Ok I will preface this by saying I have sailed 5 cruises before, 3 of them being RC, so I was, up until this point, loyal to the brand. However, after sailing Anthem of the Seas last week, I walked away really quite upset with many aspects of the trip. The #1 most awful thing about this ship is THE FOOD. When you are on vacation, and especially a cruise, you look forward to relaxing with a delicious meal. However, I can honestly say we did not have 1 good meal on this ship...the food was truly awful, low quality and just plain disgusting. (2 examples: The surf and turf at American Icon tasted like a cold slab of cafeteria-quality meat, complete with a skewer of shrimp (oh wait--they forgot mine at first and had to bring it out later), and smothered in brown gravy. Even typing this makes my stomach turn--seafood with brown gravy on top? Are you kidding me? Another night I ordered gazpacho, which is traditionally made with RAW (keyword), pureed tomatoes, and instead they served me cold, COOKED tomato soup. Like a can of Campbell's tomato soup, but cold. Um, what? If you want good quality food, they upcharge you OUTRAGEOUS fees for their fancier restaurants (like, $49 per person extra). Being a foodie from Jersey, I thought I was just being picky, but on several occasions I heard other guests either complaining about the food or sending their food back. Too many people, too much mass-produced, low quality ingredients. We ended up eating at WINDJAMMER, of all places, more than the dining rooms! I always saw the crew and staff dining at Johnny Rockets.

The ship itself gave me mixed emotions. It is a new and beautiful ship. The Two70 space was incredible, beautiful, and relaxing. However, something felt very cramped, closed-off and claustrophobic with the rest of the interior spaces. It was a strange design. The staterooms are beautiful, very clean and spacious, with lots of storage. Mattresses--terrible, we got no sleep the entire trip. (Bad food + no sleep = am I even on vacation?)

The staff also gave me mixed emotions. There were definitely some outstanding staff, but there were equally as many staff who adopted an almost indifferent attitude. That was probably the best word the describe it. I didn't feel a WOW, warm welcome. However,there seemed to be a large presence of security on the ship, which was nice to see. Read more