Carnival
Imagination
Eastern Caribbean

Paul

Age: 46
Occupation: Emergency Services
Number of Cruises: 3
Sailing Date: September 26th, 2005

Right off the bat I want to warn everyone when going to embark the ship, don’t worry about getting there early. I had to check out of my hotel at 11:00 and got a taxi ride to the Port of Miami to be greeted by very friendly porters who took my luggage but when going into the building to check in, was met with long, not moving lines. They have to get everyone off the cruise that docked that morning along with some time to check up the returning cruise before letting anyone through. This causes long lines that you just stand in. My suggestion is get there early afternoon and you’ll be fine. Once the lines start moving, it’s not too bad. You have to go through the customary security screening and then through the check in. That’s followed by getting into another line to get your sail and sign card along with a separate room key card.

Once on the ship, I had in the back of my mind what I’d read most about the Imagination, that is was an old ship. I was expecting less than I seen as the ship was in good ship and everything was clean and quite nice.

One of the first things I noticed right off was that the cabin room was bigger than other cruises I have been on. That was a nice surprise. The room was clean and had lots of space.

I began my trek around the ship to see what was all there. I soon found out that the Promenade and Lido decks were the main desks for things going on. It was a standing joke when someone got on the elevator and ask where they were going, they’d say “P for Party” (as the letters were listed large on the elevator buttons instead of the full names and the party places were on P).

As customary, a party was held in the area around the swimming pool with things going on and a buffet at the Horizons Bar. There are actually 2 Horizon Bars, one outdoors by the pool and one inside just in back of it by going down a hallway on either side. The food was really good I thought.

The first night, and actually most meals, I eat at the Horizons Bar and Grill. During lunch they always fixed hamburgers and hotdogs along with a variety of other tasty things in the outside buffet with a better variety of menu in the inside one where also the 24-hour pizzeria is. There were always people at the pizzeria at all times of the day along with at the 24-hour ice cream machines.

Just to clarify my review, I didn’t ever take in the dining rooms during the scheduled seating. I was on vacation and didn’t want to change out of my very casual dress (jeans or shorts and polo shirts) just to sit down and eat. I was very content with eating at the other places that served a variety of foods based on an ethnic food menu that changed each night.

If you haven’t been on a Carnival cruise before, you’ll like their special quark the cabin stewards do - make towel animals in your room at night when they go to turn your bed down and dim the lights. Yes, you’ll do like everyone else and take pictures of them and think that they’re too cute to actually take apart and use as actual towels.

We had fairly calm seas and the ride was smooth. You could feel the wave action a little with you laid down in bed at night but it was minimal at best. The last cruise I went on had some not really rough seas, but some waves and I you felt it all the time and I had a couple days of “sea legs” after the cruise. For you first time cruisers, “sea legs” is when you are standing on firm, normal ground when you get off the ship but it still feels like you are moving like you were on the ship.

When we got to Cayman Island, we were tendered to the dock. There were 3 other ships there and all have different areas where the tenders dock you. There are Carnival personnel there and point you where you need to go to stand for the shore excursions which is very helpful. You stand under a sign with the shore excursion you have and wait for them to come up to you and tell you to follow them. The sign has the time when you’ll leave so it’s real easy to just cross the street to the shops real quick to look around before heading out on your excursion.

I took in the Sting Ray Sandbar. We were taking to our busses and loaded up and bused to the boat we were on. On the way out, about 35 minutes, they told us all about the sting rays and what to expect. We ran into some rain on the way. Here’s a tip. If you go on the sting ray excursion, bring a little carrying bag, like a cosmetic bag or something to put your valuables and sail and sign card, etc. into when you get off the boat to get in the water with the sting rays. It also helps if a rain shower comes up to help keep them dry. Don’t worry about stuff being taken as you’ll have 35 minutes on the way back to see if anything was taken because everyone comes back on the same boat. When you get there, you’ll have to take your shoes off before getting in the water. They also will give you some squid to hold in your fist for the sting rays to eat out of your hand. When we got to the sand bar there were many other boats there and lots of people in the water. That’s okay because the area is fairly big and you’ll have lots of room to move around. It’s kind of a scary sight when you first pull up there and you see these things swimming around the boat. The water isn’t very deep (you can stand up with the water about chest high in most places). The boat provided us snorkels to use if we wanted to but the water is so clear you can see everything without a snorkel if you don’t want to use one. I wasn’t off the boat and standing on the sandbar for more than a minute when one swam by my rubbing up against my leg. They are all over and swimming among everyone standing there. You can reach down and feel them and they don’t do anything but keep swimming by. For the 30 minutes or so we were there I couldn’t count how many of them I reached down and touched. The people who took us out on the boat found a couple of them that didn’t mind being held and gave everyone a chance to hold one from underneath while they took your picture. (You can buy the picture for $8 on a computer disk on the way back if you want, if you don’t want one, I’ll still suggest you hold one because it’s really an experience) The bottom line is if you want a great experience that’s fairly inexpensive for an excursion, do the Sting Ray Sandbar - it is well worth it and you won’t be disappointed!

When we got back from the sting ray excursion I had plenty of time to take a tender back to the ship, change and take a tender back to do some looking around and shopping in the shops that are all around the dock area. They keep tenders running back and forth all the time they are docked. In fact there were only two of us on the tender going back to the dock when I went to go shopping but they didn’t hold it for more and got us right in to the dock. There are tons of shops right around the dock area and really easy to get to by foot and all reasonably priced items. (You will get a listing of the shops that Carnival suggest and tells you about the night before in your cabin).

When we got to Jamaica we docked on the pier at Ocho Rio and you just walk down the pier into Ocho Rio. The biggest difference here in comparison to Cayman Island is that people really bug you outside of the pier about wanting to take you in their taxi somewhere and if you want a “special or better” cigarette. Carnival warns you about this but it was worse than I expected. A small shopping area there is just a few block from the pier that you can walk to but the locals also know you’re walking there and line up all along there and at the entrance to the shopping strip and bug and beg you. In the shopping strip it’s not as bad but there are still a few in there on the sidewalks in front of some of the stores trying to sell you things. They are mostly handcrafted things and you can get some good deals but you have to be careful none the less and Carnival recommends shops they’ve checked (again, you will get a list the night before in your cabin). I only went shopping there so really couldn’t tell much about the shore excursions. Just be prepared for the difference to no one bugging you at Cayman Island and the constant bugging at Jamaica.

The shows were all really good with the “Vegas” style shows very impressive. The theatre filled up quick on all the shows and each one of them got lots of response with the Carnival entertainers being very entertaining in their non-stop shows. The shows are fast paced and exceptional so make sure you get to them early so you have a good seat and don’t miss anything. Most of the shows you can’t take flash pictures at and that’s a little disappointing because they’d make good pictures for your memory book.

One more little tidbit is if you like desert, they have a wide selection of deserts in the Horizon Bar and Grill each night. But if you want really, really good deserts, pay the extra and go to the Coffee Shop on the Promenade Deck. I recommend the strawberry cheesecake. Between the strawberry cheesecake and the nice crew working there, it’s well worth stopping by when you leave the casino or dance club (it’s between those places).

All in all, the cruise actually exceeded what I expected in reading the mixed reviews. The Imagination is an old ship but I found the only way to really notice is if you looked really hard and see some layers of paint in areas and a little rust on outside areas like around the rescue tenders harnesses. What I did find was that the crew were really nice and very much helpful in whatever you needed. They don’t bend way over backwards to make everything perfect like on some higher end cruises, but they were very friendly and glad to help when you ask. One of the deejays was a bit too cocky for my liking and when I mentioned it to another passenger they said the same thing when he was out doing some dance thing on the deck that I missed. But he was really the exception to all the crew members. One things I did notice was lots of people at the information desk where in other cruises I haven’t seen that many people at the information desks. I didn’t have any problems so I can’t really say if they had legitimate grips or not. Sometimes people want too much or think they deserved too much from what I’ve found out in getting to know some of the people that work at cruise information desks.

The cruise was inexpensive in comparison to many of the cruises I looked at so I wasn’t expecting much but was pleasantly surprised. Don’t let the old ship or the lower price fool you. The cruise was well worth it and I got more than my money’s worth. The passengers were varied from little children to senior citizens and all had a great time from what I seen. If you want to nice cruise for a good price, this is one you should consider by all mean as you won’t be disappointed. Some reviews aren’t so good, but I found if you go into a cruise with really high expectations, most lower priced cruises won’t satisfy you no matter what. You get what you pay for and in this cruise I feel I got more than a paid for. It wasn’t the best cruise I’ve been on, but I paid a lot more for the others.
 

Ask a Question About Carnival Cruise Lines