Carnival Cruise Lines
Ecstasy Cruise Review
Western Caribbean

Kim Power
Age: 41
Occupation: Unknown
Number of Cruises: 3
Sailing Date: September 4th, 2006

I came to this site a couple of weeks ago to read the reviews on the cruise that my husband and I were taking. It was very informative, but I learned after taking my cruise, some people can complain about just about anything. My husband and I just returned from our 5-day cruise to Cozumel and Progresso. We had a great time.

Our cruise began on September 4. We decided since we had to travel 6 ½ hours to get to Galveston, we would spend the night somewhere close. We stayed at the Best Western in Webster, TX. It was nice for the price. It was clean, and basically that’s all I was interested in as we were only staying the night and not spending our entire vacation there.

On Monday, we drove on down to Galveston and arrived about 11:30 a.m. We knew that we weren’t supposed to begin boarding until 1:30, so we went and did a little last minute shopping, books, Aloe Vera, etc at Target. We were a little hungry so we stopped at Sonic and ate, but if you go, don’t bother wasting your money on eating right before you board. They will have an entire lunch buffet ready for you when you board. We parked at EZ-cruise parking, which we reserved online for $35 for a 5-day cruise. They were very nice and they took our luggage and us by bus/van over to the cruise terminal.

After going through the cruise terminal, presenting our picture i.d., our fun ship pass, and our birth certificates. We were given our sail and sign cards, which have your dinner seating and table number right on it, cabin number, and our room keys. We filled out our fun ship pass online and printed it out, which made things a whole lot easier. We then were led right on to the ship about 12:30 and greeted by the very friendly staff. We explored the ship and at about 1:15 we decided to check and see if our cabin was ready. When we went down to the cabin, everything was clean, neat, and ready for us so we dropped off our stuff. Be sure and use the in-room safe for your purse, wallet, jewelry, as it is provided for that reason. All you really need on the ship is your sail and sign card, as they don’t take cash for anything but the slot machines (they also take the sail and sign card in the slot machines).

There were plenty of activities scheduled all throughout the day and night from bingo, trivia games, win, lose, or draw, dancing; dance lessons, casino, and just about anything else. The food is there for you 24/7 including a 24 hour pizza and sandwich bar. Our food in the Windstar dining room was excellent. We had everything from lobster tails, beef Wellington, Salmon, shrimp, fettuccini Alfredo to Wiener schnitzel, salads, soup, and of course the excellent deserts. We chose to eat in the Panorama Grill and Bar a couple of nights just for a change and the food there was just as good.

We took the beach excursion in Cozumel. We could not dock because of repair work the locals were doing due to the hurricanes, but there was a smaller boat that took us to the pier. An air-conditioned bus took us to the other part of the island where the beach resort was. The set up a huge tent with a big buffet and it was open bar. I don’t really drink much, but they also had water and sodas. We stayed for a while, but since my husband is not much of a sun lover, we decided to take a taxi back to town so we could do some shopping before having to go back to the ship. Our bus driver told us if we did that it would cost $6.00. However, when we got out of the taxi, the taxi driver charged up $15 so beware! I think we were had on that one.

The only complaint I have were the rude, inconsiderate drunks that stumbled around the halls at 3:30 in the morning. They apparently thought the halls were sound proof or something, but they ARE NOT.

I was apprehensive after reading some of the experiences that some people wrote about. After actually going on the cruise, I realized that you just can’t please all of the people all of the time and it’s going to be what you make of it. My husband and I really enjoyed ourselves and the time away from the electronic world and work. There is an internet café on board and you can check emails, flight information, etc. if you need to (there is a charge of course). We decided not to check any of it because we were on vacation and those things would keep until we got back as we couldn’t do anything about it anyway.

I highly recommend the Carnival Ecstasy. The crew and staff are terrific and strive to make your vacation as fun as possible.

 

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