Enchantment, March 2-6: a first timer's review

[pamici]

Impatiently waiting for cruise day (how is it only Tuesday??), I'm going to borrow a page from the book of @Saint Greg and start a pre-cruise live blog to get me through the next 7 days.

This will be my third cruise in 13 months, the other two having been on Carnival, all three out of Galveston. My family definitely thinks I'm nuts, but I have been bitten hard by the cruise bug and I don't think I'll be cured any time soon.

My sister, her best friend, and I will be in an aft jr suite, with me riding the sofa bed. I actually prefer it, as it's closer to the balcony. I mean ...

 

[pamici]

We stumbled upon the $18 p/d deluxe drink package, which I snagged, and I'm using a travel agent for the first time, so we have a bit of OBC.  I also splashed out for the Key. I like the idea of a Chops-menu embarkation day lunch in the MDR and a debarkation day breakfast (I've heard good things about the crabcake eggs benedict), and I think the ladies will enjoy VIP seating in the theatre (snoot, snoot). Sadly, there is now an additional Coast Guard inspection before we board and it's pushing everything back a couple of hours. We may be having a late lunch and a light dinner.

[Tulsacoker]

Awesome! we understand the bug your have caught 

[pamici]

We will all drive in to Galveston on Sunday, staying in a Seawall hotel with shuttle service to and from the port. I had planned on my traditional sunset dinner and cocktails at Jimmy's on the Pier (Houston girl, and I do like Galveston), but it seems they are renovating and only due to re-open the day we arrive.

 

 

With any luck, they will be on schedule and not overly crowded, but in any case, I will make a backup plan.

[pamici]

Normally I’m packed way, way ahead of time. This time I packed up one week out, which may as well be last minute for me.

 

I’m also attempting to pair down and consolidate what I take. Since we only have one port day and it’s just a beach day, I won’t need that much variety. However, I feel like we’ll divide our time pretty evenly between the balcony, the Solarium, and the rest of the ship, so I’ll need to prepare both cleaned up and casual. Carnival has self-serve laundry, but with no laundry room on RCI, I can’t repeat-wear as easily.

 

I’ve got it down to one small rolling case and one duffle, into which I’ve added the pool bag that will double as purse as needed. I’ll porter the roller, check the duffle in the MDR with the Key (maybe?), retrieving my pool bag carry on at that time. Until the little wrinkle with the Coast Guard, I had hoped to have a welcome aboard cocktail at the R bar, lunch in the MDR, then wander the ship and/or sip another cocktail in the Solarium hot tub until we and our room are ready for each other. We shall see …

[Jam0610]

Looking forward to following your review. Wife and I will be on the Enchantment, March 20th. 

 

Have a Great time.

[pamici]

3 hours ago, Jam0610 said:

Looking forward to following your review. Wife and I will be on the Enchantment, March 20th. 

 

Have a Great time.

Thanks, you, too!

[Namelocg]

Looking forward to your review. You are not nuts, just badly bitten, but I'm worse. Cruised Oct, Nov, Jan and Feb and have March, May and July to look forward to. As far as rewearing clothes, a small spray bottle of Downy Wrinkle Releaser and one of Febreez work wonders on things you want to wear more than once.

[pamici]

14 hours ago, Namelocg said:

Looking forward to your review. You are not nuts, just badly bitten, but I'm worse. Cruised Oct, Nov, Jan and Feb and have March, May and July to look forward to. As far as rewearing clothes, a small spray bottle of Downy Wrinkle Releaser and one of Febreez work wonders on things you want to wear more than once.

I am jealous and you are a pro!!! Thank you so much. I have the Downy, just need to grab the Febreez.

[CatLadyFemme]

Enjoy! I was on the Enchantment spring break two years ago and LOVED it!

[pamici]

5 hours ago, CatLadyFemme said:

Enjoy! I was on the Enchantment spring break two years ago and LOVED it!

 

Thank you! I remember your review - it was very helpful!

[pamici]

Now that I know we will be delayed boarding, I may try and check out the Gumbo Diner for breakfast on Monday. My heart belongs to New Orleans, but this is as close as I can get for now.

 

  

 

I may have made myself hungry ...

 

 

 

 

[pamici]

A post on another board got me thinking about my cruise playlist, or rather, my cruise roadtrip to the port playlist. I only play it when I'm driving to Galveston:

 

• All I Wanna Do - Sheryl Crow
• All Night Long - Lionel Richie
• Beyond the Sea - Bobby Darin
• Boat Drinks - Jimmy Buffett
• Break for the Border - Acoustic Alchemy
• Cake By the Ocean - DNCE
• Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)
• Caribbean Blue - Enya
• Cheers - Rihanna
• City of Dreams - Talking Heads
• Come Sail Away - Styx
• Conga - Miami Sound Machine
• Dance with Me - Orleans
• Deck 9 - Funkagenda
• Drift Away - Dobie Gray
• Escapade - Janet Jackson
• Freedom - Pitbull
• Good Times - Chic
• Haitian Divorce - Steely Dan
• Heaven - Los Lonely Boys
• Hey Now Now - Michael Franti
• Holiday - Madonna
• Island Girl - Elton John
• Island in the Sun - Weezer
• Knee Deep - Zac Brown Band
• Kokomo - Beach Boys
• La Isla Bonita - Madonna
• Let’s Groove - Earth, Wind, & Fire
• Livin La Vida Loca - Ricky Martin
• Mambo No. 5 - Lou Bega
• Mas Que Nada - Sergio Mendes
• Yeke Yeke - Mory Kante
• Orinoco Flow - Enya
• Oye Como Va - Santana
• Runaway - Janet Jackson
• Sail On - Commodores
• Sail on Sailor - Beach Boys
• Sailing - Christopher Cross
• Sea Cruise - Frankie Ford
• Seagull - Bad Company
• Shake Shake Senora - Harry Belefonte
• Sinner in the Sea - Calexico
• Smooth - Santana
• Smooth Operator - Sade
• Soak up the Sun - Sheryl Crow
• Southern Cross - Crosby, Stills, & Nash
• Steal Away - Robbie Dupree
• Steal My Sunshine - Len
• Summer Breeze - Seals and Croft
• Tik Tok - Kesha
• Totally Nude - Talking Heads
• Un poco de amor - Shakira
• Uptight - Stevie Wonder
• Walking on Sunshine - Katrina & the Waves
• Where the Boat Leaves From - Zac Brown Band

 

[Jam0610]

Add a little "White Snake"

 

[pamici]

This day is dragging!!! Tomorrow will, too, but at least I can load the car or something. All I can do here is either work (yeah, right) or daydream and plan some more.

 

Since we will be kicking around Galveston Sunday afternoon, I thought I’d find some fun stuff for us to do until time for Jimmy’s. My instincts always lean first to food and drink, so that’s where I started. In my defense, the last time I tried to wander around cool historical buildings in Galveston, I slipped down a flight of stairs and tore my rotator cuff. (Actually, I might have been pushed by a ghost, but I digress.)

 

Texas Tail Distillery got my attention. 

 

 

[pamici]

And if I’m going to be sampling the whiskey flight (“if”, lol), I’d rather not have to drive back to my hotel.

 

Rented from Island Bicycle Company for $68 after tax for the day.

[pamici]

There was another rental company in town that would have delivered a surrey to our hotel and then picked it up again at the end of the day. However, I couldn’t set up the rental online, so that was a deal breaker, for me at least. 

 

The parking near Island Bicycle Company looks pretty sparse, and I’ll have free parking at the hotel already. It could be fun to take the trolley down the Seawall to our surrey and the route seems quite doable. Pick up at 81st, jump off at 19th, a short walk at either end and $1.00 a person each way. Then we pedal our way back down the Seawall to the distillery, our hotel, and whatever else we discover on the way. Just have to remember to return the surrey by about 5-ish so we’ll have time to get ready for dinner and hopefully snag a good seat for the sunset.

 

 

 

 

 

[Baowen]

Thanks for posting your playlist!  Awesome.

I love the Enchantment- definitely a special ship.

[2Ccruisers]

Jumping on here to follow along. Where'd ya go?! Did another ghost getcha?  Hope all is well. Hubs and I took our three kids and grandson on EOS last August and we will be on her again (just he and I) on March 30th.

[pamici]

Hi there! Cruise Critic's website hasn't wanted to talk to my phone for several days, so I have some catching up to do.

[pamici]

I left Dallas about 7:30 Sunday morning, which was later than I wanted, but I decided coffee with my honey was more important than getting my money's worth on the surrey rental. 

My playlist gets me to just north of Texas City, so might have to add a few more songs. I decided to go straight to the Gumbo Diner.

 

An excellent suggestion: 

[pamici]

Gumbo Diner was so good. Country fried steak, eggs and hashbrowns. I sat at the bar around a food prep area and chatted with the very friendly waitstaff and an islander who appeared to be looking for wife number 3. I wasn't able to help him with that. Two big screen TVs played basketball. A contraption in the ladies room was not, in fact, a paper towel dispenser, but if you look underneath it to check,  it does an excellent job of blowing the contacts right out of your eyes.

By the time I'd finished my brunch, it was almost 2:00 and I figured I'd better get the surrey.

 

[pamici]

No issues with parking at the rental place because they keep your driver's license, but I took a picture of the ride I didn't need. Kind of a wrestle pedaling alone but I got used to it in a couple of blocks. So windy the red flags were horizontal, but I saw lots of interesting places along seawall that I'll want to check out in the future. I had a lot of time to observe,  it took an hour to go 1.8 miles.

Edited March 4, 2020 by pamici

[pamici]

I met sister at the distillery, where we fortified ourselves with a martini for her and a flight of whiskey for me. I prefer a single malt Highland scotch with some years on it, but these were definitely yummy. 

Sister helped pedal back down the seawall to my car (only took 30 minutes with two of us!), and we drove to  Cajun Greek to meet our travel companion for dinner.

[pamici]

Hotel and breakfast were good and the shuttle picks up every 30 minutes for the port.

Nice shuttle, only ones on it at 10:30, zero delays, straight  to the porters, portered large suitcases, walked straight to check in with no one ahead of us, same with the scanners.

 

Ok so the key is 1000% worth it. And many thanks to the cruiser who told me not to sweat the Coast Guard inspection. We were on board by 11:30 after about a 30 minute wait with water and cookies in the waiting area.