Enchantment of the Seas - January 5-14, 2013

[MS52]

This was a nine day with stops in San Juan, St Thomas, Samana and Labadee. There were two sea days on either end.

We went on this cruise with a group of 13 friends with only one newbie in the group. This was our third January cruise on the Enchantment. :D

Radio has also done a live review with lots of photos on this same cruise but I’ll share our experiences. Radio’s review is here: http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1760648

Boarding was delayed because of a norovirus outbreak and they were doing a deep clean. We did receive an email and adjusted our arrival time a bit so the wait in the terminal wasn’t too bad.

This made me slightly paranoid as I had noro on my last cruise – I think if I had gotten it again, it would have been my last cruise. It was that bad. I did extensive hand washing last week!

 

BTW, no problem carrying wine aboard. You had to take it out of your carry on and show them it was wine. Two of our friends left it in their luggage and got a note to go to the naughty room. I went along to see what it was like because I had read so much about the naughty room on cruise critic. :rolleyes: They actually had three bottles of wine in their luggage but I think because they were respectful and friendly, they were permitted to keep it. Surprised me a bit.

We were in a junior suite and had priority boarding. I think we were in the first group of about 50 onboard. We headed directly for the Park Café were we were first to have a Kummelweck for lunch. (more on Park Café later)

I love leaving from Baltimore. Parking and embarkation are so easy. In our case it means no flying. I would so much rather a cool day on a ship heading south than a day at the airport.

[MS52]

My husband and I had an aft corner on deck 7. We had a walk-in closet which was great. We could put everything away and keep the room clutter free. The bathroom had been redone in the dry dock last month. The balcony was fantastic.

On the balcony, there were two chairs, two tables and two loungers and still had lots of room to host a party outside.

But let’s get back to the main room……Two beds (which we had together) two nightstands, sofa, two chairs, two hammocks (stools) and a coffee table along with a built in desk. I was told that many pieces of furniture had been added during the dry dock. It was so so so crowded you could hardly walk in the room.

The chairs and sofa and coffee table were so tight together that you couldn’t sit unless you moved something around. I’m not sure what they were thinking when they added all the furniture. I peeked into a balcony room – they just had the sofa and it looked like their room was so much roomier than ours.

Our cabin steward was Charlito and he was great. He kept us supplied with ice and wine glasses! He went on vacation yesterday and will be back on the Enchantment in April.

I loved the balcony but am not sure if I would book the room again because of how crowded it was. That’s a mote point anyway since the Enchantment is leaving Baltimore and I’ll be switching to the Grandeur for our January cruise.

[MS52]

Always subjective.

 

We had dinner in the MDR, my time dining with a reservation every night at 7:30 PM. I enjoyed the new menu. No escargots available on our cruise but I would not have ordered them anyway. Some in our group were disappointed. On lobster night, my lobster tail was cooked perfectly and I would estimate that it was about an 8 oz. tail. In the past, I’ve asked for extra but didn’t feel I needed more than was served this year. The variety and presentation was very nice.

MDR for dinner – in our case, the service was terrible. If not for our assistant waitress, Lucia, it would have been a disaster. We are a group who enjoys leisurely dinners with a bottle of wine. Give us a glass of wine and we’ll sit and chit chat for a long time and be perfectly content.

On a typical night in the MDR, we would sit down to dinner at 7:30 PM (never late). At 7:40 PM, they would get our wine order (we all had wine packages). At 7:50 PM the wine would arrive. They would plop it down on the table in front of us. At 8:00 PM, someone would start opening bottles. Somewhere during that time, our order would be taken. On one night, our first appetizer did not arrive until an hour after we sat down.

The waiter was terribly disorganized and seemed way out of his element. It also appeared to me that something else was going on – the team just did not communicate or work together.

I put the blame on management in this case – they could see what was happening and did nothing to assist. The head waiter who we had last year came over and said "I so wish that you had asked for my section." Me too but I didn't realize that was an option.

Food temperature was warm to lukewarm. Once again, I think it was the waiter. He would uncover a dish, look at it, look at his order pad, think about it for a while (not too much of an exaggeration here) and then serve……for each and every dinner. There were a few evenings when a dessert with ice cream was served completely melted.

In hindsight, maybe we should have asked for a change but we are truly easy going and try not to let things bug us on vacation.

One of the things that happened to a lady in our group – there was a large piece of glass in her soufflé. The head waiter was called, took the glass and dessert and told her she would be hearing from the Executive Chef. No apology offered. Thankfully she felt it in her mouth, didn’t bite down and was not injured.

CHOPS- we had dinner on the first evening in Chops. Took advantage of the discount offered with the set sail celebration. (Book for the first evening at a discount of 30% - cost was $21. per person.) It was a lovely dinner, great food, great service and a bargain at $21.

PARK PLACE – we had lunch on embarkation here. It seems that most people didn’t know about it yet. We had a great lunch, a kummelweck with mustard ragu (roast beef sandwich) in a very quiet atmosphere. (We didn’t want to eat too much since we were going to Chops that evening). They had a salad bar, various types of sandwiches, desserts and other salad items. We had lunch here most days.

WINDJAMMER – I only had a late lunch here on our St Thomas day since when we came back the dining room and Park Place was closed. I had a burger which was delicious (I was starving). I try and avoid buffets, just a personal thing with me.

ROOM SERVICE – we use it every morning for our wake up call. Place the placard on your door before you go to bed, order coffee and pastry. They call before it is delivered. Prompt service every morning.

[cruzinlady1947]

Was this cruise 2 yrs. ago?

[megr1125]

Was this cruise 2 yrs. ago?

 

no..it appears that the OP made a typo in the title of the thread...maybe a MOD can fix it...;)

 

We had Lucia as our asst waiter as well..she was a love....our server wasn't bad, but I agree, sometimes the food was really NOT even close to hot....

[MS52]

Was this cruise 2 yrs. ago?

 

 

DUH! No that's a typo. We just returned yesterday. Sorry.

I asked the moderator to make a change.

 

More tomorrow on ports ........