Getting Enchanted with Royal Caribbean. Enchantment of the Seas Review 10/27-10/31

[onyourtoes]

Through the shops, which were closed, to the Orpheum Theater.

 

 

 

 

 

These statues were amusing, there was a male on one side and a female on the other in very similar poses. The funny part about it was, the male side corresponded to what side the male bathroom was across the hall by the shops, and the women's statue was on the woman's side. I don't know if that was intentional but helpful!

 

Inside the theater

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oooh! A reflective surface! Let's take a selfie!

 

 

I am just too cute for words in this picture.

 

From here, I decided that it was enough exploring, it was nearly time for lunch to start and I am a fluffy girl who likes to eat, so hunger started to win out.

 

I love your story telling and you are very sweet. You seem like a person who would be a lot of fun on a cruise or anywhere you are. Good for you.

[crusinot]

Enjoying your review. Love your pictures . I missed some of the things that you took pictures of while we were on Enchantment in August. Thanks for the review.

[SunshineCruiser24]

By the time the steaks arrived, the sun was starting to set outside. I love the colors the sky changes

 

 

The steak came with their "Signature steak sauce" but you had a choice of several other sauces.

 

 

Our sides

 

 

There was something about the corn I didn't quite like, but the smashes potatoes were truly delicious. I am not a steak connoisseur, my idea of a good steak comes from Outback, so I can't speak on the taste with any authority... but I enjoyed our dinner. The meat was tender and flavorful, the sauce was tasty.

 

At this point, one of the waitresses came over and asked if we were enjoying our dinner. I told her yes, loved it so much, I'm taking some of it home with me, and pointed to a spot on my shirt where I dripped sauce. This is a consistent theme with me, for some reason I ALWAYS feed my shirt, I am careful not to eat saucy things in white and light colored shirts for this reason.

 

After we were finished we were handed dessert menus. My ex boyfriend settled on the cookie plate with some ice cream. It came with three cookies, chocolate chip, chocolate macademia, and oatmeal. He really only wanted the chocolate chip. I was deciding between red velvet cake and the mudpie cake.

 

I asked our waiter what was in it, and he said it was basically chocolate mousse cake. I went with that, he neglected to mention there were nuts. I was afraid of this, this is why I asked, I don't like nuts.

 

 

Over all, I was pleased with my steakhouse experience. I think it was well worth the money ($24 with the 20% discount.) and the service was excellent and it was quiet.

 

After we finished, we went back to the cabin so I could scrub the stain off my shirt with a bar of soap and some sink water. I was kicking myself for not bringing a little detergent or a tide pen but was not going to pay to have it washed on the ship. I am a cheapskate like that.

 

On our way back, we passed by this guy on a door in our hall. I loved this idea, it was totally cute, wish I'd thought of it!

 

 

As we walk in to our room, the beds were seperated. "Huh... okay..." Said the ex. I just grabbed another shirt and scuttled to the bathroom. Scrub scrub scrub. The stain kind of came out, and I hung it up to dry.

 

(Good news, I washed the shirt this morning, the stain is completely gone, thanks to the RCI soap pre treatment!)

 

I roamed the ship some more, pausing to people watch. I love people watching.

 

I don't know if you can see in this picture, but in the corner, there is an elderly couple dancing. They tore up that dance floor every night, and it was beautiful to watch

 

 

I was tired. It was time to refill my cup and turn in. I went back to my room, got my kindle out and started to read a little, changed into my pajamas, and fell asleep.

 

About an hour later I was woken up by the most horrible noise. Snoring. Not just cute little "I'm a manly man hear me snore" snore. This was a 'I might have sleep apnea and you're not getting any sleep tonight' snore. I might take this time to say, this was really our first trip trip together.

 

I turned on the TV to try to drown it out, but it was impossible. This horrible snore was not going to let me rest that night.

[mpoole3]

I am just loving this... Something tells me you two might have worked things out after 4 days.

 

Can't wait to read more! Keep it up.

[HaliMakai]

Thanks for the entertaining review, can't wait to read the rest of it.:D

[uscgrl93]

I absolutely love your writing style! I am sitting here in tears laughing over your "shrimp" story! It was so funny that I read that whole section out loud to my family!

[cruisesR4me]

This review is so much fun!! Love your sense of humor and writing style. Can't wait to hear what happens with the boyfriend....

[beachlover777]

Love the review! We sail in December! Can't wait to see how the rest of your trip was!

[oldgram1]

I am really enjoying your review and hope to hear about the next 3 days. You tell quite a story!

[glentally]

By the time the steaks arrived,.

 

I love the review so far.. Problem is I am getting on the Enchantment Monday for the same cruise!! More, more!

Edited November 2, 2014 by glentally

[cathykb]

Really enjoying your storytelling style. Thanks for sharing.

 

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk

[SunshineCruiser24]

Sleep... Sleep... SLEEP!

 

I kept trying to will myself back to sleep. I drifted off for a bit occasionally, but I'd wake up, check my phone and give an exasperated huff because I still had HOURS before I intended to be up.

 

At 6am, I'd had enough of it and got up, and using my phone as a flashlight, I creeped about the cabin getting my clothes together and taking a shower.

 

The shower is very tiny, and it's almost impossible to keep water from spilling out on to the floor. The shower head was all sorts of adjustable so I would turn it to the wall getting in and out of the shower, and while shampooing and only turn it towards my head to rinse my hair.

 

This is the point where I really hate to share a cabin. I HATE getting dressed in the bathroom after a shower. Hate. It. It's so hot and steamy and muggy and I just want to dry off, breathe, and put my bra on without being damp.

 

Once dressed I flung the door open and dashed out for clean, cool cabin air. I played another game of "WHY--ARE--YOU--STICKING--TO--MY---FINGER!!!" with my contacts, this time I was persistent until they were in, although the game was longer than I'd like because we went in to an "overtime" round when I made the mistake of putting a contact in inside out. It BURNS. Oh lawdy it burns! ( I am not new to contacts but often don't find them worth the hassle. I'm quite content with my glasses most times.)

 

And my hair up into it's usual long hair don't care ponytail and off I go, up to watch the sun rise.

 

First I stopped on the 6th floor to grab some soda from the freestyle machine. I had trouble with this particular one. It gave me a tiny bit of soda (Yes, soda. at 7am. It's a cruise!), then told me to select another drink as that one was out. That's fine. But they were ALL out. It also told me it didn't detect my cup. I had this problem with all of them, I found if you hold the cup down on the little black round thing, it registers it no problem.

 

Anyway, Sunrise.

 

 

 

 

Something I thought was cute, is the big screen will tell you Good Morning! In several languages!

 

 

 

Ohaiyo to you too, big screen! Buenos Dias!

 

It was time for breakfast! Mmm! Breakfast!

 

 

I had pancakes, pork sausage, biscuits and gravy, and ham.

 

The biscuit was dry and crumbly, the gravy didn't do much to improve the flavor. The pork sausage had a weird texture, like eating a hotdog shoved into a balloon. The pancakes were cold, but the ham was the best. I had it every morning.

 

Beside the regular pancakes on the buffet, they had some kind of fruity ones. I didn't try them, but I heard from others they were good. There was also sort of pretzel bread over by the bagels. What is it with this ship and pretzel bread?

[SunshineCruiser24]

 

 

The itty bitty bathroom.

Edited November 2, 2014 by SunshineCruiser24

[SunshineCruiser24]

After breakfast, I headed back to my room to pack my backpack and get ready to go in to our first port of call.. Coco Key! I was really excited for the private islands, I was at Half Moon Cay last year and it was breathtaking.. perfect... paradise! I was eager to for a similar experience.

 

I changed in to my swim suit. I am super pale and burn easy, so my swim suit consists of a rashguard, bottom, and because I am obscenely endowed with massive chesticles, a swim bra. I just throw on a pair of capris, and am ready to romp around the port.

 

I opted for my watershoes instead of flipflops because I am a wimp when it comes to stepping on little rocks, you'd think I'd been shot with the way I screetch "OWWW!" and limp around afterwards.

 

I took my own beach towel, I am always paranoid I'll lose the one the cruiseline gives you and be out $25 dollars. My towel is $5 from Walmart, and I know which one is mine because it has a pretty turtle on it. Win win!

 

My ex was now up, and I asked him if I'd woken him up by taking my shower, he said no, I woke him up with all my tossing and turning. I apologized, while making a mental note. (That consisted of "I interrupted your sleep? I have no idea how THAT feels.") and asked him if he was going down to Coco Key.

 

He didn't know? WHAT!? What is the point of going on a cruise if not to explore other places? Ah! I'm so glad that I don't feel obligated to hang around now, because you know.. we're broken up.

 

As I was leaving to go get in line for the tender ( I hate tendering. Grumble grumble) my room attendant caught me in the hall and gave me advice. He told me to make sure I had cash, because the shopping was cash only. Good to know! On HMC I was told it was by sail and sign only, although I don't know, I didn't shop there.) and reminded me about the lunch served from 12-2 AND told me my drink package works on the Island.

 

After grabbing some cash, I headed down all the way down one deck to deck 2, where the line started. Sigh! I'd gotten in line just in time, because I was at the stairs, but after I lined up, the line started to snake back into the cabin hallway.

 

There was an announcement, if you needed a towel, they were on deck 4 to be checked out. This annoyed a lot of people who had gotten in line expecting to grab one on the way to the tender. Not me! I had my trusty turtletowel!

 

Once they started loading the tenders, the line went very quickly. I was on the very first tender.

 

On Carnival, once you board a tender, they do a quick safety talk about where to find the life jackets, don't stand up, blahblah. Not so on RCI. That's okay, if the boat goes down I'm using the person next to me as a life raft, anyway. And as a side note, if you're ever stranded with me on a sinking boat, I will push you off so the sharks eat you first.

 

The tender ride was just a few minutes. There was another boat there with us, and I think I got more pictures of that then my own.

 

 

As we pulled in, there was a statue of a mermaid. A statue! I must get ten pictures of the unmoving, unchanging, statue.

 

 

 

 

[SunshineCruiser24]

As you approach the dock, there are hammocks off to the side

 

I thought that was a weird place to put a hammock as I personally wouldn't want everyone gawking as me as they tendered in. And apparently, I was in the majority because I never saw many people in these. Maybe one or two when I was leaving the island the second time.

 

 

 

And if you were wondering what the mermaid would look like if you turned her sideways...

 

[SunshineCruiser24]

But we are in Coco Key!

 

 

On the tender, they unload the top first, then the bottom. So if you're really eager to get out there and start wasting your money on mass produced made in china junk then get a seat at the top!

 

I sat and waited for the tender to empty, I figured the island would still be there whether I was the first or the last off, and might as well sit down and enjoy the view til the crowd filtered down.

 

The first thing I did when off, is head over to spend my money on mass produced made in china junk! Yeah, man I love the junk! I had a bunch of people to buy presents for this time. I usually just tell people "Yeah, no.. don't expect anything.... Sorry. I'm broker than a joke." but this time I didn't spend money on excursions so I was super happy to spend money on gifts!

 

The straw market is just a small outdoor version of the one in Nassau, but people were a lot less pushy. They had all of the same stuff, though. I came to a tentshop of a bunch of wood carvings, and a man who was sitting there working on carving something. Naturally, I assumed he had carved and sandy everything down himself so when I saw that a wooden shark was $25, I didn't haggle with him. I bought a wooden shark and small carved turtle. I had my little cousin's name carved in the shark.

 

I stowed them in my handy dandy backpack (just call me Sunshine The Explorer) and walked around a bit more before heading down to the beach.

 

On the way, I met this big guy.

 

 

 

He wasn't afraid of people, at all. After a few pictures I kept walking, thinking when I was close enough he would scuttle away from the giant (wo)manbeast thundering towards it. But no, he just turned his head as if to say "Is that the best you've got? Yawn." So I walked around him.

 

I also saw the (very) early stage of lunch!

Edited November 2, 2014 by SunshineCruiser24

[SunshineCruiser24]

I am so glad you guys are enjoying my review! That makes me really happy!!

[cruiseapril]

Wow! Fun review. Great photos. It is snowing in Maine today- so the photos look extra good!

[msmarvel]

So glad I checked the boards today, I'm sailing the Enchantment for NYE and haven't been on that ship before.

 

Thanks for taking all the awesome pictures of the ship, and love the writing that goes along with it.

[Gymrat64]

I'm loving your detailed and witty review! Keep it coming! Coco Cay is so beautiful. We enjoyed it last May on the Majesty. You had me hooked with your dramatic introduction :).

[welshrich]

Hi, Great review, we were also on this sailing, we have done this sailing before as the crew and passengers are usually so friendly.

[tm3750]

Great review, love the Enchantment

[SunshineCruiser24]

As I was on the first tender over from my ship, (the other had started a little earlier) the beach was fairly empty and I had my pick of beach chairs. All I needed the chair for was to sit my bag.

 

I picked a chair at the very front, off to the side by the trash can. I waded in to the water at the first beach and took some pics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SunshineCruiser24]

 

 

 

I was trying desperately to get a half in/half out pic, none really worked very well. Not that there is much to look at underneath the water. Mostly rocks, sandy beach, seaweed that when it unexpectedly rubbed my leg I swore was a shark trying to eat me, a couple fish.

 

 

[SunshineCruiser24]

 

 

 

There were a lot of these yellow fish, there were also quite a few bigger flat grey fish swimming around, never managed to get one on camera though.