7 Night Western Carribean on Enchantment of the Seas

Item: Enchantment of the Seas
Rating: 4.7
Author: JaredWF

Enchantment of the Seas Cruise Review

JaredWF

Contributor Level: First Mate

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Reviews: 7

Helpful Votes: 86

Overall rating:

4.7 out of 5

7 Night Western Caribbean (Tampa Roundtrip)

Sail date: December 09, 2023

Ship: Enchantment of the Seas

Traveled as: Singles/Friends

Reviewed: 10 months ago

Review summary

I would highly recommend for anyone looking to go to Mexico on a small ship. The RCL quality of large ships is still there but minus the floating city aspect. For a ship built in 1997, it still looks clean and is in good working order. If you like Mayan ruins, the 7 day itinerary we did is great as there are multiple archeological sites at 3 of the 4 ports.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Was quick and painless. From drop off to ship was less than 20 minutes!

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

RCL always pleases with the food, having great quality in the Main Dinning Room, Windjammer buffet, and the available snacks.

Windjammer Cafe

5 out of 5

Didn't eat here often, but the food spread is pretty good. Breakfast is the same every night with different items for lunch. Dinner is tied to the menu in the MDR so on Italian night there will be Italian options at the buffet.

My Fair Lady Dining Room

4 out of 5

The food was good, as usual with RCL. I like Indian food, so sometimes the Indian dish they offered every night were very tempting, and I got the spicy shrimp jalfrezi, which was good. I just wish they had more of the region specific foods with the new themed menus they are doing, as they have not many selections for the theme each night. Also, get rid of American night and Bon Voyage night. I would have rather had one of the other themed country menus.

Solarium with Solarium Bar

5 out of 5

Very nice pool! There is actually decent pool and hot tub space on this small ship, however, they would close a lot of them at night.

Park Cafe

5 out of 5

Late night pizza ( I wish it was open later than 1am so you could get some after the club closes). It has a salad bar and roast carving station, but other than that same snack items as the other free snack location.

Ben and Jerry/Latte-Tudes

5 out of 5

Nice place to grab snacks as they are free, plus premium ice cream for an ok price.

Viking Crown Lounge

5 out of 5

Love these lounges that overlook the ships. Great views during the day and a quiet place to relax that turns into a nightclub later on.

Schooner Bar

5 out of 5

The Rocket Fuel drink was pretty good. Apparently, you can only get it at the Schooner Bar.

Chop's Grille

5 out of 5

Had lunch as it was 40% off for $15 a person. I had the beef carpaccio, filet mignon, tater tots + mac & cheese, and red velvet cake. It was delicious, the sides, however, were just ok. If you can find it on sale, the lunch for $15 is a good value, in my opinion!

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

It's a small ship, so don't expect much like an Oasis class. There was a hyperlink thing for 18-25 year olds that almost nobody showed up to (the guide didn't even show up the first night), but we hit it off with the people that did come. Having an indoor pool was nice, especially when the weather got bad on the way back.

Rock Climbing Wall

5 out of 5

Decent rock climbing wall with speed climbs and bouldering challenges during the cruise.

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Shows were meh, movie selctions were good. Night club and DJ were great, though at the start of the cruise, it didn't even show up on the app, only on the TV, so not many people came the first night or two. The Viking Crown Lounge is a nice nightclub venue.

Orpheum Theater

4 out of 5

Theater is nice. The shows were somewhat lackluster, like the show about "the history of rock" having very little rock music in it. The movie selctions were good, however.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Staff were always cheerful and friendly!

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

2nd smallest ship in the fleet I have been on. It's an older ship from 1997, but it has been kept up well. It looked like decent effort was put into keeping it clean and maintained.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Standard interior cabin. Not much noise to be heard, even with being right behind the forward stairs and elevator bank.

Ship tip

Don't worry about it being a small or old ship. We barely had time to realize there was not much to do with our busy itinerary. A great ship for a cheap Tampa sailing if you don't like floating city ships like the Oasis class!

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Cozumel, Mexico

5 out of 5

Did the discover suba diving excursion via Shore Excursions Group. It was great! Dive instructors were very helpful and took extra time to help those in our group who were having issues. The marine park you dive at is close to the international pier and was full of many fish and coral. After that, we went snack shopping at a Soriana along the way back to the port. It's maybe a 5 minute walk. The ship docked at the north pier, not the international pier. Idk if it is this way every time.

Thumbs Up 0

Belize City, Belize

5 out of 5

Went to see Xunantunich via RCL, and it was great! We did the excursion that included lunch. We got to climb the tallest structure (El Castillo), which was definitely an experience!

Thumbs Up 0

Costa Maya (Mahahual), Mexico

5 out of 5

Went to see Chachoben via Shore Excursions Group. Only had 4 people on our tour and our guide David was the best! The excursion also included a traditional lunch.

Thumbs Up 0

Tampa, Florida

5 out of 5

It's Tampa. I like the terminals less than the ones here in Port Canaveral.

Thumbs Up 0

Coxen Hole, Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras

4 out of 5

There's not much to do in Roatan. We did the RCL east end and cultural tour. Not really anything to write home about, but it's a good way to connect more with the locals and culture.

Thumbs Up 0

Disembarkation

3 out of 5

Was confusing trying to get off the ship, and it took about an hour to get off and through customs. They disabled the elevators so you could not get off on the deck where everyone was leaving from, so you had to find the end of the line and lug your bags down the stairs from deck 5 to 4.