mbbuldyke

We are grateful to Cruise 411 for finding us a last minute Cruise as we had a very short window to work with. They were great. My cousin was visiting from England and she had never been on a cruise so we called at the last minute.Carnival Ecstasy is a smaller ship so there was not as much to choose from on board as there would have been on one of their larger ships. The Guest Services was poor and gave us the runaround on three occasions. Room was good but no hairdryer. Wish I knew this before the trip. The food in the general morning and lunch areas was poor. Greasy or overcooked and over salted. Coffee was horrible. The staff in the dining room were great. The food at night was OK but often cold. Staff took care of it though.  Third time with Carnival and last time with Carnival for me. The processing of guests on and off the ship was excellent. This makes a big difference  if you have a long trip ahead of you. Guest services told us the dining room would contact us if a permanent seating time for dinner came available. We ended up going directly to the dining room and were assigned permanent seating immediately. Also called for a hair dryer when I could not reach housekeeping for an hour to get a hairdryer. GS told me they would take care of it. After another half hour I called GS again and was told housekeeping did not start till 5pm that day.  Had a charge on my visa for an excursion that got cancelled. GS could not remove it for me. breakfast food ie fried potatoes  were hollow in middle and could have been used as rocks. scrambled eggs were watery and over salted. bacon was drippy with grease and under or over cooked. Coffee was so strong you could not drink it. the lines for fresh custom food were so long you would have to wait till the next meal in line so was not a good option. People who did get to eat there were very happy with that food though.