maysill88

You can buy coffee cards any time on board for the same price listed in the cruise planner; no need to buy a card online for the second cruise ahead of time. They typically allow leftover punches to be used on subsequent cruises as well.

I pre-purchased it. I think the reservation options were every fifteen minutes from 12:00 to 1:30.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

Enjoy your cruise! I didn't realize Enchantment is leaving Baltimore already!

Just got back from cruising on the Enchantment 3/3/23-3/11/23 and thought I'd pop on to do a quick review of the MDR food since it was SO GOOD this time around. I don't know if anyone will bother to read all of this, but it's here if you want to.. haha. We were on this ship 3 times before, most recently in November, and I thought the food was the best (outstanding!) on this March cruise. The new menus are in place. We usually do the late dining but ended up in My Time dining each night at 7:45pm because they ran out of two tops at the fixed dinner. I don't know if that made a difference with us getting nice hot food.. it is usually just barely warm, but most nights this time it was HOT! Anyway, here are the dinners I had with some notes about what really stood out as being great (everything was at least good, unless otherwise indicated). Basically, I would order ALL of these items again except the sticky toffee pudding and the pulled pork enchiladas... We ate dinner in the Windjammer the first night since we had to get our dining table assignment fixed, so I'll start with Day 2. Day 2 - parmesan arancini, lasagna al forno, Italian chocolate hazelnut cake - The lasagna is always consistently great to me; big portion, lots of flavor. I never had this appetizer or dessert before, but they were both memorable and I would recommend them; really nice flavors from both. Day 3 - French onion soup, curried lamb rogan josh, toasted almond cream puffs - Nothing special about these except the dessert. I remember cream puffs on previous cruises tasting like they just came out of the refrigerator (cold, hard, really not pleasant to eat); however, these were up there as one of my favorite desserts this time; tasted very fresh, soft pastry, lots of chocolate sauce, great filling, highly recommend! Day 4 - mozzarella cheese sticks, fish and chips, sticky toffee pudding / English trifle - I was surprised by how tasty the cheese sticks were; they were seasoned with garlic and nice and gooey. Fish and chips were unremarkable/standard fare. I expected more from the sticky toffee pudding for some reason; it was very dry and kind of bland, so I traded with my husband for his trifle (he is not big on desserts like I am) and enjoyed that much better. Day 5 - grilled sweet corn cakes, pulled pork enchiladas, warm chocolate chip cookie - The corn cakes were my favorite appetizer of the whole cruise!! Very flavorful and fluffy; I could have eaten probably 3 or 4 plates of these as my whole meal; the avocado salsa on top was plentiful. Now this was the only entrée of the whole cruise that was a total flop to me. The enchiladas were actually one big burrito looking thing (I thought enchiladas were skinnier and open-ended with the filling pouring out??); the tortilla was super thick, tasted almost deep-fried, the filling was dry, there was hardly any sauce or cheese on top... just overall not what I expected; would not recommend unless you see it served at other tables and it actually looks good. I read about the warm chocolate chip cookie on the boards before going on the cruise, and it lived up to the hype; it's basically half baked cookie dough in a ramekin and is absolutely delicious; they could just rotate this and the toasted almond cream puffs all week and I'd be happy. Day 6 - French onion soup and coconut jumbo shrimp, pesto tagliatelle, royal chocolate cake - Nothing remarkable here except the PESTO TAGLIATELLE. I've had this on previous cruises and enjoyed it every time, but they really stepped it up a notch on this cruise; way more pesto, sundried tomatoes, and mushrooms. This was definitely my favorite entrée of the cruise. If you're a pasta fan, then I would definitely recommend this dish!! I think it is served on the same night as the garlic tiger shrimp, which always seems to get more attention; but those shrimp always look so small and unremarkable, so I am not sure what all the hype is about; had that entrée one time and never again. To me, the tagliatelle is leaps and bounds better than the garlic tiger shrimp. Give it a try! Day 7 - seafood cake, NY strip steak + lobster tail, peach trifle - The seafood cake was a bit heavy (it is deep fried) but tasted good. I wanted to do the steak as my main and just add a lobster tail to that plate, but they had to serve each entrée separately. I feel bad doing it that way since I don't eat the sides that come with the lobster tail... The steak is consistently good to me on any cruise. The lobster was cooked just fine and tasted good, but it was still pretty small for me to consider it a standalone entrée item; I certainly would not pay an extra $17 for another tail because they are still so small. The peach trifle was light and refreshing; if you ever want a lighter dessert, just go for one of the trifles/shortcakes because they are always on the lighter/refreshing side. Day 8 - Vidalia onion tart, Mediterranean steak, strawberry shortcake - All of these tasted as I expected; nothing really remarkable about any of them; just some good, consistently prepared choices. Overall, I am very pleased with the new menus. It seems like they really turned up the flavor on the items that had appeared on the old menus. I tend to order a lot of the same stuff from cruise to cruise, and I definitely noticed an increase in quality and taste compared to our cruise in November. Now I'll add a little review of the Chops Grille Lunch, which we did on embarkation day. I had the beef carpaccio, Caesar salad with filet mignon, and warm chocolate cake. The beef carpaccio had so many flavors going on, it was fantastic. The filet was cooked perfectly and was well-seasoned; the croutons on the salad are something else (in a good way); so buttery, they melt in your mouth; the cake is excellent. My husband had the shrimp cocktail, steak burger, and key lime pie. The shrimp were HUGE. The burger was really over the top (lots of toppings) and was delicious per my husband. I can't remember any details about the key lime pie; I was probably too engrossed in the chocolate cake to notice. We both chose asparagus as our side, and those were cooked perfectly and were also well-seasoned. I felt like this was a great deal at $21.99 per person on Day 1 (sale price); I can't get a filet mignon meal like this at home for anywhere near that price. It was also a nice way to spend our time waiting for the room to be available. It almost seems like a hack to do Chops for lunch on any day, instead of dinner, if you are going mainly for a filet. I think the prices are usually like $26 for lunch and $50 for dinner. I'm only ever interested in the filet mignon, and I can get the same portion filet at lunch as at dinner, but at half the price. I don't need all the other choices they add for appetizers and sides at dinner, so the lunch option is perfect and way cheaper. I think we will do the embarkation lunch at Chops from now on as our only specialty restaurant visit. Ok, so if you got to the end of this and have any other questions about the food or really anything about this cruise, let me know and I'll be happy to answer. In the meantime I'll be planning our next trip on the Enchantment! 🙂

Try contacting the dining department at RCLDining@rccl.com prior to your cruise.

Yes, it includes admission. My family just did this excursion last week. You will have to tour the facilities without a tour guide. They no longer offer a guided tour excursion.

I completely disagree with the idea that Bar Harbor is dead without cruise ships. We have stayed in Bar Harbor for a week-long vacation many times, sometimes in the off-season in May and October, but also during the summer months. I think the main draw for people going to Mount Desert Island is Acadia National Park, so they will be just fine with the main tourists coming in by land travel. If it weren't for the park, then it might be a different story. And if you've ever stopped in Bar Harbor on a cruise and enjoyed your day in port, then I highly recommend making it a land vacation sometime. There is so much to see in Acadia that you completely miss with only a short day in port! ETA: Walking around Bar Harbor after cruise ships have left for the day, the town certainly is not empty. There are plenty of other tourists leftover.

Booked a South Beach cabana, which holds up to 8 people. It has 4 lounge chairs and a sofa. If we all want a lounge chair, are we allowed to bring more over to the cabana?

We called and it turns out that the full $500 paid deposit remains on the booking after the person is removed. That is a relief. This was the first time we ever removed someone from a booking so we weren't sure how it would turn out.

My mother has a reservation for herself and my sister for next March. She has a non-refundable deposit but also booked the cruise before they did away with the FCC option earlier this year. The deposit was $250 per person for a total of $500. Now my sister will not be cruising. My question is, what will happen to the deposit when she calls to remove my sister from the booking? Will Royal look at the deposit as "per person" and withhold $250, or just leave the whole $500 applied to the booking since she is not canceling the entire reservation? The single supplement is not bad in this particular situation... the base fare is $274 per person, or $410 for a single for her stateroom.. so we are thinking it makes sense to remove my sister instead of doing the no-show option. I hope my question makes sense. I'm just wondering how this will affect the balance due if she removes a person.

Thank you for this. I had no idea they would be priced the same!

Probably a dumb question. I am watching prices for our cruise next March to see if there are any price drops. My grandparents are in an accessible balcony room. There are no other accessible balcony rooms available to do a price check to see if their room got any cheaper. I am assuming there would have to be at least one accessible balcony available to get a price drop, right? It probably has a different category code than a regular balcony.. Just wondering if it's even worth the time to call to see if the price would be different. Interior prices have dropped several times.

What are you guys talking about? Baby oil does not protect you from the sun.

I like Blue Lizard sensitive. Appears to be reef safe. I don't think it makes me look like Casper, but I'm pretty pale to begin with.

No Johnny Rockets on Enchantment, and no Sorrento's. However the pizza at the Park Cafe is decent and they will make you a whole pie if you ask.

In April on Enchantment, we had a two-top next to a four-top. I didn't think we were too close together until the family showed up the first night and the teenage girl did some kind of flip of her hair while sitting down. It landed on my bread plate. Happy to report they did not sit next to us for the rest of the cruise (not sure where they went).

Yeah, I am disappointed in that new policy too. Issuing an FCC seems like the best way to keep customers happy and get them to come back if they had to change their plans for any reason. Having to give up the entire deposit is pretty harsh.

We have 8 people going on a cruise together out of Baltimore in November. All but one person is vaccinated. It appears the unvaccinated person will not be able to go without an approved exemption under these current protocols. It is interesting that Oasis out of NJ is approved for unvaccinated but ships from Baltimore are not. Oh well.. keeping an eye on changes. The unvaccinated person understands he might have to cancel.

Based on my one visit to KSC in April, I would not bother going there if your ship arrives at noon. There would not be enough time to visit all of the different buildings and see all the exhibits, see an IMAX show, do the shuttle launch simulator ride, peruse the gift shop, etc. It's best saved for when you're in port the whole day.

I did some more searching and found the following blog post that seems to explain why we cannot get the guided tour through RCCL anymore. As for booking a guide directly from KSC, all I could find on their website is guides for groups of at least 15 people, but I could be wrong. QUOTED FROM A BLOG: " I can give you ALL the details! I was on this tour on July 3 while it was guided. We had been on site for about 30 minutes (max) when a security guard literally interrupted our guide mid sentence and physically pulled him away from our group. Come to find out, the operators of the visitor complex (Delaware North) decided that only their tour guides could provide guided services, and did not inform any of the tour companies of this decision. The security staff was extremely rude and ejected all of the group because we had violated their rules by having an unauthorized tour guide, no exceptions to allow us to tour on our own. Everyone from the tour guide, the tour operator, and Royal were all blindsided by this. They even had a scheduled time for a bus exclusively for our group to go out to the Apollo/Saturn center, but we were unable to do so. They literally had armed guards walk us out and got really nasty with us, and were glaring at us as we waited for our bus to return. Nobody in the group acted out of line or violated any moral/legal/or ethical standards, other than the fact we used a valid ticket to enter the complex with an unauthorized tour guide. The tour guide and tour operator had been doing this tour for Royal for years. While we were in the middle of this they stopped at least one other tour company. I would normally say it is worth a visit, but I don't want any money to go to that company. I had done this exact tour from Royal last November and loved it, so I wanted to try it again. But if you do go, I believe there are buses operated by the Center to take people out to the Apollo/Saturn center. I am not sure the visit is worth it without that, but the Atlantis Shuttle Center is pretty amazing and could make it worthwhile. One of the biggest values I found out of the excursion was the tour guide providing history of the space program and the area on the way there and the commentary/guided tour through the center. If you do go and you encounter Rex either on the bus or at the center distributing your prepaid tickets be really nice to him- he literally had the vast majority of his income evaporate in front of our group of 47 that morning."

Does anyone know what company Royal contracts with to provide the guided tour excursion at the Kennedy Space Center? We took that excursion in April this year and had a great time with tour guide Rex. I can't remember the name of his company; think it had "sun" in the title but that's all I remember. I am asking because we have family going on pretty much the same cruise in November, and they are interested in the guided tour. The only excursion to Kennedy is the shuttle (tour on your own). If I could figure out what company we were with in April, then perhaps they could book the tour directly with the company. Any help is appreciated. Of course they could go without a guide, but that is not what we are looking for. The tour guide gave us so much extra information about everything we were seeing and organized the whole day very well so that we got to see and do a lot.

Thank you. I was able to call yesterday and save $50 on a March 2023 booked cruise.

The FAQ page linked in post #3 now refers to a 48-hour window for price adjustments from the date of booking, not up to 48 hours prior to the sail date. So we can no longer get adjustments for price drops after 48 hours? I forget if that is the way it always was prior to the Cruise with Confidence stuff.

Favorite: Greek corner with the moussaka and roasted feta + tomatoes