What’s the deal with Anthem?

[Patchy]

My husband just got off of a 9 night sailing on Anthem of the Seas, and he said that overall experience pales in comparison to what we had on B2B Freedom in January 2022 and Odyssey 2021 (which granted was the ship’s second sailing ever).  He said that on the Anthem, the drinks were consistently very weak, the service in the specialty restaurants was very slow, and the specialty restaurant  staff didn’t seem customer centric enough.   (Example, he and his mother had the UDP and the Maitre’ D didn’t even seem to recognize them as the sailing went on).   The ship seems to be in need of an upgrade, as an example all the pool chairs’ lining was sagging so much that you were essentially sitting on the metal crossbars.   The quality of the onboard entertain was terrible too, such as the piano player in Schooner singing Meghan Trainor “All About that Bass”.   His overall impression was that this was far less fun and enjoyable versus Freedom and Odyssey.   Anyone else feel this way?   Certainly he will be sharing his feedback in the post-cruise survey, but I certainly hope things improve before our April sailing on Anthem.   
 

And for the record, we are very experienced cruisers (Diamond status) and love to see variety in ships; it was just so surprising to see and feel such a difference between the onboard experience.   

 

[egd207]

I hope it improves by April sailings too.  I'm sailing with family that has never sailed before and a couple were reluctant initially. I haven't cruised in 10yrs and really want this to

be wonderful for all. Planning on future cruises...

[VeronicaS1970]

Patchy- we too were on the sailing and agree. Ship does seem to need some upgrading, staff was not as attentive as on Freedom and Odyssey, which we sailed in August and October. 

We also found some of the other pax were only happy when they were unhappy! 

Still 9 nights of relaxation, better than working. 

Hubby and daughter will be on in 3 weeks, we shall see if anything improves. 

[JasonOasis]

I was on the January 31st Anthem 11 night sailing and I agree with some of what Patchy stated. I thought most of the entertainment was good but I did note in another thread that they did tone down Spectra's Cabaret.  The dinning experience at Chops was by far the worst I've ever had on any cruise ship from the food to the service it was absolutely terrible. If you are in the solarium and you end up with a chair that has no padding Patchy is 100% correct that metal bar is right on your rear end because the chairs are so saggy.  I was able to find 1 bar tender who made strong drinks, every other bar and bar tender the drinks were absolutely weak but I over looked it because I had the DBP. There were other issues that arose but one thing I noticed with Anthem this time around was most of the crew were not from the Caribbean or Europe like they've been on many of our past cruises.  They also were not as friendly with the guest as what I'm use to experiencing on a Royal Caribbean cruise, I got the sense that most of the non-officer crew members were new to Royal Caribbean and they were still learning what Royal Caribbean and their guest expect and perhaps there may have been some cultural divides there as well.  

I included all of this in my post cruise survey and I hope Royal takes those survey's seriously and fixes whatever is going on on Anthem because it is clear they need to improve some things on Anthem.

Even still I enjoyed my 11 night cruise to the Caribbean and even ask the captain to turn the ship around because it beats staying in cold dreary Chicago any day.

[Pattycruise]

Onboard first night and I’m praying the MDR gets better.  I’m in the unvaxxed dining room with my niece/family and the 5:30 dining took almost 2 hours.  I’ve never seen service so slow.  Kids need to be fed, not just sit there. At the end of the meal we got half an apology that “it’s the first night things will get better”.  Quite a statement, is this the entire crew in the MDR new today?

the food was subpar. In the MDR,

Two70 had a great roast beef sandwich but when I went back later there was no server at the salad bar, for quite some time.   I finally asked the sandwich guy for chips and he went into the back room to find someone to help me.  Hoping it gets better,

[Pattycruise]

Additionally there was no “exiting conversation from waitstaff regarding: “tomorrow is formal night”, “breakfast is open in the MDR, windjammer, etc from ___time to __\time. Those convos seem to be disappearing on a lot of my sailings, and then you get the “old timer“  once in a while who goes over every aspect of dining, recommendations, ports etc….I miss that!

[Temeculaguy]

Oh no, we just booked anthem for a transatlantic next year, I hope they get it together by then since some of it may just be a staffing attitude or protocol related issue. I purposefully started with older ships to avoid letdowns (Radiance, Adventure, Liberty and Navigator) before moving on to quantum class on Anthem, then continue, avoiding Wonder until the last. I also planned the room class to rise from suite guarantee to owners suite to do the same. Truth is we loved them all despite the pandemic placing them out of order due to lift and shifts and the grand suite ended up our sweet spot so that is what we booked on Anthem. Last thing I wanted to read was this especially since some of our relatives who are regular RC cruisers said Anthem was their favorite ship.

But as others have stated, it still beats working!

We had fantastically friendly staff on Adventure and Liberty, best we've found on any cruise line pre-pandemic. Many have not been allowed to go ashore in most ports and many accepted demotions (ie. busboys were formerly lead waiters) in order to stay employed so the lifting of restrictions should improve crew morale but since our experience with RCL thus far has been fantastic, I'm only hoping for equal service when in fact it might be better.

But I employ a secret weapon, call it an ugly american thing but I slip the waiter a $20 bill each night at the MDR or the specialty restaurants at the beginning of the meal, it's a fraction of the tip I'm expected to give for a comparable meal at home with inferior service and I know they are earning less on these limited capacity sailings. I also tip a dollar or two a drink even with the DBX, I request a receipt I can sign so I can tip if i don't have cash on me but prefer to tip in cash as they don't have to share cash tips, just keep it discreet or palm it with a handshake. Other cruise lines always provide a tip opportunity receipt, I noticed royal rarely does without a specific request. A lesson I learned from all inclusive land resorts, only drawback is the odd look I get at my bank when I ask for a few hundred dollars in 1's and 5's before the trip. Washington, Lincoln, Hamilton and Jackson have an incredible influence on service, and will make you friends on both on land and sea anywhere in the world.