Enchantment Christmas Review

Just got off EN yesterday boo hiss sob. what follows will hopefully be a not too rambly account of our 7 days aboard. If you are really lucky, there will be pictures!. I also have all the Compasses but will not scan or post unless specifically asked for.

First things first.. we were in 8032, a Grand Suite. it was our second trip on EN, and in fact our second time in 8032( yes , DH will say he deliberately chose it..until you get him to admit it was the only GS left at the time of booking)

Baltimore is of course, disgustingly close.. 27 minutes from our driveway to the parking lot. in fact we were so ahead of schedule that we came back home AFTER our breakfast at the local mom and pop restaurant for another hour before really setting off. Parking lot at 1015, checked in and sitting in the suite section to board by 1030. that includes the lost time when DH's bag got extra attention( he had the wine). At 1130 promptly the started letting us board. By then we had already touched base with and/or identified a few fellow CCers from the roll call. We were literally the first people on board after huffing and puffing up that bloody long ramp to Deck 4. Our first sight of the newly refurbished Centrum blew us away.

It is, quite frankly, fantastic. Amazingly beautiful and a huge improvement over the sterile white multi level marble from before.

Ho Ho Claus greeted us upon arrival.

the new layout. looks a little dark, but the colors are very rich. gold and maroon

much better shot

the new R Bar, which replaces the old Champagne bar. more centrally located now and a hair larger.

Beautiful pictures, love the new colors! Thanks for posting

Grand Suite 8032? That's where I'll be for the 04FEB sailing; did you take any pictures of your suite? I'd love to see if they did any refurbishments in there!

Thanks,

Jason

Thanks for the review.

going to break this up into several posts. one, because the pics take up a lot of space, two because Photobucket is being a PITA atm and won't let me up load any more

Off to lunch. had heard a bazillion amazing tales of this Mythical Park Cafe. as avid and vehement Windjammer haters, we were looking forward to trying this out. It's off in the corner of the Solarium.

What was that you said? hand carved roast beef sammiches?! yes please!

Mr Spook getting noms.

pre 'family swim time' More on that later....

yeah, let's just say this became our standard fare. although DH did get crazy once or twice and had a cuban panini instead. I can also heartily endorse the parma ham and brie sandwich. there was also a choose your own fixin's salad bar( you choose, they mix ) and assortment of premade sandwiches and each day a different pair of soups and 3 salads such as potato or chicken/tuna. Both potato salads were very good. a small selection of desserts was available as well. For breakfast( open very early) you could get egg sandwiches on a variety of breads, pastries and fresh fruit. the salad station became the bagel station with lox and other assorted yummy toppings. what we really loved was the portion sizes.. you were given what amounted to half a sandwich. perfect for a light lunch or a mid afternoon snack. there was always at least one vegetarian option as well.

however, since it was in the Solarium, the whole concept of a kids free zone went right the hell out the window. also a couple of times it was Literally the ONLY option for anything other than room service, so the lines could get hellacious. but as far as quality and selection goes, thumbs up all around.

The room:

no refurbs as far as we could tell, same crack in the right hand sink as there was back in May. Also, the Docking station for the Ipod was NOT THERE. boo hiss sob. Back in May we used this a lot to have back ground music on while changing for dinner( or napping). didn't stop us from enjoying every second of it. Reynaldo was our cabin attendant and did a great job. we had gone to the room several times between 130 when they were ready and just before dinner( MTD, ressies for 615) in the hopes that our luggage would be around as DH was uncomfy wearing his jeans for dinner.

minor panic at 545 when as we trudged down from the CL and no sign of 2 big black storage vessels in the hallway. Reynaldo to the rescue! he appeared from nowhere( okay the door across the hall which was their elevator) and told he he had already brought them inside. he showed us around, handed us his card and asked us what we wanted done. all we asked for was a full ice bucket and 2 glasses for our fermented grape juice. we had brought our own corkscrew( which broke when DH tried opening the second bottle) and after leaving a note, had a replacement promptly. DH changed, I took pictures:

the tub is very high! however there are plenty of grab bars. don't worry about the location of the bath towels, they actually do not get wet at all.

behind the mirrors are huge storage shelves.

another great big ledge to toss things on.

the closet. mirror on the far wall makes it look 6 deep.. it's only three. the first one holds the robes/slippers and has a pair of drawers. the second has the life jackets and the third has two hanging bars.

the Bar. note all the drawers here, too. the far right door hides the mini fridge.

le bed. 2 regular size pillows, one queen size per side. we threw 2 on the floor to sleep.

Vanity. funny lighting issue: in order to use the switch at the vanity, the button has to be pressed on the panel by the door. only the 'turn all on' button on said panel does NOT include the vanity! took a bit to figure that out. behind the closed door, upper left is the safe. PSA: CLOSE THE SAFE DOOR even if you are not actually storing anything in it. other wise, it will drive you bonkers at 2 am with a clunking noise every time the ship rolls. also, stuff a few cruise compass inserts( the ads ) into the space the between the doors to prevent THEM from rattling. (and please remember to open it again before leaving) the dryer is in the top drawer directly under the strip of plugs.

Mr Spook doing what he does best. its a hard/stiff couch but I find it very comfy. he definitely does because at least twice he fell asleep on it and went through the night. I didn't mind, that meant I had the bed to my self bwhahahah

TV and the important bits.. the coffee machine. TV schedule and variety sucked. saw the same 15 minutes of Apollo 13 too many times to count.

one half of the deck.

other half of the deck.

I will say this. when we first arrived at the room at 130, it was HOT..I mean stifling, sauna hot. Bear in mind that it is barely 40 degrees outside in Baltimore. even getting full sun( which it was) it should not have been this hot. fiddled with the thermostat.. nothing. each time we came back to the room during the afternoon we lowered it even more. diddly. when we met Reynaldo he anticipated our comments and told he he had already called maintenance about the room. after dinner it had cooled down enough so that we decided we would not be miserable as we went to sleep.

by the time we came back from breakfast the next day, it was working properly. DH found the knob to the old thermostat over by the trash can, so we assume it was completely replaced. no further issues the rest of the week.

Those pictures are awesome! Thank you so much - we have a snowstorm here today and this was just what needed to get me in the vacation mood!

Jason in Halifax :)

Selfishly, I love this thread because you are in the exact same room we will be in on Jan. 26th !

Do you know if Lightning Wave is still performing on EOS. We sail again 2/16 and had a blast with those guys last year.

Concierge Lounge:

pre refurb, it was on Deck eight. Now it is up in the Viking Crown, waaaaay in the back behind the bar. you go up a curving incline. The DL entrance is also that way, but up a short flight of stairs. a chair lift was provided although I never saw it in use. couldn't tell you what it looks like, but it is open to the VC below( it was situate directly above the bar in the old DJ booth)

the two internet computers. I am reliably informed that for much of the cruise, intreweb access was spotty or nonexistent. also, the ATMs in the casino were apparently down( read..empty of moolah)

yes, him again. that poor plant on the table was moved around sooo many times throughout the week for being in the way

this is Adina. Poor Adina was tasked with setting up and breaking down the continental breakfast every morning and having to deal with cleaning up after a private function held one night.. they had left all the hot plates on, left ALL their supplies lying around and generally failed to clean up after themselves( sauces that had spilled were baked on to the hot plates, etc. also, that same morning the coffee machine( way fancier than the old one) decided to be a brat and fail to complete its' self clean cycle properly. so it leaked every where. but she slogged though with a smile every day.

this is Reyno's tree. for some reason I never got around to getting a picture of Reyno. This irks me as he is a terrific Concierge and the entire week he was battling the flu. In fact much of the crew was ill.. to include Captain Gus and the Food and Bev Mgr. they all blames it on dust and crap stirred up over the refurb.

the view from the CL. if it weren't for the smoke stack, we'd have an awesome view. note the Solarium directly below.

Do you know if Lightning Wave is still performing on EOS. We sail again 2/16 and had a blast with those guys last year.

we paid exactly zero attention to any of the bands or other entertainment. if anyone was playing in the Centrum as we walked by, we;'d stop and listen for a few minutes. but in no way could we tell you who anyone was. sorry.

Hey!

Same iPod dock issue with our RFS 8666 too - never bothered us so didn't ask.

Also same heating issue and we never managed to find a happy medium. Bearing in mind our suite had two bedrooms and the lounge it was hard to get the right temp in all areas from the one thermostat.

Great review and great photos! We were on the week before you and mid week I started with allergy symptoms from all the dust that must have been in the ventilation system. Surprised the crew stayed healthy for as long as they did! Then again it could be that they were driven to get everything done and when it was finished...they were worn out!

The ship looks amazing! :cool: The only downside is now that she'll be doing the shorter 3/4 Bahama itineraries will it go downhill quickly? :(

great photos

While I battle Photobucket some more, a few random bits:

First port: Port Canveral. we booked an excursion through the ship as it was Christmas Eve and we just plain didn't want the hassle of doing anything on our own. This turned out to be very fortuitous( more on that later)

it was a pontoon style boat to hunt for manatees, dolphins and other exotic wildlife. well it was rather chilly for Florida, only about 60 ish with a decent breeze. overall, I wasn't too miserable( anything below 80 and I am in a parka and long johns). It started off rather disappointing, we followed a manatee or two who was very shy and refused to come up more than his nose. saw LOTS of birds and got a fair few decent pictures. but the two highlights were as we headed back. a sharp eyed fellow passenger spotted a river otter, which the tour guide said hadn't been seen in a few years. the second was a Bottlenose dolphin and her calf swimming lazily along in a little side inlet. spent quite a while there as they were very accommodating(as in not camera shy)

On board stuff of no particular importance:

we had learned early on the first day that our keys would not open the CL door. so we traipsed down to Guest services. the Desk guy( Reyno's roomie, as it turned out) sort of gave us a hard time about it, and I wasn't sure if he was just trying to be joking or not. . well to make a long story short, it was a HUGE issue all over the ship that day.. most of the cards that had been programmed before we got on board did NOT work at all!. Our next door neighbors( also CC members) could not get into their cabin. the line around dinner time at GS was atrocious with 98% being this issue.

there were 800 kids on board. and you knew it. due to the cold weather on each sea day, they opened up the Solarium for family swim from 12-2 and 4-6 each day. and of course the Park cafe also meant that there were always kids back there. plenty of elevator christmas trees, sullen teens lounging on the stairwells and pre teen boys racing down the halls. lots of LARGE family groups of ten or more as well.

the new set of cabins on Decks 7/8 are ready and had passengers in them this cruise according to the Hotel Director. that was another thing... every day at least one Officer would come visit the CL during Breakfast and Cocktail hour. in fact there was a suite only reception where they all came by and chatted. it was very nice and they all seemed very interested in our thoughts on the refurb.

Muster Drill: alas, held outside despite the wind and chill. Luckily it was short as obviously there were fewer stragglers to drag away from the pool bar.

Meet N Mingle: many of us had already gotten together after the muster drill and hung out. about half of who had signed up actually showed. it was much as others have recently reported: a very short affair. maybe 15 minutes of Luke doing his thing and raffling stuff. I won a pair of casino T shirts( ironic as we don't gamble), some luggage tags and a tin if mints. everyone got this cute little lanyard with built in note pad and pen.

Due to it being a holy day( for some of you at least) there was a real Priest on board( we saw him at VCL one morning) with masses held daily plus midnight on Xmas eve. IIRC they were all held at Schooner.

Menus: we don't do food porn( okay I admit it was more b/c we always forgot to bring the camera to dinner) so if you were hoping for pretty piccies, sorry. I have to say I was a little wary of the new menus as I had not found anything that excited me on the previews. I can honestly say that for the most part I was wrong. Only one dinner was a major disappointment.. the NY Strip .. dry, and tough. the duck? oh. my. gawd. it was good. the prime rib both nights was superb. DH reveled in his seafood fix( I can't eat most of it). for the most part the portions were reasonable and the desserts were pretty dang tasty. we chose to not do Chops this go round. HOWEVER.. the biggest issue was the fact that 2/3 of the time, the menus on display on the the touch screen were NOT what actually presented in the DR. there was always one entree that was missing/switched out( and at least twice the one that was missing was the one that I had decided I was eating...of course) Also they switched up the first formal night.. instead of being the first sea day, it was Pt Canaveral( Xmas eve). this presented a whole host of issues. one, the menu DID NOT match the suggested attire. two, most people were still in beach wear at dinner. some of the CL guests during cocktail hour even showed up in shorts. *side note, on a totally different night a *person* walked in in a tank top and board shorts at about 630. Reyno would NOT let him in unless he changed. instead, a companion( who at least was dressed appropriately) took off his sport coat and let the (adult in his 20s) borrow it. sad part was, he thought it was a great big joke. so while the food itself was good, there was no rhyme or reason as to how it was presented.

on Pt Canveral day the 2 elevators that go all the way to VCL would NOT go past deck 10 until late afternoon. apparently they get locked after VCL closes but never got unlocked the next morning.

The ship looks amazing! :cool: The only downside is now that she'll be doing the shorter 3/4 Bahama itineraries will it go downhill quickly? :(

there was a great deal of discussion about this amongst passenger, crew and officers alike. the general consensus is the beautiful refurb will be wasted on the party til you puke crowd, which is sad. of course the Officers were much more diplomatic about it.. heheheh

there was a great deal of discussion about this amongst passenger, crew and officers alike. the general consensus is the beautiful refurb will be wasted on the party til you puke crowd, which is sad. of course the Officers were much more diplomatic about it.. heheheh

LOL!!! I agree 100% It'll be a shame and complete waste of millions of dollars if that happens. We'll hope for the best. :) :cool:

Selfishly, I love this thread because you are in the exact same room we will be in on Jan. 26th !

Ok, when you guys walk out of 8032 on the 4th we'll walk into it! Keep her in good shape for us! Have an excellent cruise.

Jason :)

The room:

no refurbs as far as we could tell, same crack in the right hand sink as there was back in May. Also, the Docking station for the Ipod was NOT THERE. boo hiss sob.

 

Thank you for the great pics. We will be in 8034 in March. I do think the room looked better pre-refurb. :( At least the i pod dock was there.

Do you know if the stereo worked? I'm assuming that is what is on the vanity shelf? I always relax better with a little soft background music.

Was the CL crowded? We just returned from Oasis on December 15th.

Although the CL was large, it did get very loud and crowded prior to the early dinner seating.

 

 

I'm glad you had a great cruise, and again, thankx for posting!

 

 

Colleen

Did you happen to get any pics of Luke dressed as a Christmas tree?

He will definitely be missed n our next sailing.

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Do you know if the stereo worked? I'm assuming that is what is on the vanity shelf? I always relax better with a little soft background music.

Was the CL crowded?

 

Colleen

we never tried the stereo, so cannot comment. also the Nautical Notes channel was silent as well.. there was a music video channel but it didn't exactly play my brand...

the CL was usually empty during the day. at night it was either packed, or empty, there didn't seem to be much in between. as for kids.. *sigh*. as promised, Cshgrand's little boy was a delight and very quiet. the TEENS and PRE TEENS, however.. another story entirely. one family in particular felt that Formal night was a Christmas sweatshirt with a cute kitty in a Santa Claus hat. This was grandma, BTW. they'd swoop in, empty the appetizer plates and keep Rannier ( bartender) hopping with demands for cokes at 840 at night as he was trying to clean.

oh there was one little girl as well, bright red hair that was well behaved for 99% of the time.

it seemed the families with very young kids came in, had one drink and left. it was the other ones that camped out.

we'd come up at 5, leave at 6 and return after dinner as we had friends who ate bother early and late seating so this gave us a chance to visit with every one.

Did you happen to get any pics of Luke dressed as a Christmas tree?

 

He will definitely be missed n our next sailing.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

why yes. yes I did.. in fact....

he was our entertainment during the debacle on Nassau.....

Thanks for the great review! I am curious to know, and anyone else who can answer this, please chime in...how is the noise level from above in the GS on Enchantment? DH and I will do the occasional short cruise on MN, it's only an hour from home, and if the price was right, we'd stay in a GS. We decided last cruise we won't go any further FWD than 1040, a JS, as that was the last quiet room we had. The noise from the WJ was horrible, and continued through the night. Now that we'll be getting Enchantment, and are admitted suite snobs, I am hoping we can enjoy a quiet suite. I realize the pool is on deck 9, but noise from that part of the ship never bothered us when we were in a JS further AFT on MN.

Thanks!