Anthem repetition and wanted change

[cusematt4]

Hi all,

 

we are looking at winter cruises and there seem to be some really good deals on the anthem.  We would like to leave from New York and not deal with the price and hassle of flying.

 

while we have had two great cruises on the anthem, it felt very repetitive and we are worried a third cruise would be even more of the same.  For a ship that continues to leave out of the tri state area with a number of repeat cruisers, it’s surprising they haven’t at least switched the 270 show, ice show and theater shows such as we will rock you.  Even name that tune was the same songs and same order.

 

with only the couple fly on acts and live music potentially being different and more than half of the entertainment being the same, does anyone have any experience with recently sailing on the anthem compared to prior cruises?  While the first cruise was great, the second felt a lot like the same and we are worried the third will be even more repetitive.

 

i know it’s costly to change shows, but does anyone know why Royal Caribbean hasn’t replaced the anthem with a different ship for purposes of providing a slightly different experience with new shows and entertainment for repeat local cruisers?

 

the ncl ships out of New York are almost double the price of many anthem sailings or else we would try that for a change.  And other Royal Caribbean and Norwegian ships would require a flight or else we would consider a different oasis class, quantum class or ncl ship.

 

thank you very much. 

[mets123]

It's because they signed a five year contract for WWRY. And the cost of a new show with the sets, etc runs millions of dollars.Thats of three hours of entertainment. The fly in entertainment and bands in the Music Hall change every few weeks. We've been sailing the Anthem 3-4 times a year for the past five years or so and can always find some things to do.

 

 

 

 

[Biker19]

2 hours ago, cusematt4 said:

i know it’s costly to change shows, but does anyone know why Royal Caribbean hasn’t replaced the anthem with a different ship for purposes of providing a slightly different experience with new shows and entertainment for repeat local cruisers?

Liberty should be somewhat of a change next year.

[twangster]

Anthem and Quantum class in general is well suited to winter cruising from New Jersey.  

 

The problem with swapping in a different ship is that there was no other Quantum class in the Atlantic to swap her with.  For many years the sisters in this class have been in the Pacific Ocean.  Moving ships between Oceans is very costly as ships this size have to go through the Suez canal.  Since Anthem was the only Quantum class ship in the Atlantic there was nothing to swap her with.

 

Odyssey is now here and she is an evolution of the same class but they converted the cold weather areas so she could sail from warmer climates year round.  That makes her a less likely candidate to swap places with Anthem. In the summer months when Odyssey would fit better into New Jersey they now have Oasis spending her summers there leaving just the winter months when Odyssey isn't the best fit for cooler weather cruising.  

 

WWRY is licensed for the regions where Anthem operates.  Sending Anthem into the Pacific would mean negotiating the contract for WWRY or moving the show to keep it in the Atlantic which defeats your purpose of seeking new shows.  Beyond the exorbitant cost of moving productions shows between ships moving ships between the Atlantic and Pacific costs millions.

 

The C&A numbers typically revealed at top tier events tells us that often new to Royal with no C&A status is often around 50% of the ship on a typical cruise.  Gold member are next largest contingency aboard and often many gold members haven't sailed her before.  Between the new to Royal and the members from other tiers who have never sailed Anthem it's safe to say a clear majority have never seen the shows on Anthem.

 

Frequent cruisers often discuss the lack of show rotation but they are not in the majority.  Frequent cruisers in Galveston have long seen everything Liberty has to offer.  Frequent cruisers in Florida often don't take in the production shows every cruise because they've seen them all too.  It would be impossible for Royal to move things around frequently enough to keep it fresh for frequent cruisers.  

 

There is no shame in trying other lines once in a while even if a diehard frequent Royal cruiser.  If that's what it takes to keep it fresh for you then try another line.   

 

Personally I think WWRY is one of the best shows across the fleet and I watch it everytime I'm on Anthem even though I've seen it many times.

[Jerseygirl1416]

Not sure where you’re located but we switch up with cruising out of Baltimore. Not a bad drive for us and we drive in day of embarkation. I always look at Boston but those fares are very high comparatively.

[Biker19]

8 minutes ago, Jerseygirl1416 said:

I always look at Boston but those fares are very high comparatively.

Have you seen inside prices on Voyager for this fall?

[Jerseygirl1416]

7 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Have you seen inside prices on Voyager for this fall?

I just looked. We only sail once maybe twice a year so I always book at least a balcony. We’re already booked on Oasis for this fall and it looks like Voyager isn’t that much more in our category which is unusual. Insides on my Oasis sail are about $279pp last time I price checked.

[Ourusualbeach]

8 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Have you seen inside prices on Voyager for this fall?

They are very tempting.  I keep contemplating that but it would mean travelling solo and I'm not sure that would go over well

[nelblu]

8 hours ago, cusematt4 said:

Hi all,

 

we are looking at winter cruises and there seem to be some really good deals on the anthem.  We would like to leave from New York and not deal with the price and hassle of flying.

 

while we have had two great cruises on the anthem, it felt very repetitive and we are worried a third cruise would be even more of the same.  For a ship that continues to leave out of the tri state area with a number of repeat cruisers, it’s surprising they haven’t at least switched the 270 show, ice show and theater shows such as we will rock you.  Even name that tune was the same songs and same order.

 

with only the couple fly on acts and live music potentially being different and more than half of the entertainment being the same, does anyone have any experience with recently sailing on the anthem compared to prior cruises?  While the first cruise was great, the second felt a lot like the same and we are worried the third will be even more repetitive.

 

i know it’s costly to change shows, but does anyone know why Royal Caribbean hasn’t replaced the anthem with a different ship for purposes of providing a slightly different experience with new shows and entertainment for repeat local cruisers?

 

the ncl ships out of New York are almost double the price of many anthem sailings or else we would try that for a change.  And other Royal Caribbean and Norwegian ships would require a flight or else we would consider a different oasis class, quantum class or ncl ship.

 

thank you very much. 

On the Easter sail, WWRY was not shown and we the suspect was Covid.  In it's place they replaced in my opinion were 2 fantastic shows as Headliner--Frankie and the Dreamers and Beatles Extravaganza. Frankie is based on the Jersey Boys and were fantastic.  The part of Frankie was played by Ryan Molloy who starred in the original London version and also on Broadway.

 

You need to examine the daily planner as there's lots of activities from Karaoke to trivia contests.  Many smaller musical activities in smaller venues.

 

If you want to hear about repetitious, I saw Tony Tillman (singer dancer a la Sammy Davis, Jr.) some half a dozen times on the Anthem.  He's no longer on the Anthem, and to my shocking surprise he was the 1st night Headliner on my January 22 Allure sail.😜

 

 

 

 

Edited June 28, 2022 by nelblu

[CruisingWalter]

8 hours ago, cusematt4 said:

while we have had two great cruises on the anthem, it felt very repetitive and we are worried a third cruise would be even more of the same.  For a ship that continues to leave out of the tri state area with a number of repeat cruisers, it’s surprising they haven’t at least switched the 270 show, ice show and theater shows such as we will rock you.  Even name that tune was the same songs and same order.

 

Unfortunately that is the nature of sailing the same ship in a relatively short timeframe. They will run the same set of programs for years. "switching out shows" is not as easy as it sounds, although other cruise lines like Princess do offer 3 to 4 original shows that always blow me away because I have no idea how one cast remembers all of these shows. Same with Disney. A follower in my Facebook Group noted that MSC had a different original show almost each evening on a 10 night sailing with the same cast.

 

But Royal has really leaned into advanced technological shows so it's harder to multiple shows with the same cast because so much in the theater is dedicated to that one show. So on the one hand you get amazing shows, but on the other hand, less variety in the big venues. 

 

My suggestion would be to simply do something different. Skip the big shows and enjoy the evening in smaller venues. Or relaxing with a cocktail in your favorite bar, or somewhere on the top decks. Make your own entertainment relaxing in conversation with others vs. seeing the big shows. 

 

Another alternative is to price out train travel. When I lived in the Hudson Valley, we made a couple of trips by train to Orlando and honestly, they were wonderful. Good food, wonderful scenery and much more relaxing than the airline experience. Depending on when you might go, it looks like a round trip to Miami from NYC is running about $260-$370pp right now. That's the furthest distance, but you could also stop at Orlando for Port Canaveral or Ft. Lauderdale. It's actually a very cool way to travel allowing you to really see the countryside without the worry of driving. That would you give you a ton of options both for ships and itineraries out of Florida. 

[smokeybandit]

Cruise ships are not designed for someone who wants to sail the same ship over and over.

[Ourusualbeach]

34 minutes ago, nelblu said:

If you want to hear about repetitious, I saw Tony Tillman (singer dancer a la Sammy Davis, Jr.) some half a dozen times on the Anthem.  He's no longer on the Anthem, and to my shocking surprise he was the 1st night Headliner on my January 22 Allure sail.😜

Travelling at Christmas for the past 10 years even though it has been different ships we have seen the same acts quite often.  I guess there are only so many performers willing to work over the Holidays

[dodgestang]

Missing something very important here........ Ice show?  Anthem?   😉 😉 😉  lol

 

Have you consider a short drive to Baltimore?  Heck you could even take the Acela if you didn't want to drive and Uber to the port.

[Another_Critic]

12 minutes ago, dodgestang said:

Missing something very important here........ Ice show?  Anthem?   😉 😉 😉  lol

You've never seen the ice "show" on deck in January/February/March?  😉

 

Grandeur also had an occasional ice "show".  🙂

[RosieRoo]

We’ve sailed Anthem several times since the restart. In March there were hardly any shows due to performers in quarantine. On our B2B Led Zeppagain performed so many times we started calling them Led Zeppagain and again and again and again. Luckily we don’t sail for the shows. 

[Merion_Mom]

10 hours ago, cusematt4 said:

Hi all,

 

we are looking at winter cruises and there seem to be some really good deals on the anthem.  We would like to leave from New York and not deal with the price and hassle of flying.

 

while we have had two great cruises on the anthem, it felt very repetitive and we are worried a third cruise would be even more of the same.  For a ship that continues to leave out of the tri state area with a number of repeat cruisers, it’s surprising they haven’t at least switched the 270 show, ice show and theater shows such as we will rock you.  Even name that tune was the same songs and same order.

 

with only the couple fly on acts and live music potentially being different and more than half of the entertainment being the same, does anyone have any experience with recently sailing on the anthem compared to prior cruises?  While the first cruise was great, the second felt a lot like the same and we are worried the third will be even more repetitive.

 

i know it’s costly to change shows, but does anyone know why Royal Caribbean hasn’t replaced the anthem with a different ship for purposes of providing a slightly different experience with new shows and entertainment for repeat local cruisers?

 

the ncl ships out of New York are almost double the price of many anthem sailings or else we would try that for a change.  And other Royal Caribbean and Norwegian ships would require a flight or else we would consider a different oasis class, quantum class or ncl ship.

 

thank you very much. 

 

As @Another_Criticpointed out, there is no ice rink and thus no ice show on the Anthem, so maybe you are not as familiar with Anthem as you thought!  😉  

 

They literally built We Will Rock You into the ship.  The sets and stage pieces were loaded into the theater before the hull was closed up.  RC has millions and millions of dollars invested in that show.  It's not going to change any time soon.  Heck, on some of the smaller ships, the same production show has been there for 20 years.

 

There is so much to do on the Anthem of the Seas that the ports are irrelevant to me, and the entertainment is good enough that (like @twangster) I go again and again and still enjoy the show.

 

The one thing that I DO agree with you is Name That Tune.  I was on board when Katie Turner hosted the very first performance of that, and we were all holding our breath that it would be successful.  Since then, you are right - they don't switch the songs around, and they SHOULD do that.  Yes, the orchestra would need to learn new music, but that's what they do best.  Same for the singers.  But it's not like switching out an entire production show.  They could still do the same "sing-offs" of the losing contestants.  Just change the songs in the contest.

 

Each year, there are other ships.  Adventure & Oasis are sailing out of Cape Liberty right now - until the end of October.

 

Anthem's January cruises have some great Southern Caribbean ports.  I used to do those every year.

 

And in May, Liberty & Oasis arrive for the summer season.

 

It's all a far cry from when Explorer was the only ship and we had to enter through a tent and a shuttle bus.

 

I have no reason to complain.

 

 

 

[kitkat343]

For us personally, we sail primarily for itinerary and wish the NY based ships had more of the 11 night southern caribbean cruises instead of so many of the same cruise to the Bahamas.  But people must really like that itinerary if the cruise lines keep scheduling that cruise.

 

[twangster]

17 minutes ago, kitkat343 said:

For us personally, we sail primarily for itinerary and wish the NY based ships had more of the 11 night southern caribbean cruises instead of so many of the same cruise to the Bahamas.  But people must really like that itinerary if the cruise lines keep scheduling that cruise.

 

 

A lot of people can't afford two weeks off work.  The sweet spot for North American cruises is the quintessential 7 night cruise.  Those longer cruises can often be a good deal due to the lower demand.  

 

 

 

Edited June 28, 2022 by twangster

[Another_Critic]

26 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

There is so much to do on the Anthem of the Seas that the ports are irrelevant to me, and the entertainment is good enough that (like @twangster) I go again and again and still enjoy the show.

I go to WWRY every cruise, and sometimes more than once, but I've tried Spectra's several times and still ask myself "why did I go again?".

[kitkat343]

8 minutes ago, twangster said:

 

A lot of people can't afford two weeks off work.  The sweet spot for North American cruises is the quintessential 7 night cruise.  Those longer cruises can often be a good deal due to the lower demand.  

 

 

 

Very good point!

[jeh10641]

We have done only one Royal cruise in 2008 on Navigator (transatlantic from Barcelona). We are doing our second in October 2023 on Anthem (transatlantic) so all of the entertainment will be new to us. Not only do we like "big" shows but we like the small venues as well. Our primary cruise line has been HAL with its Music Walk concept.

 

I have been watching a cruise blogger on YouTube who is a break-dancer. He had signed a contract for Virgin's new build only to find out after weeks of rehearsal the ship had been delayed by nearly a year. So, he left the cast. Just another example of what affects entertainment on ships.

 

Jim

[Another_Critic]

The most enjoyable cruise ship entertainment I've experienced was on Azamara Journey.  Very small showroom (not a theater) and you could sit on the edge of the show floor.  You felt like you were part of the show.