Okay trip
Anthem of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Bahamas
8 Night Bahamas (Cape Liberty Roundtrip)
Sail date: November 17, 2018
Ship: Anthem of the Seas
Cabin number: 12556
Traveled as: Family (young children)
Reviewed: 6 years ago
Review summary
Overall it was an okay experience. We have young kids. There was a serious lacking in kids shows and activities. The ship is designed for adults with skydiving simulator and bumper cars. With Skydiving, if you don't book early, you will not get a spot. With Bumper cars, you better get there early or be prepared to wait at least an hour. Instead of bumper cars and skydiving, they should really think of implementing something that more practical that requires less wait. Something a family can utilize on a whim. Not much for young kids. Even the arcade, had minimal appropriate games. There weren't even any shows geared towards kids. Overall, the food was not good. Not in the main dining room, not in the buffet, and not even in the specialty restaurants. The food in the main dining room can be compared to cafeteria food. Certainly not worth the wait. The restaurants have nice tables, and the servers do their best. There is a lack of grandeur that you get on other ships with grand dining rooms. This ship was designed to use dynamic dining. And then they dropped the dynamic part. So now all dining rooms have the same menu. One night I got the Filet (for an additional $16.95) and even though it was cooked well, they forgot the sauce and gave me some sad sides. Went to Chops one night and the food was certainly better, but they forgot one appetizer and the service was not great. They also recently raised the price of Chops to $49 per person. And because the holiday cruise was so busy, there was not much discounting. On another cruise, we got a 3 meal package for $75, which brings the cost per meal to$25. So at $25 per person, it is totally worth it. But once you are over $40 per person, I am not sure it is worth the price. The Buffet was hit or miss. But certainly more of a miss. The food seemed to be the same most nights. They had pork on the carving station probably half the time. There were days when I would find a great item but most everything else was just okay. Notwithstanding, the buffet was still a far better choice than the main dining room. Jonny Rockets: The burgers were good but they were expensive considering. A burger (single and not a double) was $4.95. That is not far from the cost on land. And the burger seemed small. The server also seemed inexperienced. I waited behind one woman for at least 10 minutes, and the staff could not seem to figure out how to enter her order on the register. Not the biggest deal but in the end, I would not recommend going to Jonny Rockets on this ship. Daycare: The daycare was okay. But ultimately the workers will call you to pick up your child if they don't adapt quickly. My son was shy and did not want to participate so they called us regularly. Ultimately, they have a lot of kids to watch over so they just don't have the capacity. Finally we left from NJ in November so we lost a day to the cold in the beginning and another day to the cold at the end. We also ran into some bad weather the second to last day. This cant be avoided sometimes, but they ended up canceling a bunch of activities we were looking forward to, and yet they didn't replace them with anything. So the day was left without much to do. In the end, we have found the Oasis class ships better in every respect. Going forward, we may just stick to that class.Embarkation
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Children's Programs
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
If you take a holiday Cruise, be sure to plan ahead.
Ports of call
Cape Liberty (Bayonne), New Jersey
Cococay (Cruise Line's Private Island)
Disembarkation
7 Comments
skstokes 6 years ago
Woobiescoobie 6 years ago