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

[livylotte]

10 minutes ago, Pandamonia said:

 

Sadly that drinks package price is long gone. This season was 68 GBP pre cruise and 80GBP per person per day on board with an amazing buy 1 get 5000000% off including a free new liver transplant (Still 80GBP per day though somehow) 

 

 

Gosh that’s a bit steep. Could do with a new liver 🤪 £80 per person will do the trick.

 

I have noticed recently that waiters in the main dining room aren’t so eager to keep the wine flowing. Dragging heels and snails pace come to mind.   When another glass eventually appears it’s always half full.

 

I’ve never got past 3 (half) glasses of wine at dinner - chance would be a fine thing. 
 

Give less and charge more. It’s business I guess. 

 

 

 

 

[Pandamonia]

22 minutes ago, livylotte said:

Gosh that’s a bit steep. Could do with a new liver 🤪 £80 per person will do the trick.

 

I have noticed recently that waiters in the main dining room aren’t so eager to keep the wine flowing. Dragging heels and snails pace come to mind.   When another glass eventually appears it’s always half full.

 

I’ve never got past 3 (half) glasses of wine at dinner - chance would be a fine thing. 
 

Give less and charge more. It’s business I guess. 

 

 

 

 

As I said without diamond I don’t think there is a reason to ever sail royal other than maybe to try their new ships. 
 

wont be long though until royal changes diamond drinks system to screw its customers over again. Let’s face it it’s an easy target and with all their unlimited new customer based with unlimited disposable income why do they need to keep diamond and above members happy when you can charge 20usd for a beer instead of giving them 4 free drinks per day. 
 

 

[Engineroom Snipe]

23 minutes ago, Pandamonia said:

As I said without diamond I don’t think there is a reason to ever sail royal other than maybe to try their new ships. 
 

wont be long though until royal changes diamond drinks system to screw its customers over again. Let’s face it it’s an easy target and with all their unlimited new customer based with unlimited disposable income why do they need to keep diamond and above members happy when you can charge 20usd for a beer instead of giving them 4 free drinks per day. 
 

 

 

I have read many of your posts and I can concur with some of your observations. My last two cruises were not up to the standards I am used to on RCI. For for the amount of money that I paid, they were more than adequate. The total experiences were positive.

 

I have two more this year which were booked over a year ago at very attractive pricing.

 

I have one next year which I locked in at a very good price.

 

I have read enough critiques on multiple postings that my expectations have been lowered significantly concerning food and service but I will still enjoy my booked cruises.

 

After that, unless the pricing is extremely attractive, I am "abandoning ship" for awhile.

 

That is the only significant action which will either improve standards and services or decrease the pricing which I find approaching other vacation experiences. My Crown & Anchor status is nice but not a significant factor in booking a cruise.

[Pandamonia]

33 minutes ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

 

I have read many of your posts and I can concur with some of your observations. My last two cruises were not up to the standards I am used to on RCI. For for the amount of money that I paid, they were more than adequate. The total experiences were positive.

 

I have two more this year which were booked over a year ago at very attractive pricing.

 

I have one next year which I locked in at a very good price.

 

I have read enough critiques on multiple postings that my expectations have been lowered significantly concerning food and service but I will still enjoy my booked cruises.

 

After that, unless the pricing is extremely attractive, I am "abandoning ship" for awhile.

 

That is the only significant action which will either improve standards and services or decrease the pricing which I find approaching other vacation experiences. My Crown & Anchor status is nice but not a significant factor in booking a cruise.

the only reason I booked was FCC. That reason is now spent. 
 

there is a price I’m willing to pay for royals quality the same as you. I think many view cruising this way. I did notice MSC are doing free drinks on 2024 now. Sign of the times

[BND]

2 hours ago, livylotte said:

Gosh that’s a bit steep. Could do with a new liver 🤪 £80 per person will do the trick.

 

I have noticed recently that waiters in the main dining room aren’t so eager to keep the wine flowing. Dragging heels and snails pace come to mind.   When another glass eventually appears it’s always half full.

 

I’ve never got past 3 (half) glasses of wine at dinner - chance would be a fine thing. 
 

Give less and charge more. It’s business I guess. 

 

 

 

 

A "serving" of wine is 4-5oz so half glass (depending on size of glass) is at least a serving.  

[alfaeric]

6 hours ago, Pandamonia said:

I knew I was going to be bad before I got on the ship?

 

anthem is 100% worse in every way than 8 years ago. There is NOTHING that is better. 
 

They put a price rise on EVERYTHING the week before we got on the ship. They cut the room change down to once without informing anyone about it. The increased the packages with one by 50%
 

The food is worse in every venue except maybe windjammer. There is a whole thread on the new cost cutting MDR. 
 

 

You complained about the layout- it's exactly the same as it was 8 years ago.

 

You complained about the distribution of chairs- it's exactly the same as it was 8 years ago.

 

You complained about some of the entertainment- which was exactly the same as it was 8 years ago.

 

You complained about your fellow passengers- pretty much they haven't really changed in 8 years in my cruising experience.

 

The only real massive change was the movement from twice a day to once a day room cleaning if you are sailing in a balcony or lower. 

 

As for the prices, yea, they are higher.  If you were shocked by them, where have you been? It's been 8 freaking years.

 

And there's always, always, always been a debate over the menu.  You didn't like this one, big deal.  I didn't like it 8 years ago, but do now.  But since we get Coastal Kitchen, I'll go there.

 

So if by "everything" you mean some of it, yea, sure.  But you 100% knew of some of your problems you complained about.  And you should have known that the drink prices went up- thankfully, you got 4 free drinks a day.   Which was harder to get 8 years ago.  And how many free bottles of wine did you get to your cabin 8 years ago?

[alfaeric]

2 hours ago, Pandamonia said:

As I said without diamond I don’t think there is a reason to ever sail royal other than maybe to try their new ships. 
 

 

 

Then why are you?  I honestly don't get it.

 

So many other choices in the world and this is what you choose?  Seriously?

 

It's your money, I guess.

[Pandamonia]

7 minutes ago, alfaeric said:

 

Then why are you?  I honestly don't get it.

 

So many other choices in the world and this is what you choose?  Seriously?

 

It's your money, I guess.

Selective reading? 
 

future cruise credits. 

[Pandamonia]

10 minutes ago, alfaeric said:

You complained about the layout- it's exactly the same as it was 8 years ago.

 

You complained about the distribution of chairs- it's exactly the same as it was 8 years ago.

 

You complained about some of the entertainment- which was exactly the same as it was 8 years ago.

 

You complained about your fellow passengers- pretty much they haven't really changed in 8 years in my cruising experience.

 

The only real massive change was the movement from twice a day to once a day room cleaning if you are sailing in a balcony or lower. 

 

As for the prices, yea, they are higher.  If you were shocked by them, where have you been? It's been 8 freaking years.

 

And there's always, always, always been a debate over the menu.  You didn't like this one, big deal.  I didn't like it 8 years ago, but do now.  But since we get Coastal Kitchen, I'll go there.

 

So if by "everything" you mean some of it, yea, sure.  But you 100% knew of some of your problems you complained about.  And you should have known that the drink prices went up- thankfully, you got 4 free drinks a day.   Which was harder to get 8 years ago.  And how many free bottles of wine did you get to your cabin 8 years ago?

see this is where you are wrong. 
 

the seating on deck is nothing like 8 years ago. It’s worse. The food is worse. The quality is worse. I never expected shows from 8 years ago to still be on 3 or 4 times a week. 
 

the crowd has changed a lot since 8 years ago. Less young people more older people and much wider ones too. Clientele has dropped significantly. 

[alfaeric]

14 minutes ago, Pandamonia said:

Selective reading? 
 

future cruise credits. 

so why do you continue to whine about it?  Do you think people will stop sailing?

 

I hope that happens, I want to save money.

[Sunshine3601]

3 minutes ago, Pandamonia said:

did you even read my OP? 
 

there is massive parts of the deck with no sun beds and bars with no chairs. 

The sun deck has more than enough lounge chairs.   We're you on a Norway Fjords cruise where possibly the weather wasn't warm enough or possibly too windy on North Sea for them to put out loungers along every area?  

[Mick B]

Well, I can tell you this, my wife and I enjoyed our TA last October on the Anthem.

I can see why some UK people may be unhappy, my main reason is that although I think the Anthem is a OK ship, she is not as nice as the old Indy was and I do miss that ship. 

Now although the Anthem is bigger and more modern, there was always something special about the Indy.

 

I do enjoy Spectra's Cabaret and have seen it many times and still don't really get it, but I don't care, I just find it highly entertaining if also a bit weird.

Now the only issue I have with "We Will Rock You" is the length - it is nearly 2 hours compared to other shows on other ships which are less than half that time. I have seen this a few times on the Anthem and also Grease on the Indy and I seem to prefer Grease due to its running time. I know they sometimes put "We Will Rock You" on during the day to allow everyone to see it but that then means you miss out on the lovely weather (if somewhere far away from the UK that is!).

 

My first every RCL cruise was on the Indy back in 2008 when she was still the biggest ship and I have been on her more than any other ship and miss her so. I have been on the smaller ships too, but I just prefer the layout of the Indy to the Anthem.

Maybe that is a reason why so many UK folk are unhappy, maybe they want their old friend the Indy back!

 

Also, I preferred the Diamond lounge on the Indy - on top of the ship with great views and a outside section too compared to the Anthem which is a fairly smallish room near the Theatre with a few windows.

 

Although the Anthem has the Ifly and Northstar, these can prove difficult to book and are also weather restricted (and weight restricted too so don't wait until the end of your cruise to try them!) and do at times have a cost to use them (depend on the homeport I think).

The Indy has (or did have) Golf and the Ice Rink. You used to get a couple of nice Ice shows per cruise and they did the Quest in there too.

 

Food wise, My TA was in an Interior so I had dinner in one of the MDR's and the food was much better than the first cruise I had on her in 2019. In 2021 I managed to bag a JS so go the chance to eat in the Coastal Kitchen for dinner and did so every night and that was excellent. This was due to the cruise being a UK only cruise with basically UK only cruisers and running at 25% capacity due to you know what!. I doubt now we are back to normal booking a JS would guarantee entry to the Coastal Kitchen that much (due to Pinnacle and GS guests) and this restaurant was the best thing I found on the ship.

 

Another thing is the Schooner Bar - is it just me or has anyone else every noticed that the bigger the ship, the smaller the Schooner Bar is. On Vision class it is a long room with many seats. On the Indy is was near the front between the Casino and the Theatre, but the one on the Anthem just doesn't feel like a Schooner Bar compared to the others and seems to be far away from anything else that happens.

 

As for sunbeds, I don't like the sun (or should I say my skin doesn't) so I don't spend too much time in it. However, when the weather is nice, I do like to have a drink at the North Star Bar but trying to get one of those nice cushion seats is almost impossible as there was always someone hogging a whole load of them or they have stuff left on them.

 

I do enjoy the Dodgems (sorry Bumper Cars) but as I am now approaching 60, my body may not take too many bumps! I also like the Solarium on the Anthem too but even though it is quite large, getting a bed in there can prove difficult at times too.

 

I think the Royal Promenade on the Indy is better than the Anthem and I always enjoyed the 70s disco night there. The inside of the Anthem reminds me a bit of a shopping centre, but without the shops - although there are a few nearer the Theatre end.

 

My favourite bar on the Anthem is the Vintages near the 270 as the staff are great and I have met some really nice folk in there. The version on the Indy is not as good and the last cruise we were on result in people pushing and shoving, so I enjoyed the Champagne Bar more on the Indy as there were fewer rude people in it.

 

That now brings me to another thing. It doesn't matter what the ship is, doesn't matter where its going, doesn't matter what it cost as these 3 things are controlled by you. The one thing you cannot control (unless you buy every ticket) is the other cruisers who are joining you. 

Maybe its just me again, but I actually enjoy cruises out of the USA and Spain and Italy more than the UK. Is the the people? Maybe, Is it the weather? maybe. Is it because they are normally cheaper? maybe. It is all of these reasons? Possibly!

 

I am usually just happy to be on a ship sailing somewhere and happy that I can afford to do it and happy that I have my health to do it too. I just hope the cruise lines keep the prices low enough for others like me to enjoy this type of holiday and not return cruising to just the well off. 

I have encountered my fair share of rude/sad/abusive/entitled etc people on my cruises but I put that down to maths. If 1% of the population are ****heads then if I sail with 4000 people then there will be approx 40 such people on my cruise. Why they all seem to go and find me is what I can't work out!

No, seriously, we should all try to enjoy our short time together on board more. There is no reason to be so upset with cruising. Look at all of what you get on board and then tell me where you can find all that on land for the same price!

 

Lastly, I just found another reason why us Brits are so upset and moan all the time - it's part of being British! It's what we do best!

 

Mick.

 

 

 

[HBE4]

8 hours ago, Pandamonia said:

What does the price of alcohol in a US city have to do with a cruise that sails out of the UK and visits ports in the EU? 
 

 

Absolutely nothing.  Just responding to a side conversation now that this thread has run it's course and devolved into a "Royal Sucks" vs "No it doesn't" shouting match.

 

I'm not demeaning your posts or thread. After all, It was your cruise experience and it did not meet your expectations.  That's fair. I did skim through your posting history and it does seem you tend to have a mostly negative view of Royal.  Not sure if there are any other cruise lines you are comparing it to.

 

I did have a question about a statement you made with regards Royal sending their one of their worst ships to the UK. Would your travel to another country to try one of their more highly rated ships?

 

I saw you used up the last of your FCC's so it seemed unlikely but as a Diamond member, could you be lured to try another ship/destination?

[blondcat]

7 hours ago, livylotte said:

We’ve been cruising on RC for years and recently sailed (Caribbean at Christmas) with our 3 adult children. All 3 were appalled at the food and couldn’t believe how non existent the evening entertainment was. I guess over the years standards have been slowly slipping so we hadn’t particularly noticed it. 
No complaints re alcohol price on that cruise  though - RC had a special deal for the UK cruisers. I think it was £43 pp including grats.

We will keep cruising with RC but very much doubt DCs will again.

Never sailed on Anthem but not because of the reviews - sailing from Southampton on RC is overpriced and cold half the time.

I'm jealous of the £43PP per day - it's £72 for our adventure of the seas in August! although to be fair it wouldn't be worth me purchasing as my BF is 4 years sober 🙂

 

I'm sorry for the OP who had such an awful time, it must be horrible coming back from holiday feeling disappointed.  Hopefully your next trip, whoever it's with makes up for it.

Edited June 22, 2023 by blondcat

[jeh10641]

On 6/18/2023 at 4:46 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! 

 

 

 

 

To answer your question, I have NOT seen Spectra. We are looking forward to it.

[jeh10641]

6 hours ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

 

I have read many of your posts and I can concur with some of your observations. My last two cruises were not up to the standards I am used to on RCI. For for the amount of money that I paid, they were more than adequate. The total experiences were positive.

 

I have two more this year which were booked over a year ago at very attractive pricing.

 

I have one next year which I locked in at a very good price.

 

I have read enough critiques on multiple postings that my expectations have been lowered significantly concerning food and service but I will still enjoy my booked cruises.

 

After that, unless the pricing is extremely attractive, I am "abandoning ship" for awhile.

 

That is the only significant action which will either improve standards and services or decrease the pricing which I find approaching other vacation experiences. My Crown & Anchor status is nice but not a significant factor in booking a cruise.

Our Anthem cruise marks a return for us to Royal (2008 was our previous experience). We are more fond of HAL trips, longer, music for our taste and great food. Anthem's price for our transatlantic 10/15/23 was under $100/day/pp for a "spacious" ocean view. We are usually inside cabin types.

[meadowlander]

8 hours ago, Pandamonia said:

As I said without diamond I don’t think there is a reason to ever sail royal other than maybe to try their new ships.

$56 in free drinks is worth the misfortune, the aggravation, the disgust endured as detailed in this thread.🤣

[meadowlander]

5 hours ago, Mick B said:

Well, I can tell you this, my wife and I enjoyed our TA last October.

 

I am usually just happy to be on a ship sailing somewhere and happy that I can afford to do it and happy that I have my health to do it too.

 

There is no reason to be so upset with cruising. Look at all of what you get on board and then tell me where you can find all that on land for the same price!

 

Lastly, I just found another reason why us Brits are so upset and moan all the time - it's part of being British! It's what we do best!

 

Mick.

I do not view your post as 'moaning' and from the likes you have received, neither do others. You listed your preferences and criticism in a thoughtful way without resorting to lies, exaggeration, contradictions and attacks on others because they challenge or disagree with your chosen words.

 

Based on the overwhelming number of Brits who repeatedly complain because they expect new productions shows every cruise they sail, I do agree with your last sentence.  For those that do the whining and find only negativity in their Royal cruises without a balance of positive experiences, please sail MSC, P&O, whatever cruise line. Hopefully if you all do and it has an impact Royal will lower their prices for those of us who cruise for enjoyment while having experiences onboard that lessen the pleasure but refrain from whining, exaggerating and presenting false misrepresentations.

 

 

[meadowlander]

6 hours ago, alfaeric said:

And how many free bottles of wine did you get to your cabin 8 years ago?

You must have missed post # 77 in which he claims he got "three 150usd bottles of wine for free" on this Anthem 'poseidon adventure' and he did not have one complaint about the ship sailing upside down back to port!

[2MellowCruisers]

7 hours ago, Pandamonia said:

the crowd has changed a lot since 8 years ago. Less young people more older people and much wider ones too. Clientele has dropped significantly. 

We all have different likes and dislikes and that is ok.  My DH and I disagree on many things and have some very different tastes.  We love to cruise and sometimes do come off a cruise where one of us felt that it was not the best while the other thought it was fantastic.  That is just the way it is and we continue on.  I have read your post and all replies and figure you have valid reasons to feel the way you do.  While I don’t agree with some of your opinions, they are yours to have.  But I have to say that as an older person who is also wider, the fact that me just being on a ship that you are also on would make you dislike your cruise so much makes me question all your other points.  Drinks, prices, shows etc. can be subjective, but the quote above is just mean.  Outside of people being rude or nasty to other passengers or crew, I have never let other passengers looks be a factor in whether I enjoyed a cruise or not.  Even on cruises when I was younger and not as wide.  Cruises are such a great thing and we are grateful that we can cruise when time permits.  I hope you do find a ship or cruise line that makes you happy.

[teddie]

31 minutes ago, 2MellowCruisers said:

We all have different likes and dislikes and that is ok.  My DH and I disagree on many things and have some very different tastes.  We love to cruise and sometimes do come off a cruise where one of us felt that it was not the best while the other thought it was fantastic.  That is just the way it is and we continue on.  I have read your post and all replies and figure you have valid reasons to feel the way you do.  While I don’t agree with some of your opinions, they are yours to have.  But I have to say that as an older person who is also wider, the fact that me just being on a ship that you are also on would make you dislike your cruise so much makes me question all your other points.  Drinks, prices, shows etc. can be subjective, but the quote above is just mean.  Outside of people being rude or nasty to other passengers or crew, I have never let other passengers looks be a factor in whether I enjoyed a cruise or not.  Even on cruises when I was younger and not as wide.  Cruises are such a great thing and we are grateful that we can cruise when time permits.  I hope you do find a ship or cruise line that makes you happy.

Thank you for addressing the “wider” comment with such civility.  There is a sad lacking of that these days.  
 

teddie

Edited June 22, 2023 by teddie

[Mick B]

Hi,

Just one thing about Spectra.

If you can, try to get a seat upstairs (If you are D+, Pinnacle or in a Suite then there are seats reserved for you) and remember all seats become available just before the show starts anyway.

The reason I suggest this is because of the layout of the 270, some of the downstairs seating may be in areas where parts of the show occur at the side or behind you causing you to have to keep turning and missing other parts.

This show not only has multiple people on multiple stages, but also has those large LCD screens displaying stuff too.

Also, the show is quite loud so sitting upstairs is just about right.

Like I said in a previous post, the show makes no sense, but it is entertaining! No spoilers here!

IIRC the quickest way to get upstairs is to enter with the main downstairs seating and then take the stairs to your left as you enter.

Enjoy!

 

Mick.

 

Edited June 23, 2023 by Mick B

[Pandamonia]

On 6/21/2023 at 7:12 PM, meadowlander said:

You are forgetting that the op is a diamond member and is entitled to receive 4 drinks with a combined value of $56. Op endures the hardships of Anthem for those extra free 4 drinks. We all should be offering "cheers mate" for the pain and suffering he endures as he alerts us of the tragedies he incurs for 4 free drinks & 50% off a Johnny Rocket milkshake! 🤑

What is funny is that you think its only 56usd of free drinks. 
 

56 x 2 is 108 usd x 12 days is $1296 
 

turn those to doubles and that’s 9usd per drink which is $864 

 

$2160 = £1728

 

So royals poor quality and problems are offset by over $2160 of free alcohol and other drinks. In a season where no cruises were including free drinks this is a win because this is over 2 grand I didn’t give royal or need to spend and I went on the cruise with £1800 of FCC 

 

I even got £200 extra credit because they cocked up my booking so that’s £2000 FCC. 

 

Royal wants to play stupid games they can win some stupid prizes. 

 

 

[Pandamonia]

15 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

The sun deck has more than enough lounge chairs.   We're you on a Norway Fjords cruise where possibly the weather wasn't warm enough or possibly too windy on North Sea for them to put out loungers along every area?  

no it doesn’t lol and no I was on canaries we had sun for 12 days. One windy day where top deck closed. 
 

if they had enough there wouldn’t have been as many complaints would there? 
 

there is 1000 sun chairs for 5000 potential passengers. 

[zeberdee]

Just thought I'd add my observations after our Anthem cruise out of Southampton ( followed by an Independence cruise a week later out of Italy).

Although the Anthem is a nice modern ship we didn't enjoy it as pointed out by others not nearly enough seating anywhere in the bars or at the pools. It just seemed busy and noisy everywhere. Service at the MDR and bars was very slow. Food choices in MDR were ok but so limited that we went to the Windjammer which we still found had very limited choices. The same dishes were repeated on the different  food stations.

We did find that the shows were ok.

We are not new to Royal but found the whole experience very disappointing. 

 

Move on a week and our cruise on the Independence couldn't have been more different.

Service was fantastic at the bars and all of the restaurants, it never seemed so busy that you felt penned in. We were able to get seats at all the bars, and the shows were pretty good.

The food choices were also so much more varied, which doesn't make sense?

 

I would like to point out that this is our opinion and that we are not older travellers.

We will never choose to go on the Anthem again, this ship just seemed low end in service and food.