casadetexas

I watched the entire thing.  My opion is that this dudes opinion is one sided, pessimistic, and negative while trying to insert all kinds of possibilities.  I don't know this guy at all and he may have some good stuff about his travel ideas.  But it is lacking in everything else such as facts.  He is not a reporter. The CDC is working closely with every industry including cruise lines.  I am pretty sure she is not part of these discussions and therefore only fear mongoring IMO.  Just to get the youtube numbers I guess. 

Thanks everyone!

57 minutes ago, zekekelso said:

 

Enchantment of the seas: 989x106 ft. 82,910 gross tons

RMS Titanic: 883x93 ft. 52, 310 gross tons. 

 

That is a very interesting fact!

1 hour ago, kruzinkel said:

Isn't Enchantment moving to Baltimore when Grandeur is sold?  That means Enchantment would now have Bermuda- which is a great port

It is possible.  I know that Enchantment goes to many different places as a home port.  I did read up that Royal will be phasing out the Enchantment soon.  So the question will be if it is still availible by the time the 2022 summer dates come out.

3 hours ago, suesnake2002 said:

Me and hubby have been on smaller, rhapsody and grandeur. And on big harmony and anthem. We too like the smaller ships a little bit better. I have been on voyager. I really like that class of ship. And if you like the smaller ships this would be a good option. I know adventure is going to galveston. They have a royal promenade. But you don't have to make show reservations. I fell voyager class is a good compromise between big and little. 

Thanks for the advice!  We are kinda stuck with Galveston as the main port although I might see what NO has to offer just 4 hours away.  Will look into these ships as well.  Appreciate it!

21 hours ago, Tapi said:

Hi!

 

What do you like to do ashore? You may be pleasantly surprised with Progreso. I had never sailed there until last year, and after reading so many negative reviews about it being a dump, I was expecting the worse. 
 

Long story short, we had an absolutely fantastic day in Progreso. It reminded me of what Cozumel was like 20+ years ago before it got overdeveloped, overly commercialized, and overrun with tens of thousands of cruise passengers. Progreso is more authentic, quaint, and relaxing. Granted, it’s NOT for everybody, specially for people who do like the Cozumel vibe. At Progreso you do need to step out of your comfort zone a bit. You will experience  the way that people truly live. 
 

There’s plenty to do in the area, including the Mayan Ruins of Chichen Itzá (one of the new wonders of the world, and most likely the most impressive displays of Mayan architecture in the world). There’s also the colonial city of Merida.
 

With all the mixed reviews, we just decided to take the complimentary bus into town (the ship docks at a 5 mile long pier, which is the longest in the world). From the bus stop, we meandered along the streets of Progreso, taking photos of the town as we worked our way to the waterfront.
 

It’s a sleepy waterfront. NO high rise resorts, crowded bars, chain restaurants, or shopping centers. Just a few local restaurants along the beach and a few small shops. A few palapas lined the beach with masseuses offering very inexpensive massages with a view of the ocean. 
 

We enjoyed a light lunch and then went across the street for a swim. The beach is wide, with white sand, but the water is not nearly as clear as in the Caribbean side of the peninsula. We still had a very relaxing, uncrowded day. When we were ready to return to the ship, we just walked back to the bus stop that took us back. 
 

After that experience, I feel like I’d prefer a stop in Progreso over  Cozumel. For my taste, it was perfect. But once again, I wouldn’t recommend it blindly to everyone. 
 

 

 

THANK YOU for your review!!!!  I really do appreaciate and will consider it in our options.  ❤️

23 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

Bottom line is Galveston, on a short cruise, has limited available ports due to distance.

I do understand.  However this is what we are choosing since other family members can go who are on more of a budget than my family is.  It is what it is.  Just trying to make the best of it.

23 hours ago, Anton said:

Distance.  Roatan is 360 nautical miles from Cozumel and Belize is 315.  So at 20 knots it would take  an additional 30 to 36 hours total to go to those places.

THIS.

Thank you.  

While I am thinking about it, I was curious as to what y'all thought about Enchantment vs the Jewel?  I looked in the search engine.  Either I don't do well with the search engine or there really isn't much said about these two ships because they are not the big fancy ones.  

Has anyone sailed both?  What were your thoughts on the matter?

My DD loves the Broadway shows.  So shows are a must.  Do we loose that going from EOS to the JOS?

Hello my fellow cruisers!

I figured I would ask a non Covid question just because I am thinking about our next cruise as a sort of distraction from reality.  Of course, we are keeping an eye on the situation and I admit I have been lurking the forums when this all hit.  

Depending on how things play out, we would love to take our 4th cruise in 2022.  We took a 5 day cruise out of Galveston the last time and just for the experience went to a much smaller ship, EOS.  It was surprisingly great.  We have a family member that is specifically requesting this size ship so looks like we will be back on EOS again.  

This limits us pretty well as to what ports are availible.  We have been to Costa Maya 3 times already and only once was the water nice.  I am not a fan.  The only other choice is Progresso which looks even worse than Costa Maya!  My question is, why do we even bother with those ports???  Why isn't there a 3rd option for these smaller cruises?  Like why can't EOS just go to Cozumel and Roatan or Belize? 

1 hour ago, Biker19 said:

On a couple of other ships which do short sailings they call them “Dress to impress “. 

Agreed. Unfortunately. I did see several really beautiful dresses though. Here is one photo I took on formal night and we weren’t out of place. 

2 minutes ago, Needs_A_Vacation said:

Do they offer fresh squeezed juice on-board?  My husband loves that.

They did in the main dinning room.  We did not get them in Windjammer so I can't comment on that one.

All the chairs in the bars that we went to, the main dinning room, pool deck, and other areas were either new or just well kept.  If anything, the ship was really clean.

A quick view of the pool in the morning.

Probably the only photo I have of carpet

On 6/8/2019 at 6:31 PM, RCCL Fan said:

This review is so helpful thank you.

 

We are RCI big ship sailors  ---  we love Oasis class and it's usually our go to.   We saw a great deal on Vision this year and snagged it and were so worried about the ship size, age, and lack of amenities.  

 

It ended up being one of our favorite cruises largely because of the staff onboard, the ease of navigating the ship, and yes no trouble around the pool. 

 

It was like a totally different experience.

 

We loved it so much that we went ahead and booked a second on Enchantment in a few months.

 

I've been nervous about her.  Mainly when I told several staff members we connected with on Vision that we were going on Enchantment most didn't speak highly.

 

One person was polite and said, "she's not maintained well at all, I don't know why, but the maintenance on that ship is nothing like Vision"

 

Another said, "well you know that ship is only for short cruises, so it's just not well taken care of, can you switch?"

 

Words like RUST, OLD, kept coming up. Again this is from RCI staff onboard the same class ship.

 

Reviews online kept saying the same thing.... RUST,  WORN CARPETS.

 

I am kinds shocked RCI lets this ship be so rusty and worn, I've never been on a RCI ship that is poorly maintained. Quite the contrary they're always painting and cleaning and refinishing. 

 

I rarely felt Vision was old or felt old, despite knowing she was a 20 year old ship.   I would have said she was 10 years old.

  It sounds like Enchantment is a totally different beast.

 

Were in a suite so i'm not worried about cabin space, or the layout of the ship. But I don't want to be on some rusty ship.

 

So..... while I can still get a refund I've really been going back and forth on whether we should cancel.

 

Your report gives me some faith to stick around!   Thank you. 

 

I'd love it if you have any photos you can post, it's rare to see photos of Enchanment.

 

 

Good morning!

One day we will make our rounds to the big ships.  Hoping to do those when the kids are much older, or traveling with no kids!  😉  

Here is the trend I am seeing.  If you have been on these massive beautiful amazing ships, Enchantment can and will be a shock.  I know it was for me.  She kinda looks like a rust bucket haha.  She is small so there is THAT factor as well.  Imagine being on those big beautiful ships and then coming to this small rusty ship.  But that is on the outside.  I never found rust on the inside.  The carpet.  Hmmm.  Well.  It is patterned in many places which to me is a "classic" feel.  I know it hasn't really been replaced.  However nowhere that I walked did I find any stains or unkempt carpet.  No holes or fraying.  No white marks to show dried water or liquid.  It was clean.  Just.  An old pattern.  Flat.  But I never once looked in any place and thought gross!  FYI I did on the Liberty!  I HATE brass and it was EVERYWHERE.  But it didn't ruin my trip.  The hand rails were definitely worn.  You will see in the photos.  But they were not sticky or gross.  The whole trip I saw them slowly replace and refurnish the railings so I knew they were working on them.  Maybe by the time you sail they will all be fixed. 

I believe that RCI knows this ship isn't much to look at so they make up for it in the entertainment area.  That's JMO.  I think people need to keep an open mind about the whole thing and look past what it looks like.  I do understand though, that if you are paying that kind of money, you need to be treated like a queen/king.  But technically, you still are.  

Here are some photos.  I tried to post the railings where they are worn vs where they were fixed.

23 minutes ago, Artemus said:

The cabin felt really small ( OV). Smallest shower stall I’ve ever experienced. I’m a thin person and felt cramped. Not sure how a large person does it. The ship looked and felt worn. Old carpet. No Sorrentos. Had to go to the back to the solarium for pizza and salad. Quite often no one to make salad.

Oh I know what you mean about the rooms.  I assumed it was because we went from a balcony (Liberty) to an inside stateroom.  I also agree with the shower.  I guess I didn't see it as a big issue.  We do a lot of RV camping so we are used to squished places.  But I can understand your thinking.  By day 3 we figured out how to work around the shower.  For me, I had to turn the water off, put my feet on the toilet to shave my legs.  

As I mentioned earlier, I also agree about the ship showing its age.  Thankfully it is just cosmetic and the rust/brass/ugly carpets didn't ruin my fun.  But it was a big shocking to see at first.  We LOVED Sorrentos and were sad that it was not on EOTS!  But, we did grab pizza's from the Solarium.  And the salads were much better grabbing from Windjammer.  

1 minute ago, kands6191 said:

Thanks. That is very helpful. What time did boarding begin?

They begin boarding at 11:30am.  However they started boarding a little before that.  We showed up at around 9am and dropped off our luggage.  Then we drove to the parking lot and caught a bus back to the terminal.  Checked in, and were upstairs by 10am ish.  So we had time to sit and wait.  Which was nice for us.

29 minutes ago, kands6191 said:

Thank you for your great review. I am sailing on her next week on a family cruise of 13 ladies ages 21 through 70. I'm wondering about the boarding process in Galveston. We will have one aunt in a wheelchair.  Did you notice if they boarded wheelchairs first and if they allowed the entire group to go with them?

In our group there are some in suites, some are gold, some are first timers. We really want the embarkation photo all together but we are not sure how we will be boarding. 

There were several people in wheelchairs although I am not sure how they got there.  As far as photos, there is an opportunity at the bottom as you check in.  When you get to the second level, the members are separated as you wait to board, but it is in the same room, if that makes sense.  There are photographers there as well and that would be a great spot for everyone to take a photo while you wait.  Of course, that is assuming that you all show up early.  

26 minutes ago, reeb4 said:

Thank you for the very informative review.  My daughter and her boyfriend just sailed EOTS in early May, as well.  My daughter has sailed on Radiance, Adventure and Rhapsody...her report on EOTS was very positive.  Much like your review, she said it had a "small ship" feel - nothing was ever over-crowded - but had plenty to do and enjoy.

 

When we realized that my wife had to either use or lose 4 days of vacation before June 30, we booked EOTS for next week!  We are looking forward to it.  I can accept that it is an older ship, with some age marks...but a great crew and "feel/vibe" of the ship makes the difference.  Of course, our first RCCL cruise was on Song of Norway (most of you won't remember that one!) so "small ship" feel isn't a bad thing to us!

Wow I had to google that ship!  How interesting!  

3 minutes ago, Artemus said:

Thank you for your trip report. I was on Enchantment recently and I have to say it is probably the worst ship I’ve cruised on.

I am so sorry to hear that!  There is nothing worse than paying all that money and having a miserable time.  I am curious.  Would you mind sharing why?

Good morning!  I wanted to write a review for this ship for a few reasons.  Mostly because not many write a review on this ship that I have read.  Also, most responses were if you are thinking of Enchantment, it would be better to take the Liberty.  I have sailed the Liberty and do have kids.  :)  So my review will also be comparing both ships.

The ship is what I expected from all the research I have done.  They are correct.  First look at the ship and you do see a lot of rust.  You can tell it is a small ship as well and may have seen better days.  This is also JUST COSMETIC.  So my first impressions were not that great at all.  I was unimpressed.  Especially since the Liberty was amazing to look at.  So, if you want to be those people who when in port wants to say, "I have the better ship" yeah, this is obviously not for you.  

Getting onto the ship, you can tell it is a classic feel.  A lot of brass.  I would not say it is ugly in any shape of form.  The Liberty was dressed to impress and EOTS was for function.  At this point in time it did cross my mind if we were going to even have a good time.  I admit.  I was being snobbish about the whole situation at this point. 

However that is where my bad review stops.  I kept an open mind and boy I am sure glad I did.

Food:

Windjammer: On the Liberty, we HATED Windjammer.  It even had a smell to it as we were walking up to it and for us it was unpalatable.  But we were forced to eat there a few times do to what we had planned for that day.  It was what it was.  On the Enchantment it was a bit more crowded due to the smaller space, but the food was very good.  The coffee still sucked but that was about it.  WAY better hands down.  

Chopps Grille: Both ships performed amazing

Dinning room: Both ships were great.  I will add higher scores to EOTS simply because we never got tired of the food as we did on the Liberty.  We also got our food out much faster.  I do eat Gluten Free and not sure if it was because of the couple years in between both sailings, but EOTS had a TON of options whereas the Liberty I was limited.

Drinks: This will have to go to the Liberty.  We like to have the occasional drink but still bought the drink packages.  EOTS we felt like we drank all freaking day.  The drinks tasted good for sure!  But I SWEAR there was no alcohol in them even though I watched them put it in!  My husband and I are light weights in this category and for us to have drinks all day without so much as a buzz, headache, or hangover should tell you something.  Beer and wine, for obvious reasons, were right on par but that is because they can't mix them hahaha.  

Shops: This defiantly goes to Liberty.  I don't shop much.  But had fun going through all the little shops.  EOTS didn't have hardly any.  But I suppose it is because it is such a smaller ship.  What was there was ok.  But I was in and out of there in 10 minutes.  

Water activities: This one is a hard one to compare.  On Liberty we did everything we could from the slides, to the pools, to the waverider.  We did them a lot and had a blast.  I was worried that we would be bored with the small pools on EOTHS.  This was a surprising win going to EOTS.  People may differ on this opinion so I need to expand on this subject.  Our kids are in Elementary, Middle, and High school.  The only times the pool was crowded on EOTHS was during certain games that were listed.  I hate crowds, yet I found myself standing near the pool to see the action on EOTS.  I did not dare to do that on the Liberty.  WAYYYYY toooooo many folks trying to get a look and we couldn't even see what was going on.  EOTHS we could see all the action and the Entertainment staff really really got the crowds going.  They had the same size pools as Liberty, but since it is a smaller ship, there aren't as many people on board.  So it made for an enjoyable time at the pool.  We found lots of opportunities to hop into the hot tubs as well.

Kids clubs: My youngest hated the club on the Liberty.  But I honestly believe it was because of his age and not because of the environment.  The older kids had a blast.  We didn't enroll them in the clubs this trip.  However I spoke to many families who's kids were in the clubs and said they were all having a blast.  Would rather go there than hang with the parents.  So take that for what it is worth.  

Stage shows: We did see a couple shows on the Liberty.  They were good.  I can't for the life of me remember which shows we saw at the moment.  But I remember that they were good.  We went to two shows on the EOTHS.  The first show went through several musicals.  MY middle child is into musicals so we wanted to make sure we went to see it.  I have to say, all the music was performed live which made the whole experience amazing.  The singers were just, wow.  We have seen a few shows on Broadway in NYC, and I would say defiantly comparable!!!

Other entertainment: We didn't do as much of this stuff on the Liberty just because there was sooo much to do.  But what we did do was so mild and didn't make that much impression on us.  We did things like the scavenger hunt, etc.  Fun little 20 minute deals.  But I am gonna give this one to EOTS.  I suppose because it doesn't have all the thrills, you have time to look through the planner and pick and choose.  We did a LOT more of these on EOTS.  The same activities we did on the Liberty we did on EOTS and the entertainment staff was so energetic that EVERYONE wanted to do something.  Trust me.  I would have NEVER EVER in my LIFE want to dance in front of a million people but I won 3rd place (GO ME!) in a dance off!  Even got myself a medal and had a TON of fun doing it!  Believe me when I say I am one of the shyest people you will ever meet.  The staff is just so freaking fun you swear you have known them your whole life haha.  

We did go to the 70's disco dance.  HANDS DOWN the best cruise party we have been to.  ALL our kids are STILL talking about it.  I won't say much.  Just know if you sail EOTS and this is offered it is a MUST.

Overall: EOTS is the surprising win.  Of course a cruise it what you make of it.  If you feel like you need to be the biggest and the best, or need all the latest tech, etc, EOTS will surely disappoint you.  My family likes to stick to ourselves.  We aren't prudes, but we don't really talk to others if you know what I mean.  We enjoy each others company and have fun just the same.  We have sailed Disney Dream, and the Liberty.  Each have their unique qualities.  But EOTS we felt like family.  Everyone.  I mean EVERYONE on that ship was our best friend.  Because it was smaller we saw the same people all the time and by day 3 everyone was BFF's with everyone.  Lots of laughter.  Everyone encouraged each other to make a fool of themselves during games and everyone no matter how terrible you were was winner and cheered on for a great job.  High fives in the hallway.  EOTS was a very unique experience and one for the record books.  

Hello all,

Its been a while. We are currently booked for Enchantment of the Seas sailing out of Galveston, TX for 5 nights to include Costa Maya and Cozumel. We have been on the 7 night Liberty of the Seas and loved it. However, the last sea day we were bored and ready to come home. It is am AMAZING ship and wont hesitate to do it again though.

We decided to check out the Enchantment for several reasons. One being a shorter cruise that was more than 4 days. Something different. A little more smaller scale. And It is a quick get away trip. We do have a favorite spot in Costa Maya so not worried about that port. But puzzled about Cozumel. We have done beach things and dolphin things. What does everyone do in that port? Any suggestions of port adventures NOT from the cruise offerings?? Would love to swim at the beach but would also like to do something else as well.

As far as the ship goes, I have a couple questions I hope someone can answer. We recently had a family member diagnosed with some stuff and now they have to eat Gluten Free. This is new to us and we never paid attention to this while on Liberty. Does anyone know what they have to offer??? Will we really be disappointed in the smaller class ship? I have read both sides. Can someone give me insight about going from the Liberty to Enchantment?

Thanks in Advance!

Thanks for your review. The last ship I was on was Disney Fantasy.

We loved Disney cruises. But wanted to do something totally different. The reason we liked RCCL better was that we did what we wanted when we wanted. We ate when we felt like it. Disney has great food and great entertainment no doubt. But for once it was so nice not having to be shuttled from one place to another and what not. Disney is Disney. Just like the parks, you go from the time you wake up until you go to bed. On this cruise we just relaxed and enjoyed being together as a family. I never knew what I was missing as far as sunrise/sunsets on the ship until now. It was so peaceful.

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