2013 - Girls' Weekend on the Enchantment of the Seas - Part I

This year, the cast of characters was me, my friend Jane, and my sister-in-law Amary. The plan: fly to Orlando on the 22nd, check in to the Radisson, enjoy a day at their facilities, then embark on the Enchantment of the Seas for a 3 day cruise to the Bahamas, the following day.

The start was simple enough; Amary and I met Jane at the airport, and flew down to Orlando. The flight was WestJet, and they kept apologizing that the TV's hadn't been installed on the plane, yet. We didn't care, and the flight was fine, although, I think you get a little more room on Air Canada. The flight was a little late taking off ("paper work"). We were met at the airport by our driver, and driven to the Radisson. The ride was fine, and the check-in was a breeze. The pool renovations had already started, so parts were a bit more unsightly than we were accustomed to, and the waterfall was turned off. Aside from that, it was fine.

We had dinner at Thai Thai across the street: they have amazing things like crispy duck and lobster pad thai. They also have really good sushi.

We enjoyed a leisurely evening by the pool, capped off with perfect Irish coffees in the lobby and went to bed.

We spent the morning by the pool after a buffet breakfast, and then headed over to the pier around 11. I really love Royal Caribbean. Breeze through security, practically sprint through check in, and then straight on to the ship, before 11:30.

The Enchantment is a beautiful ship, with many attractive features, and fine entertainment options.  We had a quick look around, and then headed up to the Windjammer for the main lunch option (you could also get roast beef sandwiches in the Solarium, and snacks at the coffee shop), but mostly it was the Wind Jammer. We did find it over-crowded, and would like to suggest over-flow feeding in the main dining room.

Soon after lunch, we could go to our room. We then headed to the Solarium for a nice soak. The pool was a little cold, but it was nice and deep and fairly uncrowded. We had a wonderful woman with a good teacher voice sternly ordering children away. We thanked her. The thing I found amazing was that there were no parents visible for these youngsters.

After that, it was time to get dressed for muster drill. It is incredible to me how people can think it's okay to disobey maritime law, and inconvenience everyone else by forcing them to wait for the "no-shows". There were also a couple of eye-rolling moments where people were at the wrong station for most of the drill, only realizing when it was almost over and we had repeated our muster station number many times, that they were in the wrong place.

We went back to our balcony room for Sail-Away, leaving only briefly for another round, since room service said they would take an improbable amount of time to deliver 3 drinks. I gather the Enchantment's room service department is understaffed, because we tried to order one more time at 11:30 pm, and were informed that, not only would it take an hour, but they would charge us the late night fee because they could not deliver before midnight. We never did get room service. I am thinking this may not be practical on a 3 day cruise.

Dinner was good, and the service was attentive. And after dinner we went to the Welcome Aboard show (entertaining), and the Schooner Bar, for the sing-along piano (so fun).