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Enchantment of the Seas

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CABINS AND ACTIVITIES

Wellington

Service

We always have excellent service from room stewards, dining room staff, and other crew members on Royal Caribbean. They are friendly and leave a genuine impression that they are trying to give you a great vacation experience. We had only one miscommunication regarding changing our dining time, which they were able to fix without any issue. Some of the crew doesn't speak the very best English, but it didn't cause us any inconvenience. Our dining room staff, Firman, Akhmad, and Erman were awesome and hard-working. It seemed like they were constantly in motion except when they were at our table helping us with our something or answering our questions about the ship and where they lived off the ship. 


Food

About 4/5 foods and 2/3 of the desserts I tried on the cruise were delicous. Some of them had slightly imbalanced flavors, needed more sauce, or were just uninspired, but nothing was gross. We mostly ate in the main dining room, but did try the buffet for lunch a few times. Main dining room: Most of the soups were really good, specifically lentil and pumpkin. Good fish, tender lamb, and a nice eggplant parm. One disappointment was they just can't seem to make French fries crispy in the way that other American restaurants can, but I think this may just be "international style" based on the fries I had in Europe. I would have prefered meringue instead of whipped cream on a key lime pie, but that's just being picky. The crab cakes were too bready.   Loved the Indian food at the buffet; it was spicy, but that's my jam. Coffee from Windjammer tended to have grounds in it - beware. Chocolate chip cookies hard instead of soft and chewy (still good though). All of the "complaints" were little details I would expect from a luxury cruise, not one at this price point. Most importantly, they were willing to customize items for you and had a wide selection, so you always had something you like to eat. 


Room

We got a junior suite, which was plenty of space, although it didn't come with many of the other perks you'd get booking a "real" suite. There was enough space to feel like my partner and I weren't constantly bumping into each other in the room, but also not so much that we felt we wasted money on something extravagant. The balcony was big, the closet was gigantic, there was so much storage space we couldn't even use all of the drawers and cupboards, and it was great having a bathtub-sized shower even though I didn't use the bathtub. Normal cruise bathrooms make it impossible to shave your legs. Temperature controls worked blessedly well, although we do suspect they keep the humdity quite low in order to avoid mold on the ship. Make sure to bring extra moisturizer. They made us 2 towel animals even though we're old :D  I wish they would implement the carafe of drinking water in the room, as per some other cruise lines. Beds were comfortable if a little saggy in the middle; pillow was fine for me but my partner didn't like. Balcony railing needed refurb although we heard the ship will be hauled out for the like after the following sailing. 


Entertainment / Fitness

Standout shows were Joe Trotta and ice skating spectacular. Enjoyed comedian Rodney Johnson, Italian classical guitarist, and pianist Joe Lamont.  Some musical numbers and costumes were a little tired for me. I didn't like the game shows overly much, but it's not really my thing. Movie screening selections were not compelling and I wish they would add some movie options to the room, as well. Sports/equipment was kind of lame; golf course especially was patchy sod in need of repair. I'm assuming they will address when they haul this boat out for refurb very shortly. The gym had adquate space and a variety of machines, received good wifi signal for streaming workouts, and maintained a comfortable room temperature, which is can be a pet peeve of mine. 


Excusions and Ports

In 8 cruises, I've generally gotten what I've paid for with excursions, and this was no exception. We bought cheap excursions for Nassau & Labadee and had reasonable expectations; they were pleasant. I don't care much for Nassau, and we didn't get off the boat in Falmouth, Jamaica. In contrast, I was stunned at how beautiful Labadee, Haiti was. The beach wasn't the whitest, and the water wasn't the most insane cerulean I've ever seen, but the landscape really spoke to me. The green of the tropical jungle mountains juxtaposed with the blue of the water was striking, and there was very little development so it looked really beautiful and wild.

Key Upgrade

We bought the Key upgrade, and it was probably worth it since it only cost $3 or $4 daily more than internet for 1 device each, but included additional privileges in addition to the internet. The reserved Key section was pretty worthless for the shows, and we didn't take advantage of the VIP times for rock climbing/skating/etc. due to an injury. We did, however, enjoy the priority embarkation and debarkation, as well as the VIP lunch/breakfast at those times. We will get the Key again if it is similarly priced.


Overall, we felt like this cruise was a great value, as long as you stay away from rip offs like full-priced drinks/drink packages, specialty dining, gambling, and shopping for junk you don't need. Spring for a junior suite if you can afford it.

Another Great Experience on RC

We chose this cruise because it was long enough to relax and was within our budget. We loved it all. The food was better than we expected. The service crew was better than we expected. The ship was better than we expected.  We spend more money than expected because the jewelry was great too. We'll do it again soon.

We will probably go on a different ship next time just to see what the differences are but we can't say anything bad about the ship we went on. 

We'll probably go on another Royal Caribbean Cruise because the more you use the same line the more benefits you get for future cruises. We've booked another one already and will try to see what kind of discount we can get to book our next one while we're on the cruise. We do a lot of shopping for good deals so we'll compare that to what we've found and go from there. 

You can't go wrong with this cruise line or ship.

We had the time of our lives

This was a last minute planned cruise to celebrate a special occasion. We cruised 10 times with RCI since 2006, the last 3 times we cruised in 2017, 2019, 2021 we though that it would be the last cruise with Royal, we are of the same opinion after this cruise. Because it was a last minute and a holiday cruise, all our preferred cruise lines were sold out, so we booked Explorer.  It was a very average cruise with a very average service. Embarkation was fast but no one was greeting you at the door, so when you figured out which way to turn, you were on your own to go up and see that the rooms were not ready until 1 pm. Cabin was ok but very dated, the balcony door left a gap and smoke from the cabin next door was sipping through the gap into our cabin, balcony floors and walls were rusted, bathroom dated and no amenities, no shampoo, no body cream, nothing provided. We had to ask for robes, extra towels, better mattress, ice, room service menus - basically if you don't ask, you don't get it. 

Internet service that we paid $130 for did not work throughout the cruise, I needed to send a document and spent 7 hours one day just trying to get online, every time you login, the connection gets dropped. A total waste of money. 

Guest relationship could not figure out our OBC and credit was never applied to our account. Except for the MDR staff, no one acknowledge that we were celebrating a special occasion on the ship and guest relations could not find the order our kids made for us to surprise us. We were surprised but not in a good way.

Casino smoke can be felt throughout the 4th floor, people smoke on balconies and no one stops them.  Also the design of the ship where you have go to 4th floor to get to the 3rd floor and constantly walk through a smoky casino is ridiculous. 

Food in MDR has improved compared to previous cruises, but Windjammer is terrible in quality, selection and service.  The menu is Windjammer is very lacking, there is nothing to eat for lunch at all unless you like Indian food and welted salad leaves. I have complained about no selection and really poor quality and was told that room service was available, but nothing else was open. 

There is a HUGE line always to the café on the deck 5 because for most part there are no other food options available on the ship. Once buffet closes at 9 pm, all you are left with is bad sandwiches (we got it one night it was hard bread, a few leaves and mustard on both sides of the bread), you can order a room service for $$.  There are no midnight deserts, no late night snacks, not even on a Holiday, no chocolate special like all other lines do - just nothing. 

Entertainment staff was drowning, the worst cruise director out of 40+ cruises we took, bad jokes and so full of himself, just awful.  The rest of the staff looked and talked like they have no clue what they were doing there.  No one really cared or showed any dedication. The Latin band was a joke, the singer could not carry a tune,  a pianist in a bar was shameful. The so-called comedian was the worst of the bunch - unwashed, unkept,  with very bad poop and vomit "jokes".  Don't you have an HR? Who hires these people?  

The stop at Labadie was very disappointing - the island is unkept and the water and beach are very dirty, there were bottles, bags, wood pieces, plastic floating in the water and no one cleaned it. Also you had to go and get a towel on deck 11 prior to going to the island, they could not set a towel station by the gangway.  So they ran out of towels and there was a line around the deck for 30 minutes waiting for towels. 

Also prices of everything - WOW - $25 for a photo, $14 a drink, a drink package for 2 people for 6 days is $1200.  Also shops on board are more expensive than the same items in ports and much more expensive than shops in US, and have a very limited selection, even though people who work at the shops are the nicest on the ship.   

Now to the only positives:

Spa steam room and sauna are free of charge, big jacuzzi is also free, but for some reason people take food inside of it, so unusable.

Very very good production shows, especially Andrey and Tatiana - great dancers. Both production shows were excellent. Ice show was very good,  better than any shows we previously saw on Royal.  

So average cruise, about what we expected from Royal Caribbean.

Average cruise with a very average service

After an awful cruise on Oasis of the Seas we were looking forward as a family to go onto Explorer of the Seas.

One of the main reasons for choosing this ship was the flowrider and after being promised that it had been fixed prior to our sailing once onboard found out it was still broken.(needed a new pump)

The sports team were fantastic and once fixed the following evening kept it open longer hours during the day to make up for it being broken.

We had a balcony cabin but unfortunately someone close by to us was smoking cannabis and the smell was coming into our balcony.

After coming off of Oasis that also smelt of canbabis we decided to report this.

Security came to our cabin and smelt the strong smell of cannabis.also recording it on their body cams.

They left and said they would be in contact.They never hot back to us.

The whole of our cruise we could not open our balcony door due to the awful smell .....but nothing was ever done about it.

Two different ships back to back cruises and same problem on both..Oasis and Explorer 

Is this the new smell for Royal carribbean and do they now allow this on their cruise ships!

Strong smell of Cannabis

Considering the low cost we paid for this sailing I was not sure what to expect. Wow what a truly wonderful week. I enjoyed every moment. It was full Royal Caribbean to the max. The crew were amazing, we walked directly into the MDR no wait. Chops and Giovanni's we're amazing and I was very happy with the MDR and Windjammer. Entertainment was excellent as always. We loved this ship so much we're returning in a month on it. It has a fresh, clean feel to it. They are constantly cleaning and working on maintenance. We never had to wait for a drin, bar staff were super efficient. Public restrooms were kept immaculate. Any areas on the outer decks which are showing age are very minimal. I choose Royal Caribbean for their beautiful ships, friendly crew, variety in dining and entertainment and am always very pleased. This cruise was amazing and such incredible value.

An exceptional surprise 

Here’s my review of our cruise on Explorer.  We sailed from Miami (Terminal G) from July 3-9.

Fast facts:

•	We stayed in an Owner’s Suite (cabin 1292 on Deck 10).

•	This was our 4th RC cruise:  2 on Symphony, 1 on Brilliance, then this.  We went from Platinum to Emerald on this cruise, and will go to Diamond after our planned November cruise on Symphony.

•	We’re empty-nesters, so no kids.

•	We coordinated to cruise with another couple we befriended on a Symphony cruise.

•	We buy the booze package but this was the first time we ate in the Main Dining Room.  (OK, we admit we are food snobs.)

•	Ship was at 106% of capacity, per a crew member.  (Extra guests on pull-outs.)

On the plus side:

•	Service was very, very good.  These people bent over backward to make sure we got orders fast and we were having a good time.  Public rest rooms in restaurants and hotels can only hope to get as clean as on Explorer.

•	Our suite attendant, Kelvin, was exceptional.  Every time I was walking back to the room with two glasses of wine in my hand, he magically appeared to open the door for me.

•	Viking Crown Lounge was a great bar for pre-dinner drinks.  Great views, not too crowded, really attentive staff of servers / bartenders.

•	Enjoyed the casino quite a bit.  I’m not a smoker and many complain about casinos being smoky but it didn’t bother me at all.

•	Solarium pool was great.  It was outdoors, although there was a lot of seating in the shade.  No music, good poolside drink service, big bar right there.  The pool got crowded on sea days but was a good time.

•	Wound up having dinners at Giovanni’s Table and Chops on two nights (more on that later) and the food was very good.  Also had a great lunch at Izumi.

•	Going to the CoCo Cay beach club was worth the extra $$$.  Not crowded, nice sit-down lunch with service.

•	I did not realize that Labadee was a RC-only private cove, even though it’s on the Haiti mainland.  At no additional cost, they have a private beach area for suite guests – Barefoot Beach.  It was not crowded, had its own lunch buffet (with regular Windjammer food), but very attentive drink service and a nice cove with personal floats.

•	Getting on and off was a breeze…especially getting off.  We walked out of our cabin just before 8am and by 8:40am, we had: gotten our luggage, gone through the customs’ facial recognition, gotten a taxi (not pre-planned), gotten to the airport and made it through security.

Areas for improvement:

•	Not a lot of amenities on the ship geared towards suite guests.  The suite lounge was interior on Deck 9, low ceilings, no bar – they brought in some limited bottles of wine, some beer, some liquor.  They reserved a few lounge chairs by the main pool for suite guests but it was way too loud and raucous for us.

•	If you are staying on Deck 10, you can hear the loud night-time music from the main pool area on Deck 11.  (After midnight on one evening.)  You can also hear lounge chairs being stacked / rearranged.  This is not specific to Explorer.

•	No slides in the pool areas.

•	Internet connectivity was awful.  (Same on Brilliance.)  As small-business owners, we just can’t disconnect for a week.  Dial-up speed, at best.  C’mon RC, this is table-stakes at this time.

•	Food in the MDR was not good and the service was decent, not great.  Small portions, too.  Unimpressed with pork chop, salmon and Bolognese on Nights 1, 2 & 3.  We had a pre-planned dinner at Chops on Night #4 for a friend’s birthday, then back to the MDR for Night #5 – Lobster Night.  The tail was laughably small, it was adorned with two small carrot slices and one small broccoli floret.  After that, we bailed to Giovanni’s for the last night.  We’ll always buy the Dining Package going forward, never back to the MDR again.  (I admitted that we’re food snobs; plenty of people seem to enjoy the MDR.)

•	Minimum bet at the blackjack dealer was $15; dealer told us it was $25 on the previous cruise.  I would think that a $10 table might draw more people, as the casino never seemed too crowded.

There you have it.  This ship has not been “amplified” yet.  I think we’ll stick to Oasis-class ships going forward, plus whatever sails out of our Tampa home base.

Mid-Sized Ship with some Positives...and some Challenges

A/c in the cabinets not working , we could sleep comfortly, we were hot. The also the cooler did not keep our water cold, also under the bed it was clean, they just clean around it.

Actvities on the ship were boring, specialty the comedy shows. Pool activities were fun.

STAFF ON THE SHIP VERY GOOD 

The ship it kind of old, and the pools were super small.

Our perfect day in coco cay was not that perfect. PARK WERE CLOSED DUE TO LIGHTING

Jamaica was ok, but i was expecting more. LABARDEE IS NICE, BUT THE WATER ACTIVITIES AND SLIDES ARE TO BE PAID EXTRA, I THINK THAT SHOULD BE INCLUDED

OVERALL I WILL SAY THAT IT MY EXPERIENCE WAS OK, BUT I WAS EXPECTING MORE FROM A ROYAL CARIBEAN CRUISE

WE DID NOT HAD A FLYER SHOWING ALL ACTIVITIES, FRIENDS TOLD US ACTIVITIES TIME, THEREFORE WE MISSED SEVERAL SHOWS

EXCURSION  BUYER  BEWARE

My husband and I were on 6 day western Caribbean Explorer of the Sea cruise that departed from Miami June 5. Overall, nice, good entertainment and hard working room and dining crews. 

The huge disappointment came from Jamaica Falmouth, where they canceled our excursion of choice to Rose Hall, after an hour of waiting, and offered Go Native excursion instead. By that time all other trips were booked  and we had no other choice, if we wanted to see some of Jamaica.

The girl that supposed to be our guide, probably, a good girl, was clueless and provided zero info about the country. Her comments were "here is KFC", there is the airport, and our photo op was the stop sign, and a church, asking for donations. The bus drove through a mixture of thick vegetation and landfills for 3 hours total, making impossible to schedule any other sightseeing, because of the ship departure. The end stop was a lunch under the tent (whatever, it didn't matter at this point) and shopping at the local store size of the bathroom (it's OK too). 

Our "guide" asked us for good review, if we liked it, and not to mention anything, if we didn't. 

Our Jamaica day was lost. Unfortunately, it happened to be by husband's birthday. Just awful. Bus ride for $150 and no sightseeing. 

But the best was yet to come. We were very angry and complained to excursion manager Krishna about our  "great day". He promised to take care of it, but, of course, he didn't. I stayed in long line again at the end of our cruise to remind the customer service about the issue, and they connected me to him over the phone. 

It turned out, no one complained about this excursion ( we saw people screaming about a mess with other excursions, though). Because of that this is my personal impression and the only thing he could do for us is to reimburse 50% of the cost. That was a spit in the face. I'm 64 y.o. and not a toddler, throwing a tantrum. 100% refund what he should have done, and a glass of wine to make up for frustration and deserve our next booking. Ironically, my husband received happy birthday email from Holland America, - we sailed to Alaska on HA 10 years ago :)

On the positive note, our dining waiters, Rohney and Zek, were wonderful, as well as the room attendant.

We think Royal Caribbean should screen the services they sell to their clients, or be prepared to fully compensate for the failures. Meanwhile, folks, hope you have better experiences traveling in Jamaica.

Nice Cruise but...

Older female sailing solo, I chose this cruise to go to Labadee.  I had missed the port earlier in the year due to civil unrest,  and chose this particular sailing (6 days) due to the ports and pricing.  She also sailed into Falmouth, Jamaica and Perfect Day at Coco Cay.  

When arriving to the port, it was a free for all.  Noone had respected their check in times, and all showed up early.  Porters weren't stacking luggage in the carts, they were just putting them in an area where everyone was walking trying to  push the bags out of the way to get in line for the ship.  Being a D+ and booked in a suite, there wasn't any place to go except to be told to get to the back of the line and wait with all the others.  At one point, the line had snaked out of the terminal and across the street through the parking garage and  back down the sidewalk near luggage check in.  I had gone out of the same terminal on the Jewel, which had the same problems, but since this ship was at full capacity, it was twice as bad.

I thought the MDR food was good.  Windjammer breakfast was always good and there were good choices for lunch and dinner.  Giovanni's was the best meal for dinner one night.  The sangria was better than I've had in a while, and the veal osso bucco was fantastic.  Chops was not good at all.  When the food finally arrived at the table it was cold.  I called over the maitre d and told him to hold the asparagus.  It was chilled as if it was in the refrigerator and not even heated.  It wasn't even at room temperature.  The potato was cold, as well as the chicken, which I had thought was a pigeon since it was so small.  He took the plate back and called the cooks and waiters over to show them.  By now it was an hour later when the meal was returned.  It had tasted like dirty grease.  I think they just put everything back on the grill where all the grease collects and let it sit there.  The saving grace was the fried goat cheese salad.  It was very good, as well as their signature martinis.  

The one thing that was disappointing was the windows.  All of the windows were dirty.  It was a shame to be sitting next to a window at mealtime and not be able to fully appreciate the view.  I never once saw anyone try to remedy this, perhaps it is due to lack of personnel.  

The shows were okay.  I enjoyed the ice show, as well as the RCCL singers and dancers.  I'm glad I saw IMPACT, but would not go again.  it reminded me of Broadway's Stomp.  

I was in an owner's suite.  It was smaller than others that I have been in, and the balcony was really small.  Only a wicker table set with 2 chairs could fit.  No lounges, nor other seating.  It was okay for me and it was nice be able to see the sea without a dirty streaked window.  My room steward Kelvin Bobb was one of the best that I've had in a long time.  Very compassionate and genuinely nice.  The concierge lounge was on the 9th deck, small and windowless.  It has been a long time since I have been in one of those lounges.  More pinnacle than suite guests, with the pretentious name tag wearers abound.  With all the promotions, there is nothing special about being pinnacle anymore, as there are  alot of them.  Same as being a diamond plus.  Yes, the perks are good, but it doesn't carry the status as it used to.  I will give it to Federico, he was a great concierge.

The Diamond Lounge was much more spacious with an outdoor area.  Again, dirty windows.  I only went in once and stayed for a short time.

I had a problem with a shore excursion in Falmouth.  I had booked an accessible tour and when I had shown up for it, was told that I booked wrong and I could get my money back.  First off, I have been sailing and booking shore excursions for over 20 years.  I hold in my cart and double check everything  before I purchase.  The Romanian Shore Excursion Manager basically called me a liar and was rude.  I told her that we would just have to agree to disagree and I was refunded for the excursion.  She shouldn't be in that position.  Not nice at all.  The code on my ticket was the same as others in the group, except mine had an extra letter on the end.  I think it was to designate accessible.  I think that was why she was so quick to state a refund would be forthcoming.  Maybe she was having a bad day,  but never should it have been taken out on me and blaming me for the mixup was too much.  The rest of the crew was always pleasant and always quick to say hello and have a good day.

Hard to Explore with Dirty Windows!

This is my fifth cruise with RCL since their restart and by far the one that has been most impacted by COVID; yes, even this late in the ongoing pandemic.  Bars ran out of Coca Cola (regular), a number of spirits and most beers and on the final day Bud Lite seemed to be the only one available.   Staff was overworked and Izumi was closed except for lunch on 2-3 days.  Capacity controls were in place in certain venues - Chops, Giovanni's.   The MDR and buffet were boring uninspired and food was served lukewarm in MDR or terribly over cooked in the buffet.  I understand the ship missed its "Amplification" due to the Pandemic but it sorely needs it and is looking rather worn and tired.  Really needs an freshening and update.  The ship was clean except for the unbussed tables due to staff shortages in dining venues.  The ship was booked at 80% capacity the max for RCL due to their staffing issues.  I think anyone booking this should really understand this is not a full Royal Caribbean experience but rather an experience more like one would find on Carnival or MSC.  The entertainment was ok and the ice show was fantastic.  I got the feeling that most of the crew were just tired.  Mickey and the cruise staff did a valiant job and were pleasant and approachable and very talented.  CocoCay is always nice, Jamaica - why bother?, and Labadee was very nice.  Embarkation was a disaster due to crowd and they were using the old terminal in Miami, not the new highly efficient one (which was empty the day we departed).  The technology is either unreliable or the connections are slow .  Also people were sent to lines where there was no one to check them in, so they would stand there and wait, and wait, and wait......terrible way to start.  Also beware of the royal up - we basically paid $210 for an upgrade from a standard balcony to a Spacious Ocean View which lost us 5 sq ft of balcony but added a full size sofa .... not worth it.  First time I have felt taken advantage of by RCL.  Cruising the Explorer is not like cruising on the other ships.  I have been on the Jewel twice since the restart and in both instances she was a better experience while not being amplified.

Staff and supply shortages on an 80% Passenger load

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