We have used Carnival before and this was our second time on this particular ship. It is an older ship, but is kept very clean, what it lacks in glamour, the staff make up for in a positive attitude! First and foremost- our room stewards, Dedi & Sasha were excellent! They gave us extra towels, kept ice in our rooms and always stopped to socialize and ensure that our needs were met! Thanks so much guys! Cruise director, Deon was wonderful! We really enjoyed the music trivia nights with him and Double D. Also, a big thank you to Dan & Steffan for hosting the comedy shows and being so friendly! Johnny Milwater, Cee Jay Jones, Thomas Brown and Jodi White put on great comedy shows and we had lots of laughs! A special thanks to LexAppeal for your nightly performances and the rock show - we thoroughly enjoyed watching and listening to all of you! Thanks to Bandit and the burger guys, we love Guy's burgers! The pixel staff was wonderful as well! Reymond and Made were very attentive on the smoking deck as well, thanks guys for keeping everything cleaned up. We would like to send a special thanks to all of the dining and housekeeping staff on the Lido deck. The only negative thing about the cruise was the long wait for the dining room on cruise formal night. It took 45 minutes to get in the dining room and another 45 minutes to get our appetizer. That was very disappointing, but the good was good! Overall, we had a great experience and would definitely do it again! Thanks to everyone that made the trip wonderful, we met some wonderful people and thoroughly enjoyed our 5th Carnival Cruise. Read Less

This was my fifth Carnival cruise. I chose this cruise for the 3 days in port in Bermuda, which was the only port and a bucket list destination for me. We booked one year in advance. About 2 months before departure, Carnival started sending out "change of itinerary" messages. I received 6 change notices, the last one as we were departing for the port. The final result was that we ended up with about one and a half total days in Bermuda, not three. No explanation for the change was given, and no compensation was offered except for a refund of some port fees that we were owed, obviously because we were not in port. Instead, we were out sailing around in a circle to the east of Bermuda. Other than this major disappointment, the cruise was the typical Carnival experience. The food and service was O K, not great. One comedian was very funny, the other one not so much. The cruise director Deon was wonderful. The highlight of the whole cruise, other than the wonderful destination, was the ease and speed of getting on and off of the ship. Bermuda is by far the most beautiful port I've cruised to. There are many stunning beaches, lovely homes, attractions like the Crystal Caves and the Aquarium and Zoo, shopping in Hamilton, and historical attractions like forts, lighthouses, and St. George which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Bermuda has inexpensive and efficient public transportation, by bus and ferry, to all parts of the island. Everything was clean and well-run. Everyone we talked with was helpful and polite, and Bermudians are so willing to guide you and tell you all about their wonderful island. They are obviously very proud of this exceptional place and rightfully so. I am already planning to return to Bermuda, this time on an airplane. I never expected to have the port time shortened (except in the event of a hurricane), and that event has made me re-evaluate the whole cruise experience. All of the people I spoke with on the ship were disappointed that our time was cut short. We all paid for 3 days in Bermuda as offered by Carnival, and that is not what we got. We also didn't even get the courtesy of an explanation from Carnival. Read Less

The cruise was great, the ship was great. Bermuda was a great place, everything was a little expensive. The ship was originally supposed to be in port 3 nights, but for some reason we had to leave one day at 3 and return to port the next morning at 930, so that really took away one of your nights in Bermuda. The food and dinning room service was great. Room service was good, Guys Burgers have the best hamburger any where. The casino was good, won some money & the casino staff was so nice This was a Primary Cruise and the gifts were really nice. The shows were good and had a great people. Deon the cruise director was one of the funnest people on the whole ship. It was always nice to hear his announcements everyday. The military show on the ship was one of the best I have attended on all my Carnival cruises. Read Less

This is my fourth cruise on this lady, Carnival Ecstasy, she is in good shape for an old gal! EMBARKMENT: My wife and I drove down from North Carolina and utilized the new cruise port parking arrangement. We used to park in an old warehouse and take buses after you dropped off the luggage at the parking lot. Now you drive in, they take your luggage and your park in the open air parking lot and take the shuttle to the cruise terminal. It appeared to be a little faster. The bottleneck at the terminal remained the same, long lines that are slow. You do get onto the ship in about an hour or so. ON BOARD: Your room key is now at your cabin's mail slot next to the cabin door, so when you get on board if you want a drink you have to show your boarding pass and give your cabin/stateroom number, the new system is a little faster, but not much. You head to the buffet on deck 10 and have the "standard" buffet food, good but not great. You get into your cabin by 1:30pm, you room key card and onboard charge card is in the mail slot next to the cabin door. INTERIOR: Rivera (4th deck) R63 is an interior cabin, with a queen bed, two twins pushed together. as my wife and I are CPAPer's we had the stateroom steward, Wayan, split the beds for us. He provided excellent service through out our cruise. Standard interior cabin, a little dated but functional. ENTERTAINMENT: On the ship, the entertainment is by cruise staff, all production shows, a couple were good, the cruise director, Deon, is a high energy and very personable. The Punchliner Comedy Club had a very good comedian, Jody White, we only saw her PG show and it was an entertaining 45 minutes. COST of DRINKS: They are getting expensive $6.50 for bottled beer and $9 and up for cocktails, similar to RCCL. PORTS OF CALL: My wife had not been to Bermuda in about 25 years, back in "those days" we did the snorkeling, glass bottom boat, the pink sand beaches and explored the island, now we sort of just walk around the port area. I will comment later about Bermuda it is a beautiful island to visit. MAIN DINING ROOM: We were "your time dining" from 5:45 pm to 9:30 pm, and there are long lines to get into the restaurant and your are given the buzzer that goes off when your table is ready, no matter what time we went, early or about 7:30 pm, there was about a half hour wait time. We dining in the Wind Star main dining room and fortunately got the same section at our request, with the team head waiter Iman and the team waiter Sentana, with a third rotating team assistant waiter at tables 138 to 146. They provided excellent service throughout the cruise. THE MENU: Standard fare, we had prime rib, two nights, beef tenderloin one night, and the menu varied on the beef and pork, with spare ribs, beef short ribs, along with the pasta, vegetarian, and seafood selection. There are two formal nights on the seven day cruise in which there are table cloths on the tables. The appetizers are standard, and they only have escargot (my favorite) one night of the cruise. Overall, the food was very good but not great. Now the "salt shakers" in the main dining room are the little cylinder ceramic shakers with three little holes onto and THEY ALWAYS CLOG!!! Five of the seven nights we had to have our waiter bring us salt shakers that were not clogged. Carnival get new salt shakers! If that was my main complaint, what am I complaining about. MEET and MINGLE gathering: I would have to rate it a poor compared to the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. There were about 25 Cruise Critic M and M folks, and they coffee, juice, water and danish. On RCCL's meet and mingle, they had bottles of wine and champagne, hats, a backpack and the coveted pens and markers. THE CASINO: My wife and I were here on the Carnival Players Club "bounce back" casino offer, it you gamble "enough", and I do, you get a offer of an interior cabin for $100 per person, plus port charges and on board credit of $100 each, so essentially, its a "free cruise" excluding the port charges and taxes. Unfortunately the casino is small, and as I play three card poker (only two tables) and WPT heads up hold 'em (only one) I had limited table time as this cruise was also a Carnival players club "Premier" players club cruise and people were sitting at the table to play before the casino opened. There was a mix of old and new slot machines, mostly older vintage, and I did not hear of any really big slot machine wins announced. DEBARKMENT: Under an hour we went from the gathering place, Sapphire Lounge to pick up our luggage, through customs onto the shuttle bus and to our car in under one hour. Amazingly fast. OVERALL IMPRESSION: It was a nice cruise on an older ship, with standard accommodations, very good but not great food in the MDR that provided excellent service,that visited the beautiful island of Bermuda. There few kids on board as it is the school season, a good age group mix. Read Less

I chose this cruise because it spent 3 nites in Bermuda. after final payment was made cruise changed from staying in port, to leaving at nite and coming back in the morning. my wife and I decided to check into a hotel for the three nites, whiched saved the vacation. now, about the ship. on boarding, the sewer smell was so bad and the stale cigarette smoke was awful. food on the ship was ok, but nothing formal.. you eat, you don't dine. service on the ship is marginal at best. no more free room service, no more having your room cleaned two times a day. however, they do let you choose morning or nite service. the ship is rusty and in my honest opinion, carnival needs to sell it or scrap it. furthermore they should probably do that to all of their fantasy class ships. if you are booked on the ecstasy, I would consider changing ships, if not, you were warned. I will book on carnival again, but not on fantasy class ship. no how no way!! Read Less

I love Carnival, I thought the good was delicious, the staff was very friendly, ship was clean, it was a wonderful vacation. This was my 15th cruise so I do know what I am talking about. The captain is a sweetheart, the comedy shows was hilarious. I went to all of the comedy shows. Guys burgers was so delicious i could eat them every day. The brunch at sea was my favorite meal. The filet mignon for breakfast was always cooked to perfection. The prime rib at dinner was yum. Our cabin guy was very good at his job. I liked how Carnival allowed us to buy a liter of crown royal for our room. We will be going back next month and taking our five grandchildren with us.they do enjoy cruising and they enjoy camp ocean and the green eggs and ham breakfast. Carnival keep up the good work. Read Less

I chose this cruise for the time that was allotted to staying in Bermuda. It was changed and we were cheated time on the island. The only reason I booked the cruise was for the time I was told we would be there which was changed and I do not know why. We had a balcony room. The first night something sweeked all night. I reported it woke up the next morning it was still sweeking. Told the cabin staff person he went and found it. It was a door left ajar. The next night the people in the cabin had a huge argument at 4 in the morning which last for an hour and half. One evening the room smelled so bad that I literately thought I was going to lose my dinner. We were in a cabin in which the room attendant never put up the bunk beds so we literally had one chair and one stool for four people. I had to move my bed to the middle of the floor at night because I thought if it as a jail cell. (Not that I know what that really feels like). I am a gold member so this was not my first cruise, but may be my last on Carnival. I am going to file a complaint. No one on our bus going back to parking lot said they wanted to return when asked by the bus driver. This ship needs to be docked and Carnival needs to refund passengers money for this cruise!!!!! Read Less

This cruise was supposed to be 3 days docked in Bermuda. It was the entire reason we booked this cruise in the first place so we could take our time on the island. The itinerary was consistently changing and eventually we ended up with one full day and 2 extremely short partial days. My wife and I ended up spending more money on excursions and having less time to actually enjoy the island (like we originally paid for) No one on the crew really even acknowledged our concerns or offered "anything at all" to try to make it better. I would think it was maybe just my personal thoughts alone, however, virtually every other passenger I came in contact with was complaining about the same thing. I have been on 6 Carnival cruises in the last several years. I generally don't bargain shop for cruises... I see a cruise I like and I book it. Carnival has been my go-to in the past, however this last experience has caused me to start looking elsewhere for future cruises. The sad part is, that for the most part the crew was as expected... the food was as expected.... the entertainment was as expected but the fact that the itinerary was drastically changed.... and then.... there were no apologies from the crew, nor was there really any acknowledgement that this may negatively impact peoples vacations. Its as if everyone tried to sweep it under the rug. That's the part I have the biggest issue with. It has caused me to lose faith in Carnival. Sadly, my 5 previous cruises were great, but this last cruise will most likely be my last with Carnival. Read Less

We choose this cruise for the 3 consecutive days in port in Bermuda, (Didn't happen) We received an email right before we sailed (after full payment had been made) that we would be going out to sea one night verses being in port the whole time. After that they shorten our time in port 2 more times, after so many itinerary changes it left us with very little time to explore. We were never given an explanation to why all the changes. We were very disappointed in Carnival. If we had been informed of this PRIOR to final payment we would not have taken this cruise. Now on a positive note, our room steward Ibara was fantastic! Our dining crew (late) Carlos, and guys were great! Another note, I wish there were other activities on sea days, trivia is ok but it would be nice to have other options. Bermuda (what we saw of it) is a beautiful place and we hope to go there again someday but it won't be with Carnival. Read Less

Where do I begin. We are Diamond 47 Carnival cruises 277 days and this one was the last time we will ever do another Carnival cruise other than the one we already have booked for October 2019. Temperature on the ship was super cold, 66 degrees; food was terrible all 8 days. Any warm food got super cold quick. Trash. If you love salads, this was your cruise. If you like mashed potatoes, this was not your cruise. Mashed potatoes, one day for lunch. Otherwise rice and rebaked, baked potatoes. Black wrinkled skins and old potatoes. Tasted terrible. How about this. Turkey leg carving for lunch, the rest of the turkey for dinner. Veal parm. For lunch then warmed up for dinner. All the hot food. Warm at best. Lunch buffet. Always 30-40 tables always needed cleaning off while many were needing tables to eat at. Super short on help. Cutting down I would think. Bloody carved meat. Disgusting. Steak, super tough. Out of the entire 8 days. Two deserts were very good. Otherwise, none of them had any taste to them at all. Totally bland. Sause to put on a desert. Strawberry was a thin liquid with no taste. If there was soup that you may have liked. Saying that because they mixed up a lot of left overs and made soup. It was hot. The rolls were not much bigger than the butter tab. One day nice soft rolls, the next day harder and third day dark brown crispy hard reheat. The shows were average. One was totally boring. Fish and chips one afternoon. They want you to buy it. Chicken twice a day every day. Bingo was a joke. $500 dollar bingo. First game $100 second $150 third $250 that is there $500 dollar bingo. Now, almost all of the time more than one winner. Most received $50 if you won. Reason a lot of winners had to split it. The lowest they would give you was $50. Bingo card single $20, double $30, triple $40. So if you bought the $40 and won. You ar a big $10 dollar winner. A few hundred were playing and that is all carnival could offer. Disgusting! No electronic pads to get either. All dobber playing cards. The state room was fine. Like usual and our room steward was very nice as usual. Now how about this. I always do this. Every time I play a slot machine. I charge $100 to my account. Win or loose. Next machine I charge another $100. I can always look at the invoice and see how many games I played. This time, at cash out, I was accused of money laundering. Yes, money laundering. This was the very first time it happened to me. They would not give me my money. I was forced to take the cash out money and pay off my bill. The bill was all on my charge card. Talk about embarrassed. Yes, treated like a criminal. Our next Carnival cruise is on the Magic for Halloween 2019. Six cruises for 2019. Carnival, thank God, is only one of them. One last thing, the morning we were leaving, the Carnival channel on the TV had the time wrong by an hour. It was 6:30AM and it said $5:30 AM WE went back to bed. Then after leaving the room. We find out the correct time. Well, I could go on and on. Carnival is sinking fast. Celebrity and RCCL is blowing them out of the water for sure. Did you know that your points on carnival and Princess are not recognized together. RCCL and Celebrity, they are. The first cruise we took on Celebrity we were treated the same as going on an RCCL cruise ship. Priority. Nice! Happy Crusing! Stay off of Carnival ships. Forgot one thing. This must have been a cruise for the extremely old and the disabled. More electric scooters everywhere and always parked in the way. Read Less