Anthem of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

It's very hard to find a helping staff anywhere. Usually have to take a long walk to find someone for basic help, or wait a long line to talk to someone. Otherwise, it's a nice ship with lots of fun activities and decent food. Nice thing about this ship is most of the rooms are ocean view. Only a very limited rooms are interior rooms.

Anthem is a beautiful ship and her staff is outstanding. Everyone is always trying to make your vacation as enjoyable as possible. We got free champagne in two of the free dining rooms as thanks for choosing them. We had dynamic choice this time although I prefer the Classic dynamic but booked late and it was full. We were in Bermuda and then returned to Boston before back to Cape Liberty. In Boston we had to show our passports to immigration. Long line for 2 seconds for them to glance at our passports. Didn't make much sense to me but then at Cape Liberty on return, we only had to hand in the immigration paperwork, not show our passports and interview also. So we were never asked what we may be bringing back to the US. Oh well...not a problem... just more government bull.

the ship was awesome, food excellant except for silk's duck, not good. stops were great, shows were great. everything was just so good, Royal Carr. thank you

The anthem of the seas is a state of the art cruise ship with a lot of technology put into it. I haven't cruised in the last 7  years so this cruise was pretty different from my experience on the navigator of the seas. For a ship of this magnitude it did seem pretty small. I attribute that to the small public areas and venues. The ship itself was magnificent and incredibly clean and maintained. The new activities on board like the iFly, flow rider, North Star and seaplex were all extremely fun and easily accessible. 

I was was able to dine in almost every restaurant while I was on the cruise. I will only rate the quality of the food because the service day in and day out was great and the staff was extremely accommodating for a party of 10 with 2 young children. I warn u that I'm a bit of a food snob so I'm going to be harsh on some of my ratings.  American icon girl had a classic American menu which served decent food, but nothing out of this world. Food was a meager 2.5/5. Silk had an Asian flare to the menu and their food was also decent but nothing memorable. This also deserved a 2.5/5 for their food. The grande is the restaurant in which you book for formal nights and their food was the best out of all the complimentary dinner restaurants. And while this was the best of the complimentary restaurants I would rate it as a 3.5/5. Chic is a modern/middle eastern flare to their cuisine and this restaurant was also average but better than American icon grill and Silk. They deserve a 3/5. The windjammer had decent food with plenty of options and if you enjoy buffet style you would enjoy the windjammer, because there is something for everybody there. We did dine at some of the specialty restaurants. Chops grille was one that we tried and the dinner was excellent. Steak was cooked to perfection and the appetizers and desserts were on point. This restaurant deserved a 4/5. The last restaurant that we dined in was wonderland. If you enjoy ecclectic food and cooking outside of the box then this restaurant is for you. They really put on an extreme tasting menu that highlights the creativity from the Cher that whipped up this menu. Dining there was definitely an experience that I will remember for all the distinctive and playful dishes that we tried. The food was incredible from the 6 appetizer family style tasting, to the 4 different entrees and the 3 different desserts everybody was able to try. This dinner literally took 3 hours to complete and we were stuffed to the max. This restaurant holds a candle to some of the marquee restaurants in NY. I would go back on this ship just to go back to wonderland and have that same experience. It was phenomenal. 5/5. 

This cruise was fantastic but my only Thing that I can take away from this cruise is how noticeable the difference is between the specialty restaurants and the complimentary restaurants that you dine in.

The cabins were larger and the ship up to date on technology.  I did not care for dynamic dinning.  Reservations were made but every night was a different time making it difficult to remember while in vacation mode.  The crew seemed to be inexperienced and we later found out there were a larger than normal number of new crew on this ship.  The WOW bands are not available at free charge. 

It was an okay cruise ,there needs to be more variety of food at the Windjammer featuring different ethnic food. The specialty restaurants were great, the shows were great. The mature group was calming. It would have been nice to stay in Bermuda for another day instead of being on sea on Friday.

Beautiful ship, Great food, Outstanding service from the staterooms to dining staff to maintenance staff.  Everyone was great!  We highly enjoyed the cruise!  There are so many relaxing and beautiful places on the ship, as well as great activities.  You MUST do the Ripcord I-Fly!!!  Even if it's booked up, go and get in the standby line...you'll eventually fly. :)

Recommendation for future cruisers on this ship: Book your reservations for the RipCord I-Fly and North Star before the cruise.  They completely book up by the end of the first day of the cruise.

As always, enjoyed Bermuda.  In addition, the port in Boston was a great experience.  In Boston we visited the Quincy Market and Faneill Hall (spelling?) which was wonderful as well.

Sailed on the Anthem May 14-21. Service and food was good. Food didn't seem as good as on other RC ships but enjoyed all the different restaurants. Activities plentiful we especially enjoyed Ripcord I Fly. I'm usually not that adventurous but so glad I experienced it. Sea Plex has everything from basketball to roller skating to dodge ball, bumper cars, x box and much more. Enjoyed the two headliner shows in the Royal Theater. Love and marriage game always funny. Participated in the guest talent show. Performed Thriller in the Music Hall it was so much fun and a good workout. The 70's-80's night was a blast! 

Bermuda gorgeous! Horseshoe Bay Beach aaaaaamaaazzzzzin! Took ferry over to Hamilton ($5pp or get tokens at Pier for less)

great for shopping. Second day booked a tour with Ricky's Island Tour he's fabulous. Went around the entire island stopping for beautiful photo opportunities. Had lunch at Cafe Ole by the crystal caves. Wahoo fish sandwich on raisins toast is very good.

Boston was in interesting. Booked a boat/bus tour threw RC good tour.

Overall cruise was wonderful and would definitely sail on Anthem again.

food in the restaurants, great pools and our day at Elbow Beach.

Only problem were rudeness of some of the staff We loved the ship and have booked a five day cruise to Bermuda next October .Cannot wait to get back onboard

From the stream lined and expedited boarding process to the attentive wait staff in the Windjammer Marketplace, Anthem of the Seas far exceeded my expectations. We have cruised on several ships, but this ship is a true example of why Royal Carribbean is number one in the cruiseline industry.  There was so much to keep us entertained  on the ship that it did not matter that we only got to stop in Bermuda and Boston. We look forward to sailing on Harmony of the Seas.

The ship was very nice, service was great, food was good. However the smoke in the casino was AWFUL, started to get hoarse about the fourth night I went to casino, came home sick, with  bronchitis.  I am sure it is because of the heavy smoke. Smoking area took over most of the casino. Lots of people were complaining.  The better slot machines and  the tables were in the smoking section.  The majority of people now do not smoke, and second hand smoke has been proven to be a health hazard. Smokers will still come into the casino, why subject the rest of us to smoke. Why would Royal Caribbean have outside smoking areas only, but then say you can smoke inside the casino, which carries thru everywhere. THERE SHOULD BE NO SMOKING INSIDE OF SHIP ANYWHERE.   More and more states banned smoking inside  casinos and restaurants.  Get with it Royal Caribbean.

My favorite part of the cruise is the live band / live singing while dancing. Please add more show.or improve the shows (Gift and Spectra). I would recommend Anthem of the Seas cruise.

The ship is beautiful, and huge.  But all they did was add extra cabins.  Which added extra people and left the majority with no place to go.  The only room that had a view of the ocean was Two70. It's a beautiful room with a beautiful view off of the back of the ship, but they did so many shows in this room the windows were not available.  You have to make reservations to attend any of the shows too.  If you don't book an on board activity on these larger ships before you get on board, you will NOT be able to once you're on board.  They fill up extremely quickly.  This includes your dynamic dining dinner reservations, your sports activities, your spa treatments, and any shows you'd like to see. Be prepared!

Last year we sailed on Liberty of the Seas and were less than pleased so I was a little hesitant about booking this cruise, but the timing and itinerary worked for us. We were pleasantly surprised.  The food was excellent as well as the service.  The ship is beautiful and designed so you don't realize the large number of people on the ship.  We went to the complimentary restaurants and found the food and service excellent.  The only complaint was the buffet for dinner.  The lunches and breakfasts were fine, but the dinner needs some work.  We only ate dinner there once, but  found the selection poor and the quality of the food just average.  Other than that, everyone was top notch.  I would highly recommend Anthem.

This was our 4th trip with Royal Caribbean and we were very disappointed with our trip!  Don't get me wrong, the ship itself is beautiful but there were way too many people!  The biggest ship we were on before Anthem of the Seas was Freedom of the Seas and I couldn't wait to sail on a newer and bigger ship.  Believe me when I say "bigger isn't always better".  I booked through BJ'S Wholesale Club and the only thing I was told to do was to go on-line to Royal Caribbean and set up our Set Sail Sea Passes before we left.  However, since we have sailed before, I knew that I could go to Royal Caribbean's web site and reserve shows before we left instead of waiting until we boarded the ship.  They had entertainment every night but there were only 3 shows that required reservations.  2 of the shows I was able to reserve and the 3rd one was already all booked up so we had to wait in a VERY LONG line to see it and the seats that were left were not very good.  On Freedom of the Seas you had your choice of eating in the dining room and men didn't have to wear a sports coat.  On Anthem of the Seas your dining experience is completely different.  If you plan on eating in the grand dining room men must wear sports coats.  We didn't know this and my husband didn't pack any sports coats so we couldn't eat in the grand dining room.  On this new ship they have 5 or 6 restaurants that you can eat at for free but we didn't know you had to have reservations for them until we boarded the ship.  When we tried to make dinner reservations on the first day everything was already booked up.  You could still eat at them but you had to wait in a long line and that usually meant you didn't get seated until 8:30 or later.  We were looking forward to sleeping in and eating breakfast whenever.  After the first 2 days we learned that if you wanted to eat at a table in the Wind Jammer you had to be there when they opened or you couldn't find a table to eat at.  So every morning we set our alarm clock for 6 a.m. So much for sleeping in!  Like I said before WAY TOO MANY PEOPLE!  If there is ever a next time for us I will make sure I book through AAA where they know about all the reservations and different dining preferences they can make ahead for you.

We chose this ship because we wanted to experience a relatively new ship with all of the technological innovations. Also we live in New York and didn't want to fly (i.e. add airfare cost) to our trip. Plus we wanted to leave from the New Jersey port. There were five of us ranging in ages from 58 to 10 years old. Embarkation: The port has a dedicated parking facility which is great. We dropped off our luggage then went to park. It was $180 for the 9 night/ 10 day parking fee. After parking the car we walked to the cruise terminal. Checking in was a bit confusing because they don't have counters, just people with tablets. Kind of hard to form a line behind free standing people. I opted to have a cash account on board while my husband elected to use his credit card for his on board account. We also opted to use cash for our daughter's on board account. Sounds easy right? NOT. Although we selected different methods of payments they kept grouping all of our charges onto my husband's on board account. I was at Guest Services on deck 4 EVERY SINGLE DAY about the onboard charges. The person at check in advised us to go directly to Guest Services to give them the cash for the account which we did. The person at Guest Services accepted the cash but was quickly reprimanded by another person and told not to accept cash. So I was able to set up my account and my daughter's account but the person standing right next to me, who was my aunt could not give cash for her account. We were then told that everyone has a $500 limit for onboard purchases by default whether they secure with a credit card or not. That didn't make sense to me but oh well. With all the "technological innovation" there were reoccurring issues with the onboard charges and how they were displayed on the television versus how they looked in the system Guest Services used. Cabin & room attendant We had a balcony room on deck 11 and our attendant was Selwyn. He was fabulous and the room was well kept! No complaints, everything was great. Food We had dynamic dinning at the 8:30pm seating. I thought this was going to be a disaster but it was quite pleasant. Except for the rotation into The Grande, which is the fancy dress up restaurant. Because there wasn't a specific "dress up" night I didn't bring anything fancy so to my dismay the dinner rotation included this restaurant where I was woefully under dressed. I had convinced my husband that he didn't need a suit either, but they do have jackets to loan the men. Overall the food was very good. There were a couple of dishes that "missed the mark" but that didn't overshadow all of the other tasty food we had. We ate at the Windjammer for most breakfast and/lunches and at times it was so crowded that we'd wait to get a table before we went to get any food. Specialty Restaurants We went to Chops Grille which was amazing, Wonderland which was quite interesting and Izumi which was really good. The reservation process however was a pain in the butt. We made all of the reservations after we finished with Guest Relations. The reservation request for the specialty restaurants was 5 people for 7pm. Chops got it right but Wonderland required 2 additional in person follow ups for the reservation which they still got wrong and put us down for 6pm. I stopped by at 5:30 to request a birthday cake for my husband and was told that it would be taken care of then the hostess said our reservation was for 6pm not 7pm. Then she went on to tell me that I was mistaken and that it had always been at 6pm, even when I produced the original paper that I had to remind me that all reservations were for the same time with the same number of guests. That was only topped by my 5 visits to Izumi to re-re-re-re-re confirm those reservations because they never appeared on our digital calendar. Chops was as expected! We didn't upgrade to more expensive cuts because we'd already paid $80 per person for the 3 specialty restaurant dining package. The food was great. Wonderland was great for us! What they should tell you is that you should only go with a group of 4 people or more who are open minded or at least not picky eaters because they have family style main course servings. Because there were 5 of us we got a big variety of foods. The waiter asks you questions about what you like and creates a menu for the table. We really enjoyed the concept once we tried it. This doesn't go over as well if it's a smaller party. Izumi had ala cart pricing so we had a $30 credit per person with the dining package which translated into $150. We couldn't finish all of the food that we were able to get with that budget! It was great and our daughter picked up the chop sticks and started using them like she'd had all her life. It was great! Activities We booked the North Star which was cancelled due to weather. No one contacted us about it being canceled we found out on our own. They don't reschedule appointments either but on the last day at sea they have a stand by line all day from 9am to 5pm which we also learned about on our own. We did go up and the views were amazing. Since the water and winds were calm we got to go up and over the water. We did the iFly too. That was so much fun we'd wished we'd booked it again. The Seaplex was fun too! There was an Xbox room that the tween and teen boys had locked down, ping pong, air hockey, basketball, roller skating, soccer, dodge ball and other activities for kids and adults. We didn't make it to the bumper cars because the line was just too long every time we tried to get on it. Maybe they should do reservation for that too. Entertainment LIVE MUSIC EVERYWHERE! Oh my goodness this was the first cruise that I have been on where there was music for everyone everywhere! It was awesome. They had the tribute band Wanted on board for four shows! At different venues on the ship. They had bands everywhere. We Will Rock You was AWESOME! The Gift was okay, but the production value on everything they did was top notch! Ports Bermuda...total washout because of weather Puerto Rico...docking in Old San Juan was cool. The artisan park was so cool, seeing people make things by hand was great. We were only there for a short time but we made the most of it. St. Marrten...Maho Beach plane watching was okay, my husband totally loved it. I wish the beach was more of a beach getting down to the water was a bit of a daredevil balancing act. The sand was quite rocky but we were there for the main attractions...the planes and watching people get blown down the beach by the force of the plane propellers. Hilarious. Labadee...this was the best beach and overall relaxation atmosphere. Since it's Royal Caribbean's private island I don't think every attraction should cost money. That makes not sense. It's not like we have our choice of vendors. There should be one price for everyone to access all of the activities. At least they provided lunch, but the lines were so long we opted to go back on the ship to eat. Disembarkation Chaos! We chose to keep our bags and get off without assistance and apparently so did 1200 other guests even though they were only expecting 600. We kept getting different information and it was just chaos. We eventually got off but one person in our party was stopped and had to go to Guest Services because they didn't have her credit card on file. Which was crazy because she was with me EVERY DAY in Guest Service and had provided her credit card when doing her online registration and again once we check in in person and they reconfirmed during one of our visits to Guest Services because everything was being charged to her account (her cabin mate elected for cash payments and was having the same issue we had) because she had a credit card on file (at least that was the reason they gave as to why all the charges were appearing on her account despite her cabin mate providing her own sea pass card when making purchase. Once everyone was off the ship, we had to wait in a crazy line at the parking garage elevator but once we got out of the parking lot it was a smooth drive home. Overall we would go on the Anthem of the Seas again we'd just use one credit card and deal with the billing after or we'd all use cash. The ship, amenities, food and general service was worth it, but the communication for Guest Services and Restaurant Reservations needs a lot of improvement.

It was the greatest vacation my wife and I ever had in our 29 years of marriage. Except for the traffic condition going to the Bayonne port, everything went smoothly till the end of our cruise. The crew and the staff were very efficient and friendly. The ship was very clean and the hallways to the staterooms are wide - in fact, all the places in the ship were spacious. Dynamic dining was a great idea and it allowed us to choose the restaurant and the menu we wanted. There was a long list of daily onboard activities and there was never a dull and boring moment even at late hours. Since my wife and I are avid ballroom dancers, the Music Hall and the Boleros are 2 great venues for dancing every night aside from other themed dance parties in other venues like the Two70 and the Poolside. Overall, it was a great vacation and experience for us.  

This was my first time aboard Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas.  The ship was almost TOO big and you had to do a lot of walking to get from place to place.  It was always crowded in public areas.  Unless you made a reservation for dinner, it was nearly impossible to get into one of the four dining rooms without waiting an hour or more.  There was not enough Inclusive dining to serve the over four thousand passengers during normal dinner hours.  The beds were very uncomfortable and I heard this from a lot of other passengers.  Felt like you were sleeping on a board.  The shows on-board were not that great.   When you went to guest services for questions, the line always took a half hour.   On a good note, the crew was very friendly and helpful.  Would prefer a smaller ship for my future cruising.

Everything about this ship, the cruise line, the employees of the cruise line, the employees of , was extraordinary. I appreciated Michelle Flores at helping me pick out my room and making suggestions, the room choice made a big difference and I couldn't have done it without her. I cannot say enough about the ship "The Anthem of the Seas" We had an amazing time and can't wait to go again.