Enchantment

[bouy]

Well just had an announcement from the captain not a good thing this late at night we have a 1.2%  Covid rate on board had have been denied entry to St Croix tomorrow sounds like it’s crew members cause there was a mention of weekly test thankfully no one is super sick and they have been isolated. Fingers crossed St Maarten let’s us dock 🙏🏻🤞

[Smhp]

25 minutes ago, bouy said:

Well just had an announcement from the captain not a good thing this late at night we have a 1.2%  Covid rate on board had have been denied entry to St Croix tomorrow sounds like it’s crew members cause there was a mention of weekly test thankfully no one is super sick and they have been isolated. Fingers crossed St Maarten let’s us dock 🙏🏻🤞

Thank you for letting us know. Do you know if you are doing an extra sea day or are you trying to go to St. Maarten for two nights?

[DevonfromAcme]

I am on this sailing as well. We will have a sea day, with one day’s cruise fare credited to our accounts as OBC. 

 

Other than this missed port, this cruise has been smooth sailing. There is NO ONE on this ship (904 or 910, depending on whether you believe the Cruise Director or Guest Services)— it’s like having your own private yacht. 
 

There is absolutely not a single person waiting for anything— not a window table in the Windjammer, a primo spot in the MDR any time of the evening, a lounge on the pool deck in sun or shade, and of course the staff are falling all over themselves to bring you something before you even think of it. 
 

This might not be the time to cruise if you’re into action and excitement, but if you’re looking for a quiet getaway with stellar service and a whole boat to yourself, it’s pretty awesome. 

[DevonfromAcme]

We are on this sailing, and had a 1 pm lunch reservation at Chops. 
 

We were one of three tables in the entire place, so no issue with social distancing!

 

Had a great meal. 
 

On 1/10/2022 at 6:27 PM, Merion_Mom said:

 

There is only one - ONE - specialty restaurant on the Enchantment.  Chops.  That's it.

 

[DevonfromAcme]

We are on this sailing as well. 
 

Other than embarkation, things have been well organized. We have a suite, and they kept that line moving, so we breezed through, but it wasn’t the case for the regular line. It was a bit of a cluster#%*+, and I can’t blame those waiting in those lines for being pissed. 
 

There are 900 people on the entire ship— it’s EMPTY.   I don’t know how you end up in a crowd even if you WANT to. 
 

The Windjammer has every other table blocked off, and there’s about no one on the adjacent pool deck, so you can have your meal anywhere. And the weather has been GLORIOUS. 

 

If you make even a modicum of effort to hit the MDR at slightly off time, you’re golden. We’ve had dinner around 7:30 each night, and the My Time Dining floor is maaaaybe 30% capacity?  We wave at people across the room. 

 

As for shows, we saw the comedian, and just grabbed a drink and stood in the back. The show was only 45 minutes, for heaven’s sakes. We rolled in, and rolled out. 
 

I’m not going to argue that the “official” social distancing measures aren’t particularly well thought out, but seriously— with three brain cells occasionally making contact, you can stay perfectly distanced on this ship. 
 

On 1/10/2022 at 9:36 AM, bouy said:

Hi I’m on board right now left on the 8th this is their first 12 day cruise . We have a little over 900 passengers on board . Embarkment was interesting. I had a set boarding time of 11 and got an email the evening before stating I needed to arrive 2 hours later . But evidently they didn’t pass that on to the pier staff cause when I arrived at 12:15 someone next to me said they had an 11 time slot and let us by pass the long line and no distancing there . Check in was a breeze up having lunch in the  solarium  By 12:45. Now they have the buffet all sectioned off with areas you can’t sit at for distancing  but they close at 3 they don’t serve dinner . Instead you have to go to the main dining room where there is no blocking of tables what so ever . You would think considering it takes you longer to eat dinner there would be some spacing .Not sure about the paying  restaurants. Same with the shows are they have the first row downstairs deck 5 which is for vaccinated people   blocked . Deck 6 area for everyone has more areas blocked but the place was packed last night and that was with 2 shows  tonight there’s only 1 so it will be packed . 

 

[DevonfromAcme]

St. Maarten will let us dock— they’ll be offloading the Covid positive crew to the Rhapsody there.  Presumably since St John was a replacement port for St Lucia, their requirements continue to be relaxed and we will be fine to dock there. 
 

Barbados is an interesting question mark. They have been a steady 1% Positive Rule  port. Assuming we don’t pop any more positives after offloading the crew in St Maarten, we should be fine there. 
 

St Kitts is a bit of an odd duck. It nominally was a 1% port, but has swung back and forth from stricter to more lenient in the last ten days in either accepting or rejecting ships other ports have kicked. I’ll be REALLY curious what happens to us there. 

 

1 hour ago, bouy said:

Well just had an announcement from the captain not a good thing this late at night we have a 1.2%  Covid rate on board had have been denied entry to St Croix tomorrow sounds like it’s crew members cause there was a mention of weekly test thankfully no one is super sick and they have been isolated. Fingers crossed St Maarten let’s us dock 🙏🏻🤞

 

[Merion_Mom]

@DevonfromAcme

 

I am really enjoying your posts in this thread!

 

BTW, which suite do you have?

 

I have always scratched my head in bemusement that they never added more specialty restaurants to Enchantment.  Even Grandeur has 3.  

[John Prine Fan]

Everything posted about cruise is 100% true. We heard 941 passenger count...ship is empty, and crew has been fantastic.  Kudos to RCI for putting in the effort, it has to be tough logistically to pull this off with so many unknowns.  Only complaint is casino...give a brother a break!!

[shipgeeks]

I am so looking forward to being aboard in February!

Thank you all for the updates.  I hope it continues to go well for you.

[Cruiser24]

Thank you for posting.  We board on the 20th and have been anxious to hear how it's going.

 A couple of questions if you don't mind.

 

Is the Windjammer open for dinner or just breakfast and lunch?

We have a JS.  Are we able to go through the suite line at embarkation?

 

Enjoy the rest of your cruise😀

 

 

 

[Lady Hudson]

Thank you to all for keeping this thread updated.  Hopefully will be boarding on 2/5.  We had both our 2/5 and 2/17 cabins moved due to “Covid protocols”.  I was concerned since we need an accessible for DH.  On 2/5 went from outside to balcony so that was a win!  Downside now is that on B2B day we will be moving cabins.  Katherine 

[shipgeeks]

Do you know where you are this morning?  Transponder seems to be off.

Wouldn't it be nice to do some Scenic Cruising by The Pitons at St. Lucia when there is extra time in a cruise due to a cancellation?

[Biker19]

33 minutes ago, shipgeeks said:

Do you know where you are this morning?  Transponder seems to be off.

Use a site like cruisemapper which uses sat locating - she's near St Thomas.

Edited January 12, 2022 by Biker19

[bouy]

3 hours ago, Cruiser24 said:

Thank you for posting.  We board on the 20th and have been anxious to hear how it's going.

 A couple of questions if you don't mind.

 

Is the Windjammer open for dinner or just breakfast and lunch?

We have a JS.  Are we able to go through the suite line at embarkation?

 

Enjoy the rest of your cruise😀

 

 

 

I don’t have a clue where we are I think between island as I can see land from the pool deck 

the windjammer isn’t open for dinner and they close at 3:30 only options for dinner are the main dining room and chops . I’m in a JS yes when you arrive don’t go around the corner go straight to the entrance there is a special spot for you to go thru but don’t let except anything disembarking they sent a questionnaire out on the second day asking about when we wanted to leave the ship went to ask at the front desk about being in a suite and a diamond member and was told that because of Covid they don’t offer anything and my best bet would be to do-the walk off fingers crossed we get to the next port according to a post we should cause that’s where there’s a ship there for the ship crew members to get off and  quarantine 🤞

[DevonfromAcme]

Yes, we just passed St Thomas. 
 

2 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Use a site like cruisemapper which uses sat locating - she's near St Thomas.

 

[Another_Critic]

2 minutes ago, DevonfromAcme said:

Yes, we just passed St Thomas. 
 

 

At least the ship adhered to St. Thomas' social distancing protocol.  😉

[DevonfromAcme]

Thanks!  Hopefully they are helpful to those on the next sailings. This is our first cruise, and these boards were invaluable to me when planning. 
 

We are in a junior suite on Deck 8– we booked this vacation as a last minute, no brains required getaway. We had no energy for elaborate plans, and decided to throw our a$$es on a ship and let someone else think for us for two weeks. It has been GLORIOUS. 

 

There was nothing left but ocean view cabins when we booked, but we got a last minute RoyalUp into the junior suite, and it’s been a nice upgrade. 
 

13 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

@DevonfromAcme

 

I am really enjoying your posts in this thread!

 

BTW, which suite do you have?

 

I have always scratched my head in bemusement that they never added more specialty restaurants to Enchantment.  Even Grandeur has 3.  

 

[bouy]

I was looking on line to see what’s going on with other cruises and RRCL has canceled several up coming cruises from FLA  hope it’s not a sign of what’s to come but I can’t see how they are making any money for our cruise basically half the passengers with a day refunded cause of missed stop  and who knows what’s going to happen with the other parts but still costing them the same amount in fuel and salaries etc 

[Biker19]

2 minutes ago, bouy said:

I can’t see how they are making any money

Nice of you to think of their well being. The cancellations were an official public announcement almost a week ago and cancellations in the COVID era should not come as a surprise to anyone who has followed the industry. The details of how much money they lost should be out toward the end of the month with their SEC filing.

[DevonfromAcme]

Only having the one specialty dining option probably would seem a bit limiting with a full ship, but with so few people on board, you can pretty much just custom order anything you want, any time, anywhere, anyway.
 

Plus, at least for us, much as we’d love to hoover half the menu at breakfast, lunch and dinner, we just . . . can’t. We’ve settled into a brunch and later-ish dinner routine, and haven’t found ourselves bored with the options yet. There is a surprisingly good salad bar at the Park Cafe (and a great thin crust pizza if you can catch it right out of the oven, or just custom order one to take with you), and a million things in the Windjammer.  I’ve had a fabulous goat curry and lamb moussaka so far. 
 

Chops was excellent— I was shocked. I’d read mixed reviews about it on the different ships, so I just booked a lunch, figuring we’d just try it out. We both had the filet, and we were blown away for $22 a person.   Peter Lugar or The Palm it isn’t, but it easily stacked up to any cut I’ve had at Ruth’s Chris or Morton’s. We thought it was a terrific deal, and booked a dinner for later in the week. 

I’ll update with a dinner report later on in the week! 🤣🤣🤣

 

14 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

@DevonfromAcme

 

I have always scratched my head in bemusement that they never added more specialty restaurants to Enchantment.  Even Grandeur has 3.  

 

[DevonfromAcme]

Agreed, 100%. With as many cruise freaks as there are in the world, the cruise industry might take an occasional hit, but it’s going to be fine. Will it take a hit for the near future?  Of course. 
 

In the meantime, it’s 29 degrees at home, and I’m sitting on a breezy pool deck in the sun with a fabulous glass of Chenin Blanc in my hand. 
 

If RCI is sailing, I’m here for it.  🤣🤣🤣

 

15 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Nice of you to think of their well being. The cancellations were an official public announcement almost a week ago and cancellations in the COVID era should not come as a surprise to anyone who has followed the industry. The details of how much money they lost should be out toward the end of the month with their SEC filing.

 

[ValerieJo]

Thanks to all for keeping this thread updated. It's been a great resource.  I'm on the January 28th, 8 day sailing (fingers crossed that all goes well).   Kind of bummed about the Windjammer closing for dinner as I like to eat there on occasion.  Looking forward to reading more about this cruise. 🙂

[Biker19]

14 minutes ago, ValerieJo said:

Kind of bummed about the Windjammer closing for dinner as I like to eat there on occasion. 

That doesn't mean future sailings will be like that.

[bouy]

5 hours ago, DevonfromAcme said:Thanks!  Hopefully they are helpful to those on the next sailings. This is our first cruise, and these boards were invaluable to me when planning. 
 

We are in a junior suite on Deck 8– we booked this vacation as a last minute, no brains required getaway. We had no energy for elaborate plans, and decided to throw our a$$es on a ship and let someone else think for us for two weeks. It has been GLORIOUS. 

 

There was nothing left but ocean view cabins when we booked, but we got a last minute RoyalUp into the junior suite, and it’s been a nice upgrade. 
 

 

Hi DevonfromAcme

you do realize that cruise critic i think is celebrating their 25 year anniversary right .So they were  here , you just hadn’t found them welcome aboard 😎

[papajak]

Thank you to everyone taking time out of their wonderful vacations to answer our questions and post beautiful pics! We will be on the Jan 28 sailing, God willing, and I have a few questions...

1. How long does it take to get to the bridge? We will have our 6yo granddaughter with us, and I think she would love it...if its not too cold!

2. Are the straws paper? 

3. what is the email for dining table requests? 

Thanks in advance, and have a wonderful time!!

 

Edited January 13, 2022 by papajak