RedCoatMom64

My first cruise!  I've been researching so much!  My husband hasn't cruised for over 15 years.  They've been on other cruise lines and larger ships when he sailed. So this is almost like his first cruise as well! LOL! 
 

Same here! My first cruise Dec 30 - Jan 06. I've read the love/hate over Enchantment. But I'm looking that this is a learning experience. I've traveled all over the world and have had good/bad in German hotels, Norwegian restaurants, and UK fish & chips... It's all learning!  I'm thinking...I'm not at home doing dishes and laundry, I'm not working on papers (I've gone back to college), and I'm not cooking!  I'll make some notes of what I want and don't want on my next cruise, then go from there. 
This cruise is with my stepdaughters as a last family get-together before they go on their merry lives... so it's going to be fine.  I'm bringing lots of reading and am looking forward to just being away.

Hi all! This is our first cruise. We wanted to do an easy vacation after moving back to Maryland a few months ago. We’re about an hour from Baltimore, so Enchantment it was! We are on night 7 of an 8-night cruise. We really love this ship. We were looking for a relaxing vacation and we found it!
 
My husband and I have found that relaxing on the pool deck or deck 10 are what we really needed. We have done some trivia and we go to watch karaoke. We have been enjoying Giles in the piano bar (Schooner’s) and just walking around the ship at night. We’ve been to all the headliner shows in the Orpheum as a family and we’ve all thoroughly enjoyed all of them. We could be doing the classes and the game shows and such, but we’re really enjoying our chill time on the deck.
 
Our girls are 11 and 13 and they are having an absolute blast with all of the new cruise friends they’ve made. There may not be all of the bells and whistles of the bigger ships, but we are having a ton of fun and also chilling out. It’s been an amazing family vacation so far! We would definitely sail this itinerary again… Baltimore, Bermuda, Coco Cay. ☀️
 
Other details:

Husband has the Refreshment Package (which includes Starbucks beverages and Frappuccinos on this shop because there is no standalone Starbucks). Nobody else has a drink package. We’ve ordered mocktails and such and I’ve tried them with no problem. There aren’t any bracelets or anything like that. I brought a covered cup with a straw that I use for water, iced tea, lemonade, or whatever comes out of the juice machine. Highly recommend doing that. The kids haven’t cared one bit that they don’t have the soda package because they just go get whatever drink comes out of the juice machine whenever they want. (The teen club which is sort of their HQ is right above the Windjammer where all the drinks are.) We brought two bottles of wine onboard and have only had one so far. Not that we aren’t drinkers (we’ve bought a few drinks) and have done mocktails (all the calories without the fun haha) but I knew if we got the alcohol package I’d be trying to make it “worth it” and would suffer the consequences the next morning. 😜
 
All of the staff are amazing and our steward knew our names from Day 1. Inacio has been awesome!
 
I was really worried that we had late dining because I booked the cruise late. We were able to call a week before the cruise and switch to My Time Dining. But guess what? We went the first night and haven’t been back. It was great, but there is so much (surprising!) variety at the Windjammer plus the ability to have multiple desserts LOL that we have just been going there. 
 
We went to Horseshoe Beach in Bermuda. Do not buy the $39 “excursion”! It’s $7/person when you get off the ship. Super easy! Bring cash. They use American money. Also, the shops close very early (even with our ship in port overnight on a weekend!). If you want a T-shirt, get it before 5 or you will end up with a shirt from a pub near the ship. Very cool, but if you didn’t eat there, you may not want a shirt from there. 🙂
 
Perfect Day at Coco Cay: Oasis OTS got there a couple of hours earlier than we did, so a lot of the chairs were taken. We ended up first getting chairs by the beach but after we went in (wasn’t great for beach fun swimming because there were no waves and there was a lot of gross seaweed and rocks and stuff) we moved to the pool. We didn’t do the big waterslides (it was $140 pp for our sailing and we would’ve all had to buy tix because they aren’t 14) and my girls had so much fun doing everything else that they didn’t miss it. After seeing the number of stairs to the top of that thing, I’m not sure I would’ve done it more than once anyway LOL!).
 
Here’s some stuff you definitely want to bring with you:
- pump hand soap
- hoodie
- magnetic hooks (I already have a second set of these in my cart for next time LOL)
- more tank dresses/coverups than you think… easy to just throw on so you can go to eat
 
#1 Observation:
NOBODY CARES WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE. Please just be comfy and enjoy your time and get your tan on!
 
Happy cruising! Feel free to ask me any questions and I’ll do my best to answer. I was so stressed out before we came but all of those stresses are gone!
 
😎
 

While I agree that the Enchantment is the worst ship, I think the design of the Quantum class is worse for a western audience. This is why the ratings are lower, which seems to be all this uninformed author is using. Only due to lack of upkeep and maintenance is Enchantment the worst. That being said, we've had a great time on both of them.

Ha I feel you. I'm going on my very first ever cruise on Enchantment in December. This post is starting to worry me 😅

Don't worry about it. It's a fine ship. The ship itself is showing her age, but there is still fun to be had. I've sailed her twice and had the best time because of the crew and the activities - and - having a good attitude. I haven't been on the great big brand new ships, Liberty is the biggest I have been on, so I don't have those to compare it to - and honestly, between Liberty and Enchantment, I liked the experience on Enchantment better. Liberty is lovely, but a much more personable experience on Enchantment. We had a blast. Your vacation is what you make of it. 

Worst ship ever is definitely the model of the HMS Ark Royal i made when i was 8 years old 

We didn't realize that was all not fully completed before we went back in. We reasonably assumed they had thoroughly cleaned the carpets and changed out the curtains - as was an appropriate response and didn't realize they hadn't until the smell persisted. We thought that as the carpet was drying it would get better - it did not. I have also never encountered anything like this and didn't want to make demands and look like a schmuck like the jerk with his Diamond plus badge abusing the bartender for accidentally not clicking the right button and charging him for a drink instead of using his coupon. 

Something of that nature and seeing they didn't really cleanup properly, should have given you a FCC of the full amount

With the health concerns of sewage exposure, really they should have refunded the rest of the cruise.

I did  a 12 night on Enchantment in April. It was wonderful! Plenty to do, and plenty of time to just relax. I did have an ocean view room (first time, usually do inside). We met a woman sailing solo, and added her to our trivia team several times. I think you'll be fine.
 
 
 

Our first cruise was on Oasis and our second cruise was Grandeur. the second day leaving Baltimore along the Carolinas it was pretty rough pitching and rolling, we had to time the rolling to go from side to side, we found it amusing.  According to what I see they have one show each night that is shown at two different times, trivia each day, singer in the Schooner Bar in the evening, band in Boleros and in the Centrum.  Some game shows are done in the Centrum.  What I like about this size ship is with less people you run into the same people over and over and get to know them.

I'm going to disagree. You can't compare the two. At a Disney resort if a pool will be closed for maintenance, you will be notified at time of booking. Also the maintenance schedule for major attractions like splash mountain etc is published months in advance along with hotel pool maintenance so guests can plan accordingly to there own specific needs and wants. There is a difference.

I contacted RCI again and the package isn't in the purchase inventory for our cruise and they are not sure why (we haven't seen it since the web upgrade) - it is not sold out as I was told previously. Customer service said this is very unusual and logged a ticket with the IT folks to resolve the issue...hoping it will be available for purchase for Black Friday sales seeing as we will likely miss Halloween discounts.  

Definitely just an error. In fact, I'd keep an eye out for the Black Friday deals!