Enchantment of the Seas, October 29, 2011 - Halloween on the VERY HIGH Seas!

[It'sRC4ME]

Here’s a brief recap of our cruise this week on Enchantment of the Seas from Baltimore to Bermuda. Instead of going chronologically, I will just break this up by subject.

 

About us: We live in Northern Virginia, and were meeting up with another couple who came in from Florida for the cruise. We have cruised with them twice before.

 

Arrival/Parking/Check in: Getting to the pier in Baltimore was easy, and we arrived at the pier at about 11:30. Parking and check in went smoothly, if more slowly than we remember from previous sailings. We are Diamond members and that helped up skip ahead of the longer line, probably saving us 20 minutes. It was 35 degrees and snowing during sail away.

 

Dining – Windjammer: As reported in other reviews, the Windjammer buffet on this ship is TINY, and gets really congested at times. The food seemed to be about on par with Windjammer food we have had on other cruises. They did have very good little sandwiches and wraps at lunch. On our last sea day the sea was very rough (25’ swell, according to the captain), and there were a lot of extra personnel in hand in the Windjammer to help folks to tables and keep an eye out for anyone about to fall down.

 

Dining – MDR: We had my time dining, and wound up making reservations for the same table each night, since the waiter (Erhan from Turkey) and Asst. Waiter (Richard from the Philippines) were so great. Dining room food was quite tasty, and they had a delicious Indian dish every night, which I loved. My time dining seemed to get us through dinner much more quickly, perhaps because we only ever had three courses – we were usually out in under an hour. We had lunch in the dining room on the last sea day to avoid the Windjammer, which we thought would be chaotic due to the high seas. It was fantastic, and definitely something to do again.

 

Dining – Room Service: we ordered breakfast from room service twice, and it was delivered promptly and hot, which was great. Food was tasty, and requests for additional portions of items were honored in a logical way (i.e. request for extra bacon = extra bacon, not 2nd complete breakfast).

 

Service – The staff on this ship is wonderful. Our last two cruises were on Freedom of the Seas, and it was obvious that the smaller passenger count on Enchantment meant that you could really get to know the staff. We saw our waiter Erhan all over, and got to know several bar waiters too. At our last day MDR lunch, our head waiter was handling the seating, and he gave us a two top by the window so we didn’t have to share a table with strangers (I know that sounds bad, but the private table by the window really was a treat).

 

Photos – we normally don’t bother with the ship photography, but we had brought really nice Halloween costumes with us so we had some portraits taken and they came out great. Photo staff even printed up copies of pictures that we knew had been taken, but somehow didn’t get printed – another example of great staff work.

 

Cabin – we had an outside cabin on deck 2, which was quite good. Lots of drawers and so much storage in the bathroom that I actually was able to unpack my toilet kit and put it away – a first! The cabin was a little worn, but definitely very clean. Our friends had a Jr. Suite on deck 8, and it had a nice big seating area and huge balcony. I would definitely try to get one if we were going on a longer cruise.

 

Overall Ship Condition - Our cabin was a little worn, but all the public areas of the ship were in great condition and very clean.

 

Activities – We really enjoy trivia events, but gave up after two events in a row featured malfunctioning electronic equipment. What was wrong with the old system where you write your answers on a sheet? They did two contests like that and they were fine. We found that we were not impressed with the CD, the Activities Director, or their staff and didn’t find them entertaining, and so didn’t bother with Quest, Love and Marriage Show, etc.

 

Halloween – We and our friends really get into Halloween. We brought costumes and were expecting to have a good time at the Halloween activities planned on board. The Compass said that dinner dress was “Casual/Halloween Costume” and we wore our costumes to dinner and were a great hit in the MDR. We also had a great time walking around in costume, and talking to other folks who had dressed up. Unfortunately, the way the cruise staff ran the celebration kind of stunk. The compass said there would be a costume contest at 10:15 and then a combined 70’s night/Halloween party. What really happened was the 70’s party/Halloween party was a show for the RC singers and dancers and cruise staff in the Centrum that started at 10:15. We danced for an hour, but after that we were exhausted and totally sweaty, and when 11:30 rolled around and there was no mention of the costume contest, we gave up. They did eventually do the contest, but it must have started around midnight. There was a lot of energy at the party, but it really felt like the CD and his staff thought the night was all about them and not about the passengers who had put effort into dressing up. This was the complete opposite of our experience on Freedom two years ago, and we were disappointed. (I know the ship layouts are very different, but on Freedom they had all the costumed folks gather in a lounge, then they did the contest, THEN they did the dance party. It made it feel like it was about us and not about the silly CD).

 

Bermuda – Weather was high 70s and cloudy and windy. We walked to Sea Glass Beach, but neglected to check tides and it was under water when we arrived. Still a nice walk. Our friends got a beach excursion to the Snorkle Park beach and enjoyed it except that it was cold.

 

Misc. – Upon our departure from Bermuda, the captain came on the PA and announced that beginning late in the evening we would experience up to 25’ swells (we had 8 – 12’ swells on the way out). The captain did express sympathy for those who might get sea sick, and did so again on his Noon announcements the next day. It was a really rough ride, but quite exciting for those of us who didn’t get sick. We saw incredible rainbows in the morning of the last sea day.

[Maryscooking]

Thanks for the review! The Enchantment was my first cruise, and I've thought it would be fun to go back for another trip on her. I just wish the prices out of Baltimore weren't so high. Maybe if I could convince my DH to try something besides a balcony.

[spcopps]

Thanks for the review! The Enchantment was my first cruise, and I've thought it would be fun to go back for another trip on her. I just wish the prices out of Baltimore weren't so high. Maybe if I could convince my DH to try something besides a balcony.

 

 

Good luck with that. I booked our first non balcony for Freedom and my DH is about to die thinking about not having a balcony. We are a family of 5 with kids ages 8, 4 and 4 so I booked the family OV 8200. I tried to explain to him that it is the largest of the family OV but he is not giving up on me either getting a suite or moving booking to the allure for the family balcony (for $1800.00 more :eek:)

[Cshgrand]

Tbh having just had a balcony for the first time, we found the layout of our previous superior oceanview on the enchantment to be more accommodating for family travel.

Because the sofa bed was by the window on the oceanview there was no need to pass it to use the loo etc and risk waking the LO. Plus in our recent balcony the tv was aligned with the sofa bed, and no pull across curtain room divider. Both made doing anything after LOs bedtime impossible. We also travelled from Baltimore and had snow at sailaway which would have put the balcony out of use for a day each end of the trip anyway.

[Cshgrand]

Also thanks for your review OP. Loved enchantment as well, so agree about personal service. We were onboard adventure last week and also felt the celebrations were a bit of a let down. The parade on our ship wasn't until 11 and no junior version early on which meant our son missed it all.

[goofy659]

Who was the CD on your sailing? We are going in March on the Enchantment and was wondering if anyone knows who it will be then?