Enchantment of the Seas - May 3, 2013 - 3 night Bahamas

This last weekend Denise and I went on a 3 day sailing to the Bahamas of Enchantment of the Seas and overall it was a very great experience.

The Good

• The Ship is in AMAZING shape, this was my third sailing on the Enchantment and it was probably the nicest the ship has been.  I went in 1998 (my first Royal Caribbean cruise) and again in October 2009.  I was not expecting much from the ship, but with the new revitalizations they just completed in December it's a much better experience.  Everything is new and upgraded to the best of their abilities.  Going on this I was expecting it to be like the old Monarch of the Seas which is no longer part of the Royal Caribbean fleet, and was very happily surprised to see that my assumptions were wrong.
• The customer service was outstanding.  We had a very minor issue where there was flooding from one of the adjoining rooms that was causing our carpet to be soaked.  We told the suite attendant just to let them know and hopefully get it dried up.  They went ahead and not only cleaned it up but offered us a 30% refund on the sailing in the form of a future cruise credit.  Since we were planning on booking two new sailings on board this was a great surprise and awesome treat for us!
• The Diamond Lounge is great!  I can't speak enough for how wonderful this addition has been to their line, it basically allowed me to drink for free each day (as long as I was willing to wait until 5pm to start drinking).  Not only that, but it provides a concierge option to those of us who have sailed a lot, but not enough to join the true concierge lounge left for Diamond Plus and the higher level suites.



Our beautiful and spacious balcony!

• We had a very spacious suite on the aft of the ship with an extra large balcony.  It really gave us a great view of where we'd been and as we backed in to port at Nassau it was fun to see how the ship maneuvered in to it's dock.
• We got a free bottle of champagne from our travel agent, it's a minor thing but it really adds a great touch to the trip.  We went through AAA travel agency this time and could not be happier with the services they provided and will definitely be using them again.
• This cruise left from Port Canaveral, that's always a plus since it's just more than an hour away from our house.  One of the things we look for when booking trips are that they leave from Canaveral and Tampa and with fewer and fewer sailings leaving from Tampa it seems like Canaveral is going to continue to be our preferred departure port.
• We were able to walk right off the ship thanks to our Diamond status.  The walk off line for Diamond members was almost 0 while the line for others was probably a good 100-200 people deep.  From when we left our cabin till we were off the ship and in our car was less than 10 minutes.  That kind of efficiency can't be beat
• The suite had an iPad there for use, it came loaded up with a lot of classic books and several movies and TV shows that were available for purchase.  It was a really nice and neat touch that we didn't take advantage of but definitely something that I could see being very useful.

The Bad

• Tendering at Coco Cay, I can't stand having to tender so I wouldn't have gotten off the ship even if I felt like laying on the beach all day.   I can't believe they haven't built a doc here for their ships like they have in Labadee
• The food was just not up to par, we didn't eat in the dining room at all, but I still expect more from Windjammer.  In the end most of my dinners were from the appetizers offered at the Diamond Lounge



Denise putting on a brave face when
she was feeling awful

• Denise was sick from the start, she was having stomach issues and just did not feel like being out and about on the ship.  This put a huge damper on our trip since it was supposed to be a trip for just the two of us it was hard to have fun while she was spending most of her time in bed with stomach pains.  That being said she did a great job of walking around Nassau with me and getting out from time to time, including some time in the casino.
• Parking at the port was a little pricey, $60 for a 3 night cruise.  We could have done off property parking and taken a shuttle but with how Denise was feeling we didn't want to risk that.  Still if this is the price we have to pay for them to upgrade the port for bigger (Oasis please) ships then I'll deal with it.

Overall Impression

I have to give this cruise very high marks, the ship was in great shape and the crew was very friendly and helpful throughout.  Despite Denise's sickness I had a really good time and enjoyed the weekend!  I definitely would go back on Enchantment for another quick weekend getaway out of Port Canaveral.