Good, could have been great.

Wife and I sailed on Royal for the first time in over 20 years.  Some of the problems I had from my previous cruise came up on the Anthem.  First and foremost, the Anthem of the Seas is a gorgeous ship, as was The Song of America was many years ago.  That said, we had some problems with the service on the ship.

1. Luggage was at the wrong room on embarkation day - We happened to see a piece of our luggage in front of another room while walking to our own room.  We retrieved our luggage and went along our way.

2. We used cash for our onboard account, and after adding the amount, I saw on the receipt that the amount had not been added.  Instead of taking me back immediately, I had to go to the back of the line to be served again.

3. Our room steward did not change our soap for the entire cruise.  In addition, the glasses in the bathroom were not changed for 4 days.  We did not complain as I wanted to see how long it would take the steward to notice.  He didn't. This was our 10th cruise (Carnival and NCL prior) and we have never had to remind a steward to change soap or any other bathroom items.

4.  Elevators slowest I've ever encountered.  This is probably because there are only elevators in the bow and mid ship, and not in the aft section.  No ship the size of Anthem should have only two sets of elevators.

4. On the last day of the cruise, we received a note in our room stating some towels were not returned, when in fact they were.  When I went to guest services, they were willing to drop the charge, but when I asked why I received the note in the first place, the representative told me "there's no charge, do want it or not!" His response was unprofessional and I DID complain about that one.

5. Also on the last day, we ate breakfast at The Grande.  I ordered pancakes, hash browns and bacon with a glass of lactose free milk (which I was able to get at The Windjammer with no problem).  The waitress asked me if I had allergies.  I said no. About 10 minutes later, she came back and told me that the cook said there was no pancakes available, so I substituted it with eggs. About 5 minutes after that, she came back and said that the cook said that I could not have hash browns because of a possible allergic reaction (now mind you, she brought me eggs with no problem).  I complained to the head waiter and told him the chef was not a doctor and could not make that type of decision. PS: to add insult to injury, the waitress brought me regular milk, which made my ride home very unpleasant.

Now, despite these complaints, we enjoyed every other part of the cruise (well getting off the ship in Boston with customs was not pleasant, but not the fault of RCCL).  Great entertainment, great food, great group of passengers. Unfortunately our rating could only be good instead of great.