Carnival Ecstasy Review
Rating by category
Additional details
My mom and I picked this cruise because we wanted something to do in the middle of the winter (between other trips). It was close, we're in Georgia, it was reasonably priced, and we hadn't been to the Bahamas before. Overall, we enjoyed the cruise. Mom is a vegetarian and was mostly pleased with the food choices at dinner. There was one night when the veggie choice on the menu didn't appeal to her so she had a bit bowl of mashed potatoes which she really enjoyed. I enjoyed the dinners overall - esp. that the food was the right temperature, the butter actually melted on the baked potato! We've been on other cruises where the food was not at the right temperatures and it takes away from my enjoyment of the food.
Embarkation went better than I thought it would. After reading other reviews of the parking, etc. I decided to spend the night, leave the car at the hotel and take a taxi. I was really pleased with that decision. We got picked up at the hotel in North Charleston by Mr. Andy at 11:30 am, got to the port about 11:55 and we were on the ship by 12:30. He drove us in to where they take the luggage. There wasn't a line of cars yet but as a taxi he would have been able to bypass them. We then walked to the shuttle where we waited a few minutes for more people to board. When we got inside the building there was a line but it moved along at a pretty good pace. We got checked in and the woman who checked us in asked if Mom would like to use the entrance that doesn't involve the ramp. Mom said "yes" so we walked to a side door where they directed us to the lower entrance where we got an elevator and went to the Panorama restaurant on the Lido deck for lunch. The Panorama restaurant didn't impress me at all. It seemed disorganized and it was hard to find anything. That impression didn't fade throughout the entire cruise.
When we got to our cabin there was a piece of luggage by the door that wasn't ours but it wasn't the crew's fault - there was an old tag on it that had our cabin number on it.
Cabin Review
Balcony
We had no complaints about the cleanliness of the cabin, including the bathroom. That said, the cabin was small! The beds were set up in twin formation so we had to move them some so that we wouldn't keep banging our legs on the metal frame to get between the desk and the end of the bed. Moving the beds over meant that the reading lights weren't well aimed and you couldn't move them.
One complaint about the bathroom - who ever decided that the toilet paper holder needed to be at knee level? It made it awkward to use the toilet.
Weirdest thing - the morning we got back to Charleston, when I got up and washed up the water was fine, by the time Mom got up there was NO water pressure. If we hadn't had water glasses with water in them, she wouldn't have been able to wash her face or brush her teeth.
Other strange thing, when we got to the cabin we only had HOT water. Called the room steward and he came and checked - it wasn't user error and called maintenance. The maintenance guy came and "showed" me how the faucet and shower worked and that there was cold water.
Port Reviews
Nassau
We got a tour of the island with the obligatory stop to buy souvenirs. Then on to the gardens. It's really more of a small zoo than "gardens". It was really nice though as they have free roaming flamingos that you can walk right up to. Also, a couple of free roaming peacocks.
Freeport
The ship docks in an industrial area. There is a small shopping/dining area that is for cruise ship passengers. We didn't do an excursion because there was nothing that appealed to us from the ship. I did look at other sources on line and didn't see anything other than getting a taxi to show us around. I found out the next day from a couple of fellow passengers that there is a hop on/hop off bus that takes you into Freeport and up to Port Lucaya. Wish I'd known about it.
Charleston
The arrival process at Charleston was better than it sounded from some of the reviews that I read. It sounded like you were lined up on the street but you're not. They have a few lanes where you pull up, show your papers (be sure to have them handy!) and then go through to a stop where they take your luggage from the car. Then you go to the parking deck. They then have shuttle buses to bring you back to the ship. At debarkation, there is a line to go back to the parking deck. We used a park and cruise service so it was very easy for us as Mr. Andy drove us up to the stop where they take your luggage and then we walked about 30 steps to the shuttle to be driven to the ship. The embarkation went very well.