Anthem of the Seas- Any Tips Appreciated

[Koz]

Hello!  We are cruising on the Anthem in early November, NJ-Port Canaveral, Nassau, Coco, NJ routing.

We've cruised before but not on RC.  Celebrity, Princess and Norwegian.

We were fortunate to locate 2 connecting balconies in July of this year, and immediately made reservations for the following:

1)  Dining- flex seating in main dining room on all nights.

2)  All 3 shows which are available for early booking.

3)  Ripcord.

4)  Northstar.

5)  2 Clamshells @ Coco.  Is it worth seeing if a daybed is available instead?  None were showing online but someone mentioned that you might have luck getting on on embarkation day.

 

There are a very limited amount of activities available for early booking, including tour of ship, tour of galley with bottomless champagne, cupcake decorating etc.

I have heard mention of the escape room activity, but it doesn't appear to be available for booking now. The same goes for the breakfast with the Dreamworks characters, which for the money seems like a great deal (3 kids, youngest is 5).

A few questions pop off the top of my head:

1)  Deck chairs on days at sea.  Impossible to get?   We don't need to be by the pool- upperdecks are fine. If we are hitting the deck after say 10AM is it possible to find something or are they all "claimed" at that point?  Norwegian had a great system where they would "tag" chairs that were unattended for long periods of time and then remove items if nobody returned by a certain time.  With 3 kids we aren't going to be worshiping the sun for hours, but it would be nice to have some place to sit and lay our stuff.

2)  Any recommendations for getting a deck chair in an area which isn't always typically crowded?

3) We haven't elected to visit any specialty restaurants, and will instead target the main dining room and buffet.  Should we have any concerns with regards to crowd or quality of food?  Did you have to wait a while with a reservation when being seated, or was it tough to find a table during peak times in the Windjammer?  

4) Someone mentioned Solarium as a nice option for breakfast at no additional charge.  Any feedback?

5)  Can you drop your kids for say an hour or two if there is an activity on the kids calendar that they really want to participate in?  We aren't "dump and run" parents, but would like to give them the option if there's something of interest on a particular day.  Only concern is having my two oldest, 12 and 9, stay together.

6) Has anyone done an airboat ride while in Port Canaveral?    Kennedy Space Center seems like an expensive option and not all of my kids would be interested. Airboat and Gator park might be more to their liking.  If we end up renting a car, is the local beach worth visiting?

7) Any secrets about the ship, off the beaten path or insider information would be greatly appreciated.

 

Best part of this trip is that my kids won't know they are going until we arrive at the pier. We're telling them that we are visiting a waterpark in the Poconos instead!

 

Thank you for your time!

 

 

[Matt]

1 hour ago, Koz said:

 Deck chairs on days at sea.  Impossible to get?

Not impossible.  The issue is if you roll in at 1pm, you may struggle to find one.  But in the morning hours, I've had good luck finding them. They may not be dead center, but chairs open up here and there.

1 hour ago, Koz said:

We haven't elected to visit any specialty restaurants, and will instead target the main dining room and buffet.  Should we have any concerns with regards to crowd or quality of food?

Absolutely not.  MDR food is great, enjoy it!

1 hour ago, Koz said:

Any recommendations for getting a deck chair in an area which isn't always typically crowded?

The very back and front of the ship on the pool decks is last to get filled up. Also, indoor pool area (not the Solarium, the general public indoor pool) often has more seating.

1 hour ago, Koz said:

Someone mentioned Solarium as a nice option for breakfast at no additional charge.  Any feedback?

I enjoyed it quite a bit.  They have a great selection and it's a bit different variety of food than in the Windjammer.

1 hour ago, Koz said:

Can you drop your kids for say an hour or two if there is an activity on the kids calendar that they really want to participate in?  

Yes you can, but timing that activity can be tough.  You'd best call Adventure Ocean and inquire about what time it will occur.

1 hour ago, Koz said:

Any secrets about the ship, off the beaten path or insider information would be greatly appreciated.

Voila: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2017/04/05/top-10-royal-caribbean-anthem-of-the-seas-hidden-secrets

[Koz]

Matt, thanks so much for taking the time. Very much appreciated!

[DocLC]

Regarding Adventure Ocean, the programming is set for a block of time: 9-12, 2-5, & 7-10. When during the block of time a specific activity is going to occur is unknown. This is why @Matt suggested calling. I'd also recommend dropping them off the first night, usually from 8-10, just to get acquainted with the other kids. 

[chrisd596]

We've cruised 7 times on dcl and after much research decided to try RC out of Bayonne to Bar Harbor and Halifax June 26-July 1st this year.

The Anthem of the Seas is a really nice ship with lots of technology. The main dining rooms are fine, about the same as dcl. If u get to the dining room on time or about 10 min early, u will find a line. Getting there about 10 min late and you'll walk right in.

I had lots of problems trying to book ifly and the northstar. Tried many times and received the answer that the online booking was all full and to book when u get on ship. I wanted badly to avoid waiting online the day we boarded. But I was never able to book online. On boarding, if you want these experiences head right to the box office .... try upstairs box office if there's a line on the 3rd deck....I think.

We found the Windjammer to be very good, even better than dcl's buffet. Wide variety, multiple stations offering omlets, and other specials... Super special desserts were offered on the last lunch day. To us we didn't need the soda package. There was always flavored water and ice tea and lemonade and it was all very good. 

The Solarium was great. The pool is spread over 3 levels, the jaquizzs (sp)  were rather large and there are 4 of them. There is a little cafe in the Solarium which has a limited variety of food, worth trying, but not comparable to the Windjammer or the main dining room. The Solarium is completely covered in glass and offers really great views of the ships forward motion. The Solarium is also an adult area and since it's covered in glass, it is not effected by weather...rain...wind. It stays warm and is open late.

For the 5 day cruise, RC had 3 theater shows. (We didn't really understand them, sort of strange, but worth seeing.)  We really liked the bars and small clubs because the live bands were great and RC switches them every night. 

For teenagers and adults theres' tons to do. Plus in the middle of the ship there's a huge activity area for basketball, that turns into skating, bumper cars, and also RC has a huge game of dodge ball. Everyone had a blast playing dodge ball, young and old. 

Those were our highlights. The areas that were on the down side for us was disembarking. I would report there at the time RC tells you. We did early disembarking, waited 1 1/2 after even arriving early. Friends of ours showed up at their assigned time and just walked off the ship. That's what I will do next time. Also Bar Harbor is a tendered port. So if u don't do a RC excursion, then you will be given a tender # and wait and wait and wait to get off the ship. Again we arrived early to pick up or #, and waited on a huge line and then once we were handed our #, we waited at least another hour and fifteen min.

These are some of our impressions as we compared our dcl experiences to our first RC cruise. We were pleasantly surprised that we enjoyed RC a lot. The few problems were a learning experience for us. Checking in at the port was easy and 5 min. Getting on the ship was quick too. 

Final clue, come on the ship with your next RC cruise in mind. Even if u change your date or decide not to cruise again. Go through the quick process of setting up a time with the "next cruise" area.  RC has a sign up book with times and dates right there. The reason why is cause you will pick up some on board credit and also only have to leave a $50 per person deposit for your next cruise. Of course, at home, you can change your cruise and RC will still use your $50 per person as the down payment. When we got home I researched more, found a much cheaper 7 days cruise, instead of the 5 day one I booked on ship, called RC and they changed it right away.

You can always cancel your next cruise and get your deposit back before the cancellation time ends, but you can't leave the ship w/out a new reservation and book at home unless you pay the $500 deposit. 

Hope this helps.

Chris

[DocLC]

@chrisd596 Thanks for the detailed report. 

Note that the Next Cruise program terms have changed since your sailing and the deposit may no longer be refundable. 

[Koz]

For those who have been, have you found that on days at sea, activities like basketball, dodgeball, trapeze school, bumper cars etc warrant you arriving early just to stand on line so as to ensure that you can partake, or in the alternative, do activities, outside of flowrider, ripcord and northstar tend to be walk up?

[BrianAlt]

Bumper cars usually have a line, but not more than 20 minutes.  Trapeze school might have an advance sign up sheet, ask in the SeaPlex.  Basketball is walk up.  

So it depends.

[Hannah]

For kids: you get a paper in your cabin - night before - and will tell you what the kids are doing each hour then you can pick and choose what your kids are doing. I traveled several times now with grandkids and they loved it. First night for an hour will get them adjusted and on sailing days or evening the kids always wanted to go to do kids stuff (so gave us time to relax). They would check and watch for times to go and we often took them for an hour and did pickup or even 3 or 4 hrs on "at sea" days because they loved it so much. You ever want to check on your kids you can pick up the phone and dial where they are at to speak direct to see if they are alright or want to leave. Course when they got bigger they met in different parts of the ship for activities and you would take them there to "drop off and pickup" then it's not so easy to call during that time but hey they are older kids by then. I never regret taking my grandkids and enjoyed having them there and still found time for ourselves too.