Background: I traveled with my Mother, Husband and Daughter (16) for this cruise. My husband and I are in our 30's. My family has done about 5 cruises (NCL and RCCL). We drove down from Canada the Day prior and stayed at the Homewood Suites in Newark. Hotel was nice was about a 20 minute drive to the pier. We like the Homewood suites there is a separate closed off bedroom for my mom and we can take the pullout couch in the sitting room.
Summary: This was fantastic cruise with a great itinerary. The ship is beautiful and there is a lot to do. We would love to cruise on the Anthem again. Our only complaint was the service. The majority of staff were friendly and helpful but we did encountered several who were grumpy and dismissive.
Embarkation and Parking
We had 2 Superior Grand Suites 13234 and 13634. The rooms were spacious had lots of storage. There was a coffee maker, kettle and mini bar fridge. There was complementary bottles water when we arrived and we received a fruit plate each day. There were bathrobes hanging in the closet. One of the room cards was in the door when we arrived and the other along with our wow bands were on bed when we entered the room. If you don’t have a suite you only get the cards. You can purchase wow bands in guest services but I didn’t see many people wearing them nor did they advertise this. The Superior grand is similar to the Grand accept for the fact that there is a second angled balcony. We needed to open door on the balcony to access this area. We really did not use this part much. Our room attended was wonderful and kept out room clean. Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, soap and body cream we good quality and replenished daily. There were usb ports everywhere so we could plug our phone chargers directly into them. The television program was fairly limited (although we didn’t spend much time watching). There are are 2 channels dedicated to kids programming. The hair dryer wasn’t very powerful and you had to hold the button down while in use. We got complimentary WIFI with our suite which was fast. Beds were comfortable and they gave you a pillow menu which you could select from.