Trip Review: Enchantment of the Seas 10/7/13

Hello everyone, I’m Kenyon and this is my first trip report on Cruise Critic. It took me a bit to decide if I wanted to write a review, but I decided that since many of you had made my day with your trip reviews that I would attempt to return the favor. I have been working on getting this review together for some time now and I can truly appreciate the time and effort that everyone puts into these reviews. I can only image what it’s like for the people that edit all their pictures. My travel companion is my wonderful wife, Cynthia.

About Us: I am 31 years old and a Support Center Manager for a large global Business Process Outsourcing company. Cynthia is 24 years old and works as a daytime Nanny to two beautiful children a 6 year old girl and a 2 ½ year old boy. Also, Cynthia is the owner of CK Healthworks, a health and beauty products company.

We are from Leesburg, GA. (Hometown to Luke Bryan, Buster Posey, and Phillip Phillips, if you know any of those guys) Leesburg is a small country town outside Albany, GA. We are in the heart of Southwest Georgia and about three hours southwest of Atlanta.

We have been so blessed this year to learn about this addiction called cruising. Our family thinks we are crazy. Our first cruise was on the Carnival Ecstasy back in February. We were hooked before we even stepped on board the ship. J On this cruise we will celebrate our second wedding anniversary.

Here we are in our sail away picture:

4 Day Enchantment of the Seas: This trip includes stops to CocoCay and Nassau with one day at sea.

Here is a map of our journey and the itinerary, compliments of Royal Caribbean.

There were a few reasons that we booked the Enchantment of the Seas:

• Cynthia and I wanted to experience a different cruise line to see what it was like and the differences. We did not want to be some of those people that are loyal to one cruise line when we had not tried any of the other ones. Pricing was a big factor, we could have gone on a 5 Day Carnival Cruise for the same price as this cruise.
  

• Most of our friends that have cruised before raved over how much better Royal Caribbean was over Carnival.
  

• I really don’t want to have to go down to Miami to the port. I am just not ready to tackle that yet. Port Canaveral is a bit more convenient and we know the area.
  

In this review, I am going to review this trip but I am also going to also try to make some comparisons to Carnival as I have seen several treads that are asking about some comparisons. I will compare some items as I get to them during the trip and then I will follow-up on some of the areas at the end.

I will apologize in advance, while I took over 400 pictures I still managed to get caught up in the moment and did not get all the pictures that I would have liked for the review. While my camera, a Canon PowerShot SX160IS is a fairly nice camera, it’s not that great in low light situation. All of these pictures were taken on the camera’s Auto feature.

Alright, so let’s get started! The first area that I would like to review is the booking process which in my mind has two components, company websites and the Vacation Specialists.

Websites:

When I go looking for a cruise the first place that I go is to the cruise line’s website. I am looking for a well-organized site that’s easy to use. In this area, I gave Carnival the advantage. I like the layout and look better than Royal’s as it seems easier to navigate to get quotes. On Carnival’s website, I can create an account and save all my guest information so that I don’t have to retype it over and over to get a quote. With Royal, you can only save the main guest’s information.

Carnival 1 Royal Caribbean 0

Consumer Beware: I dislike with a passion the NCL website. I created a login to save my information and the next thing I know I have a vacation specialist e-mailing and calling me all the time about booking a special. It made then look very desperate for my business and it totally turn me off. The only way I would consider a NCL cruise at this point is if it was completely free.

Vacation Specialists:

For both of these trips, I called the cruise line to book the trip as I wanted to make sure that I did not miss anything. Every encounter I had with each cruise line was spectacular. I am a Support Center Manager for a technical support help desk so I recognize spectacular service when I receive it. Each time, my booking was reviewed and my questions were answered quickly and correctly. I will give each a point for this round.

Carnival 2 Royal Caribbean 1

I will be back soon with with Pre-Cruise Activities!

I'm subscribed! You're off to a great start! Thanks for sharing, looking forward to reading more!

The day finally arrived for us to make our way to Port Canaveral, FL. I woke up around 2:30 AM EST to use the restroom and just could not go back to sleep. I tossed and turned for about an hour or so before I decided to get up and go to the computer. I still had a ton of stuff to do before we left so, I got started. About 6:00 AM, I woke Cynthia up and she slowly made it out of bed. Our plan was to be on the road by 8:00 AM. We both got dressed and finished packing our last minute items, ate breakfast, then I finished some last minute reports that I had to complete for work so that I could leave the laptop at home. We got in the car and drove away at 9:00 AM. Leaving about an hour late is typical for us so, I have learned to tell everyone that we need to leave an hour before we really need to leave and then I add a little bit of extra time into the driving time. LOL Before we could leave the Albany area we needed to gas up the car so we made a quick stop to top off the tank. We were finally ready to hit the road.

I decided that for our trip down I did not want to pay the $12 in tolls so I took a different route that adds about an additional 20 minutes to the trip. I avoided the craving to stop in Tifton, GA at the Starbucks. Man, a Frappuccino was calling my name! We made our way to the Florida Welcome Center for what almost seems like our traditional stop. It gives us few minutes to use the restroom and stretch our legs. I noticed that when I returned to the car that I had missed a call. I check the message and it was from work. Somebody did not read their E-Mail. LOL I was nice enough to return the call and help the person out, but I was also very nice to let him know who he should be contacting for the next week. J After that little interruption, we had an uneventful drive to the hotel.

I just love the rush of excitement when you are on the Beachline Expressway and you can see the ships in port for the first time. Wow, that’s an awesome feeling! In port on Sunday, was Carnival Sensation, Disney Dream, and Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas. Our pre-cruise accommodations were at the Radisson Resort by the Port. We made it to the hotel about 3:30 PM. I went and checked us in and the check-in process was simple and the person who was assisting me was very friendly. We made our way to our room that was located in the 800 building.

We dropped off our overnight bags and we made a dash over to Rusty’s to see the ship’s sail away and to get some dinner. I want to stop here a minute and talk about Rusty’s. This is the second time that we have eaten there and it’s been a pleasure on both occasions. As we will talk about a little later in the review, my wife has a lot of food allergies and the team at Rusty’s have gone above and beyond to ensure that they prepared her something that she could eat. During our first visit, the chef made a special dish that was not even on the menu, just for her. I thought it was an awesome touch and that’s why we came back on this trip. It was a hot day, so we decided to wait on an outside table in the shade. We quickly applied some sun screen as we both burn easily.

There was a few people that were being a little impatient and needed to see this sign. LOL

After a few minutes, the sail away started. In an interesting twist, the Freedom of the Seas was first to leave. Normally, the Carnival ship leaves first and this was confirmed by others among the crowd.

As Freedom was heading our way, our buzzer went off and our table in the shade was ready. It was a perfect table view to see the ships go past.

Bye Bye, Freedom of the Seas!

Up next, was the Disney Dream. If I ever can afford a Disney cruise, I think I would go on the Dream. It just looked awesome. I love that water ride at the top.

All was left was the Carnival Sensation but she was still roped off. I decided that I would get a round of steamed oysters since they were on sale.

I finished my oysters and we ordered our main meals. While we waited, a few birds decided to join us. The people at the table next to us left some crumbs that one of the birds needed to grab. LOL These birds reminded us of the birds in Atlantis that looked like they were begging for food.

Once decided to climb on our umbrella and we were just hopeful that we would not have a surprise in store for us.

Cynthia’s selection was a wedge salad and I selected a steak. It seemed like within no time our meal was prepared and we were ready to eat. Opps, we noticed that we made a big mistake. The wedge salad has bacon on it and fish is the only meat that Cynthia eats. I apologized to the server and she was so nice about it and took it back and had the chef prepare another salad. I was prepared to pay for the salad since it was truly our mistake but there was no charge for the additional salad. About 5:30 PM and about an hour late the Carnival Sensation finally left the port.

We finished our dinner and I headed over to the observation deck to see the new welcome center that I believe that opens next month (November). After a few pictures, we headed back to our hotel to settle in for the night and to prepare for our next day’s journey.

That's a wrap for our pre-cruise day. I have to go for now, but I hope to be back soon to startDay 1: Embarkation Day – Port Canaveral

I'm subscribed! You're off to a great start! Thanks for sharing, looking forward to reading more!

Thank you so much, I appreciate the encouragement. :D

Great start! Can't wait to read your review!

loving this review and pictures so far!!! Keep it coming!

Yay, another Enchantment review! My daughter and I will be sailing on the Enchantment on November 1st to celebrate my 50th birthday so I love reading reviews. Can't wait for the rest of your review.

Great review so far! We are going on the exact same ship and itinerary in June 2014. Really appreciate this info. May I ask, how was the Raddison?

Thanks so much for this review. My husband and I will be on the Enchantment on November 29. We too are staying at the Radison. Can you share your thoughts about the hotel ( pictures would be nice too :). Can't wait to hear more.

Looking forward to the rest of the review. Loved seeing your comparison between Carnival and Royal and looking forward to hearing the rest. Was on the Enchantment on September and loved it.

Loving your review. I have been on the Enchantment but still really enjoy

and appreciate your review. I liked the pre-cruise reservation comparison.

I liked the Radisson but.....for the money, breakfast included, cookies 24/7 we have stayed at the Country Inn and Suites and will do so next time. You might want to try it.

Both have decent pool (Radisson nicer, Country Inn is fine) both have hot tubs. Country Inn is always nice and clean as is Radisson. They both have transportation.

Great start! Can't wait to read your review!

loving this review and pictures so far!!! Keep it coming!

Yay, another Enchantment review! My daughter and I will be sailing on the Enchantment on November 1st to celebrate my 50th birthday so I love reading reviews. Can't wait for the rest of your review.

Thank ya'll so much, I appreciate the encouragement.:D

Enjoying your review -- we sail on EN on October 28 -- a week from Monday!

Great review so far! We are going on the exact same ship and itinerary in June 2014. Really appreciate this info. May I ask, how was the Raddison?

Thanks so much for this review. My husband and I will be on the Enchantment on November 29. We too are staying at the Radison. Can you share your thoughts about the hotel ( pictures would be nice too :). Can't wait to hear more.

Thank y’all so much, I appreciate the encouragement.

I would be glad to take a few minutes to talk about the Radisson. It's a huge property that has on-site convention center, tennis courts, and other options. The pool is nice although we have never used it. I liked the fact that it had a lift for wheelchair bound guests to be able to get in the water.

The service was excellent and very speedy on both or our visits. Everything was explained very clearly and I was given easy to follow instructions on how to proceed in leaving my car. On our first trip we stayed in the 100 building I believe. The room was exactly as described, clean, and nice. The only complaint that I had was that our Sleep Number bed did not function. I did not make a big deal about it but I did inform the person that checked us out that someone should take a look. He informed me that sometimes that they are hard to activate but he would have someone check it out. I thanked him. When I received my survey from Radisson, I politely remarked about it and I was surprised when the hotel General Manager reached out to let me know that he was handling the situation. I thought it was a nice touch. I am happy to report that the room we had this time had a working sleep number bed and it looked to be an updated model from the one in the previous room. Since Cynthia and I stopped by a Sleep Number Store a few months ago when we were visiting family we knew our number and was very comfy.

On our first visit we paid the extra $10 pp for breakfast and found that while it was great for convenience sake it was not worth it as far as the selection and service. There are a number of place close by that could feed us just as good and at a cheaper price.

I did not take any pictures of the room since I had some from the last time. The room configuration did not change much. Here are a few pictures from then.

A few more pictures to follow...this six picture limit is getting to me. LOL

A few more pictures to follow...this six picture limit is getting to me. LOL

I took this picture too early in the morning. They were still trying to get the pool ready for the day so the main waterfall was not turned on.

Looking forward to the rest of the review. Loved seeing your comparison between Carnival and Royal and looking forward to hearing the rest. Was on the Enchantment on September and loved it.

Thank you so much, I appreciate the encouragement.:D

Loving your review. I have been on the Enchantment but still really enjoy

and appreciate your review. I liked the pre-cruise reservation comparison.

 

I liked the Radisson but.....for the money, breakfast included, cookies 24/7 we have stayed at the Country Inn and Suites and will do so next time. You might want to try it.

Both have decent pool (Radisson nicer, Country Inn is fine) both have hot tubs. Country Inn is always nice and clean as is Radisson. They both have transportation.

Thank you so much, I appreciate the encouragement.

I have heard good things about the Country Inn and Suites and you have a good point. I just checked them for my February 14 cruise on the Carnival Dream and they are currently about $10 more than the Radisson, but I could factor breakfast into that price. The one that that I saw that I don't know if they stick to is that I can book my shuttle at the time I book my room and I don't have to wait until I get there to reserve it. For my next cruise I will be leaving after work on Friday to get to the port so it will be a late check-in. I would ate to have a later shuttle just because I could not get to the hotel fast enough on Friday. :eek: