5 Nights on the Anthem of the Seas

Overall the time on the Anthem of the Seas was great.  The ship is large and there is a point where one feels like they are just being tolerated by the crew.

The first item I found issue with are reservations for dining and activities.  If one does not make their reservations in advance there is nothing left and you go on the wait list.  Activities such as, Ripcord by ifly, cannot be reserved in advance.  When I got onboard at 12:00 the day of sailing and attempted to make a reservation there were only 5 time slots left.  Interesting since it was early in the boarding process and about 50% of the passengers were not onboard.  It would have been nice to be able to have more flexibility or have been able to reserve in advance.

Concerning food service.  Overall the food is OK.  The food in the complimentary dining areas, American Icon, Chic, and The Grand, is served from central galleys and is not hot when received.  The buffet food service, Windjammer and Solarium Bistro, although it was good it is what can be expected for buffet service.

One of the dining areas, Chic, has issues with service.  The wait staff is slow and has an attitude that they are busy.  Although we do not like to be rushed through dinner 45 minutes to receive a glass of wine is totally unacceptable.  When we raised a complaint the manager said they were busy, there were empty tables and tables around ours were getting attention.  I do not buy the excuse they were busy since they have the same amount of guests each and every day of the cruise. 

We only had one dinner at Chic but two breakfasts and the breakfast service was slow also.  Again the "excuse" was they were busy and again there were many empty tables in the dining area.

Our stateroom was the highlight of the cruise.  Our stateroom attendant, Theo, was very friendly and went out of his way to provide us with anything we required.  He was one of the crew who made the cruise enjoyable.

Overall the experience was what we expected.  Jamie's Italian and Silk were excellent experiences.  Our server at Silk was energetic and made sure we were not forgotten.  When we were first seated he stopped by the table and told us he would be back in a minute as he needed to find a bottle of wine.  Although it took him more than a minute just the act of acknowledging our presence made a lasting impression.  Perhaps Chic should take lessons from Silk.

For a quick getaway and some time to relax the 5-day Bermuda cruise was a good choice.