Enchanted Princess Review - 1/19/22 - 1/29/22

[Kmkub]

We just disembarked from a 10-day on The Enchanted Princess. This is a beautiful ship and we had an amazing time.

 

This will be a multi-post review. I took lots of pictures; mostly food porn!!

 

We didn't do any excursions, so my thoughts on the ports are very limited.

 

What I will discuss is:

- A bit of drama at check in (Port authority related; not Princess.)
- Overall ship layout/design
- Crew
- Food/dining venues, including: Crown Grill, Bistro Sur la Mer, MDR (Amalfi,) Slice, Salty Dog Grill, Gigi's, IC, Gelato, Room Service & Buffet
- Casino
- Spa, including: Massages, pedicure & The Enclave
- Lido deck & watching NFL playoffs
- Entertainment
- Bars
- Shops
- Cabin
- Medallion app (I have a lot of thoughts on this, both good and bad.)

 

Overall, this was our favorite cruise. It's probably for a variety of reasons, including our own personal headspace. From a customer standpoint, the ship being at 50% passenger capacity was amazing. As a CCL shareholder, we hope cruising can start in full, soon.

 

For reference, this was our 11th cruise since November, 2008. This was our 7th Princess cruise. We've done two NCL, one RCCL and one MSC, in The Yacht Club. This was also our second 10 day cruise, and now we have no clue how we'll ever do a 7-day or less, again!  We did six Princess cruises before venturing out to see what other lines have to offer. After being back on Princess, we feel they provide the best experience for us, personally.

 

Overall, the food ranged from very good to outstanding. There were definitely some clunkers, which I will point out. The black & blue soup at Crown Grill was every bit as delicious as we remembered!

 

The Medallion app is a great addition. I will go into depth on this; it's certainly not without issues and has lots of room for improvements & enhancements. It's not near as bad as some claim, and I'm surprised how many people we talked to weren't even really aware of the many features of this app. For example, nobody I talked to knew there were step by step instructions in the app to get from "here" to "there." It was helpful the first couple of days.

 

With exactly two exceptions, the staff were amazing. There were so many smiles and the attitude couldn't be more helpful. One night in the MDR, The Amalfi Director thanked us for his job. That was a special conversation. 

 

I will not be posting any Patter pictures. @Jadn13 did a 20-day live thread and graciously posted all the Patters. Please see here: https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2823041-enchanted-19-129-updatesquestions/

 

More to come later today.

[sunsetme]

can't wait for more

[Kmkub]

 

Continuing.

 

(I will be referring to my husband as Nerd throughout the review. It's what I call him.)

 

There was a bit of adrenaline-causing drama going through security. My husband had his phone on a lanyard, so when he got to the metal detectors, they told him to put it on the belt. The man at the scanner told him to just hand him the phone, which he did.

 

I was on the other side, gathering things from the belt. I got his backpack just as he was going through the scanner. Now we are waiting for the phone, which isn't showing up. 

 

Nerd asked the man at the scanner where his phone was, and he told him he hadn't seen it. Nerd said, "I literally just handed it to you!" The man just shrugged.

 

Now we are in a panic; not only for a missing phone, but a phone my husband needs to log into his work computer. He had deadlines to meet during the cruise.

 

I'm trying to keep it short, so I'm not going to describe the next 15 or so painful minutes, calling the phone while frantically hollering out to fellow passengers, asking if they had mistakenly picked up a phone. It was very noisy, so I'm sure only a few heard me.

 

So, skip forward - We are now walking to get on the boat. We stop to catch our breath, (I'm trembling,) and we called the phone again, and Nerd's backpack starts ringing. His phone was there the entire time! Now, I had his backpack before he went through the detector, so the man at the scanner had clearly put it in there, than moments later denied having seen it at all.

 

This was the worst part of the cruise! LOL

***

On to the happiest part. This was our 7th Princess cruise and our 5th Princess ship. Only return customers know this, but walking into that Piazza always feels like you just got home and hundreds of staff spent hours making it beautiful for you. After having spent some time on the competition, I can honestly say there is nothing else like it. It's truly a special moment.

 

This piazza is more stunning than the others, and that is saying a whole lot! The color pallet on the entire ship is so soothing; it's shades of blue and grey, and we loved it. 

 

The staff was there clapping and welcoming us. There were no high pressure spa or cubic zirconia staff to welcome us. This was new and especially appreciated. It was nothing but welcome and enjoy!

 

The layout of this piazza is pretty new to us. Vines is gone and replaced with a gastro pub and bar. (We didn't eat there.) There's also a whole space dedicated to gelato, as opposed to a counter in IC.

 

There was no charge for gelato. I had it once, and I wasn't quite as impressed as I have been in the past. It was missing that super creamy richness that has always been present before. I'd appreciate comments from others, as this could have been my taste buds. I didn't go back.

 

The IC also wasn't quite as special as it used to be. This could be a COVID issue, which could be the case in several instances where things weren't quite "right". The normal was that the IC offerings changed daily, but that was not so this time. It was the same offerings every day, so I only ate there twice. I had a roast beef with Dijon and a take on a Cuban sandwich. Both were good; not great. I also had one hazelnut chocolate thing from there. It was absolutely delicious but way too much for one sitting, so I never got another. (More on portion sizes later.)
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 30, 2022 by Kmkub

[Astro Flyer]

40 minutes ago, Kmkub said:

This piazza is more stunning than the others, and that is saying a whole lot! The color pallet on the entire ship is so soothing; it's shades of blue and grey, and we loved it. 

I also like the lighter palette in public spaces & cabins which we first experienced on Sky Princess. 😊

[Buckeye10640]

1 hour ago, Kmkub said:

 

Continuing.

 

(I will be referring to my husband as Nerd throughout the review. It's what I call him.)

 

There was a bit of adrenaline-causing drama going through security. My husband had his phone on a lanyard, so when he got to the metal detectors, they told him to put it on the belt. The man at the scanner told him to just hand him the phone, which he did.

 

I was on the other side, gathering things from the belt. I got his backpack just as he was going through the scanner. Now we are waiting for the phone, which isn't showing up. 

 

Nerd asked the man at the scanner where his phone was, and he told him he hadn't seen it. Nerd said, "I literally just handed it to you!" The man just shrugged.

 

Now we are in a panic; not only for a missing phone, but a phone my husband needs to log into his work computer. He had deadlines to meet during the cruise.

 

I'm trying to keep it short, so I'm not going to describe the next 15 or so painful minutes, calling the phone while frantically hollering out to fellow passengers, asking if they had mistakenly picked up a phone. It was very noisy, so I'm sure only a few heard me.

 

So, skip forward - We are now walking to get on the boat. We stop to catch our breath, (I'm trembling,) and we called the phone again, and Nerd's backpack starts ringing. His phone was there the entire time! Now, I had his backpack before he went through the detector, so the man at the scanner had clearly put it in there, than moments later denied having seen it at all.

 

This was the worst part of the cruise! LOL

***

On to the happiest part. This was our 7th Princess cruise and our 5th Princess ship. Only return customers know this, but walking into that Piazza always feels like you just got home and hundreds of staff spent hours making it beautiful for you. After having spent some time on the competition, I can honestly say there is nothing else like it. It's truly a special moment.

 

This piazza is more stunning than the others, and that is saying a whole lot! The color pallet on the entire ship is so soothing; it's shades of blue and grey, and we loved it. 

 

The staff was there clapping and welcoming us. There were no high pressure spa or cubic zirconia staff to welcome us. This was new and especially appreciated. It was nothing but welcome and enjoy!

 

The layout of this piazza is pretty new to us. Vines is gone and replaced with a gastro pub and bar. (We didn't eat there.) There's also a whole space dedicated to gelato, as opposed to a counter in IC.

 

There was no charge for gelato. I had it once, and I wasn't quite as impressed as I have been in the past. It was missing that super creamy richness that has always been present before. I'd appreciate comments from others, as this could have been my taste buds. I didn't go back.

 

The IC also wasn't quite as special as it used to be. This could be a COVID issue, which could be the case in several instances where things weren't quite "right". The normal was that the IC offerings changed daily, but that was not so this time. It was the same offerings every day, so I only ate there twice. I had a roast beef with Dijon and a take on a Cuban sandwich. Both were good; not great. I also had one hazelnut chocolate thing from there. It was absolutely delicious but way too much for one sitting, so I never got another. (More on portion sizes later.)
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agree Enchanted is a beaitiful ship. Just a comment on the Gelato. I really liked it and enjoyed it a few times on our cruise. But it was not free, it was something like $1.80 for the scoop, including a waffle cone and toppings. And of note, they do have a sugar free flavor daily. 

Edited January 30, 2022 by Buckeye10640

[Kmkub]

3 minutes ago, Buckeye10640 said:

Agree Enchanted is a beaitiful ship. Just a comment on the Gelato. I really liked it and enjoyed it a few times on our cruise. But it was not free, it was something like $1.80 for the scoop, including a waffle cone and toppings. And of note, they do have a sugar free flavor daily. 

So it changed, is included with drink pkg, or they made a mistake. No charge on our itemized list of charges.

[Buckeye10640]

1 hour ago, Kmkub said:

So it changed, is included with drink pkg, or they made a mistake. No charge on our itemized list of charges.

Yeah I think you lucked out  🙂 as its definitely not free. But still worth it!

[curlybelle2]

Kmkub,

Thank you so much for doing this review. Looking forward to the rest. We are on the Enchanted in Feb. Your beautiful pictures are getting me excited and can't wait to get out of the snow! 

Thanks again, I am following along!

[Kmkub]

Continued

 

The service on this cruise was spectacular. As I said earlier, some of this is probably COVID related, due to high crew to passenger ratio, but Princess has always has high caliber service. Also, being a new ship, this is likely the "A" team. Every staff member (except for exactly two,) went above and beyond.

 

As an example; our first night in the MDR, the food was fantastic. (I didn't take any photos of first night food. I got better!) At the end of the meal, Nerd found a very small piece of plastic wrap in his food. He quietly told our head waiter, who was extremely apologetic. We told her not to worry and not to make a big deal of it. We dislike causing a scene for a basic human error. We just requested they let the kitchen know. 

 

By the time we exited the dining room, several staff members apologized for the mistake. We kept insisting to not make it a big deal. 

 

An hour later this showed up at our cabin, with a note "Compliments of the Chef." They are delicious, and I brought most of them home. It was completely unexpected and a very nice surprise, for something we didn't think was that big of a deal.

 

 

No matter where we went on the ship, the crew were eager to please. Now that there is no self service drinks anywhere in the buffet, staff shows up to the table quickly to get a drink order and they come back fast! For Princess cruisers, this hasn't usually been the case in the buffet.

 

This is Alfredo. He works at Slice. He was Nerd's BFF during the cruise.  Every time we passed, "Mr. Mike! Pepperoni slice?"  For the record, Slice was Nerd's favorite quick bite stop.

 

 

Nerd posing with his pizza from Slice, which he highly recommends. He posed like that the entire cruise. I think it's because Dwayne Hickman just passed. (Some will understand, I'm sure.)

 

 

I didn't partake in the pizza, preferring the chicken lime tacos from room service as my go-to bite. I had these three times. Delicious. That's avocado cream on top.

[Kmkub]

A few pictures from the ship interior. I took more, but I'm a terrible photog. 

 

1. Princess Live - very nice upgrade from Regal & Royal. They host trivia games and bingo here.

 

2. Crown Grill bar. Also a very nice upgrade. Wheelhouse is gone, though. More on Crown Grill later, with food porn!

 

3. Gigi's (not Alfredo's.) More on Gigi's later, also with food porn. Yum!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kmkub]

16 minutes ago, curlybelle2 said:

Kmkub,

Thank you so much for doing this review. Looking forward to the rest. We are on the Enchanted in Feb. Your beautiful pictures are getting me excited and can't wait to get out of the snow! 

Thanks again, I am following along!

 

Be glad you aren't on, now! When we got off the ship, it was 50 degrees. We couldn't really sit on our balcony late last night; too cold!  High in the Bahamas is around 65 right now. 

 

It's going to be 35 here in Ft Lauderdale tonight. 

[Astro Flyer]

21 minutes ago, Kmkub said:

I didn't partake in the pizza, preferring the chicken lime tacos from room service as my go-to bite. I had these three times. Delicious. That's avocado cream on top.

 

Wow…great tacos in comparison to my poor ones on Majestic.

 

 

[Kmkub]

3 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:

 

Wow…great tacos in comparison to my poor ones on Majestic.

 

 

Those are sad!!!! 

 

Enchanted has a few clunkers, too.

[wrongwaywatson]

I'm glad Princess Live! is an improvement from the Royal Class.  We didn't like it in there at all.  We missed Explorer's Lounge, actually.

[Kmkub]

Continued

 

We ate at specialty restaurants on formal nights. We opted just to bring our business casual outfits and leave the fancy stuff home.

 

1st formal night - Crown Grill

Menu: https://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/Onboard_Experience/Crown-Grill-Menu-Sample.pdf

 

This has been a favorite since our first sail on the Ruby in 2008, shortly after she launched. I fell in love with the Black & Blue soup immediately. Crown Grill is always on our must-do list. 

 

Course 1 - we both got Beef Tartare. It did not disappoint. We rarely indulge in tartare, so when we do, we want it to be right. This was excellent.

 

 

Course 2 - Black & Blue French Onion Soup (Black - Jack Daniels / Blue - Blue Cheese) Excellent as always.

 

 

Course 3 - I got the filet and Nerd got the bone-in ribeye. Neither of us took pictures of this! They were both delicious, but the "bone" in the bone-in steak was about the size of a quarter.

 

Course 4 - Nerd got the salted caramel crème brulee cheesecake. I got the Chocolate Treasure. Both delicious!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything about this meal was outstanding. There was a small bit of drama.

 

Nerd had plenty of steak leftover. We asked for a piece of foil. It has never been an issue before, and we've done Crown Grill at least 10 times previously. They absolutely refused outright to give us a piece of foil, citing COVID as the reason. That's a real head-scratcher.

 

I abhor wasting food. It's one of my hot button issues. Cold leftover steak is also a favorite, so I was really disappointed.

 

Immediately after, I told the waiter we were ready to order dessert. He ran off and came back with a piece of chocolate sponge cake, and started singing happy anniversary. (#12 for us.) I was appalled that they would send me something I hadn't asked for, without asking me if it's something I wanted. That cake likely went into the garbage, when a simple, "would you like?" would have meant so much more. We have done a few anniversary cruises before, and we've never received unwanted cake.

 

So, that part of the meal left a bad taste in my mouth, but it shouldn't overshadow the amazing meal. 

[cyndyga]

Really enjoying your review I am sailing on Enchanted end of March. I am getting more excited reading this thread!!! Thanks for posting!

[Kmkub]

Continued

 

I want to talk about COVID, crew compliance, etc.

 

I never once felt like any crew member wasn't taking this disease seriously. I never saw a crew member without a mask. Almost all were wearing KN95 masks. 

 

The crew was cleaning constantly. Example: If someone left a slot machine chair, the staff jumped and cleaned the machine and the chair immediately.

 

Cleaning was ever present.

 

I also felt like almost every passenger was doing their best to comply with the rules. Everyone was more lax outdoors, but we should all know that's okay by now, especially with the reduced impact of the mutations and everyone being jabbed. A moving ship is generating plenty of air movement. 

 

I don't believe I have ever felt more safe and I would encourage anyone to cruise right now, unless your desired ports prohibit your having fun.

 

We were on Dolphin Deck. The mid and fore elevators were disabled for floor 9 for quarantine. It took a couple of days to get used to going up or down a floor before heading forward. One time, we got off on Deck 8 and when we got to our cabin, our cabin door wouldn't unlock. DOH! We never went up to 9 once we walked all the way back.

 

Since the ship was only at < 50% capacity, almost nowhere felt crowded. The only exception was the casino, especially towards the end of the cruise.

 

One huge plus for COVID safety is that smoking isn't allowed anywhere indoors. The casino was such a happy place to be! I hope that Princess comes away with this thinking that prohibiting smoking in the casino isn't bad for the bottom line. If the crowds were any indication, lots were happy about it.

 

Smoking was only allowed on decks 7 and 16 aft, and only outside. We only saw one smoker the entire cruise.

 

*fingers crossed this rule is here to stay* 

[VibeGuy]

Sooooooo, yeah.   The unwanted cake and singing . . . the *one* feature of Ocean Medallion I loathe.   My hooooozbund nearly killed me when cake and singing happened unexpectedly. 
 

Happy Birthday To You!

(I’m SO VERY SORRY)

Happy Birthday To You!

(I HAD NO IDEA!)

Happy Birthday Mister Jon

(I THOUGHT THEY’D LEAVE THE CARD)

Happy Birthday Tooooooo Yooooooou

(Please don’t throw me overboard). 
 

I really like the card you could present at a convenient time and request cake without singing. 

[Kmkub]

8 minutes ago, VibeGuy said:

Sooooooo, yeah.   The unwanted cake and singing . . . the *one* feature of Ocean Medallion I loathe.   My hooooozbund nearly killed me when cake and singing happened unexpectedly. 
 

Happy Birthday To You!

(I’m SO VERY SORRY)

Happy Birthday To You!

(I HAD NO IDEA!)

Happy Birthday Mister Jon

(I THOUGHT THEY’D LEAVE THE CARD)

Happy Birthday Tooooooo Yooooooou

(Please don’t throw me overboard). 
 

I really like the card you could present at a convenient time and request cake without singing. 

OMG that's so funny! Yes, annoying feature. The popup "happy" on the elevator bank screens was cute and fun, but the singing? Oy. I said, "please stop; no; don't; please stop," until they stopped. I think I hurt their feelings, but, they hurt mine by doing that, so I guess we're even! LOL.

 

 

[Kmkub]

Just a few pictures from the buffet on the Lido deck. This place was spotless, and never crowded.

 

With the ship at just under 50% capacity, obviously the entire court wouldn't be open, but there were plenty of choices.

 

You aren't allowed to get your own "anything," anymore. Don't try to pick up a pair of tongs and grab bread; wait for a crew person.

 

It was fast and efficient. Some of it quite tasty; others, not so much. Nothing in the buffet reaches the "OMG so delicious!" category, but, my favorite turkey club at home doesn't, either. It's lunch.

 

This is pork loin, a piece of chicken (that tasted far better than it looks,) some fries, a roll & fruit. The fries on this ship, everywhere, were outstanding. I don't recall Princess having amazing fries. 

 

After this bite, I stayed away from the watermelon, but continuously ate pineapple.

 

 

 

Nerd didn't like this baked pasta dish at all. It was a one bite meal.

 

Nerd also didn't like this pasta dish. This was a pasta trend in the buffet for him.

 

One big improvement was the availability of grab-and-go bites. These were all prepared, ready to grab, mostly in the salad area of the buffet. It's a salad, piece of turkey and piece of pork. I made a sandwich. On other days, there were several little sandwich bites to choose.

 

Here are more grab-and-go examples. The salmon mousse was excellent. The crostini with goat cheese, beet and walnut was very good as well. This piece of roast beef was overly fatty, and parts of it inedible. The mozz stick on the plate was surprisingly well prepared.

 

[Kmkub]

(Continued)

 

Let's continue with lunch at Gigi's.

 

We had lunch here three times. Nerd ate the same thing, all three times. Below is a baked pasta/veal dish with bubbling cheese. This is delicious! I ate it twice. This is highly recommended.

 

 

I ventured out and tried something different. This is tuna on crostini with melted cheese. It sounded weird, but the server told me it was his favorite.

 

So, yeah - it was "okay." I ate a some of it. Look closely, though - it's canned tuna! It wasn't even canned tuna that had been prepared with seasoning. It was straight out of the can, drained tuna.

 

I do not recommend this.

 

 

Gigi's offers a large selection of personal pizzas. By personal, I mean 2-3 people can share one, depending on your appetite. For lunch, though, one of those is way too big for either of us. We didn't try those.

 

[Kmkub]

Continued

 

I'll finish up lunch at the MDR, which was only open on sea days.  We ate there on the first and second sea days. (There were three.)

 

On the first sea day, I had a hamburger, which wasn't inedible, but terribly disappointing. I didn't opt for a second burger during the cruise. No picture; everyone can picture a marginal hamburger cooked on a flat top with a cold bun. 🙂

 

*** 

 

This was a piece of baked fish with potatoes, carrots and spinach. I loved this!

 

 

This fruit tart was my favorite non-chocolate sweet treat throughout the cruise. Everything about this tart made me happy. 

 

 

Calamari. The protein was good; the tomato sauce didn't really qualify as marinara. It was rather bland.

 

 

Neither of us can remember (for sure) what this was. I believe it was breaded chicken. It was good; I know I enjoyed it. Let's put this one down as not very memorable? LOL

 

Again though, with the fries. The fries on Princess are delicious. Nice and crispy.

 

 

 

[MissP22]

15 minutes ago, Kmkub said:

Continued

 

I'll finish up lunch at the MDR, which was only open on sea days.  We ate there on the first and second sea days. (There were three.)

 

On the first sea day, I had a hamburger, which wasn't inedible, but terribly disappointing. I didn't opt for a second burger during the cruise. No picture; everyone can picture a marginal hamburger cooked on a flat top with a cold bun. 🙂

 

*** 

 

This was a piece of baked fish with potatoes, carrots and spinach. I loved this!

 

 

This fruit tart was my favorite non-chocolate sweet treat throughout the cruise. Everything about this tart made me happy. 

 

 

Calamari. The protein was good; the tomato sauce didn't really qualify as marinara. It was rather bland.

 

 

Neither of us can remember (for sure) what this was. I believe it was breaded chicken. It was good; I know I enjoyed it. Let's put this one down as not very memorable? LOL

 

Again though, with the fries. The fries on Princess are delicious. Nice and crispy.

 

 

 

Ummm. Princess needs to get things back to normal once again. 

It's not at all how it used to be. 

[Kmkub]

3 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

Ummm. Princess needs to get things back to normal once again. 

It's not at all how it used to be. 

 

With the ship at under 50% capacity, and so many people in port, I think they can't justify opening up an entire dining room for so few people.

 

I would hope it would return to normal once they can start sailing at capacity again. For now, though, I am okay with whatever they need to do to keep costs down. They are losing money like crazy right now.

[awhcruiser]

8 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

Ummm. Princess needs to get things back to normal once again. 

It's not at all how it used to be. 

And how would that be done in light of Covid?