Anthem of the Seas, Royal Caribbean

Having sailed on the Quantum a year earlier, I was expecting the same experience. Unfortunately, I sailed the week after the first storm debacle and I was a little disappointed that we were not given the option to cancel, given the ship’s damaged condition. The first thing I noticed upon boarding was that a few of the elevators were not working the entire duration of the ship. Given the the 4500 passengers on the ship, it soon became an annoyance, although I guess it’s not the worst thing to be forced to take stairs. The indoor pools were also impacted by broken panels and we were not able to swim until we reached FL, in which case, everyone left the ship for their excursions. The halls were extremely cold due to the missing panels, which were fixed during the Port Canaveral stop. Wifi was passable but not great.
I don’t know if the staff was traumatized by the previous week, but wait service was not as cordial as I remember on the Anthem, with the exception of a few stellar waiters at Silk. I probably won’t be taking another cruise with the quantum class.

We were on rcl anthem of the seas 11 night sail date 1÷26÷16 was supposed to be 12 night on 1÷26÷16, suppose to go to labadee, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Honduras, costa maya, and San Juan. We were notified of losing a day and the notice came like 2 days before we were supposed to leave.
Low and behold when we got onboard we were notified of complete change of itenirary to st kitts, San Juan, labadee, st marten, and st Thomas. No advance notice, others on board were notified and even surveyed to where they wanted to go. We. Never got the chance to plan for total change, never mind that we were looking forward to the original islands. I can’t understand how rcl treated us so bad.
The food and service in every single restaurant the worst ever. Waiters lounging around, while we waited for service, tried the Grande 3 times horrible, waiter with out name tags, lost, not knowing anything, the worst. American icon rudest waitstaff ever, rolls inedible, breakfast uneatable and rudeness I have never seen before. Chic and the solarium bistro was not much better but we were forced to eat there. Devinaly decadence resteraunt gone yet signage still up.
I complained to everyone, in silk I asked chef if he would eat what was before me on the plate, he apologized and said no, then sent new order, and we left without eating.
I am age 60, do yoga, exercise, feel 50, and my ankles and legs actually swelled to the point that I would lay on my back 3 to 4 times a day on the bed with raised leg poise. As soon as I got home my legs returned to normal, after eating right.
I warn you in advance to contact cruise line if you have a health issue with high salt food, it’s dangerous.
Rcl did a horrible job information about the change, and gave us a lousy $ 200 credits, pathetic!
The ship is great, as is activity staff, Zumba, dancing venues, bands, fellow passengers all great.
Production shows filled with problems, hard to follow story line, really a waste of money.
Beatles tribute band great.
We will try this cruise again as Bayonne is so easy from Massachusetts, and the fellow passengers made it a good vacation.
WE BOTH LOST WEIGHT ON AN 11 NIGHT CRUISE!!!
That is because the meals were inedible even the chef agreed, as did the front desk!
Rcl fix it! We are both diamond level on rcl and elite on celebrity, and both own 100 plus shares of stock, loyal to rcl to a fault. But have been on Ncl princess carnival holland, and never had such bad food. We did Rui in cancun in November and the food was better there!

As the first reviewer I too am a 25 year veteran of Royal Caribbean sailings and have been on atleast 10 of there ships and some multiple times.
Unlike the first reviewer I think this was by far the best ship I have ever been on.
Wife and I left on nov 22^nd and got back on the 30^th.
The ship stopped in Port Canaveral, And we were supposed to stop at Coco Cay but the water was too rough to tender so they made a decision to go direct to Nassau.
That was fine with me as I did not care about going to Coco Cay and much rathered having an extra day in Nassau.
We bought the 5 specialty meal package which entitled you to go 5 times to any of the 4 paid restaurants on board.
You had a choice of chops steaks, Jamie’s Italian, Wonderland & some Sushi place.
The first night we went to Wonderland the service was super fantastic, But the food was not really up my alley.
The 2^nd night we ate at Chops steak house which was totally amazing.
The service was beyond great and the food was totally amazing.
I started with a french onion soup and then 2 shrimp cocktails and then a 9oz filet.
The onion soup was the best I have ever had and the filet mignon was also the best I have ever had.
The 3^rd night we ate at Jamie’s Italian which I personally did not like the menu but the service was great as well.
Wife and I did go to Chops 2 more times and Jamie’s once more.
The only free resturaunt that we Really liked was Divinely Decadence which was up stairs by the solarium.
Besides Chops that was the 2^nd best restraint on the ship.
I had surf and turf 2 lobster tails and a filet mignon.
The service was amazing and the food also amazing.
As I always need to be in touch with my business wifi is super important to me.
The Anthem has Voom wifi which was totally amazing and super super fast.
The package was $ 150 for unlimited internet for 2 devices for the whole cruise.
If you have ever been cruising you know that is a huge bargain.
The wifi was super fast and I never had any issues with it at all during the entire cruise.
I did not go to any of the shows as I am more a casino type of guy, Wife goes to shows I go and play poker or craps.
The only negative part of the entire cruise was on the first day we decided to buy transfers to go to the Magic Kingdom for 40 a person, And the person taking the order told us that the bus would leave at 8am and the last bus left the park at 7pm.
The morning we were ready to go and have a great day at the park, And first they did not leave till almost 8:30 and they told us at that point that the last bus left at 4pm not 7pm???
Wife and I would never of signed up to go if we knew we would only have 6 hours at the park, That was a huge waste.
Overall definitely the best cruise I have been on.
Personally do not like the automatic billing of the gratuities as i think that you do not get the same level of service you would if you were tipping according to service.
I would definitely go on the Anthem of the seas again without even a seconds thought.

I have been a loyal Royal Caribbean cruiser for the last 25 years.
I have been on 17 prior sailings and this was by far the worst.
Check-​in at the port was appalling to say the least. The wi-​fi was down and since they now do all check-​in with an iPad, the wait to get on the ship was more than 2 hours. Muster was late because so many people could not get on the ship on time. The service in the terminal was a precursor of things to come. The restaurant staff was poor, the table arrangements were never correct (well 2 of 8 nights were). The staff seemed to have no personality and since the implementation of forced «gratuities» the staff, like waiters, assistant waiters and the like, have no incentive to make sure the guest is happy
The Diamond concierge, Andrew, and our stateroom attendant, Raymond (deck 12, starboard side, forward) were the only bright spots for the staff.
The simulator for the free fall, ripcord, was awesome and the flo-​rider was as well. The ship overall was great but the service made the entire experience bad. The shows were good, although the «We Will Rock You» production show was fair at best, because the lead singer’s voice was not great at all, in my opinion. The other areas that were great were two70 and Music Hall. The show, Draw the Line, the Areosmith tribute band was great in all the venues that it played in.
The American Icon restaurant was the pits, the Chic restaurant was good, the Grande restaurant was good and Silk was the best, of the main dining venues. Jamies Italian was great. The food was delicious and the portions huge.
Stay away from the Bionic Bar, its an overpriced drink gimmick. The robots spill most every time and the drinks, although proportionally correct, they are more than you would pay at a regular bar and you still pay the 18% «gratuity.» Who gets that money, surely not the robot.
The ship is new and it has many kinks to work out before it is on par with what I consider good for Royal Caribbean.
Wait a few months to let them work out the problems before going on this ship.