Enchantment of the Seas review; February 6, 2012 sailing

DW and I (both of us in our early 50s) just spent twelve wonderful days cruising on Enchantment of the Seas out of Baltimore. Our cruise sailed on February 6, 2012 and we just got home a few hours ago.

Prior to sailing we were concerned about seas being rough but our fears proved to be largely unfounded. Throughout the cruise seas were calm, we felt slight rocking of the boat once in a while but by and large it was a smooth sailing.

We are sailing off the coast of Carolinas

Me, staring into the blue expanse

These pics were taken on the first leg of the cruise between Baltimore and Tortola.

Here are images that I took at dusk on day three of our sailing, day before we arrived in Tortola. I think that this was the "roughest" sailing day on our cruise...

While these pictures were being taken, barf bags were hanging by the elevators :) Go figure...

By the way, water temperature in the solarium was 84.2 degrees Farenheit throughout the cruise. First three days of the sailing water in the outside pools was somewhat cold. I got in but did not spend much time in the outside pool until day four when water got warmer...

Tomorrow I will post some more pics and some more thoughts...

BTW, it is posted on these boards that Enchantment was delayed after we disembarked due to engine problems.

While on board we did not observe, nor were made aware of, any significant problems with the ship. The only problem that we saw was that at disembarkation this morning "ding-ding" machines were not working properly.

Ship shows some wear and tear but nothing that will make anoyone's vacation unbearable or totally unpleasant; I will post more information later...

Thank you for posting your review! So glad you had a wonderful cruise! Beautiful pictures and can't wait to hear more:D

Our first port of call was Tortola, BWI.

DW and I did not book any excursions because right off the pier there are vans and busses that take you on a tour of the island for $20/person. Our tour guide was Isaiah; DW and I got to ride shotgun because we happened to be the last ones on his van. He was very knowledgable and we learned from him a lot about the island, history of the island and local culture.

In case anyone interested: taxi to Cable Beach is $8/person each way and you can stay as long as you want. RCI was selling two hour Beach Break for $29/person to the same beach.

This is Isaiah's van. The tour was awesome.

One of the stops on this tour was West Side Marina. Few nice shops and bars, beatiful scenery.

This is a picture of Cable Beach. It is a very nice beach, lots of shade, nice sand, few places to buy trinkets if you so desire and snacks.

Another picture of the Cable Beach

Enchantment docked in Tortola. View from the top of the hill...

View of the ship in port.

Right next to the port there is a straw market. They sell usual stuff, nothing earth shattering, t-shirts, hats, shirts etc. We found their prices to be higher than on other islands.

Earlier I posted a picture of enchantment taken from the top of the hill. This is the hill that I took the picture from.

I called this image "Reflections of the Pool Deck"

When we left Tortola, we sailed through Sir Francis Drake Channel.

I took this image as we were sailing due East with setting Sun in our wake.

Sunset over one of the smaller islands

Wow great pictures and thanks for the review, keep it coming!

Yesterday I mentioned that Enchantment is showing her age.

Before I go any further, I want to state that we had an awesome cruise. Worn carpets and a missing tile or two in the solarium did not affect quality of our vacation.

What affected our vacation however is the fact that forward middle elevator was not operational for 10 out of 12 days that we were on the ship. One of the men's public bathrooms (4th floor by the restaurant) had a faulty urinal. These two items were somewhat irritating but not irritating enough for me to loose sleep over them. Unfortunately there were some passengers that took pride in finding everything that was wrong with the ship and "sharing" their finding with other passengers. I think that was one of the "fun" things that they do on every cruise that they take.

In this image you can see some rust around the waterline. One morning at breakfast a passenger shared with us that "at night you can hear rust breaking off the ship as we sail."

Ultimately, Enchantment is not in a pristine condition, but she is maintained well and we had a blast...

Thank you for posting a review....looking forward to reading the rest and viewing your pictures. We will be taking this same route on Feb. 27.

Where did the ship dock in pr?

Where did the ship dock in pr?

We docked in Old San Juan.

Looking forward to more posts. We are leaving on the 19th on the same Southern Caribbean cruise. Would love to know what you did in all the ports. We are still trying to figure out which islands have the best snorkling and beaches. Are we correct in thinking that San Juan should be a tour the old city and fort day? Did you go over to St. John when you were in St. Thomas? What did you do in Antigua? So much to do in so little time! Think we'll just lay back and take each day as it comes! Loving your pictures.. more posts please????????:p

Unfortunately there were some passengers that took pride in finding everything that was wrong with the ship and "sharing" their finding with other passengers. I think that was one of the "fun" things that they do on every cruise that they take.

Sadly I've met too many of those types of people, nothing is good enough!

Last year we were on the HAL's Nieuw Amsterdam, just a few months after entering service...guess what there was rust (GHASP!) in some places. People tend forget just how extreme a marine environment is to a ship. No matter how well the ship is taken care of there will be some evidence of rust.

Can't wait to read the rest of your review, we did this same iten. in reverse last December and doing it again next month!

Thanks for the review!!! We'll be on Enchantment on March 10th! It's not this itinerary, but I love the pictures!!!!! :)

I can't stand the kind of people who have to find fault with everything....I married into a family like that :rolleyes:

Sam :D

As I mentioned earlier, while we were in Tortola, DW and I took a tour of the island. There is a spot with several beatiful murals painted by a local artist. I will post photos of some of these murals here...

I think that they are worth seeing.

These murals were painted by a local artist: Olonzo "Bobby" Freeman. They are a beautiful example of local folk art and are well worth seeing.

Reading through other reviews on these boards I noticed that everyone talks about embarkation.

Since it is my first review, I did not even think to say anything about that: rookie mistake I guess.

Due to hotel shuttle scheduling, we were dropped off at the port at 9:30 am. We went through the security, filled in the health form and were checked in by 9:45 (this is not a typo - It happened that fast).

Ship was ready for boarding @ 11:30 and we were among the first to board her. Unfortunately the rooms are not ready until 1:30 (there is a huge sign on every fire door that separates elevators/stairs from corridors with the cabins). So we had to sit and wait until our state room was ready.

Our luggage arrived very quickly by 3 pm; by the muster drill at 4 pm we were unpacked and ready to cruise.:)

In the future, we will try to arrive in such a way that we are among the last to board (shortly before or around 2 pm). That way we will probably be able to get into our stateroom as soon as we board.

BTW: we were not required to wear orange floating devices to the muster drill. We were required however to check with a crew member who had a list of persons that were assigned to the station. Muster drill was not completed until all the passengers on all the stations were accounted for.

Hope that helps.

Second port of call was Antigua.

Here is a picture of Enchantment from the shopping district (it is that close).

Some picturesque tugs/small ships in Antigua

I just like a picture of these barnacles (or whatever these things are) growing on a piling.

Here is a picture of the Catamaran Excellence with Enchantment in the background. We took "See Antigua by Sea" excursion that we purchased through RCI - more about it tomorrow.

Old barge rusting out just outside the port.

Tomorrow I will post more information about Antigua and the excursion that we took.

Thanks for the review. We were cruising with you on the Enchantment sailing Feb 6. What a wonderful cruise. I can't say enough about the crew, they were all so wonderful. I was surprised to see a review so early. We arer still unpacking, and with heading back to work and all, time is short. I have been following the thread about the current cruise, and feel horrible for everyone on board. Looking forward to reading another perspective of our cruise.

Another view of Enchantment (we see her aft section). This picture was taken from Catamaran Excellence as we were coming back into port.

While in Antigua we took “See Antigua by See” catamaran excursion that was sold by Royal Caribbean. The reason we booked this excursion is because two years ago we were in Antigua with Carnival and we enjoyed this excursion so much that we wanted to relive the experience.

For those who previously took this excursion, I am sorry to report that Capitan Mango had a stroke on or around January 20, 2012. He was still in the hospital when we were in Antigua; I did talk to Wayne (one of the crew members) and he told me that Captain Mango is not doing too well. Please keep him in your prayers.

New Capitan’s name is Capitan Noah. The excursion takes you around the whole island. Catamaran "Excellence" is a fast two motor vessel that can go REALLY fast. There is a section of the ride, where sea is usually rough because it is exposed to the Atlantic Ocean. During that portion of the excursion, Capitan Noah drove the catamaran too fast thus creating dangerous conditions for the passengers. On the day that we took the excursion, the waves were less than 3 feet but because our catamaran was moving very fast, we felt a lot of bumps. One of the passengers (a young man in his mid- to late- 20s) was actually thrown off his seat and a crew member had to catch him and take him to safety.

All that Capitan Noah had to do was to slow down and all of us would have a much more pleasant excursion experience.

Once we got into calmer waters, he was OK though.

Personally DW and I will not take that excursion again, because it is only a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt on Excellence during that "rough" portion of the ride. Other than that section, we enjoyed the excursion, we enjoyed the beach where we spent 2.5 hours swimming and snorkeling and we enjoyed ride back to the ship.

DW and I think that next time we will try another catamaran excursion. Our table mates from the dining room took a catamaran ride that included a lobster dinner. My understanding is that the lobster dinner was nothing to write home about but the ride itself was nice. Their catamaran was driven by sails; it moved slower through the rough section of the waters and was very pleasant to ride on.

Another couple that we met on board Enchantment took a beach break excursion. They were taken to Sandals resort and they had a blast.

Here are some pics from "See Antigua by See" excursion

Catamaran "Excellence" with yours truly bobbing in the water in front of her. We were docked at a small public access island for 2.5 - 3 hours where we swam, snorkeled and ate lunch.

Looking between the two hulls of Excellence.... I just enjoyed the "light at the end of the tunnel" effect.

Shade on the sand

Shade from me and my DW on the sands of Antigua

View of the town from the Lido Deck

Thanks for the review. We were cruising with you on the Enchantment sailing Feb 6. What a wonderful cruise. I can't say enough about the crew, they were all so wonderful. I was surprised to see a review so early. We arer still unpacking, and with heading back to work and all, time is short. I have been following the thread about the current cruise, and feel horrible for everyone on board. Looking forward to reading another perspective of our cruise.

I had to start working on Saturday (the day we got back) afternoon. That was a rude awakening. I do miss my daily naps....

I think that our cruise was very lucky because we enjoyed calm seas for 12 days. Cruise before ours had some seriously choppy seas, and my heart goes out to people on the current sailing because of all the problems that they are experiencing

Thanks for your review; pics are very clear and your report is wonderful.

How long was your tour on Tortola? We're thinking about doing this next month when we're there.

Thanks for your review and pics!

Our next port of call was St. Martin. We did not book any excursions because we wanted to spend a day on the beach.

Easiest way to get from the boat to the beach on St. Martin is to take a water taxi. In the past we took a yellow water taxi that took us from the cruise pier to the middle of the beach. This time somehow we ended up on a black water taxi (I think it is a different company because we boarded on a different side of the water taxi dock). That water taxi makes an additional stop on the other side of the marina.

{Here is a picture that I took last year of a YELLOW Water Taxi}

{Here is a picture of a water taxi that we took this year }

We enjoyed that extra stop a lot. It is a nice area with some shops and places to get a drink. So we wandered around, made our way to the market, listened to the worship service that was held in the Baptist church (it sounded awesome) and made our way back to the water taxi.

{Picture of the shopping area at the ADDITIONAL water taxi stop}

Our plan was to do some shopping and then get back on Enchantment, change into our swim suits and go back on the beach. We noticed however that nobody was swimming. We guessed that the water is probably cold and instead of swimming at the beach, we swam on the Lido Deck.

{Pirate Ship excursion is going out. A couple we were friends with was on this excursion. From what we were able to gather it is a booze cruise...}

{Enjoying our swim in the swimming pool}

How long was your tour on Tortola? We're thinking about doing this next month when we're there.

 

Thanks for your review and pics!

Van ride took between two and three hours. I suspect that it depends on individual driver. If we really wanted to stay somewhere a little longer, the driver would probably be OK with that.

Hope that helps

Yes it does! Thanks.