Review: Enchantment of the Seas - June 28th-July 3, 2019

[Travelbug78]

Hello, everyone,

 

I just got off of the Enchantment of the Seas this past Wednesday.  It was my first cruise on RC, as I've done Carnival a couple of times (Triumph and Splendor) and also NCL once (Sky).  For this cruise, we sailed out of Galveston for a five-day cruise with stops in Costa Maya and Cozumel.  It was a group trip for my friend's 40th birthday. I noticed that there are not many reviews of this ship on the site, so I wanted to share my thoughts in my first-ever review on this site.  Going on this cruise was a great way to experiences the differences I've often heard/read about CCL vs RC.  For this review, I'll separate things into sections and give my overall impressions.

 

Embarkation/Disembarkation Process

When arriving at the Port of Galveston, I have to say that I was amazed at how fast the embarkation process was.  There was literally no line to get through all of the checkpoints...never experienced that before.  I'm not sure that is a credit to RC directly, it could have just been great timing.  At any rate, it was a very smooth process. Disembarkation was pretty typical - alot of waiting, but was a pretty smooth process once your group was called (we did not do self-carry).

 

Ship

Prior to taking the cruise, I read some feedback regarding the ship being older and showing signs of wear/tear and rust.  From the outside, you could definitely see these signs of aging, but it wasn't at all an eyesore you were forced to look at or anything and didn't take anything away from the ship.  The interiors were clearly dated, but were well taken care of and were still nice.  No issues there.

 

RC App/Internet

The internet on the ship worked pretty well and the app was great for planning out your activities.  The only thing I wish is that our ship had the capability to use the chat feature that the app offers.  This helps you communicate with other folks you are traveling with on the ship.  Only a few of us in our group of 17 actually bought the internet package, so not many opportunities to use What'sApp to communicate between everyone.  I noticed a family that brought walkie-talkies with them on the ship - smart idea!

 

Cabin

For this cruise, my sister and I were in cabin 3508.  The rooms seemed to be a bit smaller than I've experienced on Carnival, but weren't unbearable.  Of course, the showers are not typically large on any ship, but these seemed smaller as well.  Room decor did seem dated, but not terrible.  Because of the shape of the room, we were not able to have two separate beds on either side of the room - they had to push both of the twin beds together in the center and put the nightstands on the sides.  Again, not a huge pain point, but just a surprise. The cabin was very warm when we arrived and it took hours to cool down the room. Throughout the trip, the temperature never quite got down enough to where it was ideal for us. Again, not the hugest deal in the world.

 

Ports

As mentioned above, our planned stops were in Costa Maya on Day 3 and then Cozumel on Day 4.  Unfortunately, due to the weather, once we arrived at the Costa Maya port, the captain decided that we would not get off the ship and would just head straight to Cozumel.  We ended up getting to Cozumel around 7pm that evening and did an overnight stay.  When we arrived, my crew and I got off the ship to check out things.  Nothing was really open except for Senor Frogs, so we just went there to eat and hang out.  The food there is terrible, but it was good way to get off the ship and have a little fun.  Having been to Cozumel a couple of times before, there were not any excursions I really wanted to do so the next morning, my sister and I just got off the ship again for a couple of hours to shop and then got right back on the ship.

 

Food

Now, one of the things I love to do on cruises try the various food.  This area was a little disappointing for me on this ship.  For starters, I did not like the fact that food was not as easily accessible.  The ship had very firm hours as to when the Windjammer was open as well as the little cafe.  There were several times when we were hungry for a small bite, but nothing was open.  Also, on this ship, there were not as many choices of where to get food either.  They had the MDR, Windjammer and a little cafe that sold pizza, sandwiches and a salad bar.  Also, the ice cream machine (when it was functional) was hard to find, and it seemed like there was only one set of machines on board - odd.  EOTS does get a plus, however, for having the Coke Freestyle machines - I was so happy I could get Sprite Zero whenever I wanted!

 

Now, to the quality.  I'll start with the buffet.  Disclaimer- I'm not really a huge buffet lover in general.  The buffet was pretty decent though and did have a good variety of foods that it served.  I thought the lunch/dinner offerings were better than breakfast.  I found myself getting the same thing every day for breakfast which lets me know the offerings were limited.  It bothered me that I could not get scrambled eggs there.  I love scrambled eggs but I HATE them soft-scrambled. Buffets always have them soft-scrambled.  I could only get them from the MDR when I could tell them exactly how I liked them cooked.  Speaking of which, let's move on to the MDR. Our servers for the week were Idewa and Lenin. They were great and very pleasant; however, I would not say it was the best service I've had on a ship.  There were times when they forgot certain items we ordered and a couple of nights where the wait was extremely long between courses.  The first couple of nights, I was not very pleased with my meals there, but they made up for it on the last two nights.  Some of the best things I had while eating in the MDR were the garlic tiger shrimp, caesar salad, calamari, new york strip (seasoned extremely well, but a bit overcooked), apple pie, and tagliatelle.  Otherwise, the food was just ok at dinner.   We did purchase the Galley tour that included a bottomless mimosa brunch served in the MDR.  The experience was fun, but I thought the food served there was just ok, nothing really special (I guess you could count the surf/turf offering as special).  I honestly enjoyed the tour more than the lunch.

 

Now to the dining room experience.  As I mentioned, the serving staff was great and attentive.  I was surprised, however, by the lack of any entertainment during dinner, especially during the "formal" night.  It was just a regular night (more on "formal" night later). On the last night, the servers did sing a farewell song, but that's about it.  Also, there were not many photographers taking photos of the guests at dinner.  I think in the four nights of dinners we ate in the MDR, a photographer came our table one time.

 

Formal Night

Formal night seemed to mean absolutely nothing to most of the guests....lol  I actually like the idea of having a night or two on a cruise dress a little nicer for dinner and take photos.  If I had to guess, I would say only 30% of the guests on board actually dressed up that evening.  I didn't expect 100% participation by any means, but it just seemed like folks were not interested.  It wasn't even made a big deal by the staff.  They did highlight the captain's welcome reception and announced that you could take photos with him, but the idea overall was pretty lowkey.  For the photo stations, they only had certain 1-1 1/2 hour blocks in which you could take photos.  Once that particular block of time was complete, they would shut down their stations and you'd have to wait for the next block to take a photo.  I prefer the way it is done on Carnival, where the photo areas are open practically all evening to come and take photos at your leisure.  I also did not like the way the photos were taken on this ship.  Some of the photographers shot at strange angles.   I always look forward to buying at least a couple of photos - on this cruise, though, I did not buy one single photo.

 

Entertainment/Fun factor

This is where EOTS is a hit on some things, but a miss on other things.  Let's start with the hits.  Loved the various trivia games held on board.  As a trivia nerd, I really enjoyed these games (actually won two of them!).  I also really enjoyed the Battle of the Sexes game and the Love and Marriage game.  Hilarious! I did a cupcake decorating class which was fun and also enjoyed sitting in on one of the art auctions (my friend actually purchased two pieces from the auction).  They also had a parade of flags on the last night, showcasing all of the countries that the crew is from, which was very nice to watch.

 

Now for the misses. First of all, the DJ on the ship was not very good.  He played at pretty much all of the nighttime events, and was consistently not very good.  We kept begging for him to play some songs that came out this year or at least last year and to read the crowd to know what to play.   It really killed the mood when were looking to get our dance on.  Also, I find watching karaoke super fun, but the way it was setup on this ship was odd.  This was held in the Boleros lounge, which was a cool spot in and of itself.  They had the mic setup in the center of the dance-floor area, but the screen that showed the lyrics was behind the singers, which means that the singers were always turned away from the audience so they weren't really singing to us but to the screen.  Also, the mic was really low and it was difficult to hear the singers in many cases.  Lastly, the club  - it was more like a lounge and not a club.  I never saw it get really hype in there, unless you had to go after midnight (which I never did).  Now, I'm not a person who has to party, party, party every single day by any means, but it was disappointing that on the nights when we did want to enjoy some great music and dance for a while, we couldn't find a place to do that.  I'm not a huge gambler, so can't really comment on the Casino.  Some folks in our group spent quite a bit of time there, though. I, unfortunately, did not attend any of the production shows on this ship or any of the comedians (which is odd for me) so can't really comment on those. They did not really interest me enough to prioritize making sure I got a seat.  The onboard musicians were very good and provided good music in the Centrum and on the pool deck.

 

Overall Thoughts

Overall, I did enjoy the cruise, and I now get the differences between RC and Carnival.  What I've learned is that RC is great, depending on what you are looking to get out of the cruise.  If you are looking for a bit more elegant experience centered around relaxation, some cultured activities and a little fun, it's great.  If you are looking for relaxation and activities with more options and flexibility for food and want to have the option of a bit more excitement or "party time", then I think Carnival is a better choice.  Would I sail RC again? Yes. I actually took them up on the Book Later deal while onboard and put down a deposit. I just need to decide on a ship and itinerary.  I would like to try one of RCs newer ships and see how it may be a different experience, since ships can and do vary.  That will probably give me a better idea of how I feel about RC in general.  If you have any recommendations, please let me know.  I'm thinking maybe one of the Oasis class ships.  To feed my "fun" bug, I'm also looking to try to take another Carnival cruise before the end of the year, also on one of their newer ships.

 

Thanks for reading.  Hope you find it helpful!

[Biker19]

19 minutes ago, Travelbug78 said:

 I noticed a family that brought walkie-talkies with them on the ship - smart idea!

Did you ask them how well they worked? Most reports suggest, they don't work so well once the users are separated by a few decks, especially on bigger ships (perhaps less of an issue on Enchantment).

[Travelbug78]

1 hour ago, Biker19 said:

Did you ask them how well they worked? Most reports suggest, they don't work so well once the users are separated by a few decks, especially on bigger ships (perhaps less of an issue on Enchantment).

 

I didn't actually.  I just them using them from a distance.  It makes since that they may have issues, depending on the quality of the walkies.

[Clarea]

16 minutes ago, Travelbug78 said:

 

I didn't actually.  I just them using them from a distance.  It makes since that they may have issues, depending on the quality of the walkies.

 

Nearby people can find them disturbing, especially when communications are bad and the walkie-talkie users  keep repeating and talking louder.

[TX JAM]

Thanks for writing the review.  We are on EOS this September and are tying to learn all we can. 

 

Hope you try Royal Caribbean again, try one of the Oasis class ships, too much to fit all in one week and the ships are just beautiful.  We sailed on the allure and loved the central park, the promenade was also great for shows and parades.   We really enjoyed the different dining locations.  Carnival is nice too, no complaints on the cruises we have been on. 

 

Again, Thanks for the review