Observations of recent Enchanted Princess cruise

[MrSchwump]

We sailed aboard the Enchanted Princess from 2/27 to 3/9.  We visited Princess Caye, St. Thomas, Dominica, Grenada and Cuacao, which was a late addition after missing Bonaire and Aruba due to high winds. We've sailed with Princess several times and this was our first cruise since 2020.

 

The Good:

Check in was insanely smooth and easy. We'd completed our prework and were on board by 10:30a after arriving at the port around 10a.

We chose Dine My Way or Anytime Dining....whatever they're calling it now.  We made reservations for the nights we wanted to eat in the MDR and it worked great.  We'd also indicated that we preferred speedier dinner service and it seemed like we didn't linger in the dining room as long as in the past.

We liked the redesigned Princess Live area compared to how it looked on the Regal and Royal. The trivia and other events there were very enjoyable.

The staff was excellent.  Everyone I interacted with was very warm, friendly and genuinely seemed pleasant.  Our steward, Dennis, was perfect!

As always, the deck 17 aft smoking area was the friendliest spot on the ship.  Very comfortable seats and a welcoming, convivial group of passengers!

Disembarkation was also a breeze.  We self debarked and were off the ship by 7:45a and at the airport by 8:15a.  Since this was a Thursday, we were at the gate by 8:40a.

 

The Bad:

I don't know how they can fix it but the Retreat Pool is windy as hell! Other areas are markedly less windy than the area right around the pool is.  I'm not crazy about the redesigned Retreat Pool area either.  It's harder to move from there to other parts of the ship than on the older Royal class ships.

The music at the Retreat Pool as awful.  It sounded like Andreas Vollenweider performing whale songs; too dreary and atmospheric.  I know this isn't a party zone but something a little more upbeat would have been nice.

I had not noticed this on other Princess ships, but the entrance to the casino had a strong smell of cigarette smoke emanating into the immediate area of the deck 6.  As stated about, I enjoyed the smoking area of the ship, but I found this objectionable.  My wife refused to go to the casino because of this.

I thought the movies shown on the MUTS screen was not a good selection for the passenger group. It was mostly comic book based movies and the passengers were mostly geezers, like me. Maybe that's Hollywood's fault more that Princesses.

 

Misc. observations:

I usually don't get caught up in the MDR dress code debates but it seems like Princess has given up enforcing any standards the they may have set in their official guidelines.  On non-formal nights, I saw several men in shorts and t-shirts.  One guy was wearing a ballcap with his ensemble.  On formal night there were men in short sleeved shirts and jeans.  This had no bearing on my experience but I was thinking to myself, whoo-wee! some people on Cruise Critic would have a fit over this!

The Salty Dog Gastropub didn't seem to be doing much.  I never saw more than 2 tables occupied.

If you want insulated Princess cups to go with your drink package, get them on the first day you board.  I never saw them after that and a lot of people asked where I got mine.

 

 

 

 

 

[MissP22]

13 minutes ago, MrSchwump said:

We sailed aboard the Enchanted Princess from 2/27 to 3/9.  We visited Princess Caye, St. Thomas, Dominica, Grenada and Cuacao, which was a late addition after missing Bonaire and Aruba due to high winds. We've sailed with Princess several times and this was our first cruise since 2020.

 

The Good:

Check in was insanely smooth and easy. We'd completed our prework and were on board by 10:30a after arriving at the port around 10a.

We chose Dine My Way or Anytime Dining....whatever they're calling it now.  We made reservations for the nights we wanted to eat in the MDR and it worked great.  We'd also indicated that we preferred speedier dinner service and it seemed like we didn't linger in the dining room as long as in the past.

We liked the redesigned Princess Live area compared to how it looked on the Regal and Royal. The trivia and other events there were very enjoyable.

The staff was excellent.  Everyone I interacted with was very warm, friendly and genuinely seemed pleasant.  Our steward, Dennis, was perfect!

As always, the deck 17 aft smoking area was the friendliest spot on the ship.  Very comfortable seats and a welcoming, convivial group of passengers!

Disembarkation was also a breeze.  We self debarked and were off the ship by 7:45a and at the airport by 8:15a.  Since this was a Thursday, we were at the gate by 8:40a.

 

The Bad:

I don't know how they can fix it but the Retreat Pool is windy as hell! Other areas are markedly less windy than the area right around the pool is.  I'm not crazy about the redesigned Retreat Pool area either.  It's harder to move from there to other parts of the ship than on the older Royal class ships.

The music at the Retreat Pool as awful.  It sounded like Andreas Vollenweider performing whale songs; too dreary and atmospheric.  I know this isn't a party zone but something a little more upbeat would have been nice.

I had not noticed this on other Princess ships, but the entrance to the casino had a strong smell of cigarette smoke emanating into the immediate area of the deck 6.  As stated about, I enjoyed the smoking area of the ship, but I found this objectionable.  My wife refused to go to the casino because of this.

I thought the movies shown on the MUTS screen was not a good selection for the passenger group. It was mostly comic book based movies and the passengers were mostly geezers, like me. Maybe that's Hollywood's fault more that Princesses.

 

Misc. observations:

I usually don't get caught up in the MDR dress code debates but it seems like Princess has given up enforcing any standards the they may have set in their official guidelines.  On non-formal nights, I saw several men in shorts and t-shirts.  One guy was wearing a ballcap with his ensemble.  On formal night there were men in short sleeved shirts and jeans.  This had no bearing on my experience but I was thinking to myself, whoo-wee! some people on Cruise Critic would have a fit over this!

The Salty Dog Gastropub didn't seem to be doing much.  I never saw more than 2 tables occupied.

If you want insulated Princess cups to go with your drink package, get them on the first day you board.  I never saw them after that and a lot of people asked where I got mine.

 

 

 

 

 

I agree with everything you posted.

With the ship being filled to capacity they still did a pretty good job of running things. Only a few nights did the dining room (Santorini's) seem overwhelmed but we still managed to eat in less than 90 minutes. 

[dickinson]

Thank you for your review.  I hope you had a good time.  I did read a couple of weeks ago that someone said they were told that they have given up trying to enforce the dress code.  That is probably the reason for people dressing as they did.  

[jonbrealey]

Very interesting and positive thank you. We are first time Princess cruisers this summer and are going on Enchanted in the med, re the insulated cup did you use that just for coffee or for other drinks as well?

 

Thanks,

 

Jonathan

[boogiedownwanda]

Thanks for your review!! I’ll be on the Enchanted Princess in May for a Mediterranean cruise so I am constantly trying to find new reviews for the ship.  And thanks for breaking it into good and bad buckets! I went to the bad section first - I like getting good news after the bad!😊  

 

Are the cups included with the plus package or do you pay for them separately?

[MrSchwump]

2 hours ago, jonbrealey said:

Very interesting and positive thank you. We are first time Princess cruisers this summer and are going on Enchanted in the med, re the insulated cup did you use that just for coffee or for other drinks as well?

 

Thanks,

 

Jonathan

We got the soda package. I don’t know if they’re available with a coffee package. 

[Torfamm]

I was also on the Enchanted at that time and thought it was one of our best cruises with Princess. The staff was terrific. Beyond the smoke problem in the casino, it was exceptional.

 

The Retreat Pool was crazy windy! I couldn’t spend enough time there to notice the music.

 

One miscellaneous thing I noticed was that there were a fair number of people dancing in the piazza in the early evening before dinner. More than I usually see. The jazz band in Take Five also seemed really popular. 

[MissP22]

16 hours ago, dickinson said:

Thank you for your review.  I hope you had a good time.  I did read a couple of weeks ago that someone said they were told that they have given up trying to enforce the dress code.  That is probably the reason for people dressing as they did.  

I don't think it was so much as giving up as Princess has now joined the rest of the cruising community with a relaxed dress code in order to provide a more casual atmosphere, yet still appear upscale.

It is working. 

[dickinson]

4 hours ago, MissP22 said:

I don't think it was so much as giving up as Princess has now joined the rest of the cruising community with a relaxed dress code in order to provide a more casual atmosphere, yet still appear upscale.

It is working. 

I was only using the words that were used by someone else.  They definitely said "gave up".  If Princess formally changed it then it would be on their website with what to wear.  There would also be numerous threads on here about it! 

[Torfamm]

6 hours ago, MissP22 said:

I don't think it was so much as giving up as Princess has now joined the rest of the cruising community with a relaxed dress code in order to provide a more casual atmosphere, yet still appear upscale.

It is working. 

They have no choice really considering that more than half of American men don’t even own a suit much less a tuxedo. Unless they go back to offering tuxedo rental onboard, a large percentage of their male passengers are unable to comply with the formal night dress code of tuxedo or dark suit.

[Jay_NH]

What are your thoughts on the menu's in the main dining room?

Me?  Disappointed.  They had better offerings in the buffet.

Jay 

[MissP22]

26 minutes ago, Torfamm said:

They have no choice really considering that more than half of American men don’t even own a suit much less a tuxedo. Unless they go back to offering tuxedo rental onboard, a large percentage of their male passengers are unable to comply with the formal night dress code of tuxedo or dark suit.

I was surprised at the number of people dressing up on the Enchanted this past cruise. It seemed that more people than at Christmas/New years time for sure. I attribute it to lots of newbies that might have been influenced by the web site information. 

It's a good thing they weren't strict at all concerning the women. Although I did have a nice top to go with my black slacks it was so cold on the ship that I wore my denim jacket almost 100 % of the time even in the DR. It was the warmest thing I had.

[Fa-Li]

@MissP22 i agree - it was a pleasant surprise to see all the lovely clothes on this cruise. I enjoyed seeing some men in tuxes on formal night, and for the passengers who went for the white and gold theme, there were some beautiful sparkly outfits.  
 

I wonder if different sections of the dining room are set at different temps?  We sweltered in Club Class most nights, and were also quite warm in some of the lounges, such as the bar area for Crown Grill. The husbands wore jackets for the two formal nights, but ended up with them on the backs of chairs rather quickly. 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

23 hours ago, boogiedownwanda said:

I am constantly trying to find new reviews for the ship.

my review is from Nov 2022. 🙂

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, Fa-Li said:

The husbands wore jackets for the two formal nights, but ended up with them on the backs of chairs rather quickly. 

It seems like a waste of effort bringing them only to decorate the chair.

[skents]

I was on the cruise with you. Cruising is back - near full capacity - no Covid restrictions.  It was great, but it did make me have fond memories of a Jan. 2022 Regal cruise with 800 people - that seemed like we were on private yacht. 

 

The only problem we had this trip was trying to get off the ship in Ft. Lauderdale.  We always self disembark.  I have never had this issue before, but we could not get an elevator at 7:30 a.m.  Two of the four forward elevators were "reserved" and not available for use.  After 15 minutes of waiting on the other two, which were always full of people riding up to the top with their luggage just to go down, we decided to try the midship elevators. Two of the six were also reserved - the other four were always full.  After 15 minutes, we gave up and carried our luggage down from deck 15 to deck 6.  After that we were in a cab to the airport in less than 10 minutes. 

[PrincessLuver]

5 hours ago, Torfamm said:

They have no choice really considering that more than half of American men don’t even own a suit much less a tuxedo. Unless they go back to offering tuxedo rental onboard, a large percentage of their male passengers are unable to comply with the formal night dress code of tuxedo or dark suit.

 

I have a feeling the majority of men who cruise do own suits or tux's and just chose not to bring them along or not wear them if they do.  Princess MDR staff really does not have the time it appears now to worry about what people are wearing because they are so busy just clearing the lines into the dinning rooms and trying to get people seated for dinner under the Dine My Way program.

[Torfamm]

7 hours ago, MissP22 said:

I was surprised at the number of people dressing up on the Enchanted this past cruise. It seemed that more people than at Christmas/New years time for sure. I attribute it to lots of newbies that might have been influenced by the web site information. 

It's a good thing they weren't strict at all concerning the women. Although I did have a nice top to go with my black slacks it was so cold on the ship that I wore my denim jacket almost 100 % of the time even in the DR. It was the warmest thing I had.

That’s interesting. I’m usually cold but it felt pretty good in Santorini. I think you mentioned you eat early? I wonder if they cool the MDR way down before they open for dinner. We went around 7:30 most nights

[ericosmith]

6 hours ago, PrincessLuver said:

I have a feeling the majority of men who cruise do own suits or tux's and just chose not to bring them along or not wear them if they do.

Oh I own a suit, but after a few cruises it no longer fits!

[latebloomer56]

We stopped taking my husbands suit even to European cruises. Dress pants and shirts with collars for him and either dress pants and blouse or cocktail dress with a sweater for me. I find MDR and theater to cool for my taste. Works for us and even when formal was suits we would just go elsewhere to eat.

Thanks for the review though. We are sailing Rome to Greece this Aug. on the Enchanted.

[Steelers36]

On 3/12/2023 at 11:43 AM, MrSchwump said:

On formal night there were men in short sleeved shirts and jeans.  This had no bearing on my experience but I was thinking to myself, whoo-wee! some people on Cruise Critic would have a fit over this!

LOL.

[MissP22]

12 hours ago, PrincessLuver said:

 

I have a feeling the majority of men who cruise do own suits or tux's and just chose not to bring them along or not wear them if they do.  Princess MDR staff really does not have the time it appears now to worry about what people are wearing because they are so busy just clearing the lines into the dinning rooms and trying to get people seated for dinner under the Dine My Way program.

My husband still has his suit which he bought around 30 years ago and hasn't worn in over 20 years. The last time he wore it was on a Princess cruise around 2000 and it hangs in the closet collecting dust.

I'm not so certain what the reason is why Princess no longer cares about how people dress, but it's comforting to know that we can dress casually from now on but I do suspect the main reason is $$$. 

 

 

10 hours ago, Torfamm said:

That’s interesting. I’m usually cold but it felt pretty good in Santorini. I think you mentioned you eat early? I wonder if they cool the MDR way down before they open for dinner. We went around 7:30 most nights

At 5 PM when it was empty, it did feel chilly.

Especially in the show lounge at 7 PM upper level, the air cond. was blowing up a storm to stay ahead of the expected crowd.

[matamanoa]

13 hours ago, skents said:

I was on the cruise with you. Cruising is back - near full capacity - no Covid restrictions.  It was great, but it did make me have fond memories of a Jan. 2022 Regal cruise with 800 people - that seemed like we were on private yacht. 

 

The only problem we had this trip was trying to get off the ship in Ft. Lauderdale.  We always self disembark.  I have never had this issue before, but we could not get an elevator at 7:30 a.m.  Two of the four forward elevators were "reserved" and not available for use.  After 15 minutes of waiting on the other two, which were always full of people riding up to the top with their luggage just to go down, we decided to try the midship elevators. Two of the six were also reserved - the other four were always full.  After 15 minutes, we gave up and carried our luggage down from deck 15 to deck 6.  After that we were in a cab to the airport in less than 10 minutes. 

At 6:45 a.m. there were no people in the elevators mid ship and we walked off without any delay, sailed out to the taxis and were at the airport at 7:15.  Couldn't have been easier.

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, matamanoa said:

At 6:45 a.m. there were no people in the elevators mid ship and we walked off without any delay, sailed out to the taxis and were at the airport at 7:15.  Couldn't have been easier.

That 45 minutes made a HUGE difference. It's no wonder why I see people waiting by the IC at 6 AM with their luggage waiting to get off. 

[negn]

16 hours ago, skents said:

I was on the cruise with you. Cruising is back - near full capacity - no Covid restrictions.  It was great, but it did make me have fond memories of a Jan. 2022 Regal cruise with 800 people - that seemed like we were on private yacht. 

 

The only problem we had this trip was trying to get off the ship in Ft. Lauderdale.  We always self disembark.  I have never had this issue before, but we could not get an elevator at 7:30 a.m.  Two of the four forward elevators were "reserved" and not available for use.  After 15 minutes of waiting on the other two, which were always full of people riding up to the top with their luggage just to go down, we decided to try the midship elevators. Two of the six were also reserved - the other four were always full.  After 15 minutes, we gave up and carried our luggage down from deck 15 to deck 6.  After that we were in a cab to the airport in less than 10 minutes. 

We self embarked and were in a taxi by 6:55.   No problem getting elevator around 7