Stateroom
	Larger than other balcony staterooms
	Linen not as soft 
	Mattress hard, no pillow top
	Flat screen nice, but does not pull out and rotate, so only able to view from bed
	Very nice shower
	Tall closets for hanging dresses
	Only two electrical outlets in the entire stateroom – one next to the bed and one at the desk/make up table.  However, there were 2 USB charging ports which is a definite plus.
	Our stateroom attendant was pleasant and performed her tasks well.  One downside is that towel animals/art were not provided each night.  When we asked, we were informed that it was policy to only do that every other night.  Also, no chocolates were provided on the beds in the evening.

Portland – we purchased the “Traditional Maine Experience – Lobster Bake Dinner and Narrow Gauge Railroad.”  It started off very poorly.  We disembarked the ship one hour before our excusion meeting time.  The meeting location was “in the parking lot at the end of the dock.”  We went to the end of the dock and found a woman dressed in a yellow reflective vest with “Tour Guide” printed on it.  We informed her of the tour that we were on and she indicated a location where we should meet in about 45 minutes for our tour.  We returned to the same location at the appointed time to find several hundred passengers all crowded into a small area with a single Royal Caribbean crew member trying to shout instructions (in a Jamaican accent) without the benefit of a bullhorn and any other device.  When it appeared the he was calling out excursions other than ours, we forcefully made our way through the crowd to him to find out about ours.  He then indicated that we were in the completely wrong location and that our excusion was meeting on the other side of the security building.  We hurried around th building to find that our excursion had already departed the meeting location.  Lucky for us, the group left on foot and we were able to catch up with the group.  In our opinion, this is a huge fail on the part of Royal Caribbean.  Very little organization at the cruise port with an insufficient number of knowledgabe personnel with accurate information.  More signage would be extremely helpful.  As for the excusion itself, it was a significant let down.  The Narrow Gauge train ride lasted about 30 minutes, but it only travelled about 3 miltes total – 1.5 miles up the coast, then stopped, reversed direction and went 1.5 miles back to where it started.  The narrarator onboard told us all about narrow gauge railroading but very little about Portland.  The highlite of the excusion was the lobster dinner.  The train stopped, all personnel with wrist bands were asked to get off and herded over to a white tent.  Inside were set plastic tables and plastic chairs over unlevel and unstable ground.  There wre not enough place settings for all the guests that had paid for the excursion.  It was a relatively warm day and there were containers of ice water, iced tea and lemonade provided.  However, there was insufficient quantity for the number of guests and the liquids ran out and were not replenished.  The lobster meal consisted of a whole lobster, an ear of corn on the cob, a plate of about 8 mussels, a very small piece of cornbread, one small container (about 2 tablespoons) of potato salad and a like container of cole slaw.  There lobster was quite good, the cornbread very dry, and the ear of corn without flavor.  Several individuals went about the tables removing the scraps off the tables.  All told, I would say that this excursion was not worth the price of $109 per person.

Bar Harbor – Acadia National Park and Lobster Bake Dinner.  The Anthem had to tender into Bar Harbor.  The good thing that RC did for this was to use a similar process that Disney Cruise lines do.  For each excursion, you meet in a specific area of the ship and a cruise staff member escorts you as a group off the ship and links you up with the excursion host.  In the case of RC, the only thing that we did was to meet in the theater at a specific time so that we could be provided transported on a specific tender schedule.  We were still left to our own devices once the tender docked.  Luckily, there was a knowledge tour guide on shore to direct us to our buses.  The tendering service both to and from the ship was fine.  Plenty of boats and very little wait time.  The bus ride through the national park was just so-so.  It was long (about 1.5 hours) and our guide must have told us how wonderful Rockefeller was to donate and protect all the land on the island at least 500 times.  It grew tiresome and monotonous.  The bus stopped at only one location to let us offload to take some pictures.  Other scenic location were just slow drive bys – and if you happen to be on the wrong side of the bus, your loss.  After circling the 29 miles of the Acadia National park and hearing over and over again about Rockefeller, we arrived back in Bar Harbor for the lobster dinner.  The venue was a very nice and was well prepared for us.  Lobster dinner included one whole lobster, a half ear of corn, a small container of cole slaw, a couple of red potatoes, and half a dozen mussels.  Plus ice tea or ice water.  There were plenty of staff to assist in how to prepare and eat the lobster for those who did not know.  In my opinion, this tour was not worth the $99 per person price.

Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Very nice excursion.  We boarded a bus with a very knowledgeable guide and drove the short distance to the extremely picturesque location of Peggy’s fishing village.  Though not really populated now, the beauty is still there.  Colorful fishing boats tied up at the pier and a very nice lighthouse as well.    After another informative and picture-taking trip back to the boat and we spent several hours going through the many gift shops at the terminal.

Saint Johns – Fundy Bay and the Fundy Trail.  Terrible excurisions.  BORING.  An 8 hour daym mostly spent on the bus.  Got off the bus at a few locations to look at rock formations and a rock beach.  We stopped for half an hour at St Martins, probably the highlight of the tour.  We saw the two covered bridges and the fishing boats sitting on the mud flats at low tide.  We then got a very brief glimpse of the St Martins Lighthouse from the bus and the view was obscured by trees and bushes.  We were offered a single molasses cookie and a cup of tea at the Interpretation Center where we spent an hour doing nothing.  We then reboarded the bus and drove to the Cave Restaurant where we had a dinner of a small (8 oz) bowl of seafood chowder (it was actually pretty good – just not enough of it), a homemade biscuit (also very good), and a can of soda.  Then we drove back to the seaport listing to some ridiculous music CD on the bus PA system of some seafaring songs.  Nothing at all to do with the Reversing Rapids.  We made a huge mistake with this tour and do not recommend it to anyone.  It is certainly not worth the $139 per person charge.

We did not see any excursions that interested us.  We did get off the ship at the port for the sole purpose of getting the shipside photo taken by the ship's photographer.  We walked around Boston a little, walked to the warf, and walked to the Boston Tea Party Museum.  Very much overpriced.  Nothing exciting - do not recommend any of the Boston excursions.

Boston

There are no excursions for Bayonne - they are all to go into New York City.

Bayonne (Cape Liberty)

Stateroom

	Larger than other balcony staterooms

	Linen not as soft 

	Mattress hard, no pillow top

	Flat screen nice, but does not pull out and rotate, so only able to view from bed

	Very nice shower

	Tall closets for hanging dresses

	Only two electrical outlets in the entire stateroom – one next to the bed and one at the desk/make up table.However, there was an opportunity to have a pre-boarding picture taken halfway up the boarding ramp

Boat

	New and it looks it (clean, everything works, no rust spots)

	Seems more like a hotel than a ship

Royal IQ great idea and very useful

		Charging for phone to phone calls and texts seems wrong

	Cruise compass electronics

		Listed with no details

		Information about rest of week not available

	Having to charge pool deck towels to your card ?

Anthem of the Seas Review

Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas Cruise to New England

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Cabin Review

Superior Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony

Port Reviews

Boston

Bayonne (Cape Liberty)

Find an Anthem of the Seas Cruise from $200