Getting Enchanted with Royal Caribbean. Enchantment of the Seas Review 10/27-10/31

Home from my first cruise on Royal Caribbean, I am going to take a crack at a review.

Some back ground first.

I am a 26 year old native Floridian. I have sailed with Carnival four times now, and have another one lined up for December. What brings me to Royal Caribbean you ask? Well, some really crummy stuff happened at work and to cheer myself up, I reminded myself WHY I needed my job by browsing cruise prices and found an unbeatable going going gone fare from RCI for a 4 day out of Port Canaveral. Our ports of call were Coco Cay. ( Is that pronounced Kaye or Key? I heard it both ways!) and Nassau. I have been to Nassau once before and absolutely adore it. I was very eager to see how Coco Cay stacked up to Half Moon Cay.

So, take it back about three weeks with me. It's a saturday. I just got off the phone with my boss (imagine dramatically pressing the "end" button and slamming my phone down, then quickly checking to make sure I didn't crack the screen.) and I flop down on the couch, muttering about all the things I should have said, wiping tears from my eyes and grabbing my laptop.

I go to my normal cruise booking engine and for the heck of it, see what's going on in October.... Sigh. I really wish I could crui---wait a minute... 120/pp?? For how many days? Man! Wow! How much is that all together? WHAT!?!? I just got paid yesterday. I can definitely afford this... I'm gonna book it!

Wait... wait.. Let me double check with the boyfriend before I sign him up and expect him to pay half... Well.. let me look at the solo rate.. Oh yeah, I can afford that even if he doesn't want to go.

So I text him. He's on board! Now we just need to make sure we can get the time off. I called our scheduler, and she was on board with it too. For both of us! Oh my god!! We are going to cruise this month!

We did have some booking hiccups. I booked over the phone with a very friendly representative. However, I selected My Time Dining. Checking my account after the phone call, I noticed RCI took out less money than what we were told the total was. Hmm... Well, I check the cruise docs when they're ready and it turns out that my BF was booked on 830 dining without the prepaid gratuity and I was on My Time Dining. How SILLY! So I call and pay the gratuity for him, but they didn't switch him to My Time Dining. I had to call a third time to get that straightened out.

The Enchantment of the Seas... It will be our first experience with RCI and we are excited! Fast forward to last Friday. Boyfriend and I are arguing. That's it! I'm done! I proclaim in a furious text message (Yes, i'm one of THOSE people. I know, shame on me. But to my defense, our fight was taking place over text)

Well... This is going to be a totally awkward cruise, because I'm still totally going, and I'm going to have a GREAT time. I called RCI to ask a few questions. One. Are we able to embark separately? Because I am totally not going to drive to the cruise port with him. (Silly I know, since we will be sharing a room for 4 days.) The first rep said they had to find out, and put me on hold for 10 minutes. Then the call dropped. I called back and got a woman, who at first could not find my reservation. Then she assured me no, we didn't have to check in together. So I asked about dinner.. We have my time dining, do we have to go to the dining room at the same time? No! Of course not! And finally... can the beds be separated before we get there? Carnival has the option of choosing your bed arrangement ahead of time. Unfortunately, no.

So, that takes us to Monday, 10/27, Embarkation day!

Oh this is gonna be good

Oh this is gonna be good

Retired Leo, you don't like Enchantment much, do you?:D I was on her in April and had such a wonderful time. Majesty used to be my "short, go to cruise" but from now on, for as long as she is in Florida, she's my "short, go to cruise."

P.S. It does sound like it's gonna be good, huh:)

Retired Leo, you don't like Enchantment much, do you?:D I was on her in April and had such a wonderful time. Majesty used to be my "short, go to cruise" but from now on, for as long as she is in Florida, she's my "short, go to cruise."

 

P.S. It does sound like it's gonna be good, huh:)

The Enchantment is a great ship :D

Being 45 minutes from Port Canaveral doesn't hurt either :)

I was on the last sailings of the Sovereign and Monarch. So sorry to see them both go.

So... Originally we had planned that my boyfriend would pick me up at 9:30, and we would get to the parking place, and then the port at 10:30.

Well, now my mom was taking me to the port.

I was up at 6, shoving the last bit of my clothes into the suitcase. I severely overpacked.. I packed more for a 7 day cruise. I had two suitcases and a backpack. I tend to over pack because well, you never know! I tend to feed my shirt a lot, and who wants to walk around with a stain? Not me! I popped my contacts in, and I don't wear them often enough to be an expert at this yet and jabbed my eye unsucessfully a few times with a "WHY---ARE---YOU--STICKING--TO--MY--FINGER!!!!!"

So at about 8, I lug my bags out to my car, and with a dramatic over enthusiastic grunt, I heave them up and shove them unceremoniously in the trunk. I briefly contemplate breakfast.. Should I? But no.. I am going to save room for a BIG embarkation day lunch! Yum!

So instead, Pre Departure Selfie!

My shirt says "Seaside" It's one of three "cruisey shirts" I bought that I got a lot of compliments on!

The minute it strikes 845 I am up and climbing in the car and my mother is meandering along behind, grumbling something about it's too damn early and she should just leave me at the port.

I am positively bubbling with energy as we pull off and head to the port. Smiles! All smiles! The conversation in the car turns to how I was going to handle the now ex boyfriend thing, and maybe he won't show up. I haven't heard from him at all since friday. Not a single peep. The drive was free of traffic, quick and painless. I took the toll roads, definitely recommend!

So we drive over the first of two bridges..

Mom: "Oh, I saw a dolphin in the water."

"Huh? Where? I don't see a dolphin!"

"You're not supposed to. PAY ATTENTION TO THE ROAD."

"Hmph......(and as we cross the last bridge) OH MY GOD LOOK THE CRUISE SHIPS!"

"STOP TAKING PICTURES AND PAY ATTENTION TO THE ROAD!"

"BUT LOOK! THAT'S DISNEY!!! They're soooo expensive!"

"I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU DONT PUT THE PHONE DOWN----"

"Fine.."

"TERMINAL 10!! THATS ME! THATS ME! Oh crap! (swerving to stay IN my lane)"

"Oh god I'm gonna die."

I arrived at the port, and in my anxiousness to get this cruise started, I took out an orange traffic cone. We pulled in to one of the taxi spots, a porter wandered over. I popped my trunk as my mom moved in to the drivers seat and a porter effortlessly lifted my over packed bags out and with a $2 tip, off the bags and the porter went.

Originally I had a little bit of anxiety about the tags, because RCI asks that they be printed in color. I have no printer currently, and as I don't print very often I am not in a rush to replace it. I used the printer at work, which was only black and white. But I had absolutely no problems with luggage.

I got in line at the port at 10:01.

I know the exact time because I checked in on facebook. The check in process was organized and painless. Last time I cruised a port security guy tried to take my power strip, this time no one mentioned it.

After we made it through security, we were seated in the waiting area before the check in process started, it was only an approximately 10 minute wait before they got things rolling. In line we were handed a health questionnaire. It was the first time I'd gotten one but no one had any pens so we could fill them out while we waited. Instead, I had to fill it out when I got up to the desk.

About a week before boarding I took a look at the drink packages RCI offered. I settled on the Royal Replenish. I wasn't sure if I would get my moneys worth but spending a little extra is worth it, in my mind, if I can pay one price and not have to worry.

When I got my SeaPass ( I may call it sail and sign, sorry. Carnival habits!) it had the Coca Cola logo embossed on the bottom and a sticker already on it, they also handed me my freestyle cup at check in. I thought this was cool. With Carnival, the cup is extra.

After I was all checked in, sea pass in hand, I had a seat back in the waiting area and waited for boarding. It seemed like it took ages, but in reality, it was only a few minutes before the woman told us we could go ahead and board.

Squeal! I am so excited I can hardly contain myself! I am about to get my first experience with a Royal Caribbean ship! And man, I really needed this vacation!

I was on board by 1058.

And they were decorated for Halloween!

can't wait to read more about your cruise

I'm hanging onto every word and waiting to see what happens next! :D

I love the way you write. I can picture ever move. Can't wait to

hear about the boyfriend. Don't leave out any details. :D

On board... Still a bit early for lunch, I decided to wander around the ship, and really explore it. We entered on Deck 5, but I'd run down to Deck 4 to take pictures. I wandered up to Deck 5 again and headed to the place I would be spending almost absolutely no time... The Casino!

How COOL is this floor?

And this ceiling? I liked the "treasure"

(Side note. I love to try and take panoramics with my iPhone but I am absolutely dreadful at them. I move too fast, too high, too low... )

From there, I headed up to Deck 6. Through the shops, which I only have one picture of unfortunately but it was truly very mall-ish. On the Carnival ships I've been on, they are on Deck 5 Promenade, which is basically a big circle, and the shops are situated around the circle. On the Enchantment, you had shops on either side of a hallway, then the halls forked, and you had some shops on one side, one in the middle, and shops on the other side. Then in the middle, there was a stand where they were often selling alcohol and watches.

Through the shops, which were closed, to the Orpheum Theater.

These statues were amusing, there was a male on one side and a female on the other in very similar poses. The funny part about it was, the male side corresponded to what side the male bathroom was across the hall by the shops, and the women's statue was on the woman's side. I don't know if that was intentional but helpful!

Inside the theater

Oooh! A reflective surface! Let's take a selfie!

I am just too cute for words in this picture.

From here, I decided that it was enough exploring, it was nearly time for lunch to start and I am a fluffy girl who likes to eat, so hunger started to win out.

So out on to the pool deck I went. And then Enchantment had so many pools!

There was a splash area for little kids and diaper babies.

Another pool which was a sort of "family pool"

The metal divider divided the pool in two. One side was a "normal" pool depth, the other was just over one foot deep, so little ones could splash and play in a pool their size. I thought this was really cool and kid friendly.

Then behind that, they called this the "sports pool"

Behind that, there is a stage. There was no music being played on embarkation day, that I can remember.

On deck, they also had cornhole! And some weird melty looking random statue. It's placement was weird, kind of like when you get a gift you don't really like and you just kind of shove it to the back corner so you don't have to look at it much but don't hurt anyone's feelings by not displaying it.

Behind weird melty statue, there is the towel check. On Carnival, there is a towel places in your room for you to take off board with you. If it's dirty, the steward exchanges it when he cleans the room, if you need a new one between then, you can take it up to the pool deck. There is one per person in the stateroom, and if at the end of the cruise there is not one per person left behind, your card gets charged. In RCI, you must check out each towel and return it, there is none left in your room.

If you walk past the towel check (or on the other side, it's table tennis) there are automatic doors, and through those doors is a bathroom and the entrance to the solarium.

These doors you operate with a push of a button (so they're more semi-automatic.) that I did not notice the first time I tried to get through them. As I was approaching they were closing, I stuck out my arm to have them open again and nearly got it cut off as the doors snapped shut anyway. So I stood there, waving my arms at the top of the door like an idiot, trying to trigger the sensor to let me in. Hello! Am I invisible?

Then a crew member came rushing over, pushed the button and I felt very sheepish.

This sheepish feeling is further compounded when I decided that I should hit the bathroom before going any further ( I swear I have the Pavlovian bladder. If I see a bathroom, I must pee.) I stood there, like an idiot, pulling and pulling at the door, more urgently each time because now I REALLY have to pee. Same crew member came over and cheerfully informed me "Push, ma'am!"

I am now two for two on not knowing how to open doors. Way to go, me!

So I did my business, in what was a very pretty, clean and spacious bathroom (If they can make them so spacey on a cruise ship, WHY oh why can we not do that on land? where you can make public spaces as big as you want because they don't have to FLOAT on water.. ) and then continued on to the solarium.

The solarium was very stuffy and hot feeling, but oh how beautiful.

I loved this little elephant statue I called this "Elephant in her Sultry Pose".

And finally, solarium selfie!

I had read on CC that the Solarium was adults only, but according to the Cruise Compass and a sign, the Solarium was for guests 16 and above. Last time I checked, 16 was still a snot nosed teenager. (Just kidding, they probably wouldn't be caught dead with snot in their nose. They seriously, can't even....) Back here, they also had the Park Cafe which was cute. I've heard the salads are good, but when I wandered back there it wasn't open, and I wasn't going to wait around for it when just across deck there was a ton of food just waiting for ME! Plus, I gotta scope out a coca cola freestyle machine for my cup!

Oh, there was also a quiet little bar back there too, but the times I was back there it either wasn't open or the bar tender was hiding.

Following! What a fun review, love your writing, pictures and great sense of humor. Waiting for the rest of the story about the stinker BF. We had friends on this cruise so that makes it even more interesting. Thank you for taking the time to do this!

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I headed over to the Windjammer. Upon entering the windjammer on either side, there is a salad bar and a "starter" area with various types of bread, in front of the drink stations where they had a crew member making drinks and setting them up on a table where you just walk up, grab the one you want, and continue on your way.

In the middle of the windjammer there main buffet is set up like a circle in the middle, there is a carving station here, and there are other stations set up around the perimeter of the circle.

At the "base" of the circle, at lunch there was usually a hamburger/hot dog station. I was silly and missed the buns on my first go through so ended up constructing my hamburger rather backwards. If you are standing in the windjammer at the base, facing the back windows, to the right there was an asian station. It always had various rices and noodles and Asian inspired meat dishes, on the opposite side was an "international" station which had various different kinds of foods. The circle had your standard Americanised fare. At dinner, however, part of the main circle became a sushi station.

There are a total of four coke freestyle machines on the ship, and three of them are in the Windjammer area. The first one is if you are walking in and take the left side entrance. The other two are in a little section called the Windjammer Annex, also on the left side, but the entrance to that is opposite the entrance to the regular windjammer. Am I confusing you? I am confusing myself. The fourth and final coke freestyle machine is on Deck 6 by Cafe Latte-itudes as you come off the fancy staircase.

I personally think they would have done better to spread the machines out a bit, maybe one out by the pool, and one on each side of the windjammer. While doing the little bit of pre cruise research I did for this cruise, people mentioned concern over lines for the freestyle machines. I never noticed much of a line, the longest one I remember was three people deep and it moved very quickly.

Anyway, I flitted about the windjammer looking at their offerings and finally settled on my lunch.

Rice and noodles from the Asian bar, a backwardsly constructed cheeseburger, and a salad from a caesar salad bar set up at one of the stations. I didn't care much for the noodles, they were dry, but everything else was delicious!

So as I was settled with my Orange Vanilla Coke and my food, I pulled out my phone, texted my mom to make sure she had made it home okay, and then checked facebook to see all of the "Have a good time!" "Take lots of pictures!" "I want a shot glass!" "I want to go on a cruise!" posted to my check-ins and selfies. That's right, be jealous!

I also noticed, after days of radio silence where I was unsure of if he was even going to show... My ex boyfriend posted a pic of himself driving to the port ("Seriously! Taking pictures while they're driving!? Who does that! It's sooooo dangerous!" while ignoring my "first glance of the ship" pictures.) Dang he was on his way. Oh wait, oh no... He's on the boat. He just posted a picture of something I just posted a picture of! I quickly ducked my head down as if I could hide behind my soda cup.

Although I had prepped myself for our first post break up encounter ( I am totally going to confidently cold shoulder him, snub him, make him rue the day he made me angry enough to break up with him.) I wasn't quite ready. I shoveled the rest of the food in my mouth and then fled the scene. I fled to wander the ship some more, visit the solarium, walk the upper deck.

Hey look! It's Disney! Hi Disney! I wish you didn't cost my as of yet non existent first born for a 4 day cruise!

When some time had passed, I decided to visit the Windjammer again and get some dessert. I checked facebook, it seemed clear, as he was posting pictures of inside the ship. I merrily waltzed down the stairs, and across the pool deck and---oh no. Ohhhh no. He's sitting at the pool bar in the back. Abort abort!! Crap! I think he saw me. Act like you didn't!

So instead of making it to the Windjammer I did a quick about face and clung to the Oasis bar, pretending that this is what I had planned to do all along, I set my back pack down, wiped the sweat away from my forehead and ordered a Miami Vice.

I reminisced briefly about the beautiful side by side red and white icy deliciousness sitting perfectly in a hurricane glass that I'd had on my last cruise. Mmmmmm..

Imagine my disappointment when this is what I got.

Foul! This is not a Miami Vice! It looked like he was making a strawberry daiquiri and ran out of strawberry!

By the way, the Oasis Bar is a stand alone bar out in the blazing sun, with black counters. Therefore the unsuspecting bar patron is likely to put their bare arm down on the counter. Don't do it! Ouch! You'll walk away with some burnt skin!

I made a very obvious attempt NOT to look in the direction of the pool bar as I sat at the Oasis bar. I chatted it up with a lady who sat beside me, who also commented on the bar top and how unbearably hot it was and asked me what I was drinking (Well.. it was SUPPOSED to be a non alcoholic Miami Vice... but this glass is just sad. And it's not pretty.)

After awhile, I stole a glance. He was no longer there. I hot footed it to the Windjammer for my dessert!

I had what looked like a slice of a gigantic swiss roll, a cookie, and a brownie. Tragically, Royal's idea of a brownie is dry chocolate cake cut in to triangles. I have to say I am normally not impressed with cruise desserts aside from Carnival's warm chocolate melting cake and aside from the unfortunate brownie impostor, I found the deserts to be good. Not great, but good.

After I finished poking, prodding and deciding I really didn't like said brownie, it was around 130 and I decided to check to see if my room was ready.

I was a little worried about my room, because our room was by the elevator on deck 3, under the centrum. As I was waiting for the elevator, I could hear loud, happy music playing in the centrum while I was all the way up on Deck 9.

The room was ready!

As I walked in my first thought was... "This is what Harry Potter must have felt like... because this must have been a broom closet before they converted it in to a cabin."

It was so tiny! And the "couch" they advertised as having in the room was more like a chair that decided one day it was just going to elongate itself a little.

My attempted panorama shots

I wasn't in my room more than 10 minutes before the room attendant was knocking on the door. He asked if there was anything I needed, told me how to contact him, etc etc. I asked for the beds to be separated and for an extra pillow. My room attendant was by far the best I've ever had. Each morning he would catch me in the hall just as I was leaving and ask if I was planning to go into port, reminding me what I needed to bring with me, giving advice, etc. He was truly wonderful.

After seeing the room attendant, I wanted to wander the ship a bit more. I ended up by the steakhouse. I found the touch screen with the menu on it and was scanning through when a crew member came out of the steakhouse and asked me if I wanted to make a reservation.

At first I was hesitant... but then she told me the first night you get a 20% discount. So why not? I made the reservation for 6pm that night.

I heard an announcement for the shopping talk and headed to the theater.

And then I realized I did not like this theater very much. We were given raffle tickets to fill out, a map and bunch of papers, but there were no tables to put them on. They only had a spot for your drink. And the chairs were small (that's more of a fluffy girl problem than anything.)

They were handing out little Del Sol rings, and the shopping talk was hosted by the shopping host, with his wife, who wore a lot of the jewelry they were selling. Because this was before the muster drill, it was a little rushed. At the raffle at the end, they only raffled off a bingo package, a shore excursion, a pendant, and something else I cant remember. On Carnival, the shopping talk I went to they raffled off a lot of T-Shirts, bags, a few pieces of jewelry.. And it was done after the muster so it wasn't so rushed.

Right after I left, I headed for my muster station. It was there I locked eyes with my ex boyfriend, he was already in line. He just stared. He didn't smile, didn't wave, didn't try to talk to me (not that we could have talked, I ended up lined up several rows away).. Did he just... snub me?? He's not supposed to snub me. I'm supposed to snub him! Grr!

The muster drill was painless. The crew members running it were very energetic and tried to make it fun. As you came to line up, they took your room number to make sure you were there, and before the drill officially started called room numbers of all the people missing and once everyone was accounted for, began their presentation.

After the drill, I headed back to the cabin, expecting ex boyfriend would do the same. In the cabin, I strained to see if I could hear any noise from up above and to my relief, the cabin was very.. very quiet! And my bags were here! I unpacked, claiming a side (in front of the TV. a mistake because of the dividing curtain, it blocked half my view) and the 1.5 of the drawers and stowed my unpacked bags in the closet.

And here I collapsed on the bed and took a little nap until it was time to get ready for the steakhouse.

I got dressed in what I thought was nice, yet comfy. A pink shirt, brown skinny jeans and flats. As I sat on the chaircouch brushing my hair, the door beeped, the knob turned, and in came the ex boyfriend. With nowhere to hide, we had to have our first encounter. Remember I had resolved to give him the cold shoulder, snub...

Oh! I am such a liar!

I said the solarium bar was never open or the bartender was hiding, upon review of my selfie, there is obviously someone at the bar. I guess i just didn't pay close enough attention!

How will you be able to take anything else in my review seriously when I am so obviously a liar? Ugh!

Haha you are hilarious. This is reading very much like a short story, more than a review. Love it!

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Instead of following through, I immediatly started chatting him up. What had he done since he got on board, why didn't he say hi when he saw me at the muster!?!

And then, as I sat there brushing my hair and taking a selfie:

I invited him to dinner with me. At Chops.

To my surprise, he decided to come with me and we walked down to Chops. We were seated right away next to the window.

This was our view, quite nice actually.

Chops was pretty empty, maybe because it was only 6pm, maybe because it was the first day, but when I had made the reservation I was a little hesitant and asked if I absolutely needed reservations and I was told yes! Absolutely! Reservations were definitely needed to get a table. I felt a little lied too. There was no reason we couldn't have just walked up and been seated.

Chops Grille as an atmosphere, felt like it wanted to be fancy. It had nice tables, fake tea lights

But something about the room, I can't quite put my finger on it, felt like they had a spare room on the ship and thought "hey! Let's make this a thing and charge money to eat here!"

We didn't order wine, I don't drink. We were settled with just water. A waiter quickly brought over a piece of warm pretzel break and some buttery mustard sauce to go on it. "The chef's specialty bread!" It was delicious. As a side note, both of our names became Ma'amSir at the steakhouse. "Hello Ma'amSir." "Would you like wine, Ma'amSir?" "How about more bread, Ma'amSir?" It was cute. I noticed through out the cruise i was called many different things. Ma'am, Ma'amSir, Miss, M'lady, Pretty Girl (By someone trying to sell me something, ha!) Darling. The list goes on. I found this fun!

I ordered the jumbo shrimp cocktail and the 9oz filet. My exboyfriend ordered the smaller filet and the french onion soup. He described the soup as salty. For sides, we ordered mashed potatoes and corn. These are served "family style" and there was far too much for us to eat between the both of us.

I was expecting the traditional shrimp cocktail with slightly bigger shrimp. What I got was this:

Let's get a side view so you can fully appreciate the shrimpzilla trio. And what was this weird spice covered lime thing? Do people really eat that?

Are these shrimp or baby mermaids? Wow! I would hate to see the shrimp they came from, because while normal sized shrimp look skeevy, imagining them that size seems horrifying. Like it could probably kill me.

I wasn't really sure how to eat these. The venue seemed to be a place where they wouldn't appreciate me picking them up with my fingers and munching on the shrimp like a carrot. But there wasn't a place for me to lay said shrimp and chop their little mermaid tails off. After a few stalling drinks of water I decided to put the shrimp off a bit and try the cucumber salad thing that it came with... Only it didn't taste very good at all.

Okay.. Well, we can figure this out. So after a shifty glance to make sure no one was staring at me, horrified at my lack of shrimp decorum, I speared the shrimp to the side of the cup with my fork and hacked off a piece with my knife. It wasn't pretty, it was slow, and I am sure I left more shrimp behind than tail... but the shrimp sure was tasty.

The Enchantment is a great ship :D

Being 45 minutes from Port Canaveral doesn't hurt either :)

I was on the last sailings of the Sovereign and Monarch. So sorry to see them both go.

I have sailed Sovereign twice, but never sailed Monarch. I've sailed Majesty 6 times. Same cabin - 7552. I don't think I would like to sail on her "final" voyage (if and when that will be). It would be too sad:(.

Must be nice. I live way up here in "cold @$$ Cleveland. I will, however be on Liberty on December 1st:). Sailed Freedom 4 times, looking to try Liberty:cool:.

Thanks for the review!

Thanks for the positive feedback everyone!! I enjoy writing my review stories. :-)