Anthem January 20th Semi -Live

[mrg0433]

4 hours ago, cementhands said:

We’re supposed to be on next one January 31 but canceled covid19 immune system compromised etc. But very interested in activities level onboard Anthem now.
Any Zumba live bands dancing?

Quest?

Theme parties in seaplex?

Dancing by pool with live music?

Thanks so much. Can’t wait to cruise again.

We live 7 miles north of the Cape Cod Canal so when we heard forecast of 3 feet of snow, we ended up cancelling the Anthem Jan 31 cruise cuz we were afraid we wud not be able to take Amtrak from Providence  to NJ.   Fortunately, we only got 2 feet of snow.  We grabbed 2 seats

on a Flight to Ft Myers at 7am Friday to beat the storm.  Got a great rate on Princess 7! Day cruise to St Thomas, St Kitts, and private island.   Happy r house only list power for a short time.  

 

Safe travels home.  We actually enjoy rough seas.  Like being rocked to sleep.  

 

Thanks for this thread.   I enjoyed it. 

[3kidsncats]

On 1/29/2022 at 10:49 AM, Sunshine3601 said:

Happy Belated Birthday!    Always nice when you can enjoy at one of the islands.    

How is the weather where you are today?     

Our return home on Jan 20th we stayed easterly to avoid large swells that were closer to the coast.   It almost looked like we were headed to Bermuda.   

We did the opposite- headed westerly at speed, then when we reached the worst of the storm for our path, dropped speed and eventually turned north.  It was really rocking last night (20 foot swells) with elevators out, dishes etc crashing around the ship, banging and creaking.  Today was quite cold, but calmer seas around noon

[3kidsncats]

7 hours ago, cementhands said:

We’re supposed to be on next one January 31 but canceled covid19 immune system compromised etc. But very interested in activities level onboard Anthem now.
Any Zumba live bands dancing?

Quest?

Theme parties in seaplex?

Dancing by pool with live music?

Thanks so much. Can’t wait to cruise again.

Did not see any of the activities you listed, but honestly we didn’t look.  Quest is definitely not offered nowadays.  Saw nothing in the dailies about live music and dancing at the pool or parties at the seaplex.

[3kidsncats]

On 1/29/2022 at 6:24 PM, toad455 said:

Surprised the Captain isn't delaying Anthem's arrival on Monday. Seen several videos on FB of the rough seas today and it looks very bad. Nobody is walking around the ship. WWRY is cancelled tonight. The blizzard that came through today was really bad. Parts of NJ saw over a foot of snow and 70mph wind gusts. I know it's typically rough seas when passing by the Carolinas and having been on ten cruises out of Bayonne I'm aware of how rough it can be, but these look extremely rough. Hope everyone is safe and makes it home alright.

It was rough going but never felt unsafe.  No furniture sliding, although lots of dishes/glassware went flying — mostly due to one really big wave/tilt.  After about noon, seas calmed down and has felt pretty normal all evening.

[3kidsncats]

I have reviews/comments still to come, but honestly the wifi has been really iffy onboard.  Got tired of unsuccessful photo uploads, so will resume later in the week when we are home.  
 

nutshell review is it was a great trip.  No known cases of Covid among passengers (doubt many were tested, so take that with a grain of salt), very minimal cases among crew.  Saw no reduction in staffing, and unaware of any shows cancelled due to Covid.  Felt like a 100% normal cruise.  Yes, we had to mask but it wasn’t a big deal.  
 

Some supplies were out late in the cruise — like the pub had no bourbon tonight.  One waiter tried to pass off a drink as an old fashioned, but three of us tasted it — it was AWFUL and no one thought it contained any bourbon.  Other bartender confirmed— no bourbon in the bar, of any kind, but did go find some and made us a real Old Fashioned.  Honestly that was about the worst thing we encountered on the cruise, so we all considered it a very good trip.

 

As noted, I will have more pics and posts in the upcoming week 😊

[Sunshine3601]

11 hours ago, 3kidsncats said:

 It was really rocking last night (20 foot swells) with elevators out, dishes etc crashing around the ship, banging and creaking.  Today was quite cold, but calmer seas around noon

Were All elevators out?     That wouldn't be a pleasant walk up to the WJ on deck 14 for many.   

 

Happy that you had a nice cruise and enjoyed your Birthday.     Thank you for your doing review makes even more excited to be back on her for our b2b end of March.      I am hoping capacities stay low as it made it so nice not to have any lines for anything.   

[Sunshine3601]

19 hours ago, cementhands said:

We’re supposed to be on next one January 31 but canceled covid19 immune system compromised etc. But very interested in activities level onboard Anthem now.
Any Zumba live bands dancing?

Quest?

Theme parties in seaplex?

Dancing by pool with live music?

Thanks so much. Can’t wait to cruise again.

There is dancing in boleros and music hall with live music.     We enjoyed both of these venues a couple of nights.     

I did see some morning exercise classes in the seaplex where everyone was spaced out and wearing masks.    

The pool area and sun deck were very busy on the warm sunny days of my Jan 9th sailing but I don't recall hearing any live bands.   I mostly hang on a lounger towards the aft to avoid crowds and noise while I was reading and sunbathing.    

[BND]

Why were the elevators out?  We've been in 30 foot seas on Grandeur and the elevators were all operating.

[cruz_happy]

Thank you for your post.  I've enjoyed and appreciated all your input re: Anthem. 

 

Question:  Did you have to take a Covid test prior to admittance back into the USA since stopped at the Bahamas?  Does this classify you as an international traveler  thus requiring another Covid test?  If you do have to take another test, are these done at port?  Are they available on ship?  (not pre-cruise as I heard those are available; rather post-cruise)  TYIA

[dmrichards26]

30 minutes ago, cruz_happy said:

Did you have to take a Covid test prior to admittance back into the USA since stopped at the Bahamas?  

 

The requirement to have a negative COVID test for re-entry to the US applies to flights only. Ports of entry for land and sea are not included.

 

US citizens can just get off the ship at US homeport and go on their merry way. No test required.

[JessyCruises]

We are sailing on March - thank you for you for your review!  Is Damian Joyce still the pub performer?

[MaryZ]

On the port aft side only 2 of the elevators were working for the day of rough seas.  We actually all were wondering what they were going to do if they didn't fix them.
The ship is creaky but handled the seas very well. 

[NeverNeverLand]

Was there any karaoke?

[mets07]

2 hours ago, NeverNeverLand said:

Was there any karaoke?

Yes.

[NeverNeverLand]

12 hours ago, mets07 said:

Yes.

Awesome- thank you!!!

[3kidsncats]

On 1/31/2022 at 6:17 AM, Sunshine3601 said:

Were All elevators out?     That wouldn't be a pleasant walk up to the WJ on deck 14 for many.   

 

Happy that you had a nice cruise and enjoyed your Birthday.     Thank you for your doing review makes even more excited to be back on her for our b2b end of March.      I am hoping capacities stay low as it made it so nice not to have any lines for anything.   

Not all of them — but someone did get stuck in one for 30mins.  We opted to take the stairs when 4 of 6 were out in the lobby we tended to use.  When only 1 or 2 was out, we used them

[3kidsncats]

On 1/31/2022 at 7:43 AM, BND said:

Why were the elevators out?  We've been in 30 foot seas on Grandeur and the elevators were all operating.

🤷‍♀️ They had digital screens on each one that usually indicate floor.  On Saturday evening many screens started reading “out of service” and you could see the elevators stopped midway between floors.  There was an announcement on Sunday that the elevators were being returned to full service— but no idea if they were out due to malfunction or purposely shutdown

[3kidsncats]

On 1/31/2022 at 10:04 AM, cruz_happy said:

Thank you for your post.  I've enjoyed and appreciated all your input re: Anthem. 

 

Question:  Did you have to take a Covid test prior to admittance back into the USA since stopped at the Bahamas?  Does this classify you as an international traveler  thus requiring another Covid test?  If you do have to take another test, are these done at port?  Are they available on ship?  (not pre-cruise as I heard those are available; rather post-cruise)  TYIA

Thank you — glad you enjoyed it 😊

 

We did not go to the Bahamas, but did stop in other countries— but no test needed to return to the US via cruise ship.

[3kidsncats]

On 1/31/2022 at 4:18 PM, JessyCruises said:

We are sailing on March - thank you for you for your review!  Is Damian Joyce still the pub performer?

We did hear a guy perform there one evening but I did not catch his name.  He was good — although he was using some tech to fill out the vocals.  

[3kidsncats]

We arrived home last night and are pretty beat.  I will finish up with more food pics/reviews, wine tasting, and ports tomorrow 🙂

[BND]

7 minutes ago, 3kidsncats said:

🤷‍♀️ They had digital screens on each one that usually indicate floor.  On Saturday evening many screens started reading “out of service” and you could see the elevators stopped midway between floors.  There was an announcement on Sunday that the elevators were being returned to full service— but no idea if they were out due to malfunction or purposely shutdown

I actually saw a post on FB after I posted here that said they were malfunctioning.  Elevators typically work during rough seas.  

[JessyCruises]

1 hour ago, 3kidsncats said:

We did hear a guy perform there one evening but I did not catch his name.  He was good — although he was using some tech to fill out the vocals.  

Thanks!  We have noticed that most of the pub performers are now doing that as well.  

[Sunshine3601]

7 hours ago, 3kidsncats said:

Not all of them — but someone did get stuck in one for 30mins.  We opted to take the stairs when 4 of 6 were out in the lobby we tended to use.  When only 1 or 2 was out, we used them

The elevator with the photo of the monkey with lipstick (aft elevator) had issues on our sailing.   I heard someone got stuck on it and I refused to board it when it was available.  

[DaniDanielle]

Most of our Anthem cruises had several elevators out of service.  It was our standard joke as to whether they would all be working or not.