Enchantment of The Seas Review, 11/17-11/21

[1corona4u]

Just returned from the 4 night Enchantment Western cruise. Well, sort of. LOL.

 

Embarkation Day

 

The limo picked us up at 10:00, and we were at Port Everglades by 11:00. There was a small line, about 50 or so, but the ship had not cleared yet either. There was a wedding party that was in the front of the line, and they made up about 25 of the 50 people waiting to go through security. As the minutes passed, the line started to grow, and some of the people who came in either didn't care that there was a line, or didn't realize it, because they just jumped right in front of my friend and I, and about 10 other people that were behind us. No one was saying anything to them, so I said to them that I wasn't sure they were aware, but that the line started behind the lady in the green shirt. Well, the woman I said that to said, "it doesn't matter", it'll all blend when they open the ropes"....I thought that was really rude. Not so much for myself, but also for the people who were behind me.

 

We only waited about 30 minutes before they started letting us in, and because we were in a suite, we jumped right into the priority embarking line. From there, it took us about 10 minutes until we were onboard.

 

We went directly to the dining room when we boarded to change our seating arrangements, and were told that we would have to come back at 1PM. When we went back, there was no one in line, and the head waiter was doing the seating changes. His name was Sean, and he was very nice. He moved us to a 2 top, right by a window. Very nice location, and it took us all of 5 minutes to get that done. We then went to Chops to make reservations, for Friday night, because we decided to skip formal night on this cruise. Neither of us wanted to lug a formal with us for a short cruise. We ate lunch in the WJ, then took a trip around the pool deck, and then at 1:00, went to see the room.

 

The Ship

 

We had JS 8614. Note to self, NEVER book this room on this ship again!! LOL. It's right below the ping-pong table on deck 9, and right below the women's restroom also. You can hear it every time they flush, and you can also hear people jumping around playing ping-pong. I did check to see what was above the room, being that it is one deck down from the pool, but thought it was far enough to the back for it not to be a problem. Wrong, LOL. It wasn't that big of a deal to me, just won't do it again. It was also right by the hallway with the elevators, but that really never was an issue. It was convenient for RC Online, so when we had to go recharge our WIFI minutes it was a breeze. Speaking of which. BE CAREFUL when you disconnect that it actually does. We went into Port Lucaya, and came back 5 hours later to find that it had been connected the whole time. Twice this happened to us, and my laptop said that it had been connected for 7 hours one time, and 1 hour the next. At 50¢ a minute!! When you run out of a pre-paid plan, at 33¢ a minute, it goes to the full charge. Just disable it if you can, until you are ready to connect again. We went to guest services and they took it off our bill. That would have been a ton of money!!! The speed is inconsistent, and seemed to be a bit slower at night. Graphics took a long time to load. Over 3 minutes in some cases. My friend spent $150.00 for the 4 days on the WIFI!! She has a habit, LOL.(AOL messenger)

 

The JS is somewhat smaller than on the Navigator, like 45 sq. ft, which may not seem like much, but with 2 women, and all their stuff, it is a lot, LOL. Also, there is no walk in closet, which we used as a changing room on the Navigator. Obviously I didn't compare the 2 ships, just noting the differences here. I also thought the room had way too much furniture in it, so I asked that one of the chairs got "lost", LOL, and the steward looked at me kind of funny, and I said that it was just a little too much in the room, with our big bags. Once she took it out, it was so much better. The poor chair ended up in the crew hallway, LOL, and I had to look at it every time I walked by. I tipped her then for removing the chair. And more at the end of the cruise.

 

As far as the decor in the JS, it's a little dated, but it was clean. Our steward was lovely, but I can not remember her name. On the first night, I noticed that there were no robes in the room, so I asked my friend to stick her head out the door and ask her for one. She came back in and said that the steward said that they were only for Diamond and Platinum members, to which I said...well..you know. So I went out and told her that we had them last time I was in a JS, so she graciously got me one. The next night or so, my friend wanted one as well, so I went and asked her again, this time, she said something about it again, and I assured her that it was OK that she gave me the robes, LOL.

 

The balcony of this JS has an overhang, which ended up being pretty nice, since it rained a couple of times, and it did keep the balcony dry. The only drawback was that you couldn't see the stars at night, when there were some. And we did have a beautiful moon coming home from Nassau.

 

Overall, we liked the room, plenty of storage as well. No issues with anything in the room or the bathroom, not functioning. My friend really liked the bed. It was similar to memory foam, or so she said.

 

Public Areas

 

Very nice, mostly new furniture, carpet, etc. but I have to be honest and say that there are some signs of wear and tear already, which is sad. Some areas of the ship need a lot of work, and we did see people working constantly on many different things, so they are doing the best they can I'm sure. Shopping area is nice, and the Orpheum Theatre is BEAUTIFUL, and so is Boleros. Centrum is nice as well. The elevators were such a pain though, that we used the stairs more often than not. They just didn't seem to stop on the floor, even though they should have. We did go to Latté-tudes many times, and found the coffee drinks pretty good there.

 

Pool deck, even though I know they just replaced most, if not all of the carpet, some of it was not in good shape. The Oasis is neat, and they made it a no smoking area, obviously since it's on the port side. There were many people just smoking anywhere they wanted, and even a couple who were on the wrong side of the ship, seemingly annoyed because they couldn't find an ashtray. I just wanted to stand up and say DUH, you're on the wrong side of the ship!!!! They just decided to use the planters. How classy!!

 

The Solarium was really nice, and it seemed that the roof was closed all except one day that I saw. It tended to get warm in there, but it was very quiet. I did not see any kids in there, but I did see kids in the hot tubs on the pool deck...many of them.

 

We did not do the Rock Wall. My friend did go to the Spa for a massage, and said that it was just OK. It was like $100.00 for a 50 minute massage I think, plus the tip. Bungee jumping, to me, looked lame. I was also surprised to learn that you could not go to the bow of this ship, nor could you go see the bridge, or completely walk around deck 5. You can only walk totally around on deck 10.

 

We did not go to the Casino, so I am not sure how the smoke was in there. Schooners was very smokey though, as was the Crown Viking. Kind of a funny story here. We went up for the disco night event, and ordered drinks, me, a daiquiri, and my friend a margarita on the rocks. Well, I guess the waiter didn't hear her and brought a frozen margarita. So she reluctantly sent it back, but I told her, your paying for it, send it back. Little did we know what chain of events would follow the decision to do that. The waiter put the drink on his tray, walked up some stairs, and was talking to a table, when this woman started jumping on him....like....from behind...like she ...well, you know,(I'm SERIOUS) anyway, she knocked the tray, the drinks went down and spilled all over this lady, who was wearing an open backed top!! We watched as the whole thing unraveled. It was like a comedy of errors at that point. The waiter cleaned up the spill, or so we thought, until 6 women decided to sit at that table. When one of them went to sit down, she SHOT up out of the chair, so obviously the chair was still wet. All of this because we decided to send a drink back, LOL.

 

Production Shows

 

We went to the show called "Can't Stop The Rock". It was a tribute to famous movie music, from the 50's to Matrix. It was SO BAD. Not a good singer in the group, no dynamics at all. The sound system lacked a bit too in the upper balcony, and sounded like a small stereo. It may have been better down below. I wanted to leave and my friend said it would be rude, so we stayed. It's about 45 minutes long. After we left there, we went to the Spotlight Lounge, and let me tell you, it was Karaoke night, and there were about 6 of the 10 or so people who were SO MUCH better singers than the ones in the show we had seen earlier. I have never seen a Karaoke contest as good as that one was. One guy did a Lionel Ritchie song, "Hello", to his girlfriend, whom he referred to as "chocolate drop", LOL, and he brought the house down, Then another guy did "Knocking On Heavens Door", with his own harmonica, and dedicated it to someone who had apparently passed recently, and he got a standing ovation. Maybe RCI should start looking for talent among their Karaoke contestants...who all had very dynamic, full range voices. I commented about the shows on the satisfaction form at the end of the cruise. We skipped the rest of the shows. It says a lot when the Karaoke is more entertaining that the production shows. Other people said the same thing when I was talking to them the day after.

 

Dining

 

Breakfast in the Windjammer, as well as lunch, because we were always in a rush to get somewhere. I have read a few reviews here that complained about it being too crowded. Neither myself, or my friend ever thought it was that crowded. No matter where we went really. We walked right in every day and got a table, no matter what time it was. I did think that the staff in the WJ was not as efficient as on the NOS, as we were almost finished by the time they came to see if we needed drinks. Most of the time, we just got them ourselves. Food was the usual fare. Not spectacular, just good food, and plenty of choices.

 

My Fair Lady Dining room

 

Our waiter was Subhindu, and he was really a pro. Very personable. The asst. waiter, not so good, but we tipped all of the staff well on the last night. I had the Chef's Signature Entree the first night, the Rigatoni the 3rd night, and the Turkey the last night. All were very good. The best dessert is by far the Key Lime pie. One thing I will mention here. I always prefer to have a table with whomever I am with, not a large table, and for this cruise, even that was somehow diminished by the table next to us. The tables were somewhat close, with about 2 feet between us and the next table. There was a couple in their 40's, and a couple in their late 20's-maybe early 30's. We think it was the young woman's parents, her husband, (their son in law). Anyway, the dad was a complete ass. Drunk most of the time talking about brain-dead topics that did not belong in a dining room. At one point, he, a grown man, actually had a spoon hanging from his NOSE, like he was doing some kind of trick, and of course he dropped it. He was downright embarrassing. You could see the look of embarrassment on the other's faces. Every night. The only time we saw the young guy smile is when they were loading their luggage into the back of their truck at the port when we returned. I bet they were so glad to get away from him. LOL.

 

Key West

 

We arrived about 6am, and it was over cast and cool. But it did clear a bit. I wasn't sure what we would do here, so we decided to just get off and walk around. We went by the Hemmingway House, and all the way to the furthest southern point in the US, then headed back to Duval St. It was around this time that it occurred to me that I had forgotten the usb cable for my camera, to upload the pix to my laptop. I looked at the 2 places that may possibly have something, but to no avail. This was a big problem for me, as I am a picture freak. I take thousands! I knew that I would really have to limit my pix, and drat, wouldn't you know, they had the off shore boat races coming up on Friday, so the place was packed with race boats. Bad time for me to be without available memory.(which apparently is not just related to my camera, LOL) I did sacrifice one memory card for some video of a few of the boats running, and really wished that I could have gotten more. I didn't take any pix of the inside of the ship, because there were so many good ones on the net anyway, and I think I will be back on the Enchantment after my next 2 cruises. So no pix of that. We did go to the Blond Giraffe for Key Lime Pie, and it is really delicious. They also make rum cakes. http://www.blondgiraffe.com/

 

As we left port at 2, the Capitan came on and made the announcement that we would not be going to Cozumel, but would be going to Nassau, and Freeport because of Gamma. I was kind of bummed, but happy about the extra port. I guess it just wasn't meant for me to get to Cozumel. Maybe in 2007. The other people that were around me at the time seemed to be really understanding. It was for everyone's safety, so no complaints here.

 

This was formal night. We ate at Chops, and it was really great. I had the Maryland Crab Cakes, small filet, asparagus, a baked potato, and the mud pie for dessert. And let me tell you, the pie, OMG. It's so rich. So good. Food was great and service was outstanding. It was not very crowded though. Only about 4 other tables in there, and we were there at 6:30.

 

Freeport, Bahamas

 

It had been about 20 years since I had been there, and couldn't remember much about it, so I did not know what we should do. They did have a really nice band set up at the ship when we docked. Nice greeting in the morning! Loved it. I jumped online, and the first thing that came up was the International Bazaar. Shopping from around the world. Then we got off the ship and our cab driver said that there wasn't much there from the Hurricanes last year, that they had been hit pretty hard, so he recommended that we go to Port Lucaya. I thought it was ok. Isle of Capri Casino is there, really pretty beach front and shopping. We sat at the beach after shopping and had Bahama Mama's. It's a really clean area, with a couple of big resorts located there. The Westerdaam was also in port with us there, and a couple of women that shared the cab back with us had just come from the Cayman area, and said that it was really a rough night on the seas. So that made me even more happy about the decision not to go to Cozumel. We left there about 5 if I remember right.

 

Nassau, Bahamas

 

I have been to this island so many times I was bored with it, but since my friend had never been, I decided to suggest something different to do. We were still on a hunt for some way from me to upload my pix to the laptop, so we decided to check here in town as well. I asked several locals, and finally ended up at John Bulls, and got 2, 32MB memory cards, for $50.00. I knew that it would have to do. Better than nothing. I did go to the photo shop on the EOS, and they said they could put them on a disk for me for $14.95, PER CARD, but I had 6 or so cards that were full, so that was not an option for me. I asked if they could put more than one card on a CD and they said no, but then one of the girls said maybe she could. I just decided against it. Anyway, I digress.....LOL

 

We had decided to go to Atlantis, as every time I had been there before, I took a pass on it. I am really glad we went, it's amazing, and I took the bulk of my pix here. Truly incredible, and worth the $29.00 for a day pass. You can get these in the downstairs part of the Coral Towers. We respected their request to not use the pools, or the beaches. You have to wear a band on your wrist, and there are different ones for day guest, and resort guest. They were checking bands at the entrance to the beach. We were standing there taking pictures and overheard them telling people it was for resort guest only. I can understand this, and thought it was fair. I mean, these people spend thousands per day to go there, they shouldn't have to deal with an invasion from the cruise ship people, LOL. Anyway, it was a blast.

 

Debarkation

 

We chose the beige tags for getting off the ship, since someone was picking us up at the port. These were supposedly the first to get off. Then they called white, which we did not have the opion the check on the form? No biggie though.

 

We ate breakfast in the WJ, about 8:00, then went down to deck 4 to wait. There were a great deal of people who used the express walk off pass, and I really think it helped to move the process along. We were off the ship by 9:00.

 

All in all, it was another great cruise. Seas were fairly smooth 95% of the time. While I pointed out some annoyances in thie review, I know nothing is ever perfect. But we loved the Enchantment. We wondered how many people had no clue that she had been stretched. They did a great job with that though.

 

We also booked a cruise onboard, for the Sovereign next November. My friend wants to take the kids to Atlantis, so I suggested the Sovereign. With the 2 kids, we booked the Grand Suite. We'll see how that goes!!

 

I would definitely go on the Enchantment again. Think that's about it. If I think of anything else, I'll post to this thread.

 

Happy sailing!

[madelyn]

Thanks for the review. We will be on her in 3 weeks. We sailed her in 1999, looking forward to see the difference in her.

Madelyn

[1corona4u]

Thanks for the review. We will be on her in 3 weeks. We sailed her in 1999, looking forward to see the difference in her.

 

Madelyn

 

You're welcome. You'll have a great time. :)

[1corona4u]

2 more things I was reminded of. Our Luggage was at out room by 1:00. And we didn't find it chilly in the dining room at all. It was comfortable, and the only time we even needed a sweater was on deck.