Enchantment Christmas Review

[spookwife]

Speaking of Nassau:

 

yeah. pulling in to a heavily Catholic Port on Christmas day might not have been the most intelligent thing in the universe to do.

 

Okay so again, we opted to book an excursion through the ship. in retrospect, this was a very good thing. It was called Nassau See and Sea. half glass bottom boat, half bus tour of the island. meet on the pier at 2!( we pulled in at 1) lots of pavilion thingies on the dock to shelter from the sun as you wait for your tour guides. it looked like a mad house with only very small 8x11 sheets of paper or auction paddle size signs to indicate which tour was where. Roman( I am pretty sure that was his name) was running around keeping people organized and sending them tot he correct spaces. now we had gotten off the shape ridiculously early.. like 130, so we sat around for 30 minutes before we were even due to leave.

 

215 and still no sign, but we could tell that Roman was working on it as he was on his walkie talkie and conversating with locals. finally he called us and another group that were supposed to do a different tour with the same group over.

 

he apologized profusely and said that they could NOT get a hold of said tour guide at all so he was very sorry to do this but he had to inform us that it was not going to happen. as he was trying to explain to us what came next, he kept being interrupted by angry guests. if they had only shut up for an extra 3 minutes, he would have answered their question on refunds. ( we got an OBC for the amount before the end of the day without having to lift a finger) he also said he wished he would have been able to offer us ANY other excursion at no cost, but alas everything was either full or had already left.

 

I absolutely DO NOT blame Royal in any way shape or form for this and absolutely give them HUGE kudos for handling it as promptly as they did. we instead took maybe a 45 minute walk in town, 4/5 of which was shut down tight. did find a lovely conch angel for the MiL and went back to a mostly empty ship.

 

 

 

CoCo Cay:

 

again, a big giant waste of time as far as ports go.. but more because we do NOT do the beach thing. tendering was easy but we were on island long enough to have lunch( ribs were pretty good)

 

 

our ride....

 

the last two days were sea days, my fav. it was much calmer than I expected to be honest. but all the open spaces were stuffed. The Centrum seemed to always be crowded esp with all the dance classes and music being played.

 

Overall, I don't think we'd ever do a major holiday like this again. the adult company was fabu, but there were just too many kids on board/large family groups as well as too much closed in the ports.

 

[spookwife]

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!

 

subjective.. were there rolling cart noises? yup. was it all night long? nope. was it annoying/kept me from sleeping.. nuh uh.

[Cheryl H]

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

 

Really? We are booked on a 4 night on the Enchantment in October. I hope that is not the case. We don't drink. It will not be wasted on us.

 

I enjoyed your pictures. We're in an aft junior suite.

[3dogmom]

Really? We are booked on a 4 night on the Enchantment in October. I hope that is not the case. We don't drink. It will not be wasted on us.

 

I enjoyed your pictures. We're in an aft junior suite.

 

I do 2 short cruises a year, and you can tell the more 'party' crowd is definitely on Carnival, comparing the Paradise vs. RCCL Jewel. You will be fine cruising in October, but it's people who travel during Spring Break that seem to have the issues. But then again, why would you choose to go during this time?:confused: I'm booking the Enchantment for October 7th while onboard the Jewel in April.

[sunnysavannah]

Love the pics! We are looking forward to her coming south! We aren't the party til you puke people either. It's our home port and we can't be gone two Sundays in a row. :o (would love to do freedom one day!)

 

Oh and we're booking her for Oct. 14th! Yay!

Edited December 30, 2012 by sunnysavannah

[cello56]

I wonder if the issue of having kids in the solarium on cold days will disappear once Enchantment moves to the Florida - Bahamas route? I have never, ever, seen them allow kids in the Solarium on the Florida departure ships due to weather conditions. I sure hope so at least! We love kids, but we love to have our adult quiet time in the solarium more!

[spookwife]

I wonder if the issue of having kids in the solarium on cold days will disappear once Enchantment moves to the Florida - Bahamas route? I have never, ever, seen them allow kids in the Solarium on the Florida departure ships due to weather conditions. I sure hope so at least! We love kids, but we love to have our adult quiet time in the solarium more!

 

yeah I assumed that was the big(gest) reason.. but again, with Park Cafe being in the Solarium now I think there from now on there will always be kids in there.

 

it was pretty Kid Free back in May but there was no PC at that time.

[Cheryl H]

I wonder if the issue of having kids in the solarium on cold days will disappear once Enchantment moves to the Florida - Bahamas route? I have never, ever, seen them allow kids in the Solarium on the Florida departure ships due to weather conditions. I sure hope so at least! We love kids, but we love to have our adult quiet time in the solarium more!

 

I bet it will go away with the warmer climate. We've taken advantage of the family time. Just got back from the New England/Canada run on the Jewel in October. There were only 8 children on board, but there were only 3 including our son who participated in AO. I think our son was the only one who went to the solarium. We were only there with him about 1 hour for the entire week. It was nice to have a warm place to swim. I love the adult time in the solarium too.

[Cheryl H]

Love the pics! We are looking forward to her coming south! We aren't the party til you puke people either. It's our home port and we can't be gone two Sundays in a row. :o (would love to do freedom one day!)

 

Oh and we're booking her for Oct. 14th! Yay!

 

We were booked for Oct 14, but then I found out our school fall break is the following week. Had to change it to Oct 21. Can't believe I booked the wrong week. Now I just need the next 41 weeks to hurry up.

[NanciRDH]

subjective.. were there rolling cart noises? yup. was it all night long? nope. was it annoying/kept me from sleeping.. nuh uh.

 

Thanks...it was the rolling carts, over tile, bumpity-bump. All. Night. Long. On our last cruise, DH was PO'd to the max, he even tried to figure out the next morning at breakfast where the noise was coming from, lol. We'd been in a GS on SOV before, but this trip it seemed worse. Guess we will stick to the JS, those AFT JS look better and better now.

[Cheryl H]

I do 2 short cruises a year, and you can tell the more 'party' crowd is definitely on Carnival, comparing the Paradise vs. RCCL Jewel. You will be fine cruising in October, but it's people who travel during Spring Break that seem to have the issues. But then again, why would you choose to go during this time?:confused: I'm booking the Enchantment for October 7th while onboard the Jewel in April.

 

I did spring break once..not by choice....but it was a girl trip from church and 3 of the gals were school teachers. But we did southern carribean out of San Juan. Didn't see much partying.

[ZoeyVictoria]

Silly me. All this time I thought I was part of the "Floridians who still work and like to cruise frequently" crowd, and now I find out I am part of the "party till you puke" crowd :eek: At least we are on the first "party" cruise out of Port Canaveral before she is trashed by our peers.

[Straughn]

I/we are the aforementioned neighbors in 8028 and CC member. Spookwife's review pretty much sums up the cruise. As to the question re the noise from the Windjammer, yes, we heard rolling carts late at night and early in the morning. The noise did not wake me (thank you Advil PM), but was noticeable if you were awake. If you are a light sleeper, you might have a problem.

 

A couple of things to add-

Entertainment: we went to the first stage show by the RCCL singers and dancers. I am sure there are folks who will disagree with me, but let's just say, I was underwhelmed. Singers were weak and the dancers weren't in step (and it was a very calm night at sea, so can't blame the motion of the ocean). The musical groups (and I use the term loosely) I heard from the Centrum didn't make me want to hear more.

 

Dress code on Formal Night: I would sum it up by asking why RCCL even bothers to have one. For the most part, passengers ignored it and RCCL didn't seem to care. I counted, at most, a dozen tuxes on formal night. Most male passengers wore open collar, maybe a few jackets and ties. The women were slightly more appropriate. (This is not to start a dress code discussion; just my observation- not a political comment.)

 

As to the GS "sound system", my significant other summed it up by commenting that it was "1980's state of the art".

 

Best thing on the ship: if you have access to the CL, it is Reyno. What a guy!

[sunnysavannah]

We were booked for Oct 14, but then I found out our school fall break is the following week. Had to change it to Oct 21. Can't believe I booked the wrong week. Now I just need the next 41 weeks to hurry up.

 

Ah, we were debating which week, but the 14th was best for our friends.

 

 

OP, any more pics? I'm addicted!

[3dogmom]

Silly me. All this time I thought I was part of the "Floridians who still work and like to cruise frequently" crowd, and now I find out I am part of the "party till you puke" crowd :eek: At least we are on the first "party" cruise out of Port Canaveral before she is trashed by our peers.

 

OK, good...I wasn't the only one who went whhhaaaat:confused:

[Mr. Bungle]

Did you get pics of the movie screen?

Is Luis and Patsy still in Boleros?

[Merion_Mom]

[quote name='spookwife']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.[/QUOTE]

Groups were:

Evergreen

Roots Vibration

[Mr. Bungle]

Have they outlawed smoking on the balconies or can the CigarCrew still enjoy one while watching the sun set?

[NanciRDH]

[quote name='ZoeyVictoria']Silly me. All this time I thought I was part of the "Floridians who still work and like to cruise frequently" crowd, and now I find out I am part of the "party till you puke" crowd :eek: At least we are on the first "party" cruise out of Port Canaveral before she is trashed by our peers.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='3dogmom']OK, good...I wasn't the only one who went whhhaaaat:confused:[/QUOTE]

LOL...us too. We treat it as our weekend getaway, it usually costs less than a weekend in a hotel, and we get 3 nights for that. Or sometimes we're lucky enough to have the time without kids to go 4 nights. Not much of a party crowd here either. In fact, we quit going on Carnival just for that reason. The kids even noticed the difference when we brought them once. But true, we do avoid spring break.

[Ocean Dancer]

Hey Steve, have you dug yourself out of all that snow yet?:eek:

[Mr. Bungle]

[quote name='Ocean Dancer']Hey Steve, have you dug yourself out of all that snow yet?:eek:[/quote]


3rd time shoveling since Thursday morning... got about 20" so far...

[Mr. Bungle]

[quote name='Ocean Dancer']Hey Steve, have you dug yourself out of all that snow yet?:eek:[/quote]

Your big trip is coming up soon... ENJOY!!!

[Ocean Dancer]

[quote name='Mr. Bungle']Your big trip is coming up soon... ENJOY!!![/quote]

Thank you!!!!!!!!

Giz is currently in NYC and hoped to contact us, we had a great private tour with him.

[Merion_Mom]

[quote name='Tyron'][FONT=Georgia][SIZE=3][I][B]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? :( [/B][/I][/SIZE][/FONT][/QUOTE]

[quote name='spookwife']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[/QUOTE]

I have been on many 3 and 4 night cruises on Sovereign, Monarch and Majesty - which you would never guess from my hometown. This was both out of California and Florida.

I would not have characterized ANY of my cruises as a party cruise or a booze cruise. Lively? yes Lots of happy cruisers? yes Drinking? yes Out of control drinking? nope

I don't think that anyone has to worry about the Enchantment.

[kruzerci]

[quote name='ZoeyVictoria']Silly me. All this time I thought I was part of the "Floridians who still work and like to cruise frequently" crowd, and now I find out I am part of the "party till you puke" crowd :eek: At least we are on the first "party" cruise out of Port Canaveral before she is trashed by our peers.[/QUOTE]

For real... I thought the "party til you puke crowd" was a little uncalled for! The last short cruise we did out of Canaveral was literally all elderly people. The ship felt empty by 10PM every night.