Our cruising history includes an old Carnival cruise 30 years ago, and, since getting back into cruising about ten years ago, 12 Royal Caribbean cruises, one Celebrity, one Princess cruise. This Carnival cruise was chosen for the following reasons: 1). We had a vacation planned for Myrtle Beach, leaving only a fairly short drive to Charleston; 2). Our adult daughter lives in Wilmington, NC, so it was easy for her to join us; 3). Pricing was pretty good.

When comparing cruise lines, it’s only fair to compare comparable ships. I would consider Ecstasy to be basically equivalent of Royal’s Enchantment or Grandeur OTS. Comparing these ships, Carnival wins for its water park areas with slides; Royal wins for overall ship layout.

Embarkation: Parking in Charleston was a hassle. Signage was confusing, lines to park were extremely long, the worst we’ve encountered in all our cruises out of several different ports. Once we were in the terminal things moved fast, helped out by my having purchased “Faster to the Fun” for both of our cabins (by the way, we were four adults, one 7 yr old). It cost me $120 extra to get services I normally get on Royal with our Diamond status. Another advantage of having FTTF was having our cabins ready as soon as we boarded; otherwise, with the exception of departing at our chosen time, FTTF didn’t come into play very much. Read more