Beautiful Boat, No Activities, Sub-Par Food- Never again Royal!!

Item: Anthem of the Seas
Rating: 3
Author: GPD3

Anthem of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

GPD3

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 8

Overall rating:

3 out of 5

Verified Review

9 Night Bermuda & Caribbean (Cape Liberty Roundtrip)

Sail date: June 28, 2018

Ship: Anthem of the Seas

Cabin number: 12294

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

Spent twice the cost of a Carnival or Norwegian 14 day as this ship raves about kids activities.. HUGE mistake! Nothing to do- ever. Pool was tiny, never any activities. Cruiseline doesn’t value guests time- spent at least an hour per day (from day one to the day we left) with guest services trying to get our statements corrected because they didn’t apply our drink packages correctly. Wait Staff was excellent, cruiseline not so much. Will never sail with Royal again...

Embarkation

1 out of 5

Easy and well organized. On the ship in 20 minutes start to finish.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

2 out of 5

Food always cold and tasteless. No 24 hour buffet. Only thing open past 9pm for food (besides specialty) is the pizza cafe.

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5

1 tiny outdoor pool big enough only for standing, not swimming. Two other pools indoor and small as well. No poolside activities (hairbraiding, henna, game giveaways, bellyflop/cannonball competitions)- NOTHING to do during the day for adults OR kids

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Children's Programs

2 out of 5

Service and Staff

3 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Ports of call

Cape Liberty (Bayonne), New Jersey

5 out of 5

King's Wharf, Bermuda

3 out of 5

Not enough time in the port to see all we wanted to see.

Thumbs Up 0

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

4 out of 5

Not enough time in the port to see all we wanted to see.

Thumbs Up 5

San Juan, Puerto Rico

2 out of 5

Not enough time in the port to see all we wanted to see.

Thumbs Up 3

Labadee (Cruise Line Private Island)

1 out of 5

Disembarkation

1 out of 5

16 Comments

snap123 6 years ago

Not true. Lots to do. We had a great time. Sorry you didn’t. You’re trip is what you make.

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waterwitch1313 6 years ago

Sorry to hear you had a bad time! We were on Anthem last April for 8 days and are going again this August. We found tons of family things to do, bumper cars, roller skating, and ifly were some of the best. The pools were pretty standard for a cruise ship and the food was amazing especially at Jamies’ and Wonderland. I have read several of the “bad” reviews of Anthem and most seem to be because people didn’t do their research and plan ahead.

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SuePitz 6 years ago

The Cruise Compass will tell you when the belly flop competition is, as well as a ton of other things, to do. Every cruise I've been on had belly flop. Anthem is a great ship, sailed her twice. Can't wait to make it 3.

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garygoods 6 years ago

We were on in May and there were plenty of activities especially around the pool. Also the seaplex, North Star, rock climbing , sky diving simulator and flo rider. I can’t understand how one cruise would vary from another

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cruisemylife 6 years ago

They had belly flop on my anthem cruise and if you missed it, turn on tv it was on there rest of the cruise..they have kids club for all ages..

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Cherie3 6 years ago

We had a wonderful cruise on Anthem this past February. Loved it so much we are sailing on her again February 2019. Lots to do, pools were awesome, food was delicious. We didn’t have kids with us, but did you check out Seaplex?! Bumper cars, roller skating, basketball, fooseball, ping pong, air hockey, Xboxone stations, arcade. There was also a rock climbing wall. Nightly outdoor movies. Entertainment in the Music Hall and Brass & Bock were great. Sorry your cruise didn’t meet your expectations.

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CJH1120 6 years ago

Sounds like your experience was very different than mine last year in February. I was having issues with to much I wanted to do and not enough time to do it all.

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wkljny 6 years ago

I will be there July 2019 and I will see all the things that "weren't there" on YOUR cruise

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wkljny 6 years ago

No belly flop competition on a ROYAL CARIBBEAN CRUISE SHIP??? Unheard of, pal!!!!!

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EssexGirls 6 years ago

What about the large solarium pool. They had poolside activities when we sailed. Plenty to do beautiful ship x

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shopaholic6 6 years ago

Who on earth wants a cruise that does hair braiding and henna? Sounds like you’d be better off in Magaluf!😂

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bkshipley85 6 years ago

This has to be fake, I couldn't do it all when I was on board. They always had poolside activities just not hair braiding or henna. The bakery was also 24hrs.

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peli42002 6 years ago

Sounds like u didn't plan ahead. You know the time spent at port when u book, never been on a cruise where they had a pool to swim laps in either

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shopaholic6 6 years ago

So - did you not manage to find the iFly, or the North Star, the Escape Room, the bumper cars etc.?

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melnraff 6 years ago

Sorry you had a bad experience I’m going on the anthem in a few weeks I hope my experience will be better.

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GospelCruiser 6 years ago

I been on RC 3 times out of our 4 cruises and never had a problem,love RC! Our 1st was with Carnival and we will be on carnival in Febr,loved Carnival too,have never had a bad experience cruising yet except for while in Falmouth Jamaica,but that wasn't the cruise lines fault,that was our third party through jaital.com fault,will never book through them again!

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Other reviews of this sailing

Great experience

Best cruise ever!

Anthem 6/28-7/7/18