melmar02

@pamici I'll be reading your blog, I'm hoping it helps with the cruise hangover I'm still suffering from. Now that we're back it's like my family wants me to cook...and clients want to talk...and nobody makes my bed twice a day...ugh!

Yes, but we didn't really "notice" them. You could hear them in the background, but they have announcements turned off in the rooms. I only remember a couple a day. We could hear announcements clearly in the halls, in the Windjammer, and on the pool deck.

It's not showing up on my next sailing on Enchantment, but it's still 93 days out. Or maybe they're testing it out on the newer ships?

Too far? No...just right!

8 wow! We just sailed with 5 and it was like herding cats at times!

We're on this itinerary in November, and my kids are close to your kids in age. Did you all get off the ship in Jamaica? That's the only port I'm struggling to decide if we will stay on board or if I should look at excursions.

Congrats on surviving to double digits @FoxboroCruiser! And single digits @Mike P! Check in opens in 5 days on my next, and I have a new printer cartridge just waiting to print some luggage tags!

The most recent Cruise Compass shows the pool bar opening at 9am every day. ?

Here is a link to cruise deck plans. com. They have photos of the cabin you are looking for. https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/category-detail.php?c=1507

That's mine! I could walk to it if the craving for trail mix or beaver nuggets hits!

Last year they built a Bucee's just 3 miles from our house. I was sure you were at my Bucee's, but then you said you were going to Arlington so you must have hit one on 35. It definitely has a cult following, and you won't find a cleaner gas station bathroom!

I use the down time to create my "what I might want to book at the Next Cruise office list". It's a whole new batch of stuff to put into a spreadsheet!

We were gifted dinner at Chops on Enchantment, and we thought the petite filets were pretty tasty - tender and well seasoned. The mushroom soup and crab cake were great, too. Did the fact that the meal was free make a difference? Maybe. But we all agreed the sides were just... eh.

I agree with @luv2sail, I would feel trapped in an interior. We also spend quite a bit of time in our cabin. It seems everyone in my family needs a place to go every afternoon on a cruise that is just us - no people, no din from across the bar, no flashing lights seeping into our view. My autistic daughter especially needs time to reset, and the balcony gives us one more place to go when we're having quiet time. Plus, DH is up around 4:30 every morning, even on vacation. Poor guy might have an "accident" if we didn't have room to spread out a little and have a space further from the bed for him to read than what's offered in an interior. ? Bottom line, we would hate being in an interior and to be honest would wait until we could swing the balcony or *gasp* take a land vacation.

There isn't a limit. Enjoy!

We homeschool so we schedule our vacations for when things are usually less busy. I guess it would be easier academically to take kids out of school at the beginning of the year when it's mostly review as opposed to the spring when they're learning all new material though.

I didn't get an exact date, but he told me 6 weeks about a week ago.

We cruised the first week of September, and I was surprised at the number of kids on board. They weren't overrunning the ship, but there were always a lot in Adventure Ocean when we dropped off and picked up my kids.

I just got off Enchantment on Wednesday. The letter from our concierge said both Diamond Plus and Pinnacles were welcome in addition to the suite guests. I was worried it would be crowded since the lounge is really small, like 30 chairs small, but it was really empty for the 5 days we were on. The Diamond Lounge overlooks the Viking Crown, and from what I could see, it appeared pretty empty too. As a side, Jorge was amazing! We're really sad his contract is up in about 5 weeks, because we'll be back on Enchantment in May. We're crossing our fingers that his contract gets extended on this ship!

We added two! May 25, 2020 on Enchantment to Cozumel and Jan 24, 2021 on Jewel to Key West, Nassau, and Cocoa Cay.

Does her ID have your address on it? You could email a scan of her driver's license. Maybe a bill?

Other shots from around the ship. I think that's all, folks. If you have any questions about the ship, I'm happy to help.

Our towel animals from this week. MIL's birthday cake, Jack the rabbit, Bruno the bear, Tusks the elephant, Fred the ?, and Kong the primate of some sort.

Final thoughts on the cruise The two br suite is still the right call for our family. With our just off enough sleep cycles we really like having a place for the early risers to go so the rest of us can continue to sleep. This set up also give our autistic DD a place to decompress in the afternoon by skipping around the living room with the tv on while an adult takes a nap in a bedroom with a door to close out the noise she needs to make. The forward GT suites on this ship have a bit of a weird design at the entrance of the cabin. The narrow hall has three doors that all open into the hall along with the make up vanity chair all before you get into the open living room. This means when entering the room, if anyone stops to go into the bedroom, put something in the closet, or drop something off at the little counter, everyone else has to come to a complete stop and wait. There's no wiggle room especially if someone is sitting at the counter getting ready. The interior of the ship is pretty well maintained. If you looked hard, you could find an issue. For instance, there was a little rotting of the wood at the bottom of our living room window, one of our balcony doors wouldn't lock (our room steward said maintenance had looked at it and couldn't figure out how to fix it), and the metal brackets that held the rail the exterior window cleaner runs on were all really rusted. However, all the decor and public spaces were just as up to date and clean as Liberty was in September. They were actively painting railings while we were in port. I didn't think the outside looked too bad; she just looks like she's been in the water 20 years. The beds were the best we've had on our four cruises. Liberty's seemed like camping mats compared to Enchantment's. No sagging, and a middle of the road level of firmness. We all slept well. I've read several reviews that say the service is a level above on this ship. With the exception of a couple of really stand out crew members, it just seemed like the same good level of service we've had on every other Royal ship. Jorge the concierge will get a huge mention in our survey. Yopi our room steward was good, but we had an amazing room steward back in September who set the bar higher for everyone else. The MDR service was really slow, and I do think that part of that is how the room is set. It seemed all the 2 and 4 tops were together and and all the 6+ tops were together. It was hard for our waiters to keep up with the 12 top to the right and left, us, and the other big table or two in our vicinity. The head waiter was working hard to help, but it was just too much. MIL asked for salsa in Chops at breakfast on day one which they didn't have, and we didn't eat breakfast there again until the last day. Our waitress apologized over and over, as she had made sure salsa was there for MIL days 2-4 and just thought we weren't coming back again on day 5. It was nice that she made a note and was prepared for MIL's special request, even if we weren't there. MDR breakfast service seemed like it was used as training for the assistant waiters - we didn't see any waiters. It really showed at times. Food, subjectively of course, seemed better on Liberty. They really like raw onions on this ship, and meats in the WJ were overcooked every time we ate there. The kids liked AO on this ship even though it was smaller. That's a bonus in my daughter's eyes anyway. They went every morning session except for the day we were in Cozumel. Overall we had a wonderful time - enough to book that short 4 day back on Enchantment in May. Since it's just going to be me and DH, I'm sure it will be a completely different experience as far as our activities go. We're looking forward to the late night shows and quest that we just don't get to when the rest of the family is with us. 102 days to go!

Forgot to mention how we got off the ship. The gangways still weren't working, so they connected the ship to the dock with the little metal gangways like you use in port. We exited on deck one, walked across the dock, and entered the terminal through a side door right into the luggage area.