Imagination Post-Refurb w/Photos, Daily Vlogs, Menus & Fun Times

Hey cruisers,

We’re fresh off the 2nd post dry dock sailing on Imagination. We chose the 4 night (Sunday through Thursday) itinerary as we love Catalina and wanted a little more time to relax. The three-night seemed too rushed. We filmed the ship upgrades, and will share them with you in the form of photos and daily vlogs, and as soon as our full ship video tour and dining room food video is done, we’ll post that here too.

I’m 42, hubby is 53, and we travel with our 7 year old son. We live in California, 3 hours from port, and drove to this cruise the morning of embarkation.

The weather was HOT for late September, after weeks of unseasonably cool weather. It was forecasted to be 90 degrees on embarkation day, and the weather held that pattern for our entire cruise. Nice, when you’re at sea and can escape to air conditioning, and cool for many on board who mentioned they lived in warmer, desert like climates.

We purchased Faster to the Fun (FTTF) for this cruise, and were excited to get on the ship as early as possible to film some of the quickly-crowded areas, like the pool and gym. We arrived at the port very early, so this photo isn't representative of what the check in process looked like closer to 11am. It got pretty crowded.

We were onboard by 12:05pm, following a large wedding party (weddings get on ahead of priority and FTTF guests) and headed to our room to drop off our carry on, and head to the newly added Guy’s Burger joint to meet a friend. Our usual strategy is to hit the pools first-thing, but the burger pull was strong, and we were glad we rallied early, before the big crowds hit. The line at Guy’s was short, and the service great. You could tell the staff was still finding their way, but it was impressive how quickly they were able to produce the food and keep that line in check. As a group, we tried several of the burgers, but my favorite is the straight up.

The toppings bar is impressive, offering loads of toppings, including mounds of bacon, sautéed mushrooms, grilled onions and traditional veggies like tomato and lettuce. The hot peppers are to die for, and I snuck by Guy’s to add them to my salads later in the cruise- yum! Something was off with the sauce dispenser (this lasted the whole trip), as people patiently lifted their tiny sauce side cups only to have the ketchup and chipotle may drip out ONE drip at a time. I’m sure they’ll fix this, but it was somewhat comical to see how patient people were.

The seating with the surboards everywhere is awesome and really adds to the pool deck vibe:

After gobbling our first Guy’s burger, and admiring the new seating area, we b-lined for the quiet pools. Nobody was swimming, and the weather was perfect for a dip. Hubby was long gone filming, and my son and I quickly sprayed up with sunscreen and got I the pools. The saltwater seemed very clean, and was the warmest it would be over the coming week. I’m guessing it was 75 degrees, not bad for ocean water. Once we got chilly, we hit the hot tub, which was luke-warm at best, and quickly became infested with a group of 4 rowdy little boys with no parents in sight, so we navigated back to the pool and enjoyed the music and people watching for a while. Tuckered out, we decided to head to our room to change clothes and start unpacking.

Stay tuned, more day 1 next.

As it always does, the time FLEW by, and soon it was time for the muster drill and sailaway. The muster drill was the "double drill" as we call it, where they send you to a l lounge, THEN also to the open decks. I was prepared to be grumpy about the double duty, but it went fast, and as we were seeing with this trip, the staff and crew were ON it, organized, and knew what they were doing.

Sailaway was slow-going, and we wandered around the ship looking for a good place to hang out. The back of the ship is wonderful, and quiet, so we stayed there much of the time, but ultimately headed back to our room to get dressed for dinner. We didn't take still photos during dinner, but our vlog (at the end of this entry) shows the vibe in different areas of the ship.

We had anytime dining and weren’t sure how the crowds would be on night one, so we washed up quickly and headed to the Pride dining room. To our surprise, there was no wait, and the staff was amazing, quick and organized.

The food was great. I tried the calamari, gazpacho, and the salmon entrée, and I wish they had the calamari every night.

After a long day of running around and soaking it all in, we were exhausted and in bed by 10pm.

Here is our day 1 vlog if you want to catch a bit more of our experience:

Just finished watching your vlogs they were great. Very good food details as well thanks for sharing.[emoji3]

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Thank you THANK YOU thank you for doing this and sharing it with us!!! I've been on the sister ship but before the 2.0 upgrades. Looking forward to our turn on the Imagination.

Thank you THANK YOU thank you for doing this and sharing it with us!!! I've been on the sister ship but before the 2.0 upgrades. Looking forward to our turn on the Imagination.

My pleasure! Working on the rest right now. Hope you enjoy the Imagination!

Just finished watching your vlogs they were great. Very good food details as well thanks for sharing.[emoji3]

 

 

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Ah, thank you!

My son and husband sleep like normal people (I rise at dawn, a side effect of my work schedule at home), so I enjoyed some quiet time around the ship, soaking up the totally calm day, as we pulled up to Catalina and the early morning sun shone on the island. Mornings on this ship are a sharp contrast to the normal sound and energy, which doesn’t really pick up until afternoon, when the music starts playing and the pools are filled with people.

I had a quiet breakfast of huevos rancheros at Blue Iguana, which was tasty, but not super authentic (this California girl is spoiled by real Mexican food):

This photo shows the hours of operation in tiny print at the bottom:

We had been looking forward to our day in Catalina, and got the idea to rent a boat for the day, instead of our usual golf cart rental and strolling around town plan. Thing is, the boat rental is “first come first served”, so I was eager to get off the ship and down to the Pier before things got crowded. How crowded Catalina gets on a Monday in early fall is probably something I should have thought about (hee-hee…it was nice and quiet). We had a little trouble finding out where the priority tender line was for FTTF, but later learned that instructions were left in our room the night before. We inadvertently set aside the paper that told us exactly what to do to get our priority tender, but all in all, tendering didn’t take that long anyway. The ship uses giant leisure boats to transport people to shore, which you can see in the vlog later. The fresh air and second story seating are a welcome change from the tiny exhaust filled lifeboats, so our tender experience was much nicer than usual. The only downside is it takes a very long time to load the tenders, so don’t try to rush to shore. There are hundreds of people packed on the double decker boats and there seems to be no hurry to get the boat movin’ to shore. You’ll get a feel for the tender in the vlog.

Next up, our amazing experience in Catalina! Stay tuned.

Thank you so much for this!!! Will be on her Nov 2 to celebrate my 50th bday!!!

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Thank you so much for this!!! Will be on her Nov 2 to celebrate my 50th bday!!!

 

 

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Nothing beats a birthday cruise! Yay!

We live 20 miles from Lang Beach and did the 3 day cruise in Feb, so fun to see the upgrades now!!! Thanks again [emoji7]

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We live 20 miles from Lang Beach and did the 3 day cruise in Feb, so fun to see the upgrades now!!! Thanks again [emoji7]

 

 

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Nice! Must be great to be so close!

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Tendering was fast and efficient, and once off, we headed straight for the Green Pier, where Joe’s Boat rental was located. The walk was less than 10 minutes, and when we arrived at Joes, there was an open counter. It was looking good to score a boat, as I could see them lined up around the docks in the harbor below the pier.

We walked right up to the counter and asked for a 15 HP boat, and were given instructions on how far we could navigate up and down the coast of the island and some tips on how to operate the boat. We asked for a ladder, as we planned to swim and getting in and out of the boat would not be pretty without a little help. We left our credit card as a deposit and were walked down to the docks, less than 5 minutes from the time we arrived. I was SO excited as this had been an adventure I’d anticipated for weeks prior to our cruise, and I am loving that our son is at the age where we can re-introduce some more adventurous travel fun into our vacations. The cost is $60 per hour for the 15hp, and is prorated in 15 minute increments.

We jumped in the boat and after a short lesson, were motoring our way out of the harbor, hubby at the helm, me on camera duty. Our son was given a nice life jacket- the kind with buckles, rather than the ickly orange over the neck type, and we were glad for that. After we’d been underway for about a minute, we realized we weren’t given our ladder. Rather than going back, we decided just to call the rental office to tell them to take it off our receipt, then we were on our way. Eeek, no ladder! This was NOT going to be a pretty ocean swim trying to heave my body back in the boat. Oh well.

Our first mission was to circle the ship, at a safe distance, to film the exterior of the boat, so I took over driving duty and hubby busted out the GoPro. That went quickly, and we started our journey up the coast of the island, where my husband taught our son how to drive the boat.

We were doing donuts, and enjoying the views of the island and finally came to what we thought was a good swimming spot.

We stripped down to swimsuits, and hubby went first. Brrr! As you’ll see in the vlog, 70 degrees is a tad shocking. We swam for a while, I kerpluncked back into the boat (with a hand from my husband) and we prepared for the trip back to the marina.

We stayed out for about 90 minutes, pretty short, but we wanted to keep this activity under $100, and we were successful. Total cost was $90, much cheaper than what we’d have paid for another activity, most likely, if we’d booked through the ship.

After settling up with Joe’s boats, and getting our credit card back, we said goodbye to Catalina, and jumped on a tender back. The weather had been so perfect, and is testament to the fact that September is one of the most beautiful months in southern california. Less morning fog than June through August, and clear, crisp sunshine:

Back on the ship, we enjoyed the pools and sides for the afternoon, relaxed in our room with some chocolate covered berries, then got dressed for formal night.

After the American Feast formal night dinner (pics in food slideshow, coming later), we headed to the evening show, Epic Rock. They played everything from Queen to Led Zepellin, and I liked that the show was somewhat short.

We got a seat on the second level, and had a great view of the action. Warning- this is an audience "participation" show, meaning that the dancers will get right up on you, so don't sit in front if you don't want the attention. They won't pull you on stage or anything, but they will sing to you, and be in your lap, basically!

Next up, Ensenada!

Link to Vlog Day 2 vlog: http://www.cruisetipstv.com/carnival-imagination-day-2-vlog-catalina-island/

Having visited Ensenada a few times, and not wanting to spend a lot of money on a shore day, we opted to stay on the ship in Ensenada. We had considered the Carnival excursion to a hotel for the day, to enjoy the pools and hot tubs, but when it came down to it, we opted to enjoy the pools and slides once again, because the weather was SO warm, and the lack of crowds, hopefully, would be nice.

I spent a lot of time roaming the ship, checking out he new features, and snapping pictures. Here are the internet packages available onboard. I love that they offer so many options:

Here are some photos of the new room service menus. Note, they still have free items, they have just ADDED hot items for a charge:

For lunch, I finally tried a fish taco at Blue Iguana. My only critique is I prefer corn, over flour tortillas. Otherwise it was great, and I wish I had more time on this trip to eat there, and try every type of taco!

We spent a lot of time by the pool, and when the wind packed up, I was SO glad I had packed my nerdy towel clips! They came in so handy on the back of the ship, and otherwise, my towel would have blown off every time I moved.

The dual racing slides are SO fast, and hubby and I had a fun race, which you can see more of in the videos:

Before dinner, we were lucky enough to see a container ship being tugged in to the harbor. These little tiny (comparatively) tugs were flipping the ship around to reverse it up to the dock behind us. It was so fascinating to watch.

Ensenada has sort of a part industrial, part riviera feel to it, and is a great place to snap photos on a clear day:

We took part in some sunset mini golf, which was fun. It's a popular place for families, and little kids seem to love it:

Tonight’s dinner was delicious. Here are shots of the menus, tortilla soup, mango cream chilled soup, shrimp and veggie noodle bowl and carrot cake:

Sorry for splitting the post. I can only post 6 photos at a time:

Exhausted, once again, we turned in for the night. Tomorrow, Sea Day Brunch and more pics of the ship!

Day 3 Vlog: http://www.cruisetipstv.com/carnival-imagination-vlog-day-3-ensenada/

Day 4 was our only sea day on this cruise, and there was so much to do! I love Carnival’s towel animal zoo, and was so excited to see these little guys hanging out, enjoying poolside sunrise. You would think they were real animals on a safari, from how many people were photographing them! I roamed the ship, while my family slept and enjoyed the peace, quiet, and morning light.

For breakfast, I tried a breakfast burrito at Blue Iguana- it was good, but deserves to be grilled a bit to warm that tortilla! If you want to see all available filings, you'll find them in the vlog.

Here’s a close up shot of Red frog’s liquor selection, in case you’re curious:

And the drink menus from every bar:

Thanks for sharing.

I'm really enjoying your pictures and review! Thank you for posting. I was on Imagination in March, before the upgrades, and now I need to go back! Booked on the Miracle next March, but hoping for a chance at another quickie on Imagination soon.

I'm really enjoying your pictures and review! Thank you for posting. I was on Imagination in March, before the upgrades, and now I need to go back! Booked on the Miracle next March, but hoping for a chance at another quickie on Imagination soon.

Thank u! Miracle is an awesome ship, So fun and colorful !

You'll love the imagination upgrades.

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Thanks for sharing.

[emoji41] thanks for following along.

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Good review and vlogs, your son is hilarious! Thanks.

Good review and vlogs, your son is hilarious! Thanks.

Haha, thank you!!

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Thanks for showing us a view of our up coming cruise! We are so excited!.. gonna be there ourselves in May of next year.. 200 days or so..