Enchantment May 16-20th- Trip Review

I typically do some long drawn out reviews, but I don’t really have the energy in me right now and I did not take many photos on the trip this time. So this one will be a little different than my usual. I’ll do my best to include details and I would be happy to answers questions from anyone! I will post pictures from what I have closer to the end because my card reader is acting up tonight. I usually take hundreds, this time it was probably less than 100!

This was a hot and cold trip for us. Quite a few things that we noticed that weren’t great. But there were plenty of other things that made up for it. So tune in to find out more :)

Here’s a little background- Traveling was myself, my mom, and my 3 year old son. Every year, in May, I take a trip with my mom (and recently my son as well). Two years ago we did the Enchantment out of Canaveral and enjoyed it. Coincidentally it was exactly two years difference, as both cruises were on May 16th! This time it was out of Miami (and closer to home).

We had initially booked the May 14th 5-day sailing of the Empress of the Seas. A few weeks before the sail date they went through the second round of cancellations and we were included. I quickly called to find out our options and Enchantment 4-day was given as a choice. We had booked a JS on Empress the day the ship opened for sale and scored an AMAZING steal. We booked a JS because it was the only balcony option and my mom is a balcony snob. I, on the other hand, am not. Plus the appeal of double points for C&A was nice. So I accepted it. When the switch occurred we were given price protection for the same category. They placed us in a random mid-ship JS (plenty were available) and gave us $200 onboard credit for the inconvenience. After taking care of the switch I jumped back on the computer and saw an aft JS available. So I moved us to 7668. I liked the idea of the extra large balcony for my mom. This was my first time in an aft cabin as well as my first JS, so we were excited even after the disappointment of being bumped off the Empress.

**I’d prefer that this review not start discussing the drama of Empress cancellations. For the record we were fortunate that we live in Florida and so were not affected by flight changes. I do feel bad for those who got hosed in the whole situation though.

Looking foward to the rest of your review!

Looking foward to the rest of your review!

I'm currently reading your review as well. We saw you guys (the ship actually, as I don't know you, haha) in Nassau. My mom and I commented on it being first run out of dry dock and hopefully going well!!

My first JS and only aft cabin was in the Enchantment in 1999. One of my favorite cruises - possibly because it was the last cruise we took "BK" (before kids) Looking forward to your review!!

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This review probably won't follow a day by day style this time because we did a whole lot of nothing mixed with some fun and some agony. ;) So I'm going to write about different topics pertaining to the cruise.

I wish my camera were cooperating at the moment, but I will post my photos as soon as I can figure this issue out with my laptop.

Junior Suite 7668

Located starboard (right) aft (back). We were the second room in from the side. It was nice because we walked straight down the hall and our room was directly ahead of us. It made it real easy for the 3 year old to find the room when he insisted on "beating" us there. We did not have any noise issues whatsoever. No noise from the lounge below. I was a little afraid of that because we had an issue on the Brilliance in 2014 with being directly above the Schooner Bar and hearing music well in to the night. But this room had no issues despite being over the Starlight Lounge. No hallway noise either. The only people wandering that far back on the ship were the ones who had rooms back there and that was only 7 or 8 by my count.

This room did NOT have a walk in closet, just the standard shallow one. The room itself was slightly thinner than the other JS that we peered in to when walking the halls. It included a large sofabed, small coffee table, and an arm chair. The standard desk with chair as well as a vanity area with two soft stools to sit on. The room also had a coffee maker and a kettle. It was a good amount of space for the 3 of us. We did spend more time than usual in the room because there was more space for my son to play with his cars.

The balcony had two full-sized lounge chairs, two regular chairs, and a small table. Lots of space for us to relax, my son to play, and enjoy the private space without worrying about your neighbors hearing every word you say. The balcony glass was angular rather than straight up and down (when I post a photo you'll understand what I mean).

The bathroom included a nice sized bath tub, handy for the kid, with the sticky icky shower curtain. Every time I showered it was like huge gusts of wind were blowing in the bathroom and the thing attacked me every time. We also received Gilchrest and Soames toiletries. Our toilet filled to the brim with water 3 times over the course of 4 days. It never got the the point of overflowing, but it took some time to resolve itself. Twice we had maintenance come and fix it.

My biggest complaint was about the beds. I like a soft and fluffy bed, but I can sleep almost anywhere. I did not sleep for more than an hour and a half at any one time during the entire trip. The beds were hard as rocks. It was pretty awful. My 3 year old slept like nothing was wrong, but my mom and I were pretty miserable. No eggcrates or padding were available. It was so bad that my in-laws took my son today when I got home and I went home to sleep all day/afternoon. I am pretty sure my mom did the same thing. We don't remember the beds being bad 2 years ago. I suspect they put the "new & improved" mattresses on the ship since our last trip.:cool:

Our room steward was Roy from Costa Rica. He was wonderful. Always there when we needed him. Greeting us with a smile every day. Bringing us extra pillows and blankets. Putting the beds back together after they had been separated (we felt bad about that one). Surprising my son with funny things like rearranging his toy cars and writing messages on his magnetic letter board. We felt that he genuinely wanted us to leave happy and everything we needed was accommodated to the best of his ability.

Following -we're on Enchantment in August. Thanks for adding a review. :)

I'm currently reading your review as well. We saw you guys (the ship actually, as I don't know you, haha) in Nassau. My mom and I commented on it being first run out of dry dock and hopefully going well!!

That's right!

There were many ships in port that day, as usual in Nassau, and the weather was just terrible, as usual in Nassau, for us anyway. :cool:

Also, our beds on Majesty were just as hard as yours and there was nothing that could be done about it. I've never had such a hard time sleeping on a cruise ship.

That's right!

There were many ships in port that day, as usual in Nassau, and the weather was just terrible, as usual in Nassau, for us anyway. :cool:

I've been there too many times and to be honest, this trip was the last straw for us. I will never get off the ship there again. I'll elaborate later in my review!!

Following, and curious about Nassau.

I've been there too many times and to be honest, this trip was the last straw for us. I will never get off the ship there again. I'll elaborate later in my review!!

I look forward to hearing it.

Same for us, we've been there 5 times and one of those times it was for 3 days. Done with it. It's a common port for us since we prefer to take multiple shorter cruises each year instead of one or 2 longer ones, but unless there's an excusion we want to take, from now on we will be staying on the ship.

I have a few pictures from my phone, but my SD drive reader is still acting up on me today. Hopefully my husband can figure it out so I can post more pics later.

Here's a little comparison of our trio from 2014 and then 2016!

and for a real throwback, from my first trip on Enchantment with my now husband. He proposed to me on that trip back in 2008, so Enchantment is certainly special to us :)

How about the night of the tilting. We were in chops grill and the dishes crashed tables sliding, people running for the door. First time the ship tilted was more of a shock, but then when the boat tilted again for the second time it down right scared most of our party. I have cruise through rough weather but never tilted like that. I was the clam one in our group and told everyone just stay seated and we will pop back up

Past cruises

Holland America Alaska

Celebrity eastern Caribbean

Royal Caribbean. Eastern western Caribbean

Norwegian Hawaii

Costa mediterranean

Carnival western caribbean

Princess western Caribbean

God I wish they would have one cruiser program for all cruise lines.

I would have credit for 15

Thanks for the review. I sail on the 30th in 7666. Roy sounds like a great cabin attendant. So glad to read that you didn't hear any noise from the lounge.

Next up I will talk food. Food is subjective, I know this. So the following is my personal opinion. You do not have to agree with me.

Windjammer

The food in the Windjammer was different on this cruise. My last Royal cruise was in October on the Jewel and the food was great. I had no complaints. I think they must have changed vendors or recipes (for sure). None of the food was inedible. But taste wise I was not thrilled. I normally LOVE their mashed potatoes and gravy. Completely different now. The gravy is a much lighter color and NOT the same taste. It almost lacked flavor. That's just one example. There were quite a few other examples of foods that have changed recently.

I understand that the chef changes selections based on the demographics onboard. I did notice that every day there was rice + beans (which I happen to love) but in the past it wasn't a daily offering. There seemed to be a lot of fried options this time was well. Fried chicken, fried this and fried that. I was trying to eat healthy and so I often resorted to salad because everything was fried or pork.

One morning, for breakfast, they had dinner rolls out instead of pastries. Odd, but whatever! There were just strange things like that throughout the trip.

The waiters in the Windjammer were great. They always stopped to ask if we needed something. Drinks were plentiful and refilled regularly. So service was not an issue.

Dining Room

We had a great dining team. Merilyn and Samson took care of our every needs. They had fruit and spinach chips waiting at the table every night for my son. This made the two nights in which he dined with us so much easier. No entertaining a 3 year old because he was given a snack upon arrival. A big thumbs up on that!

Ever since they changed the menus a little over 2 years ago I've been less than thrilled with dining room selections. I do not eat seafood, which eliminates quite a few options for me. They always seem to add seafood to the pasta dishes and that's disappointing for a non seafood eater because pasta is always a good fall-back option. I ended up eating the vegetarian options every night. I am not a vegetarian. Everything I had was delicious. I had no complaints about the foods I actually ate.

When it comes to dessert there were options I used to love. The warm chocolate cake, flourless cake, key lime pie, yum! Thankfully some are still options or partial options on a sampler plate. Others are gone completely. :(

Overall we didn't starve. Service was excellent. I would like to see an improvement in food though. I really loved the "old" menus from a few years back and I just dont enjoy the dining room like I used to these days. Which can be explained by the fact that on my last two cruises before this we ate in the Windjammer every night and were extremely happy with that decision. But with the changes I saw in the Windjammer Im not so sure that's going to be a great option anymore either.

Park Cafe

We love Park Cafe, but for some reason we didn't frequent it as often on this trip. We ate there for breakfast one day and I used it a few times to grab snacks for back in the room. Everything was fresh and tasty!!

How about the night of the tilting.

I will definitely talk about the tilt!! I'll get there :)

One comment on the seafood & pasta bit - I ask if they can make it without it. I'm highly allergic to crustaceans, and it seems like everything has shrimp these days. When I was on Liberty I mentioned it to the waiter and he said that the kitchen would custom-make it for me without the shrimp.

Interesting that they serve food based on demographics. I didn't know that.

Following - cant wait to hear about the tilt

This was my son's first experience in the "big kids club" as we explained it to him. In the past we've used the onboard Nurseries many times with great success.

Adventure Dining

Every night, except for the 1st night, they had something called adventure dining. This is where parents sign up during the day (before 5pm) and then bring the child between 5pm and 5:30pm to the Adventure Ocean room. The AO staff then take the kids to the annex in the Windjammer and serve pizza and french fries. We used this service on night two (formal night) and the last night of the cruise. It gave my mom and I a chance to have a relaxing meal without feeling rushed or the need to entertain my son. I give it a two thumbs up for pure convenience!! I will say that on one evening he was the ONLY English speaking child at Adventure Dining out of the 12 kids that went. So it was probably interesting for the staff that night.

Aquanauts

My son is 3, so he is part of the 3-5 Aquanauts group. He had a blast. He begged to go to kid camp daily. When your child wants to go, you know they are doing a great job! One night they did science experiments with High Touch High Tech, another night was space themed and they made planet hats & read books about space, the final night was a PJ party with movies. On Wednesday night they had pirate night. the kids decorated and wore bandanas and then roamed the ship with AO staff to put on a little show in the Centrum. (This also happened to be the night of the "Big Tilt"). The counselors were great and they knew his name after his first visit. They greeted him by name each time they saw him. We felt like he was in a safe place where he could have fun and we could go to a show, dinner, and relax a bit on the ship. I think I saved the flyer to scan, I'll have to check my bags upstairs.

I will say I was very impressed with their security when taking the kids out from the Adventure Ocean facility. During the pirate show in the centrum my son was overwhelmed with the number of people (it was very crowded due to the tilt incident) and volume of noise- he was scared. He saw me sitting in the crowd taking his picture and he ran to me. The AO staff was all over him and stopped me from touching him until they could confirm he belonged to me. They allowed me to sign him out from there once I presented both of our SeaPass Cards and I signed the clipboard that they had with them.

My Family Time Dining

On one evening we took him to dinner with us for the expedited meal service. They brought his dinner out right away. We then met an AO staff member outside the dining room at 6:45pm. I signed him in and they took him up to AO. I went back in to the dining room and my mom and I were able to finish our meal at a more enjoyable pace.

Each time we dropped him off we were given a beeper, so if we needed to be contacted it would go off and we knew to call or go to AO.

I do have some pics from pirate night because I had my phone on me at the moment.

When we first got in to our room we had a card inviting us to the Exclusive Top Tier event. I am Diamond and my mom is Platinum. It said 8pm in the Centrum on Night 2. I thought it was strange that is was in an open venue, but thought nothing of it.

So 8pm comes on night 2. We arrived the Centrum a little bit before then. Out comes the cruise director announcing that this is the Captain's Champagne Reception. He announced that there were 2,400 +/- people onboard the ship and about 400+/- Crown and Anchor Members. Then they announced the top 3 cruisers onboard, handed Mario his bottle of Champagne and said he had over 6000 cruise points, and that was that concerning Crown and Anchor. While I am in NO WAY an elitist, I found this to be a cheat. This was not a Top Tier Event. This was the Captain's reception. Those are different events. The Top Tier Events typically include appetizers, 1-2 mixed drinks, and held in a separate venue. This was everyone together, not EXCLUSIVE! The rest of the event revolved around the Captain, other officers, photos with the captain, and captain centered things.

I don't know if this particular sailing was done this way or if that's just what the CD has chosen to do on this ship. I give it a thumbs down. lol.

I've been to Coco Cay a few times over the years. Two years ago we missed it due to choppy waters. This time was a success. We took an early tender over to the island and found some loungers by the Snorkel Beach. We brought along our own beach toys for my son to play with. The weather was nice, water was too cold for me, but okay for my son and my mom. I think we were there for a couple hours. Plenty for us when traveling with a little one. There were lots of fish in the water that day which was fun for my son to see. There was also a stingray hanging around the area too!

I don't typically buy beach pictures but I had my coupon for a free photo, plus we had $200 onboard credit to use, so we bought them because they weren't half bad.

We left before noon because I was starving and the BBQ didn't open until noon. personally I think that's late. I was antsy and my blood sugar was dropping so we went back onboard and grabbed food from the Windjammer and ate out on the pool deck instead.

Here are a couple pictures I pulled from my phone in the meantime.

Our nice large aft-balcony!

I've been to Coco Cay a few times over the years. Two years ago we missed it due to choppy waters. This time was a success. We took an early tender over to the island and found some loungers by the Snorkel Beach. We brought along our own beach toys for my son to play with. The weather was nice, water was too cold for me, but okay for my son and my mom. I think we were there for a couple hours. Plenty for us when traveling with a little one. There were lots of fish in the water that day which was fun for my son to see. There was also a stingray hanging around the area too!

 

I don't typically buy beach pictures but I had my coupon for a free photo, plus we had $200 onboard credit to use, so we bought them because they weren't half bad.

 

 

 

We left before noon because I was starving and the BBQ didn't open until noon. personally I think that's late. I was antsy and my blood sugar was dropping so we went back onboard and grabbed food from the Windjammer and ate out on the pool deck instead.

If you left before lunch was served that was a good call. People started to get food and then came the birds. They were everywhere. I heard the food was not very good due to being cold. I think they started lunch late. We passed on lunch and came back to the boat also.

Past cruises

Holland America Alaska

Celebrity eastern Caribbean

Royal Caribbean. Eastern western Caribbean

Norwegian Hawaii

Costa mediterranean

Carnival western caribbean

Princess western Caribbean

God I wish they would have one cruiser program for all cruise lines.

I would have credit for 15

Good News! My card reader is finally working :)

Let's play catch up on the pictures now.

Thanks for the review. I sail on the 30th in 7666. Roy sounds like a great cabin attendant. So glad to read that you didn't hear any noise from the lounge.

Here is a picture of your balcony ;)

We left a message for Roy one day that said Gracias Roy. We came back to the room and he responded on the board to us!

From then on we were writing messages back and forth with him on my son's letter board. My son loved for us to read to him what Roy said each time!