Due to Hurricane Mathew, our cruise was delayed back into the Port of Miami. I received a text and email last night around 6:00PM advising us not to arrive to the port tomorrow until 5:00pm. Since we live in Tampa, Florida, that just means more sleep for us before we head to the port.
We arrived to the port at 2:00PM and I noticed people were still coming off the ship, so we decided to come back at 3:45PM. Once we arrive it was actually quite empty with zero lines and boarding had already started.
Afternoon on board
We are jumping to afternoon already since it’s 4:00PM, but we headed straight to the pool deck to enjoy our first round of drinks. The ship felt empty as most people were waiting until 5PM to board.
I took my girlfriend, Hillary, to the two lounges available on Enchantment of the Seas for Diamond Plus members – Diamond Lounge and Concierge Lounge.
These two are beside each other and located in the part section of the Viking Crown.
Cabin
Well, this my friends, is where today’s blog post gets more interesting.
Yesterday I noticed Crown & Anchor had provided us with a free upgrade from an Ocean View cabin on deck 3 to a category D1 Balcony stateroom on deck 7. Since we were within 24 hours of sailing there was no new luggage tags issued. I wanted to keep this as a surprise to Hillary, so I had to play it off like I printed our wrong luggage tags.
Upon check-in, the agent had some issues finding our cabin, but I told him the new cabin number and we were off. When the cabins were opened at 5:15PM our keys did not work, so off to Guest Services.
This is where the trouble started.
They said our keys would work in a few minutes when cabins open. Well, that did not happen and we actually saw another couple go into our cabin!
Back to guest services and explained what was happening. It took them an hour to figure out that our cabin was double booked, but they were doing the best they could.
At this point, I’m starting to wonder if we are even sailing, since we don’t have an official cabin. The Guest Services manager comes out and said someone just canceled and we could have their Junior Suite. At this moment, I started to smile.
So off we went to our new cabin, walk in and discover it is actually a Grand Suite!
We were both so excited and all our frustrations were gone. Our cabin attendant stopped by and explained we could have full dinner in the cabin and some other benefits of the suite.
Evening on board
Our muster drill was at 8:00PM, and after finishing, went straight to the main dining room for dinner.
We have My Time Dining, and to be honest, the dining room was not very full. With the whole day being thrown off people were likely still unpacking their rooms.
We asked for a table of two and got it with no problem by the window. It was a unique experience seeing the Miami night light while eating.
Our waiter also brought us our Diamond Plus wine they issue you every cruise.
Dinner was Italian night (Matt’s favorite) and I went with the lasagna.
To me it’s nothing special, but I’m also obsessed with Giovanni’s Table lasagna. Dinner was around 1 hour and we decided to head to bed.
Update on our schedule
Due to the Hurricane Mathew, we will not be stopping at Coco Cay tomorrow due to the damage. We will now have a sea day and then a stop in Nassau, Bahamas.
We also received a letter saying we would be issued on board credit for ½ a day paid. Based on my math, that’s around $80 for me, so I’m happy with that.
Stay tuned for a fun action packed sea day!
