printingchick

It may take me several days to finish this, but wanted to start this while it was fresh in my memory. We just disembarked yesterday, but it was a LONG travel day home to Connecticut from Tampa and today was pretty packed with those "welcome back to reality" things like unpacking, laundry, etc. Back to work tomorrow, but will add to this as I am able. 

INTRODUCTION

We were a mother (60s)/daughter (30s) traveling together. We’d originally booked this cruise when it was going to be on Brilliance of the Seas. We LOVE Radiance Class. However, after Royal did some shuffling of their fleet, we ended up on Enchantment of the Seas. Having read some recent reviews and watched some recent passenger ship tours on YouTube, we prepared ourselves to be disappointed. We were pleasantly surprised. Sure, she’s an older ship and she has seen better days. But she was still lovely, the staff was outstanding and we had a blast!

PRE-CRUISE STAY

We stayed at the Quality Inn Airport/Cruise Port in Tampa. We didn’t realize our arrival coincided with the Gasparilla Day festivities, so prices were inflated for ALL Tampa hotels. That said, the Quality Inn rates were comparably reasonable and they offered FREE airport to hotel transportation, a convenient shuttle to the ships ($8/per person) and free breakfast, making it a good value. The location was good, with restaurants and stores near-by. The staff was friendly and helpful. While the facility itself could use some updating, it was perfectly adequate for a short stay.

EMBARKATION

I had done the on-line check-in shortly after mid-night the first day it opened, so we got an 11AM embarkation time. The check-in process is very fast now that most passengers do everything on-line in advance. We boarded quickly – even before 11AM. We were ushered to our muster station to check-in – having watched the safety instructions already in the app – and then we were free to explore the ship.

CABINS:

Cabins were open around 1PM. Our room steward (Aaron) introduced himself and indicated he’d be servicing our cabin in the morning. He forgot things like ice, a room service menu and a printed Cruise Compass on the first day, but was pretty flawless the rest of the trip. I never received an invitation to a “Welcome Back” party for past cruisers. Maybe they only do that for Diamonds now? (I was Platinum, now Emerald.) We had an ocean view cabin on Deck 3. I was impressed with the amount of storage in the room and bathroom. The shower curtain was annoying. The shower faucet tended to twist around on its own, flooding the bathroom floor. The beds were ROCK hard. We heard many people complain. My daughter found an extra comforter under her bed and fashioned a makeshift pillow-top for herself which she said helped. We had a large window from which we enjoyed gorgeous sunrises in the morning. I highly recommend packing some extra hangers. They don't provide nearly enough. I'm sure our steward would have brought more, but as over-worked as they are, we were glad we'd packed our own.

A TIP:

We ordered coffee delivered to the cabin daily. Much nicer to wake up to someone bringing coffee to your bedroom than the sound of a wake-up call. (Oh, and you need to get out of bed to answer the phone. It’s on the wall close to the clothes closet, not near the beds.)

More to follow...

Will post a review when I return. It's been a while, but last time I visited Roatan my son and I spent the day at "Fantasy Island." It's a resort that caters primarily to divers. It had a small nature reserve on the property and the monkeys would drop out of the tress onto the shoulders of tourists walking through. It was enormously fun. They were not in captivity. No guide or handler managed the interactions. What a fantastic memory with some great pictures. I've read that the resort expanded and I suspect the nature area is either gone or reduced in size. That said, there were no sloths! Super exited about the sloths!

On 1/13/2024 at 8:23 PM, smokeybandit said:

Voyager/Freedom class is our "no smaller than" target. Got a great deal on Adventure this summer and a good one on Brilliance for Christmas.

 

Brilliance is smaller than your target, but I'm sure you know that. Just clarifying for readers who may think it's Voyager size. Ironically, I'm a NO LARGER than Voyager class cruiser. I prefer the smaller ships with the Radiance Class being my very favorite. I cruised on Freedom once and thought it was too big. Have never cruise Freedom Class or larger since.

When I took my first Royal Caribbean cruise (after 5 cruises on Carnival), I was thrilled to find out there was a 70s party. I had hosted 70s parties. I love that era. Lots of regular RCL cruises dressed for the event. I didn't know about it so obviously wasn't prepared with 70s clothes - but I was on my next cruise and every one since. I think that's part of the benefit of having a favorite line that we frequent. That said, I do try to read reviews and look for the Cruise Compasses on line prior to my cruises, which helps me know what to expect. 

In terms of the dinner themes, probably fewer than half of the passengers dress for the theme, so I don't think it leaves people left out.

Found the Cruise Compasses from December on-line so I think I'm all set. Thanks!

On 1/10/2024 at 1:58 PM, crzndeb said:

Others have failed to mention that you can look at the current cruise and see daily activities. It’s a bit harder to find now, but if you click on head icon in upper right, under your cruise, it says “select a different cruise”. Scroll to bottom and where it says Don’t see your cruise, click on let’s add it now. Then scroll down to “browse our ships”….from there, it will bring up the ships. Pick yours and then pick the current date.

I have noticed the Dress for the Day is usually around the 4-5pm mark.

Hope this helps.

I tried this I got to the "Don't see your cruise" and "Add it now." It wants to look up my cruise by name, date and reservation number. There isn't a browse our ships. And if I go to another screen and browse ships, I just get itineraries I can book. 

I'm 29 days out and the only thing on my app's daily planner is things for purchase, like excursions or behind-the-scenes ship tours.

21 hours ago, Kellie in Texas said:

@printingchick the app does show this information before you board, but maybe not until 30 days or so. We board on Jan. 14 and this info has been in the app for awhile. 

@Kellie in Texas Does it show things like the 70s party, dancing under the stars and other such events? That would be awesome!

The app is new to me, but it doesn't show anything in the daily planner BEFORE you're on board as far as I can tell. I think the OP would need to know ahead of time in order to PACK for the theme. 

Oops, forgot to follow the thread. Thanks again.

I haven't taken a cruise with a tender port in some years and I'm not sure of the process. We will NOT have a ship-sponsored excursion in port. The port is Belize and the ship is Vision class, if that matters. We are NOT diamond and won't have The Key.

Is it first come/first ashore? Is there a ticket process? If the latter, when do we get our tickets? Our tour is private, so they will wait for us, but I want to be respectful of our guide's time and get off the ship as early as we can. Thanks in advance. 

On 12/4/2023 at 5:39 PM, APDMOM said:

Interestingly, Carnival just recently banned a woman for life from their cruise lines for trying to bring CBD gummies onboard…

I was about to mention this. Not even THC, just CBD. Seems pretty extreme. And to the commenter who suggested edibles over joints/vapes, this example is why people don't bring edibles on board. I have a family member with a medical card for migraines, but she will take her chances on a cruise because it's just not worth being denied boarding. The Carnival example APDMOM sites did NOT get her money refunded either.

The Weather Girls' hit "It's Raining Men" was actually from the 80s, not 70s. 😉

Totally disagree! I often cruise with one of my adult kids who were born in the 80s-90s. They LOVE the 70s party. We once had a tie-dye party to make shirts for our cruise. My kids have told me that - back in high school - kids didn't get up to dance until the DJ put on something like "Brick House."  

Years ago, a work colleague and I organized a huge 70s party and everyone had a blast. We decided to recreate it the next year as an 80s party and - while fun - it didn't live up to the first party. Gotta have that disco ball!

1 hour ago, The Fun Researcher said:

Hopefully with your reservation you'll be fine.  Yes, they ruined the MTD process now (and to a certain extent early seating in the process).  When they carved out a portion of the MDR for MTD, it worked great just as you described.  This new process forces early traditional too early, and makes waiting for MTD a mess.  We've been doing early traditional for the last few cruises due to the screwed up MTD, but have not liked how EARLY early seating is now.  Both options are worse than they used to be.

Early seating is TOO early, particularly on port days. And late seating is way too late for me. If I had to choose one or the other, I'd go early. But I shouldn't have to choose one or the other. That was one of the big benefits to MTD. I could CHOOSE the time I wanted to eat. And I didn't mind making reservations because it meant I was always seated with the same dining room staff. This is the first I'm learning about this new method and it sounds absolutely HORRIBLE! So disappointed to hear this. It will really put a damper on our experience. Not just the waiting in line, but being seated with a different crew at a different table each night. What a huge step BACKWARD in customer service!!!

The MTD comments are worrying me. We're cruising on a small ship "Enchantment" in February and have MyTime dining. I noticed that MTD times have pushed later, but we made 6:45 reservations nightly. On past cruises, if you utilized MTD and made reservations, they'd assign you to a table. It was like traditional dining, only you sat with your own group and chose the dining time. If we're going to find ourselves standing in long lines, what was the point of even making reservations? We may find ourselves in the WJ more than I'd like to be on our upcoming vacation.

I paid $650 of my cruise balance using Visa Reward points this week. How long before my balance is updated on the website? I still have a few weeks until final payment is due, but wanted to be sure the website would reflect the accurate total.

On 7/10/2023 at 8:45 PM, colesc15 said:

Oddly enough, the one that had grand cayman is like $650 more than the one with Coco cay. 

I agree with the votes for the 11-day with Grand Cayman, but that price difference is pretty steep!!

I'm going to ask, despite how much I had it when people offer up an option you DIDN'T ask for, but have you looked at cruises that sail from San Juan, rather than Florida? You might be able to get most of those ports on a less-than-11 day cruise if you don't have to spend so much time at sea. If you LIVE in Florida or you LOVE sea days, then I vote for the 11-day with Grand Cayman. I'm not a fan of the private islands. To me they seem like Disney replicas of actual Caribbean ports. 

I do understand the garbage issue, and I don't travel with kids. They leave so much "junk mail" in the cabin (Diamonds International, On-board Watch Sale, etc.) it can add up. Haven't personally experienced the change to 1X per day yet - will in February - but I don't think it will bother me. I'll request morning, so the cabin is clean for the day. I don't need them to clean it again in the evening. Basically, that's just turn-down service. They will have changed my sheets and towels in the morning. 

Thank you! I'll be on this ship in February 2024. Different itinerary, but a lot of the topics in your review still apply. My travel party will cover both ends of the age spectrum, as I'm traveling with my adult daughter. Did the ship still include the traditional 70's party. It's a favorite of ours. 

Lots of favorable reviews on TripAdvisor and Mitsugirly posted an extensive review of her experience and - despite some initial hiccups - reported a favorable experience and recommended the tour to others. I'm very excited about it. We're doing the private jeep tour. I'll try to remember to come back and post about our experience. 

I visit some highly reputable websites that end in .net, so I don't take the .net-vs-.com too seriously. 

Great to read all these good reviews. We've booked the private jeep tour with them in February 2024. Very excited to see parts of Cozumel we've never seen on prior visits. Thanks!

I have booked directly through Daniel Johnson's, but my cruise isn't until February 2024. Too late to help the original poster. They offer some great tours. We're doing the one that includes an island tour (we added the iguana farm), snorkeling, the sanctuary and a beach stop. Super excited about it. Will try to remember to come back and post a review.

14 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

I don’t recall the exact date, but they started issuing cards outside the cabins sometime in 2019. 

Last time I cruised was the start of 2020. We were just beginning to hear about Covid. Now that I think of it, we were on Celebrity, but we did get our cards in the terminal.

I don't consider myself a one-and-done visitor to most ports of call, but definitely to the private islands. They are what Disney might envision a Caribbean island to be. They aren't real. The only one I've visited was Labadee and it was a long time ago before all the amusement park add-ons. It was pretty, and I'm glad I saw it. But I have absolutely no desire to return.

These so-called private islands are nice beach resorts, but not remotely as interesting as visiting a REAL place with REAL locals. Before I travel, I always look up interesting facts or historical events about the place I'll be visiting. Can't exactly do that with a Royal Caribbean beach resort.

I'll be visiting Cozumel again in February. I took a long break from western Caribbean itineraries, so it's been a long time and I'm doing something completely different this time. I'll see parts of Cozumel I haven't seen before, so I'm looking forward to it. But I 100% understand not wanting to return to a private island a second time.