Great Family Vacation!
Carnival Ecstasy Cruise Review to Caribbean - Bahamas
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 18
5 Night Bahamas (Charleston Roundtrip)
Sail date: March 31, 2019
Ship: Carnival Ecstasy
Cabin type: Inside
Cabin number: R118
Traveled as: Family (young children)
Reviewed: 5 years ago
Review summary
This was my husband and my second cruise, and my kids first. I did enjoy the vacation very much, and am looking forward to cruising again. I feel our last cruise(5 night western Caribbean on the Carnival Inspiration) was much smoother and it's unfortunate that the disembarkation was handled so poorly.Embarkation
We had "Faster to the Fun" and we were onboard very quickly and smoothly. The parking area was a bit tricky to find (we drove to port and parked for the 5 days), but there was lots of port staff on the grounds to help.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The staff in all areas of the ship were very friendly and polite. The coffee shop's Mocha Frappe's were tasty and reasonably priced. The lido deck food was basic buffet faire. Deli hot dogs were good, but the chicken wrap's lettuce was gross-I believe because the wrap was supposed to be cold and that was another theme for the lido deck-if the food was supposed to be served cold it was more on the lukewarm side. Guy's burgers were good, Blue Iguana Cantina taco's were very tasty. Main dining room, service was very friendly but slowwwww. They did serve our boys first (ages 6 and 8)which was a smart move, but often left them waiting for us to finish which was less than ideal. For some reason we were some of the first to show up to dinner and the last to leave-making us late to every show which was disappointing because finding seats for four people in the dark theater was challenging. I personally had 2 dinners that I just didn't care for at all-the lasagna and the penne. First night my husband and I had amazing shrimp. We paid for the steakhouse selections on the last night and that was amazing as well(well worth the $20 upcharge). All deserts were excellent. The ice cream machines were often down (hard for the machines to keep up with the demand-maybe add 1 more machine) and most of the time they served soupy soft serve. We paid $20 for the Dr Seuss breakfast. That breakfast was really well themed-but as far as meeting the characters went it felt like another cash grab because they wanted $$ for the pictures.
Onboard Activities
The pool and hot tubs were always too crowded for my husband and I-even the serenity deck was crowded. Our boys did enjoy the water slides and that area of the ship was nice. Miniature golf was a nice touch, but due to location it was almost always too windy to play, and while there were plenty of clubs, there was never more than 5 or 6 golf balls at any given time. We did do Bingo one day which was fun. The casino was ok. We played blackjack and slot machines. More of a time sink away from the kids than anything else. Everything on board was a blatant cash grab. The arcade is small and overpriced. Meet and greet with the Dr Seuss Characters? Sounds awesome! But parents if you want a pic to remember be ready to shell out $22 a picture(oh and you can't take a pic with your camera, the portrait police will be after you!). Pay $20 for a breakfast for another chance to meet the characters, this time you can take pictures with your camera, but you only get micro seconds to do so before your kids are pushed aside for the next set. The autographs of the characters were just stamps and the staff didn't even TRY to have the characters look like they were signing. Really killed the magic. I didn't know if the picture package would be worth it when it was offered beforehand online- and for those instances alone it was. The photos are very nice, but it just doesn't sit well with me that the opportunities for the Dr Seuss interactions, that they so heavily advertise, are behind these additional payments. I don't remember there being so little to do that didn't cost extra on our previous cruise.
Entertainment
All the performers throughout the ship were amazing. They kept the audience engaged and were all truly talented individuals. The first night (I believe they called it the welcome aboard show) was my favorite.
Children's Programs
I wish there was a way to incorporate the kids club schedule into the main app. If it's a safety issue(first problem that comes to my mind on why they don't) then lock it behind a key code given to parents at the first drop off. We had this paper given to us the first drop off day that gave the overall cruise schedule for the kids club(which was misprinted -for example it said Monday was April 2 and it was really April 1st, etc). It was mainly the same times each day, but the club itself was moved all over the ship(so you would have to go and find them). Also for the last night the boys would have been able to perform on stage during the lip sync battle, but we had no idea that was even an option for them. My older son seemed to enjoy it, but my younger son said a kid was essentially bullying him ( just walked up to him and told him to "go away" out of the blue), and the staff did tell us he was hit by a foam ball by another kid, but that they thought it was an accident and not malicious in any way. It was nice to get a few hours on the sea days alone to ourselves.
Service and Staff
The staff being so amazing honestly outshines all the negatives I've mentioned. Our room steward was amazing and friendly(Budiana), our waitstaff (which switched off and on(maybe for training purposes)) were so nice! The maitre de (Youseff) was also very nice and made his way around the tables each evening.
Ship Quality
The ship was very clean, all the time, every day. I saw staff cleaning and vacuuming constantly-even items like railings and elevator buttons. We did use hand sanitizer and wipes as a precaution and I still would recommend that regardless. I do have a complaint regarding the bathrooms located outside the dining room. Our dining room had a bathroom which was located a floor above (the stairs are literally connected to the lounge above with the bathroom right outside that, so I'm not complaining about the location) that had a single stall for a dining room of 250+ people at any given time. Remember above when we mentioned how slow the service was for my family in the dining room? Well, my youngest would fill up on water while we were waiting for our food and so each night, without fail, we would have to take him to the bathroom. Per my husband the men's urinals were all so high that even our tall-for-his age older son ( 52+inches) couldn't use them. Lots of waiting for a free toilet. One night I had to take him all the way to the restrooms on the other end of the ship because of the backup.
Cabin / Stateroom
The cabin with all four of us in it was pretty crowded. It's listed to be able to sleep 5-I really don't think so. We slept with the two bottom beds pushed together as a king and the boys above us in the 2 pullmans. One pullman was directly above our heads, but there was still plenty of room to "roll over/toss n turn" without hitting the bed above us. The beds were comfortable, and we were able to adjust the temperature easily with the unit in the ceiling of the cabin. We brought a small Renuzit air freshener and placed it in the bathroom immediately, so I honestly don't remember smelling anything other than that in the cabin with the exception of one day where the entire 4th floor smelled faintly of sewer. Our room steward kept the cabin looking amazing-even after our days at the beach when we tracked in sand.
Ports of call
no true excursion, "faster to the fun" was listed as an excursion though, so I'll finish my comments on that here. I purchased "Faster to the Fun" because of 2 items: 1) embarkation-I remember waiting in line for a bit when we cruised 10 years ago without kids -now we have our boys and I just couldn't see them waiting patiently. That part definitely was improved because of F2F and we were onboard fairly swiftly. 2) having our cabins ready immediately once on board. Again, because of our previous cruise I remember carrying around our duffel bags for the 2+ hours onboard before the cabins were ready, and just didn't want to deal with that. We had to "ignore" all the signs asking us to wait and open marked doors to get to our cabins, grab our keycards and felt like criminals doing so. Again, had I not watched videos or researched online I wouldn't have known that HAS to be done (the ignoring of the signs) for this benefit. Not clearly explained by Carnival at all. Also, the "priority tendering" didn't really exist unless you wanted to be the very first ones off the boat at what my family considers just too early in the day.
Thumbs Up
0
I was expecting some heavy sales pitches in the city, and that did occur. We walkws around as a family in the shops on main street. Picked up some souvenirs. We did the "Nassau Native Quest and Beach" excursion through Carnival and absolutely loved it! All the guides on the excursion were great. It was a bus ride through the city with a scavenger hunt, a few games played, local food and drink tasting and then beach time! the beach was gorgeous and my only complaint was I wish we had more time for the beach and shopping.
Princess Cays (Cruise Line Private Island)
The beach is beautiful, and just the water and sand alone is plenty to do, but after seeing the beach on our Nassau excursion-Princess Cays was a bit of a let down. The beach is very, very rocky. I had read and watched a few videos before we left so I had prepared by purchasing water shoes for my family. The water shoes are a MUST. Also, bring cash for extra beverages if you want them. There was a provided buffet, but we ate a late breakfast and didn't eat the buffet on the island.
Disembarkation
What a cluster. We had purchased "Faster to the Fun" and they expected those of us that wanted to "self disembark"(carry off your own luggage-not check anything) to be ready to go at 6:15am. Again, that's really early for us, and because we noticed our floor was the last ones to be called starting at 8:15am, we figured we just wouldn't use the benefit, get some breakfast and be off the ship by 8:30. We did the breakfast thing, went back to our cabin, turned on the TV for instructions(I guess this port they can't make announcements on the PA? They can blow the fog horn, but no announcements?!) and discovered they weren't even calling the 2nd group of people disembarking yet. The weather was somehow causing delays on the gangway(it was raining and also the coast guard had shut down disembarkation for some reason???). But it was made clear we HAD to be out of our rooms by 8:30am. So at 8:30am we go and join the large line in hallway and stay there for approx 1.5 hours with our luggage. Why not make announcements using the TV-telling us of the delay so we could have just waited comfortably in our cabins until they were ready for us? Then the lines for shuttles back to the parking lots were confusing and poorly ran-rushing us out into the rain.