Carnival Ecstasy Review
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I hope that you find this review of the Carnival Ecstasy one that is helpful in your cruising-perusing! Let me first start off by saying that my wife and I have been on three cruises, certainly not the experts, but enough to know what to expect. Our first cruise was on the Celebrity Galaxy to Alaska. Our second was on RCCL's Rhapsody to the Western Caribbean. This was our third. We had several "seasoned" cruisers warn us against Carnival because it was for the "beer and pretzel" crowd. I hope that by the end of this review I will have shed some light as to my opinion of this statement.
Galveston/Embarkation Since we live in Texas (the western end of the state), we chose to drive with our boys (4 and 9) to Galveston the day before embarkation. This was a good decision. Find a nice place to stay and swim to serve as a vacation preview. We chose to park at our hotel for a nominal fee of $20 (some others are FREE, but we were in covered parking that was totally secure). They shuttled us to and from the pier. We had a lazy morning at the hotel and loaded up for the pier at about 11:30. (Cruise documents say not until 1:30, but we wanted to try and beat the rush). Several other passengers had already arrived. We were easily checked in, (we completed our documents online and were issued a SeaPass—highly recommended) and immediately received our keys and cards. We were allowed to board the Ecstasy at about 12:30. Staterooms were closed off to the public until—like they said—1:30 p.m. on the nose. While we waited, we had a nice lunch on the Lido deck buffet and just explored the vessel.
Carnival Ecstasy My wife called it "tacky chic" and loved all of the neon. I called it "art deco on anabolic steroids." Some have complained that the Fantasy Class ships were decorated by someone who was not in their right mind. I disagree. I think it was striking! There is glitz and neon everywhere and it's just fun. It is very different from the simple elegance of Rhapsody and Celebrity's Galaxy. It is the smallest ship we have been on, but carried the most people. We never really felt crowded, yet we missed the openness of the high ceilings in the formal dining room.