Enchantment of the Seas Review

Enchantment of the Seas might not have all the jaw-dropping features of newer Royal Caribbean ships, but its fun, friendly onboard atmosphere makes for a wonderful vacation. The crew are always smiling and ready with a joke, and your fellow cruisers will share their contagious excitement about all the daily activities. Plus, with a capacity for no more than 2,700 cruisers, it's easy to meet and get to know your shipmates. You'll see the same folks day after day on the pool deck, at bingo, or lighting up the stage during karaoke.

The consistent food and few extra-fee venues make mealtime a pleasure onboard Royal Caribbean Enchantment of the Seas. In fact, you're rarely bombarded by extra things to spend money on -- minus the first couple days of beverage package pushing, of course, or a walk through the shopping promenade sparkling with jewels and ship-themed souvenirs.

And while the ship is definitely on the older side and in need of a refresh, its smaller size makes it easily manageable for kids, elderly passengers, and everyone in between.

The Enchantment of the Seas Deck Plan Makes for an Easy Passenger Flow and Mostly Quiet Nights

The Enchantment of the Seas deck plans are pretty great in most respects. For the most part, the ship keeps cabins and public spaces on separate decks, meaning most staterooms will be quiet at night and passengers won’t have to spend all day going up and down stairs or elevators to get from the pool to a restaurant or from the casino to a lounge. As a rule of thumb, passengers wishing to avoid certain rooms should follow a similar pattern to other ships: if you’re a light sleeper, stay away from decks directly above or below busy public areas (bearing in mind that some restaurants are cleaned overnight); and if you suffer from seasickness, pick a stateroom on a lower deck and towards the midship area.

Some tips: Enchantment of the Seas deck 4 is home to some of the worst cabins for light sleepers as they’re all directly below the theater and the casino, and some are right next to the Centrum, R Bar, and near the main My Fair Lady Dining Room. On the opposite side of the spectrum  is deck 7 is where you’ll find cabin 7666 and the rest of the aft junior suites, which are bigger and have larger balconies than the rest of the junior suites on this ship.

Enchantment of the Seas is a much smaller ship than some of the newer vessels in the Royal Caribbean fleet, but did undergo a lengthening in June 2005. At almost 83,000 tons,  the gross tonnage is still considerable, and there are lots of things to do onboard. Aside from multiple pools, six dining venues, and an adult-only area, there’s also a cool (and free) rock-climbing wall. Just note that while the pool deck is great, there are no water slides on board, and when sailing in poor weather, Royal Caribbean makes the adult-only indoor Solarium pool available for kids during certain hours.

The ship offers sailings to Europe at different times of the year as well as roundtrip sailings from the Northeast to the Bahamas (with many including a stop at Perfect Day at CocoCay). . If you’re struggling to decide between Enchantment and other larger ships that sail from the Northeast (like Oasis of the Seas), you will want to know that Oasis is larger and has more dining venues and amenities, including water slides, which Enchantment does not. That doesn’t make it better, but the experience is different.

In addition, Enchantment is starting to show its age, with wear and tear in both public spaces and cabins, and just an overall feeling that it could use some updates. After all, the last Enchantment of the Seas refurbishment was in 2017 when it received some Oasis-class upgrades. Enchantment still lacks some modern amenities -- the decor is dated and there are no outlets by the beds (and the few outlets that are available in staterooms are not USB compatible). Anyone looking for the Royal Caribbean you see in commercials (ziplines, surf simulators, robot bartenders) might be disappointed. But for a comfortable, easygoing cruise with lots of happy faces, great service, and simple fun, Enchantment of the Seas can't be beat.