lemonade-sails

I love Enchantment, one of my favorites for a short cruise. She is leaving Miami and we are getting Mariner which I am super excited about. But due to a "Charter" we got kicked off Mariner in Feb 2019 so are making the treck (almost 5 hours from Fort Myers) up to CocoBeach to board Enchantment for one last time. Will say good-bye to the staff we know very well, especially Myra in Schooners!

 

Time to start new memories on Mariner!

Enchantment was great! Sorry that you got booted due to the charter but enjoy your last sailing on Enchantment - I'm glad we got to try her out!

You had me at 9 kids. ☺️

 

Fun review. I can't wait until it is made into a film!

Hahaha! This made my day! Thanks!

Oh man. Following along. Can’t wait to read the rest!

So glad you're here! Thanks!

So then what happened??? 🤣

 

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:)

Yeah, come on Lemonade!!! Where are you??? You get us "hook, line and sinker" and vanish!!!!!!

So sorry :) But what do you expect? The whole thing at once? Where's the fun in that?:D:D

OMG so funny! You handled it way better than I would. I only wear swimsuits from Venus so I would have made sure, if nothing else, my swimsuits made it into my carryon bag. And my makeup! Other than that, with you, can buy anything else I need at Target. But bless you for taking it all in stride and just doing what you had to do!

Enchantment is in my radar for my first time on her coming up this fall, thanks for the effort.

You're welcome. We liked Enchantment - if a little rust and some windows that need washing will break your vacation, you may want to reconsider. Otherwise, although we liked Serenade better, Enchantment was amazing for what we were getting which was basically an extended "date" together without the kids. :)

Loving this thread. Writing style is captivating, to say the least. I can't wait to find out where this is all headed (aside from, hopefully a wonderful cruise).

Erika

Thank you so much! We did have a wonderful time - the rest of the weekend was not as crazy and we enjoyed thoroughly.

There are both a TJMaxx and a Ross right by the cruise entrance on 17th Street.

This is good to know! We needed all of the toiletry stuff as well though, so Target was the better choice for us. Although I don't really shop at TJMaxx or Ross - do they have that stuff too?

Loving this so far! Can't wait to read more!

Thanks! Hopefully will be finished soon.

Loving this review! It's like a book I can't put down! I raised 6 children so I can relate to the craziness! :o:o:o

You get it! :) Thanks for reading and I appreciate your kind words.

My heart was pounding reading your airport experience! Glad you made the plane! Can’t wait to read more!

Me too, me too!

I knew this was going to be good. Pure insanity!!!! Loving this and cannot wait for more.

:) Thanks for reading!!

Following along, I have done the 3 day cruise on the Enchantment..

What did you think of Enchantment?

Okay, having to leave clothes behind AND almost not making the plane? My OCD side is freaking out right now. Great start!

I'm sorry, lol! It was quite a day!

Can't wait to read the rest of the review!

Thanks! Glad you're here!

This is such a fun review!

Can't wait for the rest!

Hi! Hoping to get it done this week.

subscribed

Thanks for tuning in!

This part is a bit of a blur for me mostly because it happened so quickly and because I was so glad to have survived our excitement and actually be walking into the building next to the ship. I remember heading up an escalator and being ushered into the priority line which was empty. We were immediately checked in and given our sea pass cards. We had no time to grab a glass of water that was available because we were heading onboard quickly.

Lunch in the Windjammer was spectacular! Mostly because I couldn’t believe our morning and was so amazed to even have made it onboard and in pretty good time considering. I don’t remember what I had, but I loved it all.

After eating we roamed around the ship for a few minutes before our cabin was available at 1 pm. I think the port of Miami was beautiful. The city and all of the sailboats was great scenery while we checked out the outside decks. Thankfully we had pretty clear and sunny skies that day.

I’ve mentioned in my past reviews that I’m not a cabin snob one way or the other. I loved our balcony cabin and I loved our insides as well. Our cabin was 3137. We didn’t have any issues with smells or noises at all. We had a great cabin steward, Joel, who was eager to meet us and very pleasant. Not overbearing in the least and always happy to see us. There was a missing piece of the trim on the mirror section of the wall in the cabin - but this did not affect our trip in any way whatsoever. There were plenty of drawers and space in the closet was ample for all of our new clothes. I’m not sure that there could be anything to complain about on such a short trip. We did have an overly friendly shower curtain, which didn’t bother us much at all. Oh, also no fridge - not a big deal. There was a safe which you use your own code for locking. We came back from Nassau to discover we had not locked it by mistake. Nothing was missing. No issues.

After we quickly unpacked our things we went back up on deck to call the kids one last time and to remind them not to send us any more photos in text. Not only because it was making me miss my babies, but because it costs too much while at sea.

We hung around waiting for the 3 pm muster drill. Just before 3, they start forcing you out on the deck to your muster station. Of course, I think this is odd as it's not We already had checked ours out so we knew where we were going. We ended up getting shoved into the back which wasn’t horrible except that we had to wait for several people who were “missing”.

Finally, everyone was accounted for and the drill began. It wasn't too painful and was over before we knew it.

We headed up to the front of the ship for sail away. I was just about to turn on my video camera to catch the horn as we were leaving, but I just missed it and it blew before I was ready. Someday I will catch that on camera for our video.

We really enjoyed sailing out of the Port of Miami. So many things to look at - from mansions and yachts, to sailboats and fancy cars on the A1A to the beach. Amazing. How do these people even stand to live like that? I wonder ;)

The front of the ship was very crowded and I had to keep scooching closer to DH to avoid being fondled by the people next to me. Not that I blamed them, it was a spectacular view.

After sail away was over, we headed out to explore a bit more and then to get ready for dinner - we had MTD reservations for 6:30.

One thing that I noticed, this short trip made it nearly impossible for me to get a good grasp of the layout of the ship. I'm usually pretty good directionally, but I think the Windjammer at the bow kind of threw me off. Navigator and Serenade both have the Windjammer in the stern so this was what kept confusing me. Several times we had to turn around and head the opposite direction. We once went up from the dining room to the pool deck/Windjammer to grab a drink before we headed to the theater. So, we went up and over, but then we came back over and down before realizing that the theater was actually below the Windjammer. The bright side? Between getting lost and taking the stairs all weekend, I think I lost a couple of pounds on the trip :)

I'm surprised they let you do that. I've heard stories from retail employees about customers, possibly not married to each other meeting for quickies in the dressing rooms.

Honestly, we didn't ask if it was ok - we just did it. But I don't think they were too concerned as we were literally running in and out of there. I mean r u n n i n g. :) In my mind, until I was onboard, there was still the danger that we would miss the ship so we were trying to hurry.

A few weeks ago we showed up at about noon and basically walked right on. No lines at all. Cabins were ready at 1pm sharp as promised. Muster at 3. Enjoy your trip!!

Our flight was uneventful - which was a blessing considering what we had gone through just moments before. We quietly watched the scenery below and smiled at the guy sitting next to my husband who was on his first flight ever. How cute! We didn’t bother letting him in on our drama - just offered him some gum for takeoff and landing.

In case you can't guess, we flew with Spirit. We have not had any problems with the airline. Our inability to check our bag was my fault, not theirs. So no complaints with the airline really.

The view out the window was gorgeous and coming into Florida was beautiful as we could see the gulf coast and the Everglades from the air. As soon as we landed and we were allowed to take our phones out of airplane mode I looked up Target and pinpointed a location between the airport and the cruise port. Why Target? Well, we basically needed everything from toothpaste to socks - I knew we could get it all in one stop.

We had originally planned to pick up an Uber and be delivered straight to the cruise port. Our flight landed early and that plan was still in effect. The only thing different was that we didn’t have any luggage to claim, and we had to make an important stop on the way.

Our first-ever Uber ride was great! Nothing like getting picked up at the door of the airport and dropped off at the door of your destination. Would definitely use it again while traveling.

We were picked up around 8:20 am and headed out to Target on Biscayne, arriving just before 9 am.

We hit Target with everything we had! Even though it was an unfamiliar layout, we wasted no time throwing everything into the cart: undies for each of us, men's white socks we could share for daytime, black socks for him for dinner, shorts and t-shirts for both, swimsuits for both, swim cover up for me and rash guard for him. I think the lady at the dressing room thought we were nuts as we squiggled into the largest changing room together and started throwing off our clothes. It saved tons of time because we could avoid meeting in the middle to ask “what do you think of this, honey?” Before long we had picked out everything we needed. We decided to skip formal night because we didn’t want to spend the extra money to buy dress pants and shirt/tie for DH. We are pretty easy going and are completely happy in Windjammer for dinner if necessary. I did run out a few times to grab different sizes/colors of things.

After we secured the clothing, we grabbed a new pair of sunglasses for DH and headed to the luggage area to pick out a new suitcase. We chose a large purple rolling suitcase. It was huge - way larger than we needed, but the price was right and we wanted room for souvenirs for 9 kids as well.

Next to the health and beauty department where we stocked up on everything.we.left.behind. Toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo/conditioner, sunscreen etc. etc. Then to the grocery to grab some sparkling water.

Soon after we were in the checkout line where I got on my phone and used the app to order our second-ever Uber to bring us to the port.

Unfortunately, we got in the wrong line as we had a guy who was in training and his “helper” had stepped away for a few minutes. We had him ring up the suitcase first and I stood at the end of the register and threw everything directly into the bag as he rang it up. Our Uber was waiting and we were nowhere near done so I ran out and asked him if he wanted to wait for us - which he did. We left Target at about 11:30 am. So, approximately 2.5 hours at Target. We weren’t exactly rushing around but we weren’t dawdling either. We just kind of accepted it as part of our weekend adventure together.

I discovered that this is my favorite way to pack. Nothing beats buying clothes in a whirlwind and throwing them - tags and all - directly into a new suitcase (no plastic bags) and heading out to your waiting ride to the ship. It’s how I want to start all of my future cruises - just kidding. I don’t.

Another successful Uber trip and we were pulling up to the pier just before noon. We had a very nice porter take our still-with-the-tags suitcase and secure a luggage tag to it. We asked him about our cases of sparkling water - I was hesitant to put them into the suitcase because I didn’t want them to break all over our new clothes and I also didn’t want to risk being asked to the naughty room to open the bag. He kindly put a luggage tag on each box and I tipped him and we were on our way into the terminal.

We couldn't wait to get on board!

So..... What did you end up bringing with you in terms of luggage? What did you end up leaving behind??

 

And good for you for going away on mother's day... You clearly deserve it!!

 

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We left behind our shared rolling duffle with clothes for the cruise including everything from swim suits to formal wear.

We brought my purse with usual purse things and my husband's dress shoes and one medium sized backpack with a (miraculously previously packed) pair of pants and a shirt for me and two pairs of heels. Oh, and my makeup. And, besides the clothes on our backs, that was it.

I had put a change of clothes into the backpack the night before because I wanted to change out of travel wear before dinner and didn't know if our checked bag would make it to our stateroom in time. :D:D

It was a lucky move on my part.

Count me in as well. Can't wait to hear about your adventure!

Hey! I'm so glad you're joining us!!

The suspense builds...

 

 

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:) Thanks for reading along!!

9 kids? Bless you, we "only" have 5 (boys. ) I bow my head to you.

 

It is amusing that somehow you could get away on Mother's Day! Kudos!

 

Can't wait to hear the rest of your review.

Five boys is no joke - you have my respect (sympathy? :) ) as well. Actually, boys are easier than girls IMHO, but still no joke :) And, yes - I couldn't decide if it made me a bad mom or not to go on vacation without them for Mother's Day. I decided not in the end, ha!

Your writing style is MARVELOUS.

 

Keep going! :)

Ahh! Thank you for the kind words!

Can't wait to read the rest of your review.

Hope you enjoy the rest!

Following. This should be fun.

Interested in hearing how those last words ended up.

 

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Hi! So glad you're following along! :)

Can't wait to hear what happens

 

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Well, you have my attention!!

Thanks for following along guys!! :)

Correction: We flew into Ft. Lauderdale not Miami. Pretty much the same thing, but totally not :)

We left home two hours before the flight left and had a one hour drive to the airport. You can probably do the math better than I did that day. I’m not exactly sure how this escaped me, but apparently the airline has a door that closes on checked bags a certain number of minutes before the flight leaves. I know many of you seasoned travelers are rolling your eyes at me right about now and I’m okay with that. I can own it. We barely left home in time to make the drive and get to the counter in time. Plus the fact that we missed our turn into the long-term parking garage, which was surprisingly lacking in empty spaces that day, we didn’t really stand a chance.

Those famous last words “We’re not in a hurry” were coming back to bite me just about then.

We were still blissfully unaware of this deadline (and that we had missed it by 11 minutes) when we approached the counter and tried to weigh our bag ourselves. We were a few pounds over so we dutifully removed the heaviest things - our shoes (his dress shoes and two pairs of heels for me) and stuffed them into my purse and our backpack.

When the not-so-friendly counter agent told us it was too late to check our bag and there was nothing she could do for us, I had an out of body experience. Things started getting dim and I could hear someone saying something about buying some duffles in the airport and carrying on everything we could, but I couldn’t really understand what was happening. All I could think of was our ship sailing off without us and I just kind of froze.

So many things were running through my mind.

How could this happen?

Did I know about this deadline?

How did I get 11 people and 6 bags successfully on an airplane in time last year?

Will our trip insurance cover us if we just go home at this point?

Thankfully my handsome husband steps in when I flounder around like a fish out of water. We do that kind of thing for each other. We’re a pretty good team like that.

He looked me square in the face and said

“Hurry up, woman! We’ve got to throw this bag back in the car and make it to the gate in time for our flight!”

Or something to that effect. :D :)

We were about 30 min out from our plane leaving at this point. Thankfully we don’t have a ginormous airport. We literally ran back out to the long-term parking garage, found our car and threw our bag into the trunk, grabbing our toiletries (by toiletries I mean my makeup - you know, the important stuff) and stuffing them into our backpack.

And then we ran all the way back through the garage and to the airport. I’m sure I mumbled something about wetting my pants and not having anything to change into (I’ve had nine kids - give me a break) to which he replied, “if you wet your pants AND we miss our flight you can just change at home”.

He knows exactly what to say to make me run faster!

We made it to the security line. Amazingly the line wasn’t long, I even had time to "opt out" of the body scanner and request a pat down. They weren't letting anyone through the old-fashioned metal detectors. My husband got scanned and I waited a couple of minutes for the female TSA agent to arrive. I asked her if she could hurry because our flight was about to leave. She was very kind but couldn't skip through her spiel about what was going to go down because the 'cameras were rolling'. She was very quick and I didn't feel in the least bit molested. Thankfully, it all worked out for her too because I did NOT wet my pants during the run through the garage. :D

After passing the pat down and putting on our shoes we had just enough time to run to the gate, get our boarding passes checked and run down the jetway to the airplane.

The plane was full and we were the last ones on board. We plunked down into our seats - me by the window, him in the middle, and tried to let the shock wear off a little bit. A few minutes later we backed away from the terminal.

We had made it. I was so relieved and excited about the rest of the weekend. So far it had been like most of our life - no dull moments!

It was sure to be a great trip!

First, a little background: We’ve been married 21 years and have nine kids. Yes, nine. Yes, we know how that happens and, no we’ve never heard that one before *wink, wink!

We finally took our first cruise together five years ago and, thanks to our Cruise Critic research, snagged a coveted aft corner balcony on Navigator. I figured we might as well go big (as big as we could afford) because it would most likely be our “one and done” chance at cruising. But, we loved it so much we took the kids two years later - check out those cruise reviews in my signature. Spoiler - they loved it too!

So how this trip came about in the first place - we took a family vacation last year on unnamed airline who coerced us into getting unnamed airline credit cards for the “free” miles. Because we didn’t want to lose our “free” miles, we started looking at flights. What they don’t tell you is that those free miles aren’t worth anything unless you fly on certain days/times. So in order to get the most out of those “free” miles, we had very limited choices as to destination and dates/times.

After exhausting lots of different choices, we settled on a flight to Miami that just happened to coincide with a quick 3-night sailing of the Enchantment of the Seas to CocoCay and Nassau. Our other two cruises were Western Caribbean to the same ports of Cozumel, Falmouth, and Grand Cayman. So we were looking forward to some new ports and really, with nine kids at home, four nights away was going to be amazing.

In summary, we booked “free” flights on a 5:30 am plane to Miami on the same day the ship sailed. Incidentally, after juggling school schedules and work schedules, prime dates for the “free” flights, and someone to watch the kids, the stars aligned for our trip and we were gone over Mother’s Day weekend. For some reason, when I realized this a day or two after we booked everything, I couldn’t stop laughing.

I’m doing the 3 day on Enchantment in December so I’m following! Can’t wait for your review!

Yay! Welcome!

We are on Enchantment this Friday for 3 nights. Cant wait to see your review. Strangely enough will also be going to our airport at 4am on Friday morning...

 

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Oh dear! 😉 I'm sure you won't make my mistake! I hope you like Enchantment. She's not the newest or the shiniest, but her crew is solid and we had a fantastic time!

This sounds like fun!!! (not sure I would spend $$$ on airfare for 3 days though)

Exactly! I'll explain I promise!

Looking forward to your review.

Thanks for reading! :)

It all started early on a humid Friday morning in May. The alarm went off at 3 am and by 3:30 we had loaded the car and hit the road for a one hour drive to the airport.

"We're not in a hurry," I casually said to my husband who was driving while I snapped a shaky picture of the moon in the dark morning sky.

Our "mom and dad only" 4-night getaway was just beginning.

Little did I know that the words "we're not in a hurry" couldn't have been further from the truth.

Fantastic!

Thank you!!

This review was absolutely wonderful to read because I enjoyed how strong family came through. Since we started cruising in 2009, my children have always been with us. Now as the years have gone by out of 3 of our kids, only one will be with us. I miss those years so much now. The memories are priceless and it was so beautiful reading about your family. Wishing you a wonderful upcoming trip. Is it a cruise or did I miss that?

 

Barbara

Awe, thanks so much! We have just started what I call our "less crowded nest" since we won't have an empty nest for many, many years (if ever) and already I dread planning trips that the oldest ones won't be able to take with us. I treasure the memories of family travel - truly an important thing to us.

Our upcoming trip is just a couples cruise - a short 3 day on Enchantment to the Bahamas - can't wait!

A wonderful review and a wonderful family! A true Blessing to have 9 children. Keep traveling and keep reviewing. Hope you have many more family vacations. I love traveling with my kids. All the best to you

 

Thank you for the kind words! We love traveling with the kids too - nothing like adventures you can share together!

I also just discovered this review. Wonderfully written! I read it all tonight, and to find the lasagna recipe at the end was a treat! Hope you have many more wonderful family adventures.

 

 

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Thanks, Glad you liked it! Hope you love the lasagna!

I just found this review! How fantastic and thorough. Loved sailing through it in one sitting!:)

Your baby is adorable!

Thanks! She's about to be four. Her baby brother is the cute one now ;)