We (two active 50-year-old women) had the opportunity to sail on the friendliest ship on the ocean (according to the cruise director), Carnival's Ecstasy, on a 4-night trip out of Galveston in late January 2009. Except for embarkation and debarkation, the Ecstasy is indeed a great sail.

Dining We were more than pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food on this cruise. We ate all of our breakfasts and lunches in the Panorama Grill. The breakfast menu didn't vary much—scrambled eggs, bacon sausage, fruit, bakery items, milk, juice and cereal. There was a made-to-order omelette bar, but the lines for that were usually pretty long. However, there was plenty of everything and it was uniformly good. We also ate in the Grill for lunch, but we had many more choices than at breakfast. We gravitated to the food that was prepared when you asked for it—pizza, grilled sandwiches, wraps, and burgers. They were all freshly prepared for us and delicious. The pizza bar is open 24 hours. Our dinners were in the Windsong restaurant and we were lucky enough to get a table next to the window (not that you could see anything at night). The tables all appeared to be for 8, but few of them were full. We only had 2 other people at our table and they were very nice dining companions. The Maitre D' was very helpful when we wanted to change our dining time and our waiter and assistant waiter were both personable and efficient. The food was much better quality than I have ever had a cruise before, especially the seafood. There wasn't one dish that I didn't thoroughly enjoy.

Cabin We knew that we wouldn't be spending much time in the room, so we opted for an interior cabin. It was much more spacious than I would have expected (even after having read that Carnival has some of the largest interior cabins of all the cruise lines). There was plenty of closet space and drawers for our clothes and there was storage space under the vanity for our carry-on suitcases. There was a flat-screen TV mounted on the wall. There were two chairs for extra seating. The bathroom was good-sized and the water in the shower was hot, strong and plentiful. We were also pleased at how quiet our room was—we never heard anyone walking down the hall, showering next door, etc. But the best part was the beds. Carnival advertises their comfort bedding and it's truly comfortable! Read more