Enchantment of the Seas Oct 22 - 26 Quick Review

[Jcol5786]

Just returned from our 4 day cruise on EOS so I thought I would do a post cruise recap. I'll do this in 3 or 4 posts over the next couple of days. Our first cruise 5 years ago was on Enchantment and is what got us hooked. Since that first cruise we have been  on Indy, Allure and Oasis. As each of our cruises have been on larger and larger ships we were wondering if we could go back to a smaller ship like Enchantment. I'll leave that point to the end of the review.

 

Some basic points. This was an extra cruise for us as we had this week expectantly come up in our schedules so my wife said lets do a fall cruise. After doing some searching the only cruise that worked for us given the time we had was this one. We booked it back in June. At that time RC website indicated that there were no balcony rooms available. I did not believe that all the balconies were  sold our that far out but we did notice that a corner aft JS balcony was available so we booked it. The double points will get us to Platinum for our next cruise in February.  As a side note the balcony rooms did suddenly appear in August so it seems that RC was holding them back for some reason. 

 

Embarkation Day  - we drove to the cruise terminal and arrived around 9 am. We dropped off our bags and parked in the terminal parking lot. We knew that the terminal would not  be open yet so we went for a walk and went down the street and walked down past Fish Lips and the other restaurants and marinas. It was interesting to see the morning activities around these places. About 9:30 we went back to the terminal and got in the lineup waiting to get in. The doors had not opened yet. At 9:45 the doors opened and we went in. We passed through the security check quickly because we had pre-checked in. This seemed to save one stop at the security check. After security we quickly made our way to the RC check in. We had our pictures taken and were issued our sea pass cards. At that point we were told we could wait in an area reserved for suite passenger, Diamonds and other groups. We made our way to this area flashed our sea pass cards and went into this nicely appointed waiting area. Here we discovered that tea, coffee, muffins and other such treats were available. This was very nice. Starting to like the Suite Life. At 10:30 an announcement was made that any passengers with mobility issues would be allowed to board at 10:35. After this happened the rest of the group (including us) were  allowed to board at 10:40. This is certainly the earliest that we have ever boarded and it was nice to have the extra time on the ship. After exploring the ship we had an early lunch at the WJ before the crowds started. We than made our way to the pool deck changed into our swim suits and enjoyed a swim and a hot tub in the Solarium. We then had our first drink and enjoyed waiting for our room. At 1:30 it was announced that the rooms were ready so we went checkout our room. We were in JS 7166 and as sometimes happens we noticed our bags were already sitting in the common area at the stair case. We grabbed our bags and told the person unloading them that we would take them to our room ourselves. As this is an aft cabin it was a bit of a walk to the end of the hall with the bags but it was nice to have them in the room so early. The cabinet itself was very nice. It seemed only slightly wider than a standard balcony room however this extra width did make walking past the end of the bed less of a challenge. One of the great things about this room  is the walk in closet. It offered so much storage with lots of hanger space, drawers and open shelves. It was nice to have a place to store our luggage, shoes on other items.  The other highlight of this room is the balcony. Being a corner aft the balcony is curved. There is a view straight out the back as well as a side view. There were two lounge chairs and two normal chairs with a normal table and a second lower table for those in the lounge chairs. Even with all these items there was still plenty of room to move around. I have no idea of the square footage but it must be one of the largest balconies for this cabin type.

 

I think I will stop at this point and continue on later today or tomorrow. Thanks.

 

 

[Armac]

Thanks for this review Enchantment is one of our favorite ships. Sailed on her once before the stretch and three times after. Have not been on her after she left Baltimore so an update is nice. Following along

[BillOh]

3 hours ago, Jcol5786 said:

As each of our cruises have been on larger and larger ships we were wondering if we could go back to a smaller ship like Enchantment. I'll leave that point to the end of the review.

 

Embarkation Day  - we drove to the cruise terminal and arrived around 9 am.

I think I will stop at this point and continue on later today or tomorrow. Thanks.

 

 

We have done a fall cruise out of Port Canaveral and have enjoyed it quite a bit. We make a it a road trip cruise for us, Did you drive there? That would be 300 miles or so more for you than us!    We have no trouble going on the smaller ships after the Oasis, its about managing expectations!

[Jcol5786]

Yes we drove from Ontario. Left early Friday morning and got to Florida Saturday afternoon around 3 pm. Stayed Saturday and Sunday night at a  beach front motel on Fernandina Beach, Amelia Island. It was a nice way to unwind from the drive and get ready for the cruise.

[Jcol5786]

Embarkation day continued -  the safety drill location was outside on deck 5 after that we went back to our room and sat on our balcony as we sailed away. We usually go to the pool deck during sail away's but our view from the balcony was so nice we decided to stay put. After that we went to the Schooner bar and had a drink while sitting at a window. I did note at this point that it was nice to have a view of the ocean while at the bar. Not something you get on the larger ships such as Oasis. We quickly got to know our primary SB waiter named Alex who provided us excellent service throughout the cruise. Our next stop was the main dining room. We had My Time dining at 6:45. After getting changed we arrived a couple of minutes early. I always find the main dining room to be a little hectic on the first night and this time was no exception. Lots of people in the wrong line not having reservations and just showing up because they don't understand that My Time still means you need a reservation. Things got sorted fairly quickly and we were seated within 5 minutes of our arrival. Our servers were Erikson and Jinting. Jinting greeted us first and provided most of the service on the first night as Erikson was very busy with other tables. We did meet him toward  the end of the meal which was fine. Over all service was fine and the meals were very good.

 

After dinner we went to the main theater for the first RC production show. It was called something like From Broadway to Screen and the premise is that the songs are from Broadway shows that were made into movies. The group was made up of 6 dancers and 4 singers. The music was live but the band was hidden in the pit. I found it to be a little boring. The song choices were  not always the best and there was no real flow from one set of songs to the next. But the sound was good and it was only 45 minutes. I think this is the first thing that I missed from the larger ships. This show simply did not stack up against the first night shows on the larger ships, but that is simply my opinion. Only a few people left during the show (unlike Cats on Oasis) and many people did seem to really enjoy the show. After the show we went up to the pool deck and took in some fresh air and went back and watched the band playing in the Centurium. The 4 piece band with a female singer was very good and we stayed for several songs. We soon felt the need for sleep and ended up going back to our cabin and sitting on our balcony watching the ocean and the sky. There was a nice full moon to our port side and it was a perfect way to end our first day.

[Jcol5786]

ERROR CORRECTION - Sorry but I made a major mistake in the time line in the above post. The first night entertainment was not the RC production show but instead was a comedian high-liner who were did not go to see. I don't usually go see comedians on any ship and so we passed on this show. The RC production show which I described in the above post was from night 2. Sorry about the mix up. In my defense I'm doing these write ups very early in the morning before the coffee has kicked in. In addition I discovered that I cannot seem to edit my own post after it has been posted for more than a few minutes.

Edited October 30, 2018 by Jcol5786
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