Anthem of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

The Diamond Lounge and food service was excellent.

 

The room attendant was good.

 

The service desk was less than helpful. Somehow neither the indoor nor in-room were correct. Calling the desk was met with, after a 20 minute wait on a hall phone, the following dialogue in response to the problem.

 

Desk: You have to come down, we are very busy.

 

In all, not up to RC's usual service

Me: But I have already waited 20 minutes.

Desk: Its not our fault you made that mistake.

 

 

We traveled with friends and our children. We had a time of our lives, The ship was immaculate, cleanliness of the ship and staterooms impressive, I like that there was Purell  stations all over the ship + the "wash your hands"  sinks as you enter the Windjammer buffet. The various food choices were delicious in every dining rooms/ buffets/ snack bars. The activities from morning till the wee hours made your head spin, we didn't know what to do next... The Seaplex was amazing,  stuff to keep people of all ages busy all hours of the day. The pools indoors and out wow!! The Entertainment was excellent, so many Theaters, bars,  we saw shows, comedies, played trivia games,  danced .. there's also a Casino( we did not go, but it looked fun  too)  The Islands were beautiful , the perfect weather was absolutely with us ! The service on the ship from room attendants to waiters to greeters.. always a good morning and a genuine smile. Met people from Bali, India, Scotland, England, Mexico, Canada, USA... the ships workers represents over 60 countries I believe. There is so much to do on this ship, you must Google "Anthem of the Seas " and see for yourself.. but it doesn't compare to actually BEING on the ship. You need to book your next vacation with Royal Carribean , Can't wait to sail again !!! Gina & Gino + the girls , Montreal, Quebec 

We knew when we bought this that we were not interested in the ports, OK? We enjoyed a week in the on-board casino, even won two free cruises! But feel we need to talk to the 3 stops.

Port Canaveral (Orlando), Florida Should not even be a stop. No time to do anything except shop, and nowhere to shop! Would be a good vacation spot if you have several days and a car. Cococay (Cruiseline Private Island) OK I guess if you want to spend a day at the beach. That is all this is, and RC does not "own" it like they say. Several cruises use this island. Nassau, Bahamas  What a nasty place. Took the catamaran/bus/Atlantis excursion. A total waste of time and money. Having been to the casino at Atlantis now, we would never go to Atlantis for a vacation.

Tricia is a great rep so do not hesitate to call her!!!

The service on board went down. I'm not sure why is it. Maybe because before that I used to go on big ships like Oasis and Allure or maybe because we used to sail from Miami and not NJ but this time the service was horrible. People would promise to bring you something (food, high chair, towels) and they will forget. The guest service officers were rude and unfriendly (especially stay away from lady Ksenia from Russia). A lot of staff would refuse to speak with you in your own language even if they know that your English is limited. The checking in when  coming on board process changed. Now you have to do it through ipad and internet and slow. It took us 15 minutes to check in one guest and there were 7 of us in our group. We spend almost an hour coming on board and having a 1 year old with us didn't really help. Everything was very unorganized. Royal Caribbean used to provide WOW experience on board, it is with their relationship to the clients that we used to go back. Now we were treated like one of many, annoying people who were taken on board and people were not happy. It was very sad and disappointing. We are unsure if we will ever go back.

I have been on a few cruises and this one was my first cruise with royal.

Here is the good things about cruise which i will then post the bad.

 

Good

1. The room we had was a JR family suite. so it was larger then any other room i have ever been in on a ship. It was clean and plenty of room.

2. The staff that cleaned the room was super nice and did a great job. kids loved the Towel Animals.

2. Waiter staff was good overall. some staff here went above and beyond at times while others were helpful.

3. Boat was clean with plenty of room at the pools. had no real issues finding places to sit.

 

The bad

1. The Elevators  were slow. We had to wait anywhere between 5 to 10 Min at times. and then many times after that you would finally see one but it would be full and you would start the process again. This was a Major pain point for us and something that NEEDS to be addressed.

2.The Buffet was Crowded and almost impossible to find a seat during lunch.

3.The Hot dog truck is a great idea. However the women who was working it was SUPER SLOW and it Almost NEVER had Hot dogs.

4. The dining room  food was Sub par. not bad but not great. the other cruise lines i went on blow royals food out of the water.

5. show times were horrible. always had to rush dinner to make a show.

6. The Flow rider lines was insanely long and took forever.

7. They Canceled my IFLY session and never gave a reason.

 

With that being said its a nice boat and we did have a good time.

However  Carnival and Norwegian are better 

 

 

too many little kids,5000 people on ship chaise lounges where all taken maybe 800 chaises ,we had to go back to the ship nowhere to sit.never go on royal again with that  amount of passrengers.

Check-in at the port was a disaster. We had online checkin papers completed, but not one employee available to direct people coming in. Just a sea of passengers. We had a junior family suite. Very nice cabin, plenty of room for a family of 4. The separate water closet is fantastic! Still had plenty of storage space. Nice balcony, but the windows were filthy. Had to wipe down a spot so my 4-yr-old could see out. It wasn't cleaned until day 5. As Emerald Crown & Anchor members, we were very sad to see the amenities of yesteryear are gone. Electronic SeaPass wristband is a nice new thing. Loved the two70 room and show. Never received any port info with daily Compass. Had to seek out a map of CoCo Cay on the island. Passed out tickets for tenders, still had to stand in line for 25 minutes. Very little organization. Many employees are indifferent, polite enough, but show little enthusiasm. Exception would be service staff in Windjammer - awesome! Chefs have a hard time keeping pans filled when dining room is busy. Don't try to call guest services or room attendant info on phone, no one will answer. Overall, for a fairly new ship, things looked less than taken care of. Scuffs everywhere, carpets worn, not clean, windows and lifts dirty. We enjoyed our spring break holiday, but may think twice about going on RC again soon. 

To quote my 10 year old daughter, "best vacation ever!"  We had a great time!  My wife and I travelled with our 10 year old, 6 year old and 8 month old and it couldn't have been better!  Even though the ship carries so many passengers, there aren't many times that it feels crowded.  All the staff were friendly and helpful, the food was great and the activities are amazing.  Overall a wonderful family trip.

This is probably the best cruise and cruise ship that I've ever been on.  I loved the way the ship was decorated (strange but I loved it). The food and the service was great!  My stateroom was very comfortable and my stateroom attendant was fantastic.  I was worried about the crowds but the ship is so big, and there are so many things going on that people tend to spread out.  (I tried to avoid the buffet during peak times - and got to my scheduled events early)  The bumper cars and the iFly were a blast!  and although I didn't participate in the flow rider or the rock wall I loved watching other people! 

The only negatives were 1) my Northstar got cancelled -twice - so I never got to go, 2) The escape room was filled up on the first day so I didn't get to try that and (the real reason that I only gave 4 stars) Embarkation day was a nightmare for us.  My elderly mother needed a wheelchair to get on board and we ended up sitting in a freezing cold room for two and a half hours waiting on one.  There was approx. 20-30 other people waiting as well.  It was a really bad start to our vacation.  Royal Carribean knows how many people have reserved chairs in advance, so I can't understand why they weren't prepared for all the handicap/elderly people trying to board. 

But...I really loved it and I can't wait for my next one.  Sadly my mother and step father have both said that they are never going to cruise again :-(

I like the room cleaning service, the ship facility, and food. The Cococay island experience  is great! I enjoyed food in the main dining room, and entertainment show in Two70. A lot high tech!

I am a Diamond Plus member of the Crown and Anchor Society for Royal Caribbean.  Once you get to that level you are totally ignored by the company. They will focus their efforts on new cruisers to get them to that level and then dump them.  This cruise was no exception. I have cruised with them over 23 times out of 30 cruises that I have been on. The only good thing I can say is they have improved the quality of their food. I have vowed never to cruise with them again. Good Bye Royal Caribbean and Hello Holland America!

This cruise offered so much to enjoy for all members of my family.  My husband, my two kids (ages 18 and 5), and I all had a wonderful time on our vacation aboard the Anthem  of the Seas.  We want to do it again sometime in the near future.

This was our 12th cruise and one of the shortest. The overall experience was mostly positive, especially the quality of food, both in the Windjammer and main restaurants (excluding maybe 'Sorrento's' pizza, that was too heavy and soggy, definitely not authentic pizza), and very good entertainment. 'We will rock you!' was absolutely the greatest 'The Queen''s inspired musical, performed by a very talented group of dancers and singers indeed. Another reminder of what a great MUSIC once was...The technology in Spectra's Cabaret was amazing, as well as the upbeat music choices, though the scene and action were not easy to see from some seating areas. The Latin band in 'Boleros' was great too - we usually spent the late night hours there, watching people dancing to their music, and especially pleased by their notably great singer Jose Manuel. The waiters Akish and Dilshod in the 'Silk' restaurant were great too, while 'Yury from Croatia' was absolutely hilarious, with his unique and keen sense of humor in Jamie Oliver's Italian specialty restaurant. We liked both 'North Star' and  the Ripcord 'skydiving' experience. The private island (CoCo Cay) was OK, but we liked Labadee, Princess Cays and Half Moon Cay (Carnival cruise line) better. Our stateroom was nicely sized and well appointed, the bathroom was spacious enough and the balcony was adequate. Some negatives - our main complaint refers rather to the whole current super 'mega-ship' cruising trend, more and more being adopted by the industry. We think there needs to be some limit to the ship size and number of people onboard. The idea of packing as many people as possible at the expense of the common public areas seems to become questionable. For example, it usually took a considerable extra time finding a table in the Windjammer or a seat in the main Theatre. Also, the interior design on this ship is a little lacking and rather bland to our taste, especially in comparison to the older, but still beautiful 'Brilliance of the Seas', Celebrity 'Summit' or Carnival 'Pride', for example, or even more older ships, like Celebrity 'Century' or 'Grandeur of the Seas'. Those ships had much better passengers/public areas ratio, less crowding, more variety and generally richer looking materials (natural woods, higher quality carpeting etc) and were just perfectly sized overall. Those were more ships, than huge floating hotels, so to speak. We also missed their fabulous central atriums and/or staircases very much, we still remember those long gone fabulous midnight buffets and uniquely carved ice sculptures! The 'Anthem' with its overly simplified interior decor, a 'shopping mall' resembling promenade and 'economy' looking restaurants (esp. 'American Icon'...), plus not very attractively decorated main theater, reminded another similarly sized mega-ship we sailed few years ago - Celebrity 'Solstice' with its equally uninspiring, even somewhat cheap(!) looking interiors. BTW, the latter, also wasted a lot of already limited public space - the entire upper deck is occupied by the huge golf course (kind of strange idea in our view). Still, even with all the above negatives, the overall impression from this cruise was positive - from genuinely friendly, professional staff, to plentiful, delicious food, to great entertainment. Therefore - recommended.

Great experience! We were there a whole week and didn't even see the whole ship. The staff was very polite and helpful. We were busy every night seeing different shows and activities. 

Very nice time on the Anthem of the seas. Everyone was so friendly and ready to make our experience memorable. We enjoyed the food mostly in the restaurants in the evening since we like the sit down service but we had a reservation for the CHIC restaurant every night even if the menu is the same it would have been enjoyable to experience the other inclusive restaurants like the Grande and the Silk just for a change of décor. We did go one night for a change but we had to wait in line without a reservation. A lot of table are free but since they need to wait for the guests with a reservation it was a puzzle for the head waiters. ( not an easy job).

shows and dining experience. the stage is well equipped with diff.props and the sound system is superb. The kids enjoyed most of the activities on board and get to meet new friends. Food is available m0st of the time and the at sea-days were quite pleasant.

The Anthem of the Seas is a beautiful ship but not my favorite. The Liberty of the Sea seems bigger because the promenade is longer and more open for activities. It seems that the promenade is broken up into 2 sections and the half leading to the 2Seventy Theater is a waist of space. 

We weren't happy with our dining being at an inconvenient time causing us to miss entertainment, shows and games that ended and started during our dinner.

Crew were very nice, friendly and helpful.

Easy dining experience and elevators were no problem even with over 4900 people of which 1600 were kids. Hard to get on North Star and sky diving you need to book early. Bumper cars a blast. Enough pools and hot tubs and the food was excellent. Getting on and off the ship a breeze. Entertainmant outstanding

My family and I had a great time on the cruise.  There were so many great activities for the kids to do on the ship. 

 

I would recommend timers on the ping pong tables and Xbox stations as the older kids tended to stay on for extended periods of time.  This required me or another adult to wait up to 30 minutes for a table and sometimes having to ask the people playing if we could have a turn.

I purchased the drink package which was great until the ship ran out of Bud Light at first and then Michelob Ultra. 

 

I would highly recommend this cruise to others.

 

 

Terrific staff and the ship didn't seem crowded despite being at capacity with over 4000 passengers, 1200 of which were children as school was out for spring break. Not impossible to find seats by the pool, always a fresh supply of towels and very good specialty restaurants, but slow bar service and impossible to contact guest service via telephone. Overall great vacation on a beautiful ship staffed by a conscientious, courteous, attentive crew.