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Royal Caribbean International

MV Enchantment of the Seas

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Reviewed by: Robert Rose
# previous cruises: 3
Date of Trip: July 6, 2001
Itinerary: Caribbean - Western

This was the second Royal Caribbean cruise my family has taken. We really enjoy cruising. You do not have to book the best rooms to thoroughly enjoy your time on a cruise as you will not spend a lot of time in your room except to dress, sleep and rest. If you have never been on a cruise, you should think about it. If you are afraid of motion sickness, we have yet to experience our first episode of "sea sickness" in our groups and parties. We had a good time on this cruise.

The public areas of this vessel are nice. The Orpheum theater seating is somewhat cramped compared to other cruise lines. The seats are all close and somewhat cramped if you have any size at all. The bar service in the Theater stops once the show begins. Good or bad depending on whether you remembered to order before the lights go down.

The Schooner bar was nice. It was next to the Carousel Lounge. We spent most of our evenings in the Carousel after the shows in the Orpheum Theater. The bar staff in both of these areas was very good.

The casinos did not seem to be overcrowded. Watching the patrons of the casino, there was always a spot at any type of game they were playing for anyone to join in.

There is a promenade deck and it was nice. On this trip, it seemed to be a bit muggy when one would exit the air conditioned comfort of the ship to walk the promenade. It was not crowded and did not seem to be too busy.

The upper deck was also a place to walk and enjoy the moon and water. However it should be noted that the upper decks were often times windy. We seldom saw any other vessels at sea. We did not lounge at the pool, but on my several visits to the pool deck during the cruise, it did not appear to be crowded.

The My Fair Lady dining room is a two level dining room. We were on the upper level. Our service was very good to excellent. Our Head waiter did an exceptional job compared to other cruises and compared to land based facilities. Our table waiter was very good. He was pleasant, amicable and always attentive.

The food was very good, but not as good as we had on the Celebrity Galaxy. The dining room meals were timely served, prepared at the correct temperature, and the presentation was very good. The menu was varied. There was a lot of fish (different types, but salmon of some type almost every night- at times as an appetizer). Steaks were available every day. The salads were varied and good. There was usually a hot and cold soup every day. Desserts were varied and good. The ice cream in the dining room was far superior to the ice cream in the Windjammer cafe.

While I stayed up to see every buffet that was presented (three), I really did not eat much from them. The first buffet was on Monday night. It was served in the galley. This was very interesting to see the "kitchen" of the ship. There was a wide range of things to eat. You would be hard pressed to say there was nothing there that you liked.

The Grand buffet was on Friday night. It was an interesting show. Again, it had a large variety of cheeses, meats, salads, breads, cakes, pies, fruits, vegetables, etc. We nibbled at the desserts and could tell that some of the cruisers were going to try to set the record for the most amount of food to be placed on a plate.

There was a buffet on the upper deck. It was nice. Every other night there were wandering waiters carrying trays of food and sweets for you to eat. They came out at about midnight on the nights without a buffet. The wait persons were friendly, attentive and would come back with whatever you asked them to bring to you if it was not on their trays when they got to you.

The Solarium grill left a bit to be desired. It was more of a swimming pool type of grill. There were hotdogs, burgers, fries and pizza. The burgers were dry and a bit over cooked. The pizza was good.

The Windjammer cafe was were we ate half of our breakfasts. It was a buffet style setup as you entered the door. If you look around a little, you will find the order cooks for eggs, omelettes and waffles. The food was tasty and the correct temperature.

We had adjoining cabins with our children on the Enchantment of the Seas. We had the same set up on the Monarch of the Seas. The rooms on the Enchantment seemed to be a little larger than the Monarch. There was more drawer space. The closet was ample. The beds were good. We had no trouble sleeping. We were in rooms 3110 and 3112 and had windows that were very nice. You could open them at night to watch the sea and the moon go by. Yet, when you pulled the curtains, they were very "light resistant" to the early morning sun. The showers were tight. As the comedian stated, you could use the bathroom, shower and brush your teeth without moving. He was close to being right. The bathroom is small. We were traveling with Scuba gear (BC's, wet suits, fins, regulators, etc. and we could set up drying in the bathroom and cabin with minimal upset of the room. There are safes in the room, which was a great improvement over the save deposit boxes on the Monarch. The hallways were fairly quiet.

Our cabin attendant was very good as well. We never saw him during the cruise except when we were returning from breakfast or early evening. Our rooms were taken care of quite well. We always had ice, fresh towels, fresh glasses and made up beds. No complaints with the cabins or our attendant.

We attended every show that was put on in the Orpheum Theater. The Enchantment of the Seas singers and dancers were good. I enjoyed their numbers up until the closing show. It was a basic repeat of last years close on the Monarch. Oh well, probably the same on all of the RCCL closing shows. The Enchantment of the Seas Orchestra was very good, however they needed to reduce their volume during singing performances to avoid drowning out the singers at times.

The entertainers that were brought aboard were mostly very good and very entertaining. One female singer had a very good voice, but the people I talked to after the show all said that she needed to have a better feel for the audience. Her selection of medlies of songs from Patsy Cline and Barbara Streisand probably had a bit to do with the lack of appeal to our group. The comedians were all funny and had a good time with the audience. The female impressionist singer did not have the voice of the premier singer, but she was good, none the less, as she got the audience into her act.

If comedian Gregory Carey ever comes close to our home, we will go see him. He was truly funny.

The combos that played in the Carousel Lounge, dining room and Champagne bar were all very good. The piano players in the Schooner and dining room were good. We did not really spend much time with the calypso band by the pool, but we were told that they were good as well.

If you are a bit adventurous, definitely go watch and take part in the Westernquest and Battle of the Sexes. There are theme nights that include "Sock Hop", Western night, "Rock and Roll" and Toga parties. They were all well attended and the ones we took part in were all fun.

Bingo is pushed big time.

There are plenty of places to just go and sit down and talk to your friends or family. It never seemed crowded until it was time to leave at disembarkation.

Our itinerary included stops in Key West, Florida; Cozumel, Mexico; Costa Maya, Mexico; and Grand Cayman, BWI.

The ship does not really stay in any of the ports long enough.

However, as for our party, Key West was a flop. We were not in port long enough to take part in Scuba diving and then have time for anything else except getting back to the ship. I am not sure if this is the ship's fault, Scuba operator's fault or a combination of both. The ship's literature for its Scuba excursion listed this as a four hour journey starting at 8:30 a.m. (All guests are to be back aboard the ship by 2:30 p.m. so that the ship can leave at 3:00 p.m.). By our calculations, that got us through the Scuba trip by 12:30 p.m. (1:00 p.m. at the latest). We would then have 1 1/2 to 2 hours to walk around the Key West area and see the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. We even bought tickets for it. When we began the Scuba trip, we waited around the dock by the Enchantment of the Seas for at least fifteen minutes (maybe more). We then took a five minute ride to the dock where the Scuba diving boat should have been. It was not. We then waited another twenty to thirty minutes while some divers geared up and the dive boat was off somewhere fueling up. It should have been waiting fully fueled. It made me think that the operation was a shoe string operation and not a first class operation as it should have been. We got back to the Enchantment at 2:01 p.m. and did not have time to drop our gear and go to the museum before the time required to be back on the ship. The result was a little less than $50.00 thrown away on the museum tickets. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being exceptional) we rated the stop in Key West as a 2.

We were then transported to Cozumel, Mexico. Our family went in two directions here. My wife and daughter went horseback riding with the ships excursion. They had a great time. The ranch hands were very friendly and helpful. They were ready to go back and keep riding. The horses were well behaved and pleasant to ride. My son and I went Scuba diving with the ships excursion. We had a very enjoyable time. The dives were fun. The only down side to the dives were that they pulled you from the second dive with over 500 psi left in your tank when you returned to the boat (Still had bottom time left on the tank). The dive group size at Cozumel was good. They broke us into groups of 6 or 7 divers. We had a good time. On a scale of 1-10, Cozumel rated an 8.

The next port of call was a total disappointment. We were scheduled to take the ships snorkeling excursion, but it canceled the night before we arrived at Costa Maya. The reason given was that there was a problem with the snorkeling site. This was puzzling as there is plenty of ocean for snorkelers to visit. The ship did not give us enough notice to allow us to try to schedule anything else. When we went to the excursion desk after learning of the cancellation that night, the desk was closed. The next morning we went ashore to be further disappointed at the "port". This location is not ready for cruise ships to land here. Another port would have been better. On a scale of 1-10, Costa Maya got a 1.

Grand Cayman BWI was the next stop. It was nice. We had privately arranged via the internet to have a combination dive trip/snorkeling trip set up through DiveTech, Inc. We explained to them that we were coming in with a Cruise and would not be ashore until after 8:30 a.m. They put on an extra boat and held it for us. The reason we did not schedule through the Cruise line was their failure to answer my inquiries via the internet as to the dive sites of their chartered excursions. Given that we wanted to make one wall dive and a dive at Stingray City, we set up our own excursion. It was great. If you enjoy snorkeling or diving and you go here, definitely go to Stingray City if you get the chance. My daughter and son both enjoyed this spot. As an aside, I found out through the dive coordinator that there were over 50 people who had signed up to dive at Grand Cayman and that 20 had to be put on a waiting list. I do not know if they got a chance to dive. If you want to dive Grand Cayman with the ships excursion, sign up on the internet before you get to the cruise. It is my understanding that the cruise dive group went on two wall dives (no trip to see the stingrays). I would not have passed up the opportunity to see Stingray City with my children for a second wall dive. My well experienced dive friends all told me to go to Stingray City as one of my dives. We also got back to the ship in time to drop our gear and take the tender back into Georgetown to do some light shopping. On a scale of 1-10, Grand Caymans got an 8.

We went on this cruise in part to be with a family we met on our last RCCL cruise on the Monarch of the Seas. We have invited each other to come to our homes anytime we are near. They are in New Jersey and we are in Texas. What a match up we made. They speak too fast and we speak too slow. We are now engaged in a cultural exchange.

It was reported that there were approximately 300 children traveling on the cruise and that the cruise had sold out. I noted a wide variety of ages and nationalities. During the open breakfasts and lunches, we did not find anyone who was not having a good time on the cruise.

However, when you only have four stops, you cannot have 50% of them being poor. Another problem I had was that the dive coordinator on board did not respond to a written inquiry. I had my mask break and needed his assistance given we would be diving in the next port. He did not respond to the note at all. I did not appreciate this lack of assistance. I was left to fend for myself upon arrival at Cozumel to find the part. Since I did not know the towns dive shops, I had a taxi bring me to a shop down town and bought a new mask ($70.00). When I got back home, my local dive shop gave me the part for nothing. It was less than a $2.00 part. It would have been nice if he could have helped me find the right shop in Cozumel. The cost is not as bad as the lack of attention to a cruisers needs and the apparent 'it is your problem' attitude will be remembered.

We will cruise again, but I will be looking at other lines that are more responsive.