Anthem of the Seas 1/5/20-1/16/20: photo review

[allisonb22]

We got home today from 11 nights on Anthem! The post-cruise sadness has hit already.. 

 

I’m gonna try to post with lots of pictures and as much detail as I can remember. 

 

Background:

We traveled with 6 people- myself & my boyfriend (early 20s), my sister & her boyfriend (early 20s), and my parents. This was our second time on Anthem and a first cruise ever for my sister's boyfriend. We like to cruise this time of year to get away from the cold in Connecticut and it’s a nice vacation before the school semester starts again for me… I was so excited for this cruise since we were scheduled to stop at a few ports I’ve never been to, on top of it being 11 nights!  We had an interiors with the virtual balconies and my parents had an ocean view balcony. I thought it was cool that even though mine and my sister’s rooms were next door to each other, our virtual balconies had different views.  

 

Overall: 

This was an awesome cruise. It didn’t feel too long (I personally don’t think there could be a cruise that’s “too long,” my boyfriend would say otherwise). Everyone we interacted with from the crew was awesome. I was a little nervous to do the same ship twice in a row since we were just on Anthem for the NYE cruise last year but it was nice to be familiar with the ship from the start. Entertainment was good, food was mostly good.. 

 

Our itinerary was supposed to be: 

Day 1: embarkation (Bayonne, NJ)

Day 2: at sea

Day 3: at sea

Day 4: San Juan

Day 5: St Maarten

Day 6: St John, Antigua

Day 7: St Lucia

Day 8: St Kitts

Day 9: at sea

Day 10: at sea

Day 11: at sea

Day 12: disembark 

 

However, the port I was most excited for, Antigua, was cancelled.. More on that later. There were a few unexpected, unfortunate changes but what can you do...it was out of our control and we were still on vacation, so it is what it is!

 

I'll be posting reviews day by day! Let me know if there's anything specific about the ship or other questions I may be able to answer! 

 

 

Edited January 17, 2020 by allisonb22

[bandjwayne]

I'm looking forward to your review.  I'm hoping to go on the Anthem sometime soon as I haven't been on that class of ships yet.

[allisonb22]

Day 1

 

After boarding we did some exploring of the ship and checked to see if some of the same crew members from last year were around. My dad and bf were happy to see their favorite bartender was doing another contract and would be on this cruise with us. We headed to Cafe270 for lunch to avoid the crowds in the windjammer. We also made a quick stop at sorrento’s for some pizza because why not! 

 

After doing some wandering, we got ready for the muster drill and headed there. Our muster station was in the bionic bar, which was nice because we had seats and it didn’t take too long. This cruise was great because there were many seasoned cruisers and not many kids at all (I think they said there were only 350 kids on board!) so I think that had something to do with the muster being quick and painless.

 

After the muster we expected to have our luggage but not yet... We ended up going to deck 15 to watch the sail-away under the Verrazzano bridge. It was pretty chilly and windy but it definitely could have been worse! I thought I took a video of us going under the bridge but I must not have because I can’t find it. After sail-away we headed inside to warm up and look around a bit more. We went to our rooms and our luggage was finally there. I think we went to the windjammer for a quick snack since our seating for dinner wasn’t until 8. 

 

We got ready for dinner and went to the comedy show. The comedian was great. I’m pretty sure we saw the same one last yr and he did some of the same jokes but he was still good.

 

The dress code for dinner was “laid back lounging” but I think some people took that a little too seriously in the MDR and were VERY casual. This was a common theme throughout the whole cruise.

 

For dinner, we had the 8:00 seating in Chic. We ate in the MDR every night. From the start, we loved our waiter and assistant waiter. They were awesome right from the beginning. 

 

I wish I took more pictures of the menus each night. Since we used the app a lot, I’d often look at the menu ahead of time on the app and know what I was ordering before we even got there, so I didn’t spend much time looking at the menu in the dining room. I don’t eat much seafood aside from shrimp and I’m kind of picky so my meals are pretty boring...sorry in advance for the underwhelming pics of food haha. 

I ordered the shrimp cocktail for app, NY strip and creme brulee. After dinner we went to the casino and checked out the “nightclub” they turn the Music Hall into after 11 or midnight. It was okay. We went to bed relatively early (early, for us, since we’re usually out late) since we knew we wanted to get up early the next day for our first full day at sea! 

[allisonb22]

35 minutes ago, bandjwayne said:

I'm looking forward to your review.  I'm hoping to go on the Anthem sometime soon as I haven't been on that class of ships yet.

Thanks for following along. 

This class of ship is great, especially in the cold weather since there's two indoor pools and a lot to do in the Seaplex. The North Star is cool too!

[nc350]

I am SOOOOO excited for your review! We are doing this sailing Jan 26, 2021!!!! It will be exciting to get tips from you! Thanks for doing this 😀

[tOSUSteve]

Who is their favorite bartender? Susie & Stephen at the Sunshine bar were awesome  

 

Edited January 17, 2020 by tOSUSteve

[Roybthered]

I will be following this as we are booked on the transatlantic back over to NY from Southampton on the 1 November 2020. Have a great time and keep up the good work! 

[tcmagnum]

Love 11 day cruises!!

Looking forward to the rest of the review...

[bringbackthewhalers07]

thanks for the review! Heading back on Anthem in March, so this review gets us even more excited for our cruise!

[allisonb22]

Day 2

 

Our first full day at sea!

We tried to get up early so we wouldn’t miss any of the day..we tend to sleep LATE so getting up early is always a challenge. BUT it's much easier when you’re waking up on a cruise ship.

 

We had reservations for the iFly at 11am. When we sailed Anthem last year we tried the iFly and I wasn’t a huge fan…. I chose to sit this one out and watch. My boyfriend and dad were over the weight limit so they also sat out as well. We joked last year that we should have booked the iFly earlier in the cruise so we would all weigh less and be able to go so that’s why we made the reservations for our second day. My mom, sister, and sister’s boyfriend all went and it was very entertaining to watch. We also watched some brave people try the flowrider but it was way too chilly for us! 

-

 

After the iFly we decided it’d be interesting to go watch the art auction while my parents went and did some trivia. Being college students we definitely did not have any intentions to buy anything at the auction..but we thought it’d be fun to go and watch, especially since none of us have ever been to a live auction. It was a cool experience but longer than we anticipated. 

-

 

Then we went and got a late lunch/snack and decided to go outside to see if it warmed up at all. We caught a very pretty sunset and were happy to see it was warming up! We all decided to go in the hot tub before getting ready for the first formal (now “Wear your best” ) night. I can’t seem to remember what I ordered for dinner but in my camera roll I have a picture of shrimp cocktail so i assume that was my appetizer, most likely the NY strip, and creme brulee for dessert. Essentially, this was my order the whole crusie. I don’t remember it being anything special but a decent meal. Our waiter was great. 

 

 

Once dinner was over we went to the casino. We are definitely not big gamblers but I like the penny slots so we played for a little while. Our seapass cards was automatically loaded with a “mystery” amount so I had two free dollars to play the slots with and won big (for me) haha. Woo!  

 

We came back to the room to a cute towel animal around 2am. The next morning at sea I knew we had North Star reservations at 10 so we had to get up early. Time for bed! I was hoping when we woke up the next morning it would be to warm weather!!

[allisonb22]

On 1/17/2020 at 1:07 PM, nc350 said:

I am SOOOOO excited for your review!

thanks for following! it was a great trip! let me know if you have any questions:) 

[Guest djdec]

Can you share more info regarding Antigua and why it was cancelled?

[BeagleAgility]

Great review so far - going to be on the ship in 5 weeks. Can't wait.

 

By the way - CCSU - great school.  I'm an alumni.

[maggieq]

Thank you for doing this review.  We have been on the anthem twice.  I am looking at a similar itinerary for next January and the freedom.  I do like the idea of driving to the port and no worries about flying during potential bad weather.  However, I do like the idea of starting a cruise in good weather and hitting the ABC islands.  .  

[allisonb22]

On 1/17/2020 at 1:27 PM, tOSUSteve said:

Who is their favorite bartender?

it was PJ from the Schooner bar. he was in Boleros last year :)

[allisonb22]

5 hours ago, singinalot said:

following!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

4 hours ago, Roybthered said:

I will be following this as we are booked on the transatlantic back over to NY from Southampton on the 1 November 2020. Have a great time and keep up the good work! 

 

3 hours ago, tcmagnum said:

Love 11 day cruises!!

Looking forward to the rest of the review...

 

2 hours ago, bringbackthewhalers07 said:

thanks for the review! Heading back on Anthem in March, so this review gets us even more excited for our cruise!

 

thanks for following along everyone! :)

[allisonb22]

44 minutes ago, BeagleAgility said:

Great review so far - going to be on the ship in 5 weeks. Can't wait.

 

By the way - CCSU - great school.  I'm an alumni.

small world! my boyfriend played baseball there :)

[allisonb22]

36 minutes ago, maggieq said:

I do like the idea of driving to the port and no worries about flying during potential bad weather.  However, I do like the idea of starting a cruise in good weather and hitting the ABC islands.  .  

totally understand that! cape liberty is so easy to get in/out of. its a great port. but the only downside is not beginning or ending in warm weather! 

[allisonb22]

56 minutes ago, djdec said:

Can you share more info regarding Antigua and why it was cancelled?

i definitely will. i'm trying to organize the review by day but basically the winds were too bad to dock. :(

[mets123]

4 minutes ago, allisonb22 said:

i definitely will. i'm trying to organize the review by day but basically the winds were too bad to dock. 😞

I was on the cruise as well. At the captains q and a, he said the winds were gusting up to 45 mph, and the swells were 15 to 20 feet. And there's only a 15 meter clearance on either side of the channel. He said he tried for two hours, and then decided too abort.

[allisonb22]

11 minutes ago, mets123 said:

I was on the cruise as well. At the captains q and a, he said the winds were gusting up to 45 mph, and the swells were 15 to 20 feet. And there's only a 15 meter clearance on either side of the channel. He said he tried for two hours, and then decided too abort.

thanks for giving more detail. i didn't remember all that, just that i was sad about missing the port! 

[allisonb22]

Day 3

 

We woke up early because we had reservations on the North Star. Went to breakfast in the WJ and then headed over. It was warming up so I was thrilled to be able to wear shorts!! 

 

Last year we loved the North Star and thought it was a super smooth ride. I don’t like heights but this was not scary at all to me. However, it was SO windy this time that I did not enjoy it nearly as much. It was still super cool. 

 

After the North Star my mom and I went over to Next Cruise to book another. I really like cruising this time of year because of school but we couldn’t guarantee she could get the time off this time next year so we booked Oasis for summer 2021 when she comes to NJ. I’m still looking for options for next Jan...

 

Then we went to lunch in WJ and we were able to eat outside with a gorgeous view. I took advantage of all the sun and went and sat in the sun for a bit. 

 

Later on I found my favorite spot on the ship. In Two70, down by all the windows is the BEST view of the wake. I loved just looking out at the view. 

 

We got ready for dinner and I’m pretty sure I had my usual meal of shrimp cocktail (maybe a Caesar salad?), steak, and creme brulee. 

 

I think this was the night we went to the late-night comedian after dinner. If not, then nothing exciting happened. I think we walked around outside for a while and just enjoyed being in warm weather. 

 

The next day was San Juan. There was some speculation as to if we were going to skip the port or not due to the recent earthquakes but we still docked and had no problems.

[float_my_boat]

Following. I can't wait to read the rest of your review! I've already got some great info. from what you've written so far. My wife and I are sailing on the Anthem Feb. 7-15.  18 more days! :)

[Dan The Man 99]

Great review. What happen to  rest of the review?? You left us hanging 😞

 

Edited January 22, 2020 by Dan The Man 99

[allisonb22]

2 minutes ago, Dan The Man 99 said:

Where is the rest of the review?? You left us hanging 😞

 

I will be writing/posting soon!! The school semester started this week for me so I've been behind, sorry!!