Enchantment of the Seas review; February 6, 2012 sailing

[CecilCtyCruiser]

Looking forward to more posts. We are leaving on the 19th on the same Southern Caribbean cruise. Would love to know what you did in all the ports. We are still trying to figure out which islands have the best snorkling and beaches. Are we correct in thinking that San Juan should be a tour the old city and fort day? Did you go over to St. John when you were in St. Thomas? What did you do in Antigua? So much to do in so little time! Think we'll just lay back and take each day as it comes! Loving your pictures.. more posts please????????:p

 

Noticed my DH has not replied yet, so I'll jump in :)

We did not have much time in San Juan - we were there from 7 am to 12. Old San Juan is a great city to walk through - beautiful architecture and city squares (parks). We took the free trolley out to the Capital, and then walked back into Old San Juan along the waterfront. Sure my husband will post more about this later. There is also a beautiful walkway along the old city wall if you take a left off of the ship. Can't remember exactly where it starts, but it ends up at the old fort out that way - we did that the last time we were here.

 

Can't tell you much about snorkeling since we did not do any. We do know there is an underwater snorkel trail at Trunk Bay on St John - an excursion from St. Thomas - and there were a lot of other snorkeling excursions offered. Some of the beaches on Antigua were just beautiful, and there are also beautiful beaches on St Thomas. Cane Garden Bay on Tortola was also nice (see pics above).

 

The excursion we took in Antigua had snorkeling that people said was good, but I would not recommend it for safety reasons. I honestly thought I was going overboard a time or two, and we don't mind a little rough water.

 

Hope you enjoy your cruise as much as we enjoyed ours!

[prekteacher1]

Hope you enjoy your cruise as much as we enjoyed ours!

 

Thanks for the ideas. I know we will enjoy ourselves...

 

Susan.... cruising in 26 days and 17 hours!

[HappyRev]

In St. Thomas we decided to visit the Black Beard’s Castle.

 

Our original plan was to walk to downtown and then climb 99 steps to the tower. Luckily, prior to executing this plan we stopped by the visitors’ information booth located in the middle of the Heavensight Mall at the port. A very nice gentleman suggested that because of the heat and because of our physical stamina (or lack thereof), it would be much wiser to take a taxi to the Black Beard’s Castle and descend down the 99 steps instead of climbing them. We promptly followed his suggestion.

 

 

 

For the rest of my life I will be grateful to that gentleman. We saw other “ambitious” tourists huffing and puffing in conditions of high heat and humidity as they were climbing the proverbial #!@#$^$ 99 steps and we recognized the wisdom of his suggestion.

 

 

Taxi ride from cruise port to Black Beard’s Castle or to downtown is $4/person each way. We arrived at the Castle at approx. 8:40 am, full 20 minutes before the place was supposed to be open for business. They ushered us in, slapped wrist bands on our hands, a bored young man gave us a short orientation talk and we were on our own.

 

 

There are quite a few interesting statues of various pirates there. Being a camera junkie, I took approx. a gazillion pictures of each statue and here are few of the pics.

 

 

 

 

[HappyRev]

The view from the top of the Black Beard's Tower is awesome.

 

 

I took a few pictures (surprise, surprise!).

 

 

[HappyRev]

Just below the Black Beard’s Tower, there is a Sculpture of “The Three Queens of the Virgin Islands.”

 

Here is a plaque that tells a very short version of their story.

 

Here are pictures of the statue taken from different angles.

 

 

 

 

These three ladies captured my imagination; I was intrigued by their story and will read up on them in the future…

[HappyRev]

Here is a picture of the 99 steps that we were planning to climb...

 

 

As a part of a tour, we had access to a restored colonial house. The tour guide was passionate about the subject matter and had really interesting presentation. He left us with a quote, "A man who is not passionate about what he does is a boring man." I could not say it better myself...

 

[HappyRev]

Eventually we came down to the Amber Museum. Earlier in my life's journey I had a chance to learn a lot about Amber; so I did not learn a lot there. But it was a cool place to wander and look around.

 

 

This plaque reads:

 

"This is the largest amber waterfall in the world, and contains over 12,000 stones procured from various parts of the world, including such places as the Baltic, the Ukraine, the Caribbean and Asia. The stones range in age from 25,000 to 90 million years old."

 

Here is a picture of the fountain.

 

[prekteacher1]

Thanks for the facinating pictures you took while on St. Thomas. I am intrigued by the story of the 3 Queens. I googled it and learned about the 99 steps as well. If we don't go to St. Johns, then I will suggest that we go up to Blackbeards Lookout. Looks like you had fun with the pirates;)!

 

Here's to hoping they get the Enchantment fixed. Would love to make all our ports in just a few weeks!

 

Keep posting about each port. I'm looking forward to visiting each one!:)

[JGORD7]

Thanks Great Pics & review!!

[dunn48]

Great pics and review. We were getting off The Enchantment the day you got on. Agree - it is worn in some places - but we still had a great time. There are just some people that have to complain about everything. The way I look at it - I'm on vacation - not working - not cooking - being waited on - what's to complain about:) We are looking at booking the Enchantment again - just wiht a different itinerary.

[cruisercrazy69]

Rev do you have pictures? if yes can you post by sun i leave for the cruise thank you

[relaxatsea]

Thanks so much for your great review and wonderful photos! I particularly liked the "light at the end of the tunnel" one. You have an artist's eye!

[Sugar*Magnolia]

Loving your review! Thanks so much for taking the time and posting!

 

Your pictures are just amazing!

 

Cheers,

[HappyRev]

We docked at San Juan @ 7 am; all aboard time was 12 noon. That gave us approximately three hours to wander around old San Juan (we figured that nothing will be open before 9 am). Although a little disappointed by shortness of the stop there, we tried to do the best we could with the time that was given to us.

{Picture of Enchantment docked in San Juan}

 

Since we were there early in the morning, we were the only ship there. Since it was a very short visit and the weather was less than ideal (it was threatening to rain), I suspect that many passengers stayed on board and the Old City was somewhat empty. Although I do not consider myself to be a curmudgeon, I enjoyed lack of competition for tourist attractions. :)

 

We took a city shuttle (free of charge) from the dock area to the Capitol. I really wanted to get inside the Capitol because artwork inside is splendid. We were inside in 2005 and I wanted to see the artwork again. We discovered that the Capitol is being renovated and we could not figure out a way to get inside (I am sure that there was a way, it simply was not high enough on my "To-Do in San Juan" list to figure out how). I guess I will need to convince my DW to go on another cruise... :D

 

{Capitol in San Juan being renovated}

 

In front of the Capitol stands a statue and from a distance it looks like that statue is making an obscene and lewd gesture.

{Statue that is seemingly making a lewd gesture directed at on-lookers}

 

I seen pictures of this statue before, I think I even took the picture of this statue last time that we were in San Juan. This time curiosity got the better of me and I actually did some research. Here is what I found:

This is a statue of St. John the Baptist and he is pointing towards Heavens. St. John the Baptist is the patron city of San Juan and that is why his statue is erected in front of the Capitol.

Here is a closer shot of the statue.

[HappyRev]

To walk from the Capitol building to Old San Juan takes 10 minutes of leisurely walk.

{Shot of the Capitol from another angle. Notice the skies... }

 

We walked towards the Old San Juan. Here are some pictures from this walk.

 

 

 

[HappyRev]

Once we got to the Old Town, we decided to go and explore a parallel street because we saw lots of interesting architecture and monuments.

 

Here are some random shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CruiseCritic only allows 6 pics per post... More pics in the next post

[HappyRev]

Some more random pics

 

 

{Picture of the Police Monument}

 

 

{Picture of the monument to Columbus from the side street. Taken from approx. 1/3 mile away}

 

 

 

[HappyRev]

Columbus Monument and square

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These pics do not do justice to the monument. When you have a chance, check out the detail of the work. It is really intricate and interesting...

 

On the square that surrounds the monument, there are booths with various artisans and artists selling their wares. We were at that square at appox. 10 am and there were only a few booths open for business.

 

I saw two artisans whose work I really liked.

 

1) A young lady by name Enid Reyes. She and her mother, Enid Olga Reyes, paint on bird feathers (this is not a typo, they produce works of art on bird feathers - WAY COOL). I was awed by the quality, originality, workmanship and sheer coolness of what I saw. I have no doubt in my mind that someday her work will hang in Smithonian and possibly in other great museums of art that preserve the World's Culture. Her work was awesome; on a scale of 1 to 10 I would give it 25. It was "off the charts" awesome.

 

2) An artist making aluminum, copper and bronze repousse (If you never seen this word, GOOGLE it. It will give you a better appreciation of what I saw). Unfortunately he was on the phone and I did not have a chance to talk to him. He had some really cool pieces (I liked an Angel and a Cross, and a steeple of a church). He also had some "cheezie" pieces. He work was different and intriguing; on a scale of 1 to 10 I would give it a very high 8.

 

The only reason I did not buy anything from either of them is because I know that in the next few years I will have to move quite a few times for my work and a thought of packing yet another piece of worldly possessions just does not seem enticing at the moment.

 

There were lots of vendors selling souvenirs, t-shirts, hats, and various chachkies that are not really worth mentioning.

 

 

 

 

{A balcony in Old San Juan. DW liked this picture}

[HappyRev]

Two of my favorite images from San Juan:

 

 

{A Builing off of the Columbus Square}

 

 

{Light Reflection in the window of an Art Gallery}

 

Here is an image that I find humorous:

 

 

{A Pirate using a Cell Phone}

[HappyRev]

After leaving Puerto Rico and going out to sea, it started to rain.

 

Here are some pics of a wet lido deck... Kinda cool....

 

 

[HappyRev]

Rev do you have pictures? if yes can you post by sun i leave for the cruise thank you

 

Hi cruisecrazy! What kind of pictures are you interested in?

[HappyRev]

Last port of call was Labadee.

 

 

On the day when we visited Labadee, there were two ships docked there: Liberty of the Seas and Enchantment of the Seas.

 

 

It was nice to talk to folks from a different ship. While waiting for lunch, DW and I met two ladies from mid-west (mother and daughter) and we had a nice talk.

 

It was their first stop and they were really excited by the ports that they were going to see. For us it was a last stop and we were somewhat bummed by the reality that our cruise is coming to an end.

 

 

Here is a pic of me with waves breaking behind me. The water was on a chilly side but once we got in, it was pleasant to stay in. Getting out did not feel too good because of a breeze.

 

We also discovered that water on the ocean side is colder than the water on bay side (like duh!).

 

There is really not much to do there except lay on a beach, look at stuff made in China that pushy vendors are trying to convince you cannot live without, or take an overpriced ride on a zip-line that lasts all of 20 seconds. Many waiters and locals are running around pushing Labadoozies (a pricey frozen fruit drink with rum). If you wait to get yours later in a day, rum content of your drink will be considerably higher than in a morning. We watched one waiter dump 1/3 of a bottle of rum into a Labadoozy at approx. 1:30 pm. All aboard time was 2 pm.

 

Here is a pic of a rock formation that I called Dragon Head.

 

 

All-in-all, Labadee offered a great opportunity to relax on a beach.

[HappyRev]

Here are some colorful pics from Labadee

 

 

 

 

 

 

We've been to Labadee several times. The first time we came there, we had to be tendered to shore (if it gives you any idea of how long ago it was). Royal Caribbean has been improving the island, adding amenities and making it more comfortable to visit.

 

It is a place to relax, enjoy the Sun, the sand and the sea...

[HappyRev]

Best thing about cruising is that:

1. My cell phone does not work
   
2. I have no access to e-mail
   
3. Somebody else cooks
   
4. Somebody else cleans
   
5. Unlimited nap-time
   
6. Somebody makes sure that I am always in a viewfinder of a camera
   
7. Somebody takes great pains to entertain me.
   

Here is a pic from the Solarium on Enchantment. DW and I spent many happy hours there....

 

 

Everybody on the cruise gets a cadre of paparazzi. Here is a pic of my favorite Paparazzi. His name is Nikesh and he took the best ever picture of me and my DW. My second favorite paparazzi was Vladislav; he took the second best picture of me and DW. We purchased both pics of course. Unfortunately I do not have Vladislav's picture.

 

 

Few words about entertainment.

 

Evergreen Trio that performed in the Atrium was AWESOME! Let me say it again: Evergreen Trio that performed in the Atrium was AWESOME!!!!!

 

When they performed, there was standing room only on every floor of the Atrium (yes even on 7th and 8th floor). People were were dancing and it felt happy. No other group on board Enchantment came even remotely close to Evergreen Trio. I base this opinion on how packed the Atrium was when somebody was performing and the size of the crowd that the group drew.

 

Here is a pic of Evergreen Trio.

 

 

When on board, make sure to find out when they are in the Atrium and stop by for a listen. They have a nice repertoire, I don't think that I heard anything twice while they were entertaining. The leading lady has a strong voice, keyboard player is wonderful, and a gentleman that plays with them is very good on Saxophone and Flute.

 

Results are very impressive; on a scale of 1 to 10, Evergreen Trio is about 15 (off the charts good).

 

Second best group that I liked was Rosario Strings. They did not draw as much of a crowd as Evergreen Trio, but they were very good (on a scale of 1 to 10, I would give them 10). Here is a pic of them performing at the dining room.

 

[HappyRev]

It was an AWESOME trip!

 

If you have any questions that I can answer, feel free to ask. If I know the answer, I will post it.... :)

 

 

Hope to see y'all on high seas sometime soon!