The quick verdict
Anthem of the Seas — 8.0 / 10
Anthem of the Seas is the first Quantum Class ship on this scorecard. She is not a smaller Oasis Class ship — she is a structurally different entertainment product.
There is no AquaTheater and no ice rink. So three named productions run across two venues instead of five or six across three.
What she has instead exists nowhere in the Oasis or Icon Class. Two70 is a glass-walled room at the stern that becomes a theater at night behind eighteen projectors and six moving RoboScreens.
North Star is a glass capsule that lifts you 300 feet over the water. RipCord by iFLY and SeaPlex round it out — SeaPlex is an indoor activity hall running bumper cars, roller skating and circus school in any weather.
Her licensed West End musical, We Will Rock You, is confirmed still running. That is a distinction on a fleet where two Broadway licences have lapsed in the last year.
Best for: travelers who would rather have a distinctive, technology-led show room and an indoor activity hall that works on a cold New Zealand sea day, than a fifth production show. Also families whose kids span a wide age range.
Biggest strength: Activities & Participation and Kids Clubs, both 9. SeaPlex gives her a participation venue no Oasis Class ship has.
She carries two separate teen rooms rather than the usual one. Nightlife runs half a point above the rest of the fleet scored so far, at 8.5, on the two-deck Music Hall.
Biggest weakness: Recreation & Attractions at 6.5. Not because the complex is thin — because four whole attraction classes are confirmed missing.
Anthem has no waterslides and no waterpark of any kind. She has no dry drop-slide, no zip line or aerial course, and no mini golf.
See current sailing dates and cabin pricing for Anthem of the Seas.
Check Sailings & PricesThe Seabound Entertainment Scorecard
Seven categories, each judged on its own merits against the whole industry. Scores measure how strong the entertainment product is — not how well it happens to suit you.
That second question is what Entertainment Fit will answer.
We Will Rock You — a licensed West End title, not an in-house pastiche — still runs in the Royal Theater, confirmed by Royal Caribbean's current ship page and by coverage of her October 2025 Sydney season; The Gift, an original illusion-and-music production, runs alongside it; Spectra's Cabaret runs in Two70. Three named productions across two venues sits at the floor of the flagship band: measured industry-wide it beats almost every mainstream ship, which runs one theater and a revue cast, but Quantum Class was built without an AquaTheater and without an ice rink, so Anthem has two production venues where the Oasis and Icon Class ships have three and four to six named shows.
The two-deck Music Hall (tribute bands, karaoke, a resident DJ), Boleros' live salsa band, the Schooner Bar's piano format, the English pub, a full live orchestra in the Royal Theater and Two70's virtual-concert programme run in parallel most evenings — five-plus live formats a night, which is flagship tier. It stops short of 9 for a structural reason rather than a lost venue: Quantum Class ships were never built with a dedicated comedy club, so there is no nightly adult comedy room the way Symphony and Oasis carry one. Comedians are still booked into variety programming in the Royal Theater.
SeaPlex alone runs bumper cars, roller skating, circus school with trapeze swings, full-court basketball, dodgeball, pickleball and table tennis, and it runs them indoors and in any weather — a participation hub no Oasis Class ship has. Around it sit trivia and Name That Tune, karaoke, bingo, game shows, pool games, salsa and cha-cha classes, sushi-making, cupcake decorating, jewelry making, scrapbooking, wine tastings, guest lectures and Expedition Two70's augmented-reality game. A published Cruise Compass for the ship shows something scheduled nearly every hour. That is the industry's top tier.
North Star, the glass capsule that lifts guests 300 feet over the side, and RipCord by iFLY, the skydiving simulator, are both consistently well reviewed and neither exists on any Oasis Class ship; SeaPlex is billed as the largest indoor activity space at sea, and the FlowRider, 40-foot rock wall, running track and three pools (including one indoors under a retractable glass roof, which matters on her New Zealand and Alaska runs) round it out. Two singular, genuinely well-executed attractions are what hold her in this band at all. What puts her at the bottom of it is not a hardware tally but the number of whole attraction classes confirmed absent: no waterslides and no waterpark of any kind, no dry drop-slide on the Ultimate Abyss model, no harnessed aerial course or zip line, and no mini golf. Fewer of a thing is not scoreable in this category; none of a thing, where that thing is a whole attraction class, is — and here it applies four times over on a ship carrying up to about 4,900 guests. Set against a ship scored alongside her, Liberty of the Seas covers every attraction class a big modern ship offers and is short only the top two; Anthem is missing the water-thrill layer outright, and that layer is a pillar of this category rather than a bonus. The absent ice rink is a production venue and is scored once, above, not counted a second time here. One capacity note belongs with the number rather than against her execution: the complimentary North Star and RipCord sessions go early in a sailing and SeaPlex’s bumper cars queue fast on sea days, so the two attractions this category leans on hardest are also the two hardest to get onto.
This category is judged on whether a ship has genuine adult-first late-night specialization — a room built for the purpose, late DJ sets programmed for it — and explicitly not on how many bars a ship has, and that distinction is what earns the half-step. The Music Hall is a two-deck room with a bar on each level, a resident DJ and a dance floor that runs into the early hours: tribute bands and karaoke early, then the mix turning rock into dance, with Cruise Critic describing a crowd still moving on the floor after midnight. It is the closest thing Royal Caribbean builds to a purpose-made late-night venue, and closer to one than either the multi-purpose lounges the Oasis Class relies on or the bars, lounges and ice rink that carry the night on the Freedom Class ships, where the late product has no room of its own at all. Boleros' Latin club format, the Bionic Bar, the Schooner Bar, the English pub, Two70's evening use and a large casino keep several rooms genuinely alive past midnight around it. It stops at 8.5 rather than 9 because Cruise Critic states plainly that Anthem has no dedicated nightclub: the Music Hall is a live-music room that converts, not a room built from the keel up for late night. Virgin, Carnival, NCL and MSC all build adult-first specialization that Royal Caribbean does not, and the 10 in this category is not Royal's to hold. Comedy is scored once, above, not repeated here.
SeaPlex is the genuine multi-generational room here — bumper cars, skating and circus school are things a family does together rather than in separate age silos — and it is backed by Expedition Two70's augmented-reality treasure game, outdoor deck movies, family game shows and headline shows all three of which play across ages. Her Sydney seasons add designated Wiggly sailings with a live Wiggles show at sea, Dorothy the Dinosaur dance classes, a Wiggly Disco Party and character meet-and-greets — genuine character entertainment, but only on named dates. Real and above the industry mid-point; we could not confirm a scheduled parade, a standalone family festival or a family silent disco, and the H2O Zone splash area is reported as smaller than newer ships carry. Disney sets this category's ceiling.
Royal Babies & Tots covers 6-36 months as a fee-based, reservation-only nursery at a reported four-babies-to-one-staff ratio; Adventure Ocean spans two decks and splits ages 3-11 into three ship-confirmed bands (Aquanauts 3-5, Explorers 6-8, Voyagers 9-11); and teens 12-17 get two separate rooms rather than the single space most Royal Caribbean ships give them — The Living Room for hanging out and Fuel, a teens-only disco. Quantum Class uses neither Icon Class's Social020 naming nor Oasis Class's Social298/Social100; these are Anthem's own confirmed venues. Disney is the consensus benchmark; Royal's nursery-through-17 depth is the clear second, and Anthem is at the top of it.
Weighted across all seven categories, Anthem of the Seas lands at 8.0 on an industry-wide scale — below every Oasis Class and Icon Class ship scored so far, and comfortably above the mainstream and premium field. The gap is not quality; it is structure. Quantum Class was designed with two production venues instead of three or four and with no water-thrill hardware at all, and those two facts account for almost the entire difference.
A room made of moving screens
SeaPlex alone runs bumper cars, roller skating, circus school with trapeze swings, full-court basketball, dodgeball, pickleball and table tennis, and it runs them indoors and in any weather — a participation hub no Oasis Class ship has.
Around it sit trivia and Name That Tune, karaoke, bingo, game shows, pool games, salsa and cha-cha classes, sushi-making, cupcake decorating, jewelry making, scrapbooking, wine tastings, guest lectures and Expedition Two70's augmented-reality game. A published Cruise Compass for the ship shows something scheduled nearly every hour. That is the industry's top tier.
What’s actually on
Every production named for Anthem of the Seas on this page, as a ticket. Tap one to turn it over — the back says what it is, not what the brochure says.
Build one evening aboard
Tap rooms onto the rail in the order you’d hit them. Early, prime and late — not clock times, because this page doesn’t publish a schedule it can’t source. Showtimes change by sailing; the rooms don’t.
A show
Live music
Late night
Worth paying for
- Early—
- Prime—
- Late—
- Later still—
Pick a room to start.
Same scores, your priorities
The seven category scores don’t move — they’re what the research found. The weights are the editorial call, and they’re provisional. Drag them to see how the number changes when the mix is yours. A what-if, not the score.
Matches the Seabound score.
Shows & productions
Three named productions across two venues. One is a genuine West End licence.
One is staged in a room nothing else at sea can copy.
We Will Rock You — the Ben Elton musical built around Queen’s catalogue, staged in the Royal Theater with a full live orchestra. This is a licensed title, not an in-house tribute.
Its continued presence is the single most load-bearing fact on this page. Royal Caribbean has retired licensed musicals elsewhere in the fleet within the last year, and Grease came off Harmony of the Seas in autumn 2025.
Anthem’s licence is confirmed live — Royal Caribbean’s own current ship page lists it.
It was the show the line led with when Anthem arrived in Sydney in October 2025. One British guide reports it running twice most evenings plus a mid-afternoon matinee.
The Gift — an original Royal Caribbean production written for Anthem, also in the Royal Theater. Sources describe it slightly differently.
Cruise Critic calls it a dream-led journey through grief set to modern music and high-tech staging. A British reviewer describes it primarily as a mystical illusion show.
Both agree on the effects-heavy staging; treat the emotional framing as loosely reported rather than fixed.
Spectra’s Cabaret — the Two70 production, designed with the multimedia studio Moment Factory specifically to use the room’s hardware. Singing, dancing and aerial work run against Vistarama, an eighteen-projector wash that turns 270 degrees of glass into a single moving canvas.
Six seven-foot RoboScreens ride robotic arms through the choreography.
Two70 also carries virtual concerts and symphony programmes on 4K screens.
What is not here is a design decision, not a loss: Quantum Class ships were built without an AquaTheater and without an ice rink. There is no Studio B, no high-diving show and no skating production on Anthem, and there never was.
That is why three shows across two rooms is the honest count. The Oasis Class runs five or six, across three.
Plan the Royal Theater first. We Will Rock You is the one to build an evening around.
Take Spectra’s Cabaret on a separate night, so Two70 gets a clean look rather than a rushed one.
Live entertainment & music
Five-plus live formats a night, led by a two-deck rock room — and one structural gap where a comedy club would sit.
The Music Hall, on Deck 3, is the centre of gravity: two decks high, a bar on each level. Plush velvet and Art Nouveau detailing complete it, with self-levelling pool tables.
A programme that runs tribute bands and karaoke through the evening before a DJ takes the stage.
Boleros on the Royal Esplanade carries a live salsa band. The Schooner Bar runs the piano-bar format and doubles as a trivia room.
The ship’s pub adds a quieter craft-beer corner. It is carried in venue guides as Michael’s Genuine Pub and on Royal Caribbean’s own current listing simply as the English Pub — a naming discrepancy, not a question of whether the room exists.
The Royal Theater runs a full live orchestra behind the productions. Royal Caribbean’s own listing for the ship notes live bands and performers working across the Esplanade and pool deck.
Two70’s virtual-concert programme adds a format nothing else in the fleet runs.
The gap worth stating precisely: Anthem has no dedicated comedy club, and never did. Quantum Class ships were not built with one.
So there is no room equivalent to The Attic on Symphony of the Seas or Blaze on Oasis of the Seas.
This is important to separate from the other pattern in the fleet. Royal Caribbean has been converting comedy clubs into casino space on several Oasis Class and Icon Class ships.
That is a confirmed removal with a confirmed reason.
Nothing was removed from Anthem; the venue type was never part of the class. Comedy content itself does appear.
A published Cruise Compass for the ship lists a booked comedian performing in the Welcome Aboard Variety Show in the Royal Theater.
What we could not confirm for this ship is a regular, nightly adult comedy set of the kind a dedicated club supports. We have written that as an evidence gap, not an absence.
Activities & participation
The full Royal Caribbean sea-day programme, plus an indoor activity hall that runs it in any weather.
SeaPlex is the difference. It is a two-level indoor hall — Royal Caribbean bills it as the largest indoor activity space at sea.
On a given day it turns over from bumper cars to roller skating to a full-size basketball court to dodgeball, pickleball and soccer. Circus school and trapeze swings are on the schedule too, along with an upstairs mezzanine of SeaPods for air hockey and table tennis.
Anthem spends its winters in Sydney and its summers on Alaska and New Zealand runs. On a ship like that, an indoor participation venue is not a novelty.
It is what keeps the programme intact on a cold or wet sea day.
Around it runs the standard deep programme: trivia including themed rounds, Name That Tune, bingo, karaoke, game shows and pool games. Salsa and cha-cha classes, sushi-making, cupcake decorating, jewelry making, scrapbooking, wine tastings, guest lectures, an arcade and self-levelling pool tables in the Music Hall round it out.
Expedition Two70 is Anthem-specific: an augmented-reality game that sends players through the ship recovering artefacts.
A published Cruise Compass for the ship shows something scheduled nearly every hour of embarkation day alone.
One thing we could not pin down. Anthem launched in 2015 with a Puzzle Break escape room called Escape from the Future.
It was staged in the Fuel teen room on sea days, and reported at the time as complimentary.
A 2025 round-up of Royal Caribbean escape rooms lists eleven ships with permanently installed rooms. It does not include Anthem, referring only to occasional pop-up versions.
Separately, one editorial source describes laser tag running in SeaPlex and calls it complimentary. Royal Caribbean’s current listing for the ship does not mention laser tag at all.
Both are open questions rather than confirmed absences — check the Cruise Compass on day one rather than assuming either way.
Recreation & attractions
Two attractions nothing in the Oasis or Icon Class can match — and no waterslides at all.
North Star is a glass observation capsule on a mechanical arm that swings guests out over the side and up past 300 feet. It remains one of the few genuinely singular pieces of hardware in the industry. RipCord by iFLY is a vertical wind tunnel on the top deck giving a if brief, freefall.
Both are complimentary on port days; a longer sea-day session carries a per-person fee. That fee varies by sailing — check Cruise Planner, not a figure quoted for another ship.
The FlowRider surf simulator and a 40-foot rock climbing wall run free of charge. A running track circles the upper deck.
Pools are three: the outdoor main pool with whirlpools, an indoor pool under a retractable glass roof. The adults-only Solarium with its own canopied pool, whirlpools and bar.
The H2O Zone gives younger kids sprinklers and water cannons. One family-travel source notes it is smaller than what the newer ships carry, though.
SeaPlex counts here too as hardware, not just programme.
This category is scored on execution and depth, never on counting hardware. Anthem’s execution is not the problem — North Star and RipCord are consistently well reviewed, and both are unique to Quantum Class within Royal Caribbean.
What holds this at 6.5 is a set of confirmed structural absences, not an evidence gap: Anthem has no waterslides and no waterpark of any kind.
No Perfect Storm trio, no Ultimate Abyss, no Category 6 neighbourhood, no zip line, and no ice rink or mini golf either. Counting how many slides a ship has would not be scoreable here.
Counting how many whole attraction classes are simply not aboard is. On Anthem that comes to four, once the ice rink is set aside as a production venue scored elsewhere: the water-thrill layer, the dry drop-slide, the harnessed aerial course and mini golf.
Water thrills in particular are a pillar of this category across the industry, not a bonus. A ship without any of that layer cannot sit level with one whose complex covers every class.
That holds even if the other ship is short only the top two.
Against the wider industry, this is still a deep and unusual complex. It is well clear of the premium lines, several of which offer a pool and a jogging track and nothing else.
Nightlife
The Music Hall is the closest Royal Caribbean comes to a purpose-built late-night room — which is not the same as a nightclub.
Late evening on Anthem concentrates in the Music Hall. Both its bars peak after hours, and a DJ takes over from the live acts.
The mix runs rock into dance, and Cruise Critic describes a crowd moving on the floor into the early hours.
Around it, Boleros keeps its Latin club format going late, and the Bionic Bar draws a crowd for the robotic arms alone. The Schooner Bar and English pub stay open, Two70 turns over to evening use, and Casino Royale — described as fairly large — runs deep into the night.
Royal Caribbean’s own material and Cruise Critic both describe bands, DJs and other acts playing around the ship until the early hours.
The ceiling is stated plainly by Cruise Critic: there is no dedicated nightclub onboard Anthem of the Seas. The Music Hall covers a lot of that ground — arguably more than the multi-purpose lounges the Oasis Class relies on.
Still, it is a live-music venue that turns into a dance floor, not a room built from the keel up for adult-first late-night specialization.
That is the same ceiling every Royal Caribbean ship on this scorecard runs into. It is worth being direct that Royal does not lead this category.
Virgin builds its ships around adult nightlife, and Carnival, Norwegian and MSC all field late-night products that can match or beat Royal’s.
Eight and a half is the top of flagship tier here, not the top of the scale. It says she has the fleet’s nearest thing to a specialised late-night room, not that she has the room itself.
Comedy is a Live Entertainment & Music question and is scored there, not counted twice.
Family entertainment
SeaPlex does the multi-generational work — and in Sydney, so do The Wiggles.
What families actually do together on Anthem centres on SeaPlex. Bumper cars, roller skating and circus school are activities a nine-year-old and a forty-year-old do side by side.
Not in separate rooms.
The fact that it is indoors makes it the default gathering point on a rough sea day. Expedition Two70’s augmented-reality artefact hunt runs the same way, sending mixed-age groups around the ship together.
Deck movies play on an outdoor screen, and family game shows run through the week. All three headline productions play across ages — We Will Rock You in particular is reported as working for teenagers who would sit out a traditional revue.
Her Australian seasons add something no other ship on this scorecard carries. Royal Caribbean’s partnership with The Wiggles puts designated Wiggly sailings on Anthem out of Sydney.
It includes a live Wiggly Adventure Show at Sea, a pool-deck sail-away party, dance classes led by Dorothy the Dinosaur, storytime with Wags the Dog, a Wiggly Disco Party and character meet-and-greets through the cruise.
This is confirmed character entertainment with a live cast. It is limited, though, to named sailings in the Sydney season.
It belongs in the picture without being treated as what you get on any given week.
What we could not confirm for Anthem specifically: a scheduled parade, or a standalone family festival on the scale of the ones documented on the newest ships. Also unconfirmed: a family silent disco.
Those are evidence gaps and they hold this category where it is rather than pushing it lower.
One confirmed limitation is real though — the H2O Zone splash area is reported as smaller than newer ships carry. There is no waterpark for a family to spend an afternoon in.
Disney sets this category’s ceiling by consensus, and Anthem sits solidly above the industry mid-point, not near the top.
Kids clubs & youth programming
Nursery through 17, with a finer age split than most Royal Caribbean ships and two teen rooms instead of one.
Royal Babies & Tots covers 6 to 36 months as a drop-off nursery, reservation-only and fee-based, at a reported four-babies-to-one-staff ratio. Space is limited and worth booking on embarkation day.
Adventure Ocean spans two decks. It splits ages 3 to 11 into three named bands confirmed for this ship: Aquanauts (3-5, crafts and story time), Explorers (6-8, science experiments and scavenger hunts) and Voyagers (9-11, sports and interactive games).
Published sea-day hours run roughly 9am to noon, 2 to 5pm and 7 to 10pm, complimentary within those windows. Later group sessions, where offered, carry a small hourly fee that is separate from the nursery’s own rate.
Teens get more room than usual. Anthem carries two dedicated teen spaces on Decks 14 and 15, not the single lounge most Royal Caribbean ships give ages 12-17.
They are The Living Room, built around hanging out and socialising, and Fuel, a teens-only disco.
Neither uses Icon Class’s Social020 branding, or the Social298 and Social100 names found on the Oasis Class. These are Anthem’s own venues, confirmed ship-specifically, not assumed from fleet copy.
Entertainment venues
Two production rooms, one indoor activity hall, and a promenade that carries the rest.
The Royal Theater hosts We Will Rock You and The Gift with a live orchestra. Seating is first-come on many sailings, and arriving twenty to thirty minutes early is the standard advice. Two70, at the stern across Decks 4 and 5, is a daytime lounge and cafe with 270 degrees of glass that converts into a performance venue at night. The Music Hall on Deck 3 runs two levels of live music and late-night DJ sets. SeaPlex is the indoor activity hall aft on Decks 14 and 15. Boleros and the Schooner Bar sit on the Royal Esplanade and in the Via. Michael’s Genuine Pub, Vintages, the Bionic Bar and Casino Royale fill out the indoor evening. North Star and its bar sit up on Deck 15.
On a ship carrying roughly 4,180 guests at double occupancy and up to about 4,900 full, the two production venues are the pinch point, not the bars. With only the Royal Theater and Two70 staging shows, popular nights fill, and Anthem does not have the third and fourth show rooms that spread demand on the larger classes.
She entered service in 2015 at about 168,000 gross tons. She has not had an entertainment-led refit — her most recent drydock, at Singapore in March and April 2025, was reported as routine maintenance with no venue changes.
Included vs extra cost
Nearly all of the headline entertainment is included; a short, specific list is not. Each item below was checked on its own, not swept into one sentence.
Included: We Will Rock You, The Gift, Spectra’s Cabaret, Two70’s virtual concerts and the Welcome Aboard Variety Show. Also included: the FlowRider, the rock climbing wall, SeaPlex’s bumper cars, roller skating, circus school and court sports, the running track, all three pools, the H2O Zone, Expedition Two70, trivia, karaoke, game shows, classes and lectures, and Adventure Ocean within its published hours.
The two teen rooms.
Complimentary in port, fee on sea days: North Star and RipCord by iFLY. Both are free during port-day sessions; the longer sea-day rides carry a per-person charge.
Pricing varies by sailing — check Cruise Planner or the Royal Caribbean app rather than assuming a rate quoted for another ship or another season.
Extra cost: Royal Babies & Tots nursery care, hourly fee, reservation-only, limited space. Also extra: late-night Adventure Ocean group sessions where offered, Wonderland and the other specialty restaurants (see the dining guide for cost and value), and the arcade.
The casino, which runs on its own pay structure.
Disputed or unconfirmed: the SeaPlex laser tag session. One editorial source describes it as complimentary; Royal Caribbean’s current ship page does not list it at all.
Also disputed: the escape room, which launched as a complimentary sea-day activity in 2015 but does not appear on a 2025 fleet round-up of permanently installed rooms. We are not picking a side on either — confirm both on your own sailing’s Cruise Compass.
Paid entertainment experiences
A ship earns credit here for a paid experience; she is never marked down for having none. This section covers performative and narrative experiences only.
North Star and RipCord’s paid sea-day sessions are thrill hardware, already scored under Recreation & Attractions, and are not repeated here.
These sit outside the seven scored categories above; extra credit only.
Wonderland Signature Experience
Immersive narrative dining. An Alice-in-Wonderland-themed room on Deck 5 where the meal is staged rather than served.
Guests are handed a blank frame and a paintbrush, and water reveals a menu organised not by course but by five elements — Sun, Ice, Fire, Earth and Sea. Dishes arrive built to mislead: a bird’s-nest appetiser, a Cheshire Cat cocktail whose cotton-candy top dissolves as the drink is poured over it, a dessert globe that collapses when hot fudge is poured across it tableside.
A reviewer who sailed Anthem in 2025 described going in sceptical and leaving impressed by the presentation more than anything else. Pricing varies by sailing — check Cruise Planner, and see the dining guide for the menu and the value verdict, which that project owns rather than this one.
Wiggly Character Breakfast Standard Paid Add-On
Character performance, designated sailings only. On Anthem’s Wiggly-themed Sydney sailings, the complimentary programme (the live Wiggly Adventure Show at Sea, the sail-away party, Dorothy the Dinosaur’s dance classes, the Wiggly Disco Party) is joined by a paid character breakfast with the performers and characters in the room, plus optional cupcake-decorating classes and photo packages.
This is genuine live character entertainment rather than a themed menu — but it exists only on named dates in the Australian season, so treat it as a reason to pick a specific sailing rather than a standing feature of the ship. Pricing varies by sailing; check Cruise Planner.
Anthem carries no supper-club-style dinner theater of the sort found on the Icon Class ships, and no permanently installed escape room is confirmed for her at present. Neither is scored against her.
Reservations
Fewer show rooms means the ones she has fill up.
Book We Will Rock You, The Gift and Spectra’s Cabaret through the Royal Caribbean app once your window opens, typically after final payment. With only two production venues, not the three or four the larger classes run, demand concentrates.
On sailings where the Royal Theater seats first-come, the usual advice is to arrive twenty to thirty minutes ahead.
North Star and RipCord by iFLY both need a booked slot. Grab the complimentary port-day sessions early in the cruise, because they go first.
Wonderland and the other specialty restaurants need a reservation and a separate charge.
SeaPlex sessions rotate through the day on a posted schedule, not a booking system, and bumper cars in particular queue up fast on sea days. Live music, trivia, classes and the daytime programme are all walk-up.
What is actually worth your time
Seabound editorial judgement, supported by the evidence above.
Don’t miss
- We Will Rock You — a real West End licence with a live orchestra behind it, and the strongest single thing on the ship.
- North Star on a scenic approach — free on port days, and worth timing to a harbour arrival rather than an empty horizon.
Worth trying
- Spectra’s Cabaret — go for what the room does as much as the show; there is no other venue at sea built like Two70.
- SeaPlex bumper cars and the circus school session, which is more genuinely unusual than the ride.
- The Music Hall after the second show, once the DJ has taken over.
Only if it interests you
- The Gift — enjoyable and effects-heavy, but the first thing to drop on a short sailing if the theater slots are competing.
- Paid sea-day sessions on North Star or RipCord, if you already rode them free in port.
If a nightly stand-up comedy set is a fixture of your cruise, Anthem is the wrong Royal Caribbean ship — the class was built without a comedy club, and what we could confirm is a comedian in the variety show rather than a regular adult set.
Who this ship’s entertainment is best for
Cold-weather itineraries, wide-age families and travelers who value distinctiveness over count.
Anthem suits travelers sailing somewhere the weather is not guaranteed. New Zealand in shoulder season, Alaska out of Seattle, a Tasman crossing to Hobart.
On those itineraries, an indoor activity hall, an indoor pool under a glass roof and a stern lounge built to be looked out of are worth more than a waterpark that sits closed.
Families with children spread across a wide age range get an unusually fine-grained kids programme and two separate teen rooms. Anyone who wants to see something they cannot see anywhere else should book Two70 and North Star specifically.
The mismatches are clear and worth stating. Families whose holiday is built around waterslides should not book this ship — she has none.
Travelers who want the deepest possible show lineup will get more on the Oasis Class, which runs twice the named productions. Anyone who wants a dedicated adult nightclub is a mismatch on any Royal Caribbean ship scored so far.
Anyone who wants nightly stand-up should choose a ship whose class was built with a comedy room.
How this ship compares
The first Quantum Class ship on this scorecard, measured against classes built around different assumptions.
Set against the Oasis Class ships already scored — Symphony at 8.9 down to Utopia at 8.3 — Anthem’s 8.0 comes almost entirely from two categories. Production & Headline Shows drops because Quantum Class has two production venues — not three, so three named shows, not five or six.
Recreation & Attractions drops to 6.5 because she has no water-thrill hardware whatsoever, where every Oasis Class ship carries a slide complex and most carry a zip line.
Everything else is level or better. Her Activities score matches the fleet’s 9, and arguably earns it more honestly.
SeaPlex gives her a participation venue that works in weather no open deck would.
Her Kids Clubs 9 is earned with two teen rooms — not one. Her Nightlife 8.5 rests on a two-deck live-music room that is closer to a purpose-built late-night venue than the multi-purpose lounges the Oasis Class uses.
It is the one category where she scores above every Oasis Class ship, alongside her Quantum Class sisters and Utopia of the Seas.
Against the Icon Class ships at 8.9 to 9.2, the gap is wider and simpler. Those ships were designed a decade later with an ice arena, an aqua theatre and a full waterpark neighbourhood, and no amount of execution closes a hardware gap that large.
Against the wider industry, though, Anthem sits clearly above the premium and mainstream field. A licensed West End musical alone puts her ahead of most ships afloat, and Two70 has no equivalent anywhere.
One comparison worth making carefully: Harmony of the Seas lost her Grease licence and her comedy club. That cost her real points.
Anthem never had a comedy club to lose, and her licence is intact. Those are different situations and this scorecard treats them differently — a venue a class was never built with is a structural difference.
A venue that was taken away is a loss.
The closest ship on this scorecard is Liberty of the Seas. The comparison is worth making in detail because the two land on the same overall number by opposite routes.
Both run a licensed title still confirmed on the schedule — We Will Rock You here, Saturday Night Fever there. Both stage three named productions across two purpose-built rooms, so Production ties at 8.
Activities, Family and Kids Clubs tie too, on genuinely comparable evidence — not on a shrug.
Where they separate is the two categories built on rooms. Liberty’s recreation complex covers every attraction class a big modern ship offers, including a three-slide Perfect Storm with the Tidal Wave boomerang and an ice rink open for skating.
She takes Recreation 7 to Anthem’s 6.5.
Anthem takes Nightlife 8.5 to Liberty’s 8, because the two-deck Music Hall is a late-night room of a kind Liberty has nowhere on board. Put plainly for anyone choosing between them: Liberty if the days are the point, Anthem if the nights are.
The Seabound entertainment verdict
Anthem of the Seas earns 8.0. That is flagship tier across most of the card, held below the Oasis and Icon Class by two structural facts — not by anything she does badly.
Her greatest strengths are the ones a scorecard built on show counts tends to undersell. SeaPlex turns an indoor hall into a different activity every few hours and keeps the programme running through weather.
A kids and teen product adds a three-band Adventure Ocean split and two separate teen rooms. Two70 is a room whose Vistarama projection and moving RoboScreens have no equivalent at sea.
She also still runs We Will Rock You, a licensed West End title with a live orchestra. That comes at a moment when Royal Caribbean has been letting other Broadway licences lapse.
What keeps this from scoring higher is specific and structural — not speculative. Quantum Class ships were built without an AquaTheater and without an ice rink.
So three named productions run across two venues instead of five or six across three.
She carries no waterslides and no waterpark of any kind. An entire pillar of Recreation & Attractions is simply not on the ship.
Neither is a decline; both are how the class was designed.
Where the evidence genuinely ran out, we have said so — not scored it. No confirmed scheduled parade, family festival or family silent disco.
A laser tag session whose inclusion status two sources disagree on. An escape room that launched with the ship but does not appear on current fleet listings.
Those hold her categories where they are rather than pulling them down.
Travelers on a cold-weather or scenic itinerary, families spanning a wide age range, and anyone who values a venue over a longer show list will get the most out of Anthem. Anyone whose holiday is built around waterslides or a nightly comedy set should look elsewhere in the fleet.
See current sailing dates and cabin pricing for Anthem of the Seas.
Check Sailings & PricesQuick answers
Does Anthem of the Seas have Broadway-style shows?
Yes. The Royal Theater stages We Will Rock You, the licensed West End musical built around Queen’s catalogue, alongside The Gift, an original Royal Caribbean production of illusion and music. Two70 adds Spectra’s Cabaret. All three are included in your fare, and the Royal Theater runs them with a full live orchestra.
Does Anthem of the Seas have an ice rink or an AquaTheater?
No, and neither is a removal — Quantum Class ships were never built with either one. Anthem’s distinctive venue is Two70 instead: a two-deck room at the stern with 270 degrees of glass that turns into a theater at night using Vistarama projection across the windows and six moving RoboScreens. That is where Spectra’s Cabaret runs.
Does Anthem of the Seas have a comedy club?
Not a dedicated one. Quantum Class ships were not built with a comedy-club venue, so there is no room on Anthem equivalent to The Attic on Symphony of the Seas — a design difference, not one of the casino-expansion removals Royal Caribbean has made on other ships. Comedy itself still appears: a published Cruise Compass for the ship shows a booked comedian in the Welcome Aboard Variety Show in the Royal Theater. What we could not confirm is a regular nightly adult comedy set.
How does Anthem of the Seas entertainment compare to the Oasis Class and Icon Class ships?
Anthem carries a structurally lighter product. The Oasis and Icon Class ships run four to six named productions across three purpose-built venues including an AquaTheater and an ice rink; Anthem runs three across two, and has neither venue. She answers with attractions those ships do not have at all — the North Star observation capsule, the RipCord by iFLY skydiving simulator, and SeaPlex, billed as the largest indoor activity space at sea. She scores 8.0 against 8.3 to 8.9 for the Oasis Class and 8.9 to 9.2 for the Icon Class.
Is Anthem of the Seas good for kids and families?
For kids clubs, yes, and unusually so. Adventure Ocean spans two decks and splits ages 3-11 into Aquanauts, Explorers and Voyagers; teens 12-17 get two separate rooms rather than one, The Living Room and the Fuel teen disco; and Royal Babies & Tots covers 6-36 months as a fee-based, reservation-only nursery. Family-together programming leans on SeaPlex, deck movies, Expedition Two70 and the headline shows. We could not confirm a scheduled parade, a standalone family festival or a family silent disco.
Is Anthem of the Seas good for nightlife?
For a Royal Caribbean ship, yes. The two-deck Music Hall is her late-night room — tribute bands and karaoke early, a DJ and a dance floor into the early hours — with Boleros, the Schooner Bar, the Bionic Bar, the English pub and a large casino filling in around it. Cruise Critic is explicit that Anthem has no dedicated nightclub, which is the same ceiling every Royal Caribbean ship scored here runs into; Virgin, Carnival, NCL and MSC build adult-first late-night specialization that Royal does not.
What is Two70 on Anthem of the Seas?
Two70 is Quantum Class’s signature room: a two-deck lounge at the stern with 270 degrees of floor-to-ceiling glass by day that becomes a performance venue at night. Eighteen projectors turn the glass into a single Vistarama canvas, and six seven-foot RoboScreens on robotic arms move through the choreography. It hosts Spectra’s Cabaret, virtual concerts, Expedition Two70’s augmented-reality game and daytime classes, and carries its own bar and cafe.