Nearly three years to the day of touring Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas with my Castle Dreams Travel Team in Bayonne, NJ- my family finally set sail onboard!
Now… why Anthem of the Seas? Location, location, location. Sailing from New Jersey- we were only just over an hour away drive to the port. Sailing during Spring Break- this saved us time and money not having to fly in the night before. Anthem is also a Quantum Class Ship- and our family, so far, really likes this class of ship. We sailed on Adventure of the Seas in August (Voyager Class) and Odyssey of the Seas in January (Quantum Ultra Class), and the Anthem was most similar to the Odyssey. Arriving to Cape Liberty was so easy and seamless. Once we arrived, we drove up to an area where they checked our luggage and then we parked the car ($175 for 7 nights). We then breezed through security and were on our way!
We spent the week across 2 ocean view balcony staterooms on deck 8. There were four of us sailing- my husband, son, younger daughter, and myself. Plenty of room for us. We were able to open the connecting doors from both the inside of our staterooms and also on the balcony as well.
We also added the Key service to our reservations that not only gave each of us access to WiFi, but we were one of the first to be able to board the ship (before 11am) and after some exploring, we headed to Windjammer Buffet for a very light lunch- really just to see our options and the difference between Adventure and Odyssey. We also them had plenty of time to explore the ship and even reserve specialty dining and activities before most guests have even boarded. At noon, we thoroughly enjoyed our exclusive lunch in the main dining room- a three course meal that included eggplant for our daughter and filet mignon for the rest of us.
After lunch, our rooms were ready- so we unpacked, freshened up for the night then headed to Boleros to enjoy some live music before that evening’s Welcome Aboard Show. After the show, we enjoyed dinner in the Main Dining room and ended the night with a visit to the Bionic Bar.
Tomorrow was our first sea day and we were so looking forward to getting to relax a bit…
