Our Family Review of Anthem 4/13-4/20

[andrew2346]

Mom (47), Dad (50), DD (18-turned on cruise), DD (16), DS (13), DS (10).  Take all of those D's with a grain of salt please.  I will not be doing a day by day just our comments which may be blunt which is my style so s*** it as my 10 year old says if you don't like it : )

 

Embarkation:

We pulled into the port around half past hell (1:30?).  It was a breeze.  I think we were all wrapped up and onboard within 45 mins.  I mean everything from buns in our seats in the car to fried food in our mouths on board.  No problem.  Our rooms were ready.  

 

The ship:  Beautiful, spotless and just as we remembered from 3 years ago which is by the way the last time we cruised.  

 

Staff:  Friendly overall.  We did not encounter anyone that was rude or disrespectful.  On one occasion there was a staff member who seemed annoyed to be doing their job but we all have a bad day right?  Our room attendant was quite nice and I have to say put up with the fact that there was almost always someone in our room.  I tried to make up for it by breaking the sleep away bed and shattering some plates in the hallway while trying to be helpful! : )  She did ask me what I would say on my survey about her when she wasn't able to get into the room to clean and I reassured her that I knew the deal and not to worry.  I hate they have to worry about that.   

 

Dining room...ugh:  So not good.  We have not cruised in 3 years and this is the first time we have had "My time dining".  Pretty sure anyway. Due to this we did not have consistent servers and therefore no connection which in my opinion can really make or break your experience. The staff is really disengaged.  We ate two meals in the dining room and then gave up.  For some reason we had 2 or 3 people take our drink orders and walk away and then 15 mins...no drinks?  Bread would come around in a basket (very little) and then no refill.  The food was not very warm or very good.  The cocktail sauce was terrible.  How can you screw up cocktail sauce?  lol.  For once this family of 6 with 3 teenagers could agree and this was the highlight of the cruise (J/K)no more dining room-- and thus a new plan was formulated--- Sorrenjammers.  The pizza was good--not great but it was not bad people.  I live in Phila and we do have some good pie.  Also, do not knock the jammer.  The dessert is not good so lets just get that out of the way.  Go planking at Jamie's for that.  I will discuss Jamie's later.  I am still pissed about the "'garlic knots".   The jammer has it all morning, noon, and, night.   If you can't find your jam at the jammer, I can't help you...and neither can anyone either.  end...stop.

 

BTW, the ship was rocking and rolling so much over the past few days that I am still moving so whatever typos, extra words etc are herewith in  you know what you can do with them : )  

 

Fellow Passengers:  Really delightful.  Really with the exception of my own children at times, I have to say for a spring break cruise a breath of fresh air.   It was an Autism as Seas cruise which I was not aware of so I was curious about how that might go down and I did not notice anything different from a cruise with no group.  

 

Jamie's Italian:  Slow service.  The waiter offered up that Miami was on site monitoring?  Our meat plank came out missing ingredients.  The garlic knots were on elementary school style square buns that were way too soft for the ladled on garlic butter that had absolutely no taste---please pass the salt of which there was ZERO.  The pasta was terrific.  The dessert was terrific which took 30 mins to get.  I ate so much of that dessert plank that my stomach burned but it was damn worth it and I ate nothing from 2pm on that day.  Not even a wafer thin mint people...not one. The place closed down while were waiting to get our check and the bartender ran off with my DH's sea pass card and we were forced to go to guest services to get a new one.  A meal was removed from the bill without us asking.  Garlic knots...I MOURN THEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  and cocktail sauce.

 

Ok more later.  I have not eaten in 30 mins and laundry is calling!

[schmeed]

1 minute ago, andrew2346 said:

Sorrenjammers

 

Took me a few to figure this out.  Sorrentos + Windjammer 🙂

 

Sorry you had a bad experience with MTD.  I agree that it seems the servers just don't care.  We had it on our 3/31 cruise as traditional was "full".  After one night I worked with the Head Waiter to switch to traditional.  Much better service and agreed on making the connection with them.  That's part of the fun.

[karl_nj]

12 minutes ago, schmeed said:

 

Took me a few to figure this out.  Sorrentos + Windjammer 🙂

 

Sorry you had a bad experience with MTD.  I agree that it seems the servers just don't care.  We had it on our 3/31 cruise as traditional was "full".  After one night I worked with the Head Waiter to switch to traditional.  Much better service and agreed on making the connection with them.  That's part of the fun.

 

I also just disembarked Anthem this morning.  Was back home before 8:30am, was amazed how smoothly disembarkation went for us.

 

We also prefer traditional dining.  We  booked this cruise Thanksgiving weekend, so by then the only thing left was MTD.  But everything worked out fine for us.  I had made reservations for the same time every night, so they were able to pre-allocate us to the same table every night.  The only drawback was we still had to wait in the reservations line to be seated, in true traditional dining you can just go directly to your table.  Which also meant that we needed to wait outside the restaurant for the family we were traveling with, instead of meeting them at the table.  But I was very happy that we got to keep the same waitstaff for the whole cruise,  despite getting stuck with MTD.

[schmeed]

In the future, just have a polite conversation with the Head Waiter and you can usually get switched to traditional.

[andrew2346]

Solarium Bistro (Dinner):  First Time we cruised Anthem I was a big fan of SB for dinner and I remain a fan of SB but not quite as big.  The reason is the dinner buffet set-up.  Now that the apps are all individual serving sizes they are cold and old and congealed and have skins on them like old school pudding...yuck.  I remember the most delish apps and hummus.  I was really looking forward to that...bummer.  The desserts were still quite good.  I won't say the apps were all bad because there were not but it was not the 10 it was..now a 5.  The main meat courses were still excellent and we upgraded to the filets and lobsters and they were the best meals we had on board.  So cheap too!  I think they had the filet for $10 up charge and the lobster for $20 up-charge and the had a 10% or 20% off that night or something like that.  It was more than enough to share a filet between two people.  We had more than we could have eaten so looking back we should have done that.   Service was good but not great.  This is how it was.  Some is talking to you and taking care of you but looking at another table.  Not look at you at all.  Get it?  My needs were still being met. 

 

Bermuda:  Ah, my love.  My 5th trip to Bermuda.  My first with my little precious gems.  (scratch the record).  Teenagers suck.  Dear Jesus in heaven.  Let me vent.  We spent so much money on this cruise and they complain about so much.  The things I visualized in my head.  I could be on the news.  Ok.  Back to Bermuda.  We had spectacular weather.  I had such plans to climb Gibbs lighthouse and see Church Bay beach...yada yada yada.   You see where I am going.  We arrived a couple hours late into Bermuda due to medical emergency (I hope you and your family are ok!!!) you may have read in a different post.  Then we could NOT get a bus to HSBB to save our lives.  We did not get onto the beach until close to 3pm.  We did not get off the boat until close to 12 and then wait in line to get bus passes...walk to bus...bus came...was full...line ...bus passed us...people cutting the line...etc etc.  So the plan went out the window.  Do yourselves a favor and pay for a cab....make new friends and share! Finally we get to HSBB and it looks like the Jersey Shore with beach umbrellas you can barely see the water.  I am like--give me alcohol right now before I murder my children.   We finally get settled and some poor child comes screaming bloody murder out of the water.  I have NEVER in my life heard this kind of screaming and I am a nurse.  Then a second child.  Both stung by Portuguese Man O War.  OMG it went on for almost 30 mins.     I see they are also now being found off the coast of NC as well.  Watch out for those suckers!

[andrew2346]

Bermuda part II:  The beach cleared out a bit after that and we ate at the beach shack and had some drinks.  My DH and the kids climbed the rocks.  I walked to the left and wandered to the other beaches that you can very easily walk to --just breathtaking.  We stayed until 6 or so and showered off in the bath/shower house/changing area.  We took one of the plentiful cabs to the Swizzle inn South shore and enjoyed the food and a pitcher of Rum Swizzle and went back to the ship.  The next day we spent around the dockyard.  We toured the National Museum (Fort), Snorkel park, Mini golf, shopping, ice cream, Aloe for one teenager girl who refused sunscreen. etc.  Then we watched and cheered the pier runners.  Unfortunately, there appeared to be tears for one group that arrived after we pushed back.  

 

Belly flop contest:  Hilarious.  This was my first encounter with the cruise entertainment staff.  They were a great team.  I am not a show person or an organized activity type person.   I got the sense that for those that enjoyed being whipped into a frenzy--these were your people!  My 18 year old DD laughed.  A feat in itself : ) I saw the gentleman that won second place the next morning in the jammer -only fully clothed this time.  Felt I should say hi but figured he had gotten that a lot that morning already lolololol. 

[blueridgemama]

Don't murder your children, they really do get better as they mature😊 They are very lucky children to be enjoying such a great vacation. When I was a kid a weekend at the Jersey shore in a tiny little cabin was where my family went for vacation (I am from NJ) If you love Bermuda, do yourself a favor and plan a real vacation there. We went last summer for a week and it was fantastic. It is so much better when all the cruise ships are gone😊 Thank you for taking the time to do a review.

[andrew2346]

46 minutes ago, schmeed said:

In the future, just have a polite conversation with the Head Waiter and you can usually get switched to traditional.

Those times did not work for us which is why we did my time.

[andrew2346]

Anthem mattresses:  Deserves a  highlight of their own!  Who knew they made Firm Crib Mattresses in Twin sizes????? What on earth.  I don't remember this from 3 years ago.  Both the beds and pull out mattresses are hard as rocks.  This may or may not bother you.  My body type is that of a stick so when I lay down my shoulder and hip bones protrude directly into the rock hard surface.  I sleep on my side for reference.  If your body type is more like pooh bear maybe it won't bother you or maybe it will?  Who knows.  In any case...be aware.      While I am at it.   Don't try to mess with the pull out bed yourself.  I broke the one in the girls stateroom and my H nearly took his hand off trying to do the one in the boys stateroom.  Just don't do it.  You have been warned.  

 

Seaplex:  My boys lived here (13 and 10).  Especially the 10 year old.  He played ping pong, air hockey, fooz ball, basketball, soccer, bumper cars--endlessly.  He WANTED to play the xbox, fortnight etc but there was always a problem with the controllers being uninstalled or batteries or something.  Also, there seemed to be a lack of ping pong balls, basketballs, fooz ball score keepers were broken as were digital air hockey score keepers on a couple of the units.  This area needs much more upkeep for the volume of use.   The freestyle coke machine in this area was down for maintenance in this area for a bit and I remember this being the case last cruise as well.  Doghouse was a win!!!!  Really well done.  No huge lines in the seaplex for activities.  Kids overall seemed happy.

 

Crowds:  This was the least crowded I have ever felt on any ship I have even been on --period.  Everything was super well run.  Even the immigration inspection we had to do in Boston.  Bravo! The esplanade sales---could still get around them.  We could always find seating in the jammer....even at 9am and 7pm.  No problem to walk into the evening show.  This was a super friendly group of people.  

 

Security:  I had the unfortunate need to use this service.  My DD (18) did not come back to her cabin as expected and I was not able to reach her.  They were on top of the situation ASAP.  Like whiplash.   It was serious enough that I was providing then with identifying marks.  All was well and she had fallen asleep which was just as the security official had reassured me was probably the case. They have a protocol and the people that handle your Johnny Rockets milk shake drink disputes will also handle your 4 am missing daughter.  Thank you Guest Services and Security!

 

Fitness Center: Oh yes...I had my H take a Pilates class with me...another hilarious moment.   For some reason the instructor gave us all the small green balls to use and my H got the pink balls.  He told us to "Keep our balls nearby so we could grab them!".  Like kids we just burst out laughing at that point I think we just laid face down and pretended to work out.   I used the gym a few times.  Very adequate.    Sweet spin room!

 

Drink Package: DH had deluxe and enjoyed. We had 2 staterooms so I had 4 bottles of wine.  I like wine and don't like what they have onboard except for what is in vintages and I do NOT want to pay the price they charge so I was package free.  Girls had refreshment and enjoyed that boys had soda package.  No real issues except my 13 year old wanted cans of coke for the room and could not get that.  Poor kid. 

 

They had really great movies to rent in your room for 11.99.  We were able to communicate via iphone with no package.  We were set to airplane mode, cell data off, royal wifi on and the texts would go thru to anyone even on land.  This was great. 

 

I do not have any compasses, or kids club info.  The girls did a Perfect spa day for 169 with grats was 199 (75min total massage, facial, scalp massage, foot/ankle massage).

 

I might have more to add later as I think of it.  Please feel free to ask any questions!

 

 

Edited April 20, 2019 by andrew2346

[dodgestang]

1 hour ago, andrew2346 said:

Seaplex:  My boys lived here (13 and 10).  Especially the 10 year old.  He played ping pong, air hockey, fooz ball, basketball, soccer, bumper cars--endlessly.  He WANTED to play the xbox, fortnight etc but there was always a problem with the controllers being uninstalled or batteries or something.  Also, there seemed to be a lack of ping pong balls, basketballs, fooz ball score keepers were broken as were digital air hockey score keepers on a couple of the units.  This area needs much more upkeep for the volume of use.   The freestyle coke machine in this area was down for maintenance in this area for a bit and I remember this being the case last cruise as well.  Doghouse was a win!!!!  Really well done.  No huge lines in the seaplex for activities.  Kids overall seemed happy.

 

 

I was on this sailing with you.

 

The problem with the seaplex is not everyone takes care of things. 

 

1. Ping Pong balls - plenty of balls on day 1 ;).  They crack as you play with them, then they replaced them.  That wasn't the issue.  I was in there a couple times playing with my son (12) and daughter (10) and the issue is/was a couple kids would come in, literally take the spare balls from the table we were playing at and then proceed to slam them against the glass as hard as they could repeatedly until broken.  Then move on to the next table, rinse, repeat.  I suggest they stop and was given the finger.  3 or 4 day someone I can only assume had been body slammed into one of the tables as it's wheels were broken and it could no longer sit level.

 

2. xBox - started out strong, in terms of working things.  Within hours of embarkation was tribal.  Largest/strongest 'children' owned the controllers and then a lord of the flies style pecking order formed around/behind them in terms of who could even watch the gaming as it dwindled from multiple screens down to one...and then ultimately none.

[andrew2346]

52 minutes ago, dodgestang said:

I was on this sailing with you.

 

The problem with the seaplex is not everyone takes care of things. 

 

1. Ping Pong balls - plenty of balls on day 1 ;).  They crack as you play with them, then they replaced them.  That wasn't the issue.  I was in there a couple times playing with my son (12) and daughter (10) and the issue is/was a couple kids would come in, literally take the spare balls from the table we were playing at and then proceed to slam them against the glass as hard as they could repeatedly until broken.  Then move on to the next table, rinse, repeat.  I suggest they stop and was given the finger.  3 or 4 day someone I can only assume had been body slammed into one of the tables as it's wheels were broken and it could no longer sit level.

 

2. xBox - started out strong, in terms of working things.  Within hours of embarkation was tribal.  Largest/strongest 'children' owned the controllers and then a lord of the flies style pecking order formed around/behind them in terms of who could even watch the gaming as it dwindled from multiple screens down to one...and then ultimately none.

Yes, I fear you are correct.  I wish they would police this so that they younger kids would would get a chance at this.  One of the crew told me about the "uninstalling issue".  This is lost of me...no clue what this means.  This was a spring break cruise.  Let's be ready for this!  We are all paying for our kids to be able to use this.

[brookmill18]

We're also just off the ship.  We wondered about people missing the on board time bc we went to St George's and heard several people (including one large extended family group) talk about taking the 3:45 ferry back to the Dockyards--which would at best have put them at the ship at 4:40!  

 

We had traditional dining set, but when we did BOGO for the first 2 nights (even with telling dining staff) they gave our table away and it was a bit of a mess.  Last 2 nights we decided to just try MTD a little later instead and had an amazing waitstaff team that we were able to have both nights.  The 2 different serving teams we had in Chic were very off.

Edited April 20, 2019 by brookmill18

[schmeed]

1 hour ago, dodgestang said:

I suggest they stop and was given the finger.

 

I would have to have been restrained...

[BTSEN5]

My DH and I were on this cruise also. We loved it. I think it was our favorite ship so far. We loved the Bionic Bar and visited often. We were able to ride the Northstar despite our reservation being cancelled due to wind. That was an amazing experienced. All the shows were amazing, especially The Gift and We Will Rock you. 

 

We loved all the ports. Boston was incredible, which was actually a surprise to me. The only thing that I was disappointed about there was our issue with security. Probably our fault, but we thought that since we were in the US and our next stop was Bayonne we could bring back some of Mike's incredible pastries for our son at home. Well, once we got to security, the guy said we had 2 options. He pointed to a crowd of people stuffing their faces with pastries and said that we could join them and scarf down ours or we could throw them away. I cried. We ended up telling him to take them home. I already ate a cannoli and could not eat another sweet like that. I called the service desk after getting back on to inform them that it would be nice to see that info in the Cruise Compass. $20 of to die for pastries gone. I hope the security guy had some kids that were excited about his treat. 😞 

 

Getting off the ship this morning was amazingly fast as you said. We self embarked and were out of the port byt 8:15 and headed home.

 

I am so glad your daughter was okay. We had a similar experience several years ago with our son. It is horrible to be at that point of needing to call security. 

 

Thanks for your review. I love to see other's perspective. 

[Btank]

8 hours ago, andrew2346 said:

Sorrenjammers

 

This.  Right.  Here.  Wins.  The.  Daily.  Interwebs.  🤣

 

      --bruce T.

[andrew2346]

10 hours ago, BTSEN5 said:

My DH and I were on this cruise also. We loved it. I think it was our favorite ship so far. We loved the Bionic Bar and visited often. We were able to ride the Northstar despite our reservation being cancelled due to wind. That was an amazing experienced. All the shows were amazing, especially The Gift and We Will Rock you. 

 

We loved all the ports. Boston was incredible, which was actually a surprise to me. The only thing that I was disappointed about there was our issue with security. Probably our fault, but we thought that since we were in the US and our next stop was Bayonne we could bring back some of Mike's incredible pastries for our son at home. Well, once we got to security, the guy said we had 2 options. He pointed to a crowd of people stuffing their faces with pastries and said that we could join them and scarf down ours or we could throw them away. I cried. We ended up telling him to take them home. I already ate a cannoli and could not eat another sweet like that. I called the service desk after getting back on to inform them that it would be nice to see that info in the Cruise Compass. $20 of to die for pastries gone. I hope the security guy had some kids that were excited about his treat. 😞 

 

Getting off the ship this morning was amazingly fast as you said. We self embarked and were out of the port byt 8:15 and headed home.

 

I am so glad your daughter was okay. We had a similar experience several years ago with our son. It is horrible to be at that point of needing to call security. 

 

Thanks for your review. I love to see other's perspective. 

 

I completely forgot to mention Birthday cake gate!  A few days prior to the cruise I ordered a custom peanut free birthday cake for my daughter's 18th birthday.  (Red velvet with cream cheese--her fave).  Her 10 year old brother has one of those nasty allergies where he can't have even the stuff that could be processed.  I arranged for it to be delivered to the ship.  Then I learned about the immigration scheduled and I had to have them come later.  I didn't know anything about that.  I went to GS to find out a safe time to meet the cake person and they said....Ah...no can do.  I, like you, would have never guessed that you could not bring food on from Boston.  That would have been somewhat tragic.  Knowing in advance we took an Uber to South Street Diner in Boston and had a party with the locals.  Turned out to be a highlight of the cruise.  We had a little Walk the Line on the juke box blasting...followed by some Kalid and then Tommy TuTone.  lolol.  They had an exploding lotus flower candle behind the counter...don't ask. Sorry that happened to you!

[LuCruise]

17 hours ago, andrew2346 said:

 

Seaplex:  My boys lived here (13 and 10).  Especially the 10 year old.  He played ping pong, air hockey, fooz ball, basketball, soccer, bumper cars--endlessly.  He WANTED to play the xbox, fortnight etc but there was always a problem with the controllers being uninstalled or batteries or something.  Also, there seemed to be a lack of ping pong balls, basketballs, fooz ball score keepers were broken as were digital air hockey score keepers on a couple of the units.  This area needs much more upkeep for the volume of use.   The freestyle coke machine in this area was down for maintenance in this area for a bit and I remember this being the case last cruise as well.  Doghouse was a win!!!!  Really well done.  No huge lines in the seaplex for activities.  Kids overall seemed happy.

 

 

I might have more to add later as I think of it.  Please feel free to ask any questions!

 

 

Thanks for the review. Overall it seems good but sorry for the bad service in Jamie's and MDR.

And good to hear about the positive comments about the crowds as that's the one thing I've heard differently on Anthem.

 

Question about the Sea Plex....I thought it was jut bumper cars OR trapeze PR rollerskating (or something like that).  Where does ping pong, air hockey, etc etc fit in?  Are these on the side?  Or this is one of the events ?  First I'm hearing these kind of things associated with Sea Plex.

[Biker19]

23 minutes ago, LuCruise said:

 

Question about the Sea Plex.....  Where does ping pong, air hockey, etc etc fit in?  Are these on the side? 

They are on the upper level of Seaplex along with Xbox. 

[LuCruise]

16 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

They are on the upper level of Seaplex along with Xbox. 

Great.  Thank you.

[DIsneyDoc1895]

17 hours ago, BTSEN5 said:

My DH and I were on this cruise also. We loved it. I think it was our favorite ship so far. We loved the Bionic Bar and visited often. We were able to ride the Northstar despite our reservation being cancelled due to wind. That was an amazing experienced. All the shows were amazing, especially The Gift and We Will Rock you. 

 

We loved all the ports. Boston was incredible, which was actually a surprise to me. The only thing that I was disappointed about there was our issue with security. Probably our fault, but we thought that since we were in the US and our next stop was Bayonne we could bring back some of Mike's incredible pastries for our son at home. Well, once we got to security, the guy said we had 2 options. He pointed to a crowd of people stuffing their faces with pastries and said that we could join them and scarf down ours or we could throw them away. I cried. We ended up telling him to take them home. I already ate a cannoli and could not eat another sweet like that. I called the service desk after getting back on to inform them that it would be nice to see that info in the Cruise Compass. $20 of to die for pastries gone. I hope the security guy had some kids that were excited about his treat. 😞 

 

Getting off the ship this morning was amazingly fast as you said. We self embarked and were out of the port byt 8:15 and headed home.

 

I am so glad your daughter was okay. We had a similar experience several years ago with our son. It is horrible to be at that point of needing to call security. 

 

Thanks for your review. I love to see other's perspective. 

 

So I saw this as we were getting back on - one security guy people eat their pastries, but the other lines were letting them right on.  I really don't think there is a rule about bringing food from the US onto the boat - my daughter is a T1D and we brought candy and stuff all the time.  I think the one security person was just wrong.  Or hungry.

[tennislvr8]

8 minutes ago, DIsneyDoc1895 said:

 

So I saw this as we were getting back on - one security guy people eat their pastries, but the other lines were letting them right on.  I really don't think there is a rule about bringing food from the US onto the boat - my daughter is a T1D and we brought candy and stuff all the time.  I think the one security person was just wrong.  Or hungry.

They are not supposed allow any food, that isn't prepackaged on the ship from any port. If they let anyone do it, they were wrong. 

[DIsneyDoc1895]

4 minutes ago, tennislvr8 said:

They are not supposed allow any food, that isn't prepackaged on the ship from any port. If they let anyone do it, they were wrong. 

 

Ah.  I guess the pre-packaging makes the difference.  But I did see some pastries in grocery bags made it through.  Guess those security staff were the wrong ones.  They also let us on with half full water bottles in boston too.  Pretty sure thats a no-no too.

[MKESail]

On 4/20/2019 at 12:08 PM, andrew2346 said:

Mom (47), Dad (50), DD (18-turned on cruise), DD (16), DS (13), DS (10).  Take all of those D's with a grain of salt please.  I will not be doing a day by day just our comments which may be blunt which is my style so s*** it as my 10 year old says if you don't like it : )

 

Embarkation:

We pulled into the port around half past hell (1:30?).  It was a breeze.  I think we were all wrapped up and onboard within 45 mins.  I mean everything from buns in our seats in the car to fried food in our mouths on board.  No problem.  Our rooms were ready.  

 

The ship:  Beautiful, spotless and just as we remembered from 3 years ago which is by the way the last time we cruised.  

 

Staff:  Friendly overall.  We did not encounter anyone that was rude or disrespectful.  On one occasion there was a staff member who seemed annoyed to be doing their job but we all have a bad day right?  Our room attendant was quite nice and I have to say put up with the fact that there was almost always someone in our room.  I tried to make up for it by breaking the sleep away bed and shattering some plates in the hallway while trying to be helpful! : )  She did ask me what I would say on my survey about her when she wasn't able to get into the room to clean and I reassured her that I knew the deal and not to worry.  I hate they have to worry about that.   

 

Dining room...ugh:  So not good.  We have not cruised in 3 years and this is the first time we have had "My time dining".  Pretty sure anyway. Due to this we did not have consistent servers and therefore no connection which in my opinion can really make or break your experience. The staff is really disengaged.  We ate two meals in the dining room and then gave up.  For some reason we had 2 or 3 people take our drink orders and walk away and then 15 mins...no drinks?  Bread would come around in a basket (very little) and then no refill.  The food was not very warm or very good.  The cocktail sauce was terrible.  How can you screw up cocktail sauce?  lol.  For once this family of 6 with 3 teenagers could agree and this was the highlight of the cruise (J/K)no more dining room-- and thus a new plan was formulated--- Sorrenjammers.  The pizza was good--not great but it was not bad people.  I live in Phila and we do have some good pie.  Also, do not knock the jammer.  The dessert is not good so lets just get that out of the way.  Go planking at Jamie's for that.  I will discuss Jamie's later.  I am still pissed about the "'garlic knots".   The jammer has it all morning, noon, and, night.   If you can't find your jam at the jammer, I can't help you...and neither can anyone either.  end...stop.

 

BTW, the ship was rocking and rolling so much over the past few days that I am still moving so whatever typos, extra words etc are herewith in  you know what you can do with them : )  

 

Fellow Passengers:  Really delightful.  Really with the exception of my own children at times, I have to say for a spring break cruise a breath of fresh air.   It was an Autism as Seas cruise which I was not aware of so I was curious about how that might go down and I did not notice anything different from a cruise with no group.  

 

Jamie's Italian:  Slow service.  The waiter offered up that Miami was on site monitoring?  Our meat plank came out missing ingredients.  The garlic knots were on elementary school style square buns that were way too soft for the ladled on garlic butter that had absolutely no taste---please pass the salt of which there was ZERO.  The pasta was terrific.  The dessert was terrific which took 30 mins to get.  I ate so much of that dessert plank that my stomach burned but it was damn worth it and I ate nothing from 2pm on that day.  Not even a wafer thin mint people...not one. The place closed down while were waiting to get our check and the bartender ran off with my DH's sea pass card and we were forced to go to guest services to get a new one.  A meal was removed from the bill without us asking.  Garlic knots...I MOURN THEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  and cocktail sauce.

 

Ok more later.  I have not eaten in 30 mins and laundry is calling!

we were on the same sailing, with my teen daughter. I agree with you on most points, ESPECIALLY THE TEENS!!!! 🙄

We've never done My Time Dining and every time I book my next cruise I wonder if I this is the time I should do it, then I always end up booking traditional. I guess I will keep it this way. I've seen how ridiculous the My Time Dining line can get on the Oasis, no, thank you.

[Susan in Maine]

We also were on this sailing. My last cruise was on Carnival and just walking on the ship reminded me how much better I like RCCL!

 

We had the 8PM seating in Chic, and it was wonderful. We were originally scheduled for 5:30, but were able to change it very easily. Most days we ate breakfast in the dinning room as well. Being full-time working mothers escaping from our families we especially like being waited on!

 

I wasn't terribly impressed with the Windjammer - or Two70 for that matter. They must have really cut the tuna fish budget because no matter how many times I tried I couldn't get a tuna sandwich with more than about a teaspoon of tuna on it!

 

As far as we could tell, there were at least 4 medical emergencies. There was the one the first night; an ambulance pulled up to the ship as soon as we docked in Bermuda; Day 4 or 5 we heard the "alfa alfa alfa code over the PA; and there was one at about 6:45 yesterday morning! I hope all concerned are doing well.

 

As others have said, embarkation, debarkation, and customs were very quick and easy. We were in the car backing out of our parking place at 7:01AM.

 

Is the boat still moving for anyone else?

 

 

[BTSEN5]

9 hours ago, Susan in Maine said:

We also were on this sailing. My last cruise was on Carnival and just walking on the ship reminded me how much better I like RCCL!

 

We had the 8PM seating in Chic, and it was wonderful. We were originally scheduled for 5:30, but were able to change it very easily. Most days we ate breakfast in the dinning room as well. Being full-time working mothers escaping from our families we especially like being waited on!

 

I wasn't terribly impressed with the Windjammer - or Two70 for that matter. They must have really cut the tuna fish budget because no matter how many times I tried I couldn't get a tuna sandwich with more than about a teaspoon of tuna on it!

 

As far as we could tell, there were at least 4 medical emergencies. There was the one the first night; an ambulance pulled up to the ship as soon as we docked in Bermuda; Day 4 or 5 we heard the "alfa alfa alfa code over the PA; and there was one at about 6:45 yesterday morning! I hope all concerned are doing well.

 

As others have said, embarkation, debarkation, and customs were very quick and easy. We were in the car backing out of our parking place at 7:01AM.

 

Is the boat still moving for anyone else?

 

 

I am shocked. With all the rocking on the last day , I have not experienced the usual rocking on land. I usually do so that is a surprise to me.