Let me start this off by saying we were a little reluctant to book a Carnival cruise at our age of 62. From what we have read and heard that Carnival was for the younger crowd,lots of neon,average food,poor service etc. Well we were surprised,yes there is lots of neon and glitz, but the group that was on our sailing was a nice mix. The crew was friendly and was eager to please, there were some exceptions but overall I would give them 7 out of 10.
The food was wear we were most surprised,very good to excellent on most nights. We eat in the dining room late seating for all or breakfast and diners, lunch was on deck with the usual fare.Our wait staff was good on par with some of the better restaurants in our area.The Ecstasy in most part was clean, some of the high traffic area carpet was stained in hallways but overall she was in good shape for a ship that gets this much traffic every week. We were told she carries 2200 to 2400 every week, year round. The only thing that we had trouble with was the fact that we booked the lowest grade inside cabin category 1A. It had one lower and a fold down bunk bed. At 62 the bunk bed is not the thing to do, I new this going in, but thought I would give it a try considering what we paid for this cruise (cheep).I tried to get a up grade at the embarkation but was told the ship was full.
By the way embarkation went very fast and was by far the best we have been on on the 5 cruises we have taken in the last 20years. Our cabin E183 was good size, clean, and was in an excellent location on E deck, but No more bunk beds for us. Ports of call we did our own thing as we normally do when we cruise, a little walking through some shops and then back on board. We have been to the ports of call before on RCCL.