I was very pleasantly surprised by my experience on this ship. I knew she was an old girl, but really the Ecstasy was so well maintained. This was my 15th Carnival cruise so I've been on plenty of ships of all sizes. I've always found that the best service is on the smaller ships and this cruise was no exception. Lee the cruise director was soooo fun and full of great energy and seemed to be everywhere at once. We saw him constantly which was not always usual for the CDs.

We booked this cruise last minute so the dining room late seating was full and we had the your time dining. I'd never done that before but am now hooked. It was great to not be tied to a specific time to be there. We never waited to be seated. Some other reviews complained about the food which I never understand. I also cruised with Royal Caribbean and Norwegian and think the food on Carnival is so much better. I always eat breakfast in the dining room as the food there is definitely better than the Lido although the one day we were in port and the dining rooms were closed, I got a breakfast burrito from Blue Iguana and it was great. The Sea Day Brunch is not to be missed. Guy's burgers is really great, and Blue Iguana has an excellent burrito. We really enjoyed the comedy club and went to all the shows. The comedians on our cruise were Killer Beaz and Dean Gaines.

We've both been to the Bahamas multiple times and it's not my favorite port but this time, I went by a recommendation on the boards here and went to Ardastra Gardens and I'm so glad I did. Their big attraction is the marching flamingos and feeding the Lory parrots. I loved the parrot feeding and could have stayed there all day The flamingos just walk around the place so we got so many pictures of them. Read more