Anthem of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

The Anthem is a very High Tec ship but too big for me.  The bests parts were the use of Classic Dynamic Dining.  Instead of having to make daily reservations and then stand in long lines to be seated. I dined with the same foursome each day and we rotated in all four of the major dining rooms with the same wait staff the whole time.  The food was excellent and different in each of the restaurants.  I particularly liked Silk.  The entertainment was quite good and very high tech - especially Seventy Two theater.  I had the single balcony room #6648 and it was fine for one but two would be on top of one another.  No chair, just a small stool.  My balcony had very good views, but some of the deluxe singles look out on the huge lifeboats.  Beware, they don't say restricted view!

I found such a large ship to be impersonal and communication with staff was difficult, my phone calls were not returned.  The exceptions were our excellent wait staff(Antiss and Jerry) and the bartenders who were always cheerful and chatty (especially in Seventy Two).   I am a Senior and much prefer the smaller ships.

Thi8s was the first time the ship went to New England and Canada. The ports were Boston, Portland, Bar Harbor, St. John, and Halifax. The ports were good. There is a lot of history and coastline to see. However, the quality of things offered on the ship has seriously declined. The food was not good. People went to the Grande Restaurant and Chic and complained about the long waits for food. Some mornings it was not possible to get a seat in the Windjammer for breakfast. So much is not included. In one restaurant you don't have to pay for coffee and in another restaurant you do. For what I paid for a suite the headline entertainment could have been better.

Everything on this ship was first class. The food was delicious especially in the specialty restaurants. The most enjoyable place was the Solarium, kid free quiet and relaxing! We would take this ship again and hope to in the near future.

The ports of call were interesting. And being they were close to one another, it gave extended time to explore. As for dining, because we booked only a couple of months before departure, the structured dining experience was not there. We didn't have good choices even for the specialty venues, as we had to book very late in the evening. We ate the majority of our meals at the Windjammer Buffett as did many of the travelers. The food was average. The coffee and tea were horrible! The coffee tasted like burnt coffee beans and the tea was way, way too strong. The very best eating venue (don't miss it!) was Wonderland. It was a fabulous culinary experience from start to finish!! From our waiter, to the environment, to the extremely delicious food...it was "wonderful"!! I can't say enough about this restaurant!! The show we enjoyed the most was "The Gift". It was special and moving. The Anthem was all about spending money. More so than other ships we have been on. All in all, we enjoyed our cruise. If we could have enjoyed a set, sit down dinner every night, instead of aimlessly wandering around trying to see who had a table (besides the open buffet) it would have been a better experience. Our cabin and room steward were very nice!

Loved that there were things for everyone to do!  We found activities to do together, separate things for kids and adults.  The ship was immaculate, the service was great and everyone had a blast!

ship was beautiful,but with so many people on board its hard to enjoy.food packed up way to early and not a lot to do at night.enjoy carnival cruise lines much more.

Let's just start with the Pros:

The ship is HUGE

The ship is beautiful

The cruise employees were nice and very accommodating

WindJammer was Jammin

MusicHall was awesome and very easy to get drinks lol

The Cons:

The ship is HUGE.  This makes it inconvenient when it comes to drinks. I was on the 14th deck in the solarium late and wanted some water but could not get any on 14 because all the bars on 14 were closed.  I had to travel to the 4th floor and walk 1.5 city blocks to get a drink.  I also noticed that when on the 14th deck there was virtually no one walking around to take drink orders.  I would have to go to one of the 3 bars if I wanted a drink.  Those bars were always packed. Every time I wanted a drink it just seemed I had travel a few floors up or down and walk 2 city blocks to get it.  

Wish we spent more time in Bermuda.  It definitely wasn't a full 2 days.  One more day please!

Although the windJammer was Jammin, it would have been awesome to have midnight buffet or something.  Seems like the ship closes down after 11pm.

Right now, I would not be inclined to recommend the cruise line to anyone.  Here are my reasons why:

1) The cruise was advertised as catering to children and young people.  Has anyone measured the decibels of sound thrown at our ears during productions, outside bands and even movies?  How far above safe levels for hearing do they register?  I attended one musical and was miserable, even with ear plugs.  Walking along the swimming pools when music was played, we tried to get past as soon as possible.  What a shame I could not partake of the entertainment because of excessive volume.

2)  When my companion went to purchase tickets to Newark AMTRAC, he was informed that there was indeed a shuttle.  He was NOT informed that the shuttle went to the airport first.  We were over 20 minutes late being called from our rooms to begin with.  And foolishly, we assumed that a 'shuttle' meant that departure could take place as we left customs. 

Such was not the case.  We had to wait on a bus until all of the passengers going to the airport were loaded on the vehicle and, of course, one did not show, elongating our wait. 

In the original material sent to us, there was nothing about allowing three hours or more to catch AMTRAC.  .As a result, we missed our train from Penn Station and as we had not cancelled the original reservation, we could not use the original tickets and the trip home cost us $280.00 after we had already paid for a round-trip ticket. 

I would be hard-pressed to recommend this cruise company to anyone.  And frankly, my family and I feel that we should be reimbursed by the company for the return trip.  We were simply not informed of what would transpire upon leaving the ship.

I did not find the food or service was as good as the smaller ships. At the end of the cruise getting off the ship was the best I've ever experienced.

The restaurants and food were all exceptional. The dining room staff were top notch as was the room steward. The shows weren't as good as on other cruises and there was big complaint. There needs to be a pool for adults only. Infants who are not toilet trained in diapers should not be allowed in any pool. One selfish guest brought their baby into the main pool and its diaper exploded contaminating the pool.. The pool was closed and drained and NO ONE could use it for the rest of the day. One selfish parent ruined the afternoon for hundreds of people. SHOULD NOT HAPPEN!

Like many people, I chose this ship for the convenience of leaving from NJ and it also helped that a friend and his wife and kids were going as well. I was going with my wife 3 year old daughter and 8 month old son, so I realize that this experience will be than different others... Getting on the ship was relatively easy and stress free, especially since I did the check in on line. Our room attendant Isha, was excellent, she did a great job with our room considering we had bottles, kids toys, and a pack and play to navigate around. I  was surprised with how quickly the room was cleaned over the course of the trip. And like you've probably read the ship is beautiful and modern looking especially with Cafe 270 which was our favorite place to eat because of the ambiance.    That being said, the food was a major let down. While I know everyone has different taste in what good food is, I think most consider chain food places like Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, and Applebee's to be from OK to good. For the majority of the cruise the food quality was way below that. Our first night at Solarium Bistro I had the worst ceviche I ever tasted, I don't recall what my wife had but both of our entrees were terrible... And we were starving. American Icon Grill, was even more disappointing. I had the Mahi Mahi, and I've had canned tuna that was better. The waitress offered me steak because I didn't eat it the fish, she brought back a steak in one minute that looked like a microwave meal, like back in the 80's Hungryman Dinner meal. On top of that for the up to three servers we had, they seemed more interested in making silly faces at my son then making sure I had a drink. I realize that it's nice to wave and all to the kids, but it got to the point at most restaurants where I was gonna get a Frankenstein mask for my kids, so they could stop focusing on them and maybe a little more on the adults who actually paid for the cruise....I was even more surprised on how they did not enforce their attire policies.   People in tank tops, backwards hats, bathing suits...just lacking the class I expected. Wear whatever in Windjammer but cmon .... Chic and Silk were both good, and Grande was the best complimentary restaurant. But we don't have Yelp on this ship so it shouldn't be on me to figure out which restaurant  has the decent food. We ended up going to Jaime's Italian two nights because while I was making reservations it was the best one that had an early time for my family. The service and food at Jaime's is exactly what expecting on a cruise ship with this reputation.       And that's my main gripe with this ship. They know what they're doing, they serve you poor quality food in the hopes of you going  to the specialty restaurants  so you can spend more money then you already had. You can read the reviews on Cruise critic and see the "feeling like I am being  nickeled and dimed to death" is a common theme. We were fortunate enough to have 9 days of beautiful weather so I won't be surprised if I see an "Excessive Beautiful weather" Gratuity paid to the sun from Royal Caribbean. Cause I think...and I am not even kidding here, there was a gratuity option to the damn robot bartenders, which is entertaining for the kids, when they work. They bottleneck the Main area, think it's called the Esplanade, so you can be sure to go by their heavily advertised one hour sales that make you feel like you're at the mall on Black Friday. No Thank you overly aggressive Cartier salesman, I don't need a $10K watch...Working technology that was so heavily advertised did not work properly. We missed the opening of "we will rock you" because they changed the time to 2:15 despite on the TV it said 2:45, there was probably some letter that I didn't get but why couldn't they fix the new time on every royal iq or other device that they heavily promote...      Look I had a decent time cause I was with friends and family and had awesome weather, but if you're reading this chances are you're already booked so research as much as you can and listen to the reviews. If you haven't booked it already I'd seriously consider going on another cruise line or RC cruise ship, because If there was anything that was consistent it was that EVERYONE at least 10 different people I talked to that was on an another RC ship be it Allure, Harmony, Freedom and of course the cruise ship that people talked about like you were entering the gates of Heaven....the Oasis, had a much better all around experience. Even though we were only 50 minutes away from Bayonne New Jersey the convenience of that was not worth the price of the cruise.

 For the price I paid I expected : more to do with people with young families. ...Better quality shows, although "we will rock you" was good...Workers NOT to do touch up spray paint 5 feet from me while I'm eating breakfast with my family...The ability to go on the Northstar, iFLY more than once...A Smoking section that is not right next to the pool....working elevators...not waiting 20 minutes for a drink from the waiters by the pool...

I can go on, but look at the other ratings for other ships, I thinks it's fair to say it's pretty consistent. That 4.5+  average rating the other RC ships are getting are there for a reason. Me and my wife were looking to leave this ship saying, "Wow that was great I can't wait to do it again!" But it's more like "I am not going on a cruise for a while" 

 Some tips if you're going: 

I did Flowrider lesson at 8am which is great, more space and less crowded, I didn't know they offer an open time for it so I ended up paying, but at least I didn't have to deal with the crowds. If you have Neck or back issues I would seriously consider avoiding the surf board, I saw some people take some brutal falls. 

-I actually liked North Star more than I thought I would but if I could make one recommendation it would be to do it at a port, because unlike the commercials the arm doesn't go over the sides at sea and after seeing the ocean every day doing this at port would be more scenic.

-Try and take elevators towards the rear of the ship, it was much less hectic. If you don't have kids with the stroller or some other health issue don't waste your time waiting for elevators to go two or three flights. And they close fast, so as soon as you hear that bell you better run to it.

-if you're looking for a good or at least a quiet breakfast I would head to Café 270 or try and make the sit down breakfast at chic you may have to wait on a line but it is worth it. The breakfast at the Windjammer was usually hectic and hard to find a place to sit down. To me waiting that long to find a seat and then waiting even longer just to get an omelette didn't make any sense. If you're looking to find a seat but don't care as much about the quality of food solarium Café, usually had a bunch of places to sit down.

-The pool... again I was traveling with my young family so I did not get to try the adult only pool section by the solarium. As you will read in most of the reviews the other pools are very hectic. If you are going with kids you'll also have to deal with the pool staff that changes it's mind on what the rules are every other day.  There are no sprinklers or anything like that for the kids to run around in. So again if you are going with kids three are under I would not recommend this ship at all. On top of that they have a whole smoking section right next to the pool so you have to avoid that cloud every time you come up onto the pool deck. 

-I did get the wristband that they sell, because it did make it easier for the moments I wasn't carrying my sea pass card. It's pointless at a restaurant where they would  ask for your seapass card for every drink (very annoying by the way ) but when you are carrying drinks or holding your kids it makes it a lot easier to open the doors to your room then having to reach into your pocket. If you do decide to get it I would bring a magic marker to identify your individual band so it's not mixed up in a group if you have different drinking packages.

-make it a habit to just put the drinking cups that they give you for drinking packages in your backpack or whatever you carry for most of the day. It was a pain to have to remember to carry those two big cups and go back to the room but if you're in the wind jammer and you want a drink you're going to need them. I think it's kind of ridiculous that they do that there should be an option to just use your sea pass card to fill up a cup.

-avoid the arcade if you can. It's not even a good arcade but you know how kids are when they see all those lights. And make sure you look at your bill when you use the arcade because they do overcharge you if you're not paying attention.

-Pack stuff for motion sickness because this boat does rock a little more than what I expected. And that was a complaint from other cruises as well

-don't worry about towels on excursions they will provide them when you get off the ship.

-if you can afford it obviously get the room with the balcony besides the view it was pretty large and we were able to put our luggage there and free up some space in the room.

-excursions: I did the aquarium excursion while in Bermuda it wasn't bad because with kids we weren't going to spend time on the beach all day but the aquarium is pretty small... It really depends on what you're looking for we ended up going to snorkel Park beach after, which actually had good food, or great compared to what Anthem was serving it is a little bit more of a live crowd and you would definitely have to wear water socks because there are pieces of glass around the water. I didn't go to Puerto Rico because we were there last year but did go to Saint Maarten we ended up taking a taxi to bikini beach because the kid friendly  Le Galion beach was closed on Monday. I had a great time doing jet skiing while in Labadee Haiti.

BEAUTIFUL SHIP, GREAT PORTS..GOOD FOOD TOO BUT HAD TO MAKE A RESERVATION FOR THAT..

RESERVATON FOR SHOWS WHERE THERE WERE ONLY FOUR..

NO DRESS CODE BIG FAT MEN AND WOMEN WEARING SHORTS AT NITE

NO CODE FOR KIDS EITHER.THEY WERE SITTING AT THE SCOONER BAR AT NITE..SITTING AT THE 10.30 SHOWS AND EVEN THE ADULT ONE AT 11.PM WITH A LOT OF SWEARING...

SORRY TO SAY I PAY FOR MY CRUISE AND DO NOT WANT TO BE IN THE COMPANY OF KIDS AT NITE ALSO NO DRESS CODE..THE ONLY PLACE WE CAN WEAR OUR BEAUTIFUL CLOTHS AND JEWELLERY IS ON A CRUISE SHIP NOWADAYS..

WE HAD A TIER PARTY  AND EVERYONE WAS DRESSED LIKEE THEY WERE GOING OUT TO DIG IN THE GARDEN...SAD  VERY SAD...

WE HAD KIDS IN THE WINDJAMER STANDING ON THE TABLE 3 OF THEM TAKING THE TABLE # OUT OF THE STAND AND THROWING IT AROUND ALSO PUTTING SALT INTO A GLASS CONTAINER..POINTED IT OUT TO THE WAITER AND HE DID NOTHING.....

LAST BUT NOT LEAST AT NITE AFTER YOU HAVE SEEN A SHOW AND THAT WAS VERY FEW THE ADULTS HAD NOTHING TO DO ALSO IN THE DAYTIME AFTER LUNCH NO GOOD MOVIE INSIDE THE SHIP SO MOST OF THE ADULTS WERE BORED AND EXPRESSED THAT OPINION TOO...

IF YU WANT PEOPL;E TO BE LOYAL TO ROYAL YOU HAD BETTER CORRECT THESE HAPPENINGS TOO...

SORRY TO HAVE TO TELL YOU THIS BUT SOMEONE HAS TO

TO...MAYGERON

We def did not love this ship! I had never done RCC before, but have heard so much about it.  I think I'll try another ship before making a true judgement about a cruise line.  But this ship was not for us.  Lots of lines, not much to do, just "eh".  All I can really say was that it was fine.  That's it...

Overall good trip but I was a bit fustrated because CruiseOnly didn't apply my on board credit til 2 days into my trip that screwed up my bill n cost me bout 3 or more trips to guest services while on board..that was a real in convenience..

Cruise ship was very nice. Staff, espically the staff that clean the state rooms and staff in dining area are very nice. Staff overall are very friendly and willing to help. They ask you to call and make reservations 4 dining rooms but when you call no one answers. All the restaurants will seat you except The Grande. Our first night they let me & my daughter eat but after that they told us we had to wait until 9:15pm to eat. I told them I called & called. They didn't care.

Jameson, the person who helped me book my cruise was also very friendly, knowledgeable, helpful and professional. 

While on the cruise, the one outside pool the cruise ship has was closed down due to someone getting sick in the pool and on another day it was closed down on a sea day due to two parents who insisted on putting their baby with a pamper in the only outside pool. They ignored pool staff's direction to take the baby to the kids pool so we all had to suufer. These 2 parents should not have been allowed to ruin everybody else's pool time. The parents said they " paid their money ". Everybody else paid their money as well to get on this expensive ship. So the pool had to be closed down for the whole day.

I'm undecided on whether I would recommend this particular cruise because a lot of people were hurting themselves in the water while at Labadee,  Haiti.  The water has huge rocks all over. From the very beginning you are stepping on big rocks and people were hurting themselves slipping and sliding on rocks. My daughter twisted her ankle and scraped her knee. I twisted my ankle slipping on a rock. People said they had fun zip lining and on the roller coaster but the water is very rocky. Half Moon Cay is the way a private island should look. Bermuda & St. Marteen are lovely. I did a lot of shopping in Puerto Rico. 

The departure from the ship at customs is terrible.  Very long lines. There were between  4,000 & 5,000 people on this ship. At Customs, there are two very, very long lines with only 2 Customs agents working that kept getting up from their stations. Two agents for one side and 3 working on the other line. There were booths closed that should have been open to check out 5,000 people. Terrible and disgusting is the only way I can describe check out at customs in Cape Liberty New Jersey. 

Other than that everything was fine. 

We loved our time on the Anthem of the Seas! There were a lot of people so days at sea needed to be planned (get poolside by 7am for a chair!). The reservations for dinner were also hard but we found you could just show up most nights and they would seat you.

LOVED THE SKY RIDE AND ALL THE AMENITIES ANTHEM OF THE SEAS HAD TO OFFER.  BALCONY ROOM LARGE WITH AMPLE CLOSETS FOR 2.   FOOD AND SERVICE EXCELLENT.  MY ONLY ISSUE IS WITH THE SHOWS - NOT ENOUGH AND WHAT WAS PRESENTED NOT THAT GREAT.  ONLY 2 SHOWS WERE OUTSTANDING - "THE GIFT" AND "ROCK OF AGES".  THE OTHER 7 NIGHTS SHOWS WERE BAD.   THE PORTS WERE LOVELY AND THE WEATHER PERFECT.  

I WOULD TRAVEL ON ROYAL CARIBBEAN AGAIN. 

I ALSO WANT TO THANK MARIA AFONSA, MY VACATION OUTLET REP, FOR MAKING MY TRIP "HASSLE FREE".   CERTAINLY WILL CALL UPON HER AGAIN SOON TO BOOK ANOTHER EXCURSION. 

THANK YOU.

MARION MARSIGLI AND ROBERT IRWIN

Traveled with family and friends who are gluten-free or vegetarian.  Compared to other R.C. ships, this ship was the worse!  They only had 2 choices of frozen, sliced gluten-free bread - plain or with raisins.  Very few desserts as well.  As for vegetarians, so many people were complaining.  Only one choice on the menu a night - most dishes were from India - so they went hungry.  Had to pay for a Veggie burger in Johnny Rockets to have something decent or live on salads for 10 days!  We complained to so many staff members who just passed the ball to someone else.  NO one really cared except for one chef.  Will never travel again on this ship.  Food is horrible in general as well as the new "Dynamic Dining" concept.

Our 9-day cruise on Anthem of the Seas was our fourth Royal Caribbean cruise.  If it had been our first, it woudl have been our last.

The customer service on board was awful - - from the Guest Services desk to the Starbucks barista - - we were continually disappointed.  

The food was mediocre at best if you weren't in one of the speciality restaurants with an upcharge.  In addition, getting reservations for even the "complimentary" dining rooms was difficult.

Royal Caribbean has certainly started having a "class system" on this ship.  Suite guests have a separate dining room (where lobster, escargot, etc. is offered), in addition to their own private sundeck and lounge.  My husband and I spent over $6,000 for our balcony room, and felt as if we were treated like lower class citizens.

The Solarium (adult only area) was very disappointing.  While it is beautiful, it is all glass and heats up like a sauna.  The pools in this area are far too warm, and therefore, if you want to cool down, you have to go to the family pool and deal with the screaming kids.

The hot tubs in the main areas were always crowded with children.  Certainly not a relaxing experience.

As a recovering alcoholic, I upgraded my drink package to get Starbucks.  Unfortunately, the only Starbucks on the ship is located on the 4th deck, and the pool is on the 14th deck.  I asked on several occasions if I couldn't PLEASE get two iced coffees so as not to have to spend so much time traveling between decks (especially given the fact that TWO elevators were out of service our entire cruise), and they would not give me the coffees.

Likewise, while on Haiti, soda was the last thing brought to the island (alcohol was everywhere), and even then, I couldn't get a can of soda or a bottle of water.  I had to drink it out of plastic cups.  Keep in mind, my husband had no problem getting cans or bottles of beer.

Seating for the evening shows that don't require reservations is almost impossible to find unless you get to the venue an hour in advance.  Even the shows which require reservations have limited seating with a decent view if you don't get there at least an hour in advance.  Just what we all want to do - - sit around for hours waiting for shows to start on our vacation so that we can actually see the performance.

The shore excursion in Bermuda was a waste of money.  We chose the shuttle to Horseshoe Bay.  The excursion only gave you four hours on the beach, and our shuttle was over 30 minutes delayed in leaving because ONE guest showed up late.  Thus, our time on the beach was cut short.  When we arrived at the destination, we found out that an airconditioned taxi ride to and from the beach was only $7 per person.  That's all our shore excursion included and it was approximately $40 per person - - and if we'd gone on our own, we wouldn't have been tied to the timeframe of the excursion.

The cleanliness of the public areas leaves a lot to be desired.  The hallways were always cluttered with room service dishes, and the bathrooms near the pools were at times downright disgusting.  

The glass on our balcony wasn't cleaned once while we were on board, and I don't think it was cleaned before we left.  We couldn't even see out of it.  In addition, with the new "smart technology" on board the ship, if we wanted our balcony door open, the air conditioning in our cabin wouldn't work.  In the past, we enjoyed sleeping at night with the breeze from the balcony.  This wasn't an option on Anthem.

I could go on and on with the disappointing experience we had on Anthem of the Seas, but I think what I've said above will give you a good idea of what our experience was.  The common theme among guests we met who had cruised in the past (one woman had taken 38 cruises) was that they would NEVER sail on Anthem of the Seas again, and if Royal Caribbean's customer service on this ship is what it's like on their other ships, we won't be sailing on Royal again.

Nancy Premo

What a wonderful experience for my family. It was our first cruise, what an adventure! The ship was amazing so much to do with RICORD, IFLY, and the Seaplex my family and I had many fun things to do each day! I do wish some of the Seaplex activities were scheduled more often such as the Circus Adventure since the lines were so long that my daughters were not able to attend the 3 times we tried. We will definitely will book this ship again. Fabulous memories!!