Enchantment 5 Day - Day 4 (Feb. 21)

[NboroGirl]

Who: Me, DH, DS17 (17 year old) and DS14 (14 year old)

5 Day Enchantment of the Seas

February 18 - 23, 2006

Day 4: Tuesday, Feb. 21 – George Town, Grand Cayman: I got up at 6:30 and wrote out my postcards I purchased yesterday in Jamaica, then went to breakfast at WJ with DH. I like the breakfasts at WJ; there are certain things I like and take every day, like the apple danish, and the fresh pineapple. I keep seeing people walking around with bagels, though, and I wonder where they got them from, because I haven’t seen bagels anywhere. After breakfast DH and I stopped at Guest Relations to see if I could purchase postage stamps for my postcards to have them mailed in George Town, but they told me they only sold US postage stamps and they would mail the cards in port when we returned on Thursday. I decided I would buy stamps in George Town.

DS14 already had breakfast, so when DS17 woke up I went to WJ with him to keep him company while he ate, and take some pictures of Grand Cayman from the ship. There were 3 other cruise ships in port, and there was a huge yacht anchored next to us that had a large sailboat attached, along with a helicopter and very expensive car on top. (I wonder how they get the car on and off?) We learned later that the yacht is the 9th largest in the world, is owned by Paul Allen, formerly of Microsoft, and is his 3rd smallest yacht. He often leases it out for $100,000 per night.

It is sunny and warm out – a perfect day for our Reef & Wreck snorkel excursion. We had to meet in the Orpheum Theater at 9:30, then our group boarded a tender to George Town, where we boarded another boat for our snorkeling. First we stopped at a ship wreck from the 1940s. It was kind of cool. We saw schools of yellow and black striped fish, and some big grey ones. There were so many fish you could touch them. There was another snorkel excursion there, and between the two boats there were probably about 100 snorkelers in a rather small area, not to mention the snuba people. The snorkeling was great but too crowded and almost impossible to go anywhere without bumping into someone. Then we were taken to a coral reef for ½ hour, which was a larger area and we were the only snorkelers there. Here we saw parrot fish, schools of doral fish, and a whole bunch of other kids I can’t remember the names of. The water was starting to feel a little cold after a while, and while trying to adjust my mask, I ended up getting some saltwater in my left eye (it burns), so I came back to the boat a little early, and saw DH and DS14 did the same. After snorkeling, we took a tender back to the ship for a quick lunch at WJ, when we noticed our bathroom faucet had been broken while we were gone. The handle was broken completely off. Plus, the kids STILL hadn’t gotten their shampoo dispenser refilled, so I called Maintenance to report the faucet and had them call Housekeeping to report the shampoo.

Next we tendered back to George Town go duty-free shopping. The kids wanted to check out places selling Oakley sunglasses, thinking they’d find bargains, but the ones we saw cost just as much as in the US. We walked to the post office, bought the stamps, and mailed my postcards. We stopped in a couple of jewelry stores and browsed, but I was interested in buying a T-shirt, since I didn’t get one in Jamaica. Across the street from the dock was a big T-shirt store so I tried on a few and chose one to buy. It cost $24 (as opposed to the $8 one DH bought in Jamaica). DS14 picked out a pair of inexpensive sunglasses to buy. We then took a tender back to the ship. This was a different boat than our other tenders, which were actually life boats from the Enchantment. This boat was much larger, and they kept cramming more and more people on it, even when there wasn’t any room. We were packed in like sardines. It was getting hotter and stuffier. Why did we have to be so packed? There were other Enchantment tenders going back and forth, and it was still early (at least 2 hrs. before we had to be back on ship). I’m guessing this was a private tendering company and maybe they charged RCCL per person. (?)

Back on the ship, DS17 desperately wanted to try the bungee trampolines before the cruise ended, and according to the Compass, the trampolines would be open from 3 – 6 p.m., so we got up there just before 3:00 and were first in line. Socks are required for this, and I had to sign a waiver for my son and myself. There were 3 bungee trampolines inflated (before they only had two, and there is room for four). DH came to take pictures while DS17 and I bounced. This was a lot of fun, and it is a good workout for your legs. DS17’s time ended but mine kept going. I started getting hot, but the biggest problem was the straps were really cutting into my thighs to the point where it hurt. I finally asked to be brought back down. I was bruised for a couple of days where the straps cut into my legs.

While we were shopping our broken faucet was repaired, and the kids finally got shampoo (4th day of the cruise… better late then never, I guess). After the bungee trampoline I took a shower and packed up our dress clothes in the garment bag since we were done with them. DH and I went to deck 10 to watch the sail-away.

Our dinner companions had reservations at Chops tonight so we had our table to ourselves, which was kind of nice. This time our waiter asked if we wanted anything to drink (the first and last time he asked us). The sun set outside our window, so we had a nice view. I ordered the veal parmesan for dinner, but was torn because I was in the mood for the ziti and marinara, so our waiter suggested I get the veal, only instead of the pasta and vegetable medley that comes with it, I could have the ziti and marinara with it, so that’s what I ordered. DH ordered some seafood and ziti dish. When our dinners arrived, my husband got my ziti and marinara, and I got a plate with veal parmesan with an order of ziti and seafood. We told our waiter about the mix-up, he apologized and took our plates away, and a minute later the exact same plates were brought back out to us. At this point I took the veal off of my plate and added it to the ziti & marinara that my husband got, so I now had the correct meal. However, the order of ziti & seafood left on my plate was just a side order and too small for a dinner, so we had to flag down our waiter again and ask for DH’s order, which was promptly brought out to him. Our waiter kept apologizing to us, but it was really no big deal. We both enjoyed our dinners. DS13 ordered the lobster tail and shrimp, which he really liked.

After dinner we finally made our way to the photo shop to look at all the photos the ship’s photographers had taken of us thus far. We didn’t really care for any of them, but settled on one of the whole family taken on formal night, and a picture of me, DH, and the captain taken at the Captain’s meet and greet. We dropped them off in our cabin and saw our towel animal looked like it was a rat. Hmmm… Also, we did not have an ice bucket in our room; it had been taken. We brought cans of soda on board and depend on the ice, so I asked the kids if they got ice in their room, but they didn’t have ice buckets, either. There was a cart outside our door that had filled ice buckets on it so I just took one so I could have ice in my Coke. Then we headed to the Orpheum Theater for the show, which were the singers and dancers performing songs from the movies. I enjoyed this show a little bit better than the similar show with the Broadway tunes, because I recognized more of the songs.

After the show I hung out in Bolero’s for a while, because tonight’s entertainment was the Enchantment band (I can’t remember their name) playing “big band” tunes, which is music I enjoy. After a while DH joined me. It was fun watching the old couples dancing to music from their day, and the younger couples who have obviously had dance lessons, strutting their stuff. The band was very good. We ordered drinks and just people-watched. Shortly after 11:30 we went to the midnight buffet viewing, where you can walk past the midnight buffet and take pictures of it before it gets devoured at 12:30. We met up with DS17 while there. I took a bunch of pictures, but we couldn’t stay up until 12:30 to actually eat any of the food, so around midnight we went to bed.

It’s tough being a morning person on a cruise ship. All of the best activities seem to happen at night, well after 10:00. I was able to stay up until midnight on most nights, but some of the really good stuff happened after that. Next time I’ll bring caffeine pills. :)

[Stormlover]

Nice review, can you tell me what overall condition the ship is in? We will be sailing her in 2 weeks. Just wondering with the broken faucet an all. Did you ask for a ice bucket? If their is not one in our room I will ask right away for one. We will be doing Key West, Cozumel an Belize. Was the seas calm or rough(high waves)? We have never sailed in March not sure of how the weather will be.

Thanks Robin

[NboroGirl]

Nice review, can you tell me what overall condition the ship is in? We will be sailing her in 2 weeks. Just wondering with the broken faucet an all. Did you ask for a ice bucket? Thanks Robin

 

Robin, the ship was in great condition. There were no signs of wear and tear. My mattress may have sagged a little big in the middle, but overall it was fine. I was surprised about the faucet, because it was fine when for the first several days on the cruise. Then when we came back from our excursion, the handle was laying there, like maybe our cabin steward broke it when cleaning. They fixed it right away and there were no additional problems with it. The ship was kept very clean, too.

 

As for the ice bucket, we had one in our room when we arrived. I told our cabin steward to keep it filled with ice and I would be happy, and he did. There was just that one night when we returned from dinner, after our beds had been turned down, I noticed the ice bucket was gone.

 

Until last week, we only cruised in August, so I was concerned about the seas in February, but they were as calm as could be. There was very little movement. Our cabin was on deck 2 very near the aft elevators, which is a good location if you don't want to feel movement.

[cruisingjon]

Nice review, can you tell me what overall condition the ship is in? We will be sailing her in 2 weeks. Just wondering with the broken faucet an all. Did you ask for a ice bucket? If their is not one in our room I will ask right away for one. We will be doing Key West, Cozumel an Belize. Was the seas calm or rough(high waves)? We have never sailed in March not sure of how the weather will be.

Thanks Robin

 

We were on Enchantment a couple of weeks ago and found the ship to be very clean and quite enjoyable. The rooms are little bit "dated". But we found the overall experience to be incredible. We went on the same cruise that you are going on and there were only a couple of snags. The tendering into cozumel was a bit dis-organized, but given what Cozumel has been through in the past 6 months it was certainly understandable.

 

Belize was okay, there is not really a whole lot there. We went on a private cave tubing excursion with Mr. Tom and really enjoyed that. But once you get out of the city it is very deslote and "third world". I also heard that the snorkeling was alot of fun there because of the huge barrier reef that they have. The ship has to stay about 5 miles out and you are tnedered in, which went much smoother than it did in Cozumel. Once you get to the piers and look back at the ship, it looks like it is 20 miles away.

 

The pool deck on Enchantment was my favorite area, it was fun to sit and watch people. Finding your way around the ship should be no problem, there are little maps at the elevators and in the elevators there are guides to what is on each level. As long as you keep your bearings and know which end of the ship is front and back, it is very easy to find your way around.

 

We did not care much for the windjammer, it had too much of a "denny's" feel to it for us. We usually ate at other places on the ship or in our room.

 

There was one night of rough seas, it was between Cozumel and Belize although it wasn't really that bad, it at times made walking difficult. It was funny to be walking in a line of people and the ship would rock to the right and the whole line of people would move to the right and then the ship would correct to the left and everyone would move to the left. It was actually quite funny.

 

The enchantment is neat in that they never have to drop anchor, the ship has a GPS system that keeps it in place, so when you have to tender to shore and you look back you will notice that any other ships that are there have anchor dropped and the Enchantment does not. This is why. I thought that was really neat.

 

Anyway, I hope you enjoy your cruise, We loved it and would recommend anyone to go on Enchantment.

[NboroGirl]

The enchantment is neat in that they never have to drop anchor, the ship has a GPS system that keeps it in place, so when you have to tender to shore and you look back you will notice that any other ships that are there have anchor dropped and the Enchantment does not. This is why. I thought that was really neat.

 

Cruisingjon, this is not entirely true. Enchantment definitely dropped anchor while we were in Grand Cayman. The captain even warned us about it the night before, telling everyone who were in the lower cabins near the front, that the anchor would be dropping at 7:30 a.m., that it would make a loud noise, but not to be concerned about it.

[cruisingjon]

Cruisingjon, this is not entirely true. Enchantment definitely dropped anchor while we were in Grand Cayman. The captain even warned us about it the night before, telling everyone who were in the lower cabins near the front, that the anchor would be dropping at 7:30 a.m., that it would make a loud noise, but not to be concerned about it.

 

Wow, thats very interesting. We asked about it on our cruise and it was explained to us in great detail about the GPS positioning system because we noticed that our anchor was never dropped and the other ships were whenever we were at port. Obviously there was some reason he felt the need to drop anchor that day.

[NboroGirl]

Maybe it has to do with the waters off the coast of Grand Cayman, where we dropped anchor. The captain of our snorkel boat explained that the area where the ships drop anchor has a very big dropoff. He said the depth of the ocean between the front of the ship and the back of the ship changes by 6000 feet!!! That means the rear of the ship sits in water that is over a mile deeper than the water under the front of the ship.

[cruisingjon]

Maybe it has to do with the waters off the coast of Grand Cayman, where we dropped anchor. The captain of our snorkel boat explained that the area where the ships drop anchor has a very big dropoff. He said the depth of the ocean between the front of the ship and the back of the ship changes by 6000 feet!!! That means the rear of the ship sits in water that is over a mile deeper than the water under the front of the ship.

 

Wow! Isn't it amazing how the depths can change so suddenly and drastacally like that? That is incredible.

[lojill]

I will be on her in MARCH 31ST 2007. i HOPE mARCH IS GOOD WEATHER.