gail-s

We were just on the Enchantment from Barcelona to Rome, you see everything from shorts and tshirts to suits in the MDR. DH wore nice polo shirts or button downs and either shorts or kahki style pants most nights. No one flinched when he wore a light button down and nice shorts to Chops one night. It was almost empty so they were happy to have people there. We did get dressed up for the formal night and did the Chef's table which was amazing. Highly recommend. Talking to the staff on the ship since it's a US based company 75% of the guests minimum are from the US. All of the staff speak English and they cater to the American travelers. If you've cruised RCL in other areas, you'll find it very similar in the Med. We were surprised by that. In the cities the men definitely dress differently. Most of them wear long pants even in the 100 degree temperatures.

I was on the trip with cynbeth (July 3-10 Barcelona to Rome) and we did go to Villefranche. I'd check though before booking an outside trip. The tenders there were the big ones from the port. In Portofino they used the lifeboats. We had a tour booked through RCL and got off very early (7:30am) and it was fine. Later in the day they had trouble with the lifeboats and tenders were way behind. We met some people who missed their privately scheduled tour because of it. For us Villefranche and Portofino were the only tender ports. I agree, I was disappointed in the food in the MDR. The new menus are lackluster and I felt like I had to try to find something that I liked to eat for dinner. I hadn't thought we'd eat in Chops at all but we ate there 3 times. Staff there were fabulous (say hi to Theresa and Ben!) and the filet was cooked perfectly. We also did the Chef's Table and it was amazing. DH wanted to do it again and I said no, my stomach couldn't handle all that food twice. It was so so so so good. I'm not a crowd or buffet person and I couldn't get out of the Windjammer fast enough. People coughing and sneezing and not covering their faces. Being rude and pushing past people. It did nothing for me. We went in there on day 1 to get something to eat and twice for breakfast and that was way more than enough for me. I was disappointed in Park Cafe as well. At night the only thing available was pizza which I suppose is great unless you're lactose intolerant. I remember always being able to find food on Enchantment years ago and this time we had to go searching for it if you didn't go to the MDR for meals. There were no snacks anywhere. I would have killed for pretzels or chips or nuts sitting at the bar. Speaking of the bar, go to the Schooner Bar and say hi to Nester. He was fabulous. It was normally pretty quiet in there and we could always sit and chat. Had a wonderful time with him and the other bartenders there. I remember there being more things to do at night. There was music in the center of the ship and in a couple bars but that was it. No parties on the pool deck. The Viking Crown Lounge was empty every time we walked through it. We only went to the Concierge Lounge once, the first day. Well, we went up two more times looking for the concierge but it was empty. Seemed a bit of a waste. If you have any questions, let me know and I'll try to answer them for you.

Just back from Enchantment OS and we started in Barcelona and went to Rome. We arrived in Barcelona 2 days before the trip, stayed at Hotel 1898. Had 1 afternoon and 1 full day to explore Barcelona. It was fun. I'd do it again. Hotel 1898 has a great rooftop bar/pool. Windows open up onto either the side street or La Rambla. We've travelled so the "watch the pickpockets thing" is something you need to keep in mind everywhere. We had zero problems in any of the cities we were in. The day of the cruise we caught a taxi to the cruise port. The cruise port is separated from the city a bit by a big bridge. If you check in and go out again, you'll need a taxi or something to get you back in town. Or be willing to walk a LONG way. It's not like Boston where you can just stroll to the seaport. Granted, we had a very early checkin, but we found that checking in was easy, smooth and well done. Much better than the last time we cruised Royal in 2001. If you want to go exploring in Barcelona I'd recommend asking your hotel to let you leave your bags there in the morning, going out to explore, and then picking up the bags and checking into the ship later. Otherwise you're travelling a lot to only gain a little.

We just got back from Rome. And yea, it was 100+ and miserable. We stayed at the W which had a lounge inside as well as a rooftop bar and pool. The AC worked wonderfully. Lots of dotage and closets in our room. We found a few restaurants we could pop into with ac for lunch. Il Nuovo Farò near the Trevi fountain and Ciro Trattoria were both good.

We did RCL years ago, jumped to NCL to do a couple of Boston to Bermuda's w/ the kid and my parents. Now we're going back to RCL on the first ship we ever sailed on. When I get back, I'll let you know how I think they compare.

I'm glad you're enjoying the trip!

Circling back, I looked in the app for my specific sailing on Enchantment and it appears that people with "The Key" can have lunch in the MDR on Day 1 as part of what they're paying for. Chops open at Noon for anyone purchasing that. Park Cafe is open from 10:30-5:30 and 8:30-1am. Windjammer opens at 11:30.

Aside from the room not being clean, which I agree I would have called someone immediately, how is the rest of the cruise? We'll be on her in 2 weeks. I hope you're enjoying the ports and trip itself. People mentioned that Med cruises are more casual than others, are you finding that to be true? Thanks! Hope the trip gets better.

It's not directly behind the Colosseum on Pantheon, but the W Roma is a Marriott hotel. It looks fabulous. It's not too far from everything you'd want to see. We're staying there next month so I can report back after the trip.

For my ballet flats I have a bunch by HUE that have the silicone strip in the back that stay up very well. My Sperry ones w/o the strip do not and are aggravating, so I feel your pain. I just ordered a pair of Cariuma sneakers and bought some socks with them. They're so comfortable. I wish I had time to order a few more pairs before we go but I don't. I'm keeping my eyes open for some similar ones when I'm out shopping. These have the silicone in the back too.

Thank you both! Originally I had planned on skipping the wifi on the boat, but my dad is sick and my husband just became principal of the school he works at, so we're going to need to be in touch with people daily and possibly at any moment. Holy run-on sentence, Batman.

When you sign into the WiFi do you do it through the RCL app? or is there another link that you use? There's like a $50 difference between each of us getting it and 1 of us getting 2 devices. I just want to make sure that we can both be logged into our own RCL app on our phones. Thanks! (and yes, obviously, I've never used wifi on a ship before on any cruiseline. In the past everyone I cared about was with me so the phone got locked up for the week)

Thank you for all of the helpful responses! I think yesterday I was a tad overwhelmed with some online BS. You all have been great pointing me in the right direction.

We got moved to 8014 and we're definitely excited. The bridge is right next to us. We were on Norwegian Sky ages ago and we were in a similar balcony room right there and it was fun to watch them come out to maneuver the ship.

Thank you, Jean. I have the app downloaded I'm just not super familiar with it yet. We sail in 18 days but only found out about our upgrade yesterday. That's great to know that the concierge should reach out to us. It will make things much easier. I just have to call RCL and switch from The Key to just Wifi. I wonder if they can just do it and leave the credit on my account to use on the trip for the difference? I guess I'll ask when I call.

Honestly, I haven't cruised in years and I forgot how bad it was. Some people are super friendly and helpful and some just aren't. People forget that just because they cruise 3 times a year and are on here all the time that other people just aren't and don't. I mean, seriously, the last time I cruised RCL we were using flip and stick phones and the iPhone hadn't even been invented. If someone mentioned an app we would have taken that for an appetizer. So not everyone is familiar with everything that the app can do and how to manipulate it. I'm glad this trip is coming up in a few weeks and I hopefully won't have any more questions.

What part of "I read all the documentation on RCL's site but still wasn't clear on a few things" wasn't clear? 🙄 I'm surprised at the number of snarky responses people are giving each other lately. You don't have to respond to every single post unless you're just doing it because you like to see that you've commented on a gazillion posts. Thank you for the helpful responses.

Please forgive me, I've been trying to search the boards for answers to my questions and it keeps erroring out on me. I'm hoping someone can help me with my specific questions about being in an Owner's Suite on the Enchantment. I read all of RCLs documentation and understand that there are different levels of suite perks and they aren't the same between the older and newer ships. I wasn't clear on a few things though. The highest class we've sailed on RCL before was a Junior Suite which didn't get all of the perks. Originally I had ordered the Key for wifi, etc because we were in a Junior Suite. Since we've been upgraded "most" of those features are part of the suite perks. The differences that I can see are that I'd need to buy a wifi package, no lunch in the MDR on embarkation day and I'm not sure about the luggage drop off. In the suite documentation it says private breakfast and lunch seating for suite class guests - does anyone know where this would be on Enchantment? and is it open on embarkation day? For a suite when it says Complimentary Room Service 24 hours a day - does that include things like breakfasts that you would normally have to pay extra for? It also mentions some tours that may be available. My husband is a licensed captain and would love a tour of the bridge. Does anyone know how to arrange this? I'm assuming I'd talk to the concierge on board? Thanks for any help you can give me specifically about the Enchantment. We're excited to be sailing on her again in just a few weeks.

This is an older topic but does anyone know if this is still the same for Enchantment sailings this summer? I'm not a fan of the insanity of the buffet on embarkation day. I loved that Norwegian always had a main dining room open for lunch that day. I had purchased The Key which said it included lunch in the MDR but we got upgraded to a OS so I'm most likely cancelling that and just adding in WiFi. Even if the restaurant in the solarium was open that day, it would be better than the buffet. Thanks!!

Thanks. I reached out to the site and was told that they will open more tickets a week prior to when they are to be used. That falls on our only at sea day on our cruise so I may wait and try to get tickets then. We'll see. Just very disappointing to do all of that and then have them be oops, sorry, no tickets for you.

Coopculture has to be one of the worst sites I've ever dealt with. Ugh. I was on for 2 hours yesterday and finally got the tickets I wanted but it errored out after I paid. I just received an email that my tickets were refunded and I have to try again. Does anyone know if you buy the Roma Pass and get the tickets through there, can you add on the Arena and the Underground? or can you buy those tickets at in Rome at the office?

Of course this morning I get an email that they money was never withdrawn from my account and the tickets were rejected. SO now I get to hop through hoops again. Does anyone know if you have tickets through the Roma pass can you add on the arena and underground?

I can attest that the coopculture website is ridiculously buggy. I kept refreshing the page I wanted and different tickets would show up. I was finally able to get the tickets I wanted w/ the Arena and the Underground, paid, and on the final confirmation page it went to an error. I got the confirmation from the site I paid, but no link to print the tickets. Apparently this must be common because there were instructions on the FAQ page in coopculture with the email to send the receipt to to get a new link to print the tickets. Definitely a frustrating morning for me. Now I'm waiting to hear back from them.

Hoping someone who has been to Genoa will see this and give some insight into the funiculars. It was one of the things I was looking forward to while there.

@LizzGo I have 2 pairs of the AllBirds ballet flats. They are very comfortable and form to your feet. I'm half tempted to bring them with me to Europe. Several years ago I was on a trip in Paris and the cute sneakers I bought for walking were horrible. My back was killing me. I ended up wearing cheap leather ballet flats all over the city. They were the only pair of shoes I had with me that allowed me the miles of walking we did each day without pain. Craziness. When we went back, those were what I wore the whole time. Since we'll be in the Mediterranean in the summer, I was looking for something a bit cooler than leather flats 😉