Small changes mark Royal Caribbean's latest megaship
ABOARD ANTHEM OF THE SEAS -- Are you a big fan of Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Seas? You just might like sister ship Anthem of the Seas even more.
Scheduled to be christened on Monday in Southampton, UK, the 4,180-passenger vessel is nearly identical to its older sibling but with several small tweaks designed to make it even better.
Like the five-month-old Quantum, Anthem boasts such first-for-the-industry features as a deck-top ride into the sky and a bar with robot bartenders. Other gee-whiz features from Quantum making a comeback include a skydiving simulator and a deck-top fun zone called the SeaPlex with bumper cars and roller skating.
Perhaps the most immediately noticeable difference with Anthem as compared to Quantum is the new, bold art that serves as a focal point for several prominent public areas. Among the most striking pieces: An interactive chandelier by artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer overlooking the ship's Royal Esplanade. The chandelier's 200 light bulbs pulse to the recorded heartbeats of passengers who place their hands on a monitor below it.
Another major art installation envelopes a main thoroughfare on Deck 5 with the work of three artists: Richard Hudson, Andrea Stanislav and Nicole Cohen. Anthem also is home to Gigi, an irreverent, 32-foot-high sculpture of a giraffe by artist Jean Francois Fourtou that soars from the ship's top deck. In the same spot on Quantum is a massive sculpture of a magenta polar bear by Denver artist Lawrence Argent.
Cruisers who have sailed on Quantum also will notice several small changes to public spaces on Anthem. British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's on-board eatery, Jamie's Italian, has a new decor that replaces a magenta-and-purple color scheme with blue and yellow. A large red sign for the Sorrento's pizzeria that lines the Royal Esplanade on Quantum is absent from Anthem -- at least for now.
Royal Caribbean also has added several new suites to Anthem in lieu of space used for regular cabins on Quantum. And in a nod to the British passengers expected for Anthem's inaugural season sailing out of Southampton, every cabin now features an electric tea kettle and complimentary tea.
Other changes to Anthem that reflect its initial home port in the UK include a revamped beer list almost exclusively focused on British beers in Michael's Genuine Pub (a bit of an oddity given the venue is a branch of an iconic American gastropub) and such items as rice pudding for dessert in the casual Windjammer Marketplace eatery.
Still, the most significant change made for the debut of Anthem was to the "dynamic dining" system in place for its four main, no-extra-charge restaurants. In addition to the come-when-you-want-to-whichever-restaurant-you-want option available on Quantum, passengers on Anthem will be able to choose a fixed seating scheme for the restaurants where they sit at the same table, with the same waiter and the same companions, every night -- the sort of system that was common on Royal Caribbean before Quantum. The only twist from the old Royal Caribbean dining format: Passengers (along with their waiters) will rotate each night among the four restaurants.
Royal Caribbean also has added 110 more seats to the restaurants to make it easier for passengers to get a reservation, and the line revamped the restaurants' menus to offer more choices.
The changes placate Royal Caribbean regulars who were unhappy with dynamic dining. They'll eventually be rolled out on Quantum, too.
"We received quite a bit of feedback, mainly from our traditional guests who missed the more traditional type of dining where you have a set dining time, the same waiter and the same dining companions," Royal Caribbean CEO Michael Bayley told travel writers today at a press conference on board the ship.
About 36% of passengers booking Anthem are choosing the new, fixed dining format, Bayley said.
Still, all in all, the changes between the first and second Quantum class vessels at Royal Caribbean are relatively minor, says Richard Fain, chairman of Royal Caribbean's parent company, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
"Whenever we take delivery of a ship ... a team of us spend a couple days walking the ship saying, 'what would we do differently if we had that option,'" Fain told travel writers today at the press conference. "I can't remember a ship where we felt there was as little that needed changing in terms of substance."
USA TODAY Cruise this week is among a handful of U.S. media outlets getting early access to Anthem of the Seas. For our 'first look' tour of the ship, click through the carousel below.
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