twangster

Had I not encountered the sewage issue, the other things are minor in the bigger picture. The regular crew (dining, bar, security, cruise director staff, etc) were all on point and excellent. No issues with MDR food and I ate there every night. At one point I had decided not to blog this cruise at all. However I decided that every story, good or bad needs to be told. I doubt very many of the other 2,500 guests had my issue. Most people boarded, partied and went home oblivious to anything that happened to me.

I'm glad this was only a 3 night. That helped me get through this. Check box completed. Right or wrong it left a bad taste in my mouth for Vision and Rhapsody. I know they want to sell these ships and those were the first two cancellations I made. I once had a quest to sail all ships in the fleet. Silly Twangster. Forget that. I'll stick to the newly AMPED ships and newer ships after this. I didn't have these issues on Grandeur so it may be unfair to paint all Vision class ships with my Enchantment brush but I'm going for the sure thing in the future and not risking vacation time or money.

One benefit of visiting Cococay from a small ship is the easy tendering process. I had just been to Cococay on Mariner on Thursday and on that occasion I did the certified scuba dive. After the dive on Thursday I was in the area near the floating bar wandering around in knee deep water with my camera. A beach assistant called me over and told to watch for various marine life including lemon sharks. They aren't a threat and will swim around you as you walk the sandbars. With tide just switching and starting to come in that was apparently good time to see them. With that fresh in memory from my Mariner visit I decided to make this a snorkel day at Coccocay. I had my own gear from diving so it made for a cheap day. I found a lounger in the second row in the shade of a palm tree and claimed it as mine. With a small ship like Enchantment there were a ton of loungers available so that wasn't an issue. Tide was still going out which isn't typically great shark timing according to a lifeguard I asked but you never know. So off I went. It didn't take long to find one. At first I though I was walking towards a submerged rock in two feet of water. The rock kept moving away. Hmmm. I donned my mask and laid down in just enough water depth to snorkel and saw my quest. There were also the occasional jelly. I wasn't the only one. Several other people were walking around in the knee water and seeing them. There were at least three or four swimming and occasionally resting in place until a human scared them them into motion. The closest I got was maybe four or five feet. The super wide-angle GoPro lens makes it look so far away. It was pretty cool. I also spotted a stingray. Like the sharks they were quick to move on when approached. Since I was in the neighborhood it was only appropriate to stop at the watering hole. From the floating bar this is the general area where I was 'sharking'. While at Cococay bar service is done by ship bartenders. Supplies come from the ship. While visiting on Empress a few weeks ago, the floating bar had a very limited menu and only one bartender. No frozen drinks, no CocoLoco, basic mixers and cranberry juice. Everything was paper tickets. On Enchantment they had a much a much better bar menu and they had brought a point of sale terminal operating in offline mode that could swipe cards and provide a standard printed receipt. A laminated bar menu was available. Cocoloco was available from a cooler (no blender on the floating bar to make other frozen drinks). In a different cooler they had pre-made jugs of Bahama Mama, Margarita mix, etc. Liquor was added at they poured the drink it so virgin versions are available for those who don't want alcohol. Since I had the drink package... I let this wear off a bit before heading to the 'official' snorkeling area closer to the action of Cococay.

Thank you for your service. They have various packages. http://jetlinesimulationbahamas.com/flight-packages/ The website rate for 90 minutes is $190. The cruise ship rate was $145. That is only charged after it's complete, no deposit required at booking. The simulator has four airline style seats immediately behind the pilot and co-pilot positions so observers can take in this unique opportunity right from the cockpit. Most of my communication was by email. The 'Book Now" buttons on the web site don't work.

Day 3 - Cococay In my scope I mentioned that Enchantment has O3b satellite internet. If the lack of 'Speedcast' as the service provider wasn't enough, the ping times in sub-300ms time was a dead give away. This is a good thing, more ships need O3b. The balcony on this cabin is really nice (even if the railing could use a new coat of varnish).

After a Windjammer breakfast I was in my cabin getting ready to tender to Cococay when the deck supervisor knocked on my door. She asked to enter and closed the door behind her (didn't want other guests hearing I guess). Thats a bit unusual, normally crew are trained to stay out cabins. She apologized and said she had been trying to get a hold of me all day the day before. She offered me a choice since I stayed in the room. $50 OBC or 25% FCC based on the cruise fare (minus port fees and taxes) of this cruise. I'm assuming the concierge had validated I have over 20 cruises booked so with a guest cancelling a large number of cruises and travel agents complaining about it (they lose their commission) this was bound to get some visibility. The first was non-refundable OBC and the second amounted to around a $200 FCC. One thing i learned, if you change cabins, that's it, end of story. That is your compensation. No explanation of the issue was offered, what was found, what they did to fix it, they were covering themselves to lay the paper trail that something had been offered to this guest.

I awoke while we were still under power approaching Cococay. One thing I had noticed walking around Enchantment is how they were letting the handrails go. With the sun of the Caribbean beating down day after day the handrails on a ship are constant maintenance. Even a brand new ship will have to deal with this and on virtually all ships I've sailed it is not unusual to see signs warning of fresh varnish and painting constantly going on around the ship to combat the corrosive salt air and powerful sun. That is absent on Enchantment. I've never seen any ship this badly neglected. In places bare metal lay exposed. It occurred to me they've got to be getting ready to sell this ship. Why else would you let maintenance go? I often use railings and their curvy features to my wide angle shots but in many places I noticed this trend of thinning varnish and bare wood showing through in places.

Late night food options at Latte-Tudes Back at the Schooner Bar I had a Matt flashback from Explorer when my order for a Kraken and diet emptied the bottle. With that it was time for bed.

After settling down over dinner I was determined to follow through and wrote a couple emails to two different agencies instructing them to cancel a selection of cruises. With that complete I wasn't going to let this ruin the rest of the cruise. Time to get back into the present and move forward. The pool deck was alive like a dance club with full on lighting effects and chest pounding music. There was a good amount of fun happening and Enchantment was turning into quite the party boat. It was down to us and the Carnival Victory with all other ships having slipped out of port already. I know Carnival is supposed to be the party boat but on this night she was quite dead with just a movie playing on her pool deck while Enchantment rocked it out. A picture doesn't capture the dance party very well so here is a video, The Viking Crown Lounge had it's own party going on with it's own music.

Back on board and excited from the rush of 'flying' a 737 I quickly consumed a frozen drinks after the walk in hot Nassau sun back to the ship before changing into long pants and a dressy shirt then heading up to the Concierge Lounge. I had the drink package so i didn't need to visit the lounge but it was formal night and I had some time to kill before my MTD reservation so why not take in the views from up there? It really is a nice lounge. Not long after the concierge was making her way around talking to guests and she sat down next to me. I was mostly over the sewage issue and ready to let it go still high from my excursion but she approached it like I was out of line and she couldn't comprehend why I had been upset by it in the first place. Seriously? She was going on the offensive when I was all but over it? Sorry but I don't find it acceptable that I should have to walk through sewage in a suite no less (even just a JS). To be honest, she really pissed me off and I politely and in a calm voice told her I do not find the situation or the way it has been handled to be satisfactory. The look on her face said it all, like I had made up the whole thing. With a new look of disdain on her face I told her I was going to cancel some cruises from it and so I did. Ten in all. Just saved myself over $20,000 not to mention airfare and other related charges. Earlier in the day and what had led me to getting over it was asking myself if I was being too much of a snowflake. I wasn't harmed by it. I didn't let it ruin my cruise or even the day. I had an awesome excursion. Despite that, the fresh salt in the wound and a couple of drinks was all it took for full snowflake mode to kick in and in hindsight i did let it get to me too much. Damage done though and I looked her in the eye and told her because of this I am cancelling ten cruises. With that I headed off to dinner, internally fuming a bit. The dining staff were right on their game again with excellent service. I was not going to take this out on them so I put it behind me for the moment and enjoyed dinner. I wasn't in the mood to promote Royal Caribbean or take nice pictures and post them so no dinner shots and I abandoned plans to take night photos of the ship in port since we were staying until 11:30pm. Basically my creative spirit had been zapped and I left my good camera in the safe. You tell me - is sewage bubbling up into your cabin a 'nothing' event that we all should just accept?

My excursion today would be with Jetline Simulation of Nassau. They have a 737NG simulator that professional pilots or pilots in training can book to practice, or the average guy on the street like myself can book it. I learned of this excursion from @CruisingKat(Kathy) a few weeks prior when her and her husband went there. Since I have long been an aviation enthusiast I knew I had to try this. I was actually supposed to do this on Tuesday when I stopped in Nassau on Mariner. They called on Sunday afternoon to let me know a bulb in a projector blew and the three replacements they had on hand all didn't work. I have a projector at home and had the same issue happen to me. They too had bought the spare bulbs on Amazon. Bad idea. We chatted for a bit about the issue. Being in Nassau it wasn't like they go down the street and find this unique bulb so they had to cancel my Tuesday session but they were certain it would be operational for Saturday and my visit on Enchantment. They were very apologetic but since it has happened to me and since I was coming back a few days later, I told them 'no problem mon'. They are located in "The Pointe" right beside the British Colonial Hilton. That's about a 10 minute walk from the ship. They have a database of something like 25,000 airports they can load up. We talked through several options and I decided on a Denver departure and landing, followed by Toronto with a sightseeing 'flight' around the CN Tower, He recommended Kai Tak in Hong Kong - a legendary airport since closed when a new airport was built but it's well known for it's wild approach and landing through high rise buildings. My last flight would be a take of from St. Thomas with a landing in St. Maarten. The first flight was from the gate in Denver where we were pushed back from the gate with a tug, went through engine start and taxiing followed by the take off, circling around in a somewhat standard pattern and landing back at Denver. With each flight I became more comfortable with handling the plane and landing it. Take off was easy, landing is tricky. On subsequent flights he programmed us to start on the runway ready to power up to full thrust and take off to save time. It takes a minute or so to load and then like magic you are sitting on a runway ready to apply throttles and get going. By the time we took off in St. Thomas, climbed to 9,000 feet and flew over to St. Maarten I greased the landing and nailed it near perfectly, with a lot of help from Ryan my instructor who took control of the throttles so I could focus on flying the plane. In a flash my 90 minute session was over. The 737NG or 737-800 is used by many airlines including Southwest, United and Delta. Tonight I flew home to Denver on a 737-800 and a quick peek inside the cockpit as I was deplaning was all it took to find the fuel pump switches I used during engine start in the simulator among other similarities. They offer a discount to cruise ship passengers so make sure you ask about that.

I wasn't happy with my choices but didn't want to dwell on this. I have been looking forward to my excursion and didn't want to ruin the whole day. Soon enough I noticed a pilot boat behind us and realized we were approaching Nassau. The most photographed lighthouse in the Bahamas: We were the last ship in with five other ships already in place. A familiar shape grew larger as we backed into our slip. Empress looked really good and I was glad to see her. I had just sailed her at the end of August and a part of me wanted to be back on her instead of Enchantment. It was hot outside. Very hot. My excursion that I planned privately didn't start until 2pm so I found some beverage to drown my sorrow and grabbed some lunch.

Back to my cabin to shower and since it was a sea day morning I thought I'd knock off a couple hours of work. I had noticed some odor in the bathroom but wrote it off to the older ship. As I was showering the smell got really bad. I pulled back the shower curtain and discovered raw sewage had filled the bathroom and was flowing out the door onto the carpet in the cabin. I'll spare you the photos but take my word - it was nasty. I had no choice but to walk through it out of the shower to get dressed and call maintenance. After 30 minutes and with my cabin wreaking of it I went upstairs to the Concierge Lounge hoping they might be able to motivate someone to come soon rather than later. I hung around the Concierge Lounge for a while before venturing down to see what progress they made. Joseph my cabin attendant was washing the bathroom out with sanitizer. I pointed out the carpet was wet and needed to be cleaned or replaced so he made a call. This resulted in a fan being positioned to dry it. I couldn't get any explanation what was done to resolve the issue other than "the plumbers were here". The fan pushed a lot of air and between the noise and the thought of it moving air laced with sewage around the cabin I gave up on getting any work done so i left. Joseph gave me the phone number for the deck supervisor who told me no other cabins were available. I figured if it happened once and they didn't really do anything but clean it up, it could happen again. When I pushed this I was offered a Junior Suite midship but only after noon since that guest experienced the same thing and was so disgusted they decided to leave the ship in Nassau. With our arrival still a few hours away they could move me there after noon. When I booked the aft facing Junior Suite it was about $85 more than side facing JS. I hadn't been in my cabin for 24 hours yet so I asked if there would be any compensation for moving to a cheaper (albeit still a JS) cabin. That's when the wheels really fell off their response. Apparently this is becoming common place on Enchantment so they frown on any compensation. "It's nothing, we cleaned it up, why compensation?" I was asked. I pointed out that the aft facing cabin was a premium price over the side facing equivalent. "You asked to move, we are offering to move you, that is enough". So I pointed out they were offering to move me to a cabin that had the same issue. "We cleaned it up, it's fine, but you want to move so we are offering to move you". So my choices were to pack everything up and lose my aft view or stay in place. I told them I'd let them know.

Day 2 - Nassau Our arrival was slated for noon so we had some time to kill in the morning. Basically a sea day type start. Windjammer for breakfast. Fresh made omelet to my specifications. Outside of the WJ they have a model of Jewel on display. Can you spot the inaccuracy on it?

My Time Dinner Wine list: On Enchantment the available wait staff and escorts lined up to welcome everyone night after night. One of the better Prime Rib cuts I've had in the MDR plus horseradish was served immediately without having to ask for it. Cheesecake for dessert. Service was great and friendly.

Muster time. I was in 12. Muster took a long time. After the signal it was 14 minutes before they started making announcements from the bridge in English then Spanish. Seemed to go on for ever. Soon after sail away. Some random photos as I walked around. On Grandeur Izumi is located where the Concierge Lounge is on Enchantment. This bridge over the pool deck area is unique to Enchantment and a result of the stretching process when they cut her in half and added a new section in the middle.

Galveston I believe.

The 'boarding day' cruise compass single sheet handed out in the terminal had to be printed for that day/month/etc - it was specific. The new quick guides are generic and can be printed in bulk ahead of time, lasts for years. Likely cheaper to print in volume wherever and one less last minute thing they have prepare and distribute on that day. Some people are not app or smartphone people. My parents have an older smaller phone. They would never accept having only an app. They like that ship deck layout in their hands.

Radiance may have an upcoming dry dock. All ships undergo a 'technical' dry dock every five years. This is for underwater marine purposes. Scraping growth off the hull. Repainting the hull with special antifouling paint, polishing props, replacing bearings and seals, etc. Often they will do some work in passenger areas during dry dock but that is secondary. The Royal Amplified program piggy backs on that for Voyager and Freedom class. Radiance class is not currently forecast to get Amped. That doesn't mean they won't do a dry dock on Radiance. Rather it won't get Amped. They may still replace some carpet and things like that. Many people associate passenger area improvements with dry dock but that is off slightly. They float a ship out of water in a dry dock strictly for technical maintenance. Passenger area improvements are sometimes done while a dry dock is underway simply because there are no guests on board.

Hmmm. Never tried it. Gut says they won't deliver anywhere but cabin, but I've not tried. Room service carries a $7.95 service fee per order. Cafe Promenade has pizza and some pre made sandwiches but not all night. Windjammer has a small late night selection - mostly hamburgers and hot dogs and some nachos until 12:30am. I just came off Mariner Friday. Keep an eye out for a recap blog in the live blog section in a few days.

On most toll roads they have pay lanes. Slows you down slightly where the Sunpass transponder allows you keep moving faster in dedicated lanes.

I don't think they took them away. Some AMPED ships are not getting hot rocks due to space considerations where they squeeze an Izumi into an existing space. The equipment needed to heat the rocks isn't doable on all ships. Adventure for example doesn't offer hot rocks. Anthem never did. Mariner has the full Izumi Hibachi and typically they haven't offered hot rocks when Hibachi is offered.

Some ships work better than others. Freedom, Oasis, and Quantum class (plus Majesty and Enchantment) have the better, newer satellite system. It works better on these ships but even the older ships work if you are patient and tolerate some imperfection. As long as you expectations isn't the high speed internet you have at home or the office, you can do all that on Surf and Stream. As other's mentioned it may freeze and break up at times but understanding you are in the middle of an ocean helps. It isn't perfect at all and heavy rain clouds can slow it down even more (it's all by satellite) but generally speaking it's not bad.

I get email notices, plus I note the payment dates and put a reminder on my calendar. Did you provide an email address? My mortgage company doesn't offer a grace period every month. My utility company and credit card companies offer no grace period each month. If I miss a payment there are consequences. I've started using a travel agency more often now and this is another benefit of doing so - they know the rules and won't let you miss the date. Payment is processed automatically a full week before final payment due date.

Generally most of the cruise lines are tracking each other closely and the general consensus is that there have been common changes across the cruise industry over the past few decades. Some people like yourself who haven't cruised for a while often see this very clearly, where folks who cruise on a more regular basis have seen the changes as they occurred and adjusted to them. To be fair, when adjusted for inflation, cruise fares have not increased dramatically over the years while costs for the industry including food, fuel and labor have increased dramatically. Instead of increasing fares, there have been optimizations of services available. In other words reductions in some areas to maintain low fares. Where 20 years wine might have been served at dinner, now that isn't included. That's good news for people who don't or can't drink wine but sad news for those who do even though everyone benefits from reasonable cruise fares. Room service was included before but huge volumes of food was wasted by people who ordered it, didn't eat it and left it in the hallways night after night. A small service charge curbs the desire to order food people don't really intend to consume. This saves money and we all enjoy lower cruise fares as a result. To generate new revenue, cruise lines have created new opportunities for those who want them. Specialty dining venues that didn't exist 10 years ago are now common. The included options are still there, but some people want to splurge on something special. Those like myself who don't want or need that experience don't have to pay for it and I stick with the included dining options. Those with deeper pockets than mine who want it, can open their wallet and buy it. I don't see these changes as 'nickel and diming' . I can board a ship and pay nothing more out of pocket and still have a great cruise experience. At no point am I forced to buy something to continue the cruise.