We had never cruised Carnival before so we were disappointed with the quality of the overall cruise. If you have never sailed before and have no expectations, then I'm sure it is a fantastic experience. If you are expecting quality entertainment, quality food, and to be treated as a valued customer, you will be disappointed.
Embarkation
3 out of 5
We arrived by Uber to sit in a winding line through the parking lot for 10 minutes. At the end of the line, attendants take your luggage and tell you that the safety of your luggage is their responsibility while holding cash in their hand. After taking the luggage they send you on a hike back through the parking lot to the building. Inside the staff are friendly and professional and the line moves at a decent pace.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
2 out of 5
The buffet offered average entrees with long lines. On other cruise lines, they protect the buffet for the first 24 hours to insure no passengers are sick and they request customers to wash their hands at the entrance to prevent the spread of germs, neither of these occurred. Customers were often seen eating directly from the trays, some attendants too busy talking to each other to be bothered by the guests. Not a big variety of options in comparison to other cruise lines. Main dining room was nice. They refuse to allow guests to change dinner times, but the maitre d' was kind, professional, and always smiling. Our servers were fantastic. The menu options were limited, surf and turf only available for additional $20 fee. Some of the food was dry and desserts were often unimpressive in comparison to other cruise lines. Dress codes were definitely not enforced with torn blue jeans, baseball caps, t shirts etc on elegant/formal nights. We did not have to cook and the servers were fantastic so it was a decent experience.
Onboard Activities
1 out of 5
Pools, hot tubs, putt-putt, water slides for kids, spa, casino, were available. Serenity for adults was very small with limited availability and looks NOTHING like what they advertise. Ironically, the "adult only" area is below the water slides and buffet where people would prop their babies on the rail and loud children hanging over. Attendants on the Serenity deck did nothing to reserve the "peace" that is supposed to occur at this one very small place on the entire ship.
Entertainment
1 out of 5
The shows are not what they once were. We've seen Jeff Dunham and Cirque du soleil on past cruise ships... the quality of the these shows were very amateur. Despite the low quality of the entertainment, it was disappointing that they often did not offer the same show twice so that each dinner seating had the same opportunity to see the same show. Since they refused to allow us to eat at the early seating, we missed shows we would have liked to see, cheesy as they may have been.
Children's Programs
1 out of 5
Not enough to keep the kids busy.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Servers in the main dining room and the room attendant were fantastic.
Ship Quality
2 out of 5
Vacuumed main areas often. Frequent odor of septic tank on our floor and activity areas, some dusty rails, fallen curtains in the casino, and the cabin window was dirty up until the last day when they decided to clean them.
Cabin / Stateroom
2 out of 5
The room was average size in comparison to other cruise lines, large picture window to the side of the bed, lots of storage space, and very clean. They offer limited channels but a whole slew of CNN channels to promote their political agenda. The bathroom consistently reeked of urine so we just kept the door closed. I give this particular cabin a lower rating due to the location. It is right above the entrance to the ship for accessing each port so you can hear them opening the door, sliding out the rail, setting everything up... as early as 5am. At some point we woke up to constant banging that continued until 5pm that evening making it impossible to sleep late or take an afternoon nap. I have NO idea what they were doing but it went on constantly all day.
Ship tip
They tell you that you can bring canned drinks on board. I spoke to a representative that assured me this would not be a problem. When our luggage arrived on day one they had stolen the drinks from the bag. It was in the original case in a bag of its own. I called customer service and they said "you have to carry it on". You are not given the option to "carry on" anything at the port so you must request this and from what I could see, you actually have to walk around with the case of drinks in hand until your room is ready at 1:30pm or later.
You have to have transportation in order to access anything at this port. The cabs are inexpensive although they do insist on cramming 12 people into mini vans or smaller. Some cab drivers are more agressive than others. One kept pushing my arm and telling em to get in the van which was the end of a seat row with maybe 4 inches of space to sit for the 20 minute ride. When I said I would wait for the next cab he got angry. The shopping is limited but offers beautiful water, kind people, and live Caribbean music.
Beautiful beach! They have massive shuttle boats that seat a ton of people, the boat will not move from the ship to the shore until the boat was full. So plan to be sitting on the shuttle a very long time in the sun or rain with crying babies and unhappy children. When it is time to leave, they lock you in a hot straw holding area with minimal seating until they deem it enough people crammed in there to allow you out of the area and onto the boat. Would have been nice if they offered a fishing excursion.
Immediate access from port. This port offers a ton of activities. I highly recommend the horse and carriage ride for $15 pp for a 30 minute private tour of the city with informative attendant.
Elevators don't work at this time. They have scheduled times for everyone to leave but the ship does not enforce it. So everyone waits til the last minute where you end up standing in a very long line that wraps down and around the cabin corridors with a ton of people in very narrow spaces. I was in this line because it was my scheduled time. Once out the door you stand in the cold but once you get into customs the staff are quick, courteous, and professional.
Different boats for different folks! A lot of people love sailing on The Ecstasy but obviously she was not the ship for you. But before you totally write off the entire cruiseline, why not try booking a cruise on one of Carnival's newer, bigger ships, and this time look over the ship's floor plan BEFORE you select a cabin? ALL cruiselines have certain cabins located near or above noisy areas, and choosing one of those rooms pretty much guarantees you a noisy voyage no matter which cruiseline you're using.
jimverunac—There are plenty of lovely updated ships in Carnival’s fleet, and they should not be discredited. The OP chose one of their oldest, smallest ships, and if they did cruise any newer RCCL or NCL, they were bound to be disappointed. I sailed the Ecstasy, but that was back in 2000. It is in a desperate need of dry dock and updates. My suggestion to everyone is research, research, research! Had they known the age and reviews, they may not of chosen that ship.
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