Let's Sail to...Bayonne? Review of Anthem of the Seas, November 16, 2019

[tomservo]

 

Welcome to my review of the Anthem of the Seas. We had a good time on our first RCI cruise, even though things were a mess due to a low pressure storm that forced several itinerary changes leading up to and once on the ship. I tend to focus on food, so expect lots of food porn. I will be providing some comparisons to NCL's Breakaway class ships, specifically the Getaway, since we sailed on it recently this past April.

 

Background

 

We booked this as a last minute cruise in October. It was funny because I was itching to try out the Anthem and RCI in general and have been keeping an eye on prices. I found that for this sailing, standard balcony cabins were starting at 1200 for 2 and 1500 for 2 adults and 2 kids. My wife and I pulled the trigger and tried to get as many people we knew to join us. Even with such short notice, I got my sister to book a cabin, and one of my cousins and her family. It was a fantastic deal and I'm not sure we'll find anything like it again.

 

RoyalUp
I never got an email to put in a bid for an upgrade, but I found the upgrade site and put in a bid anyway. I bid 500 on a JS, 1600 on a GS, and 1800 (max) on an OS. I ended up winning the JS. We really liked the room but will probably not bid that much again in the future.

 

The Storm
A few days before, the RCI meteorologist James Van Fleet tweeted out that they were tracking the storm and that they may need to reroute the Anthem. On embarkation day, they announced that they were changing the ports to Bermuda but were going to stay docked in Bayonne for a couple of days to wait out the storm. Finally on the morning of Day 3, they announced they the storm had moved towards Bermuda, and that they were heading towards Coco Cay instead. This was the final itinerary:

 

Day 1 - Bayonne
Day 2 - Bayonne
Day 3 - Sea Day
Day 4 - Sea Day
Day 5 - Coco Cay
Day 6 - Sea Day
Day 7 - Sea Day
Day 8 - Bayonne

 

To their credit, they did offer anyone who wanted to cancel (even as late as the morning of Day 3) a FCC in full amount that was paid and a refund of port taxes and fees. We heard roughly 1000 people cancelled, so the ship was sailing at about 3/4 capacity.

 

The Food
Overall the food was decent. We thought the food was better on NCL. Chops was ok, Jamie's was pretty good, and Wonderland was underwhelming. We also ate in Coastal Kitchen, and again felt the food in the Haven was better. I will provide more detailed reviews below.

 

Note about seeming critical: Being in the middle of a weight loss journey, I am picky about the quality of the food. This is not about being snobby, and I don't mean to appear condescending about other's preferences or opinions, but I want the things I eat to be worth the calories (as Prue from British Baking always says). I understand that it's not fair to compare the quality of cruise ship food to land based restaurants, but I will still assess the quality honestly.

 

The Activities
There was no shortage of activities, which was good since we had effectively 6 sea days. My family had a good time doing Ifly, bumper cars, the escape room, and North Star. It's a good thing it's a cold weather ship since the first 3 days were pretty cold. We did miss some of the really fun activities from the Getaway (mini-golf, rope course, water slides, etc).

 

The Entertainment
I really enjoyed Spectra's Cabaret (saw it twice), but opinions on it were pretty polarizing. We Will Rock You was excellent. I missed The Gift (wife said it was alright). Wanted (the Bongiovi tribute band) was also very good. Overall entertainment was very good on RCI, on par and maybe even a little better than NCL.

 

The Ship
I really liked the layout and different areas of the ship. We didn't spend much time in the Solarium but it was a nice space, and we really liked spending time in Two70. The indoor pool was perfect for the cold weather, and the SeaPlex was a really unique space as well.

 

The rest of the review will be day by day but will take me some time to put it all together.

[soremekun]

Thanks!  Looking forward to reading more.

[Prinny11]

Heading on Anthem in 58 days!  Looking forward to a recent review

[soremekun]

3 minutes ago, Prinny11 said:

Heading on Anthem in 58 days!  Looking forward to a recent review

Me too!

[lovescats5]

We boarded the Anthem the day you left and unfortunately or wonderful we had a great cruise. Since we fly across the country to get to any port I would have went even if I would have been on your cruise.   It must have been a little hard to stay busy for that many sea days but I am sure Anthem worked hard to keep people entertained.  I a glad you had a good attitude and still enjoyed your time on the ship.  Unfortunately, some people will write about how awful RCI is and what they did not do and yet that is the chance you take whenever you leave home either for a cruise or land based vacation.

[sparks1093]

Thanks for the review, can't wait to read the rest. Anthem is hands down our favorite ship so far and Royal is definitely on our radar for other cruises if the price is right.

[Colorado Babe]

Great review.  I will be on her for a B2B on January 5th.  We will also be on her again in Apr and next December.  

[tomservo]

Ok, so I waited a little too long to write this, but the delay was mostly a function of Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years/work. I'll do the best I can, hopefully the pictures will jog my memory. This review, like my last Getaway review, will be picture heavy, so I will try to break each day up into multiple posts. I can scan the dailies as well if anyone needs them.

[tomservo]

Day 1

 

Embarkation

My dad dropped us off at the port and we headed to security. There were long lines in security but we went through the Expedited Arrival line which was very short and got through security pretty quickly. It was interesting because my wife and kids had it on their boarding pass but I didn't, but they let us all through anyway. This was a nice time saver as we got there after my cousin but boarded significantly before them. The bottleneck was the tunnel below, but I think we got through it in 20-30 minutes.

 

Once through, they split us up into groups with kids and without. All kids got wristbands with their muster stations on them in case of emergency. We waiting another 10 minutes in line before getting on the ship.

 

[tomservo]

Day 1 (continued)

 

On the Ship

Once we were on, I deposited my wife and kids at the Bionic Bar while my sister and I went to make reservations. I first made dinner reservations at Coastal Kitchen, then went to Wonderland to make the rest of our specialty dining reservations. My sister went to make reservations for iFly, the escape room, etc. Originally we were going to find an alternate lunch option for lunch, but because so many people had cancelled, the buffet wasn't too busy. The food was alright, nothing to write home about (I remember the fried fish being good). 

 

We went to the Seaplex and arcade while we waited for our rooms to be ready. There was a roller skating session going on at the time (was hoping for bumper cars).

 

We went to the room and I got to surprise my wife with the Jr Suite. She started to get upset when I told her how much JS's normally run (4-5k from what I've seen) since this was supposed to be a cheap last minute cruise, but I told her that I won an upgrade and she was ok after that. We hung out in the room for a little while then got ready for the muster. Here are some pics I took of La Patisserie while waiting for the muster to start.

 

We sat in Sorrentos for the muster, which was a life vest demo and the mini spy-movie they played on a tv. They did set out a bunch of slices of fresh pizza for after the muster which was nice. I had low expectations going in, but Sorrentos was actually not bad. Much better than buffet pizza, it was thin crust with decent sauce and cheese. I never got a chance to get one made to order but I did grab some snack slices a few times throughout the cruise. Definitely get it hot, it's not nearly as good once it cools down.

[gfargo53]

cant wait for the rest of your review

[tomservo]

Day 1 (continued)

 

Dinner

 

Dinner was in Coastal Kitchen. Iwayan was our waiter, he was great. He did a good job with the kids, although I think they were a little young for some of the magic trick type stuff he was doing with them, like the one with bunch of cards with numbers on them and you tell him if your number is on each of the cards and he figures out the number. 

 

Dinner for the most part was good. The shrimp cocktail and pear dessert were ok, and the filet was pretty good. Portions were small, which I wasn't expecting but I think it's a good idea because it lets you sample more dishes by getting multiple apps/entrees. I will definitely get 2 filets next time.

 

Coastal Kitchen menu Day 1

 

Smoked Tomato Soup

 

Shrimp Cocktail

 

Pork Belly

 

Filet

 

Cauliflower Steak

 

Warm Honey Pear

 

Chocolate Cake

 

After dinner I grabbed a quick video of a demo of the roboscreens in Two70.

 

Edited January 6, 2020 by tomservo

[LuCruise]

Looking forward to your review. Can't believe the bad luck you had with the weather and the itinerary you ended up with...but that's one thing Royal can't control.

 

We are on Anthem in March. Can't wait.

I've thing I'm surprised with us that the bumper cars only had evening sessions??? That seems odd and restrictive if you have early seating and then go to a show.

 

Sounds like it was still a great cruise despite the itinerary.

[sellwingri]

We were on the same cruise in a Grand Suite and ate in the MDR every evening and the food was fabulous.  We did eat in Coastal Kitchen for breakfast and occasionally for lunch and enjoyed it as well.  I’m sailing on Anthem again in 4 weeks, this time with my husband instead of a friend, and hope the food is as good as it was on this cruise.

 

The bumper cars were open during the day as well as at night.  We watched them a couple of times.

Shows were absolutely wonderful!  Can’t wait to see them again.

[soremekun]

Only one port stop?  I would have loved that cruise!

[tomservo]

Day 2

 

This was a port day in Bayonne, and at this point the plan was to leave for Bermuda the next day. They did offer shuttles from the dock to the Bayonne light rail, which you could take to the PATH or maybe a bus (not sure) to NYC, which was nice of them to arrange. We didn't mind so much since it was our first time on the Anthem, so we took the opportunity to explore the ship for the day. The general mood on the ship seemed to be annoyed but trying to make the best of it.

 

Breakfast

We had breakfast with my cousin in the Windjammer. The breakfast pastries were ok, and I would say the (relative) standouts were the raspberry danishes and the chocolate donuts. The chocolate donuts were weird, they're not like normal donuts, much firmer than regular donuts but not in a stale kind of way. I think the chocolate croissants were decent too but I can't remember. The filled donuts were not good, they were doughy and undercooked. I think my wife said the muffins were decent as well.

 

 

After breakfast we dropped our kids off at the kids club for an hour while my wife and I wandered around the ship. I managed to grab this pic of the Johnny Rockets menu (prices have definitely gone up, they're basically land prices now).

 

 

I got my first mocktail at Two70 as I had the Refreshment package. The Mexican Limeade was ok, but way too sweet. Also it's supposed to be flavored with habanero, but the only spicy thing I saw the bartender put in there was Tabasco, which does not taste the same as habanero. I did manage to get some pics of the drink menu - I think this is the only bar menu I was able to get.

 

Bar at Two70

 

We also stopped to check out the Solarium since we were sans kids.

 

 

I was hoping they still had real fruit smoothies but alas they only had the premade mixes (the white cartons in the middle).

 

 

We went out on the bridge wings to take some pictures. Get ready for some cranes!

 

 

My cousin's husband is a longshoreman, so he was joking about how he got on a cruise to get away from cranes, not stare at them all day.

 

We also saw this monument. It's the Tear Drop Memorial, a memorial to the victims of 9/11 and the WTC bombing. Interesting side story - the monument was donated by Russia, and the intended recipient was Jersey City (which is right across from downtown Manhattan and the WTC), but they didn't want it, so it ended up in Bayonne.

[MaryL31]

Tom, this was my third time on Anthem.  We love the ship and generally don't care about the itinerary, but I think I've seen enough of Bayonne at this point.  We actually got off the ship on Sunday and brought most of our warm weather clothes home and grabbed some more cool weather ones.  As for Wanted, it was too bad they had to get off the ship on Monday before we left for Cocoa Cay.  They would have given a performance in 270 later in the week, which is kinda like being at a concert.  They were fantastic in The Music Hall, but I like 270 better for that type of entertainment.  Will be sailing Anthem again in March, sadly, not in a JS as they were all taken when we booked.  Looking forward to the rest of your review!          

[tomservo]

6 minutes ago, MaryL31 said:

Tom, this was my third time on Anthem.  We love the ship and generally don't care about the itinerary, but I think I've seen enough of Bayonne at this point.  We actually got off the ship on Sunday and brought most of our warm weather clothes home and grabbed some more cool weather ones.  As for Wanted, it was too bad they had to get off the ship on Monday before we left for Cocoa Cay.  They would have given a performance in 270 later in the week, which is kinda like being at a concert.  They were fantastic in The Music Hall, but I like 270 better for that type of entertainment.  Will be sailing Anthem again in March, sadly, not in a JS as they were all taken when we booked.  Looking forward to the rest of your review!          

 

I had no idea they left the ship, it would have been fun to see them in 270.  We thought about leaving the ship too but since it was our first time we ended up just walking around exploring the ship. Thanks for commenting, glad to hear from others who were also on this cruise. I was in the FB group as well but it got negative pretty quickly (understandably).

[MaryL31]

6 minutes ago, tomservo said:

 

I had no idea they left the ship, it would have been fun to see them in 270.  We thought about leaving the ship too but since it was our first time we ended up just walking around exploring the ship. Thanks for commenting, glad to hear from others who were also on this cruise. I was in the FB group as well but it got negative pretty quickly (understandably).

Yes, I was also in the FB group.  I do feel bad for those with children, those who traveled a long distance, etc.  While we were disappointed that things turned out the way they did, on the other hand, it was better than being at work! 😉

 

[tomservo]

Day 2 (continued)

 

Lunch

We picked our kids up from the club which closed at noon and decided to check out Two70 for lunch.

 

 

Kummelweck!

 

Lunch Menu

 

Breakfast Menu

 

Dessert case

 

I had a Kummelweck sandwich, and it's as good as everyone says it is. I wish I had eaten more of them.

 

We sat and ate in Two70 and watched some of the members of Spectra's Cabaret rehearse. Apparently it was a new cast and people were excited for Terry's return (who plays the main character). He spent a few years playing Spectra on Anthem before leaving to pursue other roles. I thought he did a great job.

 

[tomservo]

13 minutes ago, MaryL31 said:

Yes, I was also in the FB group.  I do feel bad for those with children, those who traveled a long distance, etc.  While we were disappointed that things turned out the way they did, on the other hand, it was better than being at work! 😉

 

 

Yeah there were a few people from overseas who didn't really have much of a choice since they already had flights booked etc. There was one couple from Europe and it was their first cruise. I guess at least stuff like this makes for good stories down the line.

 

We had kids but it didn't bother them too much (they're younger). My wife was the most annoyed out of all of us, mostly because she was eager to get away from the cold.

Edited January 8, 2020 by tomservo

[tomservo]

Day 2 (continued)

 

After lunch we went to check out Family Karaoke in the Music Hall. It's exactly what it sounds like, it's kids singing kids songs. They seemed to have a hard time getting kids to come up and sing. Neither of our kids wanted to sing anything so we left.
I'm not sure what else we did before dinner but we I think we went back to the room and hung out for a while.

 

Dinner

 

We ate in Coastal Kitchen. I think this was the most disappointing CK meal for me. The Artichoke soup I think was ok. I asked for the dressing on the side for the Lobster Salad, which was crucial (thanks @Noreen411!) I tried dipping a few pieces into the dressing, but it is just not good on that salad, it is way too sweet. They need to send it back to the test kitchen. It does need some kind of vinaigrette, maybe a nice citrus vinaigrette. The shrimp were fine, but the Grilled Rib Eye was not good (also it was definitely cut off a roast and not grilled). Rib eye is my favorite steak, and I'm not a steak snob or anything, but it's disappointing to get a poor version of your favorite thing. The portion was very small - essentially a normal-sized slice of prime rib cut into quarters. The meat itself was a bit tough with not much flavor, likely a result of either being made earlier in the day and being held at temp or just not being a quality piece of meat (or both). My wife had the Zucchini Spaghetti, which she said was ok. I got the Creme Brulee but sent it back (too thin, like it was made with skim milk). I tried the Mascarpone Cheesecake, which came in little cheesecake balls rolled in graham cracker crumbs, which was decent. My wife got the Valrhona Chocolate Bar, which was good but very rich, and she wasn't able to finish it.

[tomservo]

Day 2 (continued)

 

Coastal Kitchen Dinner Menu Day 2

 

 

Artichoke Soup

 

Lobster Salad with dreaded vanilla sauce

 

Skrimps

 

"Grilled" Ribeye

 

Chocolate Bar

 

Cheesecake

 

Creme Brulee

Edited January 8, 2020 by tomservo

[70SS350]

The grilled rib eye looks more like prime rib. Not even any grill marks on it.

[808lady]

Loving your review!  Thanks!