Enchantment review - 2/12/07-2/17/07

[Jeanie821]

First, a little about me... I'm 34, divorced, no children. I've cruised once prior to this, on Carnival's Fascination in February 2006. This cruise was part of a group cruise for Christian singles, as was last year's.

 

Pre-cruise, we stayed at the Ramada Inn Fort Lauderdale Airport/Cruiseport. It's a nice, comfortable place to stay pre- or post-cruise. Unfortunately, it rained the whole time I was there, so I didn't get to take the desired dip in the pool, but not a big deal. And there's a restaurant on premises, with a free breakfast buffet included for guests. Finally, there is a shuttle available to get you from the airport to the hotel, and the hotel to the port.

 

Embarkation was fairly quick. I think I was on the ship within thirty minutes. Unfortunately, it was still raining, so not too many of us were on deck for sailaway. I had missed sailaway on my last cruise, so I was determined not to miss it this time! I think I lasted about fifteen minutes on deck! I went back to my room briefly and found that my luggage, with that of my roommates', had already arrived.

 

About the room - I was sharing an interior stateroom with two other people, one of whom I'd met the previous year. A triple IS doable, as long as you're on good terms with the other two people. The third bed comes down from the ceiling, which we thought was really cool. I took the upper bunk, and it is pretty comfortable - once you get up there. The only problem I had was that I needed extra pillows, but that was easily remedied with a call to Housekeeping. Within five minutes, Parneet (from Thailand) was tapping at the door with an armful of pillows!

 

On food - I wasn't impressed with the appetizers and skipped them most nights. The entrees and desserts, on the other hand, were excellent. Breakfast and lunch were usually taken in the Windjammer, and dinner with my new and old friends in the My Fair Lady dining room, where Sanjay (from India) and his assistant Treshawna (from Jamaica) provided excellent service!

 

The public rooms were clean and well taken care of. Our group had its meetings in the Conference Room, the Viking Crown Lounge and the Spotlight Lounge, and all three met our needs quite well. The Conference Room and Spotlight Lounge were accessed via the Schooner Bar, which led to some very funny encounters with Mike McCall, the bar pianist. The second night was our Girls' Pajama Party, where we showed up in our most comfortable PJs. About twelve of us went strolling through the bar in our nightclothes - one carrying a teddy bear - and poor Mike was so shocked that he actually stopped playing for about a minute! But he was a good sport and even volunteered to judge our Perfect Pirate contest, and provided music when our conga line from the Hawaiian Luau spilled out into and through the bar!

 

Most of the people in our group, including myself, did not take shore excursions through the cruise line. Instead, our group leader had contracted with an agency that provides shore excursions for groups, and I had opted for a tour given by the Historical Keys Society in Key West, of their cemetery. That was quite interesting - where else will you see a tomb marker with the epitaph "I Told You I Was Sick"? In Cozumel, one of my roommates and I hit the beach at Playa Mia, and in Belize, I took a tour of the city and of the Altun Ha Mayan ruins.

 

Debarkation came all too soon, but was as painless as debarkation can be. Enough said about that.

 

To sum up, I'm now totally spoiled by RCCL and could never go back to Carnival! And by the way - I now know who Henry is!

[elleluv]

Great review, Jeanie... It sounds like you and the girls had a fabulous time! :)

[Jeanie821]

Did we ever! Next year's is on Navigator of the Seas (our leader is rather partial to RCCL, and now I understand why). I'm already planning on it!

[Silque1964]

Thanks for the review, we're taking the Enchantment May 12th. Now I'm DYING to find out about Henry....

[Jeanie821]

Ask the housekeeping crew. They'll be glad to introduce you! :D