MEGA REVIEW: Enchantment of Seas (5/26-5/31) Fun Fun Fun!!!

[OliverTheCat]

Sorry ahead of time that this is long!!! Just so much to tell!

 

My husband (34) and I (30) went on Enchantment of Seas (5/26 - 5/31) to celebrate our 3 year wedding anniversary. We booked over a year ago, so we were most eager to get on board. We had an interior cabin on Deck 3 - 3879. This was one of the newer cabins added in the stretch. We had the shower doors and not the shower curtain, of which I was most grateful. I have been on 9 cruises, 5 of which are with Royal Caribbean. Husband has been on 6, 5 with Royal Caribbean.

 

PRE CRUISE STAY:

We stayed in Dania Beach the night before our cruise at the Courtyard Marriott off of Gulf Stream Way. This was only 1 exit up 1-95 from Port Everglades and right off 1-95. We were most impressed with every aspect of this Marriott. Beautiful hotel, great room, comfy bedding, great amenities. I would highly recommend this hotel for a pre cruise stay. It is not on the beach or does not have a view of the port, but after I saw Port Everglades and the fact it is mostly a cargo port, I would not want a port view room anyway. We ate at a cozy little Mexican place in Dania Beach called "Pancho's Backyard" which I found when googling Pancho's in Cozumel. Glad we found it. It was sooooooooo delicious. Great service and atmosphere as well.

 

FT. LAUDERDALE - DEPARTURE DAY:

We got to Port Everglades at 11:45 AM and after a little wait to drop off luggage with porters, we were parked in parking garage and on our way up to the ship. We paid for parking at end of cruise rather than at beginning which differs from Port Canaveral. It was speedy checking in, and we were on the ship within 25 minutes of walking into building. The welcome aboard picture is not done right before you walk on ship at this port, which I liked...it is done after you get seapass cards. It flowed a lot more smoothly.

 

Once on board, we booked Chops for a few dinners and a reservation clerk was available right in Centrum as you enter ship, so that was very convenient. We went up to Windjammer and ate. They had a wonderful chickpea salad with a mustard vinaigrette that was actually outstanding. They also had the honey stung chicken I read a lot about on here. The Windjammer was packed solid full of people and very hard to find a table. We finally did when a couple got up, and were out of there in 30 mins. We checked out our stateroom, as I described above, and the new RCI bedding is SO WONDERFUL. It felt so nice slipping into those crisp sheets each night. I loved the duvet coverlet and glad to see those nasty bedspreads g-o-n-e.

 

Muster drill was quickest I have ever experienced on any ship, and it also ran super smooth. I could already tell we were going to have a great cruising group of passengers on board. There were barely any children or teens!!!! A lot of first time cruisers as well.

 

Sailaway party was same old stuff it always is.. Same choreographed dances in a tiny dance space to "Who Let The Dogs Out" "Cha Slide" "Electric Slide" and "Cupid Shuffle". Then it ended. Disney has RCI beat in so many ways for sailaways. Its a shame they dont do more for the kickoff of the cruise on RCI to get crowd pumped. As the previous review of this cruise stated, we had the 12 finalists of Miss Hong Kong on board our cruise, so this was way more interesting to me watching them pose for their photo shoot on top deck. There was a helicopter photographing them that was flying parallel to the Enchantment. Scary at times how close it got, but a good show for passengers.

 

After dinner and welcome aboard show we hung out in Viking Crowne and danced up a storm until wee hours.

 

DAY 2 - KEY WEST:

We arrived at 700 AM and we had a 900 AM parasailing tour booked independently with FURY. We booked it online for $29 pp. The staff of Fury was amazing and I could not have asked for a better time and group on our excursion. Everyone was a lot of fun and they were all good sports when I was terrified to parasail. I did it and I would now do it again in a heartbeat. The view is amazing, and the experience is unbeatable. They even offered a picture disc for $20 that the staff prepared with their good quality camera. We got tons of shots of us from take off to landing. Just a great tour.

 

This was also the formal night. I have to say I was impressed at the amount of people that actually dressed in formal attire. I was so worried I would be overdressed with my long evening gown, as we felt so on Mariner cruise....but there were more college kids on that spring break cruise, maybe that is why. I guess it just depends on the sailing, as sometimes mostly everyone dresses up, and other times barely anyone does. Most people stayed in their attire throughout the evening too after dinner.

 

DAY 3 - COZUMEL:

We pulled into Cozumel on time, but I think it took longer than expected to get off the ship. The line wrapped all around deck 2 with people booked on tours, etc. Luckily, the line was very fast once it started moving and we were off the ship in no time at all...so if you are far back in that long line, dont fret, you will be off soon. We booked the Fury Catamaran Beach & Snorkel tour. We have done this in past in Cozumel and enjoyed it so much, so we booked it this time. The staff were some of the same people and they did not disappoint. We actually saw lots of fish on the snorkel tour so I got a lot of good photo ops. DH and I always bring our own snorkels on excursions because we dont know how well they sterilize them from past cruisers AND there are always teeth marks on the part you bite on. No thanks, we will use our own. The beach was just us and a few people from the Carnival ship also in port with us, but they left within 15 mins of us getting there. You can use the kayaks, floating mats, water trampoline, and water igloo wall for free. Open bar of free Superior Beer and margaritas still apply on beach, as they did on boat. Food is extra. We chose to swim out to the trampoline and igloo. The igloo is a lot further of a swim than we thought and I was not able to grip the igloo well enough to climb it due to the current. I was so tired swimming back to shore from it, so I am glad I am a decent swimmer. The ride back to Enchantment was stormy, and we hit a big thunderstorm, so not as much on deck dancing as we usually do on this excursion. Hats off to Fury for making this a great excursion once again for us!

 

When getting back on the ship close to the cut off 5:30 PM time, we learned from the staff that 400 people were still in Cozumel. I wonder how many of those people were left on the island when we left?!? Somebody in line told us that about 20 people get left behind each cruise. I wonder if that is true!? I know the Cancun excursion was late getting back to Cozumel, but there were not 400 people on that ferry. Very interesting. I think we left around 6 or 630, so I think we still left on time.

 

Tonight was the midnight deck party and food buffet. We did not eat anything but there was plenty of food. They had the same dances on the deck they had on departure day, and then they did some fantastic shows with bartenders. Some of them are very talented!

 

DAY 4 - BELIZE :

We decided not to book an excursion for our second trip to Belize. We were going to do Banister Island, but changed mind and never booked it. We just spent most of day on ship, slept in, and then rode the noon tender over to the island and had lunch at the Wet Lizard. The weather took a big turn for worse around 2pm and everything started getting dark, so we decided to get back on the tender and go back to the boat. Well, the tender, as you know is about a 30 minute ride to the boat, so halfway back we hit a downpour and heavy wind. The tender had waves of water coming in and we were all huddled under the little overhang on deck one. DH and I were actually sitting on floor under my beach bag because the rain would hit you like bullets and hurt! It was freezing, we were soaked and we immediately got in showers back on ship to warm up. We later found out that tropical storm Arthur was right behind Belize and that rain storm was a patch from that system.

 

The ship was rocking and rolling all night long. Many people were sipping ginger ale over alcohol and I overheard many people talking about how they felt seasick. I definitely felt it during my dinner and ended up eating a potato and some saltines with ginger ale. I felt better by the time we went to bed, but I have never felt that much motion on a cruise ship!! The captain did do a good job with the ship with stabilizers, so it was way more pitch than roll movements.

 

DAY 5 - AT SEA:

Today we just enjoyed sleeping in. Went for breakfast and then got a few pool chairs to watch Belly flop competition, and lounge the rest of our day away by pool, reading. From about 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM I did notice it was very hard for latecomers to find chairs by pools. Many of them went to top deck. We watched a lot of people reserving chairs for hours with their pool towels. I never really saw the workers removing them. The poolside BBQ was some of the best food on the cruise. Great chicken, ribs, hot dogs, macaroni salad, and my favorite RCI treat, Banana Bread!! I have missed their banana bread!

 

LEAVING ENCHANTMENT:

Getting off the ship was a breeze. Quickest I have experienced. We were in one of first group colors called, and the line was always moving until we were to luggage area. Our luggage was very visible and easy to find, so we had no issues getting it and getting on our way home to Central Florida.

 

FOOD:

DH and I do not prefer the dining room for meals, gave it a go 2x in past and were disappointed, always felt rushed, (etc) so we ate at Chops or Windjammer for dinner each night just as we had on 3 of our other RCI cruises. I must say I was super surprised at the amount of people now choosing Windjammer for dinner. The place was packed night after night, even when we ate late at 8:30 before they closed. The Windjammer used to be so dead for dinner. Maybe this is why RCI is considering anytime dining? They had plenty of selection in buffets, even tofu and the Jade asian selections each night. I never went away hungry, that is for sure. My favorite was the made to order stir fry, which you could choose pork, beef, or chicken. Outstanding. Since they made it to order with vegtables of choice, it was just as I wanted it. Another reason I love the Windjammer for dinner....the made to order section. Fresh carved meat, create your own pastas, YUMMY. Windjammer servers were always friendly, and great at refilling our drinks and clearing plates.

 

There was the famous "afternoon tea" each day on Enchantment. The best must have during this is the nachos with salsa and/or chili with all the fixin's to make it a taco salad. The line for these items was always very long but well worth it. I was so glad to see chips and salsa for a snack before dinner! We had that a few days. There are tons of other food selections too...actually it almost felt like another lunch there was so much selection haha!!! There are always sugar free options for desserts on buffet, which I appreciated. Key Lime Mousse on day 1 was my favorite SF dessert.

 

We opted to not try the room service. Menu is on the glass table inside stateroom in the big information book. We also did not try the free frozen yogurt, or use Seattle's Best or Ben & Jerry's, although I really craved their mint chip and coffee ice creams when I would walk by every day. They also had pastries to buy there as well...and yummy ones I might add.

 

We felt the service and food in Chops was only OK on this ship. We felt the servers were always on top of us asking us questions and almost intrusive, and we really never could enjoy the romantic atmosphere. Also, the service was pretty slow between courses...slower than it should have been. There were crew members eating in the restaurant on both nights we dined in Chops and they were going through courses way quicker than the passengers. It was a bit tacky. The restaurant was pretty empty on our anniversary night where we had a reservation, and we had to wait 10 minutes for them to set our table, even though when we walked in the servers were all conversing at the kitchen area engaged in casual conversation with one another. Our server that night was less than personable. Her assistant was a lot friendlier. The steak has been better on my other cruises, and I tried the Filet and the NY Strip this time around. Both times I felt they were dry for Medium grade. The Chops salad is still very good, with the bacon being very crisp and a perfect accompaniment. The giant baked potato is still giant. Enough for 2 or 3 people haha. The Portobello caps with asparagus appetizer was perfect both times I ordered it. My husband liked the chocolate mousse a lot, and highly recommends it, but he did not care for the apple crisp dessert they served (cannot recall name). I did not eat dessert either time we dined there. I have a peanut allergy, and it seemed peanut brittle was in contact with each dessert or they had nuts in them. Not worth the risk. I was disappointed in fact that Chops was not as good. That was surprising considering the cover charge went up to $25 since my Mariner cruise. I would still choose Chops on Enchantment if I sailed again, but would hope for better overall experiences, as I DID experience when sailing Mariner and Navigator on past cruises. It was definitely not bad, just disappointing since I could compare it to prior experiences. I will say this was the prettiest of all the Chops I have seen on the ship and is situated just right for perfect sunset views. Our final dinner there made for some outstanding photos of sunset. Check sunset times before you go on your cruise in order to book perfect time. Dinners were around an hour to an hour and a half.

 

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT:

 

I have to say, this cruise was chock full of great acts. Marc Walker is by FAR my favorite Cruise Director so far on any cruise. He and Luke really make a solid team, and that was very apparent over and over again for Love & Marriage Game (which was one of funniest I have ever seen even though one couple seemed too scripted and fake), and various other events they both hosted together. Mega props to Marc for a job very well done! We hope to cruise with him again in future. They should keep he and Luke together. The comedian Miguel Washington was hilarious on welcome aboard show and adult comedy show. Ladies behind me were offended by some of his jokes, and seriously needed to get a grip. The final act was a mexican cowboy as they called him, and he did a lot of really cool tricks. I really thought he was a lot of fun. Didn't catch Beatlemania, but heard they were good. I saw the guys on ship over and over again and they seemed very personable.

 

The Schooner Bar had Norman Clifford playing for the piano bar portion of the night, and honestly, me and DH did not care for him. He was kinda all over the place. We went on Day 2, but did not return. .

 

The Centrum had the most talented musicians of all. WOW. The Teddy Trio and Northern Lights Trio were just amazing. There was a lovely couple that would take a bottle of wine to a table in Centrum each night and drink it while listening to them play. Very romantic. DH would go up to and read his book while they played.

 

Viking Crowne had DJ Conrad still spinning Top 40 tunes. He did play one of my requests, and really seemed to cater to the crowd in the late hours, playing what they wanted to hear. Mostly hip hop/r&b on this sailing, but again, it just depends on the passengers, and what they want. I think DJ Conrad does a great job.

 

The poolside band was Extra. They were very very good too. Always love a caribbean band by the pool on a sea day.

 

Azucar was playing nightly in Boleros, and I did enjoy them for the most part. It was always hopping with people dancing, and some very good dancers on board I must say. I was also happy to see Enchantment offered a Big Band dancing hour one night. I know it is always highly requested.

 

We did not go to the two production shows, as I think they were identical to the ones we saw on Mariner when we sailed her. They do a broadway production show featuring songs from multiple musicals, as well as a show dedicated to famous movie songs.

 

Karaoke Superstar was OK. The last night a guy did "Desperado" by The Eagles. If you are him, and are on Cruise Critic you were unbelievable!! Pat on the back for you!

 

 

INTERESTING NOTES:

1) They had a "smoke free" night in the casino. I thought that would be a great time for DH and I to do some donating to the slots in a smoke free environment. When we got there, it was not indeed free of smokers. Lots of them by slots hiding the cigarettes.

2) One of the pools on Enchantment of seas is fresh/filtered water. It is the one closest to the band shell, or at least it was on my sailing. I wish they would go fleet wide with the fresh water pools. I do not know many that prefer salt water over fresh water pools.

3) They do have veggie burgers at Solarium burger/pizza bar!! They also have chicken.

4) The Welcome Aboard photos now come as an 8x10 and 5x7 package for $19.95....it used to be a 5x7 only for $9.95. You either buy both or none. I was disappointed in this because we dont need the 8x10 with all the ports of call on it. The 5x7 used to have the date of cruise/ship name. No longer.

5) The tender for Belize is about 30 or so minutes so if you book an independent tour, keep this in mind for your time. This does not include time it takes to load tender with passengers.

6) There is a bar in the casino that has about 6 tvs playing sports games. Good for checking scores of your team..however they dont have ALL the games. I was not able to see the NHL finals on cruise, but they did have the NBA Finals + soccer on.

7) The old $10 merchandise day they have near end of cruise (where they sell the wraps, watches, formal purses and costume jewelry) is now $15 but they ran a Buy 2 get one free deal. We found a store in Key West right buy pier that was $9.95 for any item, and got some great sunglasses there. They basically had the same exact things as on board (same brands) for what RCI used to charge.

8) I am not used to Windjammer not having trays to hold plates on for buffet. It caused us to have to make several trips to the buffet to get what we needed for meals. Also, coffee station outside Windjammer no longer used paper cups and lids as I found on all other cruises...just mugs, which was difficult to walk on deck with on a windy night without spillage.

9) For fitness class guru's the classes offered on my sailing were Aerobics, Abs, Stretch, Yoga ($10), Pilates ($10), Spinning ($10). I did not get to participate in any this cruise. The gym is very nice though.

 

Overall we really really enjoyed Enchantment. I look forward to sailing on her again in near future. Maybe she will move to Port Canaveral one day, near my home! One person I was not impressed with on this cruise was our stateroom attendant. He ever introduced himself to us, we never saw him, he didnt replace our towels properly, just made the bed very nice. He also added a soda charge to our seapass card that guest services never removed. We never drank one of those in room drinks. So out of the stateroom attendants on my floor I have no idea which one of them was our guy. That was a first on any cruise.

 

If you have any questions I didn't cover, I would be glad to try and answer them!!! I can peek through my cruise compasses to get answers too. I have no way to scan them though, so for that I apologize. I will try my best to answer as speedy as I can, I am back to work though...so it may be tough to get on as much as I would like.

[AF-1]

How was your cabin? Did u have enough space to move around? Also did you feel the dining room food is going down in quality; so that is why you ate in Windjammer?

[cot427]

Great! Thanks for the review and glad you enjoyed your cruise?

 

Also, thanks for mentioning Fury in Key West. I will be there in just about a week and a half for a land vacation, and I was looking for something to do.

[mjbelen]

Great review. Thanks for taking the time to write this in so much detail. I sail on her on July 3rd, which will be my 4th time on this great ship.

[granddutchess]

Excellent review. We will be sailing on the Enchantment of the Seas July 7th. We cannot wait. It will be our first time in an interior cabin. We will be on Deck 8. How was it navigating in there with two people? We will have three in our cabin.

[Coralc]

Great review! How funny! We had the 10 finalists for Miss Panama (Miss Universe pageant) onboard with us for the day, when we were on our canal transit. It must be a promo thing for RCI.....I guess we will have to watch the pageant to see our ships! Thanks for the review. :D Edit..all the bartenders were following the contestants around to be "helpful" LOL:D :D

[OliverTheCat]

How was your cabin? Did u have enough space to move around? Also did you feel the dining room food is going down in quality; so that is why you ate in Windjammer?

 

We loved our interior cabin. It is hard going back to that from being in balconys, but it was either interior or no cruise so we did interior. There was plenty of room to move around in actual cabin for the two of us. The couch was enough to seat two. Vanity was plenty big for all my makeup and lady junk when getting ready for evenings. I did utilize the over the door shoe holder for all our tolietries because there is no WAY the bathroom shelves or medicine cabinet would hold it all. I am so glad I did that this cruise and on Sovereign. What a difference. We stuck it right over bathroom door. When you open the shower doors you can reach in there and get razor out and stuff too while you are in shower, so it just was super convenient.

 

I didnt see a difference in quality of food except in Chops on this sailing. We choose WIndjammer due to fact we just have never gotten lucky with good dining room experiences on RCI. We have been rushed, the portions are tiny, I have trouble choosing an entree that appeals to me (and windjammer I have a zillion choices) and I dont need the shows they do during dinner. I just want to eat and go as I want. The dining isnt really ever a big deal to us on cruises, but we have enjoyed Chops and Portofino in past. I will say if I had to compare the food quality on Disney Cruise Line v. RCI I would choose Disney hands down. But RCI is not bad at all.

[OliverTheCat]

Great! Thanks for the review and glad you enjoyed your cruise?

 

Also, thanks for mentioning Fury in Key West. I will be there in just about a week and a half for a land vacation, and I was looking for something to do.

 

 

Check out the Fury website. They also have other things they offer independant, like the caterman for snorkel, glass bottom boat, parasail combo tour. All meet at Pier. Very convenient and cheaper than booking with cruise line.

[OliverTheCat]

Excellent review. We will be sailing on the Enchantment of the Seas July 7th. We cannot wait. It will be our first time in an interior cabin. We will be on Deck 8. How was it navigating in there with two people? We will have three in our cabin.

 

We thought it was easy to move around in the interior cabin with just the two of us, but honestly I dont know if I personally could handle more than 2 in an interior. Maybe us and a small child, but it may get cozy for my personal taste with 3. I have heard people say they had 4 in there so it can be done and people are happy with it. That is just my personal taste. We always entered the bed from the bottom of it and never went around the sides to get in. That made it easier. There are so many storage drawers and shelves in even the interior room. I was shocked we had so much storage space. The tv even pulls out from the unit and turns toward bed so you dont have to sit on couch to watch it.

[kittymom65]

Really great review!

[aurelius180]

Great review! I have my first Enchantment cruise in October and you made me even more antsy! I'm glad you had a good time and provided me with plenty of tips. Thanks!

[WISH84]

We are also going on our first Enchantment this October and it will mark my first return trip on RCI since 1997 which was my first ever cruise. We are looking forward to this trip very much.