We did the 9 day cruise out of Bayonne,NJ, leaving on 9/8/16 and returning on 9/17/16. We chose this cruise as we liked the itinerary..The weather for the 9 days turned out to be great. The Anthem of the Seas is a beautiful ship. However after sailing on the Oasis and Freedom class ships I liked those ships better, basically the design of those ship was more to my liking with the big promenade.

We did a number of "off ship" excursions. In Boston we turned left when we left the terminal and walked about 300 feet and there was a booth for a Hop on Hop off tour for $37 for seniors (I think $41 for non-seniors). It included a free harbor boat tour which was nice. I think there were 16 stops and you could select what you wanted to see. In Portland I had already paid for a tour of the city of Portland including the Lighthouse. It was $24 and about 2 hours long.Good tour and the tour guide was very knowledgeable. I booked it through www.discoverytours.com.It was about a 10 minute walk from the ship to where the tour departed. In Bar Harbor we did not take a tour as we had done the Arcadia Tour including Cadillac Mountain the last time we were there. However if you want to take a tour in Bar Harbor to Arcadia National Park, the last time we were there we went on a tour through Olie's Tours. You can find it online. After being tendered in to the dock just go straight up the hill and it is almost at the top of the hill. Via the internet you can book ahead of time. In St. Johns we did the city bus tour for $20 a person. You come out of the terminal and turn left and walk about 300 feet and pick up the bus. This tour is run by the city of St. Johns and they have 2 buses running (42 people each bus). Check their times and get there early as it fills up fast. Good tour showing you all the important places in St. Johns and the reversing falls, however it was low tide when we were there and not to much to see. In Halifax we wanted to go to Peggy's Cove.The ship tour was $69 so we partnered up with our table mates and hired an independent cab. We had a great guy as our driver. His name was Eric Calnen and his cell is (902) 452-7686 and email eric.calnen@ns.sympatico.ca. If you want to use him send him an email in advance as he said he is usually booked up. To see Peggy's Cove you need 3 hours, 1 hour out and 1 hour back and 1 hour to look around. He charged $50 per hour so the trip was $150 plus tip. He was a great guy and very knowledgeable. He had a 2007 Lincoln Continental which was big and comfortable for 4 people.

The biggest improvement that I liked on the ship was the room. The bathroom was bigger and had a bigger shower. If you have sailed on the Oasis or Freedom class ships you know the shower is very small. It had more storage as there were cabinets above the bed.Thought the light on the mirror at the make up table was really dull and the light in the bathroom should have been closer to the mirror and brighter. We got some free internet as we are diamond plus but paid for some also. The internet was fast at the beginning of the cruise but slow towards the end and the last day we had no internet which we had paid for. Read more