Blue Collar Diamond becomes Enchanted! (4 days - 9/17)

Getting back to Coco Cay, it was another perfect day weather wise. I think I will be using the term "perfect day" a few times regarding this day. I believe Royal has adopted this name, maybe even trademarked it regarding what they are doing to the island. I will come back here again in September of 2019 and it may indeed be great, but I've found the island to be great the way it is and this year we did have a nearly perfect day.

As mentioned previously, we rented the Beach Beds here. They have been and are still on Royals site for $150. you get the bed, two chairs, floating mats, 6 bottles of water, and lunch delivered to you from a menu. We have enjoyed this 3 times now. I booked this cruise back in December and I think I started looking at the cruise in Jan of 2018. Then, these beach beds were not there. After some discussion, they did show up on the offerings in our cruise planner in July I think it was, so we booked it without hesitation. When we got on board and found our excursion tickets in our room, there were two notes attached. 1. We had to come to the Explorations desk and pick our bed of choice, and select our lunch to be delivered. 2. I had to show my diving certification card to the desk (and then show it again at the Dive Shack. )

We were right down there on day 1 to take care of this. I think this is a must do, if you want an ocean front bed. I would say from memory there are 30 of these beds and 15 are up near the high tide mark and 15 more are in a 2nd row about 30 feet back. We picked our favorite location - Bed 13, which is up front and close to the bar since we did the drink package this year. We placed our order for lunch.

Once ashore, I went to the dive shack and Gina headed for one of her favorite places on earth, The south beach beds! My dive was good! The people there are very professional and helpful. It was a great experience. The water/visibility was about twice as good as last year. I saw lots of interesting fish, but this year, no sharks, no lobster and a couple of jelly fish. They can't control that, but it was a good dive and I really enjoyed the feeling of weightlessness and the exploration of the coral reef. I enjoyed the dive. One small note, my depth gauge wasn't working, which could be an issue on some dives, but on this one we never went below 35-40 feet and slowly swam back to the shore at the end. I would probably do it again. I then took the tram to the South Beach Bed area and met Gina.

Gina was already relaxing and enjoying herself to the max.

Gina drug her chair to the tide level and spend most of her day there.

The first thing she said to me was, "did you see any sharks? After I said, no, she said, "I did" and showed me this photo she took from her chair.

One more minor detail, I mentioned Gina broke her foot 4 weeks before this cruise and you probably saw her dancing on the pool deck with her orthodontic boot, he was told she could start going with out it sometimes and wean her self off of it. She found a very support pair of beach shoes that the doctor liked. They were fine for her at both beach days. The water that day at Coco Cay was super calm!

Here are a couple more pictures of the beach bed area we were in.

:Lunch was delivered right on time and it was exactly what we ordered, which was an improvement over last year. Even though we had the drink package this year, we didn't make it down to the floating bar since we had the bar close to us, but we heard some several people they saw a lot of baby sharks around the bar.

Now a couple of random pics.

I have to work on more pictures at home tonight, but I'll take this opportunity to mention that there were a lot more children on this cruise that usual (My 4th cruise around this time of year) Some were pre-school age, quite a few were 7-10, with very few teen agers as far as I noticed. While we pick this week specifically because North American kids are back in school, it didn't effect us in any serious way. There was one near incident that could have been troubling. On our way to dinner (We had to use the elevators because of Gina's foot) we walked our deck 7 hallway into the elevator lobby. I noted a toddler, perhaps 12-18 months old right in the middle crying loudly with his head on the floor and the diapered end up in the air. We both noted not adults anywhere in site. I wasn't about to even touch this child, but we were wondering what we should do. I think the subconscious part of me was continuing on our way to dinner, though I know we wouldn't have left this kid where he was. I think my body, without my mind's control pressed the down button on the elevator. As you might guess, in this case, an elevator was right there and the door opened immediately in front of the child! And of course the baby made a bee-line directly to the elevator. At that time I sprung into action and sprinted to the elevator and put my hand down blocking the baby's path, he crawled right into my hand and fell backwards into a sitting position. I told him, sorry you aren't going in there! My do not get involved mode was over ridden by better judgement. I immediately looked around for cameras thinking I want it to be clear, the kid touched me! Fortunately a man came around the corner, I would guess he made haven been a grandfather, scooped the baby up and said, "Thank you" Had I had a few more drinks that day, I might have asked the kid, :"what floor?"

There was nothing on the dinner menu that might that interested me. We still had some OBC left, so I decided to order the Chops filet. We didn't plan on a Chops dinner, for this cruise, but I decided to have the steak. Gina didn't see anything either, so we agreed to order an appetizer and dessert each and share the steak. The steak came in a reasonable amount of time and was perfect. We loved it, but Gina and I left some behind because we were full.

I will add in again we had a great wait team. They were beyond perfect and made us very happy. However, our waiter, I wish I could remember his name (Connie help?) seemed concerned we didn't enjoy our meal. Gina and I are both somewhat successful weigh loss surgery patients so we don't eat as much as many people, but we ate nothing all week that wasn't very good to excellent.

Later that 2nd night we tried the Park Cafe for the first time.

We had a few good things here an it was open when ever we went by (1:30am the latest for us) I've been vocally disappointed in Royal Caribbean's hot tubs because they close at night or are full of teenagers. We found one of the solarium hot tubs open and warm enough every night! Big points for Enchantment.

Not let's talk pizza. Its a common topic here on Royal Caribbean's section. It is what it is, or at least is what it was? <(huh?) anyway, the first time I got pizza on Jewel in their Solarium cafe it was crap, and that is being generous. There is a sign in the Park Cafe talking about their quality pizza ingredient. (I'll find the picture) I will say the pizza we got here every night was good, maybe even good enough. It isn't NY or Chicago pizza, but its a worthy late night snack and a real step up from anything I've had on Royal with the exception of the Make your own on Oasis and Allure. A definite improvement. Royal does listen!

I forgot to add from day 1 that the welcome aboard show was short and in between first and second seating. The comedian was pretty good, I remember one line specifically, he was bashing millennial's by saying, "In my day, we had to eat Tide directly out of the box" He would have a show on the final night, but we missed it. I assume it is the Cruise Director's job, but Cruisin' Susan had Love and Marriage, Battle of the Sexes, and Quest all on the same night! On every 4 night cruise I've been on we have had these on different nights. She may not have been horrible, but she will definitely be my least favorite CD. Team her up with my least favorite Activities Director = Mo, I didn't enjoy this pair. In fairness, Mo may be ok, but he ticked me off on Majesty's quest 2 years ago, and I haven't forgiven him. (You would have to see my 2016 Majesty review for the details.) In any event, we skipped Quest the final night for the first time in years.

This does not bode well. What is an RCI cruise without enjoying L&M and Quest? And as a preference, I really wish RCI would not book Quest for the last night of any cruise, especially when there is usually a Sea day it can held on the night before. It just makes getting up and off the ship the next day that much harder.

Do you know how long Susan will be on board and who comes on after her?

Erika

This does not bode well. What is an RCI cruise without enjoying L&M and Quest? And as a preference, I really wish RCI would not book Quest for the last night of any cruise, especially when there is usually a Sea day it can held on the night before. It just makes getting up and off the ship the next day that much harder.

 

Do you know how long Susan will be on board and who comes on after her?

 

Erika

It's reported 2 months, she took over 9/7.

 

Not let's talk pizza. Its a common topic here on Royal Caribbean's section. It is what it is, or at least is what it was? <(huh?) anyway, the first time I got pizza on Jewel in their Solarium cafe it was crap, and that is being generous. There is a sign in the Park Cafe talking about their quality pizza ingredient. (I'll find the picture) I will say the pizza we got here every night was good, maybe even good enough. It isn't NY or Chicago pizza, but its a worthy late night snack and a real step up from anything I've had on Royal with the exception of the Make your own on Oasis and Allure. A definite improvement. Royal does listen!

Here is the photo I was referring to earlier.

I have never seen this on a Royal ship

I'm really enjoying your review. I was on Enchantment last year on the cruise that got cut short by hurricane Irma.

Two funny things I've notices while reading though:

I hope you went east on I10 instead of west after crossing into Florida from Georgia. Otherwise you would have wound up in Tallahassee instead of Jacksonville. There aren't any ships in Tallahassee!!

I also hope you wife was wearing an orthopedic boot and not an orthodontic one. It would sure be hard for her to get that boot in her mouth and probably way more uncomfortable than on her foot.

Love this picture!

Glad to see another Blue Collar Diamond review! We enjoyed Cruisin' Susan on the couple cruises we've been on with her, but different strokes for different folks.

Keep the posts coming!

Later that 2nd night we tried the Park Cafe for the first time.

 

 

We had a few good things here an it was open when ever we went by (1:30am the latest for us) I've been vocally disappointed in Royal Caribbean's hot tubs because they close at night or are full of teenagers. We found one of the solarium hot tubs open and warm enough every night! Big points for Enchantment.

 

Not let's talk pizza. Its a common topic here on Royal Caribbean's section. It is what it is, or at least is what it was? <(huh?) anyway, the first time I got pizza on Jewel in their Solarium cafe it was crap, and that is being generous. There is a sign in the Park Cafe talking about their quality pizza ingredient. (I'll find the picture) I will say the pizza we got here every night was good, maybe even good enough. It isn't NY or Chicago pizza, but its a worthy late night snack and a real step up from anything I've had on Royal with the exception of the Make your own on Oasis and Allure. A definite improvement. Royal does listen!

I agree. There is not much edible pizza to be found on RCI ships, which is why I find staying away from pizza easy on RCI. However, this was decent pizza that was not so doughy. Enjoying the review.

Glad I found your review, Bill! I didn't want to miss it! I'm hoping we can fit a cruise on EN into our schedule while she's here in PC.

Any dive pictures from Coco Cay? This question coming from she who got home from her Oasis cruise the day before you boarded EN but still hasn't managed to merge her pictures from the three different cameras used into my hosting site so I can post them. :confused:

Glad I found your review, Bill! I didn't want to miss it! I'm hoping we can fit a cruise on EN into our schedule while she's here in PC.

 

Any dive pictures from Coco Cay? This question coming from she who got home from her Oasis cruise the day before you boarded EN but still hasn't managed to merge her pictures from the three different cameras used into my hosting site so I can post them. :confused:

The dive was good, but totally uneventful. I had my go pro in video mode so I may have to pull any good still pics from that. The water was twice as clear as last year, but no stingrays, no sharks, and one very distant barracuda. Lots of fish and interesting coral, Tonight is the first night since we have been home that I have nothing planned so I will probably get the go pro out and watch the video. As I mentioned above, as soon as I got back to South Beach, Gina mentioned seeing a couple of sharks.

Day 3 or Nassau started for me waking up on my balcony just as we entered port. It was nice to sit out there and watch us sail in and do the turn around in the basin and back into port. Having a starboard balcony we ended up facing the barrier island, to what I believe is North. It was sunny morning, but I could see a storm just to our north.

My excursion for Nassau starts a year ago when we were on Majesty. We booked a Segway tour that is part of several excursions at "Blue Lagoon Island" That day only Majesty was in port, I found the excursion underwhelming. But on the way to their island, I spotted a small island with beach and a light house. I remember thinking then, "Just drop me off with a lunch, water, and pick me up in 5 hours and be happy. I'm pretty sure there wasn't much else there. Come January of 2018, I realized this would be our 10th stop in Nassau and I wanted something different. Three times we have done Segway excursions, once a snorkeling, excursion, once a beach day. On the day Bin Laden was killed we stayed on Allure and didn't get off the ship. Knowing it was possible to miss Coco Cay, I wanted to plan something. I started some internet searches and discovered Pearl Island on Trip Advisor and it looked good. The reviews looked good and I recognized the island as the almost empty island that we sailed by last year, so we gave it a try.

After breakfast, we looked outside and saw it was raining on the ship and about nowhere else!

It was a light rain with temps in the 80s, so it was better than being in Ohio. We brought our thin plastic rain ponchos that we got on the MAID OF THE MIST in Niagra Falls. These sure our real conversation starters. I think we were last there 10 years ago, so they have lasted and tuck away in just a couple of cubic inches of room.

The enthusiastic representative of Pearl Island, showed up on time and escorted about 35 of us to their boat. Oh, I forgot to mention that when I contacted Pearl Island by email, they told me that Enchantment was the only ship in town that day and if I wanted to book it would have to be through Royal. Despite the aggravation of Royal's website and cruise planner, it was indeed there and available for just a couple of dollars more than direct, so we booked it.

Here is the first site of the island as we approached.

As soon as you arrive on the island, around 10:30 they tell you to sign up for snorkeling if you chose that. You are only on the island till 2pm and lunch is served at 12, but the first snorkeling is also at 12. Oh well, if nobody leaves me anything, I won't starve. After signing up for snorkeling, we walked the entire length of the island and found a nice spot. A couple from Kansas, we met on the boat over, did so as well. Then the other child problem of the cruise happened. (Parents start flaming away) There was one family on the boat that the youngest screamed and cried the whole way while the mom continuously screamed at the other two. We were happy to be away from them.

Here is the spot we chose and my favorite photo subject.

This relaxing space didn't last long, guess who also walked the island and sat down right behind us? Being we had no right to ask them to go somewhere else, we left and chose spot B along with the other couple. They eventually settled down, but there was no way we were listening to that mayhem for 4 hours. Fortunately there were plenty of spots to be had.

Here is an aerial view from the lighthouse you saw in the earlier picture.

By the way, here Gina is wearing the boot her Orthodonist :P gave her. She was several weeks into recovery and could walk short distances with out it. She did find some handy boot condoms to keep it clean and dry. They worked well. She wore a sturdy set of water shoes at the beach and that was fine. Last night, back home, she started bowling again with no problem.

Pearl Island is a really nice spot, and it was very comfortable with 35 people and probably could easily handle 50-75 people. However, it is not finished. Its a great looking place, and it looks like they are still finishing it and its growing. This area, looks like it will be nice when finished. The area below is not yet done, at the farthest part of the island. I hope they make this an adult area. (asbestos pants on)

However, even though not finished, there are a lot of nice areas that are finished.

Below is what I believe is the Island's only permanent residents.

Here is the beach we spent a lot of time at.

We had a great time, thought I'm not done with the review yet. To me the biggest thing that wasn't finished was shower/rinse stations so we couldn't easily get the sand rinsed off us before heading back. They are there, just not yet working.

Thanks for the review, Bill! I am getting so excited for our April 2019 sail on Enchantment. The beach beds look awesome - I've booked one as a surprise for my husband! Relaxation, here I come! :) How was the food that was delivered to the beach beds? What did you order?

Thanks for the review, Bill! I am getting so excited for our April 2019 sail on Enchantment. The beach beds look awesome - I've booked one as a surprise for my husband! Relaxation, here I come! :) How was the food that was delivered to the beach beds? What did you order?

I ordered what I think was called "Jamacian burger" and order of chips and salsa, along with chocolate chip cookies. Gina ordered Chicken Tacos, then the chips and cookies. A tip on the cookies, they come in a plastic container. Let those sit out in the sun and they will bake like they are fresh out of the over.

On the cookies, it always says "chocolate chip cookies" but in 3 times, I have gotten Chocolate chip, White Chocolate chip and cranberry with white chocolate chips. Odd, but good.

We are not big eaters, but found the food enough to eat, and tasted good.

A week later, sitting in my Columbus, Ohio office, I noticed the very last line on this sign.

I'm going to have to research whom this pepperoni provider was/is.

It might be http://www.ezzo.com

Ezzo Sausage Company, perhaps? I just saw that you had the same thought....the description seems to fit.

To finish up the Pearl Island Day, I moved up to the snorkeling area. It was right next to where they set up the lunch. Gina decided snorkeling may be too much for her foot, so she opted to skip it. At the snorkeling gathering, they handed out life jackets. I look at these and thought, :"are we taking a boat somewhere" Once I found out we weren't, I asked, "Do we have to wear these?" Being that I don't like canned answers that supervisors tell their minions to quiet down customers, " I was put off when the guy said, "Yes, for insurance reasons. " I didn't have my BS flag with me to throw at him, so I largely kept quiet. I say largely, because I asked, "How can you put your face in the water with a life jacket on?" The reply was, once in the water you slide them down to your waste and turn them around. Here I was thinking, you don't have any insurance, if they saw you having people put on life jackets backwards and going face down in the water, they would cancel any insurance.

Ok, that sarcastic paragraph above was verbatim and it was my only disappointment with Pearl Island for the day. They really need "real" snorkel vest and they would be useful here. They take you down a set of stairs to a ladder and give you a mask and flippers. The water close to the shore never goes deeper than about 10 ft, but that is enough to require people to wear vests like they do at Coco Cay. With possible channel currents, its probably a good idea.

They take you out and swim around you dropping food into the water which attracts a lot of colorful fish and is fun to see. They did pull up a starfish and a sea urchin and showed them to people. As a diver its a bit off-putting to see people handle marine life, but it was enjoyable. I had my diving mask with the go pro mounted on it, so they would bring some things for me to see. After awhile there was a mutiny and many people pulled off the life jackets. The guides just said, "keep them with you" There was another American couple who had purchased the full face snorkel masks and were struggling with the masks fogging. Fortunately I had some no fog in my suit pocket from my dive before, so I showed them how to apply it. I think I saved their excursion/mask investment for them.

We got about 20-30 minutes of swimming with the fishes until it was the next group's turn. I did see a local party boat pull up and take advantage of the fish we attracted. I have yet to pull my GOPRO out of the bag, I'll check the video and post it soon. When I got out, my wife had a table and lunch already for me. The lunch consisted of your choice of a Jerk flavored BBQ chicken breast, some small battered fish pieces and a flavored rice. Caribbean cooking is not my expertise, so I can only comment that it tasted good and I got enough to eat. There was water available. When we first got there, we were greeted with rum punch and from then the bar had hard and soft drinks for sale. We didn't go hungry or thirsty. All in all a good day. This will be a great place when finished and hopefully get snorkel vests. One small problem, I walked toward what I could see was a bathroom. On the front of the building was sign that said "Women" with an arrow pointed around the building. Apparently I was wrong and I was in the women's room (1 person at a time room) The lady who had to sweep the sand out of the room was annoyed with me.

Love this picture!

Glad to see another Blue Collar Diamond review! We enjoyed Cruisin' Susan on the couple cruises we've been on with her, but different strokes for different folks.

Keep the posts coming!

She probably is ok, we didn't know whom our CD was still about a month out, so I suspect this was a last minute fill in for her. She may not have put her full Cruisin Susan stamp on this cruise. For Love and Marriage, which we did go to despite the 3pm sea day time. She was strictly going out of the book , not putting her own spin on that all, though she was personable. (This was from the point of view of the middle couple who won the thing. ;) We didn't go in prepared, but we had heard each question many times. Gina got what was reported as a "chocolate diamond" for winning. I think they said it was a Levian, which I think advertises those a lot.

This photo reminded me of one good example of parenting I saw on this cruise. A young boy maybe 10-12 walked up, picked up one of those pieces of French bread and started to put it down. His mom came right over, put the bread on her plate and told him, "Don't pick up anything you aren't going to eat, that isn't sanitary. " I was pleased to see that, bad examples at the buffet are more common than good ones!

 

By the way, here Gina is wearing the boot her Orthodonist :P gave her. She was several weeks into recovery and could walk short distances with out it. She did find some handy boot condoms to keep it clean and dry. They worked well. She wore a sturdy set of water shoes at the beach and that was fine. Last night, back home, she started bowling again with no problem.

Wondering why a Dentist would give her the boot? [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]🤣🤣🤣

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Wondering why a Dentist would give her the boot? [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]🤣🤣🤣

 

 

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That was directed at an earlier critique.

Thank you so much for your review. I’m interested in Pearl Island but wondered how you got back to the ship. Was it by boat again? Just wondered if it was a long walk to the boat initially? I’m thinking of going with my 84 year old mother and have to judge the walking!

Many thanks

Wendy

Thank you so much for your review. I’m interested in Pearl Island but wondered how you got back to the ship. Was it by boat again? Just wondered if it was a long walk to the boat initially? I’m thinking of going with my 84 year old mother and have to judge the walking!

Many thanks

Wendy

The walk is about 200 yards from the cruise ship to their boat. On the way back, they drop you off outside security, so its at least 400 yards to walk back.