Enchantment comes to PC -April 25-29 2013- A mini review

[Katinga]

I am thrilled to find all this information on the Enchantment! We will be onboard for Thanksgiving week - I got a great rate while I was on the Freedom last week.

 

For those that have done the Quest on larger ships - how does it compare on the Enchantment? Is the space big enough?

[poncho1973]

For those that have done the Quest on larger ships - how does it compare on the Enchantment? Is the space big enough?

 

It is a tiny space compared to the big ships we've been on. TINY.

 

However, you are closer to the action. The action just involves a lot of running around the room instead of up and down aisles to a floor.

[kruzerci]

We pulled into Port Canaveral today instead of backing in like usual. That was different.

[palofmine]

Did this ship not have a retractable roof in the Solarium? It is like a green house, kept my sinuses clear! I love the solarium. NO KIDS!

 

 

We caved and decided to join the inaugural Port Canaveral party. This is not a comprehensive review, nor will it include pictures, but I will cover our main points and such.

 

 

The Good

Almost everything is included here. We enjoyed the Blairs and felt they did an excellent job whenever we saw them. They weren't obnoxious. They weren't everywhere, but they were quite visible.

 

The shows (with a caveat) we enjoyed the shows we saw, but found them extremely difficult to get to. They were all mixed up and all over the place. They weren't timed similar to other cruises we have been on and several people mentioned this. More on this later.

 

The food. The updated menus were nice. There were one or two stinker items and some meh items, but in general, it was nice. We found many old items had been slightly upgraded. We had great service and enjoyed dinner very much!

 

Our inside stateroom being sideways. We found we enjoyed this layout. It had its challenges, but it was kind of fun.

 

The solarium was an excellent space. There is a whopping bad to this, but you'll see that below. Park Cafe was superb. We had salads, paninis, sandwiches, late night pizza, fruit, etc. It was a huge cut above Sorrentos or the Promenade Cafe. The layout was great. It looked great. There was plenty of seating. Everything except my worst part of the cruise (below) was great.

 

I finally got to visit Coco Cay! I really enjoyed it. It is not Disney's private island and tendering isn't ideal, but it was a decent place to visit. We had a great time.

 

The ship was really easy to get around and it was laid out well. It is SUPER LONG, but it was easy enough to get around. The lounges/clubs were old-style, but nice. Everything was great in the ones we hung out in.

 

The crew/staff were really nice. We enjoyed everyone we met and talked with.

 

The Bad:

Back to the shows. The Quest was not on the last night, it was on a port night and took place BEFORE the last call back to the ship. Love and Marriage was at 10:45 on the last night. The early shows were still pretty late and the late shows were even later. We enjoyed them all, but attendance was much poorer than we have typically seen no matter which shows we went to.

 

The interactive menus outside the MDR were wrong every day. It listed some other day's menu. This was really annoying the first night when we had already decided what we wanted before arriving. I checked each day and it remained wrong. I pointed it out and it remained wrong.

 

The sideways inside staterooms had no where to sit down. We had the old shower curtain that leaks & never stays closed... this is fine with me, but Mrs. Poncho doesn't enjoy a draft in her showers.

 

The solarium was SO HOT YOUR FACE FELT LIKE IT WAS GOING TO MELT OFF LIKE IN RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK OR SOMETHING! No joke. It was hot, damp, stale, lifeless in there. We tucked ourselves up under the awning (or as close to it as possible) to get a little air conditioning, but it was really rough. You could hop in the pool and cool off, but we kept having to do this over and over. Mrs. Poncho is quick to get cold and she said it felt like a sauna in there. Crack a window, eh? It was very unpleasant and was mentioned on our survey and I made a phone call when we got home.

 

Our only other issue was that Boleros was too close to The Smokers Pit (AKA the casino) and it was basically off-limits to us the entire cruise because of that. Sad. We wanted to hit several things there. The large party of people in the rooms across the hall from us were saying the same thing one night when we came back to our room and they were deciding what to do for the night. It stank down there.

 

The Summary:

This ship isn't the best in the fleet, but it was fun and perfect for a weekend getaway. We enjoyed ourselves. We had a great cruise. The good massively out-weighed the bad. The bad stuff was all VERY specific and not deal-breaking material. The trip was very much a success!

[Clarea]

Did this ship not have a retractable roof in the Solarium? It is like a green house, kept my sinuses clear! I love the solarium. NO KIDS!

Yes, Enchantment has a retractable roof on the solarium. With the addition of Park Cafe to the solarium, it's not as quiet and peaceful as it used to be.