4 Night Catalina & Baja Mexico (Los Angeles Roundtrip)
Sail date: February 16, 2020
Ship:
Carnival Imagination
Cabin type: Oceanview
Cabin number: M172
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 4 years ago
Review summary
I wouldn’t go on the cruise again. It was my first time and not something for me. Food was okay. It was a hit or miss. Mass produced food, beverages in plastic cups that have been used hundreds of times, but hospitality is AMAZING. Great customer service and staff is always going above and beyond. Thank you so much “I-made” (housekeeper) and “Lesther” (waiter at Pride Dining Room). They really made the trip worthwhile because I’m a customer service person and would pay for customer service over anything else.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Efficient workers so we didn’t have to wait long to board the ship, although there were a lot of passengers
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
1 out of 5
Basic cheap food that are mass produced. I looked forward to food off the boat on days we were touring. Alcoholic drinks were skimpy with the amount of alcohol being poured.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Entertainment
Didn’t participate
Children's Programs
No kids
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
I LOVED ALL OF THE STAFF! Although I didn’t enjoy the cruise much, the staff made it so much better. I will pay for customer service and Carnival Imagination’s staff was more than friendly and went above and beyond consistently. “I-made” was our housekeeper and he made an effort to introduce himself on embarkation day and remembered our names by heart. He did an amazing job cleaning our cabins. We had a total of 5 cabins my family had the entire cruise and he was our person. Although we didn’t have much interaction with “I-made” throughout the cruise because we were away from our cabins, each interaction was memorable and meaningful. “Lesther” was another force to be reckon with! He was an amazing waiter in the main dining room. I can’t remember the name but I believe it was called the Pride Dining Room. Lesther was very attentive, personable and fun. The wait crew had a dance show with pop music in the main dining room and Lesther participated. On top of that, he still tended to our table of 14 people. I really wish I can take all of the staff with me. I’ve never received such excellent customer service like that in America. There are many places with great customer service, but always a rotten tomato within the bunch. With the Carnival Imagination Cruise I went on, there was not one person who was not willing to help or had a bad attitude. All of the staff make the effort to look you in the eye and greet you with a genuine attitude. There are not enough words to express my gratitude for their hard work.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
Ship is old, but staff worked hard to clean and maintain it to the best of their ability.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
Comfortable king size bed, older ship means older rooms, but expected. TV has great complementary movie options that are free, bathroom is decent sized. I-made did an amazing job to make sure our rooms were taken care of daily.
Ship tip
Limited shopping stores. There were only 4 stores to shop it within the cruise (candy shop, liquor store, jewelry store, and a fun shop for souvenirs). Make sure to bring toiletries because the fun shop doesn’t have them what you may forget at home. For example, I needed hand sanitizer, Lysol wipes or hand soap, but I’m a germaphobe.
Cruising isn’t for everyone but not all recognized that. Some continue to cruise and complain how terrible it is I give you credit for saying it’s not for you. Thank you for the review
Even slightly larger ships like Conquest have better food in main dining room, and additional options like the amazing steakhouse and the seafood shack. On other cruises we’ve always had the same above and beyond service, maybe even better because longer cruises are not as hard on the staff as these short ones where they have to do a full ship turnover every few days. If you enjoyed the service I’d consider researching and trying again, there’s no vacation like it for the cost. Celebrity is another level with food but you pay more, so it all depends what you’re looking for. We like these ships for a fun getaway, have another planned in October, but they certainly aren’t the best in the fleet... Thanks for the review!
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