LIVE from the Enchantment 8/14-8/21 #1

[Merion_Mom]

Hi Carol-

 

thanks for the posts- yes, it's great to live vicariously!

 

couple of ?'s-

 

Martha's Vineyard- you said you were glad you took the tour. Can you share name of tour, where you found it and why you're glad you took it? Did you have to book in advance?

 

Chops- do you remember if they did (or did not) have prime rib on the menu?

 

and last- but certainly not least- inquiring minds want to know if there were any "issues" with bringing your own liquor on board. I would rather buy on board and pay the extra fee- but since they don't allow that anymore I guess we'll put it in our checked luggage. Do you know if anyone had something "confiscated" from their checked luggage? I know NCL does this which is one reason we won't sail on them (don't flame me- personal opinion, this is like a hotel- if I want to drink in our room in privacy- I should be able to. Trust me, our bar bill is still in a fairly hefty range at the end of the trip as we do enjoy the atmosphere in the bars/lounges at times- but also at times want to be in ours pj's and that might be frowned upon in the bar? guess it would depend on the pj's.....)

 

if you could share those answers I'd sure appreciate it ...and am guessing several others would as well.

 

keep enjoying.....

Ok, where do I start/continue? This is as good a place as any. It's now 3:20 a.m. Friday "night" and I am having WAY too good a time tonight. Uncle Jack and I finished keeping each other company tonight, and I am feeling far too little pain. If you guys had ANY idea how many times I am backspacing and correcting my spelling..............well, all I can say is, I PROMISE - WE WOULD ALL HAVE A FAB TIME CRUISING TOGETHER. Thank the lord my kids are asleep in our cabin and have NO idea that their mom has been chatting and "impressing" several dozen teenagers on board tonight! They would just DIE - they HATE when I "talk" to people that I don't know!

 

Barbface1 has already prepared a two page review of our cruise, and will either start a new thread or add on here. She wants directions home from the port up the NJ tpk, so my accuracy may dictate how soon she posts!!!!

 

I am having WAY too good a time tonight. As I said, I finished my Johnny Walker tonight. (after polishing off a bottle of Piper-Sonoma on the balcony between 4 & 5 - well, I gave ONE glass to my daughter and ONE glass to my balcony & dinner table mate-

[Merion_Mom]

Drat, I don't know if it's cruise critic or rc online, but it just lost have my message. phooey. Let's see if I can reconstruct any of it. Nope, the brain is fried.

 

holo etc: I didn't see anyone "checking" booze - no one bugged us.

 

Little quibbles: the usual hard sell by waiter for "excellent" ratings on comment card. They don't give you a dessert menu - they recite it, and it can be tough to follow (really annoys my daughter).

 

 

DO NOT GET A CABIN RIGHT UNDER THE WINDJAMMER. Is the noise a problem? NO. It's just TOO DAMNED easy to run up and eat any time, with it being just one short flight of steps up. :D

 

I was on the balcony this afternoon - Halifax was an EARLY day - back on board by 3 - we could all have spent WAY more time here. Nice breeze as we got underway. Went to open the cabin door to the hall. MAJOR HUGE SUCKING VACUUM OF AIR. it yanked the door out of my hands, and sucked all the loose contents of the room loose. ODD AND WEIRD AND FUNNY. Created a windtunnel effect.

[Merion_Mom]

This is Matt Baker's last cruise. He wants all of you to know (asked me right away if I was on Cruise Critic when I said that "we all want to know") that he is going to attack a career on TV/movies. Next on the Enchantment (starting this sunday) is Mark Walker.

 

Bobby Arvon's show tonight was AWESOME. I was sitting in the front row and was singing along, so he kept coming over to me, and I talked and sang into the mike a lot. :D Fortunately, my kids decided to skip the show tonight and watch a movie in the cabin, because they would have DIED of embarrassment. hee hee

[Murphy]

Carol, you are cracking me up! Go enjoy your few precious hours that are left of your cruise and quit posting to us in the middle of the night! :)

 

We who are on the Oct 2 sailing are saddened that Matt Baker is leaving, but he said last October that this gig was just a stepping stone for him and he had his sights on Hollywood! Tell him good luck and I'm sure we will all see him again on a bigger venue.

[kenandlaura06]

Carol, you are too funny! Glad to see you are having a good trip.

[CruisinBabe]

Carol -- PLEASE don't forget to tell Chris at the rock climbing wall that I was asking about him and I said 'hello'!!!

 

Enjoy the rest of your cruise!!!

 

Amy

[Merion_Mom]

Amy, you must have ESP! I just finished talking to Chris. He promises to get in contact with you as soon as he can. (he's a cutie! you have good taste :))

[CruisinBabe]

Amy, you must have ESP! I just finished talking to Chris. He promises to get in contact with you as soon as he can. (he's a cutie! you have good taste :))

 

Yes.... I agree!!! I guess now you can probably understand why I've been harassing you all week to talk to him for me!! :)

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH for doing me that favor!!! It is greatly appreciated!!!

 

Amy :) :)

[Wirenut624]

Yes.... I agree!!! I guess now you can probably understand why I've been harassing you all week to talk to him for me!! :)

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH for doing me that favor!!! It is greatly appreciated!!!

 

Amy :) :)

 

I didn't see him quite the same way :p But he is a nice guy!

Glad you are having a great time Carol! Loved the reviews!

[barbface1]

Day One

Embarkation: We stayed in Philly the night before and headed for the pier at 10:45 - took us 15 minutes from center city philly. Embarkation was pretty easy. Drop the luggage, park the car, take the shuttle bus, check-in, get on the ship. Read a lot of posts about the long gangway and it was NOT that bad. We were walking a little less than the lenthg of the ship. There were people there to help the handicapp and chairs along the way for those that need a break. We were on the ship before noon and make sure you fill out all neciessary paperwork and make sure your TAG your luggage before you get there. Rooms were not available till 1pm so had lunch at windjammer and took a walk. Went to dinning room and changed our reservation for table for two and to discuss some dietary restrictions. Got a great table by the window. By the time we got to the room at 1pm our luggage was already there. Changed and went to the pool - it was 100 degrees in philly

 

Dinner the first night was great - Great head waitor, waitor and bus boy - Stan, Ravi and Amol. Good service all week and were great to pay attention to your special requests and restrictions.

 

Day Two - at sea, first formal night

Awoke early 7:30, Gym and breakfast - at pool by 9:30 - no problems with lounge chairs and weather was GREAT - there till noon. Lunch menu in dinning room is the SAME everyday but it is closed for days 3,4,5, when the boat is at port. Our favorite meal was nite two dinner - the sea bass! Fantastic!

[barbface1]

Day Three - Marthas Vineyard

Since we heard stories about MV from past cruisers we decided to stay on board. Great day, ship was empty and great weather. Took advantage of paort day spa special but was upset that the dinning room was not opened for lunch. We heard stories about the tendering process.....some people were on the tender for 30 minutes and the water was choppy and pepople reported that there was not much to do once you got to MV. I say skip it and enjoy the ship

 

Day Four - Portland

Walked off ship, walked around the port area (2.5 miles). It was a cute town,

cute shops, and a good spot to get lobster for lunch. One of the casino dealers told us to go to Saporo if we wanted sushi. We did not go but another family did and had a great lunch. We did go to teh LL Bean outlent (in town, not the one in Freeport) and there was nothing special there. We went back to ship and back to the pool deck and gym.

 

Day Five - Bar Harbor

Took one of the first tenders to shore - about 5 minute ride and hired a taxi with a couple we met on the tender (MDI Taxi Co). It was $60/hour and we toured for 90 minutes. WEnt to Cadillac Mountain and couple of other spots and told us about Bar Harbor history. We ended spening $55/couple with tip and was well worth it. When our tour was over we walked up Main St, went into some stores and had lunch. Great time with SUPERB weather! Back on board for nap by the solarium pool.

 

Day 6 - Halifax, Second Fomal nite - lobster nite

Hired a taxi for $6 (USD) to take us to Citadel. Try to get there before NOON as they fire the canon and noon and have a bagpipe parade/concert at 12. Walked back down to the harbor area, went to the glass blowing factory and then back to the ship. Weather was great so back to pool deck and gym.

Dinner we went to CHOPS - compared to the regular meals in dinning room - it was excellent!@! Compared to NY City steak houses.....nothing special........but good service and great decor.

 

Day Seven - At Sea

More good weather

 

 

Overall

1. No problems with chairs on pool deck

2. Staff was excellent

3.Service in dinning room was excellent

4. No chldren in solarium!!! -- yeah!

 

Bad

1. Dinning room closed while in port

2. Ship excursions are TOTAL rip off---do it on your own

3. Food was average at best!!!!

 

Can't say anything about shows---we are gamb lers---casino staff was very nice!

 

Have a good time, enjoy your trip

[Wakka]

Merion Mom: I want to thank you for letting us be apart of your cruise!:D

I really appreciate it!

I'm leaving on the Enchantment on Aug. 30th. Although its only a 5 day; I'm going to try and post as many times as I can. I hope you had an easy disembarking from the ship!

 

Happy Sailings! :)

[kenandlaura06]

Thanks for the review.

[Fury1995]

Yes, thanks Merion Mom for keeping in touch. It has made the days go by faster! Thanks Barbface 1 for the review! Sounds like you all had a great cruise. Hope mine is just as great.

[CruisinBabe]

Yes Carol I must say I am very sad (as I'm sure you are) that your cruise is over today.

 

I really loved reading your post all last week!!! It made the work week so much more bearable!!! I felt like I was reliving my cruise all over again!!

 

And I especially want to thank you for delivering my message to Chris!! : )

That was really sweet of you to do me that favor!!

 

Looking forward to reading your next post once you've unpacked and gotten back into the swing of things!!!

 

You're the BEST!!

Amy : )

[kenandlaura06]

Carol, have a good trip home. Looking forward to hearing more details of your trip.

[erntrish]

We also just returned from the 8/14 Enchantment sailing. I'll just add my thoughts to what's already been posted.

 

The BEST feature, to us, was being able to leave our cabin at 7:45 AM with express departure, be in our car on the highway at 8:10, and be home on Staten Island petting the dog at 9:35. There's nothing better!

 

We stayed in Philly overnight on 8/13, having Pricelined a room at the Wyndham in Center City. We poked around the Reading Terminal Market in the afternoon, and walked along South Street in the evening after "dining" at Jim's Steaks. The weather was cursed hot!

 

We drove to the pier about 11:15 AM, paid our $70 bucks to park in a lot directly next to the luggage "tents," checked in with no wait, and were in the first group to board at around noonish. The ramp to board the ship wasn't as long as some would have you believe. The Windjammer was open for lunch, but the crew were serious about the "no stateroom access before 1PM" bit...our deck had a crewmember stationed at the stairwell directing people away from the closed fire door.

 

SHIP:

She came out of drydock looking beautiful. The new additions work pretty well, especially Chops Grille and Boleros- more on those later. The pool deck changes seemed a bit weird. Hardly anyone could be found drinking at the gorgeous Oasis Bar on the starboard side. The suspension bridges are cool, as is the Jump Zone bungee trampoline (can't say that I experienced that however!).

 

CABIN:

We had an interior cabin (a first for us) on deck 7, just aft of the Centrum. Not many creature comforts, but hey, you get what you pay for. For this itinerary, it served us well. The bed itself, however, was the worst I've ever slept on, on land or afloat.

 

CREW:

In the dining room, our waiter was Erkan, from Turkey. He spoke rapid-fire, and was pretty difficult to understand at times, but he worked his butt off. Apollonario, his assistant, was warm and always smiling, but didn't talk too much. The headwaiter, Francis, was very friendly, making a point of conversing with us wherever we ran into him throughout the ship. Where we really met great service was our server in the Schooner. Monica chatted with with us each day, and made great drink recommendations for my wife. In Boleros, the staff were the best we've ever found...friendly, talkative, and personable.

 

ENTERTAINMENT:

Matt Baker, the cruise director, was quite funny. Alas, the sailing was his last, as he's leaving RCI for the greener pastures of TV and film. The show in the Orpheum theater were good...I felt Herb Reed of the Platters was reading from cue cards...maybe now's a good time to retire after a great, long career. The comedians were pretty good. We were not thrilled with the live music choices throughout the ship. There was only live music poolside on sailaway day, and that was abruptly curtailed when the band (Dreamscape) got splashed. The pianist in the Schooner, Tom, was absolutely dreadful. Every song sounded alike, and he couldn't keep any crowd he was so desperately trying to attract. Pretty much ruined one of our favorite places on the ship for a cocktail. The band in Boleros, however, was a completely different story. Azucar was quite simply the best music I've heard on a cruise ship.

 

FOOD:

On the average, the food was disappointing...and no, my standards aren't too high. The food in the dining room was often very bland, needed salt, and overall lacked imagination. (For comparison's sake, we sailed on sister-ship Vision in April, and the food was considerably beter.) Chops was a great experience...not the "best steak at sea," as claimed by their waitstaff, but very good. (For my money, the best steak at sea is in HAL's Pinnacle Grill.) The Windjammer was pretty good, though the food was often dried out from too much time on the steam table. (To be expected!) Great variety, though. We couldn't find ice cream available other than at Ben & Jerry's- a switch since our trip on Vision.

 

PORTS:

We weren't thrilled with Martha's Vineyard. The long wait for a tender didn't make matters better, either. Portland is old hat for us, having family there for many years. However, we did have a good meal of fresh fried clams and shrimp at the Portland Lobster Company just a few piers away. We also took a great 2.5 hour Lighthouse and nature cruise around the Casco Bay/Portland area ($12 apiece!) with Eagle Island Tours. Had a bit of a scare returning to the ship, though. We were told all-aboard time was 6:30 PM for a 7PM sail. At 6:20, after saying goodbye to family a block away, we walked back onto the pier...and the security guards were telling us tio hurry up, as we were about to miss the ship. I laughed, thinking they were pulling my leg, but when we got to the gangway, there was a purser there staring down the pier with a manifest in her hand. I asked if we were the last to board, and she said no...there was one couple after us. Just goes to show, don't cut it close! We were 10 minutes EARLY, and they were ready to leave us on the pier. Bar Harbor was just great. We took a 2.5 hour Ollie's Trolley tour of Acadia National Park (~$22 ea.) , followed by a 2 hour nature cruise in Frenchman's Bay, where we saw harbor porpoises and dozens of harbor seals sunning themselves. We'll be back in Bar Harbor one day soon to explore a bit deeper. Halifax, outr last port stop, was very disappointing, since there's so much to see in so little time, with all-aboard at 3PM. We ended up renting a car for the day (~$75 US) and driving out to the stunningly beautiful Peggy's Cove. Alas, we only had a very short time there before we needed to turn around.

 

This was a great trip. When I have some free time, I'll upload some of the 300+ photos we took during the week.

 

Now I enter that depressing interval where I have no cruise planned to lookforward to...

[holomuku]

Erntish-

 

thanks for the information...sounds like overall it was a good trip.

 

did you say all aboard for Halifax is 3pm? Our itin shows us sailing at 4pm- do they want you on an hour ahead of time?

 

thanks

 

sally

[erntrish]

Holomuku:

We had to be aboard by 3 for a scheduled 3:30 sail. They seemed to allot half an hour at each port to button up the gangways and prepare to push off. From the number of announcements just after sailing for guests to call the Pursers dek, I'm pretty sure not everyone made it.

 

3PM is just too short for a port like Halifax...there's so much to do, and it's very scenic, especially outside the city itself. Portland, however nice, doesn't need the 12 hour or so we spent there.

 

Just my 2 cents.

[holomuku]

erntrish-

 

was the Bluenose II schooner in Halifax when you were? It kind of roams around the province through the summer and will be in Halifax when we are.

 

It's a historical schooner that does short tours- we're planning on taking a 2 hour tour at 1pm- which if we have a 4pm sailing could be tight but I hear it's all close togeteher. If it was in port- do you know of anyone who took the tour?

 

what time were you off the ship in the a.m.?

 

you're right- I sure would like more time in Halifax as well. Seems like it's the place with the most to offer and the least time!

[lmedw]

Carol - loved your up to the min posts on your cruise. Glad you had a great time.

Lois

[barbface1]

We had a great vaca.....weather and seas were fantastic....

 

we did express checkout and we were back in long island by 10:15!!!!!

Off the ship before 8am

[brn2crz]

Carol or Barbface..

 

Can you guys answer the question from another thread.

Flagger has posted a question ...

On Cruise Critics review page..They have a review (not member reviews) post stretch.That states that tips are automaticaly added to your account,at 10 pp

per day.Can either of you confirm/or deny that is true...And maybe post it on the other thread

 

Thanks

.http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=4516099#post4516099

[ggc23]

Carol or Barbface..

 

Can you guys answer the question from another thread.

Flagger has posted a question ...

On Cruise Critics review page..They have a review (not member reviews) post stretch.That states that tips are automaticaly added to your account,at 10 pp

per day.Can either of you confirm/or deny that is true...And maybe post it on the other thread

 

Thanks

.http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=4516099#post4516099

I saw that, too, but it is untrue.

I opted for the gratuities to be included, and it was painless; just gave me vouchers that I handed over in the usual envelopes.

Very nice touch.

[brn2crz]

You are correct,that has been the way it has been handled.

The question is regarding the review,and wondering if that is a change..perhaps

unique to the Enchantment..

How recently were you on the Enchantment?