Having read all the January roll calls and reviews of Anthem Of The Seas cruises and the cruise from Hell (January Hurricane cruise), I hoped our cruise would have better. Let me start with Embarkation. I have read many reviews that stated once the passengers entered Bayonne Pier Terminal, they went to the ushers with iPads and in a few minutes were ushered up the escalator to enter the ship. It only took 5 minutes. Not so for us.

We entered around 9:30AM and were told to stand behind the people already sitting in blue chairs. There was another full section of people sitting in white chairs. At the back of the huge hall, were about 30 elderly people standing. Not enough seats for all of us. As the streams of the people kept coming in, they gathered in the front. We were not allowed to board the ship. We were told that the computer system was down that tabulated our faces and names as we boarded. With this down, no one could board. After being there an hour and standing, they started to let us board. However the people who just entered the building were in the front and went on the first line. They were calling people by rows from the front. Chaos was starting right away. All the people standing started to move to the right and walk along the wall to where the first row was starting to move from their seats. The people standing, plus the people coming into the building and other people sitting in chairs began to move as well. Suddenly the escalators were not functioning so the line was halted. We later were told that the people leaving the ship from the last cruise experienced problems with the same escalators, so we were asked to leave space between passengers to balance out the weight.

Finally we boarded the ship after waiting 2 hours. Many people were still sitting in their chairs waiting to get the word to board. Passengers were unable to go to their cabins so onto the buffet went the 4500. The Marketplace was not as large as I have seen on other ships, so tables were unavailable. With no place to go, people ate and sat. New arrivals were screwed, since space was at a premium. We asked some people sitting on a table for 8 if we could use two of the unused seats, which was great. We could see the utter frustration on the passengers with wheelchairs and walkers searching for a place to sit, many with plates in hand. Read more