Carnival Imagination Review

4.0 / 5.0
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Superbowl weekend cruise

Review for the Bahamas Cruise on Carnival Imagination
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clt70
First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Jan 2010
Traveled with children

I cruised once before on Carnival Fantasy to Nassau. This time I went with my sister and 2 neices (ages 2 and 17). We got a steal through Priceline for our hotel. I fly space available (work at an airline) and did not realize it was even Superbowl weekend (2/5-2/8) when we booked the cruise about 2 weeks before. Traveling on special occasion or holiday weekends are usually a no no for "non rev" (non-revenue employee) passengers. We decided to get to Miami the night before so I bid $47 for a 3 star which was accepted by Residence Inn. I am a frequent traveler with Marriot and had already checked the site, rooms were $179 if you were AAA or AARP. I was shocked that they accepted my bid. Their shuttle picked us up at the airport. We had a nice sized suite with a separate sitting and bed area. The hot breakfast was great and saved us a lot of money. We decided not to check out until noon. The front desk called a cab and for $24 and 10 or so minutes we were at the port.

The port was very nice. Easy to just walk in, line less than 10 minutes. You will check in again as if it's the airport. We did not let the porter take our bags as you have to wait for them later to be delivered to your room and we wanted to sit by the pool. We had entered most of the information online and were able to use the kiosk until we ran into a problem and an agent assisted us with the rest of check in. We went up an escalator and waited in a short line for pictures. This is the first of many times they will take your picture. It doesn't cost anything when you take it. We got a kick out of looking at the passengers pictures later. There was a bit of walking up the platforms. I paid close attention as my parents are cruising for the first time this year and they are seniors. Embarkation was easy and pretty fast.

The lobby type are where guest services is and a small bar looks a little Vegas/Atlantic City. I don't mind that aesthetic. My family gets a kick out of it. We were looking around and a Carnival associate asked if we needed help so we asked where food was and she directed us to the Lido deck. We ended up getting hamburgers, fries, lemonade, and other samples from the buffet. The food was pretty good. There were plenty of chairs inside and outside. It was a little cool to me though it was supposedly 70 or so degrees so we ate inside. Our room was ready by 1:30 or so by the time we finished lunch. Tiny cabin for 4 people with one being a toddler, but we are good sports and not complainers. Plenty of towels, cute little toiletry samples, ice on tablestand. We intended to use room service but didn't get to it as we liked getting out of the room and walking around the ship. Camp Carnival seemed to have some cool stuff for the kids. My 2 year old niece stayed with them for a few hours one day and she had a great time. The 17 year old was too cool for Club O2 but regretted it later when she tried to get into an event they were having and was told she had to be registered. We did not see Shout or the comedians which we intended to. We did go to a broadway type show which the kids liked and I thought was pretty good. It was not too long for kids, they didn't act up. I'm not a drinker, but there were always people around offering drinks that people just whipped out their Sign and Sail card and paid for them. We missed breakfast and lunch everyday in the dining room due to sleeping in and then wandering around, but the buffet breakfast and omelet stations have everything you need. The pizza station is very good as well as the sandwiches. The dining room staff was great for dinner. They made a real effort with my 2 year old neice. Lobster night was Saturday which was a pretty good meal although we almost missed it as we took a taxi to the public beach near Atlantis ($6 per person). We walked back through Atlantis and nobody stopped us. We walked around the Marina and then took a taxi back for dinner. Boarding is easy with your s&s card and ID. We are planning another trip with more family on the same ship in a few more months. It is a great bargain for 3 days. One alarming thing happened on the ship Sunday night. After the day at sea, everyone was wandering around, shopping, hanging out and a terrible fight broke out in the atrium area. There was a swarm of Carnival crew that did NOT have this in control for awhile. There were seniors and kids standing far enough away not to get hit, but able to see everything. Finally the crew was able to "apprehend" the main fighters. The man they were beating was able to run away after sucker punching someone. We saw his girlfriend walk away nursing her punched in face (this was what started the brawl, him beating up on her) with crew. The guys who were defending her and beating up her boyfriend ended up in trouble. I don't know what Carnival does as far as policing or what power they have to hold someone, but it could have been very bad. Deembarking? if that is the word was easy as we chose the self service and had buffet breakfast while we waited for them to call us. I really like Carnival and can't wait for our next cruise. I forgot that I adjusted the tips down the last night (for the 2 year old). We also left a separate envelope for the Maitre D as he is not included in tips. Why Carnival? I checked us in for our flight but we could not print as the printer was out or some reason. Had I known the printer was out and I couldn't print boarding passes, I would not have paid for internet time.

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