Overall we had a Nice Cruise Rating 3.79 rounded Up to 4

Overall we had a Nice Cruise on the Anthem of the Seas. However like most cruises there’s room for improvement. I’ll break my experience/opinions down in categories with separate rating and a 10 average rating will equal 5 Stars for that category and 1 to 2 as a 1 Star and so forth.

Cabin & Cabin Service Rating - 10

The cabin we stay in had plenty of room and storage. The Air condition control work very well making the temp very comfortable. The bathroom was a good size and the shower was larger than most with a closing glass door, very good water flow and temp control. The glass door closed allowed taking a shower without any mirror frog up, or temperature increase to the bathroom, making it comfortable for the next person to shower. (Excellent design).

The Cabin Steward (Rog) was very friendly and did an Excellent job of keeping things clean and was always very timely. Also prompt to replace any shortages towels, paper, etc.

Activity - 8

Many activity. I will not list them all, but do consider Wi-Fi as an activity which had excellent speed (Likely the Best and equal to Quantum) and reasonability priced with competition. Personally I think Wi-Fi should be free to everyone on a cruise. 

Only negative for us was bumper car line control. Even though they tried to control waiting lines, people were saving spaces, and jumping long lines. A simple solution would be the issuing rotating tickets to individuals as they enter the line, and requiring returning issued ticket to board ride. Such a system would prevent rude behavior of line jumpers. No one likes to wait 30 minutes while watching such behavior. I personally found this so upsetting I must subtract 2 points.

Shows – 6

Shows Good, but not exceptional.

After being on over 40 cruises, I felt for a ship this size shows should have been better. Theater show was good but others not nearly the level of other ships in this size range. The Allure, Oasis, and many NCL ships surpassed the shows of the Anthem. In fact we felt the shows on the sister Quantum Ship were better.     

Other entertainment (Bands, Piano Player) - 9

Rock the Boat band was excellent but feel they should have played some slow songs too. On this cruise week the average age was 64 plus, and I was one of those baby boomers.

Restaurants – Complimentary – 5

I actually resent the word complimentary in this case. Let’s face it I paid for the cruise, and I expect the food to be Excellent on board and I expect there to be a good variety of choices. I don’t expect to have to pay extra to get excellent food. Hate to say this but all cruise lines that have specialty restaurants have progressively degraded the quality of food in non-specialty restaurants. That is to say the quality of food isn’t what it used to be. On top of that all the restaurants (3) basically had the same menu and changed very little during this 9 day cruise.

Specialty Restaurants - 6

Of the 3 we tried in two the food and service was very good (Jamie’s we felt was not).  In addition even though they were very good they weren’t as good as some of our local restaurants, yet you were charged the same amount as if you went out to a local restaurants for dinner. Our opinion additional charge needs to be lower of quality of food elevated to exceptional.  

Destinations and Excursions - 9

The destination were as expected, we’ve done many New England Cruises so we did not go on many provided tours. However if these are new destination for you it should be easy to fine a tour you will like. Good be a little better assistance once your outside waiting for tour, but no major complaints.

Embarkation and Disembarkation – Very Good (8)

I feel this category is important, but because of outside factures don’t feel it should be factor in as rating, if you feel differently I would then say 4 Stars here great job boarding, and good job disembarkation. Better in this area than 90% of other cruises we’ve taken.

Totals (10 – 8 - 6 – 9 – 5 – 6 - 9) = 53 / 7 = 7.57 / 2 – Equals 3.79 Stars