Enchantment 2/5/05-Review -The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!!!

[dogger]

:) DAY 1- Milwaukee to Fort Lauderdale to the port

 

GOOD –Ship was really nice, balcony room also

 

BAD-Our 4-1/2 year old DD fell asleep at 8:00 after eating at the Windjammer, right before our 8:15 pm dinner

 

UGLY-Muster Drill –15 minutes with a lifevest on, no explanation of what they’d do if there were an emergency. Just standing around while the Captain talked on the loudspeakers about nothing about what would happen if there was a problem

 

FOOD: Windjammer for a late lunch and back again at night after DD looked like she was going to pass out. Windjammer-good, changing menu and good side foods like salad bar, pasta bar,etc. For what it is, I’d eat there if it were a land restaurant

 

MY THOUHGTS-the things we left behind, wanted a container to hold drinking water and forgot to pack some diet mountain dews. Bad move on my part, was missing it in the AM’s. If you read it here and think, gee that’s a great idea, then you don’t pack it and remember you should have, you will kick yourself.

 

The soda program is a joke, $36 per person, $24 for my DD. Felt like a 2nd class citizen waiting for a bartender to serve me and that was after tipping additional for the blasted sodas a number of times to get better service. Also, gotta wait until the bars open at 9:00am. SO and morning soda fix on port days really don’t work out.

 

And enough with the ¾ fill of ICE!

 

The 2 travel mugs made nice presents to my COKE drinking friends.

 

Never travel the day of the cruise, too much risk and you start your vacation tired from the travels.

 

ASLEEP AT: 11:00pm

 

DAY 2- At Sea Super Bowl Sunday

 

GOOD –$3.25 Bloody Mary and Screw Drivers till noon. Cabin Stewart, Derrick, room 7136 was wonderful, from Trinidad, asked him many questions about his homeland. It seemed he would have

 

talked forever if he didn’t stop himself. Great thing to do, ask them about their county, it means a lot.

 

BAD Windy on the deck-very chilly, but braved it out and got some sun. Is this normal for sea days?

 

UGLY-Nothing much other than my wife had too many drinks during the day, doesn’t pace herself well.

 

Felt sick. DD fell asleep at 7:30pm, still no main dining room AGAIN

 

FOOD: Room service for breakfast was okay, it is what it is. Windjammer was good for lunch and dinner.

 

MY THOUHGTS- Sent the DD to Ocean Adventure(kid care) during the day, they give you a beeper. Really nice. The Super Bowl party had a nice spread of burgers, hotdogs and chips and salsa, NO BRATS??

 

The Super Bowl was from the international feed, no commercials and the commentators gave you better coverage by explaining the game and not going off half cocked.

 

Felt really good about the ship, knew my way around, we were unpacked and life was good, real good.

 

ASLEEP AT:11:30pm

 

DAY 3- Ocho Rios, Jamaica

 

GOOD –Had not booked a shore excursion, got to the port and asked for Peat Taylor, the people at the port called him and within 10 minutes he picked us up and took us around for a Tour.

 

BAD-Pushy Jamaican people with their goods, but a good "No Thank you MAN" normally took care of them.

 

UGLY-Formal Night, DD who walked up Dunn River falls, saw the whole Island and swam and played on the beach was sleeping at 5:30pm and didn’t wake up until 8:00am the next morning. Oh well!!!

 

FOOD: Room Service was good, nice to get it, get what you want and we ordered extra stuff for the frig like extra milk, juice, cheese, etc The Ruins at the Falls was cool, a water fall or two was the backdrop to a good meal, all-you-can eat or Jamaican Jerk food and other international dishes. Room service for dinner, see below, was great after our DD fell asleep before dinner. NY Strip steak was done perfectly and everything else was also great.

 

MY THOUHGTS- For those of you who want a good time in Jamaica, Peat Taylor and his Son Oneill took great care of us from the Falls, through the mountains, to a local restaurant called the "The Ruins at the Falls" where Oneill came in with us and helped us out on the cost of the meal, they wanted to charge full-price for our 4-1/2 year daughter, she was free after Oneill talked to them. Overall, we had a great time.

 

For those of you with younger kids, that 6:15pm seating for the dining room is the way to go. This was day three and we still didn’t make it to the main dining. After our DD fell asleep and would not wake as we wanted to get ready, I went down and changed our dining from 8:15pm to 6:15pm.

 

Recent released movies on two different channels were nice as our DD fell asleep early, basically, 2-4 movies per playing on 2 channels rotating where another movie came on every 1 to 1-1/2 hours.

ASLEEP AT:11:30pm

 

 

DAY 4- Georgetown, Grand Cayman

 

GOOD –The sailboat trip with Captain Brian on the Buccaneer was very fun. Stingray city, A MUST and two snorkeling spots where sea life of every kind was found. Sea Turtles were the highlight for my DD.

 

BAD-Not enough time on the Grand Cayman Islands, would love to stay longer than a day

 

UGLY- Grand Cayman’s hurricane damage, WOW.

 

FOOD: Room Service was good, nice to get it, get what you want and we ordered extra stuff for the frig like extra milk, juice, cheese, etc No place to eat in-between the sailboat trip and the Island tour. ASK

 

to stop and get ANYTHING. 1st night at the dining room, wished we’d took the 6:15pm from the get-go, had a blast even though we were a table for two and it was just me and my wife.

 

MY THOUHGTS- Do Stingray City, worth it, highlight of the trip for my DW and top 2-3 for me.

 

Young kids, do the 6:15pm seating from the get-go, we didn’t meet anyone during our two nights in the main dining area. Took our DD to Ocean Adventure on this night and found a nice couple in the Viking Lounge to have some drinks.

 

Recent released movies on two different channels were nice as our DD fell asleep early, basically, 2-4 movies per playing on 2 channels rotating where another movie came on every 1 to 1-1/2 hours.

ASLEEP AT:11:30pm

 

 

DAY 5 At Sea

 

GOOD –$3.25 Bloody Mary and Screw Drivers till noon. Beautiful day, saw Cuba all day off in the distance. Wonder if cruise ships will ever get to this island. Also, found deck 5 at 2:30pm, no wind at all at the back of the ship. Ssshhhhhhhhhh, don’t tell anyone.

 

BAD Windy on the deck-very chilly, but braved it out and got some sun. Is this normal for sea days?

 

UGLY-Why didn’t we book a 7 day cruise. It was our 1st cruise and wished we would have taken 7 days/nights instead.

 

FOOD: Room service for breakfast was good. Did lunch in the dining room, was good and was nice to meet some folks in there. Supper was again excellent, had a great time, wished we’d been there every night. We took our DD this night, after the show the staff puts on in the dining room, she asked if we could come back the next time, too bad it was our last night.

 

MY THOUHGTS- Why didn’t we book a 7 day cruise. It was our 1st cruise and wished we would have taken 7 days/nights instead. DO you catch a theme here?

 

ASLEEP AT:11:30pm

 

DAY 6 –Back to Fort Lauderdale

 

GOOD –off to Disney??

 

BAD -Getting off the ship, not having a flight meant we were last off the ship

 

UGLY-Why didn’t we book a 7 day cruise. It was our 1st cruise and wished we would have taken 7 days/nights instead.

 

THOUGHTS- Why didn’t we book a 7 day cruise. It was our 1st cruise and wished we would have taken 7 days/nights instead.

 

We went to Disney after the cruise, spent $600 for 2 nights and one day of the Magic Kingdom with food.

 

Stayed at the Amerisuites in Fort Lauderdale our last night, $69 off of hotwire. Really a nice pre/post cruise hotel, big rooms for luggage to pack or repack, plenty of restaurants in walking distance and a quick cab if needed to the ocean and at the price, well worth it.

 

IN REVIEW –A husband and wife who about a year ago said "I have no interest in doing a cruise" and taking our 4-1/2 year old DD

 

GOOD –RCI –Staff, crew, ship and activities, didn’t wait in any lines, never felt busy or packed, felt like the ship was empty, in a good way. Food from room service, to Windjammer, to the dining room was really good. Room Service was good and prompt, Windjammer was nice buffet-style, menu changed daily and it had great fresh food. Dining room, on par with other upscale restaurants.

 

BAD –The soda card-seems lame to me for what you get or don’t, just add it to the tab of going or come up with another way of doing it. I’m sure there’s ways that people abuse it, maybe teens? But figure something else out

 

UGLY-Why didn’t we book a 7 day cruise. It was our 1st cruise and wished we would have taken 7 days/nights instead. Spent $600 on Disney and my 4-1/2 year old DD rarely talks about it, all she talks about is the cruise!

 

THOUGHTS- Look forward to doing a longer cruise with other friends who now MUST go on a cruise. The cruise video I made a .mwv file which is making better impression with my family than any Oscar nominated movie ever. Seem like everyone now is taking about going. Does RCI give me a discount

 

for referring friends and family?

 

[sixthree]

Wonderful.. wonderful review. I've been having the same thoughts, i'm booked on a 5 day in mid march on the Enchanment, now thinking I should of booked a 7 day. Next time. Thanks again for the review.

[mellow]

Enjoyable review format. Only suggestion I have for you - you might want to consider a 7 night cruise the next time. ;) :D

[TheWog]

Glad you to see you are back and had a great time. Sorry you didn't get to enjoy the dining room more, but did get to experience it some. I bet you would do alright if you got those referral fees. Peat is great and so glad to hear you enjoyed his company.

[dogger]

It’s nice to be back………………….been very busy at work and the movie I made was due for a family function last week, 10 minutes of video, still photos, titles and songs from Black Eye Peas, "let’s get it started", Franz Frediand, Bob Marley, U2, Jimmy Buffet and another from Bob Marley takes awhile to make. A good 20 hours is my guess. If I had to do it again I could do it in half the time.

 

Anyone else put together movies or things like that of your trip?? After doing these for my daughter, crawling, walking and other major events, they are fun and you take them out more than photos to look at. I’ve done them on MAC’s and now a PC as format of my new camera was more PC than MAC.

 

I did change the format of my review to keep it from being solid chunks of sentences and breaking it out into smaller chucks of copy. A little easier to read I thought.

 

And yes, if you didn’t get that out of my review………………I think we’d like to do 7 nights instead of 5 nights.

 

WHY? –By the time we got our stuff unpacked, okay the DW did that, figured out where everything was on the ship, got our sea-legs we were ready to hit the two Islands the trip was half over with. After hitting the two Islands we’re heading into the last full day. While we had a wonderful time, it would have been nice and from a price stand-point, 7 nights aren’t that much more than 5 nighters

 

WOG-you did 5 nights, your thoughts? Seem right or would another port and 2 more days done you better?

 

And yes Peat and Oneill were great, I told them about the fact that I heard of him through this site, he seemed impressed that his name is out there. Oneill played games with my DD, hide and seek in the seats of the bus and he moved here and there......................then BOOO! they were very nice and we tipped nicely!

[sailor moon]

Early dining is best for kids - even our 11 year old liked it as all kids seem to get tired after a full day of play. Glad you had a great time!

[NYCchic]

Great review. Sounds like you had fun....thanks for posting it.

 

I leave for Enchantment Sat. morning...6am flight!

 

Next time I'll take all of your advice and fly down a day earlier. I can't wait for the trip though!

[TheWog]

Dogger - I definitely agree that 7 nights is much better than 5. You get so much more time to get acclimated and relax and enjoy everything there is to offer. Our first cruise in 2004 was on the Disney Magic and was 7 days. We had 3 days at sea and 3 days in a port. We loved that, but we had our son with us. Friends of ours heard all about our cruise and they had to go and they wanted us to go with them. Since we weren't bringing the little guy with us this time, my wife said it would have to be shorter. So that is how I found the Enchantment. Seemed like the nicest ship with the best itinerary for us and we went with it. Glad I got the 5 night instead of the 4 so I was happy with that. Next cruise will be 7 night and either another Disney or the Mariner. We'll see. But yes, I certainly agree that 7 night is the way to go....

[TheWog]

Great review. Sounds like you had fun....thanks for posting it.

 

I leave for Enchantment Sat. morning...6am flight!

 

Next time I'll take all of your advice and fly down a day earlier. I can't wait for the trip though!

 

You need a countdown clock. Have a great time!!!!

[dogger]

Even with the little one, she was just getting her sea-legs, IE-last night was her 1st night in the dinning room-LOVED IT

 

Just researching doing another cruise for this time next year.............you'll see my post on paying $499 for a 4 year old as a 3rd or 4th person in a cabin. hehehehe..............love getting people fired up!

 

To my 4 year old, the time on the boat and doing the excursions were priceless for her little mind...............and the movie I made will be a great reminder for her.

 

NYCchic-Deck 5, days at sea-in back, take a towel and catch some rays. There's no chairs back there, but if you want sun and no WIND like on top. go there and tell nobody!!! And enjoy.

[Excited about Cruising]

I am going on the same cruise on March 19. First cruise.....so very excited. I have a ? for anyone who can answer it. We are booked for snuba at 11:00 through RC. I keep hearing everyone say "Stingray is a must". Snuba is a 2 hr thing, ship leaves at 5:00. Would we have enough time to do the Stingray thing. And did you go through RC or a private vendor? Any ideas? 17 days...and I'm counting!

[dogger]

http://caymanislandsdiscounts.com/Stingray_City_Buccaneer_Excursion.htmTry the main site, the 1st part caymanislandsdiscounts.com.

 

The whole thing is who we used for Stringray City and 2 snorkeling stops........got us back at 1:45pm. We did the tour to the turtle farms and HELL.

 

See if this works for you

[TheWog]

I don't think you will have time to get out to Stingray City and back in time. Your best bet is try and talk to the private tour operators and see if someone will take you first thing in the morning and then get you back in time. You would probably only be able to do just the City stop and get back. No other snorkel stops. Cayman Island boards in ports of call will give you tons of information and contact numbers for the private guides. Moby Dick is pretty new and comes highly recommended.

[Excited about Cruising]

Rc does offer just a Stingray thing at 8:00 AM (2 1/2 hour). The Snuba thing starts at 11:00. Not giving us to much of a cushion. You don't think that will work?

[NYCchic]

I haven't exactly figured out how to do the countdown clock thingy :)

 

Thanks for the tip on Deck 5 - I will definitely check that out! I'll have a drink for all of you!

[TheWog]

I'll have a drink for all of you!

 

You better!!!!!!

[TheWog]

Rc does offer just a Stingray thing at 8:00 AM (2 1/2 hour). The Snuba thing starts at 11:00. Not giving us to much of a cushion. You don't think that will work?

 

Any delay at all at any point and you might be missing one or the other. Maybe you can beg to have SNUBA start a little later.

[SlightDraw]

As I mentioned to you, you learn a little evry cruise you take. The next one will be 7 days, and you will have a better feel how you DD will react to a full day of fun. Sometimes full speed ahead is good, sometimes you have to downshift and take a nap by the pool. I would not consider myself a cruise expert, but I feel Navigator will be our finest because of our track record. Not concerned with details, etc. My advise, my opinion. Voyager class. More for dd to do. Plus you went western. My opinion again, go eastern.