Review of Enchantment Jan 21 part 1

[tanyanubin]

Our party of 4 flew from Newark and Houston into Fort Lauderdale on Jan 20. Flights were fine, transport to our hotel was fine. The Sheraton Yankee Trader was ok, too. There was a bit of a musty smell in the hallways, and mildew on the shower curtain. There appeared to be a small splash of blood on the doorjamb of our bathroom. For almost $200/night it was surprising. The view was gorgeous, though. We ate at Don Shula's steak house. Food was good, but very very pricey. The weather was kind of funny--almost hurricane-like! Next morning we walked around the waterfront a bit waiting for it to be time to go to the ship. It's very beautiful there.

 

Took a cab to the ship and boarding was super easy. We had priority boarding, but there were so many people there to help that we didn't need it. It went very smoothly. We went straight to Windjammer to hang out til it was time to make reservations for Chops, which we did as soon as we could. We then went to the dining room to change our table, as my brother had tried to make sure to get a table for 4 on the lower floor weeks before. They were very accomodating. We had all been thrilled a month ago when we were able to exchange our 2 junior suites for a Royal Family suite aft at a very good price. When we saw the room we were very happy. It's not fancy at all; very utilitarian. But the deck is spectacular! It is super huge. There were 2 fruit baskets waiting for us, which were kinda gross--consisting of soft and rotting fruit. There was a large strawberry on top of one of them that was covered in gray fuzz. Wonder how the stateroom attendant missed that? We brought it to his attention, and he took that one basket away. The other basket stayed there for our whole cruise with the fruit just sort of liquifying. The grapes were slimy by our last day. We did get assorted treats delivered to our room throughout the trip--little trays of chocolate covered strawberries or cookies. Really a nice surprise. The bottle of wine our travel agent told us to watch for---her present to us in celebration of 2 birthdays we had that week---never materialized despite several inquiries. That was more than made up for in the concierge lounge, though. We did spend a good deal of time there. It is a really nice perk for those who drink (my H and I don't, but my brother and his wife do). Julian was our concierge, and overall did a good job. His 'shows' were odd and fun. He is enthusiastic to say the least! I think he is developing a nice older woman fan club! He did drop the ball regarding a problem we had with an excursion. We were trying to cancel a snuba trip in Key West, as the weather was going to be very chilly and windy. The deadline was 24 hours in advance. Due to a miscommunication on his part, we were told we couldn't cancel or exchange it. Luckily 4 other, heartier travelers were on a waiting list---which we found out by going to the excursion desk ourselves to try to get at least a partial refund for our $440. We got the whole refund, but learned to deal with issues on our own.

 

Our sea day was lovely and relaxing. The deck pool was always crowded with nowhere to sit, but we used the solarium pool. Very nice in there. We wandered around, played some trivia (lost), met a few nice people (hi Nancy) and had lunch in the Windjammer. The food was mediocre. The service was very good, as usual. I love the international aspect of the crew. My brother and husband got busy at the 3-card poker table, which they did just about every day. Overall they both lost a bit, but had so much fun that it was worth it. One odd incident happened though. Their dealer, a young girl, was being replaced, and fainted dead away right there at the table. Crashed to the floor. Oddly, the game went right on while she was being tended to. Wow. My husband and brother were taken aback by that, and were the only ones to comment and ask her if she was OK.

 

The shows were odd. The performers were good to great. One girl was an amazing singer. The other singers were good, also. The shows themselves were a bit cheezy and weird, not seeming to have any theme or aim. For instance, the 'Rock' one had music ranging from 60's beach party to Celine Dion to a confusing medly of songs in costumes inspired by The Matrix. The last night was a great show--mostly due to a magician named Chad or Chaz. We laughed like crazy!

 

Our excursions were interesting. RCI didn't offer an excursion to the baboon sanctuary, so we booked with a private tour company, Experience Belize Tours Ltd. Our guide was named Allen Dawson, and he was wonderful. He was extremely knowledgable about all aspects of his country, from politics to ecology and flora/fauna. He sang us songs and pointed out people he knew all over---"Hey, there's Terrence" or "There's my sister!" funny... First we drove to the baboon sanctuary about an hour out at Bermudian Landing. A young guy named Shane was there, at a clearing on the side of the road. There were a few small tin-roofed buildings in the clearing. Shane was so full of information. He knows everything there is to know about the howler monkeys, and is deeply involved in the efforts of the reserve. Many land owners over a long strip of property---about 20 miles long, I think, have joined together to help the howler troops thrive and to protect them. They have built air bridges out of rope ladders for the monkeys to cross over the roads and have made sure to preserve the trees they need to travel in and feed on. Their efforts have helped the monkey population grow from several hundred to several thousand healthy animals. Shane grew up with the monkeys and they are very accustomed to him. First he showed us a large dominant male in the trees above us. Then a female with a 4-week old baby on her back. He then said he'd try to call several young howlers down closer to us. We stood quietly while he called, and soon 2 young monkeys came through the trees and down right to Shane! He fed them small pieces of banana. Then, (thrill of my life!!!) he let me hold a piece of banana and a 1 year old howler named Happy came to me, held my hand gently in his warm, soft little hands, and took the banana. He was trusting and adorable! That was the highlight of my trip (I am a huge animal lover and have always wanted to see monkeys in the wild. we went to Belize hoping for that) My sister in law got to feed Happy next. We were thrilled! I made a donation to the cause, 'adopting' Happy. I got a certificate celebrating what Shane refers to as Ecoloution. Shane was the highlight of my husband's whole trip!

[tanyanubin]

We went to the Mayan Wells restaurant for lunch on the way to Altun Ha ruins. The restaurant was lovely...beautiful grounds and wonderful food. The meal was a traditional Belizian meal---chicken spiced with the seeds of a local fruit, rice and beans cooked in coconut milk, papaya and plaintain (yummy!)

Altun Ha was nice--a smallish ruins site. We climbed one pyramid and could hear our guide in the plaza below speaking normally. The acoustics were to ensure that the mayan leaders could be heard by a large crowd below. Impressive.

On the highway on our way back to the ship we spotted a man out in front of his house holding an animal. We stopped for a closer look and it turned out to be a collared anteater! Tourists rarely spot them in the wild. I asked him if I could hold it, and he ran to get a large glove for me. that would have been great if the anteater stayed put, but it decided to crawl all over me, over my head and face and down my leg! LOL---It really hurt, because their paws are so strong and their claws are like steel and designed to dig through termite mounds, but it was hilarious and thrilling. At one point it's naked tail was draped over my eyes and mouth, to the amusement of the rest of my party! The man offered to let us hold some snakes, which my husband did, but when he offered to let us hold a fer-de-lance, one of the most poisonous snakes in the world, we backed away and said we were late for our ship! lol, I've got some impressive anteater bruises to show off at home! That was an unexpected and exciting little adventure!

Allen sang us a nice parting song, and we said goodbye. We shopped a bit in stalls outside the terminal, where the locals got a bit pushy. No big deal, though. We did hear some shipmates complain later that they had been offered various drugs out there, including ecstasy and cocaine, but we had no such experience. Our impression of Belize was great---a fairly poor country with extremely well educated and friendly people.

 

That night we went to dance upstairs, and when we got there it was dead. Lots of people were at the bar, but no one seemed to want to be the first one on the dance floor. We were still high with the excitement or our belizian adventures, so we got the party started. Soon the whole dance floor was packed with crazy dancers. There was eventually a conga line (led by my brother!) through the lounge. My H made it onto the cruise video, dancing his way into the elevator! That was quite a night!

 

Next day was Cozumel. We went to Xcaret, and it was lovely. We got to hold more wildlife (you'd think I would've learned my lesson by then)---some tame parrots. We snorkled in the cove and had a great lunch on the beach. It is really a gorgeous place.

 

Next was Key West, a touristy but pretty place. We rented one of those electric cars. It was fun but not particularly memorable. We ate at "Crabby Dick's" seafood restaurant. Lovely, no?

 

We ate a Chops one night. The food was wonderful and the service was great. All of our service was great on the cruise. Our main dining room waitress was injured partway through and we had a replacement, who was fine. Our assistant waitress, Mirasol from the Phillipines, was adorable. The headwaiter, Enrico from Italy, did more than any headwaiter we had had before. He was wonderful. Overall the food was OK. I had lamb one night that was terrific! And my H had lobster the last night. He said it was great.

 

Overall our cruise was great. We would not book another aft cabin for 2 reasons. The vibrations are sometimes very strong, especially at night. The whole bed shakes. The whole suite got very very hot because of being in direct sunlight all the way home. We couldn't get it comfortable even with the drapes closed. So next time we'll stick with the junior suites. We were glad to have this experience, though. Another problem we had was the toilets, which randomly stopped flushing several times during our stay. We had 2 bathrooms in the suite, and both toilets stopped working. We had to call maintainance twice. They took care of the issue quickly each time. We were satisfied with most things for what we spent. One snafu was going through immigration at Key West. It was a long, badly organized process that seemed to take forever. Our disembarkation was wonderful, though. We had white tags (our diamond travel companions) and got off the ship extremely quickly. Our cabbie to the airport was psychotic (we're pretty sure). He looked like the unibomber and ranted for the whole trip about how much he hates his job and how bad the ships/police/roads/ etc are. We spotted a sign that said "airport 1/2 mile" and mentioned it just to have something to say to interrupt his rant. He went into a new rant "WHO TOLD YOU THE AIRPORT IS A 1/2 MILE AWAY? WHO????" We meekly said, "Uh, that sign right there?" He was a little scary and we were glad to be out of the cab. We all burst into laughter and couldn't stop for quite a while.

 

All in all a great vacation, made greater by good travel companions, great service, and some unexpected adventures.

[Worn out mailman]

Sounds great. How did you like Enchantment compared to Splendour?

[tanyanubin]

Truthfully, Splendour seemed a bit cleaner and better run. Enchantment must be due for a cleaning soon. It could have used a bit of paint touch up and some repair here and there. Overall, it seemed just a bit run down. The staff was great though.