Back from Enchantment July 19-24 - Part 1

[OceanCruise]

This was our tenth cruise but first on a Royal Caribbean ship We have been on 2 Carnival cruises and 7 Celebrity so we were able to get Platinum Crown and Anchor Benefits for this sailing. We had 2 adjacent oceanview rooms on Deck 3. Here are some of my opinions and experiences:

Embarkation:

We arrived at Philly around 1:00 and immediately was able to check in and enter ship without a wait because of Platinum level. However, there is a loooong walk and incline on the ramp to get on the ship. There was one chair and a water station towards the end of the ramp but some elderly people were having a hard time with the distance. I have never seen such a long ramp! We were able to go immediately to our rooms but there was no one to direct us and no paper deck plans were available at all which was disappointing.

Ship/Rooms:

Ship was beautiful and looked brand new and stunning. Rooms in older section appeared to have all new furniture, carpet, linens and even a new bathroom. Very nice! However, this was the smallest shower we have had. It is a bit hard to maneuver in which was annoying. There are still problems with the toilets. Both of our rooms had intermittent problems and we had to call maintenence nearly every day and sometimes several times. It was only for short periods 30-60 minutes but was inconvenient. We heard from others on the ship on various floors that they had worse problems. There was no major stench in the hallways except for one day for a few hours. Storage was the best we have had. Tons of cabinets and well designed furniture and vanity.

Solarium always seemed quiet when I passed through but I never spent extended time there. As a matter of fact, although there were more than 400 kids, this was the first cruise I have taken where you never saw them. All the kids were extremely well behaved and my family kept commenting on this. I am not exagerating when I say there were no crying babies and no gangs of kids running around. My 15 year old enjoyed the teen program and they seemed to really keep the kids occupied in a designated teen area. Kudos for this!

There was always a section of the top deck that was roped off so you couldn't walk in a complete loop. I also saw empty pool chairs! It was annoying to have to bring a towel from the room to the pool area but I think this cuts down on chair hogs. There was always music blaring by the pool which interfered with quiet relaxation or reading a book. Kids seemed to enjoy the splash pool. There were some babies with diapers in the pool.

Food:

Exceeded our expectations. This was the best buffet we have had on a cruise- more kudos!. Great variety, fresh and something for everyone. There were burgers, Chinese, deli station, carving station etc. Dinner was also very good although the service is not as refined as Celebrity. However, our waiter made up for it with his pleasant personality. Meats were not tough and were tasty. Vegetables and potatoes were fresh. I did not like the pasta though and desserts were a bit stale or not very special. We ate twice at Chops and thoroughly enjoyed it. The desserts were to die for there. One major complaint on this ship is that the coffee is AWFUL!!! (except for coffee at Chops which was good) We could barely drink it and they don't have half and half at the buffet and room service, only non-dairy creamer-YUCK! Even the pay coffee at Lattetudes wasn't very good. Also, there is no free ice cream except for at dinner. I was told they removed the free machine. Another minor complaint is that the fresh pineapple was awful and tasteless. There were no platters of sliced fruit at the buffet like they have on Celebrity - only small mushy cubes of fruit salad at the buffet and some sliced fruit with room service. They did have whole banana and apples and oranges available. I usually look forward to fresh cut melon and pineapple on a cruise so was a bit disappointed. Every morning I called room service for a continental breakfast and some evenings for snacks and it was always promptly delivered (approx 10 minutes) and was always accurate.

To be continued....

[DD]

Thanks for the review! I'm enjoying reading it and am looking forward to the next installment.

 

I agree with you about the kids. We heard there were over 450 kids on board. I seldom saw them or heard them. When I did see them, they were hanging out with others in their own age group, looked like they were having fun, and were not disturbing anyone else. I saw a lot of well-behaved teenagers who seemed to be having a blast. I hardly saw or heard small children other than at embarkation/disembarkation and at the Windjammer.

[Boo's Mom]

OceanCruise.... That is an interesting thought on the pool towels. Having to return them to your room....might be cutting down on the "chair hogs". Makes sense to me.

 

We got off of the Enchantment on the 17th. :D

[OceanCruise]

One thing I forgot to mention is we could not check our sea pass account on the TV. I went to the front desk several days during the cruise to get a printout and keep track of expenses. We had one small error which they rectified. They only send a printout to the room debarkation morning but I would recommend checking ahead of time.

[GeoSci64]

Hi,

AS you (on this July 19-24 cruise) went down the Delaware from Philly - I snatched a few pictures. You can view them at:

 

http://home.comcast.net/~ourcruise/

 

Enjoy!

 

GeoSci64

[thegreenepea]

Apparently not all the rooms were refurbished because our furntiure was old and the TV was very small and ancient. You had to use your credit card to open the safe thus requiring you to keep it with you at all times. On other cruise ships or hotels they have acombination lock. The track on the sliding door for the balcony looked like it was never cleaned.

 

Babies in the pool with diapers is just another example of rules not enforced.

 

You would think that the toilet problems would have been resolved by now. This is totally unacceptable.

 

I too, enjoy fresh fruit and it was not plentiful and the choices were limited - never saw a strawberry. The cut up fruit salad was tired and sOggy. I've been on Celebrity and Carnival and the fruit was plentiful and far superior in quality. I missed having the yogurt machine too.

 

These observations may seem trivial, but they start to add up.

[curiousjly]

This is all new to me, my first cruise coming up, my daughter and I are leaving the kids at home. However, I am still curious to the arrangements for little ones. Don't get me wrong, I'm not wild about a little one in the pool with a dirty diaper, however, I have a grandbaby who is only 10 months so still in diapers. My daughter has bought those special swimming diapers for the baby when she takes the kids to the pool, the age of the others are 4 yrs and 2 yrs, so she has to be with them at ALL TIMES, so Celeste will have to be in the pool with her.

So, hopefully, the mothers of the babies are using such diapers for their little ones.

 

I don't know what the arrangements are on the ship, do they have babysitting services for infants, for kids that are too young to be sent to the play area? Not sure of the age thing, we are leaving the kids at home, this is break time for my daughter from kids, we hope very few children on our cruise. My daughter is wanting to go on a cruise with her hubby and kids later on, though.

 

I was just wondering what set up the cruiseline has for parents of such age children, I know that my daughter wouldn't just up and leave her kids, so I can see her in the quandry, bring the baby to the pool, in the special swim diaper, or stay with the baby.

 

Jly

[LustforLife]

The refurbished Enchantment has a special splash pool with fountains, just for kids. I'm sure the baby would have fun playing in there. Then your daughter and her husband could swap watching over the baby and take turns swimming in the big pool. I don't know how much the swim diapers keep stuff "inside". I don't recall using them with my daughter so I don't remember.

 

They do have babysitting services for a small hourly fee, past midnight, plus the kids programs during the day. I'm just not sure about the age groups.

 

Hope that helps a little...

[Cheryl H]

Very interesting that you could transfer in to C & A platinum from Celebrity. We asked the captain about that last time at the repeaters brunch. I was under the impression that they would not allow the priviledge to transfer. Wow! That's great. I wonder if it is true for the reverse. We've been on RCCL 8 times. Have never tried Celebrity.

[DD]

Very interesting that you could transfer in to C & A platinum from Celebrity. We asked the captain about that last time at the repeaters brunch. I was under the impression that they would not allow the priviledge to transfer. Wow! That's great. I wonder if it is true for the reverse. We've been on RCCL 8 times. Have never tried Celebrity.

 

This is new as of about Jan 2005. It's basically a status match from one line to the other. You cannot combine the sailings from both lines in order to reach a level; but, if you're at a particular status level with RCI, Celebrity will match it or vice versa.