Carnival Ecstasy Review

Ecstasy on Ecstasy 8-23-08

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Ecstasy
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First Time Cruiser • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Aug 2008

We started getting ready for this cruise way back in the fall of 2007! Started hitting Cruise Critic and ordered brochures from all the cruise lines. Checked out itineraries and departure ports to see which cruise my husband and I might want to take. We had sailed on the Holiday out of Mobile, Alabama, in August 2006, so we wanted to leave from a different port this time. New Orleans and Galveston are about the same distance from our home (near Little Rock, Arkansas), so it was a toss up, but we decided on the Ecstasy out of Galveston since we were so pleased with Carnival before. We booked our ocean view room at the Carnival website price for Rivera deck and, Whooppeee!, we got an upgrade to the Upper deck! After booking our cruise, I started getting really serious in checking out the internet for information on the ship and our ports of call. I'm the "planner" in the family and I've collected a whole 3-ring binder full of reviews and other info - Capers, shore excursions, packing lists, oh, the planning is so much fun! OK, before I get totally carried away, that's all on the pre-vacation preparations. Trip down: We set out from home at 7:30 on Friday, August 22. After dropping our son off at day school, we headed southwest down I-30. We're on vacation!!!!! Alone!!!!! (We're still newlyweds - only been married 36 years!) Thank you, Dorothy, for taking care of John! Had a great drive down - at least until we reached Houston. Man alive! That was nerve wracking for us country folk! Thought we'd never reach Galveston! Hotel: We stayed at the Commodore on the Beach - very disappointing. It is an older hotel that's really seen better days. Room was clean and balcony view was awesome, but that's about the best thing I can say about it. Next trip to Galveston, we'll definitely stay somewhere else. Ate at Joe's Crab Shack for supper. Wow! Did we eat too much! Took a walk along the shore to work off some calories and then back to the hotel to rest up for tomorrow. Parking: We chose Lighthouse parking. Booked on line and saved $5. Very nice people. Saved us a disaster. We were so excited to be at the terminal that we forgot to collect our bags and get them to a porter! Lighthouse folks ran after us halfway down the entryway to let us know we forgot to take care of our bags. A whole week in the same clothes would not have been very pleasant. Embarkation: Typical. Got there about 11:30 and didn't get to board until nearly 12:30, but the terminal staff kept us entertained so it wasn't too bad of a wait. (There were at least three wedding parties that had to get on before the rest of us. Got to meet some nice folks while we were waiting. Day 1 - Saturday: Had a nice lunch on the Lido deck. Fantastic rice with shrimp and sausage dish along with lots of other selections in the buffet line. Only bad thing was that we had to lug our carry-ons around with us until the rooms were ready about 1:30. Next time we'll bring a lighter carry-on. I was just glad I had put my laptop in the checked baggage and didn't have to carry it around too. After a ship tour with Brad (our very nice assistant cruise director - buyah, Brad!), we spent the rest of the afternoon familiarizing ourselves with the ship. We had requested late seating and at 8:15 got to begin our quest to sample the great Carnival dishes. Lucky us, we were seated next to the window! We were joined by three other couples who I think are going to be fun tablemates for the week. Turned out three of the four ladies at our table have the same first names. What are the odds of that happening! Our head waitress, Loridana was very good. DH had a New York Strip steak and I had chicken and penne pasta. I am not much of a chocolate eater, so I skipped the famous Warm Chocolate Melting Cake and had a heavenly cheese cake, but DH had the WCMC and just about drooled while he ate it. One of the men at our table, Chris, had ordered that and the black forest cake. Well, our waitress accidentally brought two WCMCs instead of the black forest cake. She left the extra with him and brought him the black forest too. I'm not sure how he did it, but he ended up eating all three! (I don't think I saw him all day Sunday!) After dinner, DH hit the casino to see how much he could increase the $20 he had allowed himself for the first night. As to how much he won, well, lets just say he had fun anyway. I spent that time just strolling around the Promenade deck. When we found each other again, we decided to check out Chinatown. Had a good band and we stayed there for quite a while listening to some country rock. Decided to check out the Neon Bar with Angela, but it wasn't our taste in music, so we walked around a little more then finally called it a night about 1:30. Ahhh, the Carnival bedding is wonderful! Nothing like a good night's sleep when you're pleasantly full, relaxed with a few drinks of the day and soothed by the gentle rocking of the boat. 'Night all. See you (yawn) in the morning! Day 2 - Sunday - First Full Day at Sea: Crawled out of bed about 7:30 (like I said, the bedding is really nice) and after a shower and slipping into our cruise duds went to the dining room for breakfast. Met some more nice folks. In the middle of the Gulf of Mexico one man at our table had delivered furniture to our little home town and another had gone to the same college as our daughter and son-in-law! - It's a small world! After lunch we took in a little sun then attended the shore excursion presentation, then to the Panorama Grill for pizza and sandwiches. After a couple more hours of sun, it was time for the Hairy Chest Contest. Now my DH has a nice manly chest, so I encouraged him to enter. It was a lot of fun! Had two women judging and eight hairy chested men competing. They had to strut their stuff and let the women check out their chest adornment. Then the three finalists (my DH included!) had to pretend to be Tarzan and rescue their Jane. DH didn't win, but he still got a "genuine gold plastic ship on a stick" as a finalist award. Since tonight is formal night, the Captain's Welcome Aboard Reception, and the Gala Midnight Buffet, we decided to go to the room for an afternoon nap. Captain's reception was nice. Hors d'oeuvres and free drinks, good music from the Ecstasy band, dancing and introduction of the senior crew members by the Captain. Dinner tonight was lobster. I had two! Plus two orders of shrimp and two appetizers - then cherries jubilee for desert. Talk about pigging out! At 11:30 we headed over to check out all the carved foods and fantastic deserts at the gala midnight buffet, but after that enormous dinner, I wasn't hungry in the least! Went to the midnight comedy show. I don't know when I've laughed so much! Finally headed to bed around 1:30 again. Day 3 - Monday - Cozumel: Docked at the far pier - rats. Had to take a taxi to the Forum Shops to do our shopping. Only $6.00 for the two of us though, so that wasn't bad. Spent the day walking from shop to shop looking for presents for the grandkids, some jewelry for me and looking for a wedding band for DH to replace the one he lost. Unfortunately, he wears a 14 ½ and no one carried that size, so we didn't get to buy him a new one. Ate lunch at Senior Frogs (wild!) then came on back to the ship about 2:00 and laid around on the deck chairs just soaking up some sun and enjoying the quiet of a nearly deserted ship. Nice. When we got too hot, we moved to the adults only area (at the back where the funnel is located) and found a shady spot to take a siesta. Welcome back party for past guests was tonight - basically a repeat of the captain's welcome aboard party except the crew wasn't introduced. Then it was time to stop by the photo displays and buy some of the formal photos taken last night then on to dinner. DH and I both decided on the pork loin tonight (very good). He had apple pie for desert and I just had some pineapple sherbet. (Still stuffed from last night!) The talent show was tonight. Had some good male singers, some fair female singers, two guys who played the piano, and one lady who played the drums. All pretty good. Checked out the new game show they started called "Quest." It was pretty funny, but a little too disorganized. DH hit the casino again and I headed out to the front Veranda deck. Beautiful view of the stars from there. Bedtime came about 1:30 again. (Don't know what I'm going to do when I get back to the real world and have to start getting up early again.) Day 4 - Tuesday - Progresso: Got to sleep in a little today. Not docking in Progresso until 10:00. Signed up for the Corona Beach Party excursion. Had a ball! Our excursion leader, Fliora or something like that, was fun. She really had a good attitude and even though her English was a little limited, we had no problem understanding her. I really enjoyed relaxing on the beach and downing pina coladas. Don't know how many I drank, but they were really weak, so it didn't seem to do much harm. DH spent most of the time playing beach volleyball. The MC directed several games and got everyone involved. We even joined in on one game. They got eight couples and had us run a race. The first leg the husbands carried the wives on their backs and the second the wives carried the husbands. Now I'm not that small, but my DH outweighs me by nearly double, so there was no way I was going to carry my big ole husband on my back, but we had fun anyway. On the way back to the ship we stopped and did a little shopping at the pier. They were selling less expensive items here than were available at Cozumel, but there was not nearly as much "in your face" pressure to buy items. After we got back to the ship and had slathered ourselves with aloe vera, we headed up to the Panorama Grill for sandwiches then listened in on the trivia game. Midnight Mexican buffet is tonight, so it was back to the room for a nap before dinner. Midnight buffet was a little disappointing. Took too long to get through the line and when we finally got to the food, there was not that good of a selection. They were also temporarily out of taco shells and didn't get more made till we were already finished eating everything else and were ready to head on down to Promenade deck to check out music and then to bed. Day 5 - Wednesday - Last Full Day at Sea: After getting too much sun yesterday in Progresso, we spent today either inside or up on the adults only deck (by the ship funnel above the basketball court) in the shade. Word of warning - whatever you do, don't forget to put plenty of sunscreen on your feet and ankles. Mine are so burned and swollen you wouldn't believe it! No more sun for me for a few days. Dinner was good as usual - DH had Cornish game hen and I had veal parmesan. Afterward, we attended the Extreme Country show. It was pretty entertaining, but was not as good as I expected. Did some last minute shopping and then off to pack and get ready to say goodbye to the ship and crew. Day 6 - Debarkation: Not too bad. We had a cup of coffee on the Panorama deck while waiting for our zone to be called. We had way too much luggage to do self assist. While we were waiting with our two new friends from dinner, DH went to tell assistant cruise director Brad bye. He is really good and, in my opinion, should be promoted to cruise director. We were finally able to exit the ship and head through the long lines to locate our luggage. DEFINITELY get a porter to help with your luggage. By doing that, we were able to skip the loooong line to get through customs. Our porter took us to a much shorter line and we were through customs in about a half hour, as opposed to much, much longer for those who didn't use a porter - plus we didn't have to tote our bags through the terminal lines. Well worth the dollar or two per bag that we tipped the porter. Said good bye to our friends and headed back to Lighthouse parking to get our car and head back north. Trip home: Had a pleasant trip home - much better going through Houston at 10:00 a.m. than at 4:00 p.m. like when we headed down to Galveston! Had nice weather except for a very short rain shower. We stopped for lunch, then made it on to Marshall, Texas, where we decided to spend the night at Comfort Suites. Really nice hotel. Highly recommend it. We got up at 9:00, had coffee at the hotel and headed on to Arkansas where we made it back home by 2:00. Summary: Great vacation! The few bad parts were far outweighed by the good. Food was wonderful, entertainment was fantastic, fellow cruisers were great, and the Ecstasy was, well, ecstasy! I'm ready to start planning for our next cruise!!!!

Cabin Review

Right around the corner from an elevator - loved it. Great location. Only complaint was the window was dirty on the outside so we couldn't see out very well.

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