Smaller ship, but rarely felt crowded & had a good time
Enchantment of the Seas Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
Second Mate
Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 20
5 Night Western Caribbean (Galveston Roundtrip)
Sail date: June 14, 2019
Ship: Enchantment of the Seas
Cabin type: Oceanview
Cabin number: 2630
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 5 years ago
Review summary
We had a great time & would go again for a quick getaway even though we prefer the bigger shipsEmbarkation
Embarkation was very smooth for our group of 6. We had the earliest time of 10:30 & were onboard by 11:15-11:30. We like to get on as soon as possible & start exploring.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
As usual, RC’s food was delicious in most of the venues we tried. The food in the MDR was excellent & there was a great variety of options. Everyone in our group enjoyed their choices - some favorites were the roasted chicken, the lamb shank, prime rib, vegetable korma, pork shank, spaghetti, coconut shrimp. The buffet had tons of choices for everyone, including gluten free choices. The Ranger cookies were to die for. The late night pizza & nachos in the Park Cafe were decent, but not as good as we have gotten on RC before. The only thing we had that wasn’t at least decent was a chocolate mousse dessert we got at Cafe Latte-tudes. It didn’t have a lot of flavor & was a very odd texture,
Onboard Activities
Since Enchantment is a smaller ship, we knew it wouldn’t have as many options as some of the larger ships we have been on. However, we were pleasantly surprised at the number & variety of trivia games because we really enjoy playing trivia. The entertainment staff who were in charge of the games were really funny.
We know the ship was very full, but it never felt like it was extremely crowded. We were able to find multiple lounge chairs in the shade on the top deck each day which was fantastic. The activities around the pool were the typical hairy chest contest, belly flop, etc. But the bands near the pool really need to broaden their musical choices & styles a bit. Literally every song sounded the same & became a little tedious after awhile The flag parade & presentationwas fantastic. We really enjoyed it
Entertainment
We enjoyed the two musical presentations in main lounge. The singers were very good. The bands around the pool were the only ones that seemed to need improvement - the music was very repetitive & sounded the same every day. I
We didn’t stay for the 70’s party & a couple of the others because they were always later at night on nights we needed to be up early the next day, but the parts we did hear seemed really fun. Another kind of odd thing is they rarely used the Spotlight Lounge, which was a much larger & more comfortable venue than Boleros, where they had karaoke scheduled every time.
Service and Staff
Our MDR waiters were fantastic. They took care of any concerns, made sure everyone had extra items they wanted or needed, remembered our drink orders & took special time with my youngest niece.
The waitstaff in the Schooner Bar was also very good. They remembered our drinks & made sure we didn’t run out.
Our room steward was very funny & took good care of us. I was very impressed with the fact that he had no problem stopping a group of teens who were running up & down the hall making a lot of noise at various times of the day & night. Not only did he try to stop them, but he called security when they ignored him & then security took their sea passes to contact their parents. Also, this was the first time that we had a Cruise Director from Texas & it was awesome. Bobby did a great job & was very funny.
Ship Quality
The ship’s layout was very easy to get around in - except constantly having to walk through the smoky casino to get to the main theater. I have asthma, so that was always difficult. I really don’t understand why they can’t put the casino in a place where everyone doesn’t have to walk through to get to main areas. Most areas of the ship were very clean, although it’s apparent that she’s an older ship. However, the staff was constantly working on various locations to. The biggest issue we had was our room a/c went out in the middle of the night & wasn’t repaired until the next night. Luckily, we were in port that day, so we weren’t onboard, but it was quite warm at night a couple of times.
Cabin / Stateroom
We normally get an inside cabin, but decided to get an oceanview because we got a really good price. I am very glad we did because we had a little extra room that our family in the inside cabins didn’t have. The bed was not very comfortable, though, so I would recommend requesting the mattress topper from your steward or bring your own. Also, there’s no refrigerator in this room & there are only two plugs in the room. RC was extremely strict on Enchantment about not bringing any type of extension cord - even ones they have previously allowed - so we had to purchase a tower usb charger that only charges items with usb connections.
Ship tip
Request or bring a mattress topper for the beds.
Thumbs up
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Ports of call
We loved our excursion to Maya Chan - in spite of the amount of sea grass everywhere - but it’s quite a trek to get through the maze at the cruise line owned port & down the street to the meeting place for the vans. The drive to Maya Chan is through the smaller village & the seagrass smells horrible until you get through town. The roads are dirt & pretty rough, but the people & scenery at the resort make up for it. The breezes blew away the odor & the food/drinks were as plentiful as the comfortable shade.
We love Cozumel & have been there 4 times. This time we decided to do a private Jeep tour of the island through ShoreFox Excursions. We had a fantastic time & our guide, Angel, did a great job. We went to the opposite side of the island & saw some of the most gorgeous beaches - even with the seagrass in areas. The only thing that was odd was drinks weren’t included in our lunch that was part of the tour. But it wasn’t that big of a deal & the food was very good.
Disembarkation
This was the strangest disembarkation process we have ever experienced. We always take our own luggage off, so we got up, had breakfast & got our luggage to go to the location on our forms. However, the elevators were not working, so we had to carry all luggage upstairs from 2 to 5, go to the theater at the front, then drag it all outside on the deck to the back of the ship again. Then we had to go back downstairs to 4 & across the ship to the gangway near the atrium. Inside the terminal, we had to go down 3 big ramps before we ever got to the area even near Customs.