# Anthem of the Seas to Bermuda Trip Report



## tnshsms

I had the hardest time finding trip reports before I went on this cruise so I vowed to write one when I got back.  We got off the ship yesterday after a 5 day cruise to Bermuda.  I'm not a foodie so there won't be a lot of pictures of food so I'm sorry for those who wanted that! But hopefully someone will find this useful.

We are two 30 something adults from the midwest with an 8 year old girl. We have taken 4 Disney cruises (with another one booked for November) and took our last RCL in 2006 on the Serenade of the Seas to the Southern Caribbean.  So even though we aren't strangers to RCL it had been 11 years and a lot of things were different with this ship compared to our Serenade cruise.

We flew to Newark on May 17th to spend 2.5 days in NYC before getting on the ship on May 20th.  This was our first time to NYC and to Bermuda so we wanted to make the best of the short time we had at either location.

We stayed at the Hyatt Place Midtown South in Manhattan, used Luxor Limo to get from EWR to Hotel, Hotel to Port and Port to EWR and used OnBoard Tours for our 6 hour tour in NYC.

I hope my report will help others that are looking for information so please ask questions!


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## tnshsms

Once we landed in Newark and had a text that our driver Thomas was there to pick us up.  We got my mom's checked bag and went to meet our driver outside of baggage claim. 

I forgot to mention that my mom went with us for just the NYC part of the trip. She had never been and so it was a perfect setup for her.  She'd go with us for the NYC portion and then fly home afterwards.  We always attempt to travel with carry on luggage only since our 8 yo has traveled several times and is able to be in charge of her own luggage. We packed for 8 days in 3 carry on's and 3 backpacks.  Its freeing to know that our luggage is always with us. 

Anyway, our ride with Thomas from Luxor Limo was excellent.  He talked a little about the city and took us safely to our hotel, Hyatt Place Midtown South without incident.  They were great the whole trip and would recommend them to anyone!  They were a little more expensive than Dial 7 but had much better reviews.  Over the 3 rides I spent $22 more on Luxor than Dial 7 and don't regret it all.  

We got to our hotel at around 3 and our rooms were ready so we went to drop off our stuff and then head out to grab some lunch.  We chose this hotel because it was close to a major subway line (Herald and 34th street) and because we had 2 free nights and some points to use.  It was perfect for us.  We ate at Fresh & CO down the street, popped into Duane Reade Walgreens for some incidentals and stopped for a shake at Shake Shack.  

We went back to the room to unpack a bit and then headed to dinner at Little Italy for some Pizza. We chose it because it was about 3-4 blocks from our hotel and it passed the Empire State Building.  We took in the sights on the walk and then ate some decent pizza.  It was just ok, nothing all that exciting.  We were tired at this point so we headed back to the room to turn in for an early bedtime. We had a 6 hour tour with OnBoard tours the next day and wanted to be fresh for that. 

Up Next....See it all NYC (in 6 hours with Brooklyn Jim)


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## HappilyEverAfter80

We were on this cruise with you! I also plan to write some kind of a report just not sure how to approach it.. looking forward to hearing your take on this cruise. 
If your daughter went to adventure Ocean, she probably interacted with our son same age.


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## tnshsms

HappilyEverAfter80 said:


> We were on this cruise with you! I also plan to write some kind of a report just not sure how to approach it.. looking forward to hearing your take on this cruise.
> If your daughter went to adventure Ocean, she probably interacted with our son same age.



Hi!  I remember you from when we "talked" during planning! You were thinking about doing Oasis right?  My daughter never went to the kids club...it isn't really her thing and she was even less interested without the Disney magic.


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## angelinaxox

I have been reading all the Anthem reports on CC including someone who is a frequent cruiser who also just got off this cruise. I will be doing the nine day this summer. I have already done this itinerary on the Explorer a couple of times so am interested in hearing your report of the ship.  Look forward to reading your review.


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## tnshsms

NYC: Tour Day!
We chose to use OnBoard Tours instead of the hop on hop off buses because 1. I didn't want to have to figure out how to get to and from each stop after we got off 2. Wait for the bus and then know the possibility of it being full when it did finally get to us 3. weather is unpredictable and it could be rainy or super hot (ours was the later) and I wanted something that had a little more direction.  They had really good reviews on TripAdvisor and we have to agree with them! We loved OnBoard Tours!

We woke up early to grab some included breakfast, grab the subway up to the meeting spot and check in by 9:45. The bus was newer with leather seats and very cold air conditioning! Brooklyn Jim hopped on and told us that he'd tell us all about NYC for the next 6 hours. There was about 23-24 people on the bus so it was a nice small group.  We went to Central Park, Rockefeller Plaza, Today show set, St. Patrick's, Flatiron Building, Staten Island Ferry (and saw the Statue of Liberty), 9/11 memorial, wall street bull and lots of other sights from the bus along the way.  It was perfect for our group and we saw a lot in 6 hours.


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## tnshsms

Here are some from the tour!


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## tnshsms

After the tour, we walked to Times Square to look around for a bit then got on the subway, back to the hotel to freshen up and to dinner at 5 boro burgers. It was decent food...nothing too special but it was close and easy so it worked for what we wanted. We walked around for a bit after and then went back to the room. 

Next up....more of NYC!


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## tnshsms

Our last day in NYC we walked to the New York Public Library and to Grand Central Station. Both were neat to see and walk around.  We headed back to the room to freshen up and then head out to dinner at Rue 57 which was tasty.  In bed by 10 so we could be ready for our car pick up at 9:30 the next morning!  Anthem of the seas here we come!


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## tnshsms

After having breakfast at the hotel we went downstairs to wait for our car to find out he was already there...15 min early!  Zaky with Luxor Limo was an excellent driver and we learned a little about him while he took us to Bayonne. The cruise terminal road is kind of strange.  You kind of look like you are going into an industrial park and then all of the sudden, there is the ship.  The road is terrible to get there and the area is just overall kind of run down since its industrial.  I wasn't impressed. 

I should probably note that this will be a comparison between DCL and RCL.  With 4 DCL under our belts, we found ourselves saying "Point Disney or Point Royal" so we actually started to keep score.  We chose this diversion from DCL because we wanted to see NYC and Bermuda and at the time, DCL didn't provide that for us so we thought we'd give RCL a try after 11 years.  I have ported out of PC 3 times and Vancouver once so you will notice that I will have a lot of DCL comparisons throughout this report because well, we are on the Disboards and I assume most of you have taken at least one DCL cruise or have one booked and would like to know the differences. 

We had no idea what embarkation would be like.  As much as I tried, the information about how to board in Bayonne was lacking. So when Zaky dropped us off, it was very early...9:50 and I saw several people loading up to leave the ship and I wasn't' sure that I could check in yet since it was SO early.  You know, cause we are all used to the 10:30 time at PC with the lines super long to get in, right?  Nothing like that.  So Zaky drops us off at where we think we should go and I leave the Hubby and kid to stay with the bags while I walk inside to try to figure out what we do.  I go inside to see a large group of crew members (CM) huddled around something and a few with ipads.  I had read that we would be checked in on ipads so I walk over to one of them and ask if I was too early to check in. He looks at me, says "No, you aren't too early" in the most boring voice ever and then walks away.  Didn't say you should walk over there or give me a second and I'll help you. Just walks away.  So still unsure of what to do I go back outside to get the fam and all come in with our bags to again, attempt to figure it out. There aren't signs with check in on them or anyone with a big mickey hand pointing you in the right direction.   So once we are all in, someone yells over to us "Hey, are you checking in?"  I say yes then they yell back "then get over here, what are you doing over there?".  Um I don't know, no one told me what I was suppose to do?! So far, the customer service isn't off to a great start.  We go thru security with no interaction, get told that I go to this switchback line to check in (still no signs) and then get yelled at that I'm following the switchbacks instead of just going under the ropes because again, I was early was one of the first ones to check in.  Again, so warming of the employees. 

We reach a desk, the check in was quite smooth. You complete everything ahead of time, picture included. So we were done with checkin in about 3 min.  Much faster than DCL but not nearly as friendly as DCL. She begins to tell me that I need to go "over there" to another unmarked areas to board the ship. I ask what my boarding number is and she looks at me like I'm a crazy person and says "just go over there and they will tell you what to do" in your most annoyed voice. We walk "over there" to this sea of chairs(no pun intended) and see a lady telling us that we should go to row 6. We learned that the first 4 rows are for those Diamond and Diamond Plus members, then 5 starts us regular folk on a first come first serve basis.  So those in row 5 got there before us and would embark before us. Seems logical even if I felt like I was being herded.  I guess it rewards those who get there early instead of just getting your boarding number thru your check in process like DCL.  And everyone had a seat where at PC you sometimes have to jockey for a seat.  But the seats are NOT for luggage or backpacks and if you get up from your seat to walk your 18 month old around as someone next to us did, then you will be yelled at that you should be sitting in your seat.  And all chairs belong to people not luggage so don't take a seat with your backpacks sir.  So again, their attitudes were not all that friendly or inviting. At this point its about 10:10 so we go thru everything quickly and I had read that sometimes they start boarding at 10:30.  Sure enough at 10:32, they called rows 1-2, then 3-4 shortly after because 1 and 2 were filled but 3 had 2 families in it then they called row 5. Row 6 came shortly after and we were on our way to the ship by 10:45.  We were stopped halfway down the jetway to get the kid's mandatory wrist band that tells a CM her muster station in case of an emergency and she's not with us.  I'm not sure at what age this stops but our 8 yo had to have one and keep it on the whole time. She did not go to the kids club at all on this trip so I'm not sure what kind of kids band (if any) she would have needed for that but we got our green band and when on our way.  We were on the ship by 10:55.  

So how do I feel RCL and DCL compared?  I would say its a tie with a slight advantage to DCL.  DCL is more clearly marked on where to go and there is always a FRIENDLY person to tell you where to go if you don't know. And although it might take a little longer to get on the ship, I think that might be better because RCL wasn't ready for the onset of all the passengers getting on at 11...more on that later.  So maybe waiting in the port isn't all bad. You also entertain yourself with pictures with the characters, no one yells at you if you want to get up to use the restroom or walk around with your kiddo. But the crowding around the Mickey ears at boarding time is a little annoying but being herding like cattle wasn't any more pleasant.  So I still say a tie. 

Here is a picture of the check in desk area from the seating area that I was not suppose to get up from but I'm a rule breaker I guess.


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## tnshsms

Here are all the seats that you are sent to sit in and you can see past it the security area and where you come in from outside just past security. To the right of this area is the check in counters from the previous post.


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## tnshsms

We on the ship now and I'm hoping that I'll get friendlier people once on board chalking the boarding process to maybe just being too crazy that early in the morning.....

We get on the ship and head to 270 because I had heard that windjammer was sooo very crowded and we had 3 suitcases with us (we carry on everything so I can unpack immediately) and I knew that our 3 suitcases would not make us nice fellow passengers so we opted for 270. We headed that direction and figured out based on check in and fellow passengers that there were 2 weddings and a conference/reward trip for Signet on our cruise.  So we were kind of the oddballs not being with one of those groups. The kid didn't like much at 270 but she found a grilled cheese sandwich (which she ate like 3 bites from since it was a fancy grilled cheese sandwich) and we both got turkey sandwiches. They were tasty but not all that filling but we were ok with that since we had Jamie Oliver ressie's that evening. The 270 lounge was not open so seating was quite limited.  Here is a picture of the menu:

  

The few seats that were outside 270 were already taken and Balereo's had a private function so we sat in front of the tuba sculpture thing by Jamie Oliver's and ate our food. Not ideal but it was fine.  Just as we were done, we were ushered to different seats because one of the brides and grooms were there to take a picture.  I couldn't tell if they were already married or if they were doing pictures before the wedding but either way, her dress was gorgeous and that sculpture would be a pretty backdrop to a wedding picture. 
 

So after we finished our meal, we got our wowbands (which was super nice to have...point Royal) and then we walked around just a tiny bit and headed up to our room to wait up there until they were ready. We had about 20 min to kill til 1 so we we just hung out in the hallway with another nice family and once the doors opened, we were on our way to our room.  Because there are a lot of pictures on the internet of what the rooms looked like I didn't take any of those pictures.  But our room was very pretty and looks just like the pictures you see on the internet. The layout is better than DCL.  Although there is only one bath and we did sometimes miss the extra sink, it wasn't too big of a deal breaker for us.  The stand up shower was as roomy as you'd get with a cruise bathroom and I liked that it didn't have a gross shower curtain (point Royal).  I liked the layout because when you walked in you didn't feel closed in since the closets were part of the headboard of the bed and the bathroom was angled. So the room felt bigger overall even though they are practically the same size.  Our balcony was nice and nothing special.  Those would tie in my book.  Here is a picture of our room at night standing in front of the balcony doors just so you can see what I'm talking about. 

 

Once we unpacked our stuff, we headed up to windjammer to get some dessert/snack. We sat outside, despite the chilly weather, because there wasn't any seating inside windjammer.  We walked outside to a not so great surprise. Again, this is a comparison of DCL and RCL and I know that some of the readers might be annoyed by this but I'm gonna say it anyway.  Maybe those who will be annoyed will see the other side of the coin....but we walked out to a designated smoking area.  I, as I'm sure you can tell, do not smoke. I lost a father and uncle to lung cancer (a non smoker and a pack a day smoker). I did appreciate RCL putting a smoking area right next to the outdoor pool area and right next to the doors to the indoor pool.  This area was covered and somewhat enclosed so the area trapped the smoke.  I took a picture from where I was sitting (a little zoomed in so you could see the sign) and I could still smell the smoke from there.  It was annoying and disappointing that it was there.  On DCL I have no idea where the smoking areas are.  And I love that!  I know they exist but I have never run into them because I assume they are on a top deck somewhere out of the way where smoke smell wouldn't be trapped in an enclosed area.  Yes, smokers have the right to smoke, I get it.  But RCL doesn't have the right to make me inhale second hand smoke and have to alter my route every time I went to the deck to avoid it. It was annoying and frustrating.  I would have been even more annoyed had the weather been better and we had spent more time at the outdoor pool.   Here is the picture. To the right is the outdoor pool.  As you can see there are windows there that can open but in general, this is a pretty closed in area. 

 

So we learned where this was so we could avoid it, took some pictures on the top deck and then went back to the room to get ready for the muster drill. 

The muster drill was different.  We went to chops for our designated area and instead of the CM's giving us instructions or the overhead speaker telling us the information, it was a video.  First, it was a little cartoon video about washing your hands.  Cute but I saw several people not follow the cute video's suggestion. Second was a James Bond knock off type video about the safety drill and what you should do in an emergency.  Entertaining but I'm not sure if anyone got the actually message of what to do in an emergency because it was kind of buried in the story line. Either way it was fine. After muster we got ready for Jamie Oliver's and headed down for our 5:15 reservations.


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## tnshsms

We got to Jamie Oliver's right at 5:15 and we were seated promptly.  It says on the reservation that it will take 2 hours.  My family never takes 2 hours to eat so we kind of assumed that we could make it to the 7:30 Welcome Aboard show with no problems.  Well, it doesn't matter how quick you are, the service is meant to be a 2 hour meal.  We had already looked at the menu so by the time our server came back with our drinks, we ordered our app, our salad and main course. We got an assortment of breads (the garlic bread was amazing), spaghetti for the kid, lasagna for me and salmon for the hubby. He had his half eaten before I realized I wanted to take pictures so I didn't get a picture of his salmon or dessert.  Pretty much, I suck when it comes to taking pictures of food.  In fact these are the only food pictures. 

    

Once we ate the apps and salads, there was a little bit of time before we got our main course.  Our server wasn't the problem, just that he had a lot of tables to tend to and like I said, it is meant to be a 2 hour dinner. We just don't typically have the attention span for that and that's why we normally don't do specialty dining.  We are quicker service eating type people.  Not foodies, obviously!  So he took our meals away which were all delicious and then gave us the dessert menus.  The kid and I had the brownie with ice cream and the hubby had the cheesecake.  All were excellent! 

We were done right at 7:15 so we walked down to the Royal Theater, grabbed 3 seats and waited for the show.  Now on DCL, we all 3 love the shows.  I know that they aren't everyone's cup of tea. One of my best friends who is also a DCL loyal doesn't always go to the shows and she's not sad about missing them.  But for us on the other hand, we love them....that's what makes cruising awesome because there is something for everyone.  Anyway, we were really sad to find out that there wasn't going to be a whole lot of shows that would be 8 yo friendly so we chose to try out the Welcome Aboard show.  It started out with the usual cruise director coming out to welcome us, telling us to stop him and say hi and telling us about the ship and its features. Then a comedian came out. He was pretty funny and maybe PG-11?  Not quite 13 but maybe a little too risque in some spots for an 8yo....either way, we enjoyed it...no DCL welcome aboard show, but it was good.  (Point DCL)

We were kind of pooped at this point so we went back to the room and watched some TV, looked at the compass for the next day and plotted our first sea day out. 

Next up....Sea Day #1


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## HappilyEverAfter80

Enjoying reading about your experience on the same cruise so far 
We had slightly different experience boarding, everyone was friendly and because we boarded around 1:30, we pretty much walked onto the ship in under 10 min.
We also ate at Jamie's Italian the first night! We were there around 6:30 and were out within 50 minutes. I was actually surprised it took that fast. I'm guessing it depends who you get serving you and how many tables they have.
We also disliked walking by the smoking section


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## tnshsms

HappilyEverAfter80 said:


> Enjoying reading about your experience on the same cruise so far
> We had slightly different experience boarding, everyone was friendly and because we boarded around 1:30, we pretty much walked onto the ship in under 10 min.
> We also ate at Jamie's Italian the first night! We were there around 6:30 and were out within 50 minutes. I was actually surprised it took that fast. I'm guessing it depends who you get serving you and how many tables they have.
> We also disliked walking by the smoking section




That's so funny we were in JO at the same time...if only we knew we could have said hi!  Yea, i don't feel like it was anything the server could have done different cause he was kind of all over the place...it was to no fault of his own that it took a little while but it was fine. We had time so it wasn't a big deal, we just don't normally take that long to eat!  And that's good to know that it was better at 1:30...maybe it was just too early and everyone was dealing with those getting off and those getting on at the same time.


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## tnshsms

Sea day #1

After breakfast in Windjammer(WJ) we went to Northstar for our 9:30 reservation, except it was like 9:10.  We figured we'd try to go early and if it worked out great....well we got right on.  Northstar was cool (although a little windy because it was a sea day) but I'm glad it was free.  Not sure its worth paying for....here are some pictures.
 

We knew that roller skating was going to start at 9:30 and I had read about lines being really long at times for this so we went straight to the sea plex after Northstar. It started at 9:30 and we walked in about 9:35 and not a single person was skating or in line.  Excellent!  So the kid got her wrist band and skates and skating for about an hour while the hubs and I watched her.  I did have to run to The Shop on board to get her a toothbrush as hers had fallen into the crack of the toilet in the middle of the night as the seas were a little rough and rocky.  But 3.50 later and we were good to go.  
  


We went to the scavenger hunt after skating but it was not what I expected. I think I thought it would kind of be like midship detective or Elsa's scavenger hunt on the Wonder where you go to different parts of the ship to do things that are neat related to the ship but it was more like: Get 3 compasses, take a selfie with a bartender, take a selfie with a stranger, etc.  So as soon as we saw the list, we left.  So we opted for lunch in Sorrento's and went back to the room to get swimsuits on.  

 

Since the weather was pretty chilly still and a touch rainy, we went to the indoor pool. (Point Royal) If we had not had an indoor pool, I would have had a very sad kid.  She loves to swim (she's a fish...she's on the local university's junior swim team she loves to swim so much) and it was just too chilly to go to the outdoor pool.  Not that it was empty. Several thicker skinned people braved the outdoor pool just fine.  We are just from the midwest (southern midwest) so it was too cold for us. After a little bit, she said she wanted to go ride flowrider.  Ok...sure.  I'm sure you'll love doing it after you wipe out, but you can try it....

Next up...Flowrider...success or leaving in tears?


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## tnshsms

I just realized that I failed to upload this picture.  This was before we left port that first day.  As you can see it was chilly and cloudy and sometimes a sprinkle but it was a fun view of the skyline and Lady Liberty.
 

And here are some pictures of Jamie Oliver's in case you wanted to see the layout.  It's a casual dining spot.  We were a little concerned before going on the ship that we might need to dress up but I wore a skirt and the hubby wore shorts so don't worry about dressing up.


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## mevelandry

Loving this review so far. That ship is a beauty. Is there amy moments in the day where you have to pay for North Star? Is it free only under certain circumstances?


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## cyndiloveswalt

Following along as we are doing this cruise in 3 weeks!


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## tnshsms

mevelandry said:


> Loving this review so far. That ship is a beauty. Is there amy moments in the day where you have to pay for North Star? Is it free only under certain circumstances?




Thanks! 

Oh no, its always free...that was kind of misleading what I wrote.  I just meant, if they ever starting charging for it then it wouldn't be worth it to me!  I had read in some cases that if you didn't show up for your appointment then you might get charged but I didn't see anything about that for northstar...just ifly.  But no, both northstar and ifly are free!


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## tnshsms

cyndiloveswalt said:


> Following along as we are doing this cruise in 3 weeks!




Oh you will have so much fun!  Excited for you!


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## tnshsms

Flowrider! 

The kid decides she wants to try flowrider so we go up there and get in line.  I read through the sign about what you should and shouldn't do and what the best position is to wipe out.  I talk about it with her and then go sit down in the audience to make sure I have a good spot to record her.  She waits in line for about 20 min and she gets to the front and the CM says something to her and the hubs and then they walk over to me....she needs a bracelet in order to do it.  Hmmm, well it would have been nice if the sign or the CM who checked her height when we first walked up had told us that.  So we went to where you check into to ifly to get the bracelet and we needed her seapass card.  We had left it in the room.  So she's crying and the hubs goes to get the card. He comes back, they get the bracelet and then she is allowed to go to the front of the line because she had to get her bracelet.  (point Disney......communication about what or how to do anything is totally lacking on RCL.  I feel like the signage should have told us that a bracelet and check in was necessary. I read the entire thing, it didn't say that anywhere. Information is just poor on several aspects of RCL....so point Disney). 


We see the CM tell her what to do and we both take guesses on quick she'll wipe out. She gets on there and rocks it! She not only held on, but got on her knees and did a turn! You get 2 wipe outs before they move on to the next person and because she never wiped out they had to actually stop her. The crowd cheered her on!  We were shocked!  




So of course, she loved it but she was cold and ready to get back to the indoor pool since it was such a dreary day. After an hour in the indoor pool, we went back down to the room to shower and I was going to head to Bingo.  When I got there and realized it was $29 for the smallest package, I passed.  I'm not a huge Bingo player anyway, but the idea of being able to win a suite for the rest of the cruise sounded like fun so I was going to try.  

We realized it was bumper car time at the SeaPlex so the kid and hubs went there about 30 min early to get in line and I walked around to take some pictures. It was a good thing they got there that early because they were still only 3rd in line at 3:30 when it opened at 4 and the line got extremely long.
 

If you look at this picture you can see the line forming around the outskirts of the arena...this picture was taken about 15 min prior to it starting.  By the time 4:15 hit, the line wrapped almost full circle around the arena with the end of the line almost reaching the beginning.  Now, what I learned while waiting for them to actually start and load up, that some people had just stopped to watch the bumper cars and were along the rail without actually wanting to be in line. So they wouldn't move down when the line moved because they didn't realize they were in line.  I have a feeling it cause quite the backup later after we left but we didn't stick around to see it. 

Here are a few pictures I took while walking around....

I thought this bench was cute in the seaplex

 

Gaming area
 

Arcade area right off the Seaplex
 

Solarium


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## tnshsms

Here are few more pictures....

Outdoor pool before any of the braves ones
 

Bionic Bar

 

Wonderland Entrance

 

Inside Wonderland

 

This light was on the 5th deck overlooking the Royal Esplanade.  It was kind of cool because it had a spot where you could put your hands on it and the light would beat to your heartbeat.


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## tnshsms

Some more....

Gigi!

 

Walking from JO and the Tuba sculpture area into the Royal Esplanade

 

On the 14th deck looking into the Glass Elevator area. This wall was gorgeous. 

 

Each floor in between the stairs (we attempt to take the stairs as much as possible to burn off all those extra calories we are eating!) they have fun little artwork, like Disney does.  I saw some hidden mickeys on this one....

 

Here is the 270 lounge area, its really a nice spot and we didn't spend a whole of time here.  I wish I had. 
  

This is looking into the 270 cafe from the lounge.  There are two entrances to the cafe, one from the lounge and one from the hallway.  On embarkation day we couldn't get to the lounge so the only access was thru the hallway.  
 

These were the coffee offerings in 270.  I don't drink coffee so I can speak for taste but I figured someone would want to know.


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## tnshsms

Kid's Club  

Mine never went...she's not a huge fan of them on DCL either, but she's more willing to go with the mouse than she was to even try it here. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids area spans two floors and this stairway gets you from one to the other.  I did find that they had this play area for the younger set that you could go in there with your kid and play.  I thought that was a nice touch.  I know DCL has open house times that serve the same purpose but then that room is closed off from being able to drop your kid off in that room to play independently and that's frustrating at times. This was its own separate room that didn't affect if your kid could go into their designated age group.  I know that DCL always keeps one of the clubs closed during an open program time but mine always seemed to want to play in the one that was open instead of closed when it was time for us to drop her off.  I think that's why she doesn't enjoy the DCL kids clubs as much.


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## tnshsms

After bumper cars and taking pictures, we went to the family science experiment they were doing in the kids club.  It was a cute 30 min program where we made a volcano erupt. 

We headed downstairs to meet Puss in boots.  This was kind of funny. So we are all used to meeting characters, right?  Everything you know about how to meet a character is thrown out the window for RCL. We headed downstairs to the Royal Esplanade to meet him.  We are used to getting in line about 15 min before a character meeting so that's what we did.  However, there was no line forming, no indication as to where he'd actually be (the area is large so we didn't know what end to be in) (again, communication, not their strong suit), no switchback line or anything.  I go over to guest services to ask where in the RE he would be and was told usually in front of Michael's pub.  So we walk closer to that area...5 min before he's suppose to come out.....and nothing.  No line, no cast member, no camera, nothing.  We kind of laughed at the whole thing because it was so different!  Finally about 4 min late (which we found almost everything RCL did was 5-10 min late...scavenger hunts, character meetings, trivia, etc) he comes out with a little song and its us and 2 other families watching some kind of dance and then we take pictures and go on.  The whole thing was very nonchalant compared to Disney. 

We went to WJ for dinner that night since we didn't care to dress up for formal night and we had some good food and it wasn't all that crowded. After dinner, we met Alex the Lion with a similar setup of barely a line and no one waiting. We went back to the room to get ready for bed so we could be ready for Bermuda the next day! 

Up next....will the weather get better for our first day in Bermuda?


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## eeyore29

LOVE your report so far!

Do you remember how long they got to spend on the bumper cars? Is there any chance of going on more than once during that session?


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## tnshsms

eeyore29 said:


> LOVE your report so far!
> 
> Do you remember how long they got to spend on the bumper cars? Is there any chance of going on more than once during that session?



It's funny you asked because my husband actually timed it....you are on for 3 minutes.  The afternoon session...yes, its possible to go twice but you might have to wait an hour between each time for the line to die down.  However, the kid and Husband did it the last sea day too and it was a morning session and went 3 times in about an hour because no one was up at 9am to do it except a handful of people.


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## HappilyEverAfter80

This is funny, because we must have followed you on the first sea day... we did North Star at 9:30 am, then my kid went to roller skating too  
We were in the outdoor pool until about 2, after that it wasn't sunny anymore, but it was sunny until then. I would say it was low 70's outside temps, but the pools were all heated - my kid loved the one that moved the water in the circle... Then after that we mostly did the indoor pool too, not sure if you noticed they often had the windows open to let in the breeze.
We also went to the first bumper cars session and saw the line up wrapped around the corner. So we left, then went back in the last 40 min and there were less than 15 people waiting. We were able to ride about 5 times in a row with no wait. We actually went at the end of the session more than once and didn't wait.


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## HappilyEverAfter80

Love your trip report so far! I'm doing more of a comparison of Royal/Disney than a traditional trip report like this but I always enjoy reading them. Especially since we were there with you 
If your daughter was the one that wore the long colored striped dress at the roller skating then I saw you guys there  I remember thinking her dress was cute


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## tnshsms

HappilyEverAfter80 said:


> Love your trip report so far! I'm doing more of a comparison of Royal/Disney than a traditional trip report like this but I always enjoy reading them. Especially since we were there with you
> If your daughter was the one that wore the long colored striped dress at the roller skating then I saw you guys there  I remember thinking her dress was cute




Oh my gosh, we were in the same spots so many times and had no idea we were all together!! Yes, that was her in the stripe dress...thanks!! 

That's good to know that the end of the session was a lot better.  I'm guessing since it was closer to dinner time maybe since it ended at 7....by then everyone had waited in the super long line and went to dinner.  Glad it was easy at the end for you.  I wonder how many other times we ran into each other and didn't know it!?


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## tnshsms

So did the weather get better.....not really.  I mean it was in the 70's so that was nice but we still took our jackets when we got off the ship.  We disembarked about 9:30 or so that morning, along with a lot of other people, got our bus passes which were in the same little building you have to walk thru to go thru Bermuda's security ($49 for the 1 day pass for the 3 of us) and then we walked out to the pier area where we were greeted with Bermuda Tourism employees there to help you with all your questions so that was a nice touch.  We asked one of them where to go to get on the bus and she gave us directions and off we went.  It wasn't a super long walk but note that it isn't just right off the pier. So if you have someone with mobility issues it might take just a hair longer than if you grabbed a taxi or minibus.  More on the minibus later.

This is what it looked like after we had walked to the bus stop and we were waiting for the bus.  It's just a popup tent but it does the job.


This is what the bus looked like:



And then something strange happened.....the bus showed up, we all lined up to get on the bus and we were maybe the third family to get on.  Keep in mind, at this stop its all tourists and we also had the NCL Dawn in port with us. In front of us was a nice middle aged Asian couple who spoke broken English and was saying something to the bus driver.  At first I wasn't paying much attention just trying to figure out where I wanted to stop and getting our passes out and then I start to realize the bus driver is starting to yell at the Asian couple. Then they start to try to get their what I assume were their parents to the front of the line with them (they were maybe 5 families behind us) and they were pushing forward and the bus driver then stands up, yells "NO, you stay at the back of the line! Everyone will get on, you don't push!" Then she looks at me and the kid and says "Don't let people push you around...they can wait!". So awkward! But we handed her our bus passes, found our seats and went on our way.  She asked where we were all going so she could make sure to tell us when to get off and we threw her for a loop when we said Gibbs Lighthouse.  She says "But you have beach towels".  When I told her we were going to do both she said, "That's smart!"  So after about 40 minutes on the bus we were told that Gibbs was the next stop.

Gibbs Lighthouse....the path there was interesting.  The bus drop is at a bar/restaurant and then you have to walk around it and up a hill to the lighthouse.  There is no sidewalk and the cars drive on the left so we made sure we stayed on the correct side of the street so we could see the cars coming at us. 

At the top of the hill, we saw the sign.



The walk was maybe 1/2 mile uphill...not horrible but not the best walking conditions since there isn't a sidewalk and its curvy. Once we got to the top a tour bus was about to leave.  We went into the lighthouse, bought our tickets (2.50 each....cash only) in the gift shop area and then started up the stairs.


The kid counted and there are 189 twisting stairs like this one.  About every 20-25 steps there was a landing spot with a little educational plaque like this one.


It was helpful since two people walking different directions was doable but not the best on that staircase. Once at the top, its super tight.  The light casing is very large and when we got up there, another pair was already there.  5 was tight in that space. I don't have any pictures because it was so tight that you can't tell what I took a picture of. There is a small ladder to see out the window but they were dirty and the pictures out of that were awful.  There is also a tiny door that you can open and step out into a tiny balcony to take pictures. 
**Note this is not my picture but I found it on the internet so you could see what it looked like**


 

Being scared of heights I didn't venture out but the hubs stepped one foot out and took a couple of pictures. 
 

Then we walked back down the stairs and saw a lot more people on our way down than on our way up and headed back down the road to the bus stop.
 

 

That red building is the bar/restaurant we had to walk around to get to the bus stop.  We waited about 15 min for the bus and then got back on, told the driver we wanted to go to Horseshoe Bay Beach and went on our merry way.  Two stops later, we were dropped off at Horseshoe Bay........


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## tnshsms

I didn't really know what to expect for Horseshoe Bay Beach because I had read for months leading up to us getting to Bermuda, they were renovating the beach for the America's Cup. I wasn't sure if it would even be open when we got there but it opened about a week before we arrived so yay!  We wanted to see some pink sand!  

The bus dropped us off and we saw the sign! 
 

After maybe 50 ft of grass/sand, we see the deck walk way to the beach.  Its a little hike down hill. 
 

This is looking back up after walking down about 1/2 way.

 

There are a couple of stops along the deck for lookout points and benches if you need a spot to rest. 

 

Then at the end of the decking is the sidewalk and parking lot for the scooters. Just past that is a tiny parking lot for cars and then several spots for minibuses and taxis to do their drop offs.  If you take the public bus, you gotta walk up and down the hill. 

 

Around the corner and to the left of this picture is the beach.  The first thing you come to is the restroom/changing rooms.  The two days we were there the men's restroom was either broken or they were still working on it because there was a sign over the women's restroom that said "unisex" bathrooms.  Umm, ok!

The blue house is the restroom/changing rooms.  The first part of the facility has about 6 changing stalls.  A nice touch to not have to use a toilet stall. But still not the cleanest place ever.  It did the job. Past those are the actual bathrooms.  Surprisingly enough, we didn't use the toilets so I don't know what they are like but I assume they were only kind of clean.  The yellow building is the quick service restaurant type place and a tiny gift shop with sunscreen, googles, snorkel equipment, etc.  All of the seating is outdoors and to the left of the yellow building was an outdoor bar and the tables. 

We walked down the beach a bit to rent our lounge chair....I didn't need an umbrella because as you can see it was cloudy.  Here is that setup:
  

As I'm sure you can guess, it wasn't super crowded. 

 

This was taken at about 10:45 am. We stayed for about an hour or so because it was just so chilly and windy that even though the kid and hubs got in the ocean, it was just so windy that she got too cold to last too long.  It was fine, we decided we'd go back to the ship instead of eating there and eat some pizza at Sorrento's.    

More pictures next post.....


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## tnshsms

More beach pictures......

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures of the menu at Horseshoe Bay Beach (Rum Bum Restaurant) if anyone wanted to know....


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## tnshsms

So we make the trek back up the hill to the bus stop and find that another couple is already waiting. We chat with them for a bit and learn that they are on the Dawn and its a 7 day cruise that has 3 days in Bermuda.  They said this was their 3rd time doing that same cruise since it ports out of Boston and that's where they live and this was the first time they'd had a bad dreary day in Bermuda.  Oh lucky us!  The bus came about 10-15 min later and we all got on.  About an hour later, we made it back to the port.  With all the stops it takes a bit to get back to the port so keep that in mind if you are trying to get back on the day the ship leaves.  We went back on the ship, dropped our stuff off at the room and headed downstairs to eat some pizza.  It was really good the whole cruise...actually a little bit better than DCL. 

We headed back off the ship to do a bit of shopping and DH wanted to get an America's cup tshirt really bad.  The first place we come to is a small shop in the middle of the port that is the official store of America's cup.  He finds a tshirt ($30) and we realize they only take mastercard...no Visa.  We only have Visa.  Luckily we had enough cash on us but good for those reading this to know. We go in a few more shops, I get my usual Christmas ornament, the kid finds a necklace and we get back on the ship. 

I should note that the beach chair at Horseshoe bay does take credit cards normally(they did day 2) but that first day we were there it was down "because of the weather" and we had to pay in cash.  So keep that in mind...make sure you bring plenty of cash with you to the island.  They don't always get a credit card signal apparently. 

The kid wanted to go back to the indoor pool so we did that for a while until it was time to clean up for dinner.  We had reservations for the Solarium Bistro. This is a free dining location and kids are welcome to the dining room, just not the pool.  You are seated at a table with a server but the salad and apps are buffet style.  We ordered our food, the kid had lemon pepper chicken, the adults had haddock with a tropical salsa.  Everyone enjoyed their meals.  They had a dessert table but none of it met our desires so we ended up going to WJ for dessert!  The kid did some more Roller skating then we walked around a bit and back to the room for the night.  Before bed, we said a little prayer that maybe tomorrow's weather would be better......

Up Next....Day 2 in Bermuda!


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## tnshsms

This was from our balcony but it kind of shows how the port works.  The long concrete path closest to the ship was what you walked after walking through a little building with Bermuda Security. That same building held the bus passes.  Then you can see the white tents in the middle of the picture and that's where you wait for taxi's or minibuses.  If you walk past those and past the large stone wall a bit then you will get to the bus stop. You can kind of see a red building in the top right corner, that's where the shopping started and it wrapped around to the other side where there is a stone building and all the boats are at in the middle top of the picture.


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## tnshsms

A note about the pool towels.....

You had to check them in and out each time you used them. You would give them your seapass card or swipe your wowband and then you would get how many towels you would ask for.  Then you would do the same to turn them back in.  Luckily the longest line we had was about 2 people deep.  It was free but if you didn't turn them back in by 10(maybe 11) then you would be charged $25 a towel.  So it was a minor pain to have to take them back after you brought them back to the room or used them on the beach.  (Point Disney).


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## tnshsms

Day 2 in Bermuda!

After breakfast and packing the beach backpack, we decided to try the minibuses today.  The public bus was fine but did take a little longer than we'd liked and it picked up and dropped off closer to the pier and the beach.  The public bus pass for 1 day was $49 and roundtrip for all 3 of us was $42 plus some tips. So roughly the same price.  But the public bus passes can be paid with a credit card, the mini buses were cash only. With the public bus it does stop several places but since we only wanted to go to Horseshoe bay again, this was perfect.  We caught the bus there at the pier super easy, got a few more passengers from the Dawn and headed out to the beach.  A short 30 min later, they dropped us off down the hill and right at the beach.  We got the chair and umbrella this day since it was sunny and much prettier than our day before.  AND much more crowded.  But we expected that.  When you rent the chair and umbrella, the guys actually drag it to a spot on the beach you like and then they dig the hole for your umbrella. Nice touch!  We of course, tipped him for that.

Much nicer day(thanks for the answered prayer!)....and look at that sea of umbrellas.  This was taken at about 11.










At the same lookout point from the day before....yes, I walked up the decking to get the picture.



We spent about 2 hours here.  Got a chip snack in the Rum Bum bar area and then caught the minibuses back.  Since I had a chair and umbrella already, I didn't want it to go to waste.  So I looked around for a family with a small child who was just sitting on the beach with a towel and no chair or umbrella.  I went over to the mom, said "hi, I bought a chair and an umbrella and I'm leaving.  Would you like to use it?"  She was excited and said yes! So as we gathered our things, she brought over her stuff and we left.

The minibuses were there waiting for people when we were ready to leave about 12:30-1pm.  Got back to the ship in about 30 min again and ate lunch at Sorrento's yet again. It was really that good!

We again, went back to the indoor pool. (yes, we used it a lot!) (it was also near the ice cream so that helped too) I took some pictures of the America's Cup ships practicing.



Below is the entire America's Cup Village. The far left is where the grandstands and food and racing will take place and to the right of the picture is where many of those who come by boat have paid to park the boats while they are there. In other words, those with some decent money.  Or so we've been told. The celebrity ones are in a different area of the port.




Then back to the room for our cruise tradition.  We love to sit on our balcony and watch the slackers come back to the ship really close to all aboard time and see if they make it.  In 6 cruises, we've seen 2 different sets of people left on the pier....  While we waited, I took some pictures of the dockyard from our room.




After watching a few run back to the ship, we went to Izumi for our reservation.  However, the kid doesn't eat sushi so we wanted to know if we could just get it to go.  They said yes, so we put in our order and was told to come back in 30 min.  After we walked around and took some more pictures, we grabbed our sushi to go and went to WJ to eat and get the kid some food.  They were offering chocolate covered strawberries that night which were excellent.

You may have noticed that we had my time dining and have not once went to a dining room at this point.  We love the dining rooms on Disney but we knew that after two days in Bermuda we'd want quick service not 2 hour dinners and that first night we went to JO's and the second night we went to the Solarium Bistro. So we had made a ressie for the last night in the dining room. It worked for us but I wish I had tried to go one other night as well.  Oh well, next time.....

It was our night for Spectra's Cabaret. I had read so many varying things about this show I wasn't sure what to expect. Some say its strange, other say its a technology marvel.  Since the Gift and We will rock you aren't 8 yo friendly, we thought we'd try SC.  We did really miss the shows on this cruise as we love the Disney ones so what did we think of the show?  That's up next......


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## tnshsms

Here are a couple more pictures of the ship....

  

Izumi



  

Menu at Izumi


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## tnshsms

I think one of the things that surprised me the most was how small the restaurants actually were.  The ship is so huge so I assumed they would be like DCL but I was wrong.  I guess because there are more of them, they had to be smaller.  Sorrento's, Wonderland, Izumi, 270, Chops(we had our muster here, didn't eat), etc....all the restaurants were quite small in real life. 

I also haven't talked much about our room. We had a balcony, cabin 10574.  It was midship but a little forward and I found it to be a good location.  No hallway noise at all really and good proximity to elevators.  I didn't take a bunch of pictures because you can google the pictures easily. 

For those that care about lifeboats in view of room, here is what you see if you look straight down...which I rarely do. 
 

And here this is what you see if you look out on a sea day....

 

Our room slept 3 obviously so that meant that the couch "turned" into a bed.  I have " " around it because all they did was take the regular couch and put a comforter type bedding over it with another comforter over that to create a bed.  She was suppose to use the couch's decorative pillow for a pillow but we gave her one of the 5 pillows on our bed. It was actually quite disappointing. (point Disney).  At least on DCL you get a mattress type thing that flips down on the couch and our stateroom attendant never unmade the bed.  Not sure if that's just our attendant or if all of them do that. So it was a bed the entire cruise.  IF that was an adult that had to sleep there or even a teenager, that would have sucked for them.  RCL really doesn't want more than 2 people in a room after what they give as the additional bed. 

 

Another look at the room from the balcony doors....


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## HappilyEverAfter80

That's so weird about the sofa bed for your daughter! We had a sofa bed for our DS too, but it folded out to a double bed. When it was set up for the night it almost touched the desk area. 
I know that some staterooms on Anthem have the same looking sofa but it doesn't fold out, and those rooms are meant for 2 people.  I wonder if you were in one of those?


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## tnshsms

HappilyEverAfter80 said:


> That's so weird about the sofa bed for your daughter! We had a sofa bed for our DS too, but it folded out to a double bed. When it was set up for the night it almost touched the desk area.
> I know that some staterooms on Anthem have the same looking sofa but it doesn't fold out, and those rooms are meant for 2 people.  I wonder if you were in one of those?




Do you happen to have a picture of it?  I doubt that it was meant for just 2 people because you can't book 3 people into a room meant for 2.  We actually tried to do the Disney trick where I was in a room with my mom but she would be the only one to stay in it and I would sleep in the other room with the hubs and daughter and it wouldn't work because RCL would only show the rooms that held 2, not 3.  So ours was meant for 3.  So that tells me that either our stateroom attendant didn't want to do the work each day or ours for some reason didn't do it.......now I wish I'd known the difference!


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## HappilyEverAfter80

tnshsms said:


> Do you happen to have a picture of it?  I doubt that it was meant for just 2 people because you can't book 3 people into a room meant for 2.  We actually tried to do the Disney trick where I was in a room with my mom but she would be the only one to stay in it and I would sleep in the other room with the hubs and daughter and it wouldn't work because RCL would only show the rooms that held 2, not 3.  So ours was meant for 3.  So that tells me that either our stateroom attendant didn't want to do the work each day or ours for some reason didn't do it.......now I wish I'd known the difference!



I don't think I took any pics of the stateroom with the sofa folded out but it looked exactly like this


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## tnshsms

Spectra's Cabaret......was different. 

We got there at 8:15 for our 8:30 reservations.  At this point we started to feel the ship start to rock a little more than it had and the kid and I are prone to seasickness.  I take Bonine a couple of days before we get on the ship and it typically helps me and she takes children's Dramamine (because she can't take bonine yet) and it seems to help her.  But SC is in the aft of the ship in 270 so we started to feel the rocking a bit more back there.  We always get a midship cabin because of this and so sometimes walking to either end can get to us if the ship is rocky at all. 

Anyway, we got there at 8:15 to see quite the line outside 270.  I was surprised because I figured we would just go in.  Then I heard the CM say if you have reservations see me.  So all those waiting in line were trying to see it without a ressie.  So walked right up and went in with no problems.  It was packed.  I don't know what time you should get there to get a seat more middle of the theater but its before 8:15.  We were off the side a bit on the lower level at a table instead of a couch type setup.  It worked fine for us but unlike everything else we had experienced this trip, people actually got to this one early and waited. 

So I ordered a drink and some water. (we had got popcorn on the pool deck for the show.....hubs said it was equally as good as DCL, I said DCL is better.  They pop un-buttered popcorn then just pour butter on top.  Makes some of them soggy and others not buttered. DCL is more like movie theater and I thought it was better.  3.95 plus tax and tip on RCL and I think its 6.95 for the big tub plus $3 refills on DCL...I can't remember on DCL anymore).

The best way I can describe it is a 90s cover band concert. They started out with Rhythm Nation by Janet Jackson, then moved into some Gloria Estefen, some "push it, push it real good" some Lion King songs, a little Madonna with voguing and some 90's gaming graphics on the rotating screens above our host.  The hubs said it was very Max Headroom of the 90's.  I am a child of the 90's but this was just strange.  It was constant singing unless it was just music while the acrobatics came down from the ceiling on fabric or ropes(that part was impressive since the ship was rocking and they were spinning and doing tricks).  About 30 min in, DH and I looked at each other debating on if we should leave.  It was just kind of boring and not all that great.  I mean my church has those screens and we use them during service along with lasers and strobe lights, this wasn't some technology marvel to me.  (Yes I go to a church that has an average of about 10,000 people a week).  We ended up staying for the whole thing and lots of people must of liked it since they got a standing ovation and all.  Just wasn't my cup of tea.  I much prefer the Disney shows (point DCL...but that's total preference).

We went back to the room to escape the rocking and went to bed. 

Up Next...Last Sea Day


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## tnshsms

HappilyEverAfter80 said:


> I don't think I took any pics of the stateroom with the sofa folded out but it looked exactly like this



That's crazy!  Ours never looked like that.  So that makes me wonder if ours had the ability or not.  What's funny is our stateroom girl was the best crew member we encountered but she maybe didn't want to take the time to do the above with the bed......


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## HappilyEverAfter80

tnshsms said:


> That's crazy!  Ours never looked like that.  So that makes me wonder if ours had the ability or not.  What's funny is our stateroom girl was the best crew member we encountered but she maybe didn't want to take the time to do the above with the bed......


Well I can tell you that these sofa beds are hard to set up apparently... The first night when my DS sat on it (once it was ready for the night) and he's like 68 lbs, and DH stood in the very little space beside the sofa bed/desk, the sofa bed part collapsed on my DH foot! We called guest services and they sent a maintenance guy right away who basically said that there is nothing wrong with the sofa bed, but our attendant didn't set it up properly.  When my DH looked into it, it's kinda tricky and not saying that a woman can't do it, but I would have a hard time.
After this incident, we heard some crew members (stateroom attendants) discuss this in the hallway as we walked by, and one of them said these are very difficult to set up.
I don't know if this is why your girl didn't do it...
Royal was very apologetic about the whole thing, I urged DH to go see the doctor as his foot was really swollen but he was fine the next day.  After that we didn't have a problem with the sofa bed, but DH checked it every night to make sure.


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## tnshsms

The last sea day was a rough one for us.  We didn't do much because the ship was trying to avoid storms the whole time and it was quite rocky.  For those that don't have a problem with sea sickness, it wouldn't have been an issue.  My DH wouldn't have really noticed much of it if it hadn't been for us girls. We did walk down the hallway as if we were drunk and we have the occasional comment with a fellow passenger about how we all should have another since we can't walk in a straight line and I know that ours isn't nearly as bad as some of those that Anthem has had before us.  I guess that open Atlantic just gets rocky at times.
So we went up to WJ for breakfast but didn't eat much since we felt a tiny nauseous and then the kid and DH went to bumper cars while I went back to pack.  I actually don't mind packing to go on the trip....i kind of enjoy it.  But I don't like packing to go home, but who does?!  However, I do it because since I packed us up, I know just how everything goes in the suitcases.  And we travel in all carry on's so it has to go just right back in or it won't fit!  DH and the kid went to the indoor pool for a bit but didn't last long because she was starting to feel too sick.  The ship was rocking enough that the pool water was splashing out of the pool with each rock and she just couldn't handle it anymore. So we ate lunch in WJ and brought dessert back to the room.  I wanted to go to Friends Trivia so we all went to that (you can tell that RCL thinks that the ship is mainly 30-40 somethings with the Spectra's and Friends and Seinfeld trivia).  That took about 30 min and we all wanted to just chill in the room.  We packed some more, and rested some so we wouldn't get sick.

We had ifly reservations at 3:00 this day but they were cancelled because of the ship's motion.

We had dinner reservation in the main dining room tonight. But I knew that it was in the aft and how we were feeling wasn't going to make it. So alas, we canceled our ressie and the hubs went to WJ to bring food back for us. We ate dinner in the room to help ease our stomach.  So I never went to a main dining room!

According the captain, we entered some kind of bay later than evening and the rocking stopped.  So I went around to take a few more pictures....



Music Hall to the left....shopping to the right.





Sorrento's




Cafe Promenade and Sorrento's were right next to each other.









This is what the main dining rooms looked like at about 8pm.  If you had a reservation, then you went in one line and if you didn't, then you went into another line to see if they had a spot open for you.





After that, we were off to bed to get ready for our very early wake up call.  We opted for self carry at 7:30am......


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## tnshsms

HappilyEverAfter80 said:


> Well I can tell you that these sofa beds are hard to set up apparently... The first night when my DS sat on it (once it was ready for the night) and he's like 68 lbs, and DH stood in the very little space beside the sofa bed/desk, the sofa bed part collapsed on my DH foot! We called guest services and they sent a maintenance guy right away who basically said that there is nothing wrong with the sofa bed, but our attendant didn't set it up properly.  When my DH looked into it, it's kinda tricky and not saying that a woman can't do it, but I would have a hard time.
> After this incident, we heard some crew members (stateroom attendants) discuss this in the hallway as we walked by, and one of them said these are very difficult to set up.
> I don't know if this is why your girl didn't do it...
> Royal was very apologetic about the whole thing, I urged DH to go see the doctor as his foot was really swollen but he was fine the next day.  After that we didn't have a problem with the sofa bed, but DH checked it every night to make sure.





Ah, I wonder if that's why then.  Maybe she'd had similar issues with it and since the kid is so small she thought this would be fine for her.  Maybe she only does it if the 3rd person is more of an adult.  Good to know!  Glad his foot is ok! 

Oh and when you do your report/comparison let me know!


----------



## HappilyEverAfter80

tnshsms said:


> Ah, I wonder if that's why then.  Maybe she'd had similar issues with it and since the kid is so small she thought this would be fine for her.  Maybe she only does it if the 3rd person is more of an adult.  Good to know!  Glad his foot is ok!
> 
> Oh and when you do your report/comparison let me know!



If the metal mechanism under the sofa bed was locked properly, it shouldn't happen.  DH was fine the next day but he is a stubborn kind so I will never know for sure 
I already started the comparison - it's in the DCL forum as it's not really a day by day trip report, I'm more or less comparing and contrasting things between RC and DCL.


----------



## mevelandry

HappilyEverAfter80 said:


> If the metal mechanism under the sofa bed was locked properly, it shouldn't happen.  DH was fine the next day but he is a stubborn kind so I will never know for sure
> I already started the comparison - it's in the DCL forum as it's not really a day by day trip report, I'm more or less comparing and contrasting things between RC and DCL.



Do you have the link?


----------



## tnshsms

mevelandry said:


> Do you have the link?




Here you go!  

https://www.disboards.com/threads/disney-cruise-line-v-royal-caribbean-comparison.3607316/


----------



## tnshsms

Time to leave! 

Soooooo....this was kind of mess.  We had an early flight, 11am.  It was supposed to be a 12:30 flight but AA changed it to 11 and we just chose to try to make it work.  Thanks AA.  Because of the early flight, we did the self carry at 7:30. You had to choose self carry 3 days before you got off the ship and then you chose a time to get off.  I found that a little strange but sure, whatever.  We did as told and chose 270.  We had grabbed a couple of things the day before in WJ to eat for breakfast in our room assuming we'd just eat a real breakfast at the airport.  

Luxor Limo was to pick us at 7:45.  We went down to get in line at 7:10 and the line was already quite long.  Now we have done self carry on DCL several times and never have I experienced this mad house. On DCL we walk downstairs about the time we are suppose to and walk off.  Yes, it can get crowded in the atrium but nothing like this. If we had known that you were suppose to line up earlier DH would have gone down sooner as he was ready at like 6:45.  We found out the people at the front of the line had been there since 6:15.  That's right, an hour and 15 BEFORE they were to get off the ship. 

So we get in our line and its at a standstill until about 7:45.  I get the text that our driver is there but we can't get off the ship. So instead of getting off at 7:30, it was about 7:50 before we actually were scanning our seapass card.  It went pretty quickly after that.  (We did walk fast and pass several people along the way). We got downstairs, thru customs and out to our driver by 8:05.  So for those who want to hire a driver, tell them 8.  No 7:45.  Luckily our driver was efficient and got us to EWR by 8:35 and since we have TSA precheck we were to our gate with plenty of time. 

So getting off the ship is a big point to DCL.  We have had 11am flights out of Orlando before and been fine as well but it was a lot less crazy to get off the ship.  The whole lining up was just insane. I don't know if more people do self carry because they can get on the road and home so much faster.  I would venture to guess it was at least 75% New York and NJ and Pennsylvania residents. I really think I was in a huge minority being from the midwest. And I'm pretty sure the majority of people drove so I don't know if that's why the line was insane to get off at 7:30 or what?  But I would guess there are a lot locals on DCL too but maybe its just more laid back and they don't feel like they have to get off as early.  I don't know but the line went from the aft side elevators back to 270 then wrapped back around to the elevators and then past to the bionic bar.  It was just crazy.  We got in line around the cafe in 270.  So for those of you who know where all that is, you can see why the line was crazy. 

Next up...a summary.


----------



## tnshsms

Summary:

Please note that this is for the Anthem only.  Each ship and each class of ships has different features.  What we had on Anthem won't exist on the Serenade probably because its an older ship. Shows, food, restaurants, etc are all different on each class of ships. 


Check in - Disney.  It was a quick check in on RCL but the waiting and unfriendly staff put DCL ahead.  I see fellow passenger had a different experience later in the day so maybe this was dependent on time of day. 

Lunch/Buffet - tie.  Both have banquet quality food. I don't think that either one was better than the other.  Again, we aren't foodies but we found the food to be comparable. 

Ice Cream - Disney.  RCL had ice cream but it always seemed to need a refill and you only ever got 3 choices, chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.  And some of the days, Vanilla wasn't even an option.  But almost every time we went to the station, one of them needed to be refilled and it was beeping for at least 45 min. Its also not open for as long as Disney is either. 

Shopping - Disney. This is personal preference but we don't care about the fancy shops.  Some do probably.  But I prefer more the regular people kind of shopping vs expensive Jewelry/watches, etc. It was also strange to walk into The Shop (RCL labeled items) and see an entire section, about the size of the clothes and merchandise, was alcohol and cigarettes. I know they sell both on DCL but its in a separate shop away from the regular merchandise and I prefer it that way.  The two times I bought something in The Shop I was behind someone buying alcohol and pissed that they couldn't just open it right then and start drinking it.  They didn't' realize they had to wait til they got off the ship to drink it. I've never had that problem on DCL or have to explain to my 8 yo why those men were so upset. 

Shows - Disney.  Again personal preference but when you are traveling with a kid, you want them to enjoy it too. Since the only show she could go to was Spectra's and it was based before her time, this ship was not kid friendly as far as shows were concerned.  Now, we take note that some class ships might be better than others but this ship in particular was not our cup of tea. 

Indoor Pool - Royal.  Obviously because Disney doesn't have one. That was a huge point for us since the weather was so dreary. 

Overall food choices - edge to Royal.  This comes with a ** because you have to pay for those choices. BUT you paid less for the cruise overall so you can afford to throw in a couple of paid for food items. 

Drink Choices - Royal.  With the freestyle machines (again, I don't know if those are on all the ships or just Quantum class) that makes the drink choices much larger for soda drinkers. We both got the Coke cups and used them quite a bit.  We did enjoy having more choices than coke, diet coke and sprite on DCL.  But again, this was something you had to pay for.  I had wondered if you could get water easily outside of the WJ and the answer is yes.  They had a water machine with ice in the Cafe Promenade. 

Information/Apps - Disney....just slightly.  We found most crew members on RCL to be annoyed by our presence.  They would give us information when asked or would help when needed but it was rarely done with a smile on their face and they most certainly didn't care if you existed or not.  Many times the Compass didn't give the full picture of where something was or for how long it would take.  And the app was nice in that you could make reservations and see your account balance, it didn't give locations on the app of where things were sometimes.  So I feel like the DCL app was a hair better and the Navigator is better than the Compass. 

Nightlight - Royal.  Again this may be ship specific but the light in the bathroom had one small section that would stay on when you turned the light out to serve as a small nightlight when the bathroom was otherwise dark. I appreciated that for nighttime bathroom trips.  

Storage in the room - Anthem.  The layout of the room was more thought out than any Disney ship I've been on. 

Room Key/Wowbands - Slight to Royal. You don't get your room key at check in, they are outside your room when you get on the ship.  A part of me didn't like this because who's to say that some creeper wouldn't take one of the keys and was waiting in your room for you. Supposedly only one key was outside the room but in our case, all 3 were out there. So my advice is that if one of the keys is missing...be on guard walking in.  BUT we really liked the wowbands. Similar to the magic bands but thinner and you couldn't choose a fancy color like magic bands, we still liked them. It was nice to have since we needed them for almost everything we did. 

Room noise - Slight to DCL. Only because we could sometimes hear our above neighbor walking. Never had that problem on any of the 4 DCL ships. 

Ship Decor - Anthem.  I went specific to Anthem because again, other ships may not be this pretty.  I still love the classic style of the Dream and Fantasy (the true comparison to Anthem) but Anthem was a very pretty ship.

Shower - Anthem. I enjoyed not having a shower curtain cling to me. 

3rd bed - DCL.  Now, I've read reports that our setup may not have been the norm (see Happilyeverafter's report above) but for us, the winner was DCL. 

Activities-Adult: Tie

Activities, Kid: Tie.  Anthem had roller skating, bumper cars, indoor pool but DCL has characters, scavenger hunts, crafting activities,etc. 

Pizza: Royal

Internet: DCL. Personal preference here.  We get the smallest package on DCL.  Just enough to make sure our house sitter/pet sitter to our 13 year old westie is doing ok.  Not much surfing.  So yes, Voom was faster but it was double the price.  So I go with DCL because we don't need it to be exceptional. 

Pool Towels: DCL. I didn't like checking the towels in and out...but the wowbands came in handy for that. 

Smoking areas: DCL.  See my rant above. 

Bathroom cleaning: DCL.  Although my bathroom was clean for the most part, the toilet bowl brush cleaner was left in the bathroom. I didn't like that.  I have never seen the cleaning supplies on our 4 DCL cruises.  We also had to ask for more toiletries and I've never had to do that on DCL.  Even in the later cruises when they stopped giving you a new set each day, when they saw we were low, more was left.  I had to ask for new ones this cruise. 

Outlets: Slight to RCL.  The Dream and Fantasy have a better outlet situation than the classics do but RCL had slightly more outlets and even USB ports which was a nice touch.  Again, probably specific to the newer RCL ships. 


So that's it for me!  I hope someone finds this useful and be sure to ask questions if you have any!


----------



## HappilyEverAfter80

Enjoyed reading this, I kept thinking what we were doing around the same time. We had ifly reservations too last sea day at 2! As you know it was cancelled, bummer.


----------



## tnshsms

HappilyEverAfter80 said:


> Enjoyed reading this, I kept thinking what we were doing around the same time. We had ifly reservations too last sea day at 2! As you know it was cancelled, bummer.




I think its funny how many times our paths crossed and yet we had no idea! Do you have a DCL on the books?


----------



## HappilyEverAfter80

tnshsms said:


> I think its funny how many times our paths crossed and yet we had no idea! Do you have a DCL on the books?



We don't have a Disney cruise booked at this time, but we do have Disney world vacation coming up in August 

At this point as far as a Disney cruise, we'll either take a last-minute one if they have deals (usually Dec and Jan there are a few) or later in 2018.  Another possible plan is Europe in 2018.  We are planning a 2 week trip to visit family and if we can swing it, we may book a med cruise at the end of the visit.
With our family things change rapidly though  Today we don't have a cruise booked, but tomorrow may be a different story....
We do like to mix it up with land-based vacations too, we don't just cruise.
What about you? Did you book another cruise with Royal?


----------



## mevelandry

Thank you for that interesting review. No regrets so far in booking the Anthem for next year...   I have a feeling this ship will score a very high note for us.


----------



## Buzz's Buddy

Great report, thanks for taking the time to do it! We are booked on the Anthem to Bermuda for October 2018, so your report had a lot of great information for us.

We actually started out intending to book the Magic to Bermuda, but the price was $1600 more than the Anthem. We've done one Disney cruise, on the Dream in 2011, and we loved it. But I just couldn't justify the extra expense for what is basically the same cruise.


----------



## HappilyEverAfter80

Buzz's Buddy said:


> Great report, thanks for taking the time to do it! We are booked on the Anthem to Bermuda for October 2018, so your report had a lot of great information for us.
> 
> We actually started out intending to book the Magic to Bermuda, but the price was $1600 more than the Anthem. We've done one Disney cruise, on the Dream in 2011, and we loved it. But I just couldn't justify the extra expense for what is basically the same cruise.



We just did this cruise as well and also priced out the exact same itinerary Disney Magic to Bermuda Oct 2018 and the difference was $1800 for same type of stateroom! There is 3 of us.
What I will tell you that while DCL still has a great product, Disney Magic (which we also cruised on before) is not worth that much extra money.  Anthem is not Disney obviously but has so much to offer, their pool areas alone will blow Disney Magic out of the water, especially if the weather won't be very hot sailing out of NYC.   I was too very surprised to see the Disney Bermuda cruises that much higher.


----------



## tnshsms

HappilyEverAfter80 said:


> We don't have a Disney cruise booked at this time, but we do have Disney world vacation coming up in August
> 
> At this point as far as a Disney cruise, we'll either take a last-minute one if they have deals (usually Dec and Jan there are a few) or later in 2018.  Another possible plan is Europe in 2018.  We are planning a 2 week trip to visit family and if we can swing it, we may book a med cruise at the end of the visit.
> With our family things change rapidly though  Today we don't have a cruise booked, but tomorrow may be a different story....
> We do like to mix it up with land-based vacations too, we don't just cruise.
> What about you? Did you book another cruise with Royal?



We have the Merrytime Cruise this fall and plan to do a land trip to Hawaii so I'm with you...we like to mix up land and cruise!


----------



## HappilyEverAfter80

tnshsms said:


> We have the Merrytime Cruise this fall and plan to do a land trip to Hawaii so I'm with you...we like to mix up land and cruise!



How exciting! Which ship? We are not booking another DCL this year (unless we go last minute Dec/Jan) as we did the Disney Fantasy Oct 2016... now with this Anthem cruise under our belt, we want to do more land.
Hawaii is on my radar too, I was so hoping DCL would release cruises to Hawaii....but we have to do Europe before Hawaii as I have an 80 year old grandmother there I haven't seen since 2000....


----------



## tnshsms

HappilyEverAfter80 said:


> How exciting! Which ship? We are not booking another DCL this year (unless we go last minute Dec/Jan) as we did the Disney Fantasy Oct 2016... now with this Anthem cruise under our belt, we want to do more land.
> Hawaii is on my radar too, I was so hoping DCL would release cruises to Hawaii....but we have to do Europe before Hawaii as I have an 80 year old grandmother there I haven't seen since 2000....




Just a quick one on the Dream...but I'm going more for the Merrytime than the ship and location!  Not that CC won't be awesome.....

Then yes, I would say Europe should be first!


----------



## HappilyEverAfter80

tnshsms said:


> Just a quick one on the Dream...but I'm going more for the Merrytime than the ship and location!  Not that CC won't be awesome.....
> 
> Then yes, I would say Europe should be first!



We've done a Very Merry time cruise on the Magic Dec 2015 and enjoyed it quite a bit.  I can still smell the mulled wine they had in the atrium


----------



## tnshsms

I thought of one more thing....Crown and Anchor point basis is better than Castaway Cay.  I much prefer that they count each night as a point instead of each cruise.  And suites are doubled so I really think that's a more fair way to give status.


----------



## angelinaxox

tnshsms said:


> Summary:
> 
> Please note that this is for the Anthem only.  Each ship and each class of ships has different features.  What we had on Anthem won't exist on the Serenade probably because its an older ship. Shows, food, restaurants, etc are all different on each class of ships.
> 
> 
> Check in - Disney.  It was a quick check in on RCL but the waiting and unfriendly staff put DCL ahead.  I see fellow passenger had a different experience later in the day so maybe this was dependent on time of day.
> 
> Lunch/Buffet - tie.  Both have banquet quality food. I don't think that either one was better than the other.  Again, we aren't foodies but we found the food to be comparable.
> 
> Ice Cream - Disney.  RCL had ice cream but it always seemed to need a refill and you only ever got 3 choices, chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.  And some of the days, Vanilla wasn't even an option.  But almost every time we went to the station, one of them needed to be refilled and it was beeping for at least 45 min. Its also not open for as long as Disney is either.
> 
> Shopping - Disney. This is personal preference but we don't care about the fancy shops.  Some do probably.  But I prefer more the regular people kind of shopping vs expensive Jewelry/watches, etc. It was also strange to walk into The Shop (RCL labeled items) and see an entire section, about the size of the clothes and merchandise, was alcohol and cigarettes. I know they sell both on DCL but its in a separate shop away from the regular merchandise and I prefer it that way.  The two times I bought something in The Shop I was behind someone buying alcohol and pissed that they couldn't just open it right then and start drinking it.  They didn't' realize they had to wait til they got off the ship to drink it. I've never had that problem on DCL or have to explain to my 8 yo why those men were so upset.
> 
> Shows - Disney.  Again personal preference but when you are traveling with a kid, you want them to enjoy it too. Since the only show she could go to was Spectra's and it was based before her time, this ship was not kid friendly as far as shows were concerned.  Now, we take note that some class ships might be better than others but this ship in particular was not our cup of tea.
> 
> Indoor Pool - Royal.  Obviously because Disney doesn't have one. That was a huge point for us since the weather was so dreary.
> 
> Overall food choices - edge to Royal.  This comes with a ** because you have to pay for those choices. BUT you paid less for the cruise overall so you can afford to throw in a couple of paid for food items.
> 
> Drink Choices - Royal.  With the freestyle machines (again, I don't know if those are on all the ships or just Quantum class) that makes the drink choices much larger for soda drinkers. We both got the Coke cups and used them quite a bit.  We did enjoy having more choices than coke, diet coke and sprite on DCL.  But again, this was something you had to pay for.  I had wondered if you could get water easily outside of the WJ and the answer is yes.  They had a water machine with ice in the Cafe Promenade.
> 
> Information/Apps - Disney....just slightly.  We found most crew members on RCL to be annoyed by our presence.  They would give us information when asked or would help when needed but it was rarely done with a smile on their face and they most certainly didn't care if you existed or not.  Many times the Compass didn't give the full picture of where something was or for how long it would take.  And the app was nice in that you could make reservations and see your account balance, it didn't give locations on the app of where things were sometimes.  So I feel like the DCL app was a hair better and the Navigator is better than the Compass.
> 
> Nightlight - Royal.  Again this may be ship specific but the light in the bathroom had one small section that would stay on when you turned the light out to serve as a small nightlight when the bathroom was otherwise dark. I appreciated that for nighttime bathroom trips.
> 
> Storage in the room - Anthem.  The layout of the room was more thought out than any Disney ship I've been on.
> 
> Room Key/Wowbands - Slight to Royal. You don't get your room key at check in, they are outside your room when you get on the ship.  A part of me didn't like this because who's to say that some creeper wouldn't take one of the keys and was waiting in your room for you. Supposedly only one key was outside the room but in our case, all 3 were out there. So my advice is that if one of the keys is missing...be on guard walking in.  BUT we really liked the wowbands. Similar to the magic bands but thinner and you couldn't choose a fancy color like magic bands, we still liked them. It was nice to have since we needed them for almost everything we did.
> 
> Room noise - Slight to DCL. Only because we could sometimes hear our above neighbor walking. Never had that problem on any of the 4 DCL ships.
> 
> Ship Decor - Anthem.  I went specific to Anthem because again, other ships may not be this pretty.  I still love the classic style of the Dream and Fantasy (the true comparison to Anthem) but Anthem was a very pretty ship.
> 
> Shower - Anthem. I enjoyed not having a shower curtain cling to me.
> 
> 3rd bed - DCL.  Now, I've read reports that our setup may not have been the norm (see Happilyeverafter's report above) but for us, the winner was DCL.
> 
> Activities-Adult: Tie
> 
> Activities, Kid: Tie.  Anthem had roller skating, bumper cars, indoor pool but DCL has characters, scavenger hunts, crafting activities,etc.
> 
> Pizza: Royal
> 
> Internet: DCL. Personal preference here.  We get the smallest package on DCL.  Just enough to make sure our house sitter/pet sitter to our 13 year old westie is doing ok.  Not much surfing.  So yes, Voom was faster but it was double the price.  So I go with DCL because we don't need it to be exceptional.
> 
> Pool Towels: DCL. I didn't like checking the towels in and out...but the wowbands came in handy for that.
> 
> Smoking areas: DCL.  See my rant above.
> 
> Bathroom cleaning: DCL.  Although my bathroom was clean for the most part, the toilet bowl brush cleaner was left in the bathroom. I didn't like that.  I have never seen the cleaning supplies on our 4 DCL cruises.  We also had to ask for more toiletries and I've never had to do that on DCL.  Even in the later cruises when they stopped giving you a new set each day, when they saw we were low, more was left.  I had to ask for new ones this cruise.
> 
> Outlets: Slight to RCL.  The Dream and Fantasy have a better outlet situation than the classics do but RCL had slightly more outlets and even USB ports which was a nice touch.  Again, probably specific to the newer RCL ships.
> 
> 
> So that's it for me!  I hope someone finds this useful and be sure to ask questions if you have any!



Nice review and thanks for sharing.  I completely agree about the pool towel situation and every time I go on RCCL it annoys me.  I also prefer the Disney app as it includes messaging versus charging like Royal does.  Looking forwards to my Anthem cruise. Your review is helping to build my excitement.


----------



## tnshsms

angelinaxox said:


> Nice review and thanks for sharing.  I completely agree about the pool towel situation and every time I go on RCCL it annoys me.  I also prefer the Disney app as it includes messaging versus charging like Royal does.  Looking forwards to my Anthem cruise. Your review is helping to build my excitement.




I'm glad it was helpful!  Despite me liking Disney over Anthem, I still enjoyed our time on her.  She's a beautiful ship with a lot of fun things to offer.  I think our family might be happier on a different class of ship but that doesn't make this vacation any less exciting and fun.  Have a great time on your cruise!


----------



## angelinaxox

tnshsms said:


> I'm glad it was helpful!  Despite me liking Disney over Anthem, I still enjoyed our time on her.  She's a beautiful ship with a lot of fun things to offer.  I think our family might be happier on a different class of ship but that doesn't make this vacation any less exciting and fun.  Have a great time on your cruise!



Thanks! I know what you mean about liking Disney over Royal. But like you I still plan to have fun!


----------



## DisneyFan714

I want to thank you for writing this report.  I was also looking for trip reports prior to going on the cruise.  We just took the same 5 night cruise on July 15th and your trip was very helpful for a preview of what to expect.


----------



## tnshsms

DisneyFan714 said:


> I want to thank you for writing this report.  I was also looking for trip reports prior to going on the cruise.  We just took the same 5 night cruise on July 15th and your trip was very helpful for a preview of what to expect.




I'm so glad it was helpful!  I had such a hard time planning ours since there wasn't a lot of info out there so I hoped to help others in the future and glad it actually worked for you!  Hope you had a great time on your cruise!


----------



## 1Grumpy9

I just read your trip report as I am leaving on the anthem on Sept. 9th and this is my first ever cruise.  My group has our final meeting in a week to get all the information as we are taking a bus to and from the port.

The one question I have been trying to find answer for was the minibus to Horseshoe Bay.  Did you get that right at the port?  I think that is what we are going to do as it might be cheaper and faster.


----------



## tnshsms

1Grumpy9 said:


> I just read your trip report as I am leaving on the anthem on Sept. 9th and this is my first ever cruise.  My group has our final meeting in a week to get all the information as we are taking a bus to and from the port.
> 
> The one question I have been trying to find answer for was the minibus to Horseshoe Bay.  Did you get that right at the port?  I think that is what we are going to do as it might be cheaper and faster.



Yes we did!  It was actually quite easy.  You disembark, walk thru a building where they do random bag checks, then walk maybe 1/4 mile to the street where there will be mini buses and taxis waiting for you.  There were a couple of different places the buses would go so just make sure you pick the right bus.  It is Cash only so be prepared for that.  And we did tip as well.  But as you can see we did both the bus and the minibus and the minibus was totally the way to go if all you want to do is go to Horseshoe bay.


----------



## tnshsms

Maybe this would help..... I drew arrows for you to see where you would go.  So its really close.


----------



## 1Grumpy9

tnshsms said:


> Maybe this would help..... I drew arrows for you to see where you would go.  So its really close.



Thanks for the info.  My group is having our meeting next week to get all the information before the cruise, so I can talk with my friends that are going with me see what we want to do.


----------



## LoverDisney

Great report!  Very detailed.  I am thinking of taking a cruise to Bermuda in 2019.  I love DCL but I would like to check out other cruise lines.  Would you go on another Royal cruise (not sure if you mentioned it in your report)?


----------



## tnshsms

LoverDisney said:


> Great report!  Very detailed.  I am thinking of taking a cruise to Bermuda in 2019.  I love DCL but I would like to check out other cruise lines.  Would you go on another Royal cruise (not sure if you mentioned it in your report)?




YES!  We actually booked a dummy cruise while on the cruise for a future RCL on an Oasis ship in 2019.  We don't know for sure what we'll do in 2019 but we already had 2018 plans (Hawaii) but we wanted to keep the options open.  We don't plan on going on that class of ships again for a while...maybe when the kid is a bit older....I'd prefer to try a different class that might have more things the kid would like (although she LOVED rollerskating).  Not all RCL ships are created equally and I think its hard to compare the entire line to DCL because of that.  Each class has something different to offer.  Just because Quatam might not be our speed right now, doesn't mean that someone in a different place in life might not enjoy it.  Its just knowing what works for you and that's why I hoped to help those who don't know what they want with the trip report.  I don't think anyone knows what they will like until you can have some insight on what the ship is like and what worked for us.  

If you have never been to Bermuda then go!  It was a great trip and we enjoyed ourselves.  I know DCl does that same path now and I'm unsure of the pricing so I can't speak for that but I probably would have chose DCL had that been an option when we went.  But again, that might not be whats good for you family.  Good luck with your decision and have fun with the planning!!


----------



## HappilyEverAfter80

tnshsms said:


> YES!  We actually booked a dummy cruise while on the cruise for a future RCL on an Oasis ship in 2019.  We don't know for sure what we'll do in 2019 but we already had 2018 plans (Hawaii) but we wanted to keep the options open.  We don't plan on going on that class of ships again for a while...maybe when the kid is a bit older....I'd prefer to try a different class that might have more things the kid would like (although she LOVED rollerskating).  Not all RCL ships are created equally and I think its hard to compare the entire line to DCL because of that.  Each class has something different to offer.  Just because Quatam might not be our speed right now, doesn't mean that someone in a different place in life might not enjoy it.  Its just knowing what works for you and that's why I hoped to help those who don't know what they want with the trip report.  I don't think anyone knows what they will like until you can have some insight on what the ship is like and what worked for us.
> 
> If you have never been to Bermuda then go!  It was a great trip and we enjoyed ourselves.  I know DCl does that same path now and I'm unsure of the pricing so I can't speak for that but I probably would have chose DCL had that been an option when we went.  But again, that might not be whats good for you family.  Good luck with your decision and have fun with the planning!!



We priced out the 5 night Bermuda on DCL (opening week) and I have it check my Anthem/Disney comparison report but pretty sure Magic was $1800 more for our family of 3!
Same itinerary, I was comparing the 6a category on the Magic so it was actually a better room on Anthem.


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## tnshsms

HappilyEverAfter80 said:


> We priced out the 5 night Bermuda on DCL (opening week) and I have it check my Anthem/Disney comparison report but pretty sure Magic was $1800 more for our family of 3!
> Same itinerary, I was comparing the 6a category on the Magic so it was actually a better room on Anthem.




That is quite the price difference!!


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