Just back: CARNIVAL-ECSTASY- Review (1-27-07/2-1/07):

Arrival in Houston: We arrived at Houston International Airport a bit late, but were able to get to the rental car shuttle quickly to be taken to the main rental-car terminal. Got our car with no problems we had reserved from Enterprise Rental. In fact...to our pleasure we received an upgrade and a sporty red car to use to drive down to Galveston. The drive down from Houston to Galveston was a breeze.....almost low flying in fact...with me trying to keep up with the traffic.I had to slow down cause the speed limit was 70....but then I was passed constantly by everyone. Seems that part of the interstate is left alone by the highway patrol...no one got pulled over and most of the cars were doing at least 85 mph! We got to Galveston and Enterprise's driver took us to the cruise terminal. I want to say that Enterprise did a VERY good job for us. In fact we were not charged the $40.00 'different drop-off fee' leaving our rental in Galveston instead of returning it to Houston. This happened on our other trip also, so I am not sure if we were just lucky again...or they just waiver that charge all the time. We were told we would have to pay it by the phone reservations operator when I made reservations, which is common and acceptable. We had used them before on our previous cruise and will do so again. I highly recommend Enterprise Car Rental Service.

Embarkation: We both completed the Fun Pass online...but everyone was told to stand in the same line, so this slowed things down a bit. The line was long by the time we arrived at the terminal around noon and we didn't get on the ship till after 1:00 PM. I do want to mention that in the Carnival terminal waiting area for the Ecstasy...they do not offer to pax any drinks/juice/refreshments of any kind. I would not expect this normally, but with our last RCCL cruise...they did serve those in the waiting area. A nice beginning while waiting for our cruise with RCCL. Read more