Just Back from Anthem of the Seas Mar 6 - 13 short summary

[Jcol5786]

 Had a wonderful time. This is our second post covid cruise and our 10th overall. Drove to Bayonne on Saturday from Kingston Ontario. Stayed at the Embassy Suite and used their park and cruise package. Shuttled to the port at 10 am. Had an 11:00 am boarding time. By 10:30 they called the 11:00 am group. Line moved well as did the check in process. We were on the ship by 11:00 am which is about as early as we have ever been onboard.

 

Cruise had 3300 people on board. We had a GTY and received a connecting room on the port side of deck 13. The room as right beside the elevator lobby. We were initially concerned that the room might be noisy  however we had no neighbors so it was fine. Overall we loved the location. It was a short walk to the end of the hall to the door which comes out in the Solarium. There was some noise from above in the early morning but it wasn't a huge problem as we both sleep pretty well.

 

We only ate in the MDR and WJ, also used room service every morning for our coffee and pre-breakfast bagel. Note that they no longer use the door hanger that you place on your door the night before for your breakfast order. It's now done from the TV and this is a great improvement. Instead of having to guess when you will want your coffee delivered  you can now simply wake up, order through the TV and ask for immediate delivery. We had our coffees within 20 minutes every morning but we are early risers so it might take longer the later our place your order.

 

Shows - We Will Rock You was good as usual but we have seen it 4 times now so there are no surprises in it for us.  One performer named Hanna put on her own separate show with the Anthem house band (High Seas)  which was excellent. She has a great voice and her song selection was very good. She told short stories between each song describing some events in her live which was also done very well. Another show we saw had the singer from Jersey Boys (Ryan Molloy) who did an amazing melody of Franky Valley songs.  He had the Anthem house band and 3 other back up singers. We really enjoyed this show and for us was the best of the cruise. We also saw Spectra's Cabaret which again we have seen a few times. It's my wife's favorite however we noticed that they are not doing any of the aerial sequences which was a bit of a let down when you are expecting it. Other live music around the ship was good however we really missed the Royal Swedes who were Anthems pre-covid show band. They have been replaced by a band called High Voltage who are good but for us not quite as good as the Swedes.

 

We got into PC late on day 2 and we didn't get off the ship. We did get off in CocoCay and have a nice late morning early afternoon on the island. Than went back and enjoyed the quiet ship. In Nassau we got off in the morning and did some souvenir shopping which was nice. Weather was perfect. The area around the pier seems to be a little nicer than it used to be - less people trying to sell you things and generally cleaner. We went back to the ship for lunch and then got off again and did a habour tour on a large cameraman. This was a nice relaxing excursion.

 

Wasn't planning on doing a full summary so I think I'll end it here. Please feel free to ask any questions and I'll be happy to answer if I can.

 

 

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, Jcol5786 said:

It's my wife's favorite however we noticed that they are not doing any of the aerial sequences which was a bit of a let down when you are expecting it.

Other Anthem reviews have mentioned this - apparently RCI is missing (or won't pay for) riggers (since the restart) required for that portion of the show, so they just eliminated it.

[ellenh]

Thanks for the review.  I'll be on Anthem next week for the 2nd time since the restart.  It's nice to have a recent update.

 

Just one quick question: Do you recall if Boleros had mostly Latin music or was it mostly Karaoke?

[Jcol5786]

4 hours ago, ellenh said:

Just one quick question: Do you recall if Boleros had mostly Latin music or was it mostly Karaoke?

We stopped at Boleros a couple of times and listened to a Latin band who were good. I think High Voltage was also in there once or twice. I didn't hear any Karaoke but we could have missed it.

[Jcol5786]

6 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Other Anthem reviews have mentioned this - apparently RCI is missing (or won't pay for) riggers (since the restart) required for that portion of the show, so they just eliminated it.

That's too bad. It really added to the show. Hard to fathom that RCI would cheap out on riggers for an established show but you never know.  My niece was a rigger and worked in the UK and Toronto for years. She was always in high demand.

[DaniDanielle]

We went to see some of the theater group.  They said there was a shortage of riggers so no aerial and that is why there is no Gift.

[smeesme]

Hi there,

If you don't mind telling me, what did you do for testing for coming home to Ontario?

Thanks,

Smee

[brookmill18]

We were on the same sailing. We were surprised at the issues with WiFi on board. Haven't been on since summer 2019 except for a short one on Freedom in October. No issues with the Freedom wifi. The Anthem's was very difficult. We did surf only for the first day on one device and upgraded to stream on Day 3--we literally couldn't get most emails to load and could not access online publications (not videos). We switched back and forth between our 2 devices which should not have caused problems, but not sure if that made it more wonky? Also disappointed that you can no longer iMessage other passengers on board thru the free wifi. We will end up buying surf and stream with multiple devices for our family cruise this summer but had hoped to be able to iMessage the group without everyone needing to be on Wifi.

[Cruisekitty1977]

...

Edited March 14, 2022 by Cruisekitty1977
Duplicate

[Cruisekitty1977]

23 minutes ago, brookmill18 said:

We were on the same sailing. We were surprised at the issues with WiFi on board. Haven't been on since summer 2019 except for a short one on Freedom in October. No issues with the Freedom wifi. The Anthem's was very difficult. We did surf only for the first day on one device and upgraded to stream on Day 3--we literally couldn't get most emails to load and could not access online publications (not videos). We switched back and forth between our 2 devices which should not have caused problems, but not sure if that made it more wonky? Also disappointed that you can no longer iMessage other passengers on board thru the free wifi. We will end up buying surf and stream with multiple devices for our family cruise this summer but had hoped to be able to iMessage the group without everyone needing to be on Wifi.

So to make sure I am understanding you correct, even with the paid surf package, you could not get emails? Did the stream make it any better?

 

I am paying plenty for the surf package for 3 of us, that seems unacceptable that you can't readily access simple sites like facebook or instagram when I am paying so much. 😞

[Biker19]

2 minutes ago, Cruisekitty1977 said:

 

So to make sure I am understanding you correct, even with the paid surf package, you could not get emails?

 

Temporary issues with sat based internet are almost to be expected- have it not work at all for simple things like email is certainly not the norm. 

[brookmill18]

1 minute ago, Cruisekitty1977 said:

So to make sure I am understanding you correct, even with the paid surf package, you could not get emails? Did the stream make it any better?

 

I am paying plenty for the surf package for 3 of us, that seems unacceptable that you can't readily access simple sites like facebook or instagram when I am paying so much. 😞

Yes--we had a very difficult time using the internet when on surf only. Sometimes it would work, but usually we could not get text heavy emails to load. We are not on Social Media but we couldn't get NYT or WaPo to work, as well as most sites when trying to use Safari. I went to the Zoom desk at the end of Day 2 and he tried to say it was bc the news sites are photo heavy (told him we weren't trying to watch videos) and any text laden email had trouble loading. I said I would upgrade for a fee, but then he said since I was Diamond, the upgrade was free? The streaming made it instantly better. Sometimes took awhile to load if we were streaming, but made it much better. We did sometimes still have trouble getting on ship's wifi to log in to surf and stream--every day a few times of restarting phones or turning wifi on/off but at least they would load. But no iMessaging without being logged on--which doesn't work well with one device for 2 people

[mets07]

My own experience on two recent Anthem cruises was more positive. I had no problem with email and internet surfing. I had Surf only.

[Biker19]

2 minutes ago, brookmill18 said:

I said I would upgrade for a fee, but then he said since I was Diamond, the upgrade was free?

They seem to be generous with upgrades like that, even if your discount doesn’t cover the cost. 

Edited March 14, 2022 by Biker19

[DaveCH]

12 minutes ago, Cruisekitty1977 said:

So to make sure I am understanding you correct, even with the paid surf package, you could not get emails? Did the stream make it any better?

 

I am paying plenty for the surf package for 3 of us, that seems unacceptable that you can't readily access simple sites like facebook or instagram when I am paying so much. 😞

I was on this trip and the internet worked as expected. Some hiccups here and there, and during the storm it was very unreliable. Rest of the time it was perfectly fine. Of course, high ping as you’d expect with satelital internet and capped speeds (max like 5Mbps, but most of the time around 3Mbps)

[wolfcathorse]

was Capt Srecko Ban the captain?

[nu_cruzer1]

Thank you for posting this info.  Can you provide any info about how you got back to the hotel after the cruise to pick up your car?  Was there a shuttle and how did it work?  Thanks again. 

[fmack]

3 hours ago, DaveCH said:

I was on this trip and the internet worked as expected. Some hiccups here and there, and during the storm it was very unreliable. Rest of the time it was perfectly fine. Of course, high ping as you’d expect with satelital internet and capped speeds (max like 5Mbps, but most of the time around 3Mbps)

Was on same sailing on Anthem week before and surf & stream was unreliable. Tried to do work emails on laptop but very challenging. Had no issues with same sailing on Anthem Dec 2020 with surf&stream. Not sure if due to more people or weather. 

[fmack]

 

4 hours ago, smeesme said:

Hi there,

If you don't mind telling me, what did you do for testing for coming home to Ontario?

Thanks,

Smee

We came home after leaving Mar 6 with positive PCR done in Jan 2021 but also had backup telehealth antigen kits with us. They offer antigen testing at the port for I think $100 USD. 

[Merion_Mom]

15 hours ago, Jcol5786 said:

 Had a wonderful time. This is our second post covid cruise and our 10th overall. Drove to Bayonne on Saturday from Kingston Ontario. Stayed at the Embassy Suite and used their park and cruise package. Shuttled to the port at 10 am. Had an 11:00 am boarding time. By 10:30 they called the 11:00 am group. Line moved well as did the check in process. We were on the ship by 11:00 am which is about as early as we have ever been onboard.

 

@Jcol5786 - I have been reading some "interesting" things about the Embassy Suites.  What was your experience?

[Jcol5786]

Lots of question from over night. I'll try to get them all.

13 hours ago, smeesme said:

Hi there,

If you don't mind telling me, what did you do for testing for coming home to Ontario?

Thanks,

Smee

We purchased two kits from Switch Health rapid antigen. These are the monitored ones. We did our first one from our home on Friday morning. This was required to get on the ship and it was accepted with no problem. As others have mentioned the internet on the ship would come and go. We purchased the single device basic package and were able to keep up with emails and messages OK but it was clear that it would never work for a video session.  On Friday we stopped and spoke with the Zoom person and asked about upgrading so we could do our return covid test on the ship. We mentioned that the basic package had been spotty and asked if the stream package would work well enough for a video session. At this point he offered to upgrade us for free for the remaining 2 days and suggested we try it and see how it worked. We thought this was very good of him. After the update we were able to stream Netflix so we thought it should be OK. First thing Saturday we logged into the Switch Health portal and got connected to the nurse within about 5 minutes. The video froze a couple of times but for the most part it worked well. We were both negative, uploaded our test pictures and had our  QR code results within 10 minutes of the upload. Later in the morning we went to the library above 270, logged into a computer there and printed out our results. Our tests were checked at the land border and excepted with no question. Our backup plan if the Zoom had not worked out was to simply wait till Sunday morning and connect to the normal phone data when in the NYC habour. We have Rogers so roam from home would have cost us $11 and I'm sure that would have worked as well.

[Jcol5786]

12 hours ago, wolfcathorse said:

was Capt Srecko Ban the captain?

Yes I believe that was the captains name. We went to Captains talk but I'm bad at remembering names. The captain was tall and slim and very funny with a dry sense of humor. I believe he mentioned he was born in Croatia.

[Jcol5786]

10 hours ago, nu_cruzer1 said:

Thank you for posting this info.  Can you provide any info about how you got back to the hotel after the cruise to pick up your car?  Was there a shuttle and how did it work?  Thanks again. 

The Embassy Suite and two or three other hotels in the immediate area seem to share a common shuttle service. They picked us up at 10 am and told us to meet them at area C which is in front of the terminal when we got off the ship. We stepped out shortly after 8 am and the shuttle was waiting. It was cold and we turned over our bags and got in right away. The driver waited about 5 minutes and 2 more people joined us. At that point we were full so he left. We were dropped off first and were loading up our car by 9 am.

[Jcol5786]

8 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

@Jcol5786 - I have been reading some "interesting" things about the Embassy Suites.  What was your experience?

Hi Merion_Mom - this was the fourth time we have stayed at the Embassy Suites and have always had a good experience and this one was no exception. I did read some negative reviews from last October which seemed related to the hotel being used as a shelter after a particularly bad noreaster storm. 

 

What were the "interesting" things your were reading about?