We found a great last-minute price on the 4 night Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Ecstasy. We had never cruised with Carnival before. Our only previous cruise was a Transatlantic on Royal Caribbean. We were pleased with our experience on Carnival. The embarkation process ran smoothly. I had taken the time to submit all of our paper work and payment information before hand. The agent who checked us in was polite, but not friendly. We checked in about 1:00 pm and made our way on board. We found our cabin on the Riviera deck (deck 4). It was an ocean view cabin with a good-sized window toward the front of the ship. The room was clean and our room steward was very helpful and very friendly. We had 5 of us in a the cabin. My wife and I shared the twin beds pushed together into a king-size. Our children slept in the pull out bunks and the trundle bed. When the room was made up for the night it was quite tight. We had to be sure to be careful not to hit our heads on the bunks. It was adequate, but not luxurious. The bathroom was a normal size for a cruise and worked well for our needs. The storage for clothes and things in the drawers and closets accommodated our things well. There was a television (with poor picture quality, but that was OK because we were not on the cruise to watch TV) and a small desk in the room.

The two primary places we ate our meals were in the Panorama Bar and Grill on the Lido deck (10) and our assigned dining room the Wind Song. The food on the Lido deck was fine. It was a buffet with a few other options (sometimes hamburgers or Mongolian stir fry). The food quality was average, but there was plenty to choose from. Our children loved the ice cream available all the time. The food in the Wind Song was good, but not great. The lobster we had one night was quite good. My kids loved the chocolate melting cake for dessert. I would recommend one avoid the pumpkin pie. It was rubbery and not flavorful. I can honestly say it was the worst pumpkin pie I have ever had. However, I had baked alaska one evening and it was quite good. The service in the dining room was very good. Our head waiter Alberto was very good and friendly. So was our waiter Mauricio. The only bad service we had was on the final day in the Pizza Pirate on the Lido deck. The woman running it seemed overwhelmed. She could not keep up with the demand and looked like she was frustrated by it.

As far as activities, the pool area was often quite crowded and had a definite party atmosphere. The demographics on the cruise skewed toward young families and young adults. Those two groups often want different things from a cruise. Many of the young adults seemed interested in the party atmosphere (loud music, lots of alcohol, and mingling in hot tubs). As a family we were more interested in children's activities and family activities. Because of this we spent time at the miniature golf course (that was fun) and Waterworks (water slides and activities). The kids loved the water slides. Read more