What is it like to stay in the cheapest stateroom on Royal Caribbean’s Enchantment of the Seas?
I just got back from sailing on a 7-Night Mediterranean cruise, starting in Athens, Greece, and ending in Barcelona, Spain.
Enchantment of the Seas is an older, smaller Vision Class ship, first launched in 1996.
Enchantment was the last Royal Caribbean cruise ship to be lengthened, which is when they cut the ship in half and inserted a new section in the middle. It added 151 new cabins.
She now has 1142 staterooms, with a capacity for 2252 passengers and 852 crew members.
For my cruise, I paid a total of $1471, or $210 per night. With two people on the cruise, we would have split this into $105, but I was taking a solo trip and had to suck up the extra fees because of the single supplement fee solo cruisers have to pay.
The cheapest cabins on Enchantment can be obtained through the guarantee cabin process.
By choosing a guarantee stateroom, you can gain a cheaper price in exchange for the cruise line assigning a cabin to you.
I was assigned a small, windowless inside stateroom spanning just 142 square feet.
Read more: All about Vision Class cruise ships
When I arrived onboard, I saw that my stateroom was in a very low position on the ship’s 11 decks, located down on deck 2.
While this left me in close proximity to my Main Dining Room table on deck 4, I had to use the elevator for almost everything else.
When I opened the door on embarkation day, I was greeted with a small, clean room.
One concern with a windowless cabin is a lack of light, since the cabin itself does not have any natural light. As someone who loves lots of light around me, I found that this cabin was well-lit from the room's lighting fixtures.
The stateroom's closet was located at the very front, to the right of the door. It held six shelves and ample hangers, as well as enough floor space for me to leave my suitcases inside the closet for the length of the cruise.
Opposite the closet, I found the door to the bathroom.
It was small, with an even smaller tube-shaped shower. Despite the small size of the shower, I appreciated the rounded glass door and hot, heavy water pressure.
The sink and toilet also remained high-quality for the length of my stay, and I appreciated all the mirrors located above the bathroom sink.
I find that the bathrooms on Royal Caribbean ships really lack counter space next to the sink, so you have to get creative with using shelves, bags, and nearby hooks.
Thankfully, there's always lots of cabinet space located behind the mirrors and shelves underneath the bathroom sink.
After the bathroom, I faced the stateroom's combination desk/vanity. This wide desk features many drawers for storage, a mirror, bright vanity lighting, and to the left, even more shelves and storage.
In the shelves to the right, I stored my books. I also stored my IDs, valuables, and electronics in the small safe provided.
One thing that I did find strange was that the room was missing the mini fridge cooler located inside most Royal Caribbean staterooms. I found an empty cabinet where this appliance would usually be located.
Opposite the vanity sat a small, comfortable armchair and the TV above it.
Although the TV may look like it's at a strange angle, you could still view it from this armchair by adjusting the metal arms to which it was mounted. These adjustable arms ensure that you can turn the TV and still see it from almost everywhere in the stateroom.
Like most of Royal Caribbean's older ships, this TV was a simple device with a few free channels included. Since I could not stream to it, I mostly used my laptop to watch TV shows or to head up to movie showings on other decks.
Besides this armchair was the large stateroom bed. Since I was traveling alone, I chose to keep the beds joined together. As a solo traveler, this meant the bed felt luxuriously large.
Two lamps, with shelves underneath them, were on either side of the bed. Although I kept looking throughout the cruise, I never found any electricity ports near the bed, so I had to keep charging my phone at the outlet on the desk.
On day one, my stateroom attendant introduced himself and offered a few times he could clean the room daily. I chose evening service, so he could come each day when I went to eat dinner at the Main Dining Room.
I loved that he would leave behind these small towel animals each night—every day he left a new type of towel creature!
For the most part, I found that the ship was high-quality despite its age. The linens stayed clean and fresh, and all the amenities worked perfectly.
The small stateroom even reminded me of the room I stayed on when I cruised on the new, huge Wonder of the Seas.
However, the wear and tear began to show as I stayed throughout my cruise.
This lamp fell apart when I tried to turn it off, and I could never push the bottom piece back in.
I also noticed that the cabin had fewer artwork and decorations than newer ships I've cruised on.
On one of my long treks taking the elevator up to the Windjammer, the elevator itself broke down, leaving me stuff inside for a few moments. After this glitch, the elevator was shut down for the day and only reopened when it was fully repaired.
Despite the wear and tear on this older ship, this cabin was no smaller than any of the other cheap, guarantee staterooms I've stayed in before.
And there are benefits to sailing on a smaller ship: the service was quicker and more attentive. When I ordered room service to this stateroom, staff would answer my call right away, and bring the food within 30 minutes.
Enchantment of the Seas takes you back to the basics.
