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Royal Caribbean's
Enchantment of the Seas
February 8 - 12, 2007
Cruise Review
by
Joe
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 10:49:29 -0500 (EST)
From: "Joe" <jdmuscaux@yahoo.com>
Subject: Review
My wife and I returned from our first ever cruise a few days ago. Fantastic is all we can say! We took this short four night cruise to "test the waters" (no pun intended) to see if she would enjoy cruising, as she tends to get motion sickness, and is an insulin dependant diabetic.
Both getting on and off the ship was effortless and well organized. We arrived at the Ft. Lauderdale Cruise Terminal as about 10:30 AM and were on board by 11:30-11:45 AM. By the time we enjoyed a great lunch at the Windjammer, our cabin was ready. We met our cabin steward (can't remember his name) and he made sure the refrigerator we requested to keep insulin at the proper temperature was in the cabin, plugged in and pre-cooled. That was the last we saw of him, but he was very efficient in keeping our cabin neat and clean, with no problems. We had an outside cabin, midship on deck three. With everything we have read on the boards, we were apprehensive about the size of the cabin and especially the shower. Not to worry!!! Although the cabin is on the small side, it is ingeniously laid out, with plenty of room to store everything...even though we grossly overpacked. Sure..the shower is small, and he curtain sticks to one like glue, but the water pressure was good, t he water was hot and we managed to get ourselves clean. What more could we want? !!! I only felt sorry for the cabin steward who had to mop up wet floors, as there is no way to keep the shower from spilling onto the bathroom floor.
Disembarking was well organized. We had color green and were up early to take advantage of a good breakfast at the Windjammer. After that, we went to our assigned area and waited for our color to be called. That happened within a short time, and we were off the ship, luggage in hand by 10:30 AM. No muss, no fuss, with very little standing in line. This was another surprise after reading some of the horror stories posted here.
The ship itself is beautiful....much nicer than we expected, due to her age. The recent "stretch job" is hardly visible, and the entire ship is as clean as a whistle, with cleaning being carried out seemingly around the clock. Unfortunately, due to the short duration of the cruise, we didn't have a chance to see the entire ship...but what we did see was beautiful.
The entertainment was good, but not great. We saw a juggler, who was just ok, a comedian was so so and the one production show we saw was just so-so. We did not attend the second production show as my wife had dancing on her mind, and we spent the evening at Boleros, with the salsa dancing. This is not meant to be a complaint about the shows....it was probably our own personal taste in entertainment, as everyone seemed to enjoy them.
We ate breakfast and lunch at the Windjammer, which was more than good. The variety of choices was amazing and everything we tried was good, especially the roasted chicken at lunch. The only item I did not care for was the scrambled eggs the first morning, but I remedied that by going to the omelet bar and getting eggs over the rest of the cruise. They were delicious. We also appreciated the crewmember stationed at the entrance to the Windjammer, making sure everyone sanitized their hands before entering. That goes a long way towards keeping the bug from ruining a vacation. One person who really merits special mention is Maurice, from Jamaica, one of the Windjammer waiters. He couldn't do enough for us and could have been a comedy act himself! Ya Mon!! We were also impressed by the many (though not obtrusive) announcements to keep hands washed with soap and water throughout the cruise.
We had dinner every night at the My Fair Lady Dining Room, and what an experience that was!! We were seated at a table of eight,table 99, with pleasant tablemates, with whom we had a good time and good conversation. The best part though, was the wait staff. They were (headwaiter Ricardo who visited our table at least twice each night, Waiter Chris from the Phillipines, and Jaoa (sp?) from India. These guys were GREAT!!! They really added to the pleasure of cruising. They were efficient, comedic and just a pleasure to be around. We had a few moments to speak with each of them about their families etc, and really enjoyed talking with them. Chris, our waiter, knew of my wife's diabetes and went above and beyond in making sure she had the proper foods with his suggestions and made sure he pointed out those sugar free desserts she could enjoy. Royal Caribbean is indeed lucky to have them all! Although we opted for the prepaid suggested tips, a little extra went into each of their envelopes, along with the voucher. They worked very hard to please us and they surely deserved more than the suggested amount. The meals were all delicious, and served hot. The only meal I had that was not great was the prime rib. I asked for it to be a medium cut and it was a little too well done and somewhat dry for my taste. Since it was certainly not inedible, I said nothing to Chris, since if I had, he would have been apologizing the rest of the cruise! Everyone at our table commented on how well everything was presented and how good it was. Have I had better meals at upscale 5 star restaurants? Sure..but for the amount of meals being prepared at the same time, each and every meal was much more than acceptable....in fact, rather good.
As to shore excursions, Key West was a little of a disappointment...only because of the short time we were there. We arrived a 7AM and had to be back on board no later then 1:30 PM. We had only time to take the Conch Train tour and it was enjoyable, but we wished we had more time in that port.
Cozumel was a blast! As a surprise to my wife (a devout animal lover) I booked a Swim with the Dolphins tour through the ship. I havn't seen such a big smile on my wife's face in many a year. We both thoroughly enjoyed it. The only suggestion we would make is to warn folks to wear some bathing shoes of some kind on this tour. A large part of the time is spent in standing on a platform, whose floor is open steel grating. This is hard on bare feet, and we wished we would have worn bathing shoes. That was a very small inconvenience to an otherwise very enjoyable tour.
As to my wife's propensity to motion sickness, she was fine until Sunday morning on the return trip from Cozumel to Ft. Lauderdale. The major snow storm that hit the entire East Coast on Tuesday and Wednesday had its beginning in the area we were cruising. It was raining all day, with high winds and the ship got to "rocking and rolling". She started feeling a little queazy and took a meclazine tablet prescribed by her Doctor. After lying down in the cabin for about an hour, she felt much better. She got up and we went to the Windjammer for lunch...What Else??? She was fine from that point on.
All in all, it was a great time. We found that cruising is a ball, and we will definitely do it again. Now that we have this trial run down, we'll take a longer cruise next time, possibly in the Eastern Caribbean. Whereever we go, it will definitely be on Royal Caribbean. No, I don't work for the cruise line and I'm not a plant on these boards. Even though, as first time cruisers, we have nothing to compare it to, we thought this cruise was top notch. I don't see how the entire crew could have done anything more to make our vacation a success. I think RCI has it down pat.
Sorry if this review was too long....but I'm new at
this.
USCOASTIE
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