Never seen so many unhappy people on RCCL Cruise - Anthem out of UK

[Lady Hudson]

7 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Yes, but unlike her older sisters, she doesn't have an indoor pool.

Got it.  Let’s hope those watching the solarium area keep the kids out.  I have, on occasion,  seen the staff allow kids in solariums when the weather has been really cold.  Time will tell.

[Pandamonia]

2 minutes ago, Lady Hudson said:

Got it.  Let’s hope those watching the solarium area keep the kids out.  I have, on occasion,  seen the staff allow kids in solariums when the weather has been really cold.  Time will tell.

 

I didnt go in the pool on Anthem. It was the floating child vomit and turds that somehow made it less than appealing. It spent half the time closed or drained it seemed to me. There is also nothing more relaxing than having a small child play in the hot tubs like like its bath time. 

 

 

[Spif Barwunkel]

We will be two happy people boarding the Anthem on 5/26/24 and cruising b2b from Southampton ending the voyage(s) on 6/14/24. Both itineraries offer some bucket list items that we will be able to check off. Whereas I do not refute or dispute anyone's unpleasant experiences, on any cruise, I do not let them affect our cruise planning nor the cruises themselves. For example, number of sunbeds and their placement in relation to indoor and outdoor pools and the sun's direction seems trivial, even in the shade.

 

The Anthem will be a most enjoyable experience. Having never been to England, we will enjoy a few days in London/Southampton, pre-cruise. Post-cruise, we will be disembarking as those same two happy people, with exception of course to the cruises end. Another RCCL "happy ship" experience. It's all in the attitude!

[twangster]

2 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Yea, I don't get the placement of Odyssey into NJ in winter

 

Q class is the right size capacity for Bayonne winter demand.  So I think Odyssey going there for the winter is a matter of least of all evils. 

 

Icon class?  Nope.  Oasis class?  Nope.  Freedom class?  Nope.  Voyager class?  Nope.  What other ship is in the Atlantic?  Odyssey.  

 

While she doesn't have an indoor family pool neither does any other ship in the Atlantic.  The rest of her is suited to cold weather cruising.  

[nelblu]

39 minutes ago, twangster said:

 

Q class is the right size capacity for Bayonne winter demand.  So I think Odyssey going there for the winter is a matter of least of all evils. 

 

Icon class?  Nope.  Oasis class?  Nope.  Freedom class?  Nope.  Voyager class?  Nope.  What other ship is in the Atlantic?  Odyssey.  

 

While she doesn't have an indoor family pool neither does any other ship in the Atlantic.  The rest of her is suited to cold weather cruising.  

The better choice would have been to move Ovation from Australia in their planning as it has an indoor pool.

[twangster]

1 hour ago, nelblu said:

The better choice would have been to move Ovation from Australia in their planning as it has an indoor pool.

 

The easy thing would be leaving Anthem in the Atlantic.  

 

It's not easy moving ships between the Atlantic and Pacific.    They need Ovation in the Pacific for Alaska.   

[Tree_skier]

23 hours ago, Pandamonia said:

well for a start record bookings don’t take in to account the billions in FCC credits people are using and when they run out we will see what the real demand looks like. 
 

I’m guessing the FCC credits are hidden in the 24 billion debt pile as liabilities 

 

it’s easy to spend big on a cruise when your cabin was covered by a FCC. 
 

let’s see what happens when FCC are gone people are paying full price and rates hit 6% and recession arrives. 
 

$560 usd per person average on board spending seems low considering drinks packages alone are now $80 per day. 

 

Wall Street seems to be betting on a very bright future.

 

 

[ONECRUISER]

On 6/18/2023 at 5:47 AM, Pandamonia said:

 

People were dragging sun loungers the 50% of the length of the ship to put them there and because they did they they layed them out in such a way nobody else could sit there and made it like their own person sun balcony.

 

The people made this ship worse than it could have been. 

And that's the problem here. Fellow passengers can make the Cruise. Use to Cruise Peak Months every yr. Last 21yrs have only done longer Sailings, off Season on older Radiance Class Ships(use to be Vision). Usually about 80% Capacity, no Family/Kids running around and no fighting over my Favorite Seats around the Ship. I let my Kids/Grands enjoy the Summer Cruises on newer ships without Papa joining. Though do feel for those don't have this option

Edited June 20, 2023 by ONECRUISER

[teddie]

On 6/18/2023 at 7:46 AM, Pandamonia said:

Well RCCL seems to be doing their best to upset the European market as best as they can. I had a pretty mediocre cruise which was made as good as can be by the fact that the staff were brilliant and the food edible in speciality (except rubbish Jamies Italian) 

 

Im convinced that underperforming ships are now sent to Southampton and other Euro ports as punishment for bad customer reviews. I was told that Anthem is the 3rd worst ranked ship in the whole fleet for customer satisfaction. This is both from the US market and the UK market so there is no better performance when they are being tipped better by the US customers. Your experience is clearly just as bad as ours even when you pay the 16 USD per day staff tax as well as extra on all of the services and drinks. 

 

It seems that nobody in the UK i met liked the Anthem or the Quantum class in general. Whilst its not my favourite ship i personally dont mind it but its got some stupid design choices and just isnt suitable for UK sailings. 

 

The biggest complaint was the sunbed situation. OMG this just ruined so many peoples holiday and its purely Royals fault. Never enough sunbeds and there is loads of space to put them in they just dont have them or have them in totally useless locations such as in the shade. Entire sections of deck had nothing in them which meant that people would just hog them all day for fear of losing a place to sit in the sun. Even the sky bar has space for about 50 high chairs or more but it seems like there is about 10-15 and a load of standing up space???? Only after a complaint did the staff start policing sunbed policy but this doesnt actually fix the problem it just means that you cannot leave to go lunch or anywhere because your bed will be gone. So people felt their experience was being ruled by having to keep the sunbed. So much of the top deck is now wasted by chargeable gimmicks such as Northstar, iFly, and the very poor deck design of quantum that there is just limited places to sit in the sun in general. This means that people are need the same space if the sun is shining in a particular direction or the wind is being a nightmare down the self generated wind tunnel that quantum has created with the annoyingly placed walking track. 

 

Second biggest complaint was the total lack of seating in most of the bars with the entertainment in them. The music hall isnt too bad but basically they had the same band on all week and with such a limited vocalist most of the songs were hard to listen to and the dancefloor was basically a play ground for children below school age. The chance of getting a seat in baleros was basically zero, same with scooner bar but vintages was fine but nothing happens in there anyway so its pointless. 270 was ok if you wanted to sit through Spectras show for the 10th time in your life and you wanted to have the view obscured by one of the most annoying locations for a giant glowing LED lamp you have ever seen. But basically if there was something on you didnt have a seat until it finished and then you sat in an empty location with nothing happening. 

 

Entertainment - i went on this ship 8 years ago at launch and im amazed to see Spectra 8 years older performing the same show 5 times per week as was the case at launch.... Seriously.... STILL? The only upside was the show is so forgettable that at least id forgotten most of it. The robot screens are just no longer very impressive though. Has We Will Rock you seriously been on this ship for the whole 8 years as well? Is there anyone on this forum NOT seen this show multiple times by now?  

 

Food - Windjammer seems to be vastly improved and service seemed excessive. Its gone from cant get a drink to they wont let you fetch your own coffee without catching you on the way to the self service coffee cart.... Not sure how i feel about it as it just seems like someone has dumped a load of staff here to 'improve service' but its basically service i dont need. If im fetching my own food i may as fetch my own juice. 

 

Speciality dining -

 

Jamies Italian  - Needs shutting down just like the bankrupt franchise that it was.

Chops Grill - Food generally good but stick cooking steaks in the oven which results in overcooked steaks 70% of the time. Order them rare and you get medium a lot of the time.

Izumi is the latest Royal scam introduced. price increased to 39.99 USD and you get 50% less sushi rolls now. So the fixed priced menu is now actually more expensive than if you ordered the same items a la carte. Yes you can now pay 40 USD for 30 USD of food. As we had UDP we didnt really care and the staff knew it was a scam and give us what ever we asked for anyway as they just wanted a good survey score and the food and service was always good. 

Wonderland - Same menu for 8 years running.... Food was ok, getting bored of same stuff though. Can they really not think of anything else to serve?

Pub food - Was good 8 years ago. Terrible now. wouldnt eat there again. 

Vintages - for some reason cant eat on UDP so dont know. 

Johnny Rockets - Nice burgers and fresh chips. Terrible chicken tenders which were also in Windjammer for free and Milkshakes are not great. Milk, icecream and Syrup = artificial high calorie synthetic tasting gloop. Is it really that hard to use some real strawberries instead of Hershey's Syrup? 

Chefs table - Probably the best bit was the wine. 2 of the 5 courses were from other restaurants. Fillet Steak from chops and the World Dessert from Wonderland we had the day before! Guess what.... they over cooked that steak as well. He marinated the steak in olive oil overnight.... lol.... for tenderness he said? Well im pretty sure that didnt do anything. After eating it i was sure it did nothing. Pretty lazy to serve 2 courses from other speciality dining restaurants. 

 

Staff told me it was good i wasnt on there a couple months ago as the complaints about the food were crazy bad. One 10 year veteran waiter told me that hes never seen the food so bad but a new set of chefs were sent on board to improve things. Thus proving things can always be worse. 

 

Royals Price hiking has found its limit -

 

UDP was cheaper on the week before we sailed resulting in 2 pages full of UDP guests on the Johny Rockets UDP list. Royal raised price by 50% on my sailing resulting in 18 guests with the UDP thats pretty poor and shows Royal dynamic prices has zero to do with sales its just a game the system plays to keep you guessing. The speciality dining was dead nearly all of the cruise. 20% of the tables full on any given night. Revenue must be tanking.

 

Drinks package - Never seen so few people with it. Everyone said 68 GBP pre cruise was a joke and 80GBP on the cruise even worse. Irony is that now i dont have the drinks package there seems plenty of waiters asking if i want a drink! The revenue must be down massively on this. 

 

Drink prices - Laughable. 68 USD per bottle for the cheapest sparking wine on the ship? With just one choice under 100USD? 15 USD for a cocktail now... 8.25 for a bottle of beer. 13 - 15 USD per glass of wine. I have never seen so few alcoholic drinks consumed on a cruise in my life. Probably helped by the fact nobody could sit at the outdoor bars to drink anyway as the few chairs were camped in all day by sunbathers not drinking.

 

Royals drinks package would have cost us 1630 GBP for 12 nights. That's over 2000 USD.  My bar bill was 200 USD by end of the cruise.  Well done Royal. Im sick and tired of drinkers subsidising the price of the cruise for none drinkers. Im not playing this game any more. Raise the cabin prices, remove the staff tax per day and price the drinks reasonably like MSC or P&O. This isnt the US market. You cannot get away with it here. I bet the revenue proves it. 

 

Diamond status - The ONLY reason id ever consider sailing with Royal now. 4 drinks per day each, free days wifi, Diamond Lounge with free Coffee and nice food and a relaxing place to sit and listen to people talk about how bad Royal has gotten it seems. 

 

16 USD per day Staff tax now includes only 1 room clean per day. Going Fleet wide!. 4 USD goes to Stateroom attendant they said. Stateroom guy told me he gets 3 USD per day. 5 USD is going to something called 'Hotel Services' What part of the ship deserves more than my room attendant who literally folded all my clothes every day i left out? The tumble drier? the washing machine? How much do i get for fetching my own towels every day from the ONE open towel station at the other end of the ship? 

 

I think now all my FCC are used up its time to explore other cruise lines and holidays and from the sounds of it other people will be doing the same going forward. 

 

Im sure the Royal fans will come down on the above but you got to remember that this isnt the US, this isnt the newest or best ship in the fleet and some of the above are common themes from many guests and it was YOU the US market which scored them down to the 3rd lowest score in the entire Royal Fleet! 

 

 

 

 

Good idea to explore other options, as you were less than thrilled.  We sailed Anthem in Feb 2023, and had a mostly positive experience (and a great fare!).  Noticed changes in crew engagement/service (our previous cruise was over 8 years ago) but nothing horrid. Sailing her again this November out of Bayonne, which is a 30 minute drive from where we live.  We liked the ship, most of the food, the solarium, and our Diamond drinks.  It's still the best bang for the buck as far as we are concerned.  

 

Teddie

Edited June 20, 2023 by teddie

[nelblu]

2 hours ago, twangster said:

 

The easy thing would be leaving Anthem in the Atlantic.  

 

It's not easy moving ships between the Atlantic and Pacific.    They need Ovation in the Pacific for Alaska.   

Ovation to Alaska from the Pacific?  With proper planning, Royal can place the proper ship in the proper port.  Remember, Quantum was moved to the Far East from Bayonne, not so long ago.

[nelblu]

55 minutes ago, teddie said:

30 minute drive from where we live.

I love it.  It takes me 45 minutes from the ship, bags, Customs, garage and home.

 

Love the layout of the WJ on the Q class.  The best of all the ships (IMO).

[The Fun Researcher]

4 hours ago, Lady Hudson said:

Got it.  Let’s hope those watching the solarium area keep the kids out.  I have, on occasion,  seen the staff allow kids in solariums when the weather has been really cold.  Time will tell.

Just remember the Solarium is good for 16 years old and older.  So some of those "kids" might be totally following the rules.  I know we'll have my 16 year old son in the Solarium next month on the Quantum.

[twangster]

1 hour ago, nelblu said:

Ovation to Alaska from the Pacific?  With proper planning, Royal can place the proper ship in the proper port.  Remember, Quantum was moved to the Far East from Bayonne, not so long ago.

 

Nearly a decade ago.

 

With Spectrum going back to China Qauntm may be staying out of Alaska.   Spectrum leaves the pool of available  ships.   We may see Anthem do Alaska, or Anthem may do Australia.   Time will tell.   Any way you shake the snow globe it seems Q class is doing well and right sized for the Pacific markets.  I don't see them pulling one back through the Suez anytime soon.  

[vjw1218]

Please tell us something you actually liked on this cruise/ship. 

Edited June 20, 2023 by vjw1218
deleted post.

[nelblu]

2 minutes ago, vjw1218 said:

Please tell us something you actually liked on this cruise/ship. 

Hope when they say arrivederci to Royal, they stay away from this board.

[John&LaLa]

7 hours ago, Lady Hudson said:

Odyssey is quantum class, correct?  Lots of indoor venues.  We have been on both  Quantum and Anthem out of NJ - Anthem many times.  Never have seen a problem with kids in solarium — possible because of the indoor family pool?  I am looking forward to Odyssey out of NJ — already booked.  Katherine 

 

No indoor pool like Anthem

[John&LaLa]

5 hours ago, Lady Hudson said:

Got it.  Let’s hope those watching the solarium area keep the kids out.  I have, on occasion,  seen the staff allow kids in solariums when the weather has been really cold.  Time will tell.

 

That's going to be the problem. 

 

I can see the announcement now.

"Due to the weather, we will be having family time in Solarium from noon till 4:00 the next few days. We appreciate your understanding."

[John&LaLa]

5 hours ago, twangster said:

 

Q class is the right size capacity for Bayonne winter demand.  So I think Odyssey going there for the winter is a matter of least of all evils. 

 

Icon class?  Nope.  Oasis class?  Nope.  Freedom class?  Nope.  Voyager class?  Nope.  What other ship is in the Atlantic?  Odyssey.  

 

While she doesn't have an indoor family pool neither does any other ship in the Atlantic.  The rest of her is suited to cold weather cruising.  

 

Why not just keep the status quo of Anthem?

[nelblu]

3 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Why not just keep the status quo of Anthem?

I'm looking froward to the change in ships, but other than the pools both outside and indoor what are some of the other differences between them.

[John&LaLa]

3 minutes ago, nelblu said:

I'm looking froward to the change in ships, but other than the pools both outside and indoor what are some of the other differences between them.

 

One big dining room

 

Giovanni is different,  I like it a lot

El Loco Fresh where Johnny Rocket's is

Suite deck moved to under North Star

Playmaker in Sea Plex

Really nice Izumi outside Jammer

 

Not sure what else, other than different shows

Edited June 20, 2023 by John&LaLa

[twangster]

32 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Why not just keep the status quo of Anthem?

 

With Spectrum going back into China they needed to back fill her.  Singapore has been going well I suspect.  Plus the shipyard in Singapore knows this class and seems to do a good job on the 5 year dry docks so maybe the dry dock was a good price with availability to service Anthem when she is due. 

[Pandamonia]

1 hour ago, nelblu said:

Hope when they say arrivederci to Royal, they stay away from this board.

funny. It’s call cruisecritic isn’t it here?

 

not cruisefanboi.com

 

dont get upset just because my standards are higher than yours. We don’t all enjoy squeezy cheese. 

[KroozNut]

1 hour ago, vjw1218 said:

Please tell us something you actually liked on this cruise/ship. 

 

I believe OP posted that their $1 bribes worked for extra drinks, but other than that...nothing.

[KroozNut]

2 minutes ago, Pandamonia said:

We don’t all enjoy squeezy cheese. 

 

Dare I ask you to elaborate? 😬

[nelblu]

5 minutes ago, Pandamonia said:

funny. It’s call cruisecritic isn’t it here?

 

not cruisefanboi.com

 

dont get upset just because my standards are higher than yours. We don’t all enjoy squeezy cheese. 

Wishful thinking. Are you a British elitist.