Jump to content

12 nights from New Jersey. Tell me about it..


cjappert

Recommended Posts

While on the ship, we ended up booking the 12 nights southern on Anthem. We've wanted to do a southern Caribbean cruise for a while now so we're both excited. We really liked this one since it leaves from New Jersey ( we always drive to florida from Canada which is a 23 hour drive, so the 8 hour drive to New Jersey is SUPER appealing to us lol)

 

We booked a family Jr suite since we have 3 kids, even tho the youngest can still technically sleep in a playpen. It was more than we wanted to spend, so i'll be looking different rooms that would lower the cost.

 

For those of you who did this itinerary, what can we expect on anthem? Also, when can we expect to start feeling the warm weather?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It prob depends on what time of year as to when you will feel the warm weather. I know I have looked into this cruise option as well (because of the drive option as well, although not 8 hours from my home but closer than Florida!)

 

Most people say it takes about 2 days to get to the warmer weather...so on a 12 day cruise, u can expect about 8 days of warmer weather.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thanks! we booked it for January 7th. By the end of the second day is what I was thinking so its good to know I was pretty close! Honestly we have no issues with getting some drinks and hitting the hot tubs. We just figured instead of driving for 2 days, might as well be on the boat for 2 days, even if its cold, they have bars... and playcares lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We did the 12 day Anthem at the end of March. Like everyone said by the second sea day the weather warmed up significantly, enough to get some sun by the pool. That cruise was great. Not only some really good ports, the ship is great. Specialty restaurants were amazing, Wonderland & Jaime's are a must. The 12 days is a very nice amount of time, so even if the weather is so-so the first and last day you dont feel like you missed anything because you still had 10 awesome days.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thank you everyone ! We have a family Jr. Suite booked, does that mean we get to take advantage of any suite perks? if so what are they?

Very limited suite perks. I, personally, refer to the junior suites as fake suites, as they're mostly larger rooms but largely called suites by name only.

 

On some ships you are allowed dinner in Coastal Kitchen (if they have one) and priority embarkation in addition to double Crown and Anchor points. The primary benefit is the larger room and a bathtub.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thank you Matt! Do you find the Jr. Suite to be worth it? or should we do 2 connected rooms? We booked the Jr. Suite since it was the last one available, but im second guessing it

 

My own 2 cents on this, since my wife and just had to make this decision with our trip on Freedom of the Seas in March, 2018:

 

On Freedom, a Jr. Suite is 300 sq ft, which is actually smaller than getting two superior balcony rooms (398 sq ft) or deluxe balcony rooms (368 sq ft). With five people total, cramming everyone into the Jr. Suite means someone has to be in the pull-down bed over the main bed, navigating around the bed / sofa at night when someone has to use the bathroom, etc. And at least on Freedom, the cost for the two balcony rooms works out just about the same as getting the one Jr. Suite.

 

In the case of my wife and I (with two kids) we had actually been looking at a grand suite (400 sq ft) vs. two connecting superior balcony rooms, because we felt a Jr. Suite was just too small for the four of us to be comfortable. We ended up going with the superior balconies. Saved us a lot of money, the kids have their own real beds and separate bathroom, and everyone's free to stay up late or go to bed early without bothering anyone else except their immediate roommate. Had it still been Jr. Suite vs. the balconies, we'd still have gone with the balconies for the same reasons, plus the extra space it gives.

 

I'm assuming Anthem's rooms are similarly sized and priced, and as noted the perks of a Jr. Suite aren't that great compared to a true suite, while still costing a good bit more than a "regular" balcony room.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thank you Matt! Do you find the Jr. Suite to be worth it? or should we do 2 connected rooms? We booked the Jr. Suite since it was the last one available, but im second guessing it

Depends how important the JR suites benefits are and the price.  As a parent of young children, I'll always book 2 connecting rooms instead.  Separation from my kids is better than a larger room.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our kids are 2 4 and 9, so they're still pretty small which is what makes me nervous about having connecting rooms. The suite perks really don't matter much to us, I'm just not sure about how it works with connecting rooms and little kids

We've done connecting rooms with young kids (1 and 5) multiple times and its wonderful.  The key is to have a connecting room (with a common door between the rooms).  At night, we keep the connecting door open so we can hear them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll give one word of caution with booking a connecting room. After you get the booking with the room numbers, take a minute to look up the deck plan on a site like cruisedeckplans.com or royal's web site and just verify the rooms really are connecting (they'll have a double-headed arrow drawn across the rooms in the diagram). My TA did my booking for connecting rooms and had been assured by the RC staff she spoke with that the rooms were connecting; but when I looked them up on cruisedeckplans.com, I saw they weren't (no double-headed arrow).

 

I quickly emailed her to let her know, along with the room pairs on that deck that I saw were marked as connecting rooms, and she quickly called them back and fixed the reservation to have a true connected pair that was still available on that deck. She was seriously annoyed with RC after that, considering they're supposed to know the ships inside and out! I just laughed and said, "Hey, at least the 'Murphy's Law moment' happened now and it's out of the way!"  ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...