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

[UTVolsFan4Life]

Great review. One question about the coke machines. You mentioned 4 but I only remember seeing two before (one on deck 6 by the coffee store and the other inside the windjammer). Where are the other two? Are three inside the windjammer or is there one out on the deck?

 

There were three in the Windjammer area. One was next to the "free drink" area and the other two were on the same side of the Windjammer. I guess you would call that area an "additional dining area". It was roped off for the most part except to get to the FreeSyle machines. I only saw a few people sitting over there a few times. You could see them as you get off the elevator and there were signs pointing to them. The other one was on Deck 6 next to Ben & Jerry's/coffee store area.

[UTVolsFan4Life]

I remember seeing two machines in Windjammer.

 

I hope I answered your question below. :D

[UTVolsFan4Life]

Thanks again, for everyone's encouragement and kind words. Please feel free to ask questions and I will try to answer them the best way that I can. This is going to be along section. As requested, I will add as many CocoCay pictures that were on both mine and Cynthia's camera.

 

Happy Anniversary, to us, two years of marriage! Since we wanted to get an early start to the day we decided that we should try Room Service for breakfast. The night before, I filled out our request and selected the 6:30 AM - 7:00AM delivery time. Cynthia and I woke up shortly before 6:30 AM and I made my way to the FreeStyle machine to get drinks for breakfast. I came back to the room waited about 10 minutes and then made my way back to the machine to get another refill. During the time that I was gone, our food was served. Cynthia had eggs and a hash brown and I had the same with some bacon and tomatoes. I was a little confused by the serving sizes that we were brought but it was plenty of food and in my sleepiness I may have filled the form out incorrectly.

Carnival Comparison: On Carnival, room service is free all the time, just tip the person that delivers the food. On Royal Caribbean, the same applies however, there is a window of time late at night that there is a service charge for room service on top of the tip to the person that delivers the food. On both cruise lines, the order was delivered promptly and with great service. Where Royal Caribbean really stands out is the selection of available item on their room service menu. Carnival has a very limited menu, basically cereal, fruit, and pastries is all that’s available.

Carnival 4 Royal Caribbean 4

 

After breakfast, I went out on deck to get some pictures of CocoCay.

 

The weather report was for about 30% Scattered Showers for the day so, I was a bit concerned about how the day would turn out. Look at this beautiful morning!

 

 

 

 

 

[UTVolsFan4Life]

 

 

 

 

 

[UTVolsFan4Life]

 

It was a great morning to be on deck.

 

 

 

 

 

[UTVolsFan4Life]

 

 

 

 

As I came back to the room, I noticed a huge line waiting to get the tender boats. I quickly got back to the room, Cynthia and I put on some sun screen and then headed to the tender boat line. To our surprise, there was not a line. We walked right off the ship and into the lower level of the tender boat as the upper level was already full.

 

 

[UTVolsFan4Life]

 

 

 

 

 

[UTVolsFan4Life]

 

 

 

 

 

[UTVolsFan4Life]

 

 

 

 

 

[Book Goddess]

Really enjoying your photos and review! Great job!

[UTVolsFan4Life]

 

 

 

After a short wait, we were on our way to shore. Once off the boat, we kind of just followed the crowd and from what I remembered from pictures in Cruise Critic reviews. Of course, we made sure that we had our picture taken as soon as we were off the tender boat.

 

 

We found a beach area so, we found a safe place for our stuff, snapped some pictures, and then we hit the water.

 

 

[UTVolsFan4Life]

 

 

The first thing that I noticed was the water was not as clear and that the water was filthy with something in the water. To say that we were disappointed was an understatement. We also, had the pleasure of moving out of the way from a sting ray. In addition, the weather looked to be turning on the ugly side and I just knew that it was going to rain at any time. After a short time in the water we decided that it was time to get out to re-apply our sunscreen and to adventure around the island so that if the weather turned bad on us then we would be ready to head back to the ship. As we were exploring, we found another side of the island and noticed that the water seemed a bit clearer and not dirty. We decided to give it a try and it was so nice. We figured out that the first area was more for snorkeling and not swimming. Of course, we took some pictures before we relaxed a bit.

 

 

 

 

[UTVolsFan4Life]

 

We had a nice time and before we knew it, lunch was being served. Finding lunch for Cynthia was a nightmare, let’s just say that she had some fruit and nibbled off some of my food that she should not have been eating. After lunch, we finished exploring as the weather was looking excellent again. After exploring, we headed for the shops and then back on the tender boat.

 

Once the tender was ready full and ready to head back, we were informed that the Captain had informed them that the ship was re-positioning and that we needed to wait until that was complete. The tender operator told us that he did not know how long that would take but that it’s extremely dangerous to try to tender in that situation because of the wake from both vessels. It was at that point, I realized that Cynthia was a bit upset at me because she wanted to use the restroom and now she was in a bit of a pickle.

 

 

Luckily for me, we were started moving rather quickly and disaster was averted.

 

 

 

[UTVolsFan4Life]

 

 

 

 

 

[UTVolsFan4Life]

 

 

 

 

 

[UTVolsFan4Life]

 

Well almost, just as we were getting ready to tender, we could see a small rain storm coming our way. Let’s just say we got soaked before we got back on the ship. We made a bee line to our stateroom to get out of our wet clothes.

Carnival Comparison: I am about to answer one of my biggest questions that I had before this cruise, CocoCay vs. Half Moon Cay. For those that may not know, Half Moon Cay is a private island in the Bahamas that’s owned by Holland America Cruise line and is used by Holland America and Carnival. I thought that both of these islands were very similar. They both need a tender to reach, they both have a few shops, they both sever about the same food for lunch, and they both have about the same excursions on the island. Half Moon Cay, might have a few more excursions but most are the same. CocoCay seemed to be a little bit wider where Half Moon Cay was a little longer. Restrooms were readily available across the island. I thought that CocoCay was more structurally appealing, but I thought that the sand and beach was cleaner, clearer, and calmer at Half Moon Cay. To me, it’s really a toss-up, either way you’re in paradise.

Carnival 5 Royal Caribbean 5

 

Next we just rested a bit and slowly got ready for formal night. We had been looking forward to this for some time as we don’t get to dress up often and we were going to get some nice pictures taken. Cynthia had found a brand new dress in a consignment store for a very nice price even with the few alterations that were required to the length of the dress. I had a nice new shirt and pants with a matching tie to wear together for the first time. Cynthia was about 3/4th of the way ready when I went to get my dress clothing on and made a horrible discovery; the dry cleaners returned the wrong shirt to me. I was so busy with work and everything that my Dad took everything to the dry cleaners and picked it up for me but I still should have double-checked everything. I tried on the shirt that they gave me and it was just too small. I would have needed one of those over sized clown ties to be able to cover up that gap. LOL (Side Note: Once we returned home, the cleaner’s was contacted and I was able to get my correct shirt back.) I can make fun of the situation now, but at the time it really upset and disappointed the both of us. My wife was so disappointed that she had to take off her sexy formal dress and put on a casual dress that matched with my polo collared shirt and dress pants. We stopped at all the picture locations before I had a chance to get something from dinner on my clothes. It was hard looking at most the people being dressed up and taking such awesome formal pictures. I am sure that some of the Cruise Critic fashion police are going to cringe now, but we went just like that to the MDR for dinner. It was our Anniversary and we were determined that we were going to enjoy a nice dinner at a table for two. This would mean that we would miss the comedy shows. We went to the MDR and found that again, there were no tables available for two. It was just the extra thing to go wrong, we accepted a spot for an 8:30 PM seating so that we could have a private table. We really did not know what to do next so we just walked around the ship. We came across the Parade of Nations.

 

 

Next, we decided to check out the Windjammer. We decided that it would be easier for Cynthia to find something to eat in the MDR so we decided to wait. However, Cynthia found some sushi on the buffet. I love sushi and so I decided to have some to hold me over until our dinner time arrived. We checked out the fun shops and photo gallery. Finally, it was time for our table to be ready in the MDR. I am going to warn you ahead of time that I am going to start getting really picky here and some of this perception is mostly due to still being an a fairly rotten mood due to the formal attire incident. We had a different set of wait staff tonight and it did not really start off very well, I don’t know if it was because they were really busy and he did not look at our ticket but we had to remind the both of them about Cynthia’s situation and the gluten free bread. I really thought the service was average and that the service that we had the night before far surpassed this service. There was no happy anniversary song or anything, celebrating our anniversary was confirmed on every call to Royal Caribbean. There was something about these gentlemen and we decided to given them a second chance. We stopped by the hostess station to make Cynthia’s dinner request for the next night and to see what the first available time we could sit at our table. Her order was taken quickly and we were told to come at 7:30 PM. After dinner, we were just upset and exhausted so we went back to the room. Cynthia was starting not to feel good because of some of the gluten items that she ate on Monday and at CocoCay. We just went back to the room and had some quality alone time and headed to bed.

 

I need to run and help my wife with a project so I hope to be back soon with Day 3: Nassau.

[FinallyCruisinIn2014]

Loving this review so far! And your pictures are amazing!!!

 

I felt my heart sink when I read about your clothing mishap :( But as an old married couple of almost 30 years, I'm going to bet that it's going to become a standing joke at anniversary time.... "Honey, do you have the right shirt??" haha :)

[Flagrandma]

subscribing...love the pics

[UTVolsFan4Life]

Loving this review so far! And your pictures are amazing!!!

 

I felt my heart sink when I read about your clothing mishap :( But as an old married couple of almost 30 years, I'm going to bet that it's going to become a standing joke at anniversary time.... "Honey, do you have the right shirt??" haha :)

 

Thanks, I am sure my wife will not let me forget it. :D LOL

[UTVolsFan4Life]

subscribing...love the pics

 

Thanks!

[UTVolsFan4Life]

Before we went to bed the night before we decided that what was done was done and that we were not going to let the formal night disaster define our trip. We slept a little late for us and then we made our way to the Windjammer for breakfast. It seemed easier to find gluten free options for breakfast and we were both happy with our meals. We had an awesome view of Atlantis and Cynthia really wanted to go back over there (we went in February) but it just was not in the plans or the budget for this cruise. After breakfast, we walked around the ship getting pictures of the port area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[UTVolsFan4Life]

 

 

 

 

 

[UTVolsFan4Life]

 

 

 

Look, it's our old friend, the Carnival Ecstasy.

 

 

Our favorite place while we sailed on her!

 

 

[UTVolsFan4Life]

 

 

 

 

 

When I was taking these pictures I did not know what these buildings were that are being constructed. I have since learned, thanks to Cruise Critic, that this is the new Baha Mar Bahamas. It's suppose to be best thing that came to Nassau since Atlantis. It looks really nice, Google it and you will find their website.

 

[UTVolsFan4Life]

 

There is a little bit of the Hilton in the background.

 

 

 

Then we made it back to our room where we got ready for a day in Nassau. We decided to just walk around and do some shopping in port. We quickly made it off the ship and had our pictures taken. We left the port area and made our way to Bay Street. We came across a Hard Rock Cafe as I am a huge fan and love to collect their glasses.

 

 

I resisted and shortly found a Starbucks. We went on past and made a right turn on Bay Street and started looking at the shops. It was a hot day and the sun was beaming down making it feel about a 100x hotter than it actually was. We were glad that most of the side walk was covered and we found a few shops to look in that had air conditioning which helped out a lot. There was a lot of people trying to get you to take a tour or a taxi somewhere to the point that it about got on my nerves. We went through about half the straw market and found some good deals but everybody was selling the same items and each person would try to get you to stop at their booth. We kept walking down a bit and found a Dunking Donuts and thought about stopping but we kept walking until we found a McDonald’s.

 

We went in to use the restroom, get a bottle of water, and to cool off a bit. We were in no hurry, as the ship did not leave until midnight so we took our time and started walking back. We got hot again and so we stopped at the Dunking Donuts for a few minutes.

 

Yum! Sorry, for the bite marks. LOL