Getting Enchanted with Royal Caribbean. Enchantment of the Seas Review 10/27-10/31

[SunshineCruiser24]

 

 

 

After a bit, I moved on to the next beach on the otherside of the rocks. The water was definitely different here, murkier and full of floating grass and leaves.

 

As I put my stuff down on a chair and started out in to the water an older woman said "Hey honey! Look at this! Someone whiter than me!" Yes. Yes I'm very white. I don't much like skin cancer, or the lobster red look. I swim in a rash guard and slather on sunscreen like it's going out of style. I laughed "Yeah, I'm pretty pale!" "Yeah, paler than me!" Got it. I'm paler than you... Are we going to have a pale contest? I'll win! You already told me so.

 

So, anyway. I wade in to the water here, and I don't like it as much. It's very grassy and the water was darker. I like being able to see what is swimming around me so I know if I need to sacrifice someone to a shark and get out. Or if I should climb up someone to avoid a jellyfish. I've never been stung and I like it that way.

 

 

 

 

[Aquahound]

Thank you for such an awesome and well balanced review. There's a lot of whining on these boards right now, so it's refreshing to read a thread like this.

 

The ex boyfriend angle adds some drama factor to it. :D

[SunshineCruiser24]

Selfie!!

 

 

Crap.. zoom was on.

 

 

 

The salty water was making me super thirsty! Thankfully, there was a bar close by. I contemplated briefly on getting a soda, or even a bottle of water. ( I AM trying to drink more water after all) but it was hot, and really what would hit the spot better than a nice, non alcoholic frozen drink?

 

The bar was just a hop skip and a jump away from the main stretch of beach. I can't remember if it had a name, but it was right next to the second BBQ area. I ordered a virgin Miami Vice. It looked a little better, but it's not up to snuff. Sad, this is my go to drink and I like them pretty.

 

 

The bartenders were friendly and quick. Some of them were from the Enchantment, some from the Grandeur. Let me say, I really like their uniform shirts, I think they are really cute and very cruisey.

 

Once I finished my drink, I kept walking. There was a beach I didn't try immediatly in front of the lunch area, it was crowded. It was by some bathrooms, fresh water showers, and sports courts. I continued walking down, past the Aqua Park and the slide. I thought the slide was a water slide, as in actually in the water, but it was on land, set back a bit. The people going down it seemed to be having a blast, there weren't many people over there. At the top there was a woman hosing the slide down with a garden hose and making sure people went down one at a time.

 

The Aqua park looked fun, I thought about trying it but it wasn't quite open yet when I passed it and I am not much for upper body strength. I didn't see any ladders so it looked like you had to scramble and pull your way up onto the floatables.

 

I continued on and came to this beach.

 

[SunshineCruiser24]

 

 

 

There was nothing really to see underwater here. So I floated around for a bit and continued on to the very last beach that I would visit. I suppose these are really all one beach, but they had different characteristics, and were spaced out a bit.

 

This beach, I am kicking myself for not bringing my camera in the water with me. I decided I was just going to enjoy the water and not take any pictures. I was floating around and doggy paddling a bit when I heard someone mention a stingray and get out of the water. I didn't see anything, so I just continued enjoying the water, playing in the little bitty waves.

 

When I'd had enough, I was heading for shore and "Whoa!" the biggest stingray I had ever seen was right in front of me! It was beautiful, and for such a large animal was very graceful gliding along the bottom.

 

I played with stingrays in Grand Cayman and absolutely love them. If you knew me, it might be impressive that I didn't run screaming in the other direction because I'm literally afraid of everything. Even the iguana made me nervous, but I sank down in the water and watched it glide along the sand.

 

I moved as slowly and as carefully as I could back to shore and ran to my "camp" where my stuff was scattered. I looked back, I could see the gray shadow moving out towards the sea. Come on! Where are you camera!?!? I tore through my bag and found it in the side pocket and ran back to the water. I searched for the stingray again for a good 15 minutes, but it was gone.

 

It was nearly time for lunch, with slumped shoulders I slunk back out of the water to my bag, packed up, and started making the trek back to the food area.

[SunshineCruiser24]

I was really pleased with my stingray sighting. There's something different than seeing "wild" but tame stingrays at stingray city and seeing one at the beach without the commercialism of a tour.

[lemonade-sails]

Sunshine, I'm loving this review!! So glad you went on this trip - even with the ex boyfriend. Can't wait to read the rest of your adventures! :)

[SunshineCruiser24]

It wasn't quite time for lunch, so I headed back to the bar and got a strawberry daiquiri. The bar was a bit more crowded now so I drank it quickly and moved over to the picnic tables and sat down, claiming a table in the shade. Time ticked by, and there wasn't many people around, and there was sand in my watershoes and salt drying on my camera, I still had a little bit before lunch was to be served so I headed for the fresh water shower just a few feet away. I tried rinsing out my shoes but the sand was very stubborn and wouldn't come out. I was done swimming for the day, so I headed to the restroom.

 

I shook the sand out of my capris and put them on and took off my watershoes, I was going to barefoot it the rest of the day. I wasn't in the bathroom more than 5 minutes and by the time I'd come out they'd already opened up the buffet and there was a huge line. It was almost comical! I gingerly walked over, dropped my stuff at a picnic table and got in line with the hungry masses.

 

The line moved very slow, and I was paranoid someone was going to mess with my stuff. But i eventually made it to the front. They had burgers and hot dogs (I had one of each...) pork ribs and chicken. I took a rib, but skipped the sides. After I got my food I went to the drink table. Your choice was water or red water that wrongly called itself fruit punch. (There was absolutely no fruit taste too it.)

 

A group of people had taken over my table and left a very small spot for me to sit. I was a little irritated, because they could have left me more room than that. I gathered my stuff, balancing my plate in one hand and stomped off to find another table. They told me I could sit with them, but I didn't want too. I found a nice couple from the grandeur and sat with them.

 

The food was delicious, especially the pork rib. The hot dog was great!

 

After lunch, I packed up and left for the tender boats. You have to go through a scanner to make sure you didn't have anything you weren't supposed to. I don't understand, because everything on the island came from them, it's not like you can smuggle something you're not supposed to have on. Maybe they were afraid you'd try to take home an iguana?

 

Back on board, I thought that well.. maybe I should have bought some of the $5 shirts. Oh well, already here. I took a shower, got dressed in fresh clothes and went down to the windjammer to get a drink.

 

I contemplated the t-shirts, as I sipped my orange vanilla coke. I had a lot of people to buy for, and $5 shirt is a steal. What if they didn't have them in Nassau? Who cares that they'd shrink and fade. I never promised a GOOD souvenir, just a souvenir.

 

I made up my mind, and washed and refreshed, with about 2 hours before the last tender, I decided to go back to Coco Cay and get some shirts. As I was heading to the elevator I came across the ex boyfriend, sitting on deck listening to music.

 

Let me say something about the music, I have noticed a lot of people on the carnival forums complain that there is no live band on the pool deck and that the recorded music is loud. I found the live band to be just as intrusive as the recorded music.

 

I asked if he'd been on the island yet, and he said no. What? ARe you kidding? How can you NOT get off the boat? So I invited him along with me back to the straw market and we both headed down to the tender boats together.

 

On the island it was emptying out. A few people in the water, the straw market was practically empty. I was really puzzled that the $5 shirts were only M, L, XL, and 2X. No small. I needed small. How weird. The small shirts were considerably more expensive.

 

I got a few, and walked around. We walked to the beach so he could at least see it, and then headed back. Passing back through security, I headed right on to an almost full tender back to the ship, got my seat and looked around... Uhhhh where they heck was my ex boyfriend? Did he fall over the side or something? Nope. He was leaning against the wall.

 

I later found out he decided to wait for the next boat as he felt the current one was too crowded. It would have been nice for him to say something. The tender stayed several minutes while the stragglers ran on. I debated on whether I should get off and go see what was up with him, but I decided that if he didn't want to even mention "Hey I'm gonna wait here" then he could wait by himself.

 

Back on the ship, I went to go get ready for Formal night. And what an awful dinner experience that was..

[Sunny2020]

Sunshine Cruiser- I applaud your spunk and your sunny attitude. You have tremendous dignity and courage to go on the cruise and share the same cabin with Mr Ex.

I cannot tell you how much I am enjoying your review and cannot wait for the next installment ! You Go Girl !

[HaliMakai]

Sunshine, can't wait for the rest of the story, I am glad that you did not let the ex ruin your vacation. Keep posting.

[Blasian]

I love your writing style SunshineCruiser24 and am enjoying your review so far.

Thanks for sharing.

[peteukmcr]

Just wanted to say, thanks for sharing your thoughts on Enchantment. Good perspective from someone who has sailed Carnival. Your photos are excellent btw.

 

 

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[cruiseapril]

Hi- Still reading and enjoying.

[John&LaLa]

Suffering from withdrawal, what happened at dinner?

 

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[Canadian Tyler]

Can't wait for more!

 

 

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[FLtoAlaskaGirl]

It wasn't quite time for lunch, so I headed back to the bar and got a strawberry daiquiri. The bar was a bit more crowded now so I drank it quickly and moved over to the picnic tables and sat down, claiming a table in the shade. Time ticked by, and there wasn't many people around, and there was sand in my watershoes and salt drying on my camera, I still had a little bit before lunch was to be served so I headed for the fresh water shower just a few feet away. I tried rinsing out my shoes but the sand was very stubborn and wouldn't come out. I was done swimming for the day, so I headed to the restroom.

 

I shook the sand out of my capris and put them on and took off my watershoes, I was going to barefoot it the rest of the day. I wasn't in the bathroom more than 5 minutes and by the time I'd come out they'd already opened up the buffet and there was a huge line. It was almost comical! I gingerly walked over, dropped my stuff at a picnic table and got in line with the hungry masses.

 

The line moved very slow, and I was paranoid someone was going to mess with my stuff. But i eventually made it to the front. They had burgers and hot dogs (I had one of each...) pork ribs and chicken. I took a rib, but skipped the sides. After I got my food I went to the drink table. Your choice was water or red water that wrongly called itself fruit punch. (There was absolutely no fruit taste too it.)

 

A group of people had taken over my table and left a very small spot for me to sit. I was a little irritated, because they could have left me more room than that. I gathered my stuff, balancing my plate in one hand and stomped off to find another table. They told me I could sit with them, but I didn't want too. I found a nice couple from the grandeur and sat with them.

 

The food was delicious, especially the pork rib. The hot dog was great!

 

After lunch, I packed up and left for the tender boats. You have to go through a scanner to make sure you didn't have anything you weren't supposed to. I don't understand, because everything on the island came from them, it's not like you can smuggle something you're not supposed to have on. Maybe they were afraid you'd try to take home an iguana?

 

Back on board, I thought that well.. maybe I should have bought some of the $5 shirts. Oh well, already here. I took a shower, got dressed in fresh clothes and went down to the windjammer to get a drink.

 

I contemplated the t-shirts, as I sipped my orange vanilla coke. I had a lot of people to buy for, and $5 shirt is a steal. What if they didn't have them in Nassau? Who cares that they'd shrink and fade. I never promised a GOOD souvenir, just a souvenir.

 

I made up my mind, and washed and refreshed, with about 2 hours before the last tender, I decided to go back to Coco Cay and get some shirts. As I was heading to the elevator I came across the ex boyfriend, sitting on deck listening to music.

 

Let me say something about the music, I have noticed a lot of people on the carnival forums complain that there is no live band on the pool deck and that the recorded music is loud. I found the live band to be just as intrusive as the recorded music.

 

I asked if he'd been on the island yet, and he said no. What? ARe you kidding? How can you NOT get off the boat? So I invited him along with me back to the straw market and we both headed down to the tender boats together.

 

On the island it was emptying out. A few people in the water, the straw market was practically empty. I was really puzzled that the $5 shirts were only M, L, XL, and 2X. No small. I needed small. How weird. The small shirts were considerably more expensive.

 

I got a few, and walked around. We walked to the beach so he could at least see it, and then headed back. Passing back through security, I headed right on to an almost full tender back to the ship, got my seat and looked around... Uhhhh where they heck was my ex boyfriend? Did he fall over the side or something? Nope. He was leaning against the wall.

 

I later found out he decided to wait for the next boat as he felt the current one was too crowded. It would have been nice for him to say something. The tender stayed several minutes while the stragglers ran on. I debated on whether I should get off and go see what was up with him, but I decided that if he didn't want to even mention "Hey I'm gonna wait here" then he could wait by himself.

 

Back on the ship, I went to go get ready for Formal night. And what an awful dinner experience that was..

I'm hoping that the food was as wonderful as my past experience on Royal Caribbeans Monarch of the Seas before it retired in 2010! I LOVED the food on Royal Caribbean, the food on Carnival just sucks substantially. Can't wait to read more!

[SunshineCruiser24]

I'm so glad you like my photos!!

[SunshineCruiser24]

I'm not very good at gettin' pretty. I don't do hair, I don't do make up ( I don't even own make up!). I'm 90% sure my shoes didn't go with my dress, but I have done formal night every cruise. I enjoy it. The dress I wore this night is very special to me. It's only the second time ever that it's been worn, the first time was to my grandfather's funeral. I was a pall bearer.

 

I love the color, and it makes me feel pretty.

 

I brushed out my hair and straightened it. I never do the back quite right but the front looks decent.

 

 

 

 

My ex came in while I was getting ready, told me I looked nice. I asked him what the heck had happened and he said the boat was too crowded. I asked him WHY didn't you tell me you were stopping? He just shrugged. Ugh! Whatever!

 

I headed down to the My Fair Lady dining room. I brought my kindle along, hoping to get a table by myself so I could do some reading. With Carnival for my time dining, you just showed up to the dining room specified for My Time Dining when you're ready to eat. If there's a wait, they give you a buzzer (so I've heard, I've never had a wait). So I wrongly assumed that it was like this for Royal.

 

This is where it turned in to a horrible experience, and I may be overreacting because in hindsight it could have been much worse. I stepped up to the hostess stand, she asked me if I had a reservation. I did the confused dog head tilt. Huh? Reservations? A quick look around, no I didn't accidentally walk up to the steakhouse again. No, no reservation I told her.

 

She looked slightly irritated and looked down at her chart and after a moment she handed a menu off to the seater person ( I really don't know what to call this person, the one who leads you to your seat but isn't your waiter.) It did make me giggle when the skinny little thing tried to push MY seat in after I'd sat down.

 

I had been seated at a set dining time table who happened to have an opening. They were already on their dessert. The table thought I was late. I was a little embarrassed and I guess the break up was starting to get to me (as I would not have come to the dining room alone if we were not broken up ) because I could feel my eyes tearing up and the lump in my throat told me I was on the verge of crying. I hid my face behind the menu without really reading it, and the waiter came by, filled my water glass and told me that he would be very quick. Not wanting to delay him I picked the first thing on the menu that didn't sound like it would have something I didn't like.

 

I ended up with shrimp cocktail and grilled chicken. Nothing like the shrimp cocktail I had in the steakhouse, not quite as tasty but a lot easier to eat.

 

The people I was seated with were very nice. After a few drinks of water the lump in my throat started to subside and I was able to to chat with them. It was two older couples. Once they heard my story as to why I was alone, they told me they were going to adopt me for the cruise and I could eat with them, don't even stop at the hostess stand the next night, just come right to their table. It was very sweet, they were very friendly and made me feel a lot better.

 

Literally minutes after I'd ordered, the waiter brought the shrimp cocktail. I'd never had such fast service. I barely had put my fork down before he'd whisked away the plate and brought the main course. The grilled chicken was yummy and I wasn't disappointed with it. For dessert I had the bitter chocolate souffle. I didn't like it, but I think it was the espresso sauce I didn't care for.

 

The people I was sitting with had decided that even though they were finished eating they weren't going to leave me to eat alone. It was an incredibly kind gesture. I'm very grateful to have sat with them or else I think I may have burst into tears in the middle of the MDR. Because everything was so rushed, I didn't feel right taking out my camera to take pictures so I have no food or MDR pictures.

 

After dinner, I swung by the cabin to change, my ballet flats were killing my feet, and then headed down to the Windjammer because I was still hungry. There I found they had a mongolian wok station set up.

 

The mongo wok is one of my favorite things about the carnival ships. I used to go to a local restaurant called BD's Mongolian Grill ALL the time before it closed. I actually like the one on Royal a lot better. They had more veggie options, and more sauce options. On Carnival they have three. Hot, Really Hot and Green, and Icky Black Bean. On Royal there were at least six different sauces you could add. You also had the choice between rice or noodles when that is not a choice on Carnival.

 

I had a very small helping and sat in the windjammer and called my mom who was worrying about how things were going with the ex. Man, I am dreading my phone bill next month, it's going to be brutal at 2.99 a minute.

 

After, I headed for my first and only game playing visit to the casino. I picked one of the machines over by the pirates cove 1 cent sign, put a dollar in. I had no idea what I was doing, when I sat down I thought it was a game like slots, but it wasn't, so I just pressed buttons until my dollar was spent. I didn't win anything.

 

Maybe I should have stayed and tried my luck a little more because I was very lucky that night. When I returned to the cabin I was going to the bathroom, my phone was in my back pocket.. well, as I was getting ready, my phone slipped out of my back pocket and tried to take a swim, I caught it on the very very edge right before it hit the water. If that isn't luck, I don't know what is!

 

It was about 930 when I got back to the cabin and the ex was gone, but this little guy was there.

 

 

I rushed to get changed into my pajamas, dove in to bed and pulled the covers up and willed myself asleep while I the ex was gone, to get in as much sleep as I could before he returned to wake me up with his sleep apnea-esque snoring.

[SunshineCruiser24]

My ex destroyed the towel animal when he finally came to bed. RIP, towel dog.

 

 

At least I think it's a dog. Maybe a dingo? Ant eater? It's nose is pretty long.

[RazorbackIslandGirl]

This has become my new addiction.;) Your dinner story put a lump in my throat! I was glad to hear you were seated with such nice people. You looked so pretty I'm glad you didn't let it ruin your night! I am loving not only your review but the soap opera sidebar. I'll tune in tomorrow for the next episode!:p

[IWORK2CRUISE]

Enjoying reading along!

We are sailing on Enchantment next week so this is particularly interesting.

SunshineCruiser24 , you looked pretty in your formal night selfies. Nice to hear that you dined with some lovely, caring people.

[Jules Syd]

SunshineCruiser24. I love your review. Good on you. What kind of waterproof camera do you use? We are going on a cruise over the new year & would love to take one. Thanks

[SunshineCruiser24]

SunshineCruiser24. I love your review. Good on you. What kind of waterproof camera do you use? We are going on a cruise over the new year & would love to take one. Thanks

 

 

Currently I have a Nikon AW110. It's a nice camera but I liked my Olympus TG810 a little better for user friendliness. The menu for the TG 810 is a little more straight forward, the Nikon took some time getting used too but my Nikon has wifi and GPS that plots a map where you took the picture. Neither are things you HAVE to have, but they're nice features. My Nikon cost me nearly $300 last year but the prices have gone down considerably!

 

Mine came in a package with a float strap but my dogs ate that.

[SunshineCruiser24]

Also, for my Olympus I used a spare battery frequently but my Nikon's battery seems to last longer and I feel the pictures are a bit better.

[NeuroQueen]

Such a great review. You are very brave and as others have said "you go girl!"

 

I am so glad you went out there and tried new things and I thought you looked great in your dress. There may be much whining and sniping on this board but what it comes down to is that most cruisers are warm, caring people. That was proven by the sweet folks at your dinner table. We would have adopted you too!

 

Keep up the good work!

[mickev99]

I'm trying to figure out why they couldn't seat you with people who had also just been seated instead of people finishing up. Guess it was fate, though, since they were so sweet.

 

 

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