Anxious to do this again
Written: Oct 08 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Awesome cruise line, huge boat full of things to do, great destination
Cons: Look out for terrible airfare and flight itinieries
The Bottom Line: With new, clean boats, friendly staff, tons of amenities and entertainment, and their clear attitude to maintain excellent service, we totally recommend Royal Caribbean.
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| kfgecko's Full Review: Royal Caribbean Enchantment of the Seas |
My wife and I thought cruises weren't for us, until we took Royal Caribbean's west caribbean cruise on the Enchantment of the sea. We are beach bums and we thought that we wouldn't like feeling "cramped up in a boat" but it turned out not to be the case. After a great vacation with Royal Caribbean, we have changed out minds completely.
WE'RE STICKING WITH ROYAL CARIBBEAN.
With an excellent reputation and reviews, and recommendation from friends, we chose to go with the slightly more expensive cruise line Royal Caribbean. They seem to have newer boats than cruise lines like Norwegian and that makes a difference. They had extremely friendly and helpful staff of all nationalities, excellent food, great amenities and entertainment, clean and new boats, and clientel who are generally respectful of each other.
HOW DO YOU GET TO THE CRUISE?
There's most often some type of air/hotel package to get you to fly out to the destination one day before the scheduled departure date. It's not a requirement, but it seems to get you on the boat first. However, I was quite frustrated with this part of the package. We were charged over $500 for a California to Florida flight per person, when the fares' going rate was more like $250-300. On top of that, they scheduled a return flight out of Miami which was 40 minutes away from the Ft Lauderdale port (and airport) that we arrived on... that meant that we had no time to take the extra excursions in Florida itself. (If you schedule a late flight on the day the boat returns 4 pm or later, then you can opt to take Florida excursions like the everglades tours, etc.)
The hotel itself was pleasant and it made getting to the boat an easy experience. Note that without a rented car (which you probably won't do since you don't have a whole day), you'll need a taxi to get ANYWHERE, which can get pretty costly since the airport hotel is away from everything.
The next morning, your are told to meet in the lobby (along with several other fellow cruisers) and are bused to the pier. I was expecting a long and painful wait to check in process, but before we knew it we were walking down the gangway and onto the ship. Apparently the advantage of staying at the hotel from their package is that you get their just as check in begins... which means you get on board first.
THE FIRST MOMENTS ON THE SHIP
The ship was so big (it's like a floating resort) that choosing what to do first is a little difficult. We opted to sign up for our optional excursions and tour the boat. There's an orientation to familiarize you with the excursions which is first done live (and broadcasted to the cable tv found in each room) and played over and over throughout the trip. This is an excellent way to help you decide which excursion to do.
We walked around the ship and were pleased by the elegance, the ambience, cleanliness, and amenities. The lobby looks like a hotel lobby complete with glass elevators. The Enchantment has 2 swimming pools, several lounges, a full two-tier theater, several jacuzzi's, workout room, lots of deck space, bars, shops, etc. It doesn't have the basketball court or rock climbing that you see on the tv ads... only the biggest ships have those. The boat was so large that we never felt cramped.
OUR ROOM WAS NICE
Our room was small and functional and comfortable. We had a window which makes you feel that much more comfortable. The beds were comfortable and the bathroom made efficient use of space (much like a Japanese business hotel). There was a tv which quite a few channels to watch (and pretty recent movies too). Our friendly cabin attendant came to the room twice a day to tidy up and put mints on our pillows in the evening. He made cute animals out of our towels as he gave us new ones.
THE FOOD WAS DELICIOUS
Although we're more used to asian cuisine, we thoroughly enjoyed the euro cousines served in the ship's restaurants. There are a few restaurant choses, from the pool's grill, to the casual dining room, to the more formal dining room. For dinner we opted to eat at the formal dining room every night. We indulged on the all-you-can-eat delicious lobsters, steak, and many other great cuisine. The chefs are very skilled and at no time did we discover dry overcooked chicken breast or salmon or the like.
You do have to choose which seating you want: 6pm dinner, or 8pm dinner. The early session means you have to rush back to the boat from your day at port (and clean up and dress up), but you have the rest of the evening for shows and activities. The later dinner means you show is first, and sometimes you miss out on evening activities.
There's way too much eating time than you'll ever need, which is a good thing. From breakfast, to lunch, to dinner, to the midnight buffet and the 'round the clock grill, you'll never go hungry.
KEY WEST
Our first destination was Key West, where we just walked around the town, toured the Earnest Hemingway house, shopped, and saw the "southern most point of the US". We could've opted to do snorkle excursions but chose not to.
COZUMEL MEXICO
We ended up not even doing Cozumel. Instead we took a 45 minute ferry to the mainland of Mexico at Playa del Carmen and took a 1 hour bus ride to Tulum Mayan ruins. (It's always a huge time investment to see Mayan ruins because they're always far away from the main cities.) The ruins were awesome but by the time we returned to Cozumel, we only had time to walk around the shops before we had to return to the boat.
MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA
We were supposed to go to Costa Maya further down the coast of Mexico, but a damaged pier meant our captain changed the itiniery and went to Montego Bay. My wife and I have been to Negril, Jamaica for our honeymoon and loved the beachy laid back west coast. However, Montego Bay is located on the north coast. Although I wanted to climb the Dunn's River falls, it was going to be a while day investment (over 2 hourse each way on a bus) to get there, and we felt that was a waste of a day at port. Dunn's river is better when the cruise line goes to the port at Ocho Rios. Being that Montego Bay was a last minute change, port options were apparently limited for our captain. Instead, we ended up going to a beach and bumming it all day.
GRAND CAYMAN, CAYMAN ISLANDS
Our last destination on our 7 day cruise was Grand Cayman. Here we took a snorkle tour to Stingray City; an amazing experience where we rode a boat out to sea to a sand bar that was just 3 feet deep. There, we swam and fed a swarm of wild, but friendly stingrays. We were able to pet and hold them, as they are completely used to humans. For the rest of the day, we just shopped.
DAYS AT SEA
Our trip had 2 days at sea. I was really worried that these days would be immensely boring but we discovered that there were so many things to do, that the days past quicker than we wanted them too. There are so many different kinds of activities constantly going on that you will always find something to do. From being pampered at the health spa, to working out, to partying on the pool deck with the caribbean band, sunning on top deck, playing bingo, relaxing in the piano man lounge, karaoke, gambling in the casino, watching professional shows in the theater (one night the Platters performed!), working out, and dancing at night; we actually had to allocate time to sleep! Even the stores have things that you want to buy (like Crazy Shirt Tshirts, Charovski (sp?) crystal, and alcohol) all at reasonable prices.
SEA SICKNESS?
The caribbean sea in the summer was as calm as a swimming pool. Only when we headed more towards the Atlantic did we begin to feel the slight swaying of the boat. My wife is extremely succeptible to seasickness and there were just a few mild times of quesiness for her. I found the swaying kind of fun, even.
NO COMPLAINTS?
Nope. No complaints for the cruise. Everything met and exceeded our expectations. We highly recommend the Royal Caribbean cruise line. They really seem to care about having a great service and it shows. If there's anything to be disappointed at, it's that it's all over so soon.
As I mentioned before however, I was really disappointed in the air fare and flight itiniery we received. Next time, I'll be more particular about the travel arrangements.
But we loved our vacation and can't wait to do it again.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
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Epinions.com ID:
kfgecko
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 - Top 1000 |
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Location: San Jose, California
Reviews written: 165
Trusted by: 10 members
About Me:
30-something male, born/raised in Northern-California.
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