Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas Cruise Survey Results!Fun

I took a cruise from June 21, 2024 – June 28 2024 on Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas. The cruise left from Southampton, England and had stops in Stavanger, Olden and Flam, Norway and Bruges, Belgium.

I knew I’d be writing a blog post about my experiences, but I thought it might be useful to potential future cruisegoers to see more than just my opinion. So, I posted in a private Facebook group for this specific cruise. I asked my fellow passengers to let me know what they thought were the best and worst parts of the cruise. While many of these comments are negative, please keep in mind that nearly everyone said they had a wonderful time and that the crew was wonderful! Here was one person’s overall impression:

• We have had a wonderful week. The staff is amazing, the food in the main dining room is excellent, and the service is great. We would certainly go again. We have no complaints at all, and our stateroom is perfect.

Here is what others had to say, broken out by topic:

Rooms

• I don’t like that my stateroom gets cleaned at 5pm
• Worst part I agree is the one time room cleaning, would like to see it twice
• We really like the size and layout of our balcony room. It feels alittle bigger than the same room category we’ve had on other ships and other lines. The furnishings are in good condition and look pretty new still, though these beds are very firm and uncomfortable to me.
• The very first day we got into our room, our shower drain was completely clogged prior to us even using the shower. Like, literally, you turned the water on, and none of it drained at all before we could even get in. This is sketchy because it makes us think there’s no possible way someone could have cleaned that shower between sailings without noticing that barely any water was going down as they cleaned… which makes me think it just plain wasn’t cleaned. That’s already sketchy enough but what really irked us was the lack of fixing this issue timely. We were traveling over 24 hours to get to the port leading to embarking … like most travelers, we were tired, feeling gross, and jet lagged, and honestly, the first thing we want is a nice shower and clean clothes. We knew right at 2 when the rooms were ready that the shower was clogged, and we called maintenance right then, who told us they’d send someone right out. We waited half an hour, and no one at all showed up, so this time, I followed up with a call to guest services, who apologized and said someone would be dispatched right now and be right there. Another half hour passed with nothing. Obviously, we’re getting annoyed now it’s been an hour, and the only thing our gross, jet-lagged selves want is a shower and a nap … so I called maintenance AGAIN and they said they had no record of our original call or the one guest services made with them to get over, but someone was leaving right now and would be over immediately. I wish I were kidding, but another forty minutes went by, and still, no one, so I did call guest services now a second time and told them at this point, we had been waiting over two hours to have someone come to fix this just so we could actually shower and relax. Finally, about twenty minutes after that call, someone showed up. So all in, we literally had to call four times and wait about two and a half hours to use the shower in our room even once, which should have never been left clogged in the first place from the last cruise. That’s not how anyone wants to spend the first hour of their cruise, and honestly, no one really offered any apology or reason why they lied to us four times about someone being right over, but no one came. That’s not exactly good guest service.
• It’s been 18 years since our last RC cruise. Perhaps I should have done more research but our verandah category room feels small for 4 people. I had a hard time working with RC to get what we wanted in terms of cabins. This is in contrast to Disney, whose agents work hard to get the room right. Booking 10 mos in advance, I would face expected more care and attention. 
• We are finding the beds very uncomfortable. The mattresses are very firm.
• Love our cabin , but for us bed is a bit too hard.
• I kind of miss having the printed Cruise Compass. Yes, I do know we could have requested one from our stateroom attendant.
• We love our cabin and the staff have been very good.

Crew

• Crew is super kind and lovely to chat with.
• The staff have been very kind and we’ve really enjoyed talking with them. Guest services are so helpful and the kids club staff have been great. 
• the crew is great.
• The staff onboard have been amazing, so friendly and hardworking.
• We love our cabin and the staff have been very good.
• All in all the staff are amazing and always have a smile on there face can’t fault how attentive they all are but lots of improvements needed in my opinion.

Food

• We were very happy with our meal at wonderland, but the Japanese place gave us undercooked chicken … and took over two hours for the meal with mostly us just waiting crazy time between courses.
• Main dining room and windjammer IMO have been solid and constantly “ok”. Nothing bad but nothing particularly great either. I haven’t been disappointed but also not impressed by either. Decent but not great mostly.
• Third time sailing on Anthem, once PreCovid, once during, and now this cruise. Same ship, great crew, but the amount of cutbacks in food service is criminal. You can still eat as much as you want, but the choices have been cut down. No wonder the stock prices are up. Bean counters at work.
• I don’t like the ice cream.
• Wish there were more gluten free options in all dining venues. 
• Enjoying the food in Windjammer although desserts are very repetitive and nearly everything is chocolate, lovely for some people but I’m not keen
• chops was a disappointment from loving it on ovation last year. Cold food.
• I have also noticed that it seems they have limited the availability of food both in what is served and when it is served. 
• However between last year and this year it’s not the same quality of food. The windjammer is what it is buffet and is ok the MDR I feel the food is luke warm/cold and food quality has dropped massively too.
• I didn’t like how we struggled to find a seat at the windjammer both breakfast and lunchtime everyday!! Ended up doing 2-3 laps just to try and find a seat and it’s superrrrr busy

Ship Features

• RC shop was a bit underwhelming.
• Love the layout of the ship
• I really love the layout of this ship and the use of space, I know we’re a very full sailing but the people get pretty well spread out most of the time so it doesn’t feel that crowded.
• It seems like a decent schedule too, always something to do if you want to be out of your room with a lot of choices. I really like what they did with the sports complex … it’s so versatile with all the seaplex being used for so many different things and easy to convert form bumper cars one day to lazier tag and skating the next.
• We enjoy the variety of pool options and especially the indoor pool for families.
• Also, we’ve not liked the constant upselling. It really put us off in the first few days.
• The app doesn’t always work and we’ve missed appointments. Incredibly frustrating.
• All the badgering during breakfast to go to the specialty restaurants at 50% off every morning is getting to be annoying. But Anthem overall is a beautiful ship.
• There should be a noise ordinance in the solarium. Some people are yelling and yee-hawing. It might as well be in the family section with kids.

Activities

• The theater is clearly mismanaged. The main theater is too small for all the guests and it’s leading to these crazy situations where people were literally blocking off seats for the queen show nearly an hour before the production started. We showed up twenty minutes before and there was literally no seats to be found. Clearly there needs to a) be more than 1 day or two times of the same show for the ones like Queen that are always so popular so everyone can actually enjoy the show and b) they need to do online reservations for the Queen show in advance so no one has to be staking seats an hour before the dang show. They already do it for Cabaret, so why can’t they also do it for the other popular shows?
• I agree about the Queen show. There was a family of 7(?) sharing one seat and the entire stairs and stairway right next to us.
• We are struggling with the schedule of activities. We always seem to miss things for the children as we already had other things booked…like the iFly when Queen was on. And, the second showing of Queen when we had dinner reservations.
• I couldn’t do Royal Caribbean transport to Southampton because I arrived the day before the trip. That really should be an option.
• We Will Rock you show, we were there early but front few rows had reserved on them! Not really fair. But show was amazing
• I’ve noticed that when we inquire about a service we need we are met with you should have done x and that’s why it wasn’t fulfilled even though we’ve done x. Laundry, blankets, whatever.
• I have noticed on this cruise that the timing of the main shows is a bit off, making it difficult if you have traditional dining times. For example, the We Will Rock You show was only two shows, one at our dining time and the other—well, as others have said, there were not enough seats! We should have had a reservation system, at least. 
• I am disappointed that there is not a main show every night. Some nights were just games show stuff and entertainment at the bars. For those of us who don’t drink, hanging out at the bar is not a favorite thing to do. I may have been spoiled by the entertainment on RC Oasis class ships. 
• The teen club I wish had a little more organized activities. Luckily my son makes friends easier than my husband and I do  but it would be even easier with some planned things.
• I feel the activities and some of the gameshows are pointless or boring. The worst one I went too was the perfect couple in the music hall turned out to be really awkward and not very funny.

Stops

• Olden was the highlight. An additional Norwegian stop instead of Bruges would be ideal. 
• Don’t see the point of Bruges stop as by the time you get there and walk into town , it’ll be time to do the same back!
• Loved all of the ports of call. I wish we had known more about the refunding of VAT taxes while in Norway. I saw one tiny little blurb about it somewhere, but had no idea if HAD to be done prior to 4pm our last day in Norway. We’ll have to figure out how to do it online now. Not a big deal, but it would have been nice to have said more about it.

Check out the video tour of the ship!