Ecstasy 8-30-17 to Princess Cays & Freeport Review

Dress code? We don't need no stinking dress code! ;p

I didn't notice. I wore a maxi dress (not fancy) with pearls, friend wore black slacks & top with a b&w striped cover-up, her DH wore dress pants, shirt & tie, no jacket.

The one thing that does drive me crazy is the baseball caps in the MDR. Actually, caps indoors is just stupid. I'm old enough that I remember my dad (and all adult males) wearing a hat outdoors pretty much all the time but they ALWAYS removed it upon entering a building. ALWAYS. Why does anyone need a cap/hat indoors? :rolleyes:

There was a slight sewer smell in my cabin at times. I do think it's more prevalent when in port (because, obviously, they can't empty the holding tanks).

Only aft balcony cabins I've had were on Spirit-class ships, on Deck 4 (with the most overhang) and there was some slight soot at times. I just made sure to check before I sat.

My 15 seconds of fame - the pic from Princess Cays of Ecstasy and the rainbow is currently on Heald's FB page. :p

Thanks so much! I'll be sure to take plenty of my favorite bathroom spray with me!

We just got off the Ecstasy on Saturday and didn't have any soot issues with the aft balconies. We had E242, E255 and E259.

 

 

However, the smell of cigarette smoke hit us as soon as we entered the atrium upon boarding. I didn't notice an excessive amount of smoking, but the smell was constant in the atrium and throughout decks 8 and 9. Thankfully, we never had any problems with smoke on the balconies, though there was often the smell in the halls.

 

 

We did not like the way the beds were configured with the third pull down over the heads of those below. It was awkward getting in and out of bed when the top was pulled down, and even when it was up, care had to be taken not to bump our heads.

 

We really liked our room steward. It did seem that they have fewer staff taking care of more rooms. I felt everything really needed a deep cleaning and some maintenance. The bathrooms had a port-a-potty smell most of the time. There was a leak in the hallway the first day, and there had obviously been a leak over one of the closets in E242.

Thanks for the great review. I know you were looking for info on Princess Cays, I'm glad you were able to provide some for others.

I have a couple of questions in comparing Princess Cays with HMC. You said it wasn't as good, I was wondering what the main differences were. It looks like the tender ride might be a little longer? Is it not as developed? I noticed a huge difference in HMC from 2012 to 2015 - the addition of the music - way too loud over too much of the beach area and in the water, really took away from the serenity of HMC - IMHO.

My 15 seconds of fame - the pic from Princess Cays of Ecstasy and the rainbow is currently on Heald's FB page. :p

I saw this and wondered why the picture looked so familiar. :D

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I'm not crazy about the additions that have been made to HMC over the past several years. First, they built that big, stupid pirate-ship bar with the apparently-required blaring pop music, then they crammed the big villas in between the cabanas.

I liked it the way it was when I first saw it. I think that was May 2006. Loved it so much I had to do a repeat cruise in December. It's one of the reasons I'm trying to migrate over to HAL, although they're a bit staid and over-priced, imho. But virtually every Caribbean itinerary includes a stop there.

Princess Cays was nice, but it just felt like more things were packed into a smaller area. On HMC, the farther away you go from the tender dock, the less congested and noisy it is.

On PC, the tender dock is a bit more central, so you can't really get away from the activity unless you book a Sanctuary Bungalow. Those did look rather appealing. Sorry I didn't take any photos.

Don't get me wrong. I would happily spend another day on the beach there at PC. But I am looking forward to returning to HMC in November.

To whomever asked about the prices, I neglected to look for a price list although I walked right past the water sports hut. Twice. Sorry!

Thanks for the additional info on Princess Cay.

I meant to ask you another question.

Did you notice the Shrimp and Grits on the Charleston Port of Call Menu and/or did you try it? There are so many recipes for it. It's more spicy than most I've had, but I enjoyed it very much.