RCI Enchantment of the Seas 5 Day Review

[Lisalk12]

June 14 RC Enchantment of the Seas

Disclaimer** this will be long. I take tons of food photos!!!  I love to read reviews pretrip, journal when I’m on a trip, and relive everything by sharing our trip with others. 

 

 First a little about my family. "We" consist of my husband (44yrs) and  me (43). This will be our first cruise without our sons, 17 13 & 2  (I know it’s a crazy age spread) since 2013. We have sailed in 2013 on NCL Star through CAS (7 night ocean-view to the Caribbean). June 2015 NCL Sky's (4 night penthouse suite to the Bahamas). NCL Gem in March 2016 and June 2016 NCL Jade (7 night 2 bedroom family suite) after a few years away due to new baby we returned to NCL March 2019 aboard the Escape (8 night family oceanview). 

 

We were not looking to leave NCL but received a “free” cruise through our local casino. So for $150 we could get an inside room for our 23rd anniversary getaway. So here we are and so excited about trying out something new... and get some sleep without 3 kids running around.

[Lisalk12]

Once we set up our account we let them know that I needed to have a special dietary (Gluten & Dairy Free) note attached to the room number.  I love cruising just for the fact that they cater to my dietary needs. Usually on NCL I never eat at the buffet (with the exception of a random salad lunch) even though cross contamination doesn’t usually effect me. On NCL I always preorder my dinner the prior night and it will be ready and compliant when my family’s order is ready. I’m hoping this is a practice that RC uses also. 

 

A month out my husband put in a bid to “royal up” and  upgrade to an oceanview or balcony room. At that point we also setup our drink package (now heads up! The drink package price will flux so if it lowers you can Cancel and rebuy for the lower price. You just have to watch it).  Two days before sail away my husband decided he was going to cancel the drink package and pay per drink as we have 2 out of our 5 days that we would be away from the boat. When he went online the option to make changes was no longer available. We could of called and made changes but just rolled with it. 

 

A week out I went ahead and finalized our checkin and printed the edocs that included paper sail away cards and luggage tags. I make extra copies of the tags for each bag.  We finished packing and were so excited to get away for a few days. We were notified the day before that neither of our upgrade offers were accepted. I was a little bummed. But any cruise is a great cruise so we are ready to have a wonderful time. 

[Lisalk12]

Friday- flight 

We NEVER fly or travel on the sail date. It is just two risky and my nerves just can’t take it. The problem this trip is that we would be leaving our 2 year old for the first time with my parents and just couldn’t ask them to watch him an extra night.  So we chose the earliest flight to Houston Hobby airport. It was scheduled for 5:15am  departure... meaning we would have to leave our home by 3:00am. I would have to get up at 2:30am.  Of course this is the night baby decided he wanted to get up at 1:30. This day was going to be a LONG DAY!! 

 

Traveling from OK to Houston the flight would only be an hour 15 minutes. And the flight was fast and just a little bumpy going through OK storms to a beautiful sunrise in TX.

 

[Lisalk12]

We made arrangements for transportation to the port with a gentleman who happened to be on our sailing that owns a shuttle service called Justin the Limo Guy (formerly known as Git-R-Done Shuttle & Limo). 

He was on time and after cruising many times before had great hints and tips for the area. After dropping us at the port and leaving our bags we walked to the Tremont Hotel to have breakfast.

 

Edited June 30, 2019 by Lisalk12
Tremont

[Lisalk12]

They had GF and DF marked on the menu and made changes in the frittata to make it safe for me to eat. They also had Starbucks coffee which was much needed by this point in the morning. My husband had the Quiche. 

 

[Lisalk12]

After breakfast we walked around but most shops were closed. We did find a small cruise shop that offers miscellaneous things that one might forget. It also has soda/wine if you wanted to walk on with beverages. Many of the crew members were there checking WiFi and buying things.

[Lisalk12]

At 9:30 we walked over to the port to find people still disembarking still. So we walked to an empty bench and sat. While I enrolled my oldest for an ACT test my husband laid down and napped for a little bit. At 10:15 we decided we were going to try and get closer and see. If we can could go inside as it was starting to warm up. Lots of people with bags were still standing outside and we walked up to the door and a sweet lady asked if we were ready to board.   Ummm yes.... go on inside. Really!!! 

[Lisalk12]

So we went inside and checked in, took photos, and were shown to another holding room. This took all of 15 minutes. The lines were very short. We were group 10 to be called so I figured we had awhile before boarding. But at 10:57 they called our group and we walked on.

[Lisalk12]

We noticed many have made comments on how “old and rusty” she looked but to be honest I was surprised that it wasn’t as bad as I though it would be and the cosmetics really didn’t effect the quality of our trip. Here are a few photos we took of the outside of the ship. Crews were working all week painting and cleaning. 

[Lisalk12]

So at 11:02 we found our favorite bartender Winston (in the Solarium  Bar) and we began to work our way through the bar menu. The menu is limited due to being in Texas waters. But it was perfectly good enough for us.

 

[Lisalk12]

[Lisalk12]

We went on a tour of the spa and fitness center and received two entry’s  for a 5:00 drawing for $500 worth of services. We guessed the weight of the sculpture in the art gallery. That drawing would be the next day at 12:45 at the art auction.

[Lisalk12]

We went to windjammer to have a bite to eat. It was so hot inside and so many were packed there it wasn’t much fun.  But we did find some items to eat to tide us over to 8:00 dinner. 

 

This was my GF DF options. RC also has a small part of their buffet dedicated for GF food. This helped make good choices and limited cross contamination. I would of loved them to mark it with additional codes such as lactose free. 

[Lisalk12]

At 1:00 the rooms were ready and we headed down to room 3505 to checkout our room. The keycards were on the door (which I found strange. Anyone could get someone’s cards.) and we found our home away from home for the week.

 

My key card wasn’t working and our internet package access number wasn’t in the room so we went down to guest services to straighten out everything. Easy fixes.

[CruisinMama2003]

Great review so far! We sailed Enchantment last month and had an absolute blast!

[Lisalk12]

A few things about the ship. I love smaller ships. I find myself to be directionally challenged and being on a smaller boat helps me feel more settled. The boat is older. I think we would all agree that our 20 year self vs our 40 year self might be in need of some TLC but I found the staff to be amazing and the area to be well taken care of. 

 

If you are ever lost here are a few things that might come in handy.  The door numbers point to the front of the boat!  Kiosk are available to check the lineup of activities happening on the ship. And the app is totally unreliable. We found the WiFi to be good at the beginning of the cruise but could not connect the last two days. Inside the room ATT had no service.

[Lisalk12]

After a very LONG and sweaty muster drill on an outside deck. We were ready to sail away!  We spent most of our time in the solarium which offers hot tubs, pool, and the amazing Winston at the bar. 

 

We had salads at the Cafe there and enjoyed the loungers. 

 

We had an 8:00 dinner time (so different then NCL where you are free to have dining service whenever) so we sat in the centrum  and listened to a game show.  We ordered wines at the bar and waited.

 

Oh my the LINE for dinner but we were seated quickly.  We were assigned table 400 with waiter Jay and assistant Minaz.

 

Just a side note I was concerned about #1 the dress code and #2 having table mates. I shouldn’t have worried one little bit. I saw people in all forms of casual attire and our table mates were amazing company!

[Lisalk12]

Dinner menu:

My husband had Lamb (he would talk about how delicious this lamb was for the rest of the week) and chocolate cake

 

I had green lentil soup, chicken, and fruit.

 

[Lisalk12]

During the service our tables had some issues with drink service. It seemed the drink waiter had a hard time telling one glass of wine from another. This became a running joke that we wanted the red wine due to the fact that all of them are the same. Just a heads up... you might want to bring your own drink into the MDR. When we said something to Jay it was all fixed and One of our waiters took care of our drink orders for the rest of the week. 

 

I preordered for breakfast and dinner for the following day. I was told they would make me a special dessert for tomorrow also!!  (Usually on NCL I would have fresh fruit or warmed fruit/crustless cobbler) Granted with the amount of extra calories I get between drinks and other goodies I really don’t need dessert! But I won’t complain! 

[Lisalk12]

After we went to Boleros and had a drink.  I believe the picture is a Hurricane and What’s Crakin’. They always have karaoke or some form of music after dinner but like I said this was the  Longest day ever!!  So off to bed we went. But we had a wonderful start to our trip.

[Lisalk12]

1 hour ago, CruisinMama2003 said:

Great review so far! We sailed Enchantment last month and had an absolute blast!

 

Thank you for following along!  We had a wonderful time. I will add more tomorrow. 

[LuCruise]

Great review do far.  Thanks for all the details.

[RCCL Fan]

Thanks so much for doing this.

 

I'm a fan of photo heavy, day by day reviews.  Thank you!

 

I have an upcoming cruise on Enchantment, and I'm super eager to hear  your thoughts. 

[perfect match]

Thanks for doing this review. I’m enjoying following along, and definitely enjoying your pictures! 

[reeb4]

16 hours ago, Lisalk12 said:

Dinner menu:

My husband had Lamb (he would talk about how delicious this lamb was for the rest of the week) and chocolate cake

 

I had green lentil soup, chicken, and fruit.

 

We were on the same sailing...on the first night we both had the braised lamb, and I totally agree...it was worth talking about!!!  Delicious!!!

 

This is a great review, much more in depth than mine!