Eastern Caribbean
Fort Lauderdale, Day
at Sea, Day at Sea, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Day at Sea, Nassau, Fort
Lauderdale
April 30, 2000 – May
7, 2000
Rick & Emily
Schaffer
Background:
This was our 4th cruise and
our third time sailing with Royal Caribbean. Previous cruises included Star
Princess, Splendour of the Seas & Nordic Empress. We are a couple in our
mid forties. We flew in the day before
from Toronto, Ontario and stayed at the Amerisuites Hotel in Fort Lauderdale.
The hotel was great with a wonderful continental breakfast and free shuttle to
the pier. We enjoyed our stay but my sister and her husband who were also
travelling with us arrived a few hours later at the hotel only to find that
they had been bumped out of their room because of overbooking by the hotel.
There was a doctor’s convention in town. They had confirmed reservations since
Sept/99 and were put up in a lower quality hotel and Amerisuites paid the
bill. They did not appreciate starting
their vacation off on this bad note. They were not notified of the overbooking
until they arrived at the hotel.
Embarkation:
This ship has recently moved from Miami to Fort Lauderdale. Embarkation was the
worst that we have seen. There were many people and long lines and no
organisation to the process. This however was the first time we have not been
able to just walk onto the ship. All of our other cruises though left from San
Juan. I think that this is one area that RCI can improve and it seems to me the
easiest problem to fix. It would just take a little thinking and they could
come up with a smoother process.
Ship: The ship
is really a beautiful vessel. It is just under 3 years old and this was its 143
sailing. The atriums on the RCI ships are truly breathtaking and outstanding.
One of my favourite rooms was the ‘My Fair Lady Dining Room’. It is the nicest
dining room we have seen. I liked the dark woods used in this room and it made
it seem very elegant. We had a lovely table for 6 by one of the large windows
with a great view every evening at dinner. Our dinner companions Madeline &
Doug and new friends Porter and Joanne made dining a pleasure and fun. I found
the ship to be in very good condition and 2 other favourite rooms were the
Carousel Lounge and Orpheum Theatre. Okay… I had read on many other reviews
about the vibration on this ship. Did not notice it at all in the dining room
but did in our cabin. We were located deck 2 towards the bow of the ship &
this vibration was especially noticeable at night. It did not deter from the
cruise in any way. The casino aboard this ship was one of the nicest. It had an
under sea/pirate theme with some very good décor. Of course it was not my
favourite because of the donations I had to make L
Availability of deck
chairs became scarce after 10 a.m. Most
dedicated sunbathers were out well before this time. My sister and her husband
visited the gym 3 of the mornings on ship and said that it was quite crowded
morning and afternoon especially on sea days. Most of the poolside games took
place at this pool and for a quieter poolside experience the Solarium pool was
a better choice.
Food: This was
another area that I had read negative things about on both the Enchantment and
RCI in general. Everyone at our table was completely satisfied and happy with
the food. It was much better than our previous RCI cruise on Nordic Empress.
The menu had changed and was more streamlined and actually more choices with
certain items being offered ‘a la carte’ every evening like salmon &
chicken. All the steak entrées were
excellent and cooked to perfection, as were the pasta dishes. Even in the Windjammer Café where it was
much maligned we found the food to be good and of great variety. You must
remember that this is buffet. Breakfast items always included cereals hot and
cold, juice, coffee, yoghurt, fresh fruit, eggs, bacon, pancakes and made to
order
omelettes at the
omelette bar. These were very good as my husband had this item a couple of
times. The coffee however in the
Windjammer was terrible. It was a bit better in the evening in the dining room.
For all you Canadians out there leave it to say we could not wait to get back
so we could enjoy a ‘Tim Horton’s‘ coffee.
We also dined in the dining room 2 mornings for breakfast and found the
breakfast good as well. The service in
the dining room was excellent. Our waiter Gilberto Santo from Portugal was
quite efficient, as was assistant waiter Leonel. I ordered wine most evenings and the wine steward was quite
knowledgeable and friendly. The wait staff did do their singing at dinner on
Italian night and International night as well as the ‘Flaming babaloo’ parade
on Caribbean night. I really enjoy this and it makes for great photo
opportunities. Desserts were yummy as well and my favorites were the white
truffle chocolate cake and chocolate soufflé with amaretto sauce.
Cabin: Our
cabin was wonderful. This was our first time being in an outside cabin thanks
to a last minute upgrade at a lesser price than the inside we had originally
booked. We thoroughly enjoyed it. It was quite spacious and about the largest
we have had even including our cabin on Star Princess. The décor was soft
blues, peach and mauve with lots of storage space and large mirror to make the
room appear larger. The twin beds when moved together made a queen-size bed and
was quite comfortable to sleep. In fact my sister remarked she had some of her
best sleeps on the ship and this was her first cruise. Our cabin steward was
Benito from Nicaragua and was very efficient and friendly. We saw him every day
and he always asked if everything was okay and addressed us by our names
always. I really had no complaints about the cabin or the service here. We had a nice complimentary bottle of wine
waiting from our travel agent Anita and we used it to go up on deck to toast
our departure from Fort Lauderdale.
Entertainment: Overall we were pleased with the entertainment.
I was especially excited to get to see Gary Puckett from Gary Puckett and the
Union Gap (late 60’s era) He still had a decent voice and sang all his old
songs “Lady Willpower’, ‘Young Girl’, & ‘This Girl is a Women Now’ to name
a few. I especially enjoyed the illusionists ‘La Raf’ even though I am not a
magic buff. They were quite entertaining and left you wondering how they did
some of that stuff. I had previously seen them on another RCI ship Splendour of
the Seas about 3 years ago and liked them much better this cruise. Thought that
the production show ‘Sweat Dreams’ was kind of mellow and not as upbeat as I
would have liked. I much preferred the Flashback show later in the week. The
dancers on board were excellent. The Novel Quest game was funny and thought
some people were going to break a leg trying to get up to the front. As usual
the Not So Newlywed Game was hilarious but with a better cruise director this
show could have been even funnier. I was amazed at the number of people who
volunteered to participate in this game all for a bottle of wine.
Shore Excursions:
Since we had been to all the ports except Nassau we only took 1 ship sponsored shore excursion. In St.
Maarten we tendered in and required tender tickets. I had previously made reservations
for a car rental on my own and the
gentleman was expecting me at 8:30 am. They usually let off people who have
purchased ship shore excursions but I managed to get on the first tender and
arrived in St. Maarten about 9 a.m. I rented my car in St. Maarten from St.
Louis Car Rental from Marius. He gives excellent service and met me at the pier
with my name on a sign and I rented the vehicle for $37.00 per day. I would not
hesitate to recommend Marius. Please e-mail me for his address if contemplating
renting a vehicle in St. Maarten. We shared the rental with my sister and it
ended up being cost effective. We drove over to Marigot to the weekly Wednesday
market for some shopping and then over to Orient Beach. I love this beach and
this day it was not that crowded and just a perfect day. Chair rentals are
$6.00 each and $3.00 for an umbrella.
The prices will vary by 2 –3 dollars depending on who you rent them
from. After some beach time we drove back to Philipsburg for some shopping and
to drop the car off to Marius who was there waiting promptly at 4:30 p.m.
In St. Thomas we
walked to the Paradise Tram and went up for the view. This costs $12.00 per
person and after we grabbed a taxi into Charlotte Amalie for some shopping. A
great place downtown is the Crown & Anchor Society Rest area. It is located
in Hibiscus Alley and is a lovely room for Royal Caribbean guests and all they
have to do is show their blue supercharge card. It has lovely décor and is air
conditioned and has restrooms to use. They also sell cold drinks and have nice
sitting areas with T.V.s and lockers to leave parcels. Worth a visit and we
have been there all 3 times when we have sailed with Royal Caribbean. We
returned to the ship barely in time to grab our shore excursion to St. John’s
for snorkelling and beach time. Trunk Bay is a wonderful beach so pristine. It
is actually National Park land and has an underwater marked snorkelling trail.
In Nassau contrary to
what many people do we went ashore. We had never been and as soon as we were
off the ship we grabbed a taxi for $5.00 each and had the driver take us to
Paradise Island to a public beach. The beach was wonderful and the water was
great for body surfing. We were not haggled that much at all a lot less than I
thought we would be. We stayed about 3 hours and then walked 5 minutes over to
the Atlantis Casino Resort to their casino. I was not overly impressed with the
casino. The parts of the grounds at the Atlantis that I saw looked
breathtaking. All in all we had a great time in Nassau and I guess it just
depends what you do.
This & That:
·
Tried the wine
tasting and they charged $9.95 per person but gave you a copy of the RCI Drink
Recipe Book. We felt that this was
overpriced as the Compass said a nominal fee would be charged. We enjoyed the
tasting as we had never tried this before. Got a chance to sit and visit with
new found internet pal Dee and her husband Don.
·
All specialty
drinks on board were quite yummy. Some of our favourites were Love Connection,
BBC, Kaluacinno (sp) and of course Pina Colada.
·
If you enjoy
wine with dinner it is worth your while to look into the ‘Wine & Dine’
Program. This enables you to have a bottle of wine every night at dinner that
you preselect for a cost of $109.00 plus gratuity
·
Tried the internet
café located on deck 8 and e-mailed a quick message to friends and co-workers
just to rub it in about the great time I was having.
·
2 brides got
married on board and we saw one bride in her white dress, veil and bright
orange life preserver heading for the muster station. That was quite a sight.
·
Signs are posted
at all whirlpools/hot tubs about not allowing children under 12. My husband
witnessed an unfortunate incident where 2 children ages about 10 & 6 years
in a whirlpool with some adults. The children were playing and splashing each
other and one of the adults asked them to stop the splashing but they
continued. The children’s father, who
was not watching them, got very angry that someone would tell his children what
to do and a verbal argument ensued with cursing and swearing in front of many
people including children. The children’s father tried to get the adult out of
the pool for a fight. Security
was called and had to diffuse the situation. Those children should not have
even been in that whirlpool as posted on the signs but RCI did nothing to
enforce this rule. Some parents do not care what their children do or where
they are. This father in fact sent the children back into the hot tub. If they
post these signs then the public should abide the rules and RCI should enforce
them. That day in particular children overran the hot tubs.
·
Was able to meet
up with friends I have met on the internet on different cruise sites. The
different cruise sites are great places to hook up with people on the same sailing.
Hellos to Dee & Don and her group as well as Mike & Kim and their
children. Hope you had a wonderful cruise as well. It was great meeting you.
Summary: This cruise
was everything I expected it to be. Was very pleased with the Royal Caribbean
product and would cruise with them again. I was expecting to be disappointed in
the food and dining experience because of recent reviews I had read on the
Internet but it was great. It just goes
to show you that you must read all reviews with a grain of salt and only use it
as a guide. This however was my 3rd
consecutive cruise with RCI and I am ready for a change of cruise line and
different itinerary. Would not hesitate to recommend Enchantment or Royal
Caribbean. Great Cruise experience! Cruising is the best!!