Is Subman a traitor? The 10 Day Enchantment of the Seas TR on RCCL!!

[ashman]

My dad very graciously bought a cruise for my mom, my sister and her husband, and my family. They don't like to fly so they wanted to do a cruise that they could drive to. He bought a 9 night cruise sailing out of Norfolk with RCCL which is about a 2 hour drive for them. When he was looking to set it up he asked me if it was okay. My dad is a big dreamer and gets a certain vision in his mind and I didn't want his feelings to get hurt. I told him that would be great but suggested that he wait until we got closer to the sail date to tell the girls. We have all gone through the HOW MANY DAYS LEFT thing haven't we!

So my dad starts talking to my kids "hypothetically" about us all going on a cruise together with another line. He then begins to spout off all these things that is great about an RCCL cruise. My kids would counter every point with something about a DCL cruise that they loved. My youngest closed the conversation with, "Well Disney shoots fireworks off their ship, they are the ONLY cruise line in the whole WORLD that can do that!"

Needless to say, this wasn't going well for my dad! I had a conversation with him later and I tried to make it easier for him. I reminded him that the only cruise line he has ever been on has been RCCL, every cruise experience he is ever going to have is going to be seen through that lens. I pointed out that the girls were the same way only their lens was DCL. I told him it would be fine, we would have a great time just let the girls enjoy it as it comes.

With that in mind he set the cruise up. My only caveat was it would be understood that at each port, everyone was free to do what they wanted to do. No pressure to go or not go on a certain excursion. We would try to get together every night for dinner and share our day with each other.

Some now are calling FOuL FOUL TRAITOR! You are leaving DCL Shubman, SHAME on you! What's a guy to do? Dad is springing for a free cruise heck yeah I'm going! Now we just have to wait until our sail date and get to the ship, nice and easy right? Weeeeellllllll if you have EVER read one of my trip reports be for, you know it is never going to be just that simple. To find out more tune in to the next chapter to see what happens on the way to the ship!

 

[GreatDaneMom]

Enjoy your cruise! My family enjoys RCCL as much as DCL. It's different but still a nice cruise.

 

[Tinkerkell123]

Hey, a free cruise??? Are you kidding?? I would go too! Have fun and can't wait to read more...

So how many days left til you leave for RCCL?

 

[ashman]

We got dogs, love our dogs but dogs a cruises just don't match. If we could convince the RCCL folks that they were service animals and tried to pull it off, somebody is going overboard! So we gotta line something up for the dogs, since it is almost two weeks we don't want to board them that would break the bank! So we contact our friends who have house/dog sat for us in the past to see if they can help us out. Sadly they cannot . My wife talks with her mom who lives about 2 hours away and she agrees to watch our dogs if we will do the same a week later after our cruise. This will mean driving up to their house 2 hours the night before and then 5 hours to Norfolk instead of a 4 hour straight shot. Not terribly excited about that but it is our best option right now. A few days later our friends say they CAN do it but it would mess things up with my in-laws. So on Wed the 2nd I finish with my last day of post-planning as a teacher. I get home, my wife has the car loaded and ready to go. We get to my in-laws visit for a while and hit the sack. We've got a long drive ahead.

The next day we are up and on the road by 7:30. In the past, our "day of" strategy has been to get to the ship as quick as possible and get to the pools as quick as possible. As this is a 9 night cruise, there isn't as much of a sense of urgency. We are fine with getting to the terminal afternoon. Now my in laws live at Smith Mountain Lake and there are no real "direct" routes to the Norfolk pier. we take a lot of two lane country highways to get to Richmond. Our route takes us past Appomattox Court House and the history buff in me wants to stop as I have never been but that will have to wait for another day. We negotiate our way around Richmond and its infernal toll roads. Ironically the roads are crappier on the toll part than the free part.

We have been to the peninsula several times and the girls are recognizing several landmarks. We cross under the river tunnel and I tell the kids our ship will be crossing over it in a few hours. We snake our way downtown to the pier area. Norfolk is a tricky place, it goes from nice to very dicey in a matter of a few blocks. The parking lot for the pier is 14 blocks away from the ship itself! We find the parking lot and load up on the shuttle bus. A few moments later we are in the terminal getting checked in. The kids comment that they haven't seen a lot of other kids. I tell them not to worry its gonna be fun. We get checked in, get our pictures taken and before you know it we are one the gangway heading up to the ship! To find out what happens next...... stay tuned!

 

[ashman]

Hey, a free cruise??? Are you kidding?? I would go too! Have fun and can't wait to read more...

So how many days left til you leave for RCCL?

We actually got back a week ago. It just occurred to me to start the TR. thanks for reading!

 

[CRUIZEN MAMMA]

Have loved reading your DCL TRs. I am looking forward to seeing how your girls did on RCL -We are going on our 3rd DCL in November, and have been tossing the idea around of trying another cruise line- either for Alaska or out of another port-but I love seeing the world through the eyes of Disney

 

[ashman]

Warning! Please read and agree to the following before continuing in this trip report!​

As I get into the nitty gritty of this trip report I will be making a lot of comparisons between RCCL and DCL. Many of these comparisons will be a matter of my personal opinion. The opinions stated in the foregoing trip report reflect those of the author only. They do not represent the opinion of www.disboards.com, the moderators, The Walt Disney Company, Mickey Mouse or God himself. If you can live with that, please keep reading, just remember you've been warned.

 

[ashman]

As we are waiting in line to get scanned on board for the first time, my youngest calls my sister to let her know we are there. They are literally running up the gangway at breakneck speed, we turn the corner and I see my folks and my sister. We give them all great big hugs and I take my first look at the ship and at first glance, I was underwhelmed. The entrance to the Enchantment of the Seas (EOS) is an open space called the Centrum which stretches from the 4th deck to the 9th. It is pretty with a lot of marble and brass but it felt very cramped compared to the Wonder. I think part of that was due to immediately after you get on board there were several tables trying to sell you something, the soda plan, the juice plan, the water plan, the spa. I knew about all that stuff ahead of time but seeing it right there was kinda like, "Yep you thought it was a good deal but what about the extras" Also you don't really realize how cool the name announcement is until you go on another cruise and don't have it.

It is about 1:30 and we are all standing around, that real awkward moment where no one wants to make a decision because they don't want to seem bossy. After a while, I decided I could live with it. We hadn't eaten since 6:30 that morning, my family of four was getting something to eat! The staterooms weren't ready yet and my folks and sis brought a few sherpas worth of carry ons, we had one backpack. My sister and mom go up top with us while my dad and BIL stay with the stuff.

Lunch is pretty good but I don't get too much. We have early seating and no since getting stuffed knowing dinner is right around the corner. After lunch we explore the ship a bit. EOS is about the same size of the Wonder and went into service about the same time. We checked out the kids area and it was nice but it couldn't hold a candle to DCL kid spaces, I knew it, my wife knew, my kids knew it but we didn't say anything about it!

Here is a shot of my kids and my mom:

Soon it was time for the safety muster, here was one area that I thought was plus compared to DCL, you don't have to wear your life-vest to the drill, which makes it much more comfortable! After the drill, We hit the deck area for the sail away party and it was, as the kids like to say these days, and epic fail! They blew the ships horn, which was of course just a horn. There were very few people in the area. The Activities director tried to get people going but the crowd just wasn't into it yet. They tried to teach some sort of dance to some folks that ended with an over the top pelvic thrust and sexual grunt. I'm no prude but I didn't want my kids around that. We headed towards the back of the ship where we got the first round of smoothies!:

Soon it is time for dinner in the "My Fair Lady" Dining room
Warning Classics Geek Alert!
Did you know that the story of My Fair Lady was lifted/borrowed/plagiarized/stolen from the Greek myth of Pygmalion and Galatea, the story of a sculptor (Professor Higgins) who falls in love with his creation (Liza), we now return to our regularly scheduled trip report, already in progress.

We meet our waiter Ronald from the Philippines, Darius from Lithuania and Head Waiter Mota (he would turn out to be the best head waiter I have ever had on any cruise). Dinner is prime rib which suits us just fine! After dinner we look at the shops and make out way to the evening show. It is 15 minutes before show time and it is packed! Not a seat to be found, unless you count the ones reserved for the "diamond plus and diamond members" the top echelon of repeat cruisers for RCCL. The theatre seats about 700-750 which is way below the number of people who can go to a seating. I guess they banked on others doing other things, not that night! We decide to turn in, i has been a long day and there is plenty of time ahead of us. Day one is done!

 

[Disneygrl36]

I've read your other 2 trippies in the last couple of days (just booked a Dream cruise & needing a cruise fix) so thought I would jump on board for this one. I have never sailed another cruise line so should be interesting to see how it compares.

Now I know there probably isn't a shub so what silly pic are we going to get this time?

 

[ashman]

This cruise sailed out of Norfolk. Sail away was kinda neat as you get to go by the Naval Yard. Saw a couple of aircraft carriers, Aegis cruisers and some others I couldn't identify. It would take our ship 2.5 days of sailing to reach our first port (San Juan at 2:30). Our first morning I work up early, like 5:45. This is an annoying habit I have based on a crazy internal clock that gets me up even on vacation. We had an outside view stateroom comparable to a Cat 9 on a Disney cruise but the stateroom was much smaller an not nearly as much "sitting space". Not wanting to wake my sleeping beauties, got dressed and hit the deck for a two mile walk. It was a glorious morning with a fantastic sunrise on the port side and a real nice rainbow on the starboard. I really enjoyed that time. A bit later I head back to the room and the girls are up. We meet my mom for breakfast in the Windjammer (the ship's equivalent to Beach Blanket/Topsiders). The entire trip was blessed with some of the calmest seas I have ever been on. I was expecting a choppier ride because we were in open Ocean, not the Caribbean Sea, and we had to go so fast.

The order for the day for our kids was swimming and lots of it. They wanted to do the bungee trampolines but despite posted hours, it was closed due to wind (the same was true the day before in port in Norfolk) but swimming was just fine. This ship has three pools. On the main part of the deck there is a salt water pool and a freshwater pool. They also have a "Quiet Cove" type place called the Solarium, no kids allowed. So we stayed in the other areas. In terms of space and "swimming depth" the EOS gets a slight nod as the Mickey Pool isn't really a swimming pool it is a "splashing pool" but the slide was definitely missed. The deck was packed but we were able to score some chairs near the pool. I guess chair saving is a big issue on RCCL, or at least this ship, as there were numerous signs telling people not to save chairs. A few also warned that personal items left unattended for more than 30 minutes would be collected by the staff and left at the pool attendant's desk!

Another thing very different than DCL. On the DCL cruise, fresh pool towels (and bins to put used towels) are prevalent all over the pool deck. On RCCL, you have to "check out" towels by swiping your Seapass Card (their version of Key To The World card). You can exchange towels anytime you like but you have to wait in line and do so with the attendant. If you do not check your towels back in by the end of the cruise, you get dinged $20 a towel! . We made sure that the kids knew not to just throw the towels in the bin. I overheard at least one family "discussion" where another family threw a towel in but didn't check it in and the fun that ensued over the inevitable $20 ding.

We took a break a little after noon to grab some lunch. The girls had to go grab coverups so we could go to the Windjammer for lunch. IMO this ship was pretty limited in dining options. You had the main dining room, Windjammer, room service, Portofinos (specialty restaurant for a fee), Ben and Jerry's (for a fee), Seattle's Best Coffee (for a fee [tangentially, I had some, if that is their best I would hate to taste their worst!]), and there was some food available in the Solarium (poorly conceived IMO as it was an area that kids weren't supposed to be in there but they were sorta allowed to get food ). Compare that to DCL ships with three rotating dining rooms, Beach Blanket/Topsiders, room service, Palos (for a fee), Quiet Cove Cafe (for a fee), Goofy's Galley, Pluto's Dog house, and Pinnochio's Pizza. The DCL ships have more options that have better hours. Plus DCL has soft serve ice cream, EOS was soft serve yogurt, not as yummy.

After lunch, we go look at pictures, and shops, then head back towards the stateroom for a little R&R. Pretty soon it is time to get ready for dinner. Tonight is formal night so we's gots to get purty! No problem for the ladies, me on the other hand, wellll we didn't have enough time!

So it is dinner time and my youngest, Mini Me tries escargot:

This is the same girl who tried Ratatouille on our last cruise! I love her willingness to try new things! Now some shots of our group, my sis and BIL:

My sweet girls:

My folks:

Me and my amazingly good looking wife!

After dinner we get a cool shot on the Promenade deck:

My oldest started the habit of holding her dress like a princess on her first cruise, it is still with her now!

The show that night didn't really have a lot of appeal to us, so after dinner we headed back to our rooms, exhausted from a relaxing day at sea!

Tomorrow, we get to do it again! Plus, "They are giving away what?"

 

[Tinkerkell123]

Yikes!! $20 a towel??? That's nuts. I think I would just bring my own!

You go, MiniMe, for trying escargot!! My kids are pretty adventurous, but they know what escargot is, so I am not sure I could get them to go for that! They do love calamari, although they have no clue what it actually is...

 

[Tink rules]

You get special dispensation for this tr... and ONLY this tr... since I'm sure you'll be going back to DCL sooner than later...

you also might want to check your title or we're going to have to start with the Yellow Submarine jokes...

and your pics... some are repeating and you KNOW we want pictures galore!!!

Great start... and I have to say... RC just doesn't seem to have the magic to me... or the wonder for that matter...

 

[ashman]

Yeah on that least entry I got that one pic repeated over and over, I need to go fix it.

 

[ashman]

Okay I got the photos fixed from that last entry. I also remembered another thing I wanted to add to that day's report. As you know, I am a dad, which makes me a guy. My wife and daughters are all female. (I know some are saying whooooaaaaa duuuude slow down!). I am an island of testosterone afloat in a sea of estrogen (being the only male teacher at the Grammar school where I teach, same thing there!)

All that to say, when we were getting ready for dinner, I really missed the split bathroom that you have on DCL. Our bathroom was standard cruise ship fare. The shower was in the shape of a tube with semi-circular sliding doors. I was afraid that if I was in the shower and my wife flushed the toilet, the pressure from the toilet would suck me out of the shower like those tubes at the drive through at the bank and fire me out through the pipe of the smokestack! Our kids are old enough where they can shower well on their on so the lack of the shub (part shower part tub) didn't matter but I really missed that second room to use for privacy.

 

[ashman]

Yikes!! $20 a towel??? That's nuts. I think I would just bring my own!

To be fair, you only got dinged if you didn't turn the towel in but it was still a hassle and the towels were no better than the ones DCL gives out at the pool deck or hands to you as you walk off the ship for free.

 

[Tink rules]

Okay I got the photos fixed from that last entry. I also remembered another thing I wanted to add to that day's report. As you know, I am a dad, which makes me a guy. My wife and daughters are all female. (I know some are saying whooooaaaaa duuuude slow down!). I am an island of testosterone afloat in a sea of estrogen (being the only male teacher at the Grammar school where I teach, same thing there!)

All that to say, when we were getting ready for dinner, I really missed the split bathroom that you have on DCL. Our bathroom was standard cruise ship fare. The shower was in the shape of a tube with semi-circular sliding doors. I was afraid that if I was in the shower and my wife flushed the toilet, the pressure from the toilet would suck me out of the shower like those tubes at the drive through at the bank and fire me out through the pipe of the smokestack! Our kids are old enough where they can shower well on their on so the lack of the shub (part shower part tub) didn't matter but I really missed that second room to use for privacy.

I'd miss the extra bath too... it just made it really easy to do things... & the bank tube...

To be fair, you only got dinged if you didn't turn the towel in but it was still a hassle and the towels were no better than the ones DCL gives out at the pool deck or hands to you as you walk off the ship for free.

What about towels that you took back to your room... I'd get dinged for all the ones that went back with the laundry...

 

[aurorafan65]

Loving your TR - we're thinking of doing the enchantment when it moves up to Baltimore later this year. I'd love to hear if the girls made it on to the trampolines.

To be fair, you only got dinged if you didn't turn the towel in but it was still a hassle and the towels were no better than the ones DCL gives out at the pool deck or hands to you as you walk off the ship for free.

We've cruised RCCL before & this is definitely new - we've never had to worry about this before. They always left beach towels in our stateroom & you could echange them on-deck if you needed a new one - or even leave them up there. I've heard that with Oasis they got new towels which are nicer & that may be when this started

 

[anetnmike]

enjoying your TR! interesting comparisons

 

[ashman]

Okay the next day was a sea day as well. We don't really have any decent pics from that day, we spent most of the morning at the pool. My kids and water, always a solid combination. The big excitement of the day was Bingo. That afternoon they were having 4 rounds of Bingo. The first three games were regular, run of the mill, win and you get money Bingo. For the final game however, they were giving the winner an upgrade to the Royal Suite (that ships equivalent of the Walt or Roy suite). We got there early and when they started selling cards it was a mad house!

Now I haven't played bingo on DCL before, the game itself is not that big of a draw and the payouts don't usually seem that exciting but a chance of the big suite was a draw for me, and apparently everyone else on the ship! You could buy cards one of three ways 1) a three pack which had three cards to place for each of the four rounds 2) a six pack, same idea only six cards 3) a computer that would "play" 24 cards for you and light up if you were a winner.

RCCL raked in the money on this one, they ran out of computers and sold a ton of cards. You figured it doesn't cost them anything to give away an empty suite, it was gonna sail empty anyway, maybe the payouts would be something.

First game regular Bingo, the rules are gone over, the game is explained. We have a winner! YEAH! Oh wait, no we don't they had four not five spaces, a little while later, a winner! The payout $75. Really? By my count they had sold easily over $3000 in cards and the payout was $75?

Second game, four corners, you know, you gotta have each of the 4 corners punched. We have a winner! Yeah! Oh wait, no we don't, the "winner" had regular Bingo not four corners, guess those instructions were a tad tricky. A bit later, we have a winner! The payout $86. WOW Big spenders those RCCL types.

Third game, small window, you have to knock out all of the squares around the free space. The guy running the game asks two or three times if there are any questions or of anyone doesn't understand. I can see where the guy is coming from after two duds in the first game. We have a winner! Yeah! No wait, regular Bingo, the Cruise Staff guy running the game blurts "You've got to be s**t*ng me! Wow! I know only adults can play but dude, there are kids present, like mine! I understand his frustration but you gotta have more control than that! A little while later, we have a real winner! Payout, $215 a tad better but it really seemed like a scam given the amount of cards that were sold but who cares, on to the fourth game, that is what we are here for!

Last game, for the royal suite! The game is X out, you have got to have 9 blanks in the shape of an X running through the middle of the card. Each of the games, they have asked you to stand if you only have one space to go, they said it helps the staff know where to go to check cards, I think it is just a way to ramp up the tension, we are doing pretty good, we have got 6 of the 9 and feeling lucky. Then one, two, pop, pop, pop, pop, before you know it there are like 6 people standing. The room is getting tense, you can feel it. When all of a sudden a cry of BINGO! From not one but two people! The staff goes to check the cards and sure enough we have a tie.

What to do now? Let them both move in the suite, settle it with Rock Paper Scissors? Nope they have a playoff game, of course everyone else is bugging out, who cares.

So the Bingo was a bust, but one good thing came from it. I discovered fresh cookies in the Solarium a few floors away, we were hungry right before the the game and I found a nice little munchie place.

After dinner we go to the show, and it was a tribute to Broadway plays that made it to the silver screen. We started watching the the show but they put some funky stuff from the late 60's early 70's that was just to weird for my taste and the girls didn't like it so we bugged out and hit the sack. Tomorrow we are due to hit land again! San Juan!

 

[Tink rules]

So... did you find yourself taking alot of other non family pictures on the cruise? I do alot of the ship etc. on Disney along with family... but I don't know if I would have fallen in love with the others as much...