Two Thumbs Up for This Floating Panacea
Written: May 31 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great and frequent food. Relaxing if you want it or action packed if you don't.
Cons: None really...our wait staff was sort of fake-friendly, but so what?
The Bottom Line: For the money, we've never had it as good! While it's not champagne and caviar, neither is it grilled cheese and beer.
I heartily recommend it.
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| artistdad's Full Review: Carnival Ecstasy |
This was our first cruise,(May 21 - 26 2005) and I should preface this by saying we'd always made fun of cruisers as we'd watch them from our spots on the beach. Never again will I do so...we had a great time! I had read every review I could find on recent Ecstasy trips, and must say, the handfull of negative reviews almost swayed me. Thankfully, we went anyway.
Embarkation was a breeze...We parked with ezcruise parking (only 35.00 for 5 days). We got to the terminal about 2pm and were on the boat by 2:30. We grabbed a bite to eat from the grill area and explored the ship.
PEOPLE: I'm quite sure that our great experience was due to the particular mix on this trip...College was out, but not public schools, so not too many kids running around - but enough to keep it interesting,not too many retirement home - aged folks, but enough to get advice on haggling from. A lot of 30 and 40 somethings.
MEALS: breakfast and lunch we had everyday on the Lido deck. Outside is just burgers and fries with a limited buffet of rice, potato, salad, fish stuff. Inside was a pretty fair salad/fruit bar, slightly better buffet and a 24 hour gourmet pizzaria (my favorite is the goat cheese)
and a deli with decent salmon and tuna. If you want better fare, the nicer dining rooms are open for lunch and breakfast as well. DINNERS were fantastic! No, it was not 5 star, but I've got no complaints - I'd give it 4 of 5. There was great variety (pan fried grouper,pumpkin soup, escargot, steak a' poivre,for example)every night. My wife is a vegetarian, and never had a problem with selection. 3 of the 4 times I ordered a beef dish it was cooked to my specifications. Wow, that makes it sound like I eat a lot of beef, I guess I did on this cruise - but that's because I ordered every entree they had every night! If you can eat it all, don't hesitate to order more than one - the portions are not huge. We did not drink much on the cruise - just a glass of wine with each dinner - so we purchased two bottles from our waiter on the first night and they keep them for you until you run out. This is less expensive than by -the-glass. Kind of nice each evening to come to our table and see our bottle already waiting by our glass. Our only problem was that we felt a little rushed towards the end of each dinner - but this was probably because we chose the late (8:30) seating. I don't recommend the 8:30 seating if you care about seeing the entertainment...we missed most of them. The assigned seating worked out ok, as our table-mates were great.
One little secret place was the little sushi bar right outside the side entrance of the Saphire Lounge. Nobody really knew about it, so we'd go up every evening before dinner and start with a little sushi as we watched the sun go down....
ROOMS : were clean and well kept. Since this was our first cruise I don't know what to compare it to. I know that all the negative reviews I'd read were not at all accurate in our experience. There were probably 10 working channels on the TV including CNN, and 2 movie channels. A/C worked fine - decent water pressure. We got a room with a window - which I recommend. Just nice to wake up and look out. Beds were quite comfy with down comforter and pillows. I heard a number of people comment on how well they slept. Of course, they were also probably drunk.
DRINKING: They really push the drinks on this ship, but since we're not big drinkers, this wasn't a problem. If you ARE a big drinker, you will leave the ship broke. We brought our own bottled water on board which was nice for shore excursions, but the ship's drinking water was just fine. If you're a wine drinker, again, I'd order by the bottle rather than the glass.
SHORE EXCURSIONS : We just checked out places to go in Cozumel on the internet, picked a couple and asked around on the ship and ended up doing our own. We went to Chankanaab National Park which I highly recommend. Good snorkeling, beautiful beach, good food if you want it, stuff for kids, if you have 'em. I don't see the point in doing Carnival's excursions unless you have too much money or don't want to bother with taxis. I never heard any complaints, but I know you pay more through Carnival for something you could arrange yourself for less.
ONBOARD ENTERTAINMENT: We didn't participate in a lot of it, but when we did, we had a good time. Don't miss the Captains welcome party which was a good opportunity to mingle and get several free drinks! We also caught a little of the Vegas -style show...half cheesey, the other half pretty good - but so is Vegas. We watched Carnival's version of the Newlywed Game where you can learn stuff you don't want to know about your fellow cruisers. We also used the gym a couple times, and I won a free facial (which I did not give to my wife even though I'm a guy with a fair amount of facial hair. We didn't gamble in the casino, but our dinner - mates did. Some won, some lost, so it sounds like normal.
There were a bunch of little things that added to the experience...my wife forgot her book at home - lo and behold -there is a ship library. The internet access was great so we could check in on our kiddo - who, it turns out, is less accident prone when out of my presence.
We have a three year old, who we left with my parents, and we've not had a real vacation in those three years. This was definately the relaxing break we'd hoped for.
As I understand from a number of experienced cruisers, The Carnival Ecstasy is considered a good bargain for the money, but still sort of bottom tier. If that's true, I can't wait to see what 2nd tier is like! We had a wonderful time and I would recommend it in a heartbeat!
Recommended:
Yes
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artistdad
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Reviews written: 1
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