I chose this cruise because it was on the new ship Anthem of the Seas and it was 9 nights. Getting on the ship was an easy process, it went smooth other than we had to sit in traffic for over an hour to drop our bags off. (never had to wait like this before, but this was the first time we left from cape liberty) Upon parking the car we learned that the parking garage that you must park in which is basically owned by royal caribbean (at least thats what i was told by the attendant) charges $20.00 a day to park in!! $20.00 PER DAY!!!! which was $180.00 at the end of the cruise that wasant foretold.

Once on the ship, we realized immediately that this was going to be a very crowded ship and boy was it ever. Right off the bat the main outdoor pool only holds 30 people but the ship holds 4600 passengers. This is outrageous. Needless to say we tried to find a lounge chair on the pool deck outdoors and guess what, they were all filled up, well they at least all had towels on the chairs. This was the way it was the entire trip, at 7am people would go out and throw a towel on a chair and royal caribbean allowed this to go on. So then i go and try to get a drink to celebrate the vacation and 20 minutes later i have one. They make it hard for you drink on this ship, thats for sure. My kids wanted Johnny Rockets first thing so we waiting in line for 30 minutes just to place the order then had to wait another 10 minutes until the food was done. I was still trying to stay positive, attributing the hardships to the first day rush. Unfortunately it was like this throughout the cruise. The dining was average, it wasant "cruise quality". Even the windjammer didnt impress me, several meals were cold, same meals every day. The pub on the ship was supposed to have a selection of craft beers and on day one they only had 2 and on day 3 that was down to 1. I ordered fish and chips and a burger from the pub and 1 hour 15 minutes later it came out COLD!! Everything had a long line, everything you had to wait for. The bottom line is there is not enough accommodations on the ship for the amount of people it holds.

The rooms were nice, fairly small for a new ship. The bathroom stunk 75% of the time. The hot water on the ship has issues, the temperature would fluctuate drastically from warm to scolding hot and if you wanted a cool shower you were out of luck. Read more