Anthem of the Seas review- April 14, 2024

[wolfies]

Found this site very helpful for us, so wanted to pass along my thoughts/experiences in case it helps anyone in the booking/research process!

Family of 4 (2 adults, 15 year old son, 11 year old son).
My husband and I cruised once back in 2004, but that was on NCL and soooo long ago I'd consider us all first timers haha.
Sailed out of Cape Liberty with stops at Port Canaveral, Nassau, Coco Cay.

CAPE LIBERTY- I was excited about the embarkation process because I had heard so many good things about this port. Maybe I was confused but what is the point of a check in time??? I stayed up until midnight to get a boarding time of 10am, and I was psyched as we every much wanted to get on the ship as early as possible to start the vacation. We arrived at the port at 9:50am and there was already a long line of cars to get in. We slowly snaked through the line, watched staff inexplicably hold cars back, one lane was moving faster than the other, it didn't seem to make sense to us. Perhaps there was a method to the madness but it wasn't obvious. In any case, we dropped our bags, finally made our way into the garage. Parking and getting through security/passport check and all that was super easy. Then no one told us where to go, we were milling about, finally we asked someone where do we go now, they said sit in the chairs, so we sat. Meanwhile once the set of chairs filled up, we watched as folks were escorted left through another door (behind the people at the desks doing the passport check). My husband was convinced there must be another holding area (chairs) back there, come to find out there wasn't! When they finally opened the doors, and painstakingly let one row at a time through the big doors and up the escalator to the ship (which I totally understand), we saw those other people walking through another set of doors and merging with the escalator. So people arriving after us got on the ship well before us. Why weren't the chairs organized by check in time? **And before you come at me, haha, I'm well aware this is not a huge deal in the end, we all got on the ship, it was fine. I just misunderstood and thought the check in time actually meant something! Chalk it up to being first timers! Next time I will not stay up until midnight, get whatever check in time, and arrive at the port much earlier that 9:50am to get a spot in the first set of chairs. No one once asked us what our check in time was.

STAFF ON BOARD- We were truly blown away by the kindness of the staff, everyone was incredibly friendly and warm and kind!!! Can't say enough nice things.

MAIN DINING ROOM- We did 5pm dining and we LOVED this. Nice to have a set time for dinner because every time we left we saw a long line of people waiting outside for a table, that would not have worked out for us. I was worried about would be too early but it was nice to have the evening open afterward. And we honestly loved the food, not expecting the amazing quality that we got. I'm not a foodie but my husband is and he thought it was very high quality. Shout out to Rohit and Tembelani because they were the best waiters! Made our dinners quite enjoyable. I'd give the food 9 out of 10, selection and flavor were awesome.

WINDJAMMER- meh. It is what it is. Nice to have as a quick option, but you just gotta deal with all the people, trying to find a table, sometimes the food was fine and sometimes it was not great. Halfway through the cruise we decided to try to avoid it the rest of the time haha. Staff was great though, always clearing the tables fast!

CHOPS GRILLE- We wanted to do Chops for dinner halfway through the cruise. Prepaid to save a few bucks. Honestly...it was fine and very good. But other than the cheesecake (which was PHENOMENAL) I'd put the food on par with the main dining room! Server had zero personality, ultimately it was fine but didn't feel worth the cost. 

TEEN CLUB- This is entirely based on your kid. Our older son takes awhile to warm up to people but once he does is very social, and he did go to the ice breaker event on the first night. He texted us at one point and said, this is soooo lame, the staff is trying to get people to do things and no one wants to do it. He ended up staying out late to play soccer in the Seaplex so that was good, but never once went back to the teen room. I could see it working out if you have a very outgoing kid but it's so dependent on the other kids on board. Scrolling through the activities all week, there weren't a ton of "teen-specific" ones, he really wanted to do a teen ping pong tournament or a teen pickle ball tournament, but it was never an option.

ADVENTURE OCEAN- Same deal, it all depends on the kids on your sailing. Our younger son plays well with others very easily, and he went a few times, but he came out complaining about how obnoxious/crazy some of the kids are. And he is not one to do that, usually he'll hang out with anyone! I did find the staff very warm and welcoming to the kids at registration and drop off, I'm sure they were great with the kids.

ACTIVITIES- Lots to do on this ship! We loved all the options for trivia, games, etc. Sometimes they gave out keychains, but sometimes the prize was "free lunch at the Windjammer!" I think they were trying to be funny, but it wasn't. We did a "Royal Mystery" activity that involved teams of 8 people working together to solve lots of puzzles and determine which fictional character stole the art from the museum. It was probably 100+ people in Two70 participating, it was an hour long and fun but stressful (in a fun way!) and the 1 team that won got nothing!!! We overheard lots of people walking out saying, "I can't believe there was no prize for that!" My older son and I did the Escape Room, which was sorta fun, but the host wasn't great and the group we were with weren't that talkative, I tried to get us all to work together but no one seemed to want to. And then the host was giving us answers! Laser tag was awesome, but you didn't actually need a reservation, the staff didn't even check. Bumper Cars were so fun! Rock climbing was cool! Get in line early for everything you see.

SHOWS- We Will Rock You was awesome, we all enjoyed this! Also Pete Matthews the juggler was a riot, non stop laughing! We didn't see Spectra's Cabaret or The Gift.

SOLARIUM- Lovely, what a peaceful oasis. Wish I got more time in here!

DRINK PACKAGE- I always find the many "is the drink package worth it" questions hilarious. It's all about how much you drink and what the perceived value is for you! For my husband and I, who like to drink, and didn't want to worry about how much we were spending, we prepaid for it (on sale!) and thought it was well worth it. Loved that it was money already spent. A lot of the drinks were watered down, so we probably drank more than we usually do haha. Bartenders were great!

ROOMS- We had 2 connecting balconies and this worked out so well, honestly the best decision I've ever made! I can't imagine families of 4 trying to be in 1 balcony room, that would have been miserable. Deck 7, so you could see the tops of the life boats, but it was perfectly fine. I could see that Deck 6 would not have been good with the life boats if a nice view is important to you.

COCO CAY/THRILL WATERPARK- We got a cabana (on sale!) and we loved having it! Fully in the shade and nice having having the lockers and towels and a comfy cough. It was more painful on my feet than I thought to walk around that pathways on the waterpark, so I'd suggest getting watershoes and we will be doing that if we go back. Chicken sandwich was absolutely delicious! Fries were soggy and rubbery and we didn't eat them haha. The kids had a blast on all the water slides! Would definitely do this again. If they would do 2 days at Coco Cay I would book it in a heartbeat because we did a quick look at some of the other locations and it all just looks soooo nice, I would have loved more time to explore other parts of the island.

SEAPLEX- one of the best venues on the ship if you have kids. So much to do! Love that it was indoors! I've seen other ships have the basketball court outside which means you're constantly loading up on sunscreen and sweating. For my (pale) family, we liked that the kids were indoors for that.

PORTS- We didn't get off the ship in Port Canaveral, enjoyed a noticeably less crowded ship! In Nassau we only got off for about 45 minutes to walk around the port, got back on the ship and again it was so nice to have less people on board! I really booked this cruise for the ship activities and Coco Cay. Next time we will probably try a sailing that has more interesting ports and do some excursions.

We really had an awesome time, I loved the ease of it all, not having to drive anywhere, it feels pretty safe. That's about all I can think of, happy to answer any specific questions anyone has about the ship! 

[Matt]

Great report, thank you for sharing!

36 minutes ago, wolfies said:

Our younger son plays well with others very easily, and he went a few times, but he came out complaining about how obnoxious/crazy some of the kids are.

Unfortunately this is luck of the draw. As a dad of girls, I've often thought I was glad to have girls since they all seemed to be more interested in less rambunctious activities.

37 minutes ago, wolfies said:

I could see it working out if you have a very outgoing kid but it's so dependent on the other kids on board.

My oldest daughter is starting teens club stuff, and she agrees the ice breaker stuff is lame.  But if they don't offer it, it becomes a stereotypical middle school dance with boys on one side and girls on another.

When my daughter knows someone else on the ship that is going to teen club, that has helped immensely. Like your son, she's not an extrovert that can jump in and make a ton of friends.

 

[wolfies]

Yes we were thinking maybe next time we will try to cruise with another family. Fortunately my kids could find enough to do either with us, or they'd go around together and explore the ship, or play pool, or play basketball or whatever. Only a couple of times when my husband and I wanted time to relax we got the "I'm bored" to which we replied, "That is entirely your fault. Look at this ship! So many things to do and places to go! Figure it out!" And then they did. Pretty typical kids though lol. 

[Crown&AnchorEsq]

For Cape Liberty, traffic is, unfortunately, not its strength.  Depending on which way you come in there is a stop sign at one spot where you need to take a left and it is virtually impossible to actually make the turn without straight darting into traffic.  I can be very aggressive at lights/stop signs and even I sat for a bit.  We must have been at that stop sign for for at least 15 minutes.  Then you get in and the lines start up.  Two notes on that, if you have an ultra-early time you are usually still arriving while others are departing so that does not help.  Check in time does not necessarily correspond to arrival time either.  Many people show up as early as possible and NY/NJ does not really seem to enforce check in time too strictly.

The holding area discrepancy does seem a bit weird, any chance that one area was for pinnacle/suite/the key guests? They get priority boarding elsewhere.  I do not remember the set up in NJ but we were also there when COVID protocols were in full swing.

For the teen club, my only experience is now 15-20 years old but direct personal experience.  The times I went as a teenager the teen club was really there for the introductions on the first day and then we ran around on our own anyways.  I tend to think that is why you are  seeing the "hangout lounge" model on some of the new ships, rather than organized activities. 

We have had a similar experience with AO for the younger kids as you have.  My general feeling is that behaviors are poorly managed at AO, my kids are far from shrinking violets but they generally dont like AO "because the other kids are mean." The AO staff has a tough job trying to manage behaviors but not upset guests so, like Matt says, seems to be luck of the draw.

 

[wolfies]

A few more things I thought of:

ELEVATORS- definitely there were certain times that waiting for an elevator was ridiculous. Tried to take the stairs when possible but going from 7 to 15 felt too far sometimes hahaha. I think about halfway through the trip 1 elevator in each bank of elevators was out of service which didn't help things!

VOOM INTERNET- We did the 1 account 2 devices and it was great! Never had dropped signal, zero issues, would definitely purchase again.

ROYAL CARIBBEAN APP- This app was glitchy as hell haha. I might be super critical since I'm a UX/UI Designer, but they could improve this a ton. In hopes that someone at RC sees this, let me be specific and provide some user feedback (this was on Android if that helps):

• When I add an event to my calendar, I don't need a notification banner on the top of the app a thousand times telling me about it. How about just once 15 minutes before the event starts. And then let me snooze it or dismiss it. I was getting those banners at the top of the app like crazy!
• Same with the safety videos, we both did it and then my husband was getting notified for the next few days that he still had tasks to complete!! 
• It would have been helpful to sort events by venue. Sometimes I wanted to see what's going on at the Seaplex today, but I had to scroll the entire list to do so.
• I would like to customize my filters. If I'm not interested in the spa at all, but want to see "activities" and "entertainment" let me do that.
• Categories seem wonky. Why is a sale on watches considered an "activity"? 
• The chat feature was nice, but it did take awhile for messages to send even though the internet on the ship was awesome. My son who didn't have internet on his device but did have wifi, wouldn't get the notifications that there was a message for him. Also I noticed it would say either "Sent" or "Delivered", which I think is the difference between "Sent" and "Seen". I'd change this to "Seen" to be more clear that my son saw a message.
• I did love that I could click on an event, like Open Rock Climbing, and see the other days that this would be available. Loved that feature!
• I think your dining reservations should show on your calendar. I noticed our Chops reservation did but why didn't our main dining room time of 5pm show up?
• Fun feature to consider that ties into my earlier comment- click on a venue on the deck map and be taken to that venue's schedule of events as well as daily hours.

[wolfies]

11 minutes ago, Crown&AnchorEsq said:

For Cape Liberty, traffic is, unfortunately, not its strength.  Depending on which way you come in there is a stop sign at one spot where you need to take a left and it is virtually impossible to actually make the turn without straight darting into traffic.  I can be very aggressive at lights/stop signs and even I sat for a bit.  We must have been at that stop sign for for at least 15 minutes.  Then you get in and the lines start up.  Two notes on that, if you have an ultra-early time you are usually still arriving while others are departing so that does not help.  Check in time does not necessarily correspond to arrival time either.  Many people show up as early as possible and NY/NJ does not really seem to enforce check in time too strictly.

I didn't see people leaving, everyone was just entering. And yes I guess I was expecting separating boarding areas based on check in time. Airlines board by groups, I guess I just assume cruise ships would do the same? 

11 minutes ago, Crown&AnchorEsq said:

The holding area discrepancy does seem a bit weird, any chance that one area was for pinnacle/suite/the key guests? They get priority boarding elsewhere.  I do not remember the set up in NJ but we were also there when COVID protocols were in full swing.

Hmmmm I don't think so. There were 2 giant areas of chairs. The 1st area the rows were really wide, and they were let on first. The 2nd area that we were in was not as wide. And we weren't told any specific area to sit in. When we were confused and asked someone, "excuse me where do we go?" they said just sit in one of these chairs and opened up one of the guardrails (for lack of a better word) to let us in to a random row, so if we had Pinnacle/Suite/Key they wouldn't have known. And we noticed once all the chairs were full, later people going to the other area but they seemed to walk right on, there was no holding area back there that I could see anyway, happy to be corrected on this if anyone knows what I'm talking about!

11 minutes ago, Crown&AnchorEsq said:

We have had a similar experience with AO for the younger kids as you have.  My general feeling is that behaviors are poorly managed at AO, my kids are far from shrinking violets but they generally dont like AO "because the other kids are mean." The AO staff has a tough job trying to manage behaviors but not upset guests so, like Matt says, seems to be luck of the draw.

Yes exactly my younger son sounds just like you describe. Not a shrinking violet but not here for the rudeness. I agree- luck of the draw!!! 

[smokeybandit]

We had our first teen club experience during spring break on Adventure. I was kind of disappointed with lack of activities, but since I have nothing to compare it to (is it the ship? Is it the number of teenagers on board that cruise that dictates teen activities?), I have no idea.

[wolfies]

34 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

We had our first teen club experience during spring break on Adventure. I was kind of disappointed with lack of activities, but since I have nothing to compare it to (is it the ship? Is it the number of teenagers on board that cruise that dictates teen activities?), I have no idea.

It's a great question! No clue. I heard the hotel director say there were 1200 kids on this sailing, and he said most Royal Caribbean cruises usually have between 1000-1500. I was surprised it wasn't more as last week was April vacation week for many of the northeastern states.