Review: A Somewhat Disenchanting Three Days on Enchantment Feb. 12-15

Great review. Sorry to here about the ride back from Coco Cay. Glad that you made it over for a few hours to enjoy the island.

Your day at Coco Cay reminded me of when I was on the Monarch a few years ago. We made it to Coco Cay as the day started beautiful which deteriorated by the afternoon. I was planning on going over but never did but watched as they tried to bring everyone back. In the process the repositioned the Monarch, used 2 tenders going against the ship to act as buffers for the waves. They ended up pulling the tender strait into the ship through the back doors to get everyone off.

I'm usually skeptical when someone says that they were disenchanted with their cruise. However, as someone who is pretty terrified of DEEP water - I would probably have had a heart attack. That's a pretty major issue - and it would certainly color my opinions of tender ports as well.

 

But I am glad to hear that it wasn't a "bad service" or "inedible food" issue that made you disenchanted with the cruise. (As I am about to board Enchantment myself.)

 

Glad to hear that everyone is okay and that you still had a good time.

 

The pictures are wonderful! Thank you for them and thank you for your review!!

Other than this experience we really did enjoy Enchantment. I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time, with hopefully calmer winds for your day at Coco Cay. :)

I want to add my compliments to others'. Scott, your pictures are EXCELLENT.

 

:)

 

We had a similar (although not quite as harrowing) experience on the Majesty back in 2009. (our really bad experience was on the Crown Princess, but I did not own a digital camera then.)

 

[Click on the picture; it's a video]

Thanks so much! I love taking pictures so always have plenty to choose from...that way I know I'll get at least one that turns out ok!

Looks like you had a similar experience based on that video! I thought about trying to get a video at one point but I was afraid the movement might knock my phone overboard. Knowing my luck that's exactly what would have happened.

Very scary, hopefully over time Will will realize that your experience was pretty rare.

Yeah, that's pretty scary. I think they need to find a way to get that dock built or move to an island that they can have one. I've missed the island more times than I've made it. In fact, it took several cruises before we even got to go our first time! I thought it was a fantasy.

 

Admittedly, I was more worried that the disenchanting part was about the ship itself or the cruise itself. It makes a lot more sense that it's about tendering to Coco Cay.

 

I hope he's fine after time heals this scare.

I'm sure he will cruise again, just not for awhile. He's already made clear when that happens it's a Freedom class or larger ship with absolutely no tender ports. I think I can work with that. :)

Great objective review. Your experience should take some of the disappointment and anger away for some who do not understand why Coco Cay is skipped so often. A sudden change in the weather can make returning to the ship on a tender a harrowing experience at best.

Thank you for taking time to share your experience. I enjoyed it immensely.

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I'm sure he will cruise again, just not for awhile. He's already made clear when that happens it's a Freedom class or larger ship with absolutely no tender ports. I think I can work with that. :)

Thanks for the review! Glad Will isn't swearing off cruising completely. My mom is terrified of cruising - getting seasick, etc - and I think that tender ride would have been her first and last! Luckily it's easy enough to stay on larger ships with no tender ports [emoji3]

Great information, thanks! Had a similar experience in Semana DR, we were tendered and on our way back to the ship we had to sit on the tender for a half hour or so for the captain to turn the Enchantment to block the wind! Interesting experience. Booked on Enchantment for the 5th time in October and can't wait!

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Great pics!! I'll be boarding her again two weeks from tomorrow...one of our favorite ships :)

Us too!!!!!

(What???? You didn't know that I am known as the Queen of the Iguanas?!?!??)

 

;)

I will now, and perhaps forever, think of you as Merion_Mom, Regina Iguanārum.

Over more than two dozen attempts, we've missed Coco Cay about 20% of the time, in all parts of the year.

I think that my experience is close to Bob's, but I think that we have missed it less than 20%.

I will now, and perhaps forever, think of you as Merion_Mom, Regina Iguanārum.

Thanksgiving for doing a great review! It is well written and the photos are excellent. While we have no plans to sail Enchantment in the near future, I would definitely consider cruising on her after reading your review.

I really loved your pictures of Coco Cay. My DH isn't much of a beach person, but that looks like a beach he might actually enjoy - that is, if we are lucky enough to get there on our Freedom cruise coming up in May. I'm not going to tell him about your experience on the tender, though. :eek: If he hears that story, there is no way he will get off the ship even if the conditions are perfectly calm that day. Hopefully we will be lucky and have a calm day for our visit to Coco Cay.

What a wonderful review!

I was intrigued by the title and just read it first to last.

We were in Coco Cay in 2012 and had a hairy time getting back on board - they cleared the beaches early as the weather was taking a turn for the worse.

The smallest ship I've sailed on is Vision which I enjoyed, partly due to the Baltics itinerary, but I will now look at the smaller ships with more interest rather than just looking at Freedom and Voyager class - thank you for such a detailed and informative thread

Carol :)

Thanks, I guess

Reminded me of the three horrible days on that tub I spent in January. The best part was confirming my decision to never cruise on RCL again.

What a dump

Great review, I see you have mostly sailed on carnival which do you enjoy more and why?

I will now, and perhaps forever, think of you as Merion_Mom, Regina Iguanārum.

I love it.:D:D

I will now, and perhaps forever, think of you as Merion_Mom, Regina Iguanārum.

She really needs to start using that. Epic.

Interesting, never knew that.

It's extremely rare. I've got a friend with more than 60 Disney cruises (every single one of them a 3/4/7 out of Port Canaveral... doesn't that get old????) and he says he's never missed Castaway Cay. That's either luck or fact. You choose.

ETA: as a sidebar, he's got a photo of every single cabin door EXCEPT the first cruise, but he's found that room and has a dummy photo of that door from a later cruise in his book.

LOVED your review! I echo everyone else...you did a great job with your details and it made me feel like I was right there with you! I've only been blessed to have been to Coco Cay once and never knew until recently how tough it could be to get to it and back. I'm glad you and Will made it safely.

I'm excited to go back and read your Oasis review....we've yet to go on the Oasis class, but will be trying out the Anthem in June.

Enjoyed your review.Glad you were still able to enjoy yourselves. We watched your ordeal from beach and knew there would be some very stressed passengers. We are back on the lovely Enchantment in a little over a month. Can't wait! Will be our last cruise with Marc Walker for awhile.

Thank you so much for the review and amazing pictures. We had some scary tendering in Santorini back in 2012 but not as bad as you described. Thankfully no one was injured.

This will be our third time visiting Coco Cay in May (Little Stirr Up Cay on Carnival) and hope we don't have as much trouble you had to experience. The last two time where perfect.

Love your review! This will be our first time cruising on Royal Caribbean in May!

Thank you for the review - love that pic of the two of you, worth every penny you paid.

So there you have it, I've finally revealed the disenchanting part of this cruise. I imagine that after all that build up and waiting it's a bit of a let down, but I assure you the experience was much more frightening at the time than the retelling of it might sound.

 

After this experience Will has said it will be a long time before I can get him on another cruise (likely 2017) and never again will he go anywhere involving a tender. Can't say I blame him on that one. :)

 

That's it for tonight; I'll be back tomorrow to wrap up day 3 and finish this all up. Thanks for sticking with me!

If you swear off tenders you'll miss:

Belize

Grand Cayman

Cozumel (depending how many ships are in port)

and I'm sure many more.

I have been on those tenders during those rocky times, the best thing is to just get back on one!

Laurie

I want to add my compliments to others'. Scott, your pictures are EXCELLENT.

 

:)

 

We had a similar (although not quite as harrowing) experience on the Majesty back in 2009. (our really bad experience was on the Crown Princess, but I did not own a digital camera then.)

 

[Click on the picture; it's a video]

I wish I had a video of the tender in Grand Cayman, both going to the island and coming back. Looks eerily similar to your video. ugh.

Laurie