Taking my husband of 30-plus years on a cruise has been a dream of mine for decades. I've been checking cruise sites for years, and ran across a video of Anthem. We live in NJ, and our nephew is "loyal to royal" so when I saw there was a good price for a balcony stateroom it was finally time to book a cruise. Anthem is HUGE. Even though I had studied deck maps, I was glad to find signage, especially when getting off elevators, so we could see which way to turn to get to our destination. Anthem has Ripcord IFly and NorthStar, as well as the Solarium pool area for age 16 and up only. I read Cruise Critic (also at nephew's suggestion) and found lots of hints from what to pack to best places to dine.

Embarkation went smoothly. We went to 270 cafe, not to Windjammer buffet, when we boarded. MANY passengers were also doing this. There is roast beef on a roll that is very tasty. Then we found our luggage outside our cabin. We put in in the lavatory while I checked for bedbugs and used Lysol with anti-Norovirus spray throughout. Even though there is a warning sign, I tripped into and out of the lavatory. After that, I remembered. Took hint to bring drops for toilet to prevent smells. (smiley face) I had spoken with a representative before my cruise and mentioned I had heard the beds were hard and uncomfortable. She said they could take care of that AND THEY DID! I loved the bed and pillows. I asked our wonderful cabin attendant Razqi to change the sheets about mid-cruise and he was happy to do so. He also made towel animals when I requested. I brought a small "white board" so we could leave messages and responses. We also brought magnetic hooks and clips to keep excursion tickets handy. For the lavatory I had an over the door clear shoes carrier for hair brush, sun block, Purell, etc. There was lots of storage space in the cabin, which also had a safe and refrigerator. You need to keep a room key or other plastic card in a gizmo by the door to turn on electricity in the room. If you open the sliding door to the balcony, air conditioning is turned off. Muster drill was our first exposure to the "Wash Your Hands" song. When we turned on the tv in the cabin, the first thing you'd see was the "Wash Your Hands" commercial. Then the morning show with Cruise Director Dru and Activities Director Enzo. Then the "Wash Your Hands" commercial before a rerun of the morning show.

First BEST THING - room service Continental breakfast is free! We got oatmeal, fruit, carafes of coffee and tea, and ate on the balcony one morning. If you order American (e.g. eggs) room service costs over $7.00 per delivery. The desk in the cabin is not attached to the wall, so we would pull it out. Spouse would sit on sofa and I would sit on desk chair. Razqi kept our cabin ship shape. We were pretty neat, but he would see my cell phone charge cord and roll it up! Dining for us started with the BOGO offer for specialty dining for the first two nights. We didn't know which 2 restaurants would be included, but I had called RCI and mentioned I had already booked lunch at Chops Grille for Thursday, spouse does not eat sushi, so if possible, could we have Jamie's Italian and Wonderland. If Chops was one of the dinners, I would just cancel Chops lunch. The rep couldn't guarantee which restaurants we'd get, but we DID get Jamie's and Wonderland! For "Main Room Dining", which is actually same menu for four different venues, we had "My Time Dining". I preferred "Silk". It seemed very elegant to me. Spouse wanted to try "American Icon" across the hall. After that experience, we were faithful to Silk, especially after we were able to get a reservation for IFly. I asked the hostess if we could get fast service (as opposed to the two-hour experience) and Romeo and assistant got us out in 45 minutes, without skipping a course!! Spouse had French Onion Soup appetizer many times. I tried multiple appetizers and skipped an entree one night. Multiple desserts some times? Guilty. We did get food from Windjammer for breakfast one day , and brought it back to our cabin balcony. Only disappointment there, was Mango Crepes, which I read were amazing, but maybe this chef was just using a different batter, because they were heavy and not all tasty. Yay, for breakfast potatoes and ready-made omelettes! They also had Lemon and Ginger herbal tea, which had run out in other venues. Spouse had a slice of pizza, I got a bratwurst from Hot Dog truck near Sea Plex. Both were deemed yummy. The mystery escape room was fully booked, but in addition to IFly, we were able to book NorthStar as we were leaving Nassau. We attended the on-board art auction. They have a wide variety of items, including lithographs (not "posters"). Solarium was very nice and the Solarium Cafe is rather small, but tasty! Read more