Coming in two weeks: New York's hottest cruise ship ever
Let the countdown begin!
Wednesday marks exactly two weeks until one of the hottest new cruise ships of the year, Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas, begins sailing year-round out of the New York area -- a deployment that has had the line's fans in the Northeast buzzing for months.
Unveiled in April, Royal Caribbean's latest mega-resort at sea has spent its first few months cruising around Europe, but Royal Caribbean has been saying for more than a year that it eventually would make its permanent home at the New York area's Cape Liberty Cruise Port, located seven miles south of Manhattan in Bayonne, N.J. The ship will sail five- to 12-night voyages to Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Caribbean and New England.
The 4,180-passenger vessel is a sister to the 11-month-old Quantum of the Seas, which sailed a brief season out of the New York area over the winter only to be redeployed earlier this year to China.
As can be seen in the photo tour in the carousel above, Anthem is packed full of such gee-whiz features as a deck-top ride into the sky and a bar with robot bartenders, both concepts that first debuted on Quantum. Other first-for-the-industry 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.
Royal Caribbean executives say the ship is perfect for year-round sailings out of the New York area, as it has a wide variety of indoor fun zones and experiences that will appeal to passengers on off-season sailings when it's not quite bikini weather.
One of the ship's pools has a glass-covered magrodome that can be closed during inclement weather, and there's also an adult-only Solarium sunning area at the front of the vessel that is enclosed in glass while still offering an outdoor feel.
Paste BN Cruise in April was among a handful of U.S. media outlets to get early access to Anthem before its christening in Southampton, England. For our deck-by-deck tour of the vessel, scroll through the carousel at the top of the story. The carousels below offers an inside look at the ship's swankiest suites in photos and video of the ship and its sister Quantum of the Seas.