Breakfast

We all awoke at different times and went down to the hotel buffet for breakfast. The hotel had a Mickey Mouse waffle maker, which made Becca happy and we all enjoyed the waffles, eggs and bacon before hopping in the rental car for the drive to Port Canaveral.

Boarding the Enchantment

It was a fast and easy trip to the Avis drop-off location. A shuttle arrived a few minutes after we did and we were on our way to the Royal Caribbean dock at 10:30. RCL had changed its embarkation process with a new 'express' system where they used an iPad in the entry lobby to check people in who had completed their check in online. Unfortunately, the system had some kinks as the kids' barcodes did not scan properly, showing a different couple. But RCL was able to look them up using the room number and we were quickly through security. We ran into another agent letting the littlest amount of power go to her head who was unhappy we stopped just after the metal detectors to put our belts back on. (There was no one behind us in line and nowhere to sit down).

We didn't have to wait to board at all as they were calling anyone with the golden express ticket, so we walked right on the ship. This new process means you don't get your Sea Pass card until you get onboard the ship and instead use the paper check in document for charging. This was problematic for us since the kids' paper passes didn't work, but Alex had downloaded the RCL app and the barcode on the app worked. So we had Thomas and Rebecca do the same so they could access their passes.

The ship was still decorated for Christmas, which was nice, so we took in the decorations in the six-story Centrum before heading up to deck 9.

Onboard and sailaway

Lunch was not being served until 11:30, so we dropped by the pool bar for our first drinks. The four adults were on the deluxe beverage package so alcoholic drinks up to $13 were included. Becca had the deluxe drink package for underaged guests, which got her frozen virgin drinks and specialty coffees, along with sodas. We sat on deck and drank our drinks until Windjammer opened and then we went for lunch. The Windjammer on this ship seemed smaller than the one on the Majesty of the Seas, which Janie and J. R. had sailed in March. It was definitely smaller than Disney's Cabanas buffet. As we were finishing eating, they were asking guests who were done to please exit as there were no seats for incoming guests. Janie and Alex had a Mai Tai from the roving bartender and we took those out on the pool deck. We split up to explore the ship with Janie, J. R. and Thomas going to the Solarium and Alex and Rebecca checking out the pools and the teen club. Becca reported back the teen club was, in her words, 'lame'. Alex, who had worked as a youth entertainment host on Disney Cruise Line agreed with her assessment.

Rooms were ready at 1:30 and we found our luggage as we walked to our room, so we picked up our bags and headed to unpack. Our Sea Pass cards were in a sealed envelope outside our room. We weren't sure about this idea, as those cards had charging privileges to our account and were just left out in the open. RCL should consider adding some sort of security, like making a phone call from your room with a PIN you selected before you cruised.

After unpacking, Janie and J. R. went to Bolero's for another drink and the kids wandered the ship some more. Becca did a little swimming while Thomas and Alex sat and took in the scenery. The muster drill was at 3:30 and since we had separate rooms, we were in separate locations for that. But we met up with each other on deck 9 after the drill and walked up onto deck 10 for the sailaway party. This was, to use Becca's terms, lamer than DCL's sailaway. In fact the ship started sailing before the party even began.

Evening on the Enchantment

After the sailaway party, we decided to try our hand at trivia, which was "Love Tunes from the Movies". Janie and Alex did really well, only whiffing on a few, like the "Theme from Shrek", which we identified only as the "theme from Shrek" and not by its real name, which we still don't know or remember.

We had another drink and decided to skip "Michael Jackson Tunes" trivia and go to the nightly variety show, which featured a comedian by the name of Steve Smith. We were greeted by "Cruisin' Susan', our cruise director, who had also been the cruise director on our only other RCL cruise in March. We were happy to see her as we had liked her from our previous cruise. Smith was pretty funny and it was nice to see comedians not have to take all of the edge off their comedy as they do on Disney for the headliner shows.

We found the shopping on the ship to be lacking, as we guessed most people did, as the shops were empty, whereas on Disney they are packed as soon as they opened. Alex had a bad experience as he walked through a jewelry shop with Becca and an employee implored him to 'buy something nice for the little lady'. J. R. said Becca should have given the guy an "Ew, that's my brother' to see what the man would say.

Following the show, it was time for dinner. We went to the My Fair Lady dining room and it was here the Disney difference was obvious. We told the greeter our table number and he said it was "down on your left near the middle" and left us to find it. On Disney, someone walks you to your table each night, even if you had been there before. Our server and assistant server greeted us, but since our tablemates had not arrived yet, he would not take our orders. Luckily, the couple of South Carolina, their daughter and her friend arrived shortly after. The assistant server took drink orders from the other couple but didn't take ours. We were halfway through our appetizer when J. R. spotted him and motioned for him to come over and asked "Are we allowed to order drinks?". He finally took our drink orders, but didn't know the wine menu, so you had to hold it open and point to the wine you wanted. We didn't receive our drinks until after our main course arrived.

Our main server, Jorge, wasn't much better. He misheard Rebecca when she ordered the ham and gave her a Beef Wellington (which sounds nothing like ham, but did explain why he asked her how she wanted her ham cooked). He brought the wrong orders to the wrong person, forgot a salad for one of our tablemates and just seemed generally out of his depth. Dinner lasted until almost 10:30 as Jorge also messed up the dessert orders. Janie did enjoy her yule log, once she received it, from Jorge.

New Year's Eve

We had ordered a bottle of champagne for New Year's Eve, so we went down to our room to drink it. We were disappointed we could not find the ABC New Year's Eve show on the TV, but eventually found a feed from NYC without the musical acts or commentary. We drank our bottle of Chandon and then J. R. decided to go to the Centrum for the party. Apparently Janie and Alex followed later but could not find him untl almost midnight. Thomas and Rebecca headed up to deck 9 for the outdoor party. By our watches, Cruisin' Susan was a little early with her countdown, but we watched the balloon drop and shared a goodnight kiss before turning in for the evening.

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