Enchanted Princess review, June 1 2024 Western Caribbean, with food pics, dailies and more

[startedwithamouse]

If you don't like beans, you can request anything without the beans.

 

We usually request entrees without any starchy sides, including beans, and no sauces. 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

13 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

If you don't like beans, you can request anything without the beans.

 

We usually request entrees without any starchy sides, including beans, and no sauces. 

I usually don't pay any attention to the sides because I won't eat most of them anyway, unless it's broccoli/zucchini/asparagus/green beans, polenta or baked/mashed potato. So, if a spoonful of beans arrives on a plate with a steak, I won't even notice.

 

But this was just wrong: the beans look like they came straight out of an industrial size can:

 

[BamaVol]

26 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

I usually don't pay any attention to the sides because I won't eat most of them anyway, unless it's broccoli/zucchini/asparagus/green beans, polenta or baked/mashed potato. So, if a spoonful of beans arrives on a plate with a steak, I won't even notice.

 

But this was just wrong: the beans look like they came straight out of an industrial size can:

 

Looks like Heinz to me.

[canadarocks]

Steak and Beans seems like such a strange combo. 👎

[AZaTaz]

4 minutes ago, canadarocks said:

Steak and Beans seems like such a strange combo. 👎

Growing up on a ranch in Arizona and always have steak and beans makes it quite right to me. 

[canadarocks]

10 minutes ago, AZaTaz said:

Growing up on a ranch in Arizona and always have steak and beans makes it quite right to me. 

No offence meant. Just not that Italian to me. Lol… now I’m sure an Italian CCer will correct me on that too! 😁

[AZaTaz]

Took no offense, have thicker skin than that 😂

[startedwithamouse]

1 hour ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

I usually don't pay any attention to the sides because I won't eat most of them anyway, unless it's broccoli/zucchini/asparagus/green beans, polenta or baked/mashed potato. So, if a spoonful of beans arrives on a plate with a steak, I won't even notice.

 

But this was just wrong: the beans look like they came straight out of an industrial size can:

 

Sure those are Santa Maria style?

[startedwithamouse]

32 minutes ago, canadarocks said:

Steak and Beans seems like such a strange combo. 👎

Not in California, Santa Maria style beans are popular served with tri-tip or steak. 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

1 hour ago, startedwithamouse said:

Sure those are Santa Maria style?

Not in California, Santa Maria style beans are popular served with tri-tip or steak.

don't know what that is, we are not from CA. Don't want beans, though.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

About drinks....

 

There was no consistency at all when it came to specialty coffee or mixed drinks... Every person made it differently, and I had to come back  to get more syrup or more sweet&sour mix or Sprite in mine...

 

I am very partial to Vanilla Bean latte (iced) on Princess ships, but I gave other latte flavors a chance as well. I still came back to my favorite.

 

My parents love coffee, so they got quite a few of mochas, lattes and cappuccinos as well. Hot only.  Even my DH got on the mocha train. 🙂 We frequented the International cafe, the Princess Live cafe and the Bistro cafe (inside the buffet bistro).

 

Word of advice - they have lids for hot coffees, but none for the iced. Thankfully, I brought my own insulated tumbler with a lid. 🙂

 

 

I also tried a few alcoholic drinks. We don't drink at all, so it takes one to two drinks for me personally to be inebriated , especially on an empty stomach. Since we had a package on this cruise, I consumed a little more than 1-2 drinks per day, but never got beyond 5, even when my mom's wine or DH's drinks were also charged to my folio.

 

It was fun, I must admit, to try different things. I got a bit more adventurous since I didn't have to pay per drink. In many cases, it was a good thing I had a package because I disliked more drinks than I liked. 😞 Mostly, because many of them had too much alcohol and weren't sweet enough for me. To give you a point of reference, Dunes and Mojitos are my favorite mixed drinks. Dirty Banana is excellent as well, but has too much sugar. I still have to watch it...

 

DH likes mixed drinks as well, but they don't have to be sweet like mine. He is ok with the taste of alcohol in his alcoholic drinks. 🙂 He does like mojitos a lot.

 

So, here are some pics and names of the drinks we tried:

 

Baked Alaska (vanilla vodka, raspberry, creme de cacao) - good, but too strong

 

One of our favorites is the Ultimate Cooler (the adult version) and the Key West Cooler (the kid version).

 

we spent a lot of time in the area in front of the Crown Grill bar and tried some things off of their menu. 

 

I think one of them is a Hemingway's martini and another is a Lemon Drop. Dh also tried a Sidecar and a Cable Car?

 

 

 

 

 

 

This lovely looking drink is from the Good spirits bar: DH said he could definitely taste the licorice.

 

 

 

 

Several years ago I tried a Vanilla sky and I think it was pretty good:

 

I think what I got at the Catch by Rudi was this purple Butterfly beauty which didn't taste as magical as it looked.

 

 

 

JamieLogical posted some drink menus in her review, so when I saw O'malley's menu, I knew I wanted to try some things. 🙂 

 

I asked DH to order me a Kenmare's Kiss, but the bartender heard Clover Breeze.

 

 

Clover Breeze was weird. It tasted nothing like the ingredients it lists. Instead, it tasted like someone chopped up ALL of the herbs in their garden, soaked them in vodka and thus made a tincture out of it. 

 

 

DH tried their Under the Mango Tree, and even though it was strong, he liked it.

 

We had Ultimate coolers, mojitos, lemon drops, Dunes (aka Hawaiian Tropics), Sweet Annie from Bellini bar (it's not sweet at all!), etc.

 

My mom tried a few red wines.

 

Our favorite drink was from Princess Live cafe/bar and it was a special drink "I Love Me" made by bartender Snizhana (Zana). It was $20, and it was delicious.  Many bars had a placard with the bartender's special drink, but hers was the one that called to our hearts, and, boy, it was wonderful. I didn't snap a pic of the recipe, but if you stop by, you will see it. It's light and citrusy. 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

Drinking all that alcohol didn't prevent my DH from contracting covid on this cruise as well. The poor dude got covid on our April cruise on X, and I thought for sure he'd built up some immunity. Nope, he got it again.  I am perplexed since he is younger and healthier than me. His April bout made him absolutely miserable, with non-stop coughing.  It is milder this time, thank goodness.

 

So, take care and bring some echinacea, Vit C, D, B, zinc, cough drops and meds, and please consider wearing a mask if you feel sick, so if you do get it, you could protect those around you.  Especially those in the same cabin as you.  We didn't get it because DH wore a mask right away.

[Wishing on a star]

OMG...    I should NOT be looking at this thread when it is supper time and I am starving!!!!

Thanks so much for posting all of this!

[galensgrl]

5 hours ago, canadarocks said:

Steak and Beans seems like such a strange combo. 👎

It reminds me of the different foods you see at a barbecue in the Summertime. Steak, chicken, burgers, hotdogs with coleslaw, macaroni salad, beans, broccoli salad, some kind of fruit salad and cornbread. But steak with plain baked beans served in a restaurant seems weird and disappointing.

[robbinsca]

9 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I think I read elsewhere that it was closed for your sailing as they were working on putting in the new slot machines to convert half of it into non-smoking casino space. I just saw a photo from this week's sailing with many of the slot machines installed.

We didn’t seek out Take Five but I do remember barely being able to hear the employee at Guest Services due to construction work that was taking place a floor above- which would have been the Casino area so I think you are right.

[mistyPA]

On 6/13/2024 at 7:20 PM, Itchy&Scratchy said:

in the words of my husband it tasted like dirt/mud, not spices

When someone in our party had it in April, said it just didn't have much flavor, which supports not spices. It was unfortunate because she was really looking forward to it.

 

However, the steak was really good.

[flhokie]

On 6/11/2024 at 7:38 PM, Itchy&Scratchy said:

We stood in a very long line to get through the x-ray scanners first. Not sure why. We are Platinum and supposedly have priority at embarkation. Other people were let in without standing in line.

This was probably guests traveling in the sky suites. They are escorted through the embarkation process, bypassing lines.

 

We were on this sailing. Daughter loves teen club on Princess, but was disappointed by the small number of teens participating especially at the beginning of the cruise (200+ teens onboard, but they couldn't do some activities because there weren't enough teens participating). The space they have is awesome and it did get better after a day or 2 (she still loves it and prefers over Royal Caribbean's teen program).

[Itchy&Scratchy]

15 hours ago, robbinsca said:

We didn’t seek out Take Five but I do remember barely being able to hear the employee at Guest Services due to construction work that was taking place a floor above- which would have been the Casino area so I think you are right.

oh, was it noisy? we walked by the casino several times (ugh, the smoke smell is bad) and went to the Guest Services several times as well, and there was no noise. I totally forgot Take 5 even existed until I started doing my review and got to the entertainment section and thought to myself - hmmm, JamieLogical mentioned it quite a bit....

 

1 hour ago, flhokie said:

We were on this sailing. Daughter loves teen club on Princess

unfortunately, my kid has refused to participate in kid's club since he started sailing at 3. He tried teen's club on X in April for about 20 minutes and noped out of there, lol. Just doesn't care for strangers.

Edited June 15 by Itchy&Scratchy

[Itchy&Scratchy]

20 hours ago, Wishing on a star said:

OMG...    I should NOT be looking at this thread when it is supper time and I am starving!!!!

Thanks so much for posting all of this!

I know!!! I was starving and drooling as I was posting the pics of all the food late into the night... Remembering all the good times.... 

[Wishing on a star]

SO fun to re-live a cruise / nice-vacation with the photos!!!

Keep them coming!!!

But, I agree...  I can do canned beans at home...  That was just WRONG!!!!

it didn't look like some nice salad or side or soup that had beans...  just a glop of canned beans!!!

(Don't get me wrong, I have had my share of Bushes Original Baked Beans in the summer with things like burgers, BBQ sandwich, etc...    But, with a nice steak entree???)

[Itchy&Scratchy]

58 minutes ago, Wishing on a star said:

SO fun to re-live a cruise / nice-vacation with the photos!!!

Keep them coming!!!

well, since you asked... 🙂

 

I have some random pics with food selections from the International cafe and the buffet.

 

DS tried the pizza rolls in the upper left corner and said they were good:

 

 

 

The desserts were nowhere near as nice as in 2022... Sadly.

 

 

 

Different day:

 

Dinner at the buffet on day 4:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some things looked very sad.

 

Others looked better:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every other day there were sub type sandwiches in the buffet with shrimp salad in them. I scraped it off the big buns and it was delicious.

Grilled veggies were very good.

 

For breakfast I ate egg muffins from the IC exclusively. DH, DS and my parents headed directly to the buffet, while I detoured to IC to grab 4 of the delightful little muffins (they warm them up for you) and am iced vanilla bean latte. Then I joined my family who enjoy more standard breakfast fare.

 

 

Edited June 15 by Itchy&Scratchy

[Itchy&Scratchy]

Gigi's menu

 

 

 

 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

 

We really enjoyed a towel folding demonstration on the last day. You could also take any final composition back to your cabin to enjoy. 🙂 I got a bat!

 

 

 

 

My mom got an anteater:

 

 

some of the other figures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

All in all, we had a great cruise, 10/10 would do it again. 🙂

 

Disembarkation was pretty smooth, even with slight delays, so we finally got off between 9:30 and 10. Got an uber pretty quickly and headed to MIA airport. Sadly, we couldn't take advantage of the EZ check as I planned, since our plane left MIA at 1 pm. I thought it was leaving at 2:30, but no. On a positive note, we finally got home before dark. 🙂 We usually take a very late afternoon flight and get home at 9-10 pm, but SW changed our FLL departure from 5 pm to 7 pm, so we were able to change our flight for free to a 1 pm departure out of MIA instead. Yay!

[1025cruise]

On 6/11/2024 at 7:38 PM, Itchy&Scratchy said:

 

 

We stood in a very long line to get through the x-ray scanners first. Not sure why. We are Platinum and supposedly have priority at embarkation. Other people were let in without standing in line.

These were probably people from the Princess Go Lounge. It's an invite only for suite passengers that is offsite. When the shuttle arrives at the port, the guests are escorted straight through.