one of the three regular shows. It's on every cruise.