3 Days – Bahamas Cruise: Nassau and Coco Cay.
Enchantment of The Seas is my favorite ship in the fleet. In fact, I’ve sailed on her six times, and five were within the last year. So I’d say I consider myself an expert on this ship. I can tell you just about everything on this ship, well except the spa and gym! Okay friends, here we go…
Day 1
I live close to Atlanta, GA. So I took an early flight out landing us in Orlando, FL around 10:40AM. Enchantment of the Seas sails out of Port. Canaveral, which is around 45-60 minutes away. There are plenty of options to travel to the terminal, which a quick Google search you will be overwhelmed. Joining me on the cruise was my girlfriend who lives 300 miles away, so I wanted to do something special for our transportation. I arranged a limousine to pick us up with a bottle of sparkling wine for our hour ride to the terminal. What a great experience and fun way to start out your vacation.
We arrived to the terminal right at 12:00PM and there were zero lines through the whole check-in process. Once thing I’ve notice from sailing on the Enchantment, is people are usually boarding later, than other cruise ships. The reason for this is, many locals are onboard and work a half-day, then board the ship. I cannot imagine being productive at all knowing I’m about to head to the Bahamas for the weekend!
Once we were onboard, I headed up to the Oasis bar to say hello to favorite crew members who work so hard to keep the lines down. After a quick hello, I headed forward to Park Café in the Solarium. This is my ideal lunch option on board; there are very few people around and the quality of the food right on par. They serve port roast sandwiches (not roast beef like the rest of the fleet). I’d say they are almost as good, but still not the same.
The weather was not perfect, but we were on a cruise ship, so who can complain? Since I had my girlfriend with me I wanted to explore the ship and show her my favorite venues on board. First stop, the R Bar! For those unsure what this is, Royal Caribbean has started transforming most the Champagne bars into a 70’s style old fashion bar. Their signature cocktail is the mojito, it does take them awhile to make the cocktails, but well worth the wait.
Our cabin was on deck 3, inside cabin aft. On Enchantment of the Seas you always want your cabin aft, as most of the venues are aft. I’m getting to where I don’t really enjoy the inside cabin’s anymore, but on a 72 hour cruise I spend almost zero time in the cabin.
I have three favorite events on Enchantment oft he Seas, and it was time for one of them. The famous sail away party as you leave port. On Enchantment of the Seas the party is a little different, or maybe I’m just biased and love the sail away. There is music playing and a lot of line dancing. I’ll admit I’m not much of a line dancer, but it sure is fun to watch!
Tonight, I headed up to the diamond lounge to see my great friend Carlton. He works so hard to ensure everyone is being well taken care of. One thing I’ve notice sailing on Enchantment of the Seas quite often is the Diamond Lounge is under utilized. I personally don’t like to spend too many hours up there – again we only have 72 on the weekend sailings. One factor of the lounge being so empty is Royal Caribbean introduced three drink coupons on your sea pass card each evening to be used at any bar from 5:00-8:30pm for Diamond Crown and Anchor Society members and above.
Dinner tonight was in the My Fair Lady Dining room, which I find to be very classy with all the brass. One of my favorite meals on a cruise is night one the prime rib! I don’t even look at the menu because nothing else matters. Okay, if you are not a meat lover they have plenty of other options. But the best part is really the carrot cake with vanilla ice cream; you can’t have one without the other.
Post dinner we were stuffed and really tired from traveling all day, so we decided to call it a night. I’m usually okay with heading to bed early night 1, because I love to rise up early day 2.
Day 2 Nassau, Bahamas. Noon – Midnight.
My girlfriend and I woke up around 7:30AM and had room service bring Coffee and Orange Juice (which is required on day two 2 morning). Royal Caribbean allows two 750ML wine bottles per cabin to be carried on board, so I always bring on champagne for morning mimosas. I think this is a fun way to start the morning and what’s wrong with being a little romantic right?
Since we didn’t have a balcony we were ready to get out of the cabin and head to breakfast. If you are looking to amazing food, bagels, and fresh fruit (oh yeah no lines), then head to Park Café. When people ask me what their breakfast is like I always compare it to Panera bread on land, but the best part is the food is included in the cruise fare.
After breakfast we headed straight for the pool deck for our “sea morning” on the weekend sailing you don’t really have any sea days, just a few hours before you dock in Nassau at noon. If you are one of those people who gets sea sick this cruise is for you, because you are not really at sea.
Laying by the pool they have a typical buffet lunch, but I’m excited because it’s poolside and well we are in the Bahamas! They do cook a sir-fried rice with shrimp that’s amazing and I always go up for seconds and that’s all I’m admitting to. After the lunch they started the belly-flop contest with everyone’s full belly, at this point we were docked but it takes awhile for the local authorities to clear the ship. I’ve never joined in on this contest but I sure do enjoy watching it and well taking pictures as they bust!
Once we were cleared to exit the ship around 12:30PM we headed down and walked to Junkano beach, which my review on that beach can be found here. To summarize it’s a public beach in Nassau that’s very clean and I visit every time I visit. After hours of lying on the beach we headed back to the ship to rest up for the Captain’s Formal Night.
Since this evening is formal night, we got all dressed up and honestly I enjoy it. I will say most people on this short cruise people don’t dress up that much, but you still sea plenty of suits and dresses. There is only one place to celebrate the formal night and that’s at the R Bar. The Captain comes out and introduces his whole team and everyone gets free champagne! If you want one of the prime seats located at the R Bar you need to get there early, as it gets packed for this event – I mean it is free champagne and all!
Immediately after the captains reception they move into the tour of the flags. This is when they announce how many crew they have from each country. This was they best one I’ve ever seen. To be honest it was very moving to see how loyal they were to their countries. If only I had a picture the guy whose face is painted actually stomped right on top of me and screamed with his tongue out, well I could only smile at this point!
Okay at this point we are late for dinner, so we rushed over to My Fair Lady. Tonight’s dinner is just as good, if not well better. They have Roasted Duck and Filet of Beef. I started with the seafood soup (I could have a bowel of just this soup) and the Filet of Beef. After we ate two servers came up and made a swans out of towel for our table this is the kind of service that keeps me coming back to Royal.
Tonight is my second favorite event on the Enchantment, the midnight pool deck party. Since we are docked in Nassau until midnight they have a white themed party when we sail out. And guess what, they have another poolside buffet; the famous midnight buffet is still offered on Enchantment of the Seas. The band hosts the pool deck party and dancing last until 1:00AM then they move everyone up to the Viking Crown lounge. We only stayed until the pool parted ended and called it a night.
Day 3 Coco Cay / Sea Day
Our third and final day is already here; these weekend sailings go so fast. We woke up a little late since we were out dancing all night. Plus our inside room was very dark, so you never really know what time it is. We were getting dressed and a knock happen at our door, so I opened and it was our stateroom attendant. He was coming to clean but let us know we had skipped Coco Cay today. I couldn’t believe it! I had talked this place up so much to my girlfriend and just like that we didn’t stop, due to the weather.
Okay so now what? Our whole day plans were canceled, since we were already in our pool gear we relaxed by the pool. They already had all the food ready for the Coco Cay BBQ, so we had yet another poolside buffet. Shortly after lunch a storm started brewing and we headed back to the room to change. So now what? I’ve never spent a day just hanging out on inside decks of The Enchantment. Well they tried hard to host events, like towel folding, bingo, and movies. But we were just not enjoying any of these types of events; we wanted sun and Coco Cay!
We settled for an afternoon at the Schooner bar with some pints. This is Royal Caribbean’s signature bar that is across the entire fleet. However, on the Vision & Radiance class ships the walls are actually glass all the way down the bar, with breathtaking views. You won’t find this on the Voyager or an Oasis class ship, that’s right even Enchantment of the Seas has something you won’t find on Lady O.
Tonight was our last dinner in the My Fair Lady Dining Room, which is always a little sad. I would recommend the Lamb that falls off the bone. Our bar service for wine we great the whole cruise, he always had our wine ready for us at the table without even asking. He made a mistake by giving us the wrong sea pass card night one, so he made up for with some free after dinner shots tonight. They did the usual towel spinning good-bye, and thank you for sailing with us.
Shortly after dinner, we headed back to the R Bar to get our last few drinks of the cruise. But do you remember the into I mentioned I had three favorite events this cruise and I’ve only mentioned two so far. Well the final, and my favorite is the Quest! This is an adult game show, and I cannot stress enough adult game show. My team scored first place, but we did have the most active team I’ve ever had. After quest it was already midnight, so we called it an evening and great cruise.
Getting off the ship was a breeze, as we didn’t even wake up until 9am! Pretty much the whole ship was empty, but our flight was not until 1:00pm so there was no rush on our end. I hope you enjoyed my review and please feel free to ask any questions.