Anthem of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

THIS WAS THE BEST CRUISE I'VE TAKEN. THE SHIP WAS GREAT, THE CREW WAS GREAT, THE FOOD WAS GREAT. ALSO LOTS OF THINGS TO DO. THEY KEPT US BUSY AND INFORMED

 ALL THE WAY ABOUT WEATHER,SHOPPING,DINNING, SALES, YOU NAME IT WE WERE NEVER IN THE LEARCH. WE WOULD LOVE TO DO THIS AGAIN!!

The ship was amazing with so much to do.  The food was great, the staff extremely attentive.  The casino was a ton of fun b/c the dealers were very friendly and nice and interacted great with the players.  It was Spring break with over 1,000 kids on board and they were so well entertained and kept busy you didn't even realize there were kids on the ship.  Simply loved it!

On The Anthem of the Seas ship was a rewarding experience. Once aboard the ship I felt and was treated like I was the guess of honor. The staff in the staterooms treated myself and my husband as they knew us and we were returning home. It was a pleasure each time we saw them. Our stateroom was always clean and well taking care of. Our dining experience was outstanding and at the top. We were always taking care of in a timely manner. We booked our next cruise while onboard and it's with the same ship! 

Hello, we have been back a couple days and overall I would say it was a nice cruise, with ups and downs. For the amount of money we spent (balcony cabin)(not 1st time cruiser), I cannot say that cruising is a value any longer, I wanted to come home feeling wowed and refreshed. The ship albeit lovely and pristine was riddled with opportunities for upcharge. Everywhere you turn RCCL is trying to hit your wallet. There are pushy sales people in the Esplanade throwing raffle tickets at you, demostrations that are only meant to sell you something, there are now up-charges for anything decent to eat from room service (even that was nasty, I tried all of it). The main DR menus have upcharge items as well. There are more crew members walking around trying to sell you dining packages than there are bartenders trying to get you drinks (non existent). The gift shops intentionally don't sell decent souveniers so that you bum rush the flash sales when they happpen, a marketing technique to draw crowd and encourage frenzy (it was bad, i mean humanity at its finest trying to get tshirts). In the old days of cruising, you felt that every activity/meal was special, but with so many upcharge items you feel like you are "missing out" and you get easily suckered in, especially when the upcharge items have 500% better quality than the complimentary items. How can it be "complimentary" when you paid for it in your fare. Please, do your research. Because of ship size/passenger amount Everything should be reserved months before you board, I mean dining, excursions, shows, North Star, Ifly, Florider, everything. You will not be able to go in to shows if they are booked up. Its like Disney now with the reservations. The days of willey nilley do want you want on your own schedule on the ship are long gone apparently. It really sucks the fun out of it, and they are building even bigger ships! I had done my research I thought it was down pat, schedule printed, like the nerd I am, until I found out too late that you need "tender" tickets to leave the ship to go to cococay, I lost almost 2 hours on the island, i was devastated. Like everyone says ship is modern, clean and beautiful, but RCCL must have borrowed $ from a loan shark or something in order to need to hit everyone up they way they do. Crew were excellent with one exception, I had experienced one rude crew member. Two70 amazing venue, shows were very good, live music, Music Hall all great. Wonderland, awesome if you get John from Serbia, other waiters kind of boring, Chops was infinitly better cuts of meat than main DR (wtf?) My best moments were alone on my balcony drinking coffee watching the sea roll by. However I could have spent 10 days in Europe for what I spent on this trip when you include all of the add ons, and I came home feeling a little bummed, and taken advantage of. I am thinking i need to cruise on a smaller/less expensive line next time (with less add ons), even though I have been a loyal RCCL cruiser for several years. Please consider your vacation philosophy when booking, if you dont mind schedules, rushing,  lines, waiting, and getting every place 45 minutes early to get a seat/chair, begging for a waiter to bring you a  14 dollar cocktail that has less than a 1 oz. of alcohol in it, then this is cruise for you!

The ship is very clean and everything is well thought out. If your goal is relaxation I'd say a resort is the way to go. But for those with kids who are looking for activities, you can't go wrong. I thought there would be more adult oriented hang outs late at night, but it's not uncommon to see children around bar areas past midnight. So this was my first cruise and it wasn't quite what I expected, it's not that it was bad it's just that it was very much better suited for families with younger kids. 

THE BAD         .I love meeting people from our cultures , but on this boat , there was a lot of miscommunication between staff and patrons. This was a constant complaint I not only witnessed but heard from others as well. Too many people and not enough elevators. Long waits for one and then when you did get on one you would be crammed in like sardines. Long waits just to eat and the to find a table in the buffet area was a chore and a half. The staff made announcements asking people to be courteous but you would see people sitting and not even eating. This was the first cruise in four that I have taken and by the fourth day couldn't wait for it to end. Boring days waiting for the ship to start entertainment followed by high prices for drinks. 3.00 $ for a bottle of water that you can buy a case of for 3.99 in any store on land. There jewelry sales were a joke as well. One of the reasons I went on this cruise was, to replace a watch I had bought in nassau a few yrs ago. The ship had many fine looking stores and on day 5 I went to the 75% off watch sale and found a nice watch for 129.00. As I was standing in line to pay for it a fellow in front of me was checking the Internet for comparison reasons for one he was going to buy. His was 875.00 down to 189.00 appox. He showed me the exact same watch he could buy from invicta for 134.50. I was appalled that this. How many people got duped paying the higher price only to find out the sale price was way over priced as well. My wife developed a migraine while on a excursion on nassau and when we got back to the boat I went to the store to see if the had any OTC meds. After waiting a hour for the store to open I was informed they didn't stock anything like that and to go to medical on deck 2. I proceeded to medical and  I told the nurse THE situation she informed me that my wife would have to come down to medical her self and there would be at a minimum 190.00 dollar charge to our seapass card and meds were on top of that. I then told her we had bought the insurance thru our travel agent when we booked the cruise and again she informed me that they don't take any kind of insurance. I have to pay upfront and get reimbursed from the insurance company. Thank goodness after sleeping in our dark room for 7 hours she recovered enough to function. 

THE GOOD    , thank God we heard this band SYNERGY ( which was there first day scheduled to play according to katrina love) playing on day three in the one lounge because they made a boring cruise tolerable. Katrina Love can work a room like no one else I have ever seen. She was engaging and entertaining. The two comedians they had were funny but not enough time on stage. 3 hrs out of the whole week.the food was very good when you could finally get thru the crowds to get to it. Our state room attendant was very nice and cordial our waiter and waitress in the ICON restaurant were very good as well. 

The entire cruise lived up to our highest expectations.

The itinerary was just right for us - the staff was responsive and cooperative- always eager to enhance our enjoyment.

The food was excellent. Our dining experience in Silk was made perfect by Wesley,our waiter, and his assistant, Josette.

Our balcony room was beautifully appointed and especially comfortable, convenient to the main dining room just one deck above ours,

We had a very attentive and pleasant room attendant, Shermin Rodgers.

The "on board credits" obviously added to our enjoyment.

The Anthem was not up to par with other cruises we had with Royal.  The service was great.  Our waiter was so thoughtful. We did like the my time dining. Our stateroom attendant has our stateroom always clean.  But as a diamond member we was missing a lot.  Welcome gift was 6 cookies on a plate from the kitchen.  O ya we did get 4 chocolate strawberries later on.  No extra night of diamond members and better.  Usually we have a evening where we meet the captain and little extra touch for thanking us.  The T-shirt sale I stood on lie for 1 1/2 hours to not find what I was looking for.  All the ships have shirt with the port we just visited but not here.  St Kit or St.John shirts and they looked so cheap.  DreamWorks saw one Alex and that in a area you couldn't get to.  No parade of any kind.  This ship had so much open space not being used. So many bars that could of been put to better use.  No sports bars, what?  This is just how we feel.  I could go on like the glass broken on steps, we met someone who shower door broke. o ya, kids running around in the adult pool area.  There is so much more But I will leave it there,  I think we will be heading back to the Anthem any time soon.  Loved the Oasis. 

My main issue with this cruise is that  the level of customer service (dining, room service, activities, etc) we received is very spotty.  Some are okay, a few is good. A number of them terrible.  We are avid cruises with at least 2-3 cruises a year.  With other cruiselines, we have received top notch service throughout the cruises from each department.  However, this cruise has some real issues with customer services.  Especially in the housekeeping, room service and dining areas.  

Also a note about .  We did not get the 50 onboard credit promised we would get.  The booking agent failed to inform me that within certain period of time I had to fill out a form in order to get that credit.  As a result, I had lost the credit.  It is a mistake on their part and totally unacceptable.  I will be booking my cruises elsewhere.

For me, this ship is too big and has too many passengers.  However, I am sure that there are many who might like this size ship, but I prefer a smaller Royal Caribbean ship like Explorer of the Seas that use to go out of Bayonne, NJ.

We have been on over 30 cruises, many with RCL and we were extremely disappointed with the Anthem; so much that we would not sail on it again.  Would rather be on an Oasis class ship than this one.  Staff was very friendly and courteous but failed to get resolved without multiple trips to Guest Services.

Children's program was wonderful; our grandson had a great time while at Adventure Ocean.

The big screen TV at the pool was a plus, except that really didn't play movies during the day; had a golf tournament on one day!! 

More up beat music on board .  all the music was very  slow . Some of the show didn't perform some nights and one of the shows Rock of life wasn't finished because of bad see and we never got a chance to see the last two scenes 

Let me start off by saying that our family cruises very often, on many different ships with different companies. From the moment we boarded the ship, we knew instantly that this would be different. The ship is BEAUTIFUL. And Massive!! It is definitely worth its Royal Caribbean Class. 

As with all cruises, the activities were properly scheduled. If your new to cruising, make sure you make reservations! That is key. Unfortunately for us, one of the "reservation-only" activities sold out within the first hour of boarding the ship. So reservations are important for both activities and shows (download the Royal Caribbean app!)

SO many amazing things to do on the ship! Our mission for the 7 day duration of our cruise was to do every activity....and we did! (but I must say, it was tiring...but a good tiring.) Every day was a new adventure! Very very pleased.

The shows were also greatly! Some of the you also have to reserve so make sure to do so early! Plus I love the shows that involve audience participation.  I was extremely pleased. 

WE ARE GOING BACK SOON! 

While we did enjoy some of the cruise, there were several factors that made this a disappointing vacation. Some of those factors were based on weather conditions, which we realize is out of RC's control. But their reaction to these issues left a lot to be desired.

The main problem was the cancellation of shore excursions. While I understand that is beyond their control, there should have been contingency plans in place. When we arrived at CocoCay we informed they couldn't use the tenders to get us to the island and we were going on to Nassau. But I don't believe they weren't aware this might be a possibility before arriving. So there should have been some excursions available for Nassau without having to wait several hours.

We also had issues with dinner reservations on several nights and other excursion issues.

I do want to make it clear the staff was very polite and tried very hard to accommodate us. But there were put into a bad poistion by management decisions.

SPA: very disappointed in the spa facilities. We have previously signed up for the week long access on other ships (Norwegian) and loved it; private pools, ocean views, etc. Your spa was a big closet/waiting room - No views, limited facilities. Did not even sign up.

OUTDOOR Areas: found people putting books, towels down to reserve areas and leaving.  There should be attendants letting people know they cant do this and removing items once lounge chairs empty for 15 minutes. We saw one guy reserve 8 lounge chairs. His party had reserve the other side of the ship so he went with them (LOL). We often could not find anything in the front solarium.

See additional below comments.

Loved 270 room, not the act of Spectra.

Would recommend the cruise to others.

Gevin, our butler was awesome, happy and helpful!

We loved the staff and crew and the ship was amazing!

Due to rough seas we were not able to exit the ship at Cococay. Other than a brief PA announcement by the Capt there was NO effort by RCCL to make amends for the failure to complete the cruise advertised port calls. On another cruise we had to skip a port call but that Captain looped back to allow a port call... 

Bayonne port is really organized. Boarded ship easily with birth certificate and drivers licence. Room was ready by 1pm. Great Ship. Probably wouldn't go again in March. Missed out on CoCoCay-rough seas for tenders boats. Food was good. Wish there were more soda machines. The one on Deck 4 in the pizza place seemed to always be under maintenance. The other ones are in Windjammer on Deck 14 and there's one on Deck 15 by the hot dogs. Always nice to go away for a break and not have to cook😊

With a little planning and a good attitude anyone can make their trip on Anthem enjoyable.  Figuring out your dining and your schedule is imperative to helping you have a good experience.  If you relax, have flexibility, and plan a bit you will have a great time.

We had a good time. I think the positives were a lot to do, liked the ports we stopped at, lots of shore excursions. The negatives were that we expected a little better food and when you first board it is so hard to know what is going on and where to go and how to sign up for things. We were told me could sign up for things on their app but the app didn't always work well.