Carnival Imagination

Item: Carnival Imagination
Rating: 4.3
Author: MrWi1son

Carnival Imagination Cruise Review

MrWi1son

Contributor Level: Second Mate

Cruises: 1 cruise (first)

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 31

Overall rating:

4.3 out of 5

4 Night Catalina & Baja Mexico (Los Angeles Roundtrip)

Sail date: November 03, 2019

Ship: Carnival Imagination

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: E82

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

Had a pretty good time. First cruise for us and was very relaxing. Drinks from the menu in all bars were pretty weak but you can order your normal go to drink and they will make it for you.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Very smooth process. We had FTTF and left the Queen Mary and walked right I to the Carnival terminal and waited maybe 30 minutes and got in and went straight to our cabin.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Average food over all. Best food was Guys Burger Joint and the Blue Iguana. MDR food was average at best and most cold and hot food was pretty much room temperature. Same with the buffet and it had most of the same items as the MDR. This was the first cruise after it came out of dry dock so maybe they were still working the kinks out of some of the process.

Sushi Bar

5 out of 5

Excellent sushi.

Pizzeria

5 out of 5

We enjoyed the pizza.

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Dynasty Main Lounge

5 out of 5

Went to several shows and they were all pretty good. Mel, the cruise director, was great and kept the crowd engaged.

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

Antonio was our room steward and he was excellent. Kept our Carnival cooler full of ice and whatever else we needed. Mel, the cruise director, was great and full of energy and kept everyone laughing and happy. Some of the staff here and there could have used some attitude adjustments and that was noted by several of the guests.

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Pretty clean overall. They were doing a lot of painting and work every day. Don’t know if that’s a normal thing or just left over projects from dry dock. There were several toilets in different public restrooms on different days that would not flush. We mentioned it to the crew and nothing seemed to change. And the restrooms seemed to always need to be cleaned. That needs to be addressed.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Cabin was clean when we arrived and Antonio made sure it stayed that way. Just two of us in the cabin with one queen bed (2 beds pushed together) and there was more room than we expected. Bathroom was plenty big and had more than enough closet space with shelves and drawers. Perfect location for us. Ocean view cabin with a nice sized window. My only complaint would be the ‘crack’ down the middle of the bed. They didn’t push apart like I’ve heard some say but it was noticeable.

Ship tip

Eat at Guys Burger Joint and you can order from the menu board and not just take the plain cheese burger they want to give you.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Catalina Island, California

4 out of 5

Quick to get off and back on the ship. We rented a golf cart and rode around for a couple of hours. It was very foggy and overcast so we didn’t see much of the views. Didn’t find much else for us to do there.

Thumbs Up 0

Long Beach (Los Angeles), California

5 out of 5

We visited the QueenMary and was able to get on for free by showing our Carnival boarding pass and went up to the bar drinks. The night before we went to Tequila Jacks for dinner and had an excellent meal.

Thumbs Up 0

Ensenada, Mexico

4 out of 5

Took a private tour to LaBufadora that we booked with an outside company and that was interesting. We are not big shoppers so didn’t do too much there. Our driver took us to a local place for some excellent tacos.

Thumbs Up 0

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

We waited in the FTTF waiting area a little long and Mel kept coming in and saying she didn’t know why but to just wait. May have had something to do with luggage getting off or customs. Who knows? But not a pretty streamlined process over all.