Just off the Enchanted New England/Canada cruise—some thoughts

[Wishing on a star]

I understand everything you that are saying!!!!

And, I will say that the difficulty in finding assistance when boarding or leaving the ship is not excusable.  

It could have made things a tiny bit easier if one was aware of all of these 'issues' or differences with Princess.

A Handicapped cabin would have been beneficial, even if the accessible bath is not totally necessary.  Anyone who finds that a wheelchair is a MUST would definitely make this a first-choice option. That wheelchair takes up space, even if not used in the cabin.  

You would have had a small two-seat sofa in a Deluxe Balcony.   

The issues with the tiny Standard Balcony cabins is very real.   

One of these on Deck 9 could also have a larger exterior balcony to relax on.

Princess has recently started putting the breakfast and lunch dining in that lower Aft dining room.

And, I agree, that is a PROBLEM.  It is fine if one has that choice, as at supper.  But to make that the only choice, that is far less 'accessible'...  Just NO.

That Aft dining room is accessible from any floor on the Aft Elevators.  

Getting there from the Piazza is the catch!

 

[spearmint]

Thanks for the great review, Msk64, and for other posters' subsequent responses.  My six companions and I are on "Enchanted" in November.  The last cruise that I was on with my wife 7 years ago was Regal. (Also did Royal.) The aft dining room was the Traditional Seating and was a pain to get to from the Piazza as one poster here noted. So we switched to either of the two anytime dining rooms off the Piazza area. Much more accessible especially as on at least one cruise, my wife required a wheelchair. We hated the process of getting to the aft dining room.  

 

Love the info re: deck 10 as we all are aft-port and it might help... my wife and I just never seemed to go directly from the cabin to the dining room... we were always down at the piazza "International Bar" having pre-dinner drinks and so always had to wend our way aft. Now, it seems that the dining room I/we want is that damned inconvenient one!  And two of us, although not in wheelchairs have walking issues ...which we will deal with, like it or not, I guess ... duh!

 

Now, I am on my own, and trying cruising again, and years later find that the dining rooms have changed in location and in purpose.  I thought I would do the Flex (?) dining room... choose the dining time, and the waiter for every night as I understand it. On Regal, I phoned 'anytime dining' every morning to reserve the dining time and the waiter...I had had time the previous evening to check out the next night's offerings on board and adjusted our dining time if necessary. We liked having the same waiter.. a la  traditional dining, and always requested (and got) to sit at his/her table. Worked really well. My wife and I always traveled alone, so whether the companions and I will want to linger at all over dinner, or exactly what they like to do I don't know, so I guess I cannot recommend to them a consistent dining time prior to boarding.

 

I recall the cabins on Regal and did not mind them at all even though all comments made herein are correct.  I actually liked the open-closet idea, much better than the sliding doors on some of the Celebrity ships' not-very-deep-closets (have smashed decorative buttons on sleeves of my suits which got in the way of the closing door and the sash!).  As for the couch?  Have usually had one, but really never used it on which to relax... ever.  Good for holding a towel, clothing, stuff etc. which was not yet put away... so that won't be an issue for me. Actually, I am alone in my cabin, so now that I think of it, I should have lots of room! Again ... duh!!!

 

Having not experienced the "medallion" I really appreciate the info on that because, prior to your post, I had no real idea of what the thing did, except that I knew it somehow replaced the seapass card. And as far as I know, none of my six companions have been on so-equipped Princess ships either.

 

My contribution to this write-up....

Here's a tip if you have trouble keeping the wheelchair provided by the ship. Once on Celebrity, when we, as usual, left the thing folded up outside our door in the corridor, it was taken. Our cabin attendant found it in the hallway on another deck!  How?  I had made extra luggage tags and attached one of them to the wheel chair and, as he said later, he realized that it was "one of his" people's and brought it back.  We kept it inside the cabin near the door from there on. But if necessary on deck, outside the dining area etc. it was identifiable as "ours".

 

My wife and I for years had always remained on the ship...on port days, most everyone else gets off, and we almost had our own personal yacht!!!  One can do as much or as little as one wants.  Love staying on board. Relaxation is the name of the game!

 

Thanks again, folks; as expected, any time I need answers or information on anything cruise-related, people like you have helped me again and again for 26+ cruises.

Bill

 

 

[HotRoot]

3 hours ago, spearmint said:

My contribution to this write-up....

Here's a tip if you have trouble keeping the wheelchair provided by the ship. Once on Celebrity, when we, as usual, left the thing folded up outside our door in the corridor, it was taken. Our cabin attendant found it in the hallway on another deck!  How?  I had made extra luggage tags and attached one of them to the wheel chair and, as he said later, he realized that it was "one of his" people's and brought it back.  We kept it inside the cabin near the door from there on. But if necessary on deck, outside the dining area etc. it was identifiable as "ours".

 

 

Our collapsible wheelchair slid right in the open closet.  We put an embarkation bag tag on it for the entire cruise.  A couple of times people tried to "borrow" it.  The bag tag stopped them.  

[MsK64]

35 minutes ago, HotRoot said:

Our collapsible wheelchair slid right in the open closet.  We put an embarkation bag tag on it for the entire cruise.  A couple of times people tried to "borrow" it.  The bag tag stopped them.  

I was about to say the same thing—the wheelchair belonged to my friend—not the ship—and is collapsable. As she can walk with a cane—albeit not the long distances required on a ship—she would get out of the wheelchair as we came close to the cabin door and would get up and walk into the room on her own. And like you, we stored the collapsed wheelchair in the open closet. There was plenty of room because we didn’t bring very many clothes that needed to be hung up. 

[walkingsoon]

Thanks for the nice review.

 

One small point (which SBOH touched on with post #24) that may help for future cruises for you is to look at deluxe or premium deluxe balconies. One very positive aspect of the Royal class of ship is that they have a category of "obstructed view" deluxe balconies that often price out for less than regular balconies because of the obstruction, but  they have the extra space with a small loveseat and also can have significantly larger balconies. ( - and yes, the regular balconies on Royal class are indeed small). The obstruction might not even be noticeable to you.