My wife and I sailed on RCL Anthem of the Seas along with our 3 daughters ages 12, 11, and 9 departing Bayonne June 11, 2016 with a day and a half port-of-call at Kings Wharf, Bermuda. Overall we had a VERY pleasant experience. We decided to NOT purchase the expensive drink packages because we brought our own cases of bottled water (and even a case of ginger ale!) on board. I tipped the the porter $10 and he didn't blink an eye. He just put a luggage sticker on each of my beverage cases at the Bayonne dockside, and then two hours later, we found them right there in the hallway, right outside our stateroom! I emptied the fridge of the RCL pay-as-you eat items, and filled it up again with our own beverages from Costco. The kids had plenty of juice / flavored-water drink choices in the Windjammer buffet, and if they really wanted to indulge in their soda fix outside of the cabin, then they could order soda's with their meals at dinner time. There was a self-serve ice cream machine located on Deck 14 near the outdoor pool, however the machine seemed to be broken about 50% of the time. And even when it worked, note that that is the ONLY ice cream machine for all 4,000+ passengers, so you can expect lines whenever it happens to be working.

No food complaints whatsoever. Lots of options for breakfast. We particularly frequented Solarium Bistro and Cafe 270 for breakfast. We almost always ate lunch in the large (and often crowded) Windjammer buffet, but we also frequented the SeaPlex Dog House, and Sorrento's for mid-day snacks. For dinner: We did Silk (twice), Chic, and Solarium Bistro, and also we splurged for Wonderland (eclectic, but fun if you have a lot of time and an open mind. The food was really unique!), All restaurants were fabulous! Dinner portion sizes were medium, but you could always order a 2nd entree (which I did) If you don't gain weight on a cruise ship, then you are doing something wrong! One warning about the alcoholic beverage package: If one adult in your sate-room signs up for an alcohol package, then ALL adults have to sign up for the same one. Obviously, they do this so that you don't cheat RCL by ordering pre-paid unlimited drinks for more than one passenger by buying only one package. HOWEVER, we were able to circumvent this by technically having one adult book the trip with ONE of our under-aged children in one stateroom, and then booking the OTHER adult parent into the other stateroom along with the remaining two children. Thus, I was able to purchase only ONE $50 per day "Premium" drink package, and was able to keep my wife and myself lubricated with cocktails for the duration of the cruise. Only one time, I received a warning from the bartender in Michael's Pub, when I handed my wife her drink a bit too obviously. (Right in front of him). We found out that you can NOT cancel the package during the days that you are in port, but even so, we feel we got value out of the single Premium package (because of our shenanigans) In retrospect, the one thing that I would have done differently, was I would have booked our restaurants ahead of time. ...Because the formal "Grande" was completely booked, on the first afternoon of Day 1. So we brought our formal clothes on board for nothing)

There were literally too many options on Anthem to choose from, for a five-day itinerary! We spent a lot of time in the pools, and we roller-skated in the SeaPlex mutli-functional area. We would have liked to try bumper cars but the lines were too long both times we happened to be in the area during Bumper Car hours. We signed up for Ocean Adventure -but our kids decided that the activities were too "kiddie" for their age group, so they just did their own thing (lots of swimming in the wide selection of pools). Personally, I had a great time playing Blackjack at the casino. Friendly dealers, and fun players. The Bionic Bar was a joke. Three times, I ordered drinks from it, but it never delivered. Both robots broke down constantly, and by the 4th day of the cruise, there was a sign permanently placed front of them that over-optimistically read: "Bionic Bar Rebooting" There was also a self-serve Ice Cream machine located on Deck 14 near the outdoor pool, and here too: The machine seemed to be broken about 50% of the time. A must for those not afraid of heights is the free North Star activity. Preferably do it within sight of land, to give you something to look at other than open ocean. Also, my wife did the Behind the Scenes tour, which included the bridge and engine rooms. She loved it !! Read more