Carnival Ecstacy

Hi all,

Myself and my partner are reasonably seasoned cruisers and have cruised on P&O, Celebrity, RCI, Fred Olsen and Carnival. I also occasionally do short contract work as a guest cruise ships as part of the entertainments team.

Its a while since we cruised on Carnival and that was on Splendor when the ship was new. My questions as as follows:

Is food available all day?? this might seem like a silly question but on Fred Olsen there are large gaps in the day when food is not available. eg, breakfast finishes at 10pm and then the buffet does not open again until 12. As I work in the entertainments industry I work late nights so get up around 10am. I hate having to get up early for breakfast as I find it very difficult because my body clock is programmed to be up late.

Do they have poker tournaments on board?

Do they have any comedians or magicians on board? (we don't watch bands, singing, dancing or anything similar as its too much like being at work).

Kids?? I am guessing as were going at the end of August the ship will be full of them? do they get irritating or does the kids club keep them occupied so you don't notice them??

Shade: is it possible to get any shade out on deck? is it a scrum for sunbeds everyday or are there plenty to go round.

The Gym: I like to keep in shape and train everyday back home, is there a decent gym on board.

Sorry for all the questions, I just like to be prepared before we leave.

Any other info would be greatly appreciated.

Room service is 24/7, and soft serve is supposed to be 24/7 (sometimes iffy), and pizza window is 24/7. Pizza window also has calzones and ceasar salad, that can be ordered with or without grilled chicken stripes. I have ordered the salad with chicken at 3 am when I cant sleep more than once.

Other food is pretty readily available, more so than some other lines.

Gym is fine to me .. weights, bikes, treadmills anyway and some other stuff. Treadmills face the ocean, but can be iffy when water is rough if you try and jog.

I sit at a table over by the windows near the main pool to be in the shade.. there is shade on the deck outside of the atrium, usually some place to sit.

comedian is in a aft lounge some nights.

Poker tournaments, I only have done the blackjack tournament and slot pull .. I think there is a computer poker type table, not sure if anything else.. others will know more than me what kind of poker.

We are just off the Ecatasy (Sailed June 18-23).

I will try to answer your questions as best I can.

Is food available all day?? Yes; the buffet was open very flexible hours. The pizza bar and Deli are 24 hours (Deli is very good), and of course room service is 25 hours

Do they have poker tournaments on board? Yes I saw these listed in Fun FTimes

Do they have any comedians or magicians on board? Yes there were 2 comedians and they had both early evening and late (adult) shows.

Kids. I noted in the MDR that There were a lot of family groups aboard, but didn't see the kids much other times, When I saw kids, they a were well behaved.

Shade: .s it possible to get any shade out on deck? is it a scrum for sunbeds everyday or are there plenty to go round.

iBoth the lido and serenity dechas have shace. Plenty of loungers to go around on both sun and shade

The Gym: I like to keep in shape and train everyday back home, is there a decent gym on board. Yes. Saw the gym but sis not use it. Seemed adeaquate.

I have posted a review. Here is the link:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberre...EntryID=104944

Have a great cruise!

Thanks for the replies, they were really useful, I am going to go book it :)

Room Service is 25 hours?!?! YAY!;)