Review of Enchanted Princess 8/3 - 8/10

[Yg13]

Heads up, this review will be mostly scattered and I’m just writing things as they come to mind. A little about me and my cruising experience, I have been on 14 cruises prior to this trip; one each on Carnival. Royal Caribbean, and Celebrity, along with 11 NCL cruises. This is mostly to preface that my frame of reference is primarily comparing to my NCL cruises since that is (was?) my predominant line. I did treat myself and my travel partner to a suite on this trip which I’ll get into more detail later about the perks/benefits.

I’ll start from the beginning of the trip, arrived in FLL at around 10:20 am the day of the cruise. I booked the Princess transfer from airport to ship, and the representative was waiting for us at the luggage carousel. After we got our bags she guided us to the waiting area, and the bus arrived about 10 min later. We hit some traffic on our way into the port due to construction, no big deal. I generally don’t complete any portion of the check in/registration and prefer to do it at the port, this trip was no exception. There was virtually no line at the port, and we were able to get the full registration process done and receive our medallions in about 15 min flat. Very impressed.

First thing we did upon boarding was go to the guest services, where they have a priority line for suites which is useful on day 1 when it tends to be busy. We pretty quickly added our respective credit cards to our folios to allow us to go make our specialty dinner reservation. We booked the 360 dinner for my birthday night, process was pretty painless and Magda (?), who seems to be in charge of everything related to 360, was very pleasant. After that she encouraged us to go to the concierge on deck 14 aft to meet with the suite team. We proceeded there, and met the young lady who gave us a rundown of the suite perks, including

·       Private breakfast area in the crown grill

·       Private dinner area in the reserve collection

·       Access to the concierge lounge

·       A complimentary specialty dinner on night 1 (we ended up asking to reschedule to a later evening with no issues)

·       Priority tender for Princess Cay (ended up being a moot point as it was aborted)

·       Priority disembarkation

 

Unfortunately our stateroom was at the very front of the ship on deck 10, so getting to the very back of the ship on deck 14 was not convenient so we only went there a total of two more times during the trip. I do think Norwegians haven setup is superior, where all the suite/haven category rooms are centrally located within the haven complex, and can use all the haven amenities. When we did go back to the concierge lounge a day later, the suite host was able to get us an umbrella for princess cays, as it was otherwise showing sold out on the app. No complaints whatsoever aside from the location. Now I’m going to address the few complaints I have from an otherwise overwhelmingly great trip.

First true complaint as a first time princess cruiser is how unclear and unfocused they are in terms of relaying information about the ship. There are several great restaurants on board (Gigis pizzeria, Ocean Terrace Sushi, O’malleys, Gelateria) that are considered “casual” but just simply omitted from the website/app. Most people will see them passing by since theyre centrally located on decks 5-7, but we knew nothing about them prior to getting onboard, and only by virtue of exploring did we find out about them. You do get two “casual” meals with princess plus, and can use them for the cover charge at those restaurants. We ended up using ours on Ocean Terrace twice (lunch and dinner are almost the same prix fixe menu) and then paid out of pocket for Gigis Pizzeria. Both were very good.

My second complaint is the spa. Again, from an NCL point of reference, I am spoiled by the massive thermal spa complexes on the Norwegian breakaway and breakaway+ class ships. It’s one of my favorite things to do on sea days, go to the spa, grab a heated lounger, read, listen to music, go into the saunas, swim in the thalassaotherapy pool, take a dip in the hot tub, etc. Princess Spa was 169 pp for the length of the trip and the complex is TINY compared to Norwegian. I would estimate Norwegian has about 40-50 combined heated beds and regular loungers in the spa area, Enchanted Princess had I believe 12 altogether. It was virtually impossible to get two beds together. The saunas themselves were nice, but the pool was also much smaller than what I am used to on NCL, and no hot tubs.

My final complaint is that they removed the Cigar lounge and replaced it with an arcade. And to add insult to injury they kept the name Churchill’s for a childrens arcade! The Humidour lounge on Norwegian is also one of my favorite spots to kick back, enjoy a cocktail and cigar, maybe catch a game. Bummer.

It was also nice to go back to a more traditional cruise dining format, where you’re seated in the same area every night with the same waiter/busser. I've gotten a bit used to NCL Free at Sea where we'd dine in a different restaurant, in a different seating area, with different wait staffs every night. Aside from our two specialty dinners, we dined all 5 nights in the reserved suite area with a fantastic waitstaff. The food was fantastic all voyage long. I can honestly say there wasn’t anything outright bad, most of the food ranged from good to absolutely excellent. The variety for dinner was impressive, and there was never a night we couldn’t find a good appetizer/entrée pairing to choose from (or a couple!). Another point of comparison to NCL, the bar/drinks service blows NCL out of the water. I’m used to NCL giving heavy portions of ice with already small alcohol portions being quickly watered down, and for sodas, just getting a cup full of ice with a little soda pour and constantly waiting for refills. On Princess, the servings were much bigger, still a lot of ice, but drinks were strong and bartenders were mostly fantastic. Sodas you get a glass of ice and a fresh entire can! Loved that.

I skipped breakfast most days, tried the crown grill suite area for a couple of breakfasts but felt very middle of the road. Service was impeccable but the food was just average. Not a big deal as I’m typically not a big breakfast guy. Lunches at Gigis, and Ocean Terrace were quite good. I did try international café a couple times, and was very impressed with how good the premade sandwiches were. At the gelateria, you get 2 free premium desserts a day with the plus package, and I was able to try the red velvet cake, and 3 of the ice cream shake type desserts, all were very good.

 

Our specialty dinner that we did as a suite perk was at the Catch by Rudi. Service was absolutely stellar, our waitress did a great job describing the theme/vibe of the restaurant, including that the kitchen asks you order all courses at once, including dessert, because the desserts can take up to 30 min to prepare. After we ordered, our waitress brought a caponata that honest to god makes it into my top 10 foods I’ve ever tasted. It was that good. We ordered the shrimp cocktail, seafood tower, each of us got the surf & turf,  for dessert I had crepes suzette and my travel partner had Rudi’s artistic face to face. Both were very good. Came away from that meal very happy.

Casino was lacking for me as a gambler. I play primarily baccarat and the casino staff looked at me like I Had 3 heads when I asked if they had a baccarat table. Mostly played blackjack and slots. I did have an issue with trying to room charge my casino play, as it turned out guest services messed up from day 1 and put my travel companions card on both folios, that was an easy fix.

As mentioned earlier, we were already in Princess Cays  when the captain announced that due to winds/waves, they would not proceed with the tender operation and we are skipping Princess Cays. Obviously a bummer as I’d never been there and wanted a beach day, but I’ve been cruising long enough to know that fussing over that is pointless. Our second stop was San Juan where we did a third party excursion rainforests and waterfall hike, and our last stop was St. Thomas where we enjoyed an ATV excursion and Magens Bay Beach before heading back on the ship.

 

Entertainment wise, we did a handful of activities. One trivia event, we saw the magician in the theater, then the same magicians show in the Vista Lounge, along with two comedians in the Vista lounge. Entertainment was good but not great. No complaints.

The highlight of the trip for me was my birthday dinner, the 360 experience. I don’t want to write anything about the storyline/plot of the experience so that people who haven’t done it before can experience it, so I’ll describe as best as I can without going into detail. I was absolutely blown away by this. It was the best dinner I’ve ever had, on land or sea. The entire thing was thoughtful, exciting, mysterious, and delicious all at once. 7 courses, all were absolutely outstanding. I’m still daydreaming about the dinner almost a week later. I would seriously recommend booking on ONLY Enchanted and Discovery just to be able to experience this dinner.

 

I hope that despite the scattered formatting this gave some useful information. Any questions feel free to ask in the comments.

[canadarocks]

Wonderful review! Thanks so much. We have The Catch and 360 booked, so it’s great to read glowing reports. 😁

[memoak]

I don’t really get the complaint about the fact that the OP said their forward suite was at the opposite end of the ship from the suite concierge. One look at a deck plan would have shown where the 2 locations were. Also there had been numerous threads in casual dining areas on the Enchanted on these boards same with the change of Churchills to an arcade and is also shown on deck plans. A little more research could have prevented some disappointments. Bout glad you enjoyed the Princess product 

[Scottdalfonso]

Thanks for the review, really looking forward to our first Princess cruise on this ship in a few weeks.  Unfortunately we don't do seafood and have a bit of a picky palate, so as awesome as 360 sounds, I just don't think we'd eat enough of the offerings.  And I am confused about the lack of info on the casual eateries, they are listed on the app and website. I had to do a little digging because ship was updated a little recently and they changed a few places, so the app actually has the former and the new places listed, so I can see that being confusing-but otherwise I feel like they advertise them pretty well.   I am curious as to why you wait to do everything at the port? Why do you not fill out any of the check in info, credit card info, etc before hand? Seems like it's just welcoming possible waits at the port and especially at guest services on day 1.  

[Yg13]

10 hours ago, memoak said:

I don’t really get the complaint about the fact that the OP said their forward suite was at the opposite end of the ship from the suite concierge. One look at a deck plan would have shown where the 2 locations were. Also there had been numerous threads in casual dining areas on the Enchanted on these boards same with the change of Churchills to an arcade and is also shown on deck plans. A little more research could have prevented some disappointments. Bout glad you enjoyed the Princess product 

we didn’t even know about the existence of the concierge lounge or what it was at the time of booking. I booked directly with a princess rep and it was never mentioned to us. Aside from that, the benefit on princess website is called elite lounge and all deck plans refer to it as a concierge lounge. It really doesn’t matter that much and wasn’t a point of emphasis in my review. 
 

the change from cigar lounge to arcade seems to have been announced/made in  2023, our princess rep who booked the trip for us in Nov 2023 told us that Churchills was a cigar lounge. 

[Yg13]

4 hours ago, Scottdalfonso said:

Thanks for the review, really looking forward to our first Princess cruise on this ship in a few weeks.  Unfortunately we don't do seafood and have a bit of a picky palate, so as awesome as 360 sounds, I just don't think we'd eat enough of the offerings.  And I am confused about the lack of info on the casual eateries, they are listed on the app and website. I had to do a little digging because ship was updated a little recently and they changed a few places, so the app actually has the former and the new places listed, so I can see that being confusing-but otherwise I feel like they advertise them pretty well.   I am curious as to why you wait to do everything at the port? Why do you not fill out any of the check in info, credit card info, etc before hand? Seems like it's just welcoming possible waits at the port and especially at guest services on day 1.  

Even when I go on the website now, they don’t list anything about Ocean Terrace, slice, and international cafe. Doing checkin at the port is a personal preference, I prefer not to submit my passport and credit card info on a cruise line app or website if it’s possible to avoid it.  

[Russell in MD]

We just returned from this same cruise.

 

My $0.02

 

I was also greatly annoyed that they got rid of the cigar lounge.  Enjoying a cigar in a plush comfortable chair in a quiet place is absolutely one of the few things I look forward to on a cruise.  A tried smoking a cigar in the aft section and while it was OK I just kept my cigars in my travel humidor and didnt smoke any more.  Lighting a cigar in any kind of wind is very frustrating especially since you were limited to a bic lighter. The chairs they had out were comfortable however since it was one deck up from the pool someone in a wet bathing suit sat in the seat I found another time and I had a wet backside from the cushion when I got up.🤬  I was in the smoking part of the casino and you could barely smell smoke so clearly they have figured out how to ventilate these areas so dumping the cigar lounge is very frustrating to me.

 

I found it hard to get a drink some times.  Maybe it was just me.  The staff was friendly and I have no other complaints there.  After asking for some of the ice to be removed from my first couple drinks the bartenders remembered and it was fine after that.

 

It was hard getting an elevator in the beginning of the trip but it got better towards the end.  It didnt help that some people are too lazy to walk one flight of stairs and ride the elevator instead.

 

T-shirts and ball caps in the MDR.  Gawd I hate this and Im a t-shirt and ball cap dude!  Is it really that hard to put on a polo shirt?  Its not Applebees people!  There was a large loud group of people next to our table.  We asked to sit on the other side of the room after the second night.  Food and service throughout the trip was excellent.

 

I was disappointed with my steak in Crown Grill.  I ordered the porterhouse and I feel like it was just a t-bone.  The filet side of the steak wasnt very large.  It wasnt as tender as I thought it should be but was cooked right.  One of the greatest steaks Ive ever had in my life was a porterhouse on Crown or Ruby, I cant remember which.  My wife liked here filet.  Service was excellent.

 

The app wasnt useful besides locating others in the family, which is very cool.  I still got my paper patters and folded it up in my pocket.  Every time you opened the app there was a spinning circle for like 30 seconds before you could do anything. You can message others through the app but it doesnt notify you and you have to be in the app to see them.  We had the plus with wifi and my wife and I use signal and that worked great.  The wifi was def nice.  I was able to watch some condensed baseball games on my phone through the MLB app wo a hitch.

 

Getting on an off was amazingly easy.  We were inline outside the terminal at 10:30 and were on and eating at the buffet shortly after 11.  We uploaded all the stuff before we left so we literally just walked on.

 

Our balcony was a decent size.  I was concerned Id be disappointed.  Corner aft balconys on Ruby and Crown have spoiled me.

 

The fridge actually kept stuff cold! First time for that. I wedged a wash cloth in the cabinet door so air could circulate.

 

I tried the infinity pool out back and the water was less than clear and there was stuff floating in it.  Not sure what was going on there.  The pool in the retreat was nice although it seemed like it should have been about a foot deeper.

 

My bed was hard.  In years past you could ask for a padded mattress topper and that was what we would ask for the very first day.  I guess they dont do that any more and the steward just folded up a comforter and stuck it under the bottom sheet which was a hot mess after you tossed and turned on it a few times.

 

After seeing the chaos of people leaving when we got on, we chose to book the princess charter shuttle to the airport and that was definitely a great idea.  Highly recommended.

 

No one in the group got sick!  We were really afraid of that going into it.

 

This sounds like a lot of hate but it was a great cruise.  Princess is our preferred line.  No roller coasters, go karts, zip lines or surfing machines.

 

R

[dog]

MD- sorry about your cigar issues.

 

I no longer use the casino due to smoker’s stench which affects my health.

 

To OP- thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[juksing]

Regarding Churchill’s, even funnier is the kiddies can now play arcade games under the healthy strong aroma of cigars.

 

Also, the casino slot area on the port side directly next to Churchills wasn’t that bad smokewise, I think it was a NS area, there was a door separating it from the main casino area which was pretty oderous.

[memoak]

2 hours ago, Yg13 said:

we didn’t even know about the existence of the concierge lounge or what it was at the time of booking. I booked directly with a princess rep and it was never mentioned to us. Aside from that, the benefit on princess website is called elite lounge and all deck plans refer to it as a concierge lounge. It really doesn’t matter that much and wasn’t a point of emphasis in my review. 
 

the change from cigar lounge to arcade seems to have been announced/made in  2023, our princess rep who booked the trip for us in Nov 2023 told us that Churchills was a cigar lounge. 

Again research is the key to any traveling. I would not rely on information from a call center employee who is usually off shore

Edited August 13 by memoak

[memoak]

Just now, memoak said:

Again research is the key to any traveling. I would not rely on information from a call center employee who is usually off shore

 

[Yg13]

13 minutes ago, memoak said:

Again research is the key to any traveling. I would not rely on information from a call center employee who is usually off shore

Thanks for your feedback. 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

17 hours ago, Yg13 said:

Entertainment wise, we did a handful of activities. One trivia event, we saw the magician in the theater, then the same magicians show in the Vista Lounge, along with two comedians in the Vista lounge. Entertainment was good but not great. No complaints.

wait, you didn't see any production shows?

 

2 hours ago, Russell in MD said:

I was in the smoking part of the casino and you could barely smell smoke so clearly they have figured out how to ventilate these areas

or you are just so used to it, you can't smell it anymore. For us and for other non-smokers as well the stench is very pronounced. We can't even walk by the casino without smelling the smoke.

 

[memoak]

35 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

wait, you didn't see any production shows?

 

or you are just so used to it, you can't smell it anymore. For us and for other non-smokers as well the stench is very pronounced. We can't even walk by the casino without smelling the smoke.

 

A lot of the smoke has to do with how crowded the casino is. On the Grand the last few weeks and casino is maybe 1/2 full or less. Even in the smoking sea very few people smoking. Usually we have to wear masks to play on the smoking side. This time don’t even need to bring them 

[Yg13]

On 8/13/2024 at 1:41 PM, Itchy&Scratchy said:

wait, you didn't see any production shows?

 

or you are just so used to it, you can't smell it anymore. For us and for other non-smokers as well the stench is very pronounced. We can't even walk by the casino without smelling the smoke.

 

we did not see any production shows, we only went to the theater once for the magicians first show in there. Nothing really caught our eye 

[555]

People that don't notice the smoke smell in the casino are immune to the smell, especially when the Enchanted had one of the smokiest casinos of all the Princess ships. Even when the casino is closed when in port the smell is disgusting. 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

10 hours ago, Yg13 said:

we did not see any production shows, we only went to the theater once for the magicians first show in there. Nothing really caught our eye 

ah, well, the production shows are quite good now and are worth it. Princess really brought it up to about NCL/RCI level.

[beshears]

As our plans are to do the Enchanted February 28th of next year, I always liked to READ any reviews no matter what of someone that has done it recently, even those that post "their" info in regard to Enchanted too. We did the Regal in February this year and like it so much, that is why we have booked the Enchanted  for next year. 🙂 

[Scottdalfonso]

3 hours ago, beshears said:

As our plans are to do the Enchanted February 28th of next year, I always liked to READ any reviews no matter what of someone that has done it recently, even those that post "their" info in regard to Enchanted too. We did the Regal in February this year and like it so much, that is why we have booked the Enchanted  for next year. 🙂 

I'll be a first timer on Enchanted in two weeks, I'll likely do some live reports through the week, if you want to follow along! 

[Russell in MD]

Oh I forgot to mention, on about the 4th or 5th day my wife noticed a couple charges for drinks on our account even though we had the plus package.  I don't know how that happened with the medallion and all the connected stuff.

 

A few minutes at the service desk fixed that but keep an eye on your charges.

 

R

[JGmf]

1 hour ago, Russell in MD said:

Oh I forgot to mention, on about the 4th or 5th day my wife noticed a couple charges for drinks on our account even though we had the plus package.  I don't know how that happened with the medallion and all the connected stuff.

 

I'm assuming, b/c you had the Plus package, that the charges were for drinks that exceeded the $15 cap.  Glad you discovered them and got it corrected.

[beshears]

Scottdalfonso, yes I hope to follow along with your review, when you start posting it.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 8/18/2024 at 12:02 PM, JGmf said:

I'm assuming, b/c you had the Plus package, that the charges were for drinks that exceeded the $15 cap

not necessarily...

[Russell in MD]

No it wasn't for drinks in excess of the cap.

 

R