11/01/08

By Shaunna

• November 14, 2008

We arrived early in port to board and things went relatively quickly. Being our very first cruise we really had no idea what to expect. We brought bathing suits in our carry on luggage but visiting the pool was out of the question. We had too much exploring to do. We spent about an hour going over our Cruise Compass for the day. We went to arrange internet access and then the Windjammer.

Living in Las Vegas we are used to a wide variety of buffets. They do them extremely well here in some casinos..not so good in others. I have read the prior reviews for the Windjammer so expected the buffet from Heaven. We were a bit disappointed. It was just food to us and sometimes cold and stale. We ate there for lunch every day and a couple of breakfasts. No one was friendly and we never ever had anyone offer to refill our drinks. Maybe the crew switched out and we had the B team. The item choices didn't change much and most of the time the drinks (juices and punch) were watered down. I really was unimpressed. I'd find one or two items that were not cold or hard and take comfort in that I could eat as much of those as I wanted. Some of deserts were very good.

The food in the dining room was only slightly better. It seemed the portions got smaller as the nights went by. Every now and then an item would be somewhat good so it was likely just our luck in picking the wrong items. The wait staff was OUTSTANDING! We never wanted for anything. I was very pleased and looked forward to going to dinner every night just to be waited on by them.

Please know we are possibly just too critical about food. We have been searching to figure out why the food seemed so awful to us. My husband says it's because we live in Las Vegas and used to robust buffets so our objective is skewed. I just do not know. Maybe we just had bad luck with the food. It must happen from time to time..maybe it was a "leftover" cruise this time. I will mention that we tried room service toward the end of our cruise and it was VERY good. We will remember to try that more. It was like it came from a different kitchen or chef. My husband had a gym glass with a couple of other people and they were complaining about the food too. I will say that a hidden gem to us was that the pizza in the Solarium late night was awesome. We'd hit there often just to get a good late night snack and a more than health dose of humidity..LOL. We finally got smart and just took it up to our room.

Entertainment was very good. The first night's show in particular. Their singers and dancers rival some of the smaller acts here in Las Vegas. My husband was not as impressed as me in that opinion but he did think they were good. I was ABSOLUTELY BLOWN AWAY by the lead singer who had just turned 20. Yes, Omar we love you. We ran into him at the Captain's Reception and I likely made a complete idiot of myself gushing to him on how good he is. I just cannot believe at his age he can sing like that. It's not just his voice but HOW he sings. He expresses what he is singing completely. He was amazing. The other couple of entertainment acts we could have done without but who can pass an opportunity to sit and watch a show and have drinks right?

The game shows the Cruise Director put on were really funny. I thought the Cruise Director, Marc was excellent. He was witty and entertaining. His staff seemed outstanding as well. Kudos all the way around. We danced a lot and were quite entertained as we brushed up on our Cha Cha, Line, and Swing dancing. We used to take dancing classes about 10 years ago. Boy have we forgotten a lot. My husband was into collecting vitality awards which were little awards handed out if you attended any fitness related activities so he could get a t-shirt AND keychain at the end of the cruise. He seemed also to really enjoy the fitness equipment and ran some on the deck as well.

The internet area was a joke. Many computers were down and we complained to guest services about that. Not a big deal but the faucet in the bathroom coming off in my husband's hand was. Our room steward also left a lot to be desired. He was awful. We complained about towels disappearing and he never ever got the picture. Our table mates at dinner would tell us of these tales of how their room steward actually replaced towels and fulfilled their every want and desire so we know it exists..just not on our deck.

I feel really bad in that we had lousy food and service in our room but the entertainment and cruise director staff seemed to make up for much of that. The ship experience was wonderful and she was stunning. The Enchantment of the Seas is an absolutely beautiful ship and I have no regrets in choosing Royal Caribbean for our first cruise. We had a spectacular time and let the pros out weigh the cons. This is our first cruise so what do we know? I do know that people are people and we could easily go on this ship again and have an outstanding room steward.

We were kept very well informed and enjoyed the information on the television. Leaving for shore excursions seemed to go very smooth. Leaving the ship had a couple of snags but that was out of the ship's control. Customs came to a halt for some reason so everyone was delayed. Once we got going again everything went very quickly. They obviously have that down to an art. One oddity I noticed is that they authorized more than double on all of our charges. I do not know if that is normal but I thought it odd. We checked after to make sure the bill hit correctly and that is when we noticed nearly an extra thousand dollars of pending authorizations even after the original balance posted.

I guess all in all I'd have to give the Enchantment of the Seas three and a half stars out of five. We had the time of our lives and look forward to many more cruises. Hopefully some with good food next time.