Cruise Trip Report January 2015 — Pink Glitter Pumpkins

Planning

Dates: We ended up picking the dates of 1/16/15 - 1/19/15. We knew we wanted to do Disney during the week, so it worked out best to do the cruise during the weekend. With it being a holiday, it also prevented us from having to take too much leave.

Which Cruise? We searched a lot on Vacations to Go. Carnival did not have any good cruises that weekend, so it was down to Disney or Royal Caribbean departing from Port Canaveral. We went back and forth a lot, but Disney was going to be about $200 more a person and Royal Caribbean was also offering an onboard credit. Mentally we had decided to book the Royal Caribbean cruise, but we waited until November to actually book the cruise to see if prices would go down any. In the end, we booked a 3 day vruise with Royal Caribbean going to Nassau and CocoCay, Bahamas.

Extras? We decided against shore excursions this trip. There just wasn't a lot of time during the day at Nassau (the plans were noon until midnight). The only pre-purchase we made I'm was for a drink package. We always purchase the Unlimited Soda Package. We completed all of our documentation prior to our trip and had it printed and ready to go before leaving for Disney.

Trip Report

Travel Day: We left Disney around 11 am. We stopped at the outlet mall in Orlando and did some shopping and had lunch before heading to the terminal. We left the outlets at 12:45 and arrived at the terminal around 1:45. For those who have cruised Royal Caribbean before out of Port Canaveral, there is a new terminal. Our GPS took us to the right area, but not the exact spot. I googled this new terminal and found some pictures of it so I knew what I was looking for. We did get a text from Royal Caribbean a few days before the cruise letting us know of this terminal change. Apparently it opened late November/early December.

We first dropped off our luggage. This took FOREVER. At the old terminal we would be in and out in about 5 minutes max. But people were taking their time unloading their cars. I mean, I get that you might have traveled a long way and want to stretch your legs, but please be prepared with your luggage and stretch your legs while walking to the terminal to check in, not while unloading. Many people were still digging through their luggage and putting on luggage tags. So my advice for everyone, make sure you have all the documents you need in hand, not in your luggage. Second, have your luggage tags on prior to leaving for the port. Third, be considerate of everyone else and be quick. We literally were done in less than 30 seconds. We jokingly made a bet with the attendant who said we would not be finished that quickly. He said he timed us and we in fact finished in less than 30 seconds. Mom pulled up, we both pulled out our three bags, I tipped the attendant, and we pulled off. Easy breezy. Please take notes!

So now that that rant is over, we proceeded to park. You do have to pay for parking prior to leaving your car. It is a parking garage, but we were not fortunate enough to get to park in the shaded areas, we had to park on level 4. This was not a huge issue for us, but if you are particular, you may want to get there early! Parking is $60. It is super expensive and there are places close by to park and ride to the port, but we prefer to just pay the money and have access to our car as soon as we get off the boat. We don't want to wait on a van to fill up before we can then ride back to some lot that has our car in it. Once parked, we took the elevator back down to level 1 and went through security. This was a breeze. After security, we went to check in upstairs. Again, this too was a breeze. The terminal staff is great. They also have tons of stations set up for you to check in. We are platinum so we have express check in and our own line. Check in literally probably took us 10 minutes at most. And that includes all of our walking. We made it on the boat by 2:30!

Once on the boat, we went straight to our room. For those that decide to get on the boat earlier, rooms are not ready until 1, but since it was well after 1 we had no problem! We had our muster drill at 3:30, so we headed over at 3:15. This ended around 3:45. At this point, sailaway was at 4, so we decided to call our husbands to say our goodbyes before turning off the cellular service on our phones. After our "formal" goodbyes, my mom and I headed to the Schooner bar and ordered us some drinks. I had the Patron Perfect Margarita and she had the Grand Margarita. This was the best drink I had the entire cruise. We still continued to text our husbands for about half an hour before departing with our phones. I had two drinks while mom settled on her one. About 5:30 we decided to head to our rooms and freshen up for dinner.

We had dinner at 5:45. We had decided to do early dining. Our waiters were Osborn and Nicholas. They were pretty good. We had emailed Royal Caribbean about a week before our sailing to request a table for 2. Like I mentioned in my Disney report, we prefer to be seated alone and spend time together rather than with a group of strangers. The other benefit (usually) is that you get your food quicker because it is just two of you. You aren't having to wait on everyone else. Unfortunately that was not the case this cruise. There was a party of 4 at the table next to us, and the waiter kept us on their schedule. That was really frustrating, but we tried to move past it. I mean dinner took an hour and a half! It shouldn't take that long, honestly. Regardless, the waiters were nice. On this night the theme was Mojo. For appetizers both mom and I had the shrimp cocktail. For dinner I had the salmon and mom had the steak. Lastly, for dessert I had the cobbler while mom had the carrot cake. The food was just ok. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of the food.

After dinner we decided to explore the boat some. We were onboard the Enchantment of the Seas which was completely new to us. We have done this cruise before, but it used to be on the Monarch of the Seas. Some people may disagree who have also been on both boats, but I prefer the Monarch over the Enchantment. A lot of this is because of the lack of food options. Mom and I always like to get a massage while cruising and we saw some specials we were interested in, so we first went and found the spa and asked about availability. So another rant, it was approximately 7:20 or so when we visited the spa. They were already sold out for the day, and the best they could do the following day was 1 pm or 7 pm. Well booking at 1 would require us to miss time at Nassau. If we booked at 7, we would have to miss dinner based on how slow it was. So it was impossible. That only left us with the last day at either 9 am or 3 pm. Well the last day we wanted to spend on the island, so that ended up forcing us to book a massage on the island. That was an hour of time we could have spent on the beach. My concern with the spa is that they continue to offer specials every day of the cruise, but they don't have the availability. This to me is just insane. We have never had a problem on past cruises with the spa availability.

After exploring, we went to the Orpheum to watch the comedy show at 7:45. We walked in a little late actually, but we didn't have trouble finding seats. This comedian was actually pretty funny, and the laughter was needed after the ordeal at the spa. The comedy show ended around 8:30 and we headed to the casino. We were really disappointed with the casino and what it had to offer. It was really small in comparison to the other cruise ship casinos we have seen. I also felt like the slot machines were lacking in what denominations were offered. If you didn't play pennies or high dollar machines you didn't get to really play. There were a few quarter machines (which is what I prefer), but not many. It was just underwhelming.

Since we didn't want to really spend any more money or time in the lacking casino, we headed to Park Café to get a snack. This was not our first choice, but the Windjammer was closed and this was the only other quick option. Park Café is ok. They offered various quick options throughout the cruise. This night you could get a slice of pizza, a premade sandwich or a hotdog. They also had various dessert offerings. Unlike other ships, there was not a pizza bar or sandwich bar. This was the only quick food location besides the Windjammer. And only one would be open at a time. So if the Windjammer is open, Park Café is closed and visa versa. I decided to get a slice of pizza and my mom got a sandwich. It was just ok, but it curbed our appetite at that moment. At this point we were exhausted and little quesy, so we decided to call it a night. We were sure to fill out the breakfast room service menu for the next morning before going to bed around 10. Room service was set to be delivered between 9 and 9:30 am. No alarms!

Nassau (Day 2): Room service was delivered around 9 am. We ordered eggs, bacon, toast, hashbrowns, cereal, milk and coffee. Even though we had unlimited sodas, it could not be used through room service unfortunately. The food was ok. It was definitely better than dealing with the Windjammer, but the toast could break a tooth it was so hard and the coffee was really, really strong. Either way, it was enough to get us through until lunch. We decided to just hang out in the room and watch tv and slowly get ready. There was really nothing going on around the boat worth doing, and we were scheduled to arrive in Nassau at noon.

Around 11:30 am, we decided to head up to Deck 10 to watch us finish sailing in. It is always fun to see everyone rush off the ship. The Windjammer opened at noon, so we tried to let the crowd settle down some before partaking in lunch. Usually the main dining room serves lunch, but on this day they did not. That was really disappointing because the lunch in the MDR is usually so much better! We made our way into the Windjammer at 12:15. We each had a salad, egg salad sandwich, and a coke. Not the best lunch, but the crowds were still thick and this was the first portion of the buffet we saw! The seating was limited, so we found some seating in a side room that had all the Freestyle coke machines in it.

So let me explain two complaints I had about my experience here at lunch. One, I hate being forced by the Royal Caribbean staff to use hand sanitizer. And I don't mean they just had stations set up for you to get it. As you walked into the Windjammer, there was literally two employees with large bottles of sanitizer saying "washy washy" and stopping every person and squirting it in their hands. Problem one with this is this does not in any way wash your hands. It momentarily sanitizes your hands. There is nothing stopping someone from picking their nose or sneezing in their hand the moment they finish getting "sanitized". Problem two with this is that I don't feel the need to be forced to do this. I wash my hands before eating. If I want to then sanitize my hands, I can use the dispensers also located at all the entrances of the Windjammer. I felt this was unnecessary and frankly it was rude.

Two, the Freestyle machines are not as amazing as Royal Caribbean wants you to think they are. So in this extra room, they had two Freestyle machines. There was also one Freestyle machine in the Windjammer itself. Lastly, there was one machine on Deck 6 of the Atrium. The benefit to these machines is that you get a large amount of choices for beverages. It was nice being able to get Mr. Pibb instead of drinking Coke the entire time. However, the negatives far outweigh that perk. One, 9 times out of 10 the drinks tasted flat. Two, there were numerous times the drink machines were out of order or labeled as "closed" (although one of those times we went around the "closed" sign). Three, you must use the cup they give you when you purchase your unlimited soda package. Four, because of these machines, the bartenders hate to serve you cokes at the bar. Lastly, there are not enough of the machines to serve the full purpose.

After lunch, we went and put some things in the room then headed to Deck 1 to get off the boat. One of the perks in Nassau in the past is the free Wi-Fi at the Festival Place. This is really nice on long cruises to FaceTime home to the hubby. Unfortunately they are doing construction to the Festival Place, so you cannot get in there. Therefore the Wi-Fi does not work right now. That was a bummer. But we sent a text home letting them know and moved on with our day. We got a cab to take us over to Atlantis. The cab ride is $4/person one-way. At Atlantis we ventured through the shops then we spent a little bit of time in the casino. The casino was just ok, so we walked over to the Marina Village and did some shopping as well as stopped to get a snack at Ben and Jerry's. At this point, we were pretty much done so we caught another cab to head back to the boat. We got to our room around 3:30, and we decided to relax and nap in the room.

The Festival Place vendors moved outside.

We went upstairs around 4:30 to get a snack at the Windjammer. We just got some chips and salsa. After we finished we headed back down to our room to get ready for formal night. Again, dinner was at 5:45 pm. For appetizers we had the bay scallops and shrimp cocktail. For dinner I had the filet of beef and mom had the Shrimp Ravioli. For dessert I had the lemon meringue and mom had the chocolate soufflé. Again, really no pictures except for the chocolate soufflé and that's only because that is Brad's favorite. I enjoyed dinner this night. The scallops are nice, but if you don't like garlic, don't order these. It was perfect for me since I LOVE garlic. The filet was also really good.

Since we had a 9 am spa appointment on the island the next morning, we were told we would need to be on the first ferry over at 8:30 am. Well we did not bring beach towels since they provide them for you. The problem is you must check them out from a staff member. You could start checking them out at 8 am on Deck 4 the next morning, but we would be tendering on Deck 1 and our room was on Deck 2. So we decided to just go check out the towels after dinner from Deck 10. The staff member first told us we were not allowed to do that. Of course I did not understand why. I should be able to check out a towel whenever I prefer to do so. They have to be returned by the end of your cruise, not the end of the day. Finally he gave in and gave us our towels, but we should not have had to convince him to do so.

We took our towels back to our room and went to the Schooner Bar to get a drink. This time I got myself a Lava Flow. It was decent, but they did not mix the alcohol into the drink. They just poured it on top of the frozen mixture. We took our drinks to the Orpheum for the comedy show that started at 9. We wanted to get a good seat so we got there about 8:30. This comedian was just ok. After his act, it was time for the Love and Marriage gameshow. This is usually a highlight for the cruise. It is entertaining and hysterical. The problem here is all three couples were from the same family. One of the couples had actually just renewed their vows, so they had a lot of family on the boat. So when it came time to pick who should represent each marriage range, they would always win due to the large family. This was quite annoying because none of them would say real answers because their family was there. But it was still cute I suppose.

We headed back to our room to get our mugs so that we could get a drink from the Freestyle machine. After getting our drinks, we decided to order room service. I love the spinach dip on the room service menu, and it sounded really good. I ordered the spinach dip and pepperoni pizza. I made it clear that there were two of us, so I wanted enough for us both. They said it would take about 30-45 minutes. I think in the end it did take close to 30 minutes. We received both items we asked for. The pizza was a personal pan size pizza with four slices. This was enough for us this late at night. However the problem we had was the spinach dip. After delivering the food, the staff member came back to our door and told my mom that he forgot to heat up the spinach dip. He did ask if we would like him to take it back and heat it up, but when asked how long that would take, he didn't give a clear answer and mom noticed he had many more stops to make in room service deliveries, so it just wasn't worth it. The spinach dip was cold and there was literally a cold slice of Kraft cheddar cheese on top of it, but we removed that and ate the spinach dip mixture without the cheese topping. It wasn't bad, but definitely not the amazing spinach dip I loved. We went to bed around midnight and set our alarms for 6:30 am. We also put out our room service request for breakfast to be delivered between 6:30 and 7 am.

CocoCay (Day 3): Our room service was delivered around 6:45 am. We had the same meal as the day before. The toast was much, much better. We scheduled the first room service delivery of the morning, so maybe that is why. So this day of our cruise was my actual birthday. Brad and my parents had already given me my birthday presents, but my mom gave me a card from her and my dad. Then Brad had snuck in some small presents in my luggage because he didn't want me to have a birthday without unwrapping something. So after eating, I unwrapped my gifts. At this point we got ready because we wanted to be downstairs waiting on the ferry around 8:15. We were actually able to board the ferry at 8:15 am. They waited until around 8:30 to depart. The ferry was surprisingly bare. Usually we have a lot of people waiting on that first ferry, but not this time. We made it to the island at 8:40.

As soon as we arrived, I snapped some photos then we headed to the "Island Oasis" for our massage appointment that started at 9 am. When we arrived we had to complete some paperwork, then we were taken back to a room for our massages. These massages are not open-air cabana massages. You are literally in a room with music playing to sound like waves while receiving your massage. If you have a massage any later in the day, you are likely to also hear the other passengers at the bar outside of this area. While we enjoyed our massage, that is the biggest negative from the past massages we have had. This area is in no way quiet. There is a bar right outside of the massage rooms. The cabanas, as well as the private lunch for those cabanas, are also right outside your doors. This isn't a huge deal if you get a 9 am appointment, but if you have an appointment at noon, expect some additional noise besides the sound machine of waves. You are also going to be asked to purchase items after your massage. Be prepared for this. These items are really expensive. We always say something like "we will think about it and visit the spa onboard if we change our minds".

After our massage, we headed over to the other side of the island to find a set of chairs. At this point it was around 10:15 am. We basked in the sun, did some reading, and took a few pictures. Around 11:45, we were getting hungry and thirsty. Lunch is not served until noon, but we figured we could go find us a coke beforehand. We walked up to the first bar we saw. We waited maybe 10 minutes before walking away. In those 10 minutes, only one person in front of us was served a drink. And we had really rude people walking up and cutting in line to get their drink. This got old for us. We noticed some people were already getting their lunch, so we jumped in line. Two years ago, cokes were being served in the lunch area next to the other free beverages so we hoped this would still be the case.

There is a wide range of food offered here. I must admit, every year the food does seem to get better. The best year was when Brad and I rented a clamshell in the cabana area and we received the private buffet. Unfortunately this is no longer offered. They do rent out clamshells, but it is on another side of the island and does not come with the private buffet. Outside of that time, this year's food was the best. I kind of picked up random food. Below you can see what both my mom and I picked out. The ribs are just ok, but everything else was pretty good. However, the drink situation was not so good. They no longer had anyone pouring sodas by the free drink station as they have had in the past. Instead you were forced to wait in line at a bar. Mom and I found seats, and she went and stood in line for drinks. I find this really unacceptable because that entire time, our food is getting cold. To top things off, they gave us a coffee cup sized soda. Now, if you brought over your mug, they would fill that up, but we didn't know that nor did we want to lug our mugs around. After eating, I waited in line again for another drink. I actually switched bars because no one would pay any attention to me at the first bar I went to. This was really, really frustrating.

After we finished lunch, we went back to our spots and continued laying out in the sun. We moved around a few times and even walked into the water a bit. The temperature was in the high 70s. The water was still really cold, but we didn't spend much time in it. We were both getting thirsty and tired, so we decided to head back to the boat around 2. We took the nature trail to get back because it was actually a short cut from where we were. We walked right on the ferry and left within about 10 minutes when it filled up some. We were back on the ship around 2:15, and we went to the room to drop a few things off. We went to Deck 10 to try and find a drink. At this time, the Windjammer was closed and the drink machines at the Windjammer were closed, so we were forced to go to the bar. The first bar had three or four bartenders, but none of them would wait on us. It was getting quite ridiculous. So we went to another bar. We thought that one would be quick because there was really no one there, but the guy serving us was really in no hurry. He actually took a few orders, including ours, and slowly filled up our cups.

The boat wasn't super crowded on the pool decks, so we decided to head for the hot tubs in the adults only area. In all of our cruises, we have really never had the chance to spend time in the hot tubs. They are always super crowded and full of kids. So this was a really rare and nice opportunity for us. We got in the hot tub and spent a few hours between it and the pool. The pool was actually really cold, which it didn't help I was getting in it after being in the hot tub! We met some really nice ladies during our times here and talked about past cruises and our experiences with this cruise.

Around 5 or so, mom and I called it quits and headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. Because we had been in the hot sun all day and then in the steamy hot tub, it was going to take me at least an hour to get ready because I would have to wash my hair. We lost track of time while in the hot tub, so we had pretty much decided eating dinner in the dining room wasn't an option. We had already found the menu earlier that day and noticed that there really wasn't anything to eat on the menu that sounded amazing anyhow. We went upstairs to the Windjammer around 6:15 pm. It was scheduled to open at 6:30. Once opening, we made a dash for a table overlooking the ocean. Mom stood guard while I went and fixed my first plate. I always love salad bars, so I try and take advantage of this on cruises. My first plate was full of a nice salad and some veggies with ranch. Mom and I took turns throughout our time in the Windjammer getting plates and guarding the table. It was pretty busy this night. I think a lot of people were too tired to get fixed up for the dining room and the NFL Playoffs were going on, and people were watching them poolside. Overall, I tried a lot of foods, but most of it was just ok. I enjoyed the salad bar, mashed potatoes, and garlic bread. They also had hand scooped ice cream which was good. A lot of people had the sushi as well, but I opted to pass. I love sushi, but I am really picky about what kind I eat.

We left the Windjammer at 7:45 and headed downstairs to do some shopping. We walked through all the shops, but neither of us bought anything. I thought about buying some alcohol to bring home, but their selection was lacking. I already own most of the t-shirts they offer, so I was pretty much limited to jewelry which I do not really need. We headed to the casino to see if we missed any machines the first night. Mom did find a penny machine she really loved and it was paying out well. After about 30 minutes, we decided to head back to the room and pack up. We decided we would just carry off our luggage, but we wanted to do most of the packing early since we would be departing the boat around 7:15 am. After packing, we went and got us one more drink and cashed out our casino tickets. We went to bed around 10 since we had to be up so early. I had my alarm set for 6 am in hopes of being close enough to port to call Brad before he boarded a plane to El Paso!

Departure Day: We woke up with our alarms at 6 am. Luckily we were close enough that I was able to call Brad and talk to him for a few minutes. He was pretty surprised because he did not think I would be able to call until after his flight. I took a shower and got ready at 6:30. We noticed our onboard account statements had been delivered so I decided to check them for accuracy. This was the point in the cruise that I became really upset with Royal Caribbean. When we booked our cruise, we were told we would be given a $100 onboard credit. This is all the information we were told. I checked through my emails to verify this. At no time were we told how this credit would be applied to each of our accounts. Well mom and I spent very little money, except for our massage. Since we technically booked a couple's massage, they charged it to just my mom's account. We didn't fight this because we didn't know we should. I mean that made perfect sense. I only charged $10 to my account. The rest was charged to my mom's account. Well when we got our statements, it had us losing $40 in onboard credits. What Royal Caribbean did was split the $100 between our accounts. First of all, that was crazy. Someone should have seen that my account only had $10 charged to it and move the $40 to my mom's account. Since this was not the case, we proceeded to guest services to straighten it out. The statement did say to take care of any discrepancies by 8 am. We packed up and went ahead and took our luggage with us. It was only 7 am. The line was short luckily. So we were greeted by the worst guest services employee I have ever, ever had to deal with. I explained what happened and asked her to please move the $40 to the other account. This should not be an issue since we were in the same room. The lady told us no. She said that she could not do that since it was the morning of departure. She told us we should have handled it the night before. She even went as far to say that in the "Compass" it stated all cash transactions should be dealt with the night before. I of course told her that we had no way of knowing we had any issues, and the statement we just received said we could handle things by 8 am. She basically refused to help us. I was literally flabbergasted. I have never been treated so poorly in all my cruises. I mean it was only $40, but there is absolutely no reason she could not have fixed this. I honestly think she did not want to deal with it. At this point, we were infuriated and ready to be off that ship.

We went and waited in line to walk off with our luggage. At exactly 7:15 am, they started letting us off the boat. I felt that this was the most poorly managed departure ever. They had us wait on Deck 5, outside, then we had to walk back inside and take the stairs to Deck 4. If needed, you could have taken the elevator, but you would have had to wait and be split up from your parties. They tried to keep everyone in two lines. Typically when exiting the boat, they have two stations set up to scan your card. The chaos ensued when actually exiting because you were forced back into one line. My mom and I ended up split up because people kept cutting and trying to stay with their own parties. Once we got in the building, I caught back up with my mom. The process here was easy. We simply gave our passport and declaration form to customs. Then he gave us our passport back and we went and got an elevator to take to our car. We were in our car by 7:45 am.

Overall Review: Mom and I had fun spending time together and enjoying the warmth. But overall, we would never do this cruise again. I would also go as far to say we will probably never cruise with Royal Caribbean again. If we had not had the ordeal that we had with Guest Services on the departure morning and if we had heard back from Royal Caribbean apologizing after receiving complaints afterwards by both my mom and I, I might would have reconsidered, but I feel like they really do not care that their employees treated us so badly and the overall experience was so bad. We did do our survey at the end of our cruise, but I highly doubt that will have any impact at all.

Positives: Warmth, one on one time with mom, decent mixed drinks, nice room steward, beach time, terminal staff at security and check in, customs

Negatives: Mediocre food, unusual food hours, rude guest relation staff, lacking entertainment, hard-to-find sodas, lack of spa appointments, so-so casino, wait time to drop off luggage at terminal arrival, slow dining room service

Also, if you are interested, feel free to email me at brittany@pinkglitterpumpkins.com to receive copies of the cruise documents we received while on the boat (Cruise Compass, Shore Excursions, etc.).