We have been sailing on Anthem since it started sailing in 2015. It's a nice, modern ship with plenty of bells and whistles and our first couple of sailings were extraordinary! We enjoy sailing out of Cape Liberty for the convenience and quite honestly, embarkation AND disembarkation couldn't be smoother. They get high marks for that. RC lets passengers know up front the recommended arrival time is between 12-1PM, but fellow cruisers show up as early as 9AM to be the first ones on board and then have to wait 3 hours in what terminal staff call "the bull pen." Even after they're on the ship, the rooms usually aren't ready at least for another 90 minutes. Fun times, however with this most recent sailing in May 2018, we noticed things started going noticeably downhill.

First, the negative reviews on this site are, unfortunately, mostly all true. Travel irons are confiscated at the security check-in when they previously were not for other cruises, forcing one to be creative or use the on-board laundry valet service for a fee.

The muster drill has become a joke as it is nothing more than roll call and videos about washing hands. They didn't even show us how to put on the life jackets! Even before entering the buffet they have a station with about four sinks where you MUST wash your hands and I find it incredulous that the sinks are filthy and yet somehow RC believes human hands are dirtier than the sinks they provide. Not that I have a problem washing my hands, it's just there's SO MANY announcements about doing it obviously to cut down on the norovirus which also happens to be an AIRBORNE illness. Chew on that for a minute. Read more