sandkps

I'm not sure about the Hub app, but 2 weeks ago on the Ecstasy we bought the $5/day plan for our son (I had the highest tier plan since I had to work). iMessages worked great between the 2 of us while on board, even from our cabin.

I'd actually bought them some sperry knock offs for dinner but they whined that they were uncomfortable so my husband told them to just wear their flip flops the first night and see if anyone noticed. Nothing was said so that's what they wore the rest of the cruise (although they didn't go to the MDR on elegant night)

We just got off a cruise last week and my boys (7 & 11) wore their Rainbow flip flops all week and no one even batted an eye lash.

On our cruise last week, 8x10s were $23, not sure on the smaller ones

We used FTTF twice with cruises out of Jacksonville. I had asked the same question, and the consensus was that most felt it wasn't needed. I felt we definitely got our money's worth and here's why. We LOVED getting on the ship at around 11:30. I realize that there will be people who tell you they were on the ship shortly afterwards, and didn't have to pay. BUT, did they get to go straight to their rooms and drop off their carry-ons? We did. We dropped off our luggage, changed into our suits and were on the Lido deck enjoying lunch by 12:00. We also used Guest Services quite a bit. There were issues that popped up, and it was awesome not having to wait in any line. Whatsoever! Debarkation was a breeze, and that was also well worth the price. For me, I loved it. If you are traveling with small children, the elderly or disabled, it will be even more worth it.

Fantastic, thank you. What time did you arrive at the port?

There are those that say the same about it not being needed at Charleston, but for us, it's well worth the $50 just for embarkation and room ready on arrival!

Anyone used it care to share your experience?

No tender ports, so mostly we'd be using it for express embarkation & debarkation. We will be parking at the port. Did you find that it cut off much wait time?

We've only used it in Charleston, where it was a huge time saver. Hoping for the same at Jax!

Thank you! Sounds like it's the same place as the Fantasy.

I tried to search the site before I posted, but all I came up with was deck plans. :confused:

Can anyone tell me where the outside smoking area is on the Elation?

Thanks!

We'll be in Freeport in August with our 2 boys (ages 11 & 7). Looking for a fun, reasonably priced activity, would love something that's not a beach day. We'll be at Atlantis the following day, so would like something a bit different (and cheaper!) for Freeport.

Thanks!

Thanks for the video!

What was included in the excursion? Were the chairs & umbrellas an additional charge?

Oh no! I hope the captain can find some smooth sailing for you!!

Wow congratulations! I vote for the longest length cruise you can do and pay a bit more to upgrade for a balcony or suite. We got a suite for our upcoming Magic cruise for next to nothing!

 

Enjoy the cruise, win big and get another BB!

That's what we're trying to decide, too. Do we go for the longest one possible or one soon? We're planning another in early December with the inlaws (which is too far out for this BB) so in an ideal world we'd use this BB for one sometime in the next few months and score another BB to use on that cruise!

Thank you for the updates. Heading to Charleston on Sunday!

No problem! Enjoy your cruise!

Are you on the Sunshine?

Is there a separate parking lane of FTTF, Diamond, etc? That would be fantastic considering the parking horror stories from Charleston.

Yes, there is. You have to wait with the main traffic to get into the gate and then inside the main gate until the first tented area, where they check your identification & boarding passes. At that time you are directed to a reserved lane for diamond/plats & FTTF. You will still park with everyone else and utilize the same shuttles, but you will get through the barricades and craziness of the gated area to the parking garage much more quickly than those without FTTF.

sandkps, THANKS so much for the review!

 

I'll be on her next month; first time on the Ecstasy and leaving from Charleston. Though I'm a local, I'm still concerned with embarkation - particularly getting to the initial gate; having to wait in a line of cars to even get that far, etc.

 

 

 

I'm also curious for verification there is a separate security line. I only recently heard of the FTTF parking lane I'm looking forward to.

 

Thanks again for sharing.

There was a seperate security lane. When we got off the shuttles at the entrance to the building, we were advised to go to the furthest security lane that was reserved for diamond/plat, FTTF, and wheelchairs. We walked straight through with no wait at all, while the regular lanes were backed up almost to the door.

What is a BB offer?

Bounce back.....basically a free cruise from Carnival's Casino

We're so excited to have received a BB offer!

But, now comes the decisions, when to sail, where to go, and most importantly, to take the kids or not???

Who would have thought a FREE CRUISE could be so stressful to plan? LOL

Either way, I'm glad to have it! :)

We are headed back on the Ecstasy in September. We know she recently was switched from Camp Carnival to Camp Ocean. My kids are still in the 2-5 age group and did fine in this kids club and the previous club on Dream. Obviously, this ship is much older than the Dream but did you notice if they had spruced up the kids club rooms at all since switching to Camp Ocean? I just remember the play rooms not being as bright, etc. Could be that they don't really have a kids club facility/space like they do on the Dream and other newer ships? The rooms are kinda just there on the deck it seemed like. We had fun two years ago regardless but any thoughts, pics or feedback would be great! Thanks!

This was our first sailing on the Ecstasy so I'm not sure if it's been updated or not. We have sailed a couple of times on the Fantasy (almost identical to Ecstasy) and the room on Ecstasy was decorated with a different scheme than that of Fantasy, which was still Camp Carnival on our last sailing. The kids room on Ecstasy felt a bit bare and my kids said there wasn't a lot to do there compared to Fantasy. But that may have been because there were so few children, hard to know for sure. I hope your kids enjoy!!

We're looking to book a family cruise for sometime in late Nov/early Dec. It will be me, DH, our 2 boys (11 & 8) and possibly my in-laws. These are the ones we're considering:

1) Ecstasy overnight Bermuda (7 night)

2) Magic - Amber Cove, St Thomas, San Juan, Grand Turk (7 night)

3) Sunshine - Aruba, Bonaire, Grand Turk (8 night)

We've been to Grand Turk once before, but other than that they are all new ports for us. We just got off of the Ecstasy and I wasn't overly impressed with the ship. It did not seem to be in as good condition as the Fantasy was before she left Charleston. The Bermuda cruise would be my last choice since we've been on that ship before and I'm not thrilled about being in 1 port for 2 nights. But my DH really thinks he wants to do that one (he likes the closeness of Charleston and he likes small ships, but I really think he'll hate the casino being closed for 3 days).

Anyway, out of those choices, which would you pick? Is your choice based on itinerary or ship? Also, if you've been to those ports or on those ships, would you mind sharing just a snipit of best/worst things about it? Thanks so much!!

Just back from the Ecstasy. DH ran a significant amount of cash through and recieved several comps on board (DOU, chocolate strawberries to room, wine, and steakhouse dinner for 2) but no BB.

The strangest thing is another guy we played with played much less than DH, never got a DOU (on 2nd to last night when he asked host, he was told he was 50% to DOU), but he was given a BB. He never received a DOU or any other on board comps. I cannot for the life of me figure out how he got a BB with no DOU, while DH got the DOU early on the second day, but no BB.

While unpacking this morning I found a couple of greens in the bottom of my purse. Sucks that I didn't cash them in, but I'm guessing I can just put them up for a future sailing?

ETA: this is for Carnival.

Just off the Ecstasy today. This will be a very quick review, but hopefully I'll be able to do a more in depth one soon. In the meantime, feel free to ask any questions you'd like!

EMBARKATION: We were delayed 4 hours due to bad weather on the ship's return from Bermuda on the previous sailing. We got to the port around noon (knowing that it was likely we would not be let in since the e-mail stated boarding was postponed until 3), however they did allow us to do early drop off of our luggage. After walking around downtown for a little while, we returned to the port around 2:30.

Shortly before 3 we entered the gates and were VERY thankful for our FTTF! The Charleston port can be a bit strange and traffic gets backed up on the way to parking. Our FTTF allowed us to use the Express Lane reserved for Diamonds, Plats, and FTTF, which was wonderful with everyone arriving at the same time. Same thing once in the building, we went through the express lane for security and check-in. The longest we waited after entering the gate was (1) for the shuttle to take us from parking to the terminal and (2) for the check in guy to figure out how to apply my gift cards to my S&S, which he never figured out. If you have gift cards, it's much easier to apply them at guest services once on board!

Total time from entering the gate to stepping foot on the ship was right at 1 hour. That's awesome for Charleston!

MUSTER STATIONS: a total and complete cluster, at least in our station. The guy leading it had no idea what he was doing, his timing was completely off from the announcements being made, and although he stated in the beginning that we would walk up to the life boats, we were dismissed without doing this. As much as everyone (including me) dislikes going through all of this if you've sailed before, there were a LOT of blue cards on our ship that really needed to go through the entire thing just in case, IMO.

DINING: The first night was a mess because of delayed embarkation. Muster stations were at 6:15, so the timing for dinner was completely off. They did open seating in both dining rooms the first night. We went to the dining room 3 out of our 4 nights (1st, 2nd, & 4th - skipped it on port day). Wait staff was decent and the timing wasn't as bad as some reports I've read, so maybe they're getting it together now.

Dining room food was mediocre at best. Some of my usual favorites like the spring rolls & prime rib were quite disappointing. Ice cream was always melted by the time it got to us. The ribs served on formal night, however, were amazing! Luckily DH got those in addition to his prime rib and shared with me! :) We were comped a steakhouse dinner the last night by the casino and both of our steaks were horribly over cooked. All 3 steaks were well done even though 2 were ordered medium and the second ordered medium well.

Food on Lido was what we were used to from other sailings. Burgers & chicken tenders never disappoint and of course the pizza was great, probably the best food on the entire ship! We had no issues with the ice cream machine, as I've read in past reports.

Seaday brunches were very good as well. We enjoy the seated brunch over the Lido buffet.The steak served as part of the Steak & Eggs entree was cooked better than the steakhouse steaks were! The omelets were also very good. And the croissants served in the bread basket were still warm!

We found ourselves eating MUCH less than we have on previous cruises. Not sure if it was because of the quality of the food or what, but most days it was just breakfast & dinner, plus late night/early morning pizza after the casino.

ROOM: We got a basic interior and it was exactly what we expected. Tight for our family of 4, but we spend very little time in the room so it serves it's purpose. We had no noticeable issues with the room at all. We selected evening service and the steward did well. Not the personable service we've had on previous sailings, but he was efficient at his job and met each request we had, which weren't many.

SMOKING AREAS: Severely limited on this ship. One smallish section on Veranda (deck 11), half of the casino bar (which was always completely packed out) and the casino. We really missed the table area on Lido that was smoking on the Fantasy.

CLUB OCEAN: For the first time, I was a bit disappointed. My boys (ages 11 & 7) did not love it like they have on previous cruises and spent much less time there than they have in the past. Part of it is probably their age coupled with a smaller number of kids on board, but the activities seemed to be lacking as well. For the first time, my kids were the only ones staying for Night Owls, so there was never any parties and my kids called to leave by 10:30 each night. Bummer for mom for sure!!

DEBARKATION: It was a breeze with FTTF coupled with a porter. We woke up at 7:00, headed to our holding area about 7:30, and were waiting for a shuttle back to the car by 8:00. Hands down the fastest we've ever gotten off of a ship!

I think that's the highlights, but feel free to ask me any questions you have and I'll do my best to answer them!

I told DH on the next cruise I'm going to let him play the tables alone and I'm hitting the slots. I enjoy BJ much more than slots, but at least on slots I have a clear idea of what I'm working towards and how close/far away I am to an offer. Not knowing what we need to do differently on the tables to qualify drives me crazy! haha

One tip , next cruise make sure you talk to the put boss and casino manager often. Tends to make sure you get rated fairly and are a serious gambler.

That is a great tip, and something we try to do on each sailing! :) We always do our best to talk to all of the key players in the casino as well as tip the dealers well.

The casino hostess was new to the ship (this was her first sailing on this ship) and extremely nice. Greeted us both by name every day, checked my card for a DOU several times on her own accord (but I never qualify for one, DH is the big player, LOL) and she bought me several drinks while I was watching him play. She actually seemed just as confused as we were as to why DH didn't receive a BB, but said she could only go by the report she was sent.

It had to be an oversight. I would call and ask, maybe the card they usually put in your room just did not make it or got put at the wrong room. No way you got the points for DOU and not a BB offer. We always gets a BB offer but only sometimes make it to the DOU.

I talked to the casino hostess and she confirmed he was not on the list. She seemed a bit confused too, so who knows what's going on! I'm still hoping one will pop up in his VIFP offers!