Enchantment of the Seas 1/20/17 Review

Hi everybody! So about a week ago I got back from a short trip on Enchantment of the Seas! I want to write a review of the cruise, and include some of the pictures I took on the trip. I should have the first part of the review up tomorrow, depending on how work is, and hopefully I’ll have it finished within a week. I wanted to start with giving a little background on me and how we chose this trip before beginning the actual review part.

So I’m Anna. I’m 21, graduated from college last month, and am from Northern Virginia. I work at a shoe store, and if it’s slow, I’ll be able to work on this review there. I tend to be sarcastic and can sometimes get long winded when writing, so bear with me if I go off on some random rant. I also usually photograph just concerts, so my pictures tend to be at weird angles. They also all have my watermark on them, since I uploaded them to my facebook page first. Normally my family (mom, dad, brother, and I) take a family vacation each year, but we had to switch it up last year because of my brother. Well, this year, we switched it up because of me. The thing I’m most passionate about is rock music, and there has always been this one concert cruise, Shiprocked, that I wanted to go on. Due to it always being right after my classes have started, I’ve never been able to go on it. One of my motivators for graduating early was finally being able to go on vacation around that time. So, as a graduation present, my mom and I decided to go on Shiprocked. Since it was out of Miami, we had to fly there, which we normally don’t do for cruises. Shiprocked was January 16th-20th on Carnival Victory, with a pre-party concert in Miami the Sunday night before the trip. Our plan was to fly down Sunday morning, going to the pre-party, go on the cruise, then fly home that Friday. Before we booked the flights, I was thinking about how we should really do something else while in Florida. I debated going on another short cruise or to Disney World. Since Disney probably would have ended up being more expensive than another cruise, I began to look at cruises leaving Miami on the 20th that were only a few days long. I found two three-night cruises. Carnival Victory had one day at sea and went to Nassau, and Enchantment of the Seas went to Coco Cay and Nassau. My mom and I were on a cruise last May that went to Nassau, and we were not big fans of it, so we wanted another port day on this cruise, so we chose the Enchantment cruise, which was from Jan 20th-23rd. We sailed on Enchantment when she was sailing out of Baltimore in August 2012, and we were on Grandeur of the Seas in May, so we were pretty familiar with the layout of the ship. I may end up making some comparisons between Carnival and Royal Caribbean, since we had just gotten off a Carnival ship. Since that was a full charter cruise, there are some things that are hard to compare, like entertainment.

I realized that this introduction is a bit long, but we mainly took this second cruise so that my mom and I could have more of a “vacation” where we didn’t have to worry about going to a lot of concerts at very specific times. I should have the first part of the actual review up tomorrow, hopefully.

Thanks for the intro, and I'm looking forward to your review of the Enchantment. Congrats on the graduation!

Go Saints!!

Looking forward to following along! I've got my first Royal Caribbean cruise, which just so happens to be another music charter, scheduled for next month! Congrats on your graduation - can't wait to see how the cruise went.

Thanks for the intro, and I'm looking forward to your review of the Enchantment. Congrats on the graduation!

 

Go Saints!!

Thank you!

Looking forward to following along! I've got my first Royal Caribbean cruise, which just so happens to be another music charter, scheduled for next month! Congrats on your graduation - can't wait to see how the cruise went.

Thank you! I hope you have fun on your cruise!

Day 1

So embarkation was a bit different for us, since we were getting right off of one ship to go on another. We got off of Carnival Victory a bit after 10:30. There was no real rush for us to get off. We got our bags and got a taxi. Fortunately, we could see that Enchantment of the Seas was docked right behind Carnival Victory. Getting the taxi driver to take us right down the road was fun. We almost walked, but my mom and I both had heavy suitcases along with our carry ons, and my suitcase isn’t meant for somebody as tall as me to wheel it around for very long. Anyway, security was easy and efficient. We then went up an escalator and into another line to wait to get checked in. This was our first cruise as Emerald members of the Crown and Anchor society, and there was nobody ahead of us in that line. We got on the ship right before 11:30, so the whole security and check in process took less than an hour, probably closer to less than 45 minutes. I’ve had a long week since I’ve gotten home, and I didn’t take as many notes on this trip like I normally do, so some details may be fuzzy.

The gangway led us on to the centrum on deck 5, which is where we also got off on Monday. Oddly enough, the gangway was on the starboard side when we embarked, and on the port side when we debarked. We then sat in the centrum for a bit, mainly because I wanted to connect to the ship’s WiFi. Sometime after we booked this trip (we booked it somewhat late, only a few weeks before final payment was due), I purchased the Surf + Stream internet package. I would have only gotten the Surf package, but I couldn’t find it online. On our last Royal cruise, I never received anything with the WiFi password, so I had to go to guest services the first night to get it. When we check in at the terminal on this trip, the check in agent gave me a small piece of paper with the password on it. By the end of the cruise, the paper was in my translucent phone case, so I could see the password. I wanted WiFi for the whole trip so I could communicate with my friends and coworkers. I have another job that I haven’t started yet that is email-based, and I get approval to photograph concerts through my emails, so it was important for me to stay connected. I found that the WiFi on this ship was better than on the Carnival ship. I mainly just checked Twitter, Facebook, my emails, and a few other websites. I was able to send pictures through all of those, as well as through WhatsApp. Before we left, both my dad and I downloaded WhatsApp so I could communicate with him while we were at sea. On the Victory, we were not able to call each other over the WiFi, but I was able to make a call from our inside room on the WiFi on the Enchantment. I never did any actual tests, but the WiFi seemed to be better now than it was last May on Grandeur of the Seas.

Anyway, we relaxed for a few minutes in the centrum. Since we had just had a big breakfast, we weren’t that hungry, and decided to go get a bit of food from the Park Café. Before doing that, we stepped out on the promenade deck for a minute, and also confirmed our MTD reservations. I had made reservations for 6:00 the first night, and 6:15 the next two nights, before we left our house. Anyway, I think I got us lost and we ended up walking through the casino to take the forward elevators, which led to the windjammer. We should have taken the aft elevators, but oh well. We got to walk across the pool deck, which was very empty around 11:50. At Park Café, my mom and I both had the roast beef sandwiches, which were good. My mom also got a couple of slices of dessert, which were key lime pie and something chocolate. The dessert was only okay. I don’t think we finished it. I also had a couple of cups of tea. I drank a lot of tea on the cruise we took in May, but I wasn’t able to drink as much this trip, mainly because it was so much shorter. I like a plain tea, like Lipton, so I like the tea that Royal has on their ships, but other people may not. I really liked the orange black, lemon black, and pure black tea bags. While sitting in the solarium, my mom called my dad and brother while we were on land, and I checked in with my store to see what I had missed.

Once we were done there, we went to sit on the 6th floor of the centrum until our room was ready. We were right next to Café Latte-tudes. My mom had a rum cake, that she said was not good. Unfortunately, I never got a chance to try any of the free pastries there, but the tarts and the cheesecakes looked good. On the fourth floor of the centrum, a band was playing.

This was outside of the shops on deck 6.

Around 1:30, an announcement- in both English and Spanish- was made, saying that the rooms were ready. We walked through the shops to get to the forward elevators, and then went down to our room on deck 2. Our stateroom was 2527, an inside room. If you look at a map of the ship, it’s pretty forward, and it’s located in an interesting place, since it’s down a little hallway. This meant that nobody really walked by our room, so that was nice. It wasn’t a long walk to get to from the forward elevators/stairs.

In comparison to the stateroom we had on Carnival Victory- also an inside room-, the sitting/bed area of the room on Enchantment seemed bigger. It was easier to walk around, and we also had a couch. The bathroom and shower on Victory were larger than Enchantment’s though. The bathroom in our room on Enchantment was laid out at a weird angle, so it was hard to use the toilet without hitting anything. I banged my elbow at least once. There was also a bottle opener attached to the door frame.

This was the hallway leading to our room.

This was our room. I was standing near the doorway, by the closets/bathroom, when I took this picture.

This was the hallway our room was in. This is of the longer side. Whenever we went to or from our room, we went in the direction that my back was facing when I took this picture, since it was slightly shorter.

When we got to the room, my mom’s bag was there, so she began to unpack it. Mine arrived soon after. We then went up to the windjammer for some drinks (milk for my mom and tea for me). They were ushering people out of there, since the muster drill was about to begin. We then went to get our spots out on the promenade deck for the drill. It’s a long story, but the muster drill on Carnival was just horrible, so anything would have been better than that. The muster drill wasn’t too bad here, but the group next to me refused to get into single file lines and everybody kept talking. Anyway, after that we headed up to deck 10 for sail away. We were the first ship that day to leave Miami. I spent some time on deck 10, then went down to the promenade deck to watch Miami go by. I caught the sunset then went back to our room to meet up with my mom to get ready for dinner. By the time I got back, about 5:45, our room had already been turned down for bed.

Dinner that night was Italian night, with the Pimiento menu. We had MTD and had the same waiter and assistant waitress each night, and they were great. We also had a table for two by a window. Each night, we were brought a basket of bread. This was different from our last Royal cruise, where the assistant waiter would serve everybody bread out of a basket. My mom and I liked that better. With a whole basket for the both of us, we felt more inclined to eat more bread, since we didn’t want any to go to waste. For my appetizers, I had antipasti and shrimp cocktail. My mom had the strawberry soup and caprese salad. For my entrée, I had the garlic tiger shrimp and my mom had the lasagna. I liked all the food I had, but my mom wasn’t a big fan of the lasagna. I don’t know why she ordered it, since she had lasagna the night before on the Carnival ship, which she liked better. I think my mom skipped dessert that night. I had the dessert sampler, which I love. The berry thing is okay, but the cheesecake and chocolate cake are amazing. I also had coffee with my dessert, which wasn’t that bad. While at dinner, we saw another ship going by. It appears to be a Carnival ship, so maybe it’s Carnival Victory?

I took this picture through the window in the dining room, so please excuse the reflection.

After dinner, we went straight to the welcome aboard show. On our way there, we passed a band playing in the centrum. Our cruise director was pretty good. There was also a comedian that night, which we liked. We were exhausted after getting up early, so we didn’t make it to his late night comedy show, or any late night event this cruise. After the show, we went into the casino to use our free Crown and Anchor spin to win coupons. My mom and I don’t gamble, so that’s all we did in there. My mom won a ticket for the raffle the last night, which we skipped. After that, my mom went off to do something, maybe shop some. I went out on the promenade deck, then up to the windjammer to check out the desserts. I walked around deck ten a bit, then went back to the room and got to bed.

I love all the carvings you see in cruise ship buffets.

So that’s all for the first day. That was probably longer than it needed to be, so hopefully I can cut down on what I put in the next parts of this review. I may not have the time or energy to write any at work tomorrow (I have to get up super early- for me- to open the store tomorrow), but I’ll definitely have time after to get some done.

Enjoying your review. Very nice photos!

Traveled Enchantment last in September - your review is great! I can close my eyes and am walking through with you.

We are taking Enchantment March 27 again - can't wait to hear your thoughts on the Ports. Thank you for the pictures and details:)

Great pictures and review so far, OP! Thanks for doing this review.

Thank you for all the comments!

Day 2

This is outside the windjammer. I think it looks nice, but I'm a bit confused as to why it's a replica of the Jewel of the Seas, and not Enchantment.

On the second day of the cruise, we were tendered at Coco Cay, Bahamas. Around 7:40, I heard some noise in our room, maybe from the anchor, since I think we were located close to that. The noise did wake me up, but I was able to get back to sleep. My mom slept through it. I don’t remember exactly when we got up, either at 9 or 9:30. We went to breakfast in the Windjammer around 10:30, which was pretty good. I noticed that either side of the buffet had different pastries in that section.

After breakfast, we went to deck 4 to pick up beach towels from the centrum. When we got back on the ship, we were able to check them in on deck 1, right where the tenders loaded. We got on a tender at 11:10. There was one about to leave when we got there, and we were able to get right on it. There were only a few random seats left, so we opted to stand against the railing in the middle on the lower level. We were on the island at 11:21, according to the times on my pictures.

We first went to the shops on the island. I didn’t know that they would be selling crafts and souvenirs and stuff. These stands only took cash. My mom got a few things, and I got bookmarks for my friends. I don’t have a picture of them, but the bookmarks were the typical Bahaminian woven straw type, with either “Coco Cay” or “Bahamas” sewn onto them. They were only $1 each, and I didn’t see them at any of the other stands. After this, my mom ran to the restroom while I sat in the shade, then we claimed seats on the beach. We were the only ship on the island that day, and it never felt crowded. We didn’t walk far to get to a beach, and there were always empty chairs on it. I really don’t like sand and I don’t like swimming, so I’m not much of a beach person. If I have a chair to sit on, so I can stay out of the sand, then I’m good. I took a few pictures of the water, then I sat on my chair for the rest of the day. There was another cruise ship going by the island in the distance, but I have no idea which one.

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Our seats were between two of these little circular beach areas.

If you look close enough, there's a ship in the background of this picture.

I got up to get food around 1. It was pretty good. I had a hot dog and it really wasn’t that good. I also had fruit punch that I did not like, but my mom ended up liking it. I took the food back to our seats, and my mom got up to get hers. When I got back, some lady near us had decided to feed the birds (disobeying the big signs around the island), so seagulls were all around us. One bird came down and took a whole hot dog off the plate of another woman around us. A third woman left her relatively empty plate of food on the ground while she sunbathed/slept, and the birds eventually found it. We also saw a few people climbing on rocks, despite the signs. The lifeguards kept having to tell people to stay off the rocks.

There were pretty displays at the fruit section of the food area.

Before the food closed at 1:30 I think, I make sure to stock up on cups of water. When we left the island, we noticed that all of the drink stations were closed. There was a water station by the security area near the tenders, but that was closing up too. I don’t know if there was any place to get free water after the food closed, so that may be something to think ahead about.

Around 3, we started to make our way off the island. We went to the bathroom once more, which wasn’t ridiculously stuffy or gross inside. We then got in the line to get back to the ship. We were probably in line only about 10 minutes. This was the line to go through security.

This was on our way off the island.

We did that, then got on a waiting tender, then got back on the ship around 3:55. We dropped our towels off then went back to the room to change. My mom went up to the pool deck and I went to the solarium pool. I had some cheesecake and tea and read for a bit. I think I finished the book I was reading. The captain made an announcement as we were sailing away. When I saw the sun beginning to set, I went up to deck 10 to take some pictures. Other people had the same idea. There were quite a few people at the aft of the ship, by the rock climbing wall. After sunset, I went back to our room to get ready for dinner.

We had some chocolate covered strawberries left in our room, maybe one of our Emerald perks. Oddly enough, my mom didn't like the chocolate, but I thought they were good.

This was one of the pieces of art on the way to our room. I love the art all around cruise ships, and I thought this one was pretty cute. I used flash on this picture, so I'm sorry about the bit of glare on the picture.

On the way to dinner, a band was playing in the centrum.

It was formal night, and we had the Saffron menu that night. For appetizers, I had the shrimp cocktail and the Oakwood smoked chicken breast. They were both good. Once I find something I like, I tend to eat it a lot, so I usually get the same thing each cruise, since I know what to expect. I didn’t take pictures of my mom’s meal, but I think she had the banana and rum soup and maybe a shrimp cocktail. I’m not sure, but I know she didn’t complain about her meal. She had the artichoke-filled crepes au gratin as her entrée, which she liked. I think she wasn’t that hungry and didn’t eat it all. I think ended up picking out the cheese or potatoes or whatever is in that meal and eating all of that. I had the strip steak off of the “classics” section of the menu. Our waiter asked why I didn’t want the steak that was on tonight’s menu, and I told him that I don’t like mushrooms. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it yet, but I’m a very picky eater. For dessert, I had the strawberry cheesecake, which was great. My mom had the chocolate soufflé, and she said it was cooked oddly and something was definitely off about it. She wasn’t hungry, so she didn’t order another dessert or anything.

We finished dinner just in time to catch the captain’s welcome aboard reception. Another band was playing then. Unfortunately, we missed the free champagne- if it was even offered. I don’t like wine or champagne, but I would have drunk it if it was free. My mom also isn’t a big wine lover, and neither of us like beer, so we didn’t use any of our Crown and Anchor drink coupons. I think they may also be good for soda, which I don’t drink and my mom rarely drinks. The only coupon that we ended up using was the free spin to win in the casino one. My mom didn’t buy much in the shops, or else she would have used that coupon.

Anyway, we made it just in time for the reception. The activities manager introduced the captain, who came down the main staircase, stopped to wave, then continued down the stairs to pose for pictures. I don’t like people taking my picture, since I’m always the one who takes pictures, so we skipped the pictures. We went back to the room before the show, which was a comedian duo, who were good. The show times were 7:00 and 9:00. We went to the later one, then went back to the room to go to bed.

When we got back to our room, we had our first towel animal waiting for us. My mom had a stuffed turtle, named Mr. Turtle. He goes on all of our trips. This time, our stateroom attendant made a buddy for him.

So that’s day two. I ended up having no time at work today to work on this, but I had time after. I probably won’t be able to write any more over the next two days, since I have a concert tomorrow then I’m working at another location of our store on Saturday. Hopefully I’ll have more done on Sunday and, if all goes as planned, I’ll have this whole thing finished on Tuesday. Thanks so much for reading!

Thanks for the review.

Loving the review so far! Thanks!

We will be sailing on Enchantment soon - can't wait! (42 days... but who's counting! :p)

Great review! Love the details. Your mom's turtle is cute and your room attendant did a great job replicating it.

Since I live in fort lauderdale I will take enchantment soon. The 3 and 4 day cruises make it so easy to get away.

Todd

Thank you all for the comments! If you have any questions about the ship or anything, feel free to ask me.

Your review is awesome. I am going on Carnival Sensation 4/20, then switching over to RCCL Enchantment 2/24- I was wondering how it would work switching from Carnival to RCCL- thank you for including that part in your review!

Your review is awesome. I am going on Carnival Sensation 4/20, then switching over to RCCL Enchantment 2/24- I was wondering how it would work switching from Carnival to RCCL- thank you for including that part in your review!

Thank you! The timing actually worked out really well for switching over, since you can check-in/board relatively early on RCCL.

Day 3

Here's Henry!

So for day three of this trip, we were in Nassau, Bahamas. My mom and I had previously been in last May, and we didn’t like it too much, mainly because we didn’t feel super safe walking around the port area. Anyway, our plan for the day was to sleep in some, get off the ship for a bit to walk around the secure shopping area by the port, and then spend the rest of the day on the ship.

I set my alarm for 9:45, but was woken up around 9:30 by an announcement. They were conducting crew safety drills, and the first announcement they made that day was broadcast into all of the rooms, I guess. Since we had to get up soon, I didn’t go back to sleep. I think this was the only day the whole trip that I woke up and wasn’t tired. We got up and ready and went to breakfast in the windjammer. I think we may have gotten off the ship immediately after that, since we didn’t need to grab anything from our room. We got off at noon. We walked around the dock area for a few minutes, so my mom could take pictures (I got pictures too, but I didn’t take forever doing that like my mom does).

This tile was somewhere right off the ship. I thought it was random but really pretty.

Anyway, we were docked next to Harmony of the Seas and Oceania Riveria. I could swear that there were supposed to be one or two more ships in port with us that day, but oh well. We just stayed in the shopping area right outside the port building and bought some small souvenirs. One of the women working at the shops told us that they were currently redoing the port building so that they could move in there. I forget when she said they would be moving though. We also had a nice discussion with the woman working at the soap shop. That’s my mom’s favorite place there, since it’s air conditioned and they take credit card. I found a stand selling nice magnets for $1 each, and got a bunch of those for my coworkers. My mom picked up some (already ground) coffee for my dad, and had no issue bringing it back on the ship or the airplane back home, which the shopkeeper also told us. I don’t think my dad has had a chance to try the coffee yet.

Northern Star was also in Nassau that day.

Here's Harmony.

One of the (I think) tug boats at the pier.

Anyway, we got back on the ship at 1:24. I think we only spent an hour shopping, and the rest was the short walk there and my mom’s picture taking time. When we got back to our room, our luggage tags and debarkation information was waiting for us. Even though our flight wasn’t until 2:15, we ended up with luggage tag number 1. Maybe Royal knew that many people took their bags off the ship themselves, or they didn’t have flights at all, so that’s how we ended up going so early. In comparison to the Carnival ship we had recently gotten off, we were scheduled to get off at least an hour earlier.

Here's one of those never-ending ship hallways.

We then went up to the windjammer for a late-ish lunch around 2. I think this was the best lunch I had in the buffet on both of the cruises. Like I said, I’m a very picky eater, but I still found a ton of choices, and I wanted to eat more, but was too full. I think some of the desserts were leftover from previous dinners, but they were my favorites, so I was happy to try them again. My mom also made her own sandwich that came out looking very pretty. I think she took some bread and put chicken salad, cheese, tomatoes, spinach, and bean sprouts on it. We have a diverse selection of food in our area, and I love eating Indian food, and the chicken curry I had in the windjammer was very good and authentic. I also had some sort of macaroni/pasta salad with ham that was good. This was just a very good lunch and I wish I could go back and eat it again, especially since my lunch at work today consisted of popcorn, a semi-stale donut, and tea.

This was what my mom's sandwich looked like.

After lunch, my mom and I went to hang out on deck. She went to the solarium pool I think. I tried to sunbathe on deck 10, but it was somewhat windy. I get very cold, very easily, so I got a spot on deck 9, hoping I’d be protected from the wind. It was pretty full down there, but some other people and I grabbed chairs from a stack and found our own spots. I was still a bit cold, and left after not too much time. One of the ship’s bands was playing on the pool deck then.

A side note about the temperature: like I said, I get very cold, but my mom’s normally warm, so sharing a room with her is always fun. On our room on the Enchantment, we were both cold most of the time, and kept the temperature dial pointing in the “warm” direction slightly. On another random note, the shower temperature was crazy. My mom couldn’t get the water warm enough on her first shower, but it was fine for me. I tried again on another shower, and the water kept going between hot and cold, no matter how I adjusted it. My mom had the same problem. The toilet in our room also wasn’t very powerful, so I think we had to flush twice most of the times.

This was one of the coffee and tea stations located just outside of the windjammer.

So back to day three. I left the pool deck and went back to our room to get most of my packing done. I think I went back up to deck 9 to get some tea from outside the windjammer, then walked down deck 10 to get a couple of pictures of the sunset and the island in the distance, since we had already sailed away at this point. I went down to the promenade deck to watch the silence. I went to the back of the ship to watch the wake. I think this was really the only time the whole trip that there was much of a wake, with the white water and everything. It wasn’t as noticeable the other times we were at sea for some reason.

There was also another ship in the distance. When you zoom in really far on the picture, it looks like a Royal Caribbean ship, possibly Harmony of the Seas.

I then went back to our room to get ready for dinner. Since our room was forward and the dining room was aft, we had the option of walking across the ship on deck 2- our deck- or deck 5. We always chose deck 5, since the monotonous hallways always seem so long. My mom hates smoke and I like ocean views, so we generally chose to walk outside on deck 5, instead of cutting through the casino. On this night, we just happened to come out to see this.

This was deck 5 of the main dining room.

At dinner, I had the Spanish tapas plate and shrimp cocktail for appetizers. My mom had the chilled pineapple and lychee soup, and maybe a shrimp cocktail as well. The tapas plate was presented really nicely. My mom liked the cheese and I liked the meat. The frittata is always interesting. My mom wasn’t really hungry, so she skipped an entrée. I got the roasted turkey. It really didn’t seem like there was a lot of meat on the plate, but I also wasn’t that hungry, so I was fine with it. My mom had some of it and liked it. I wasn’t interested in any of the desserts, so I just had the orange sherbet. It came with two scoops, which was too much for me. It also didn’t have one of those cookies that ice cream or sherbet usually come with. I love those cookies. On this night, the chefs came into the dining room to gather on the stair case and sing a song.

After dinner, we went to the centrum to watch the international parade of flags. I think that’s what it’s called, but I’m just guessing. We went on deck 6, and people did crowd the stair case, which we were sort of behind, so we could only see the flags, but it’s not a big deal. The dances some of the countries did were good, from what I could see. We left while the captain was giving his closing remarks so we could make it to the main show.

None of the headliner shows were crowded on this trip. This one was a production show called “Can’t Stop The Rock.” The showtimes were 8:30 and 10:15. We went to the first. The cruise director spoke a bit before and after the show. Even though production shows aren’t really my thing, I thought it was good. We were on the second row on the side, and there was a lot of stage smoke being used, so if that thing bothers you, you may want to sit in the back. At times, it was so thick that we couldn’t see the stage. Sometimes fog machine smoke will make me feel sick, but it didn’t this time, possibly because I was sitting the whole time. It did make me cough, but I had a cough in general at that point. Anyway, we liked the show. The cruise director came on the stage for a bit after, and we thought his jokes were good, and not the type that are used by every cruise director. Soon after, some of the ship’s crew lined up on stage for one final farewell.

After the show, my mom and I breezed through the shops for a second, but didn’t buy anything. We considered grabbing some pastries from Café Latte-tudes, but we didn’t want to wait in the line. I think I was full and didn’t want anything else to eat at that point, but I could definitely go for some cheesecake or tarts now! We then went out on the promenade deck for one last stroll. We noticed a few ships in the distance, a couple of which looked like cruise ships. We tried identifying some constellations, but since I don’t remember much from the one astrology class I took my freshman year of college, we didn’t have much luck. By the time we got back in, there were ropes across the entrance to the promenade deck and an employee standing there. A sign was up saying that the winds were too strong to go out, but we had no trouble walking around and nobody made us go back in.

This was one of the ships we saw in the distance. I have no idea what ship this is though. I didn't get good pictures of any of the others.

We then went back to our room to be greeted by a new buddy! We thought the note from our stateroom attendant was a really nice touch, one that we had never seen before. I don’t know if I mentioned this, but my mom said that on the first day of the cruise, she somehow managed to get lost around our room (I really have no idea how she did that) and she met our stateroom attendant then. She said he was super friendly and helpful, and he gave her directions that were easy to understand. We were very pleased with the service we received from him on our trip, as well as that of our dinner waitstaff, or from any crew we encountered on the ship.

The service was different on Carnival. Due to it being a concert cruise, we kept odd hours, and never saw our room attendant. He kept everything clean though, so I was satisfied. I think my mom met him on maybe the third day. We also had different waiters each night on that trip, but enjoyed the ones we had the last night the most. On Shiprocked, it was very interested to talk to any of the crew about how they were enjoying this particular cruise. Many of them would go to the main shows at night when they were off. I may have seen the captain at a concert one night. We did hear that they weren’t allowed to go to the concerts later in the cruise for some reason, which doesn’t seem fair.

Anyway, we finished packing, put our bags out in the hallway, and went to bed early. I was borrowing my dad’s hard oyster shell suitcase (I think that’s what it’s called) and it was so so much fun to get everything in it. I packed it while it was on the bed, and I actually had to sit on it to get it to close. We normally don’t fly for cruises, so we never worry about the weight of the suitcases. When we checked the bags in at the airport (that’s a whole other story), my mom’s bag was exactly 50 pounds. Mine was around 42 pounds, and I’m still very proud of that. I only brought four pairs of shoes for the whole trip (tennis shoes, flip flops, heels, and combat boots), which is a great accomplishment for me, since I work in a shoe store. But we tried to get to bed early, since we wanted to eat breakfast in the MDR the next morning, and that closed at 8. So we settled in for one last night at sea.

So that’s the last full day of this trip! I ended up writing the rest of the review already, so I'll have it up in a few minutes, depending on how much photobucket wants to work. Thanks so much for reading along!

Day 4

On the last day of the trip, we wanted to eat breakfast in the MDR. We always try to do that on the last morning, since my dad once said that he wants to be served one last meal before going home. Since breakfast there shut down at 8, we wanted to get there at 7:45, meaning we had to get up at 6:30, which is super super early for me. Have I mentioned that I need a lot of sleep yet? Because I do and I do not like mornings.

Anyway, I have a picture of the hallway at 7:44 that morning, meaning we made pretty good time. I’m not sure if it’s obvious or not, but my mom and I tend to run late on unimportant things. If we’re going to work, we’ll always be there on time, but if I’m picking my friends up to hang out, I always end up leaving my house around 10 minutes late. Anyway, we went to breakfast and were seated with a few other people. It was the most silent meal I’ve ever had on a cruise ship. Nobody spoke to each other. My mom wished everybody well as they left, but that was it. I talked with my mom and the other couples talked amongst themselves, but that was it. I ordered French toast and my mom got the kid’s banana pancakes. I think the menu showed it as coming with some sort of caramel sauce or something different, but it just came with regular syrup. I think this was the meal where she had that happen. We also went up to the little buffet thing and I got some fruit and my mom got some granola. We finished eating around 8:30, so breakfast took only a bit more than half an hour.

This was my last pastry of the trip.

Our luggage tag number was supposed to be called at 8:30, but there was still a long line for the self-debarkation guests, so we went to sit somewhere. I think we were supposed to sit in the MDR on deck 5 to hear the announcements, but I went up to check it out, and it looked empty. We sat in the centrum on deck 4, near where we would be exiting, and other people were there. They began to call luggage tags around 9:15. Since our flight wasn’t until 2:15 I think, we were in no rush. We got in a line and were quickly off the ship. The baggage claim area was really confusing, since they were set up on the moving ramps like airports, but somehow that made it more difficult for us to find our bags. I don’t know exactly what it was, but I remember being really annoyed with it. There were also a few different baggage claim areas (like A, B, and C, or 1, 2, and 3) and it wasn’t clear where we would find bags with luggage tag number one. When we got off the Carnival ship (also at Miami) they asked us our luggage tag number and told us if we would be at A, B or C.

One last shot of the centrum.

I went to use the restroom by the baggage area, and I was immediately impressed since it was large and looked nice. That impression disappeared when it took me three tries to find a stall that both locked and had toilet paper, and even then the lock didn’t work right. We then went through customs, which would have been so much easier if the woman in front of us was paying attention and was actually ready for it. She also had a bag that was too big for itself I think and it kept tipping over and it fell on me and she didn’t notice. Anyway, once we got to the customs agent, it was quick. We were through customs by around 9:35. We quickly got into a taxi to Miami airport. I think it was a flat rate of $35 (I’m not sure if that was the price) and my mom tipped on top of that.

At 10:14, I had texted my dad, saying that we had already checked our bags in and gotten our boarding passes, so we were at the airport before 10. We went through security easily, and had a few hours of time left before our flight. If only the airport offered more than 30 minutes of free Wi-Fi. I read a bit and really should have started editing my pictures, but I wanted to enjoy my last day off. Our departure gate was near Café Versailles, which had really good empanadas for a good price. Our flight home was your average flight, except we were landing in fog and rain. The pilot did a very good job with the flight, and there was very little turbulence, though the landing was- understandably- a bit bumpy. We were soon back at Dulles and back to reality, which I had to face as soon as I took my phone out of airplane mode and received a text from my coworker asking me to cover her opening shift the next day.

Anyway, that’s about it! I'm planning on putting down a deposit for Shiprocked 2018 on Tuesday, and my mom and I liked the two cruises we did so much this year that we may do them again next year, depending on what my dad and brother want to do. We have a few months to sort everything out before we have to decide on anything.

Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll try my best to answer them. If you want to see pictures of anything, let me know, because there’s a good chance I have a picture of it. Thank you all so much for reading and for all of your comments!