Anthem of the Seas Cruise 1/25-26 - 2/6/2016

Cruise of January 25/26 – February 6, 2016 (Cruise was delayed 1 day)

Getting there

Hired Ferrazzi Limousine to take us to and from the ship. We can’t say enough good about them. They were on-time (even a bit early actually), courteous (thanks Joe Kup), and John Ferrazzi kept us in the loop even while on the cruise. I'd use them again in a heartbeat!

Embarkation

Embarkation was the easiest I’ve ever seen. We had completed all of our information, including photos online, so we just had to show our passports and Set-Sail paperwork to the people at the door, they quickly checked us in with a smile. We were aboard after going through the scanners in another 5 minutes where our stateroom key (one of them) was taped to the door (odd). The other was inside on the bed in a beautiful balcony stateroom. Note: The Royal IQ App wasn’t working for just about the entire first day and a half.

Stateroom

While the stateroom is gorgeous, there were some good things and bad.

Placement of a huge flat-screen TV at the end of the bed was a problem, unless you sat all the way up against the backboard of the bed. If you just sat on the edge of the bed, you were less than a foot away and not good. I also never saw any mention of it, but some (not all) correspondence about the cruise is on the TV in the “messages” section. Included were invitations to different events that we missed until we figured this out.

The bathroom however, was a hit. Just the right size, and they re-shaped the shower, with a curved glass door, to give more room to us larger people. Perfect!

I have to mention, that our bed was rock hard. I asked the stateroom attendant if they had one of those waffle, foam things and he said unfortunately not. One new thing I love, is the bathroom light, when you turn it off, becomes a nightlight! Very cool!

The Ship

Well, I’d love to say I love the ship layout, but I’d be lying. The layout is beyond awful when compared to other RCI ships. The theater seems way too small, and was always overflowing 30 minutes before shows. (more on entertainment later)

Coming out of the theater you’ll see the first problem. You run smack into The Music Hall, and actually have to go around it to go anywhere else on that floor. Honestly, it should have been put somewhere else. One of my biggest complaints, is no nice, wrap-around deck where you can sit and look out at the ocean like on most ships. On this ship, the lifeboats ruin the view for 99% of the deck.

The Music Hall / The Diamond Lounge

First time we saw The Music Hall, was when we went to the Diamond Lounge on our first night there. Once again, RCI in their infinite wisdom made the Diamond Lounge way too small, and the overflow goes into the second floor of the music hall. Not good. We had non diamond members getting diamond perks. The Diamond Lounge was way understaffed, and we had to wait more than 30 minutes to get a drink on multiple occasions.

In The Music Hall, top floor, there were 2 very old pool tables that had us confused. They looked way more used than the ship was, but we couldn’t figure out why someone would put used pool tables on a new ship.

We went to see one show in The Music Hall (Aerosmith tribute band), and unless you’re on the lower level, in the front near the dance floor, good luck seeing the band at all. Seating upstairs was awful, and very few seats were able to see the band. The other problem is, the music was SO LOUD! Way more than it had to be.

The basic ship design was poor in my opinion, as there was virtually no windows to see outside from any public venue, and a severe lack of places for people to read/play cards.

Oh, and who thought it’d be nice to put the Concierge Lounge on deck 12 aft?

The Esplanade

I’m extremely disappointed in the layout of this part of the ship. It’s REAL short, and they put a small piece of it up one floor near Jamie Oliver’s restaurant.

Why would you put a Cartier store on one level, and a Hublot and Bulgari on another floor?

There’s also no Cupcake Cupboard on this ship, but they have “La Patisserie” that has large pastries that cost extra. Being a sweet eater like I am, it’s saying something that nothing there interested me. The last day on the ship, they had widely advertised a $10 sale on t-shirts at 9am. The Esplanade was mobbed to the point of not being able to go from one end to the other by 8:30am. When the sale began, it looked like a shark feeding frenzy.

Entertainment

The main show, “We Will Rock You”, was extremely good and was a Queen Music show with a storyline. The lead singer wasn’t close to being as good as Freddy Mercury, but it was passable. Ps, don’t leave early!

The other 2 shows, The Gift and Spectra Cabaret, were semi disappointing as nobody I spoke to could figure out a point to them.

The other shows in the theater were much better. They had a good Motown tribute band, a Southern Rock band named Savannah Jack, a Beatles tribute band named The Beatlemaniacs (most of these did sets on other nights in The Music Hall) and a magician we missed.

My wife and I love playing trivia in The Schooner Bar, and we weren’t disappointed there (with one exception) as they seemed to have trivia at least 4-5 times a day!

BUT… someone should tell the Cruise Director (Abe) to NOT have someone running trivia that does not speak good English. I’ll leave it at that.

Bars

All bars but one seemed to be just fine, with enough people to take care of you.

The Bionic Bar (robots make your drink) is pretty tough to figure out (they have someone there to help you), but I asked for a Cosmopolitan, and it’s served in a plastic cup with ice. Huh?

Also, what’s this automatic tip on my bill? For a robot?

Pools/Solarium

The pool area is about normal for a RCI ship, except the big screen TV is on the side of the ship, instead in the middle looking towards the larger area. Wonder whose idea this was.

The Solarium was breathtakingly gorgeous! Better for sure than any other RCI ship. The downside, everyone knew it, and all chairs were usually taken (on sea days) by 8am by towels, and a small number of real people. Again, RCI needs to enforce the 30 minute rule for towels holding chairs. The views from here, off the front of the ship are outstanding. Don’t forget to check out the two person swing! The 3 cascading pools were great, as well as the hot tubs.

Fun/Sports

OK, I have to start by saying I had serious doubts that the bumper cars would be any fun at all, and I am glad to say I was VERY wrong! They were great, and the spot they’re in is incredibly large! The line forms fast though, get there early.

The North Star was open often, and the best time probably to get on it, is on embarkation day! There was no line, and you get to see the beautiful NYC skyline! Other than that, I think you have to make reservations.

The RipCord by iFly, was outstanding! My wife did it, and loved every second of it. Give it a shot if you can!

Lastly, there’s a Flowrider, like most of RCI’s large ships that appeared fun (but not for me!).

Food/Dining

Well, this is where it gets complicated.

American Icon

The first night, we ate in American Icon. Nice place, most food good but I chose the baby back ribs, and they were awful. Dry, small and way overdone. Otherwise, food was good and dessert, with beignets was great. Breakfast here is also great with Eggs Benedict every day.

Silk

The least favorite of the restaurants, serving Asian cuisine. Everything there was at best, OK.

Chic

The food here was very good, and we made a point to reserve this restaurant again during our trip.

The Grande

Let me get this out of the way. I HATE having to wear a jacket to get into a restaurant. Once I got to the table, I took it off and put it on the back of my chair. They never threw me out.

This is where the great food is! Best steaks, lobster.. everything. Why anyone has to wear a jacket to get great food, is beyond me.

Solarium Bistro

We have a winner! This is the least publicized, best kept secret on the entire ship! The wait staff was incredible, though this restaurant is a bit different in you get up to get your salad at a salad bar, and appetizers too which are very good, and quite varied. We ate here 3 times, and enjoyed every single meal. ps, dress here is casual.

Jamie’s Italian

By far, the most disappointing meal yet. You pay $30/person and sit on hard, cheap, metal chairs while sitting at a stainless steel table without a tablecloth. The food was about average, even for fresh, homemade pasta. I wanted my money back. All of it.

Izumi / Wonderland

We did not try either of these restaurants as there was nothing on the menu my wife would enjoy.

Two70
This place is a mystery to me. They have sandwiches and soups, but when you go to find a place to sit down, the little tables are so small, you can barely fit your drink and a napkin! (don't get me started about the shows here...!) Food was OK, seating, horrendous.

Windjammer

The Windjammer was around the same as most, except for breakfast, they had a French crepe station! One downside I noticed, lots of people in here, playing cards, reading, and not eating as there seems to be very little public spaces with tables for people to use on this ship.

It’s not good when you’re hungry, have food in hand and no tables available and you watch people playing cards.

One thing nobody tells you, is that in any of the big 4 restaurants (American Icon, Chic, Silk and The Grande), you can order off any one of the 4 menu's if you don't find something you like on the menu of the restaurant you're in!

Casino
The casino on this ship is small. Way smaller than it should be for a ship this size. It's also very understaffed as I experienced one night when I went to play blackjack. The only table open was full, and they couldn't open another because they had no employees available (I only saw a few casino employees working and it was around 8pm). Not good.

Crew
The Crew on this ship was outstanding. I did notice, they're still quite understaffed, and even the crew mentioned it a few times. The crew in charge at each restaurant seemed to know me from the second day on-board, and were always very accommodating to our needs, even though we were told by others we'd never be able to get reservations for 6pm after the 4th day, we never had trouble.

That all being said, the ship was very steady in rough waters off the Outer Banks. Would I do this class again? Yes, but I’m not in a hurry to do so.