Anthem of the Seas

Anthem of the Seas entered service in 2015 as the second Quantum-class ship, built by Meyer Werft. She carries about 4,180 guests at double occupancy and nearer 4,900 with every berth filled. Her first seasons ran from Southampton to the Mediterranean, the Canaries and northern Europe. From 2017 she spent seven years at Cape Liberty in Bayonne, New Jersey, running to Bermuda, the Caribbean, and Canada and New England. One decision explains her. Quantum class was drawn for cool water and shoulder seasons, so the entertainment is enclosed, the adult Solarium sits under glass, and nothing important depends on a warm pool deck. Most big ships are tropical ships asked to cope with weather. Anthem was built the other way round. She is also the ship mauled by a storm off Cape Hatteras in February 2016. Bound from Cape Liberty to Port Canaveral, she met sustained winds near 65 knots, lost the use of one propulsion unit, took damage to public rooms and cabins and turned back. Four of roughly 4,500 guests were hurt. Since 2025 she has worked Alaska from Seattle and Australia from Sydney, which follows the same logic.
What she does well is fill a grey afternoon. North Star, a glass capsule on a crane arm, lifts you about 300 feet above the water and is better over coastline than open sea. RipCord by iFLY is a vertical wind tunnel. SeaPlex is a full-height indoor hall used for bumper cars, roller skating and ball games. Two70 turns a stern lounge into a screen and robot-arm theatre after dark. Wonderland does theatrical, chemistry-set cooking. Jamie's Italian remains aboard and is the plainer, more reliable of the two. The Solarium is the quiet room on any cold sailing.
Criticism is consistent. Cruise Critic's editors rate her 4.5 out of 5, but note that the good venues carry surcharges, that public rooms feel crowded at capacity, and that Wonderland is not to every taste. The four main dining rooms are a leftover of the scrapped Dynamic Dining concept and still confuse people. Lifts and the promenade jam at peak times.
She suits people who want a ship rather than a beach, who book cool-weather itineraries deliberately, and who like a booked schedule. She suits families with older children particularly well. She does not suit anyone chasing traditional big-ship sun deck life, a quiet reading ship, or one dining room and one table.
This is where cabin choice earns its keep. Quantum class stacks noise indoors and vertically rather than around an open atrium, so the usual rules shift. Interiors get virtual balconies, real-time screens showing the view outside, which makes them tolerable but not silent. SeaPlex is a hard-surfaced sports hall with skate wheels and bumper cars overhead or underfoot depending where you sit. The pool deck and the Solarium sit above upper-deck cabins. Aft cabins near Two70 catch late shows. We are still mapping her venues, and we would rather say so than guess.
Browse the deck plan before you pick a number.