Guy Gadwa

Day 2 - Palma.


Breakfast at Park cafe yo avoid the morning WJ find a table game, enjoyed a bagel to start the day. Since my spouse had a sps treatment scheduled for 10 AM (was very good) we left quite late to  the city (10 Euro round trip), we took our passports just in case as the all on board was scheduled for 3:30 PM. We spent around two hours and went back to the ship.

We eat pizza for our late lunch, the pizza was better than I remembered or I was just  very hungry ? .
The pool deck before people returned

We went to the top tier event which was in the aqua theater , around 1700 gold and above but not many top tier , the higer number of points was around 450.

As it was Official night we went back to the room to get  preapered , dinner was at  the MDR My Time. The service was supper fast , the all dinner took us around one hour.

The sea was white rough we could really felt we are at sea. At the room it was very noisy , it felt like we are on airplane that got to some air pockets , I liked it (I am the crazy one during flights that has big smile on is face when the airplane gets to one). All in all another excellent day on the Symphony. (I am writing this post from the cell phone so please forgive the auto correct errors, yes I blame the auto correct for my spelling mistakes ? )

Summary
I had heard great things about Mariner and they were all true.  Having now seen what "AMPED" means I'm looking forward to Navigator and beyond.
There is nothing that would prevent me from sailing Mariner again.  I might even do the same excursions - scuba dive in Cococay and the 737 jet simulator in Nassau.
Next time I'll likely do a B2B or maybe even a B2B2B.  Four nights is too short.  I imagine the 3 night weekend cruises are probably pretty lively.  If I lived locally, Mariner would be dangerous to my bank account.  
Given a choice of a small ship 3/4 Bahamas cruise or Mariner it would be Mariner every time.  
For short cruises like this I can see getting the drink package on Mariner.  
If you haven't sailed or booked Mariner yet the only question is... why not?
Thanks for following along and I hope you've enjoyed it.
Twangster out. 

11pm - 80's party in the Promenade

I'll refrain from adding a couple of photos from Playmakers that I can't recall taking or explain how I got them on my phone after this.  At some point after midnight I decided I needed to start packing.  These short cruises suck.   Packing under the influence sucks worse.

Day 4 - Dinner


I started with the Asian Style Pork Tacos because I've never had them before.

Then I completely forgot to take more pictures.  

Having read your periscope, looking, and reading through several other sites I contacted our travel agent. She was amazing, we have been switched to Mariner with a extra $190 in our pocket after car rental and hotel changes. We will however have to drive from Orlando to Miami then back up to Orlando to finish out our vacation.
Living in a small town in NW Arkansas it took several years to save for this one trip and piece of mind is very important to us.  

In Summation
I've questioned myself if coming off Mariner was a factor.  I don't think it was.  I loved Grandeur and Empress.  As I drove up the coast towards Enchantment I was looking forward to it.
If the bathroom sewage issue had not occurred the outcome would have been very different.  However that saved me $20k and it broke me from the need of being Loyal2Royal.  NCL has some inexpensive last minute Panama Canal cruises you never see on Royal. 
They claimed the sewage contained no human waste.  Since the toilet system is vacuum based and it whisks away your deposit under vacuum to distant regions, that is very possible.  Nasty gray water though, I still have the stench in my nostrils.  That floor drain outside of the shower would gurgle as I showered and it was hard not to keep checking it every time it did.
Beside that issue, the onboard food and beverage is consistent with other ships.  Entertainment and activities are consistent with a Vision class experience.  I was fine with both.  One Schooner Bar musician in particular was very good and quite enjoyable.  It's is very lively at night on the pool deck.
I did miss the promenade and extra space and venues of Voyager class and above.  With the AMPED program underway I think I'm going to gravitate to Voyager class and above in the future.  Empress may remain an exception, I still like that ship.  
Being a 3 night weekend cruise there was definitely a younger vibe and party atmosphere on board.  That came with a few more younger men who would drop the F bomb for no apparent reason but that's a generational thing.  Who knew one word can be a noun, pronoun, adjective, verb and adverb at the same time and in the same one word sentence?  Ugh.  I just proved I'm getting old (like I didn't know that already).
I'm booked one cruise shy of hitting 340 Crown and Anchor points in 2018 and that drops the single supplement to 150% on most cruises.  Now I am reconsidering the desire for that target.  I'm still three cruises short of platinum on Carnival.  Maybe I should aim for that in case they change their loyalty program.   Horizon looks pretty cool.  
A 3 or 4 night cruise is perfect for the drink package.  Beyond that drink fatigue can become an issue.  With the weekend sale I had bought it for a 9 night cruise but cancelled it yesterday.  I also canceled the package for the Symphony transatlantic.    If I return to Mariner I'll likely splurge for the drink package.  The drink packages make a lot of sense on these short Bahamas cruises that include Cococay since Cococay is covered by the drink package.
I did enjoy the aft balcony.  Great views.  No regrets there.  The Junior Suite program on Royal is weak.  Not enough to it on most ships to justify the up-charge.  If you can catch a deal that's different.  
I had an interior booked on Vision and Rhapsody.  I sailed in an interior on Grandeur.  I wonder what would have happened if I had stuck to interior on Enchantment?  Who knows, can't start playing that guessing game.  At least I had no clingy shower curtain latching on to me.
For those booking or thinking about booking Enchantment - keep in mind thousands of people board this ship twice weekly at the moment.  A select few unlucky ones experience what I did.  I won the lottery!  The day I disembarked someone else excitedly walked into cabin 7166 at 1:30pm and they are not likely aware of nor will have likely have to deal with what I did.  The cycle of cruising continues and life goes on.  Research the ship as you should any ship you are thinking about booking.  By and large those nearly 5,000 guests (2,500 twice weekly) have a great cruise and there is no reason why you can't either.    

Morning came and I went to the Windjammer at 6:30am when it opened for my last meal.  
We were arriving and docking when I saw this fishing boat playing chicken with another cruise ship arriving in Port Canaveral after us.  He eventually flinched.  Could have been the sheriff's boat intervening.  

Our stated arrival was 7:15am.  The signs adjusted this to 7:20am. 

The night before it struck me oddly that few people had put their luggage out.  That should have been a red flag.  It meant the vast majority of people would self-assist disembark.
That makes sense, it's a 3 night cruise.  I had a larger suitcase since I just came off Mariner and I had brought some dive gear.  Most folks had carry on size roller bags.
I joined the self assist line on deck 5, starboard all the way aft.  

As we inched slowly forward I eventually came to the gangways connected to the ship on deck 4, one deck down.  It was 8am and no one was leaving the ship yet. 
The line inched forward.  All the way forward on deck 5, into the ship, through the theater, down to the stage,  back up the theater to make a right turn and back outside on deck 5 where we inched back aft to re-enter the ship at the aft elevator lobby to carry our bags down one flight, across deck 4 and turning into the Centrum where finally at 8:15 I was scanned off the ship.  
Apparently this was Enchantment's last jab at me.  I should have woken up earlier...
Customs wasn't too bad and I was curbside by 8:30am.  
I booked my flight home through Melbourne International Airport (MLB) on the assumption the transfer would be easier and cheaper.  That's what everyone say.  As we inched along deck 5 outside I had time to plan my transfer.
From the ship:
Lyft to Melbourne:

Uber to Melbourne:

These both constantly went up and down $5 or $6 dollars based on inventory and available drivers.  
My other option had been to fly from Orlando (MCO) so I checked pricing for comparison purposes.  I saved approximately $25 for ride-sharing by using MLB airport.  But wait... a car rental is around $30 using my corporate rates.  
I opened the Hertz app and booked a car for $27 plus taxes for a total of $32 in theory.  Still cheaper than ride sharing.
At 8:48am I was on the Hertz shuttle for the mile drive to their lot.  The check in agent was trying to find me a nicer car given my Hertz level but I told her I was just going to the airport and didn't need anything fancy.  She gave me an Elantra with half a tank of gas and told me not to add any fuel.  Cool, saved a few bucks.   
MLB is roughly 24 miles from Cape Canaveral.  In hindsight the car rental would be the same price to MCO or MLB.  MCO has a Skyclub, better food options and more frequent service to try for a standby.  I should have flown from MCO.  
As it turns out MLB isn't bad.  It's a quieter airport with free wifi and another domestic airport checked off my list.  I had a couple of very productive meetings and enjoyed my complimentary upgrades to first class which would probably have been harder to obtain from MCO.  

The main snorkel area for Cococay is closer to the end of the island where the ship is closest.  I had never snorkeled here and since I had brought my mask and snorkel fins (travel fins) I decided I need to learn more about this area.  
You enter from the beach where people are swilling.  Buoys mark underwater features they have aded to attract marine life.  Swimming platforms are available to rest on.  Two life guard towers mark the extent of the snorkel and swim area.   
At first the water is cloudy from the swimmers and folks wading in shallow water,  Further out it clears up quite a bit.  


I spotted more rays.








With this complete I headed back to the ship.


Cococay remains a favorite stop of mine.  
The construction from the pier and/or Perfect Day had no impact on my day here either from Mariner on Thursday or Enchantment on Sunday.  

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.

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).

Absolutely not! I can't imagine how disgusting and awful that must have been, and I'm incredibly impressed that you didn't totally lose your... um, spit... over that when the concierge pulled that attitude with you! And to only offer you a room that literally just had the exact same issue?!?!?
I'm really sorry that you ended up canceling 10 cruises over that, as it sounds like when you had some time to cool off and think about it you were regretting that decision a bit; but at the same time, as you pointed out that's over $20k that Royal just lost out on, from a single passenger, plus all the ancillary revenue they lost from drink package / internet / excursion purchases over those 10 cruises. That's not small potatoes, and I sincerely hope that after raising this with whoever up the chain, even all the way to corporate HQ in Miami, that your complaint will be properly recognized and the awful treatment you got on board remedied in some meaningful way.
And clearly, the staff on that ship needs some serious retraining!

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.

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.

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.

Day 7!!
The weather has really been perfect. For all our concern about hurricane season it was by far the best cruising weather of my 4. All the others in January had days that were to cold or rainy.  Today was the best of the best with super clear skies and temps in the mid 80's.
So with Jeffrey reminding us of the hundreds of things to do we wound up doing none of them. What we did do was...
- have breakfast at the Park Cafe
- start the sun bathing on deck 16 close to the solarium like yesterday. 
- explore more of the ship and have lunch at the Wipeout buffet. 
- move to the sundeck to relax and read. Seriously a dozen people max there. Took some great photos!
- ran five miles again around what must be the best track at sea. 
The evening was a nice solid meal at the main dining room followed by packing. A long relaxing hot tub soak by ourselves was in order to reflect on the past seven days. After a quick change we capped of the night at Dazzles with some music with the house band. 
Like many people posting on the RC Blog, I was a little worried about trying the "big" ship. For all those who may read this at some point, the Oasis class is worth doing and will not disappoint!
I will get back to land and write a recap of  the good and the bad in the next day or so.  Thank you all who with your discussion posts have guided me to make great choices for the past seven days and those following and posting on this thread. I didn't think I would do this but am glad I shared. 
Enjoy a few photos from today!

Lollipop anyone ? 

Day 1 – Barcelona.
Embarkation day is here ! , woke up at 5 am  and had to be quite for a while as my spouse do not believe in getting up early on embarkation day. I surfed the internet, looked for our next cruise (always fun) and tried to pass the time. Some how I even felt a sleep again for 30 blessed minutes. Finlay my spouse waked and we went to eat breakfast.  Post breakfast we repacked, morning shower and out we go (or so we thought), the line to the checkout was very long as it already contained many people that came back from the port and tried to get a room at 10 am , all this line was for me to pay 2.6 Euro (city tax). We went out to the main street to catch a taxi and after five minutes and 30 seconds before I decided to  try Uber we got one. From the hotel to the port it took us around 20 minutes ,mainly due to heavy traffic on the port road, there were five more ships beside us (The biggest after Symphony was NCL Epic). Once in port we dropped our luggage and went to the expedite queue (we have done the check in via the application). There was not any lines, they checked us in using  tablets and took my picture again (with the same tablet), we passed security and continued directly to the ship, all in all from the time we arrived until we boarded was 5 minutes (contains one extra minute for stopping to take a picture of the ship) fastest boarding ever, I just hope it will stay like that once many more will use the expedite option but I am sure they will add more people to support it (well at least I hope it will not be like what happened to the Precheck US airport system were many time I saw the precheck lanes were bigger than the regular once).

Home sweet home , Symphony , what is no to love here , after walking around the different decks we continued to the WJ, I was not that impressed this time as no decorations , no carved fruits or welcome cakes, nothing  comparing to last time we have been on this ship , I guess there is a big advantage to be on one of the first cruises. The rooms were ready at 1 PM so we went to drop our bags. It is our first time in a Junior suite and we love it , for us it’s a huge room and the walking closet is perfect , no  need to try and push the luggage under the bad.

In the room we found our Emerald new pins ?.

Next was the laser Tag for us , we loved it last time and enjoyed it again. Please note, on this cruise they have only two sessions of the lase tag , so its better to do it on embarkation day. The regular spa tour was next and we booked one treatment for my spouse. The muster drill followed, the announcements were done using  three language , English , Spanish and lets see if you can guess what was the third one , hint , it’s the first time I heard it being used during announcements.
We had early dinner at the Costal kitchen , it was quite easy to book , once we got access to the room I just called them and booked it no issue at all (and no need to go up and wait that someone will open the door for us as the JS key dose not gain access to the CK during the day time). The food was very good , I took the smoked tomato soup and my spouse took the Salmon appetizer. We both  took the filet which was perfect. Before leaving we booked the CK again for Tuesday, again no issues.

The Ice show was next , we did not know if to go to see it or not as we already watched it last time but we said we will give it a try. We were so happy doing it, the show is the same show but the level of performance and the level of complexity of the sequences was much higher than we remember, the group got allot of practice during the last five month ? , I hope it will be the same exact group for the GC, you enjoy it. Visit to the Casino, central park, the balloons drop party and   the attic dance club conclude this very long day.

Palma tomorrow    
 

Day -1.
Barcelona , so many things to do here but I really want to board the ship already. We did not had exact plans for the day so we decide just to improvise. After quick breakfast at the hotel (four points near Diagonal) we decide to first be done with the ship shopping (AKA , two bottles of wines , water and things we forgot) so we went to the nearest supermarket. next we went to see the famous church - Sagrada Familia , it was about 30 minutes walk from our hotel but hey  we need to burn some calories before the endless visits to the WJ and the weather was just perfect for walking. the church looks amazing from the outside and I would not skip it. 

Next came my favorite part , the tapas bar visit , this time we went to a place call Tapas Tapas , the menu is the table cover so its very easy to choose from it. It for sure not the best tapas in town but everything was good and we enjoyed it with a jar of sangria. we took some mussels  (which were very very fresh) , olives, patatas bravas (a must for me in any Tapas bar), some fried papers and a small salad.

The sangria is not included in the ultimate drinking package, should I go on the other board and complain or since we did not order the package I should leave it ? 
We continued to walk a while until we decided its time to head back to the hotel. really nice day, we passed near several game tables which apparently were something like tennis tables but you play it with soccer ball (or football in the rest of the world) , we saw two that played it and it was fun to watch for a while.
 
And now , we are not in London , but still this building is near our hotel

 
Now I finally starting my favorite part in a a day before the cruise , making the luggage tags. I guess we will find some place to eat a light dinner and try to go to sleep early as I know I will not be able to sleep late at a cruise day.  We did the online check in using the application and it approved us to do the expedite  boarding (which I Guess its just to show our online sea passes and the passport). On the expedite sea pass its says board between 1:30 to 2 PM , yap , sure , that exactly what we are going to do ...  

The morning in Nassau started with breakfast in the Windjammer. The buffet was so full, the staff offered Jamie’s Italian, which has its entrance in the lobby of the Windjammer as a place to sit. I happened to run into the same couple I had met the day before, so we sat together for breakfast and had another great conversation. While we were sitting in Jamie’s looking out onto Nassau Harbour and the western tip of Paradise Island, someone spotted a waterspout (a tornado touching down over water) in the distance. Even the staff was moving up to the windows to get a better look. A few minutes after the waterspout dissipated, the Disney Dream joined us in port by backing up into the slot right next-door. After breakfast, I took a few minutes to walk around and take in views of Nassau.
While I was walking around the ship, I found the Peek-a-boo Bridge. On the deck above the bridge, the Mariner features windows looking down from a covered deck area into the bridge. In the middle of the area, there is a table with a map of the bridge explaining the bridge positions and functions. There are also two monitors which show the ship’s current navigational information including speed, heading, where we’ve sailed since departing, and where we’re heading to next.
Later in the day, I visited Playmakers with someone I had met at The Bamboo Room the evening before. I noticed in the corner of Playmakers, there was professional lighting equipment and a tripod for a video camera set up. While we were having drinks, the area was staged with food from Playmakers. Then, a cameraman came in and set up followed by Hugo the Cruise Director and his assistant Assata. The filmed some promotional videos for the shipboard tv channel, and thankfully, I was just out of frame.
I went back to my room to take a nap, then woke up to get some food before setting out on the Sunset Harbour Cruise. Most ships visiting Nassau depart before sundown, but this cruise on Mariner of the Seas stayed in Nassau until midnight. This unusually longer time in port gave me the opportunity to do an excursion not normally offered. If you’d like to read more about the Sunset Harbour Cruise, I’ve written an Excursion Spotlight post on CruiseHabit.com. I booked this excursion through the Royal Caribbean Cruise Planner, but it's also possible to book excursions through outside companies. For more information on making that choice, you can check out this article on CruiseHabit.com.
After the Sunset Harbour Cruise, I came back to ship and had dinner. I spent the evening visiting the venues around the ship, and listening to the live musicians. At some point, I returned to The Bamboo Room and tried the On The Run. This is best described as an adult Capri Sun. It’s served in a pouch with a straw. This pouch features a built-in handle — perfect for carrying around.
I ended my night with a stop at Cafe Promenade to pickup a couple of slices of pizza and a sandwich to take back to my room. Once back in my room, I turned on the tv to see the broadcast that Hugo and Assata filmed earlier that day.

Cabin this cruise would be an aft facing Junior Suite, 7166.  









Walk in closet.

Bathroom with tub.


This bathroom would play into the outcome of this cruise and not in a good way, more on that later.

I'm writing this, or starting to write this on the last night of the cruise.   
Itinerary - Port Canaveral, Nassau, Cococay, Port Canaveral
Flying to Florida I wouldn't normally do a 3 night cruise but this is the second leg of a side-2-side (like a back-2-back but cruise one ship then changing ships). I came off Mariner on Friday, rented a car in Miami and drove up the coast to Port Canaveral to jump on Enchantment the same day.  I'll write up a recap blog on Mariner next week - got some pictures to go through for that one.
The drive from Miami to Port Canaveral was easy enough and cost me a $32 rental car, $15 in gas and $6.19 in tolls.  Not bad for a 183 mile transfer.  I took an $8 Lyft ride from Mariner to the Hertz office downtown Miami.  Having a car allowed me to stop at a Target and replenish my sunscreen supply and pick up a few other things on the way.  In Canaveral, the Hertz drop off location is approximately one mile from the cruise terminal and they offer a free shuttle to the ship. 
My day started departing Mariner at 7am.  By 7:15am I was at the curb in Port Miami but had to wait a few minutes for a Lyft car to reach me.  By 7:37am I was at the Miami Hertz office and shortly after on my way towards Enchantment.  Fortunately I have a Sunpass toll transponder from a past life closer to Florida.  This allowed me to cruise up the toll roads bypassing some heavy traffic on I-95.  After my stop in Target and fueling up the rental car I was waiting for the Hertz shuttle to the ship by 11:40am.   
Boarding had already commenced so I had no delays in the cruise terminal and with that I was on board Enchantment by noon.  Walking through the Centrum I inquired how much the drink package would be with my diamond plus discount.  $224 on board price became $156.  After 4 nights on Mariner without a drink package I was tired of the diamond happy hour drink menu so in the spur of the moment I bought it.  YOLO.  It's a 3 night cruise over the weekend so why not? 
Quick lunch in the Windjammer and I headed up to the Viking Crown lounge to wait for cabins to be ready and get some work done while I waited.  
At 1:35pm cabins were ready.  As I walked through the elevator lobby on deck 7 I spotted my bag on top of a luggage cart so I grabbed it and made my way all the aft to my aft facing junior suite.   

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