I have previously sailed the CCL Freedom and Legend so I have a rather lofty basis for comparison. The ecstasy is the second oldest ship in Carnival's fleet. This trip included me, my sister and my 16 year old niece. Since we live here in Florida, it’s only a little over a two hour drive to Port Canaveral so no hotel or flights for us (woo-hoo!

We shared ocean-view cabin 171 on the Empress deck (7) which was a good location because it was close to both the lido buffet and our dining room. The flip-down bunk for the kiddo folds out of the wall and was in the way until our room steward came to put it away after we left for breakfast. If you have a choice – get a room where the extra bunks come out of the ceiling instead because they tend to be directly over the bottom beds and are not in the way. By the time I realized I could just turn the beds the other way, it was day 4.

The Ecstasy had previously undergone many upgrades including the addition of the Serenity area (more on that later), a refresh to the lido buffet and the pool and probably some decor. Overall, the ship looked very nice. You could tell they had added some things because they were in places that didn't seem logical to me vs. placement of same things on newer ships. This ship does have the two new pool bars – Blue Iguana and Red Frog (great!) and the pool looks nice though there are few hot tubs (4 total) on this one. There is a whole water park on an upper deck, but sadly we never got to use any of the slides due to them closing at 5 every day and someone’s kid ruining it for everyone by having a leaky diaper which made them close the whole thing for the rest of the cruise - ??? (boo). The Serenity area on this ship is aft (fine), but in order to actually get to it, you have to go all the way to the back right corner of the lido buffet and down some stairs OR cut through the back right corner of the comedy lounge (????). There are no easily visible signs pointing you to it. Once there, we didn't have much trouble getting chairs (in January), but since Serenity is really small on this ship – grab a spot on sea days early. They have two hot tubs here, but they were not very hot and they were small and noisy (pumps). No bar in Serenity like on other ships, but there is waiter service. This ship was missing the giant movie screen that the other ships have, but we found plenty of other things to do at night. Stargazers tip – if you go all the way to the bow on the mini-golf course deck, there is a narrow walkway in front of the slanted glass windbreak where you can sit down against the glass and see all the stars. It’s dark because the bridge needs most of the lights off up there so they can see. Bring your pool towel to lay on and you butt fits right into the bottom curve of the window ledge. Read more