Freestyle Fans Try a Funship: Imagination Review 1/2 - 1/6/2012

[spacepotatoes]

Since the day-by-day trip reports are my favourite kind of review to read, I thought I’d try my hand at it this time around. Well, that and because I tend to be long winded anyway so it’s a good excuse to go into lots of detail :p I have most of this review written up already, just need to proofread and format posts and add photos. My goal is to post one cruise day a day, as time permits. Feel free to ask whatever questions you may have at any point in between!

 

If you prefer the Cole’s Notes version, here are my thoughts in a nutshell:

 

Embarkation/Disembarkation: very quick and easy. We did a post-cruise excursion with airport transfer and the disembarkation process involved with that could have been better organized but no real problems.

 

Stateroom: Port hole on Riviera deck, R20. Loved the layout and the space. Very clean and comfortable.

 

Dining: Food was very good everywhere, with the exception of the crab cakes in the dining room. Lots of choices and no issues with the quality.

 

Entertainment: A bit cheesy at times but fun. Lots of options for whatever interests you.

 

Service: Generally good. The dining room service disappointed – waiters always seems detached and rushed.

 

Ports: Did Key West on our own. Highly recommend the guided tours of the Hemingway House. Went to Mr. Sancho’s in Cozumel and did their all-inclusive option. Loved it! Did the Behind the Fun tour on the sea day and loved that too. Did the South Beach Experience with MIA transfer after the cruise. Great tour, but very careful of timing if you do this.

 

Comparison with NCL: As you can probably guess from this thread title, we are NCL cruisers. What we found on this trip is that both lines are very similar. There are some things that we felt NCL did better and some that we felt Carnival did better. The biggest difference was in the dining. We prefer NCL's Freestyle approach to Carnival's Your Time Dining. They really are not the same. However, that's not a deal breaker for us; we wouldn't hesitate to sail Carnival again. Before this cruise, I made a list of Must Dos on a Carnival cruise and I only got through half of it. I need at least one more cruise to do the rest ;)

 

I started a thread right after we got back and answered some questions there. There is lots of info about Mr. Sancho’s in particular. It can be found here: http://forums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1543841

 

I’ll be posting photos in my review, but if you don’t want to wait, here they all are:

 

For those of you that like the longer, more detailed reviews, stay tuned! I’ll be giving you some background info about us and posting about our pre-cruise travels and embarkation day in just a little bit.

[spacepotatoes]

BACKGROUND

 

I'm 28 and DH is 35. This was our third cruise, but our first with Carnival. Both of our previous cruises were on NCL, which we loved. We'd been wanting to try Carnival for a while but kept hesitating due to the mixed feedback I kept hearing about it. We weren't even planning to take a cruise over this winter break since we'd just taken one in March and had our Alaska cruise already booked for this summer. But I just can't resist keeping an eye on prices so when I found this cruise at a very low price back in August, and discovered that we had enough Air Miles to cover it, it was a done deal :D

 

 

SUNDAY: PRE-CRUISE

 

We flew out of Detroit direct to Miami with Delta. We had some delays due to airport traffic and weather so we took off an hour later than scheduled. We made up most of that time in the air but we were still glad that it was the night before and not the day of!

 

We stayed at La Quinta Miami Airport East. Since this was an unplanned, budget friendly trip, I wanted a place that had an airport shuttle, a shuttle to POM, and breakfast. Low and behold, this place had all three and had good feeback on Trip Advisor. We got a great rate through lastminutetravel.com ($72/night).

 

Their airport shuttle runs every 30 minutes and we must have just missed it while waiting for our luggage since we had to wait a full 30 minutes. The shuttle pick-up locations not marked at MIA and there was no official spot to wait. It was basically every man for himself, watching carefully and flagging down the right van.This was our first glimpse of the poor logistics at MIA. We'd get our second, and much more nervewracking, glimpse on the way home.

 

The hotel was just ok. It was not the best I’ve ever stayed in (I'd highly recommend the Intercontinental in downtown Miami if you're not travelling on a tight budget) but it was not the worst. It did the job for one night and it was still a good value for the rate we paid. We signed up for the POM shuttle when we checked in. Since we got there so late, there were only two times left: 10 AM and 12 PM. We went for earlier one, in the hopes of beating the crowds.

 

In the morning, we had a basic continental breakfast and then were on our way. The shuttle was on time and we were very happy with the service. In no time at all, we were at the POM and getting ready to board.

 

 

Up next: Embarkation Day

[old sole]

Comparison with NCL: As you can probably guess from this thread title, we are NCL cruisers. What we found on this trip is that both lines are very similar. There are some things that we felt NCL did better and some that we felt Carnival did better. The biggest difference was in the dining. We prefer NCL's Freestyle approach to Carnival's Your Time Dining. They really are not the same. However, that's not a deal breaker for us; we wouldn't hesitate to sail Carnival again. Before this cruise, I made a list of Must Dos on a Carnival cruise and I only got through half of it. I need at least one more cruise to do the rest ;)

 

I agree completey. We have sailed Carnival more often than NCL, but have really enjoyed our NCL cruises and find a lot of things they do well. The free style dining (plus all the choices of specialty dining rooms) are really strong points for them. Nobody does "anytime dining" as well as NCL, and while we would prefer the freedom of anytime dining we usually choose traditional on Carnival because we felt service suffered the couple of times we tried anytime. Carnival and others have to juggle traditional and anytime dining in the same time frame and in the same dining rooms and that makes it harder for them to do it well compared to NCL which has only freestyle dining.

[spacepotatoes]

MONDAY: EMBARKATION DAY

As mentioned, we dad the 10 AM shuttle from the hotel. We got to port sometime between 10:30 and 10:45. We were surprised by how many people were already at the terminal that early. The check-in process was a breeze. It was very efficient and easy with the kiosks. We'd always been impressed with NCL's check-in but this was even faster. We were given a Zone 7 card and sat down to wait.

 

I don’t remember exactly what time they started calling zones but things moved quickly once they did. We posed for embarkation photos and were immediately impressed by how friendly and not at all pushy the photographers were compared to NCL. We did think it was a little weird that no Sail and Sign pictures had been taken yet, though.

 

Finally, we were onboard and got to hear that "bing!" many of the reviews here have mentioned. I didn't realize it was an actual "bing," since NCL's cards don't do that so it was amusing to hear. We were excited that all the Christmas decorations were still up, everything looked nice. Right after stepping onto the ship, we were funnelled into lines for the S&S photo. I think it would be better if they did this before getting on. It kills the mood a little bit to have to go through all of the lining up and waiting to finally get on the ship, only to have to line up and wait again. Thankfully, it was quick.

 

Our first stop was the Shore Excursion desk to sign up for Behind the Fun tour, then we made our way up to the buffet for lunch. The line for the grill and Mongolian were crazy long already so we decided to stay inside. The neon was kind of disorienting and the layout confusing. This is the walkway that leads into the buffet:

 

 

Neon by adomokos, on Flickr

 

 

The entire buffet area has those same lights and with all of the reflective surfaces, the effect is pretty trippy!

 

We found seats and took turns exploring the options. It was Italian day at the buffet, so I was won over from the start. The pasta was excellent, and a chicken dish I had from that section was pretty good as well. I was hoping for Caesar salad to go with it, but didn’t discover until later in the cruise that they kept it behind the pizza counter and you had to ask for it. Wandering around the salad bar led me to the soft serve machine, which became a good friend of mine. The desserts all looked tempting, until the crew member who was there to cut pieces of cake sneezed and didn’t bother to turn away from the desserts or completely cover her face. Kind of lost my appetite at that point :(

 

By the time we finished eating, the buffet was packed. We left to explore the ship and take pictures. We started at the top open decks and worked our way back down. We loved the sports deck, it seemed relaxing and the views were great. I wish we’d gotten around to mini-golf but we never did.

 

 

Waterworks by adomokos, on Flickr

 

 

Serenity Deck by adomokos, on Flickr

 

 

Lido II by adomokos, on Flickr

 

 

Atrium by adomokos, on Flickr

[sparks1093]

Looking forward to the rest of your review! I really love comparisions between the two lines as it will be our turn in October.

[spacepotatoes]

We wandered until 1:30, when our staterooms were supposed to be ready. We were surprised that there were no announcements about this. In fact, there were no announcements at all until it was time for the Muster Drill. Definitely different!

 

Our stateroom was R20, port hole on Riviera deck. We loved this room! Our previous cabins had been insides and we booked this one because we could try out having a window for an inside price. It’ll be hard to go back! I loved the natural light and being able to see what it was like out. It was much more spacious compared to our cabins on NCL and had a good layout. The bathroom was a little tight but the shower was great. It was roomy and unlike the Sky, there was no need to get up close and personal with the shower curtain! I also loved having bathrobes; inside cabins don’t get those on NCL.

 

 

Our Stateroom by adomokos, on Flickr

 

 

Untitled by adomokos, on Flickr

 

 

Untitled by adomokos, on Flickr

 

 

Bathroom I by adomokos, on Flickr

 

 

Bathroom II by adomokos, on Flickr

 

 

We relaxed until muster time and just as we headed out for the drill, our room steward, Ketut, came by to introduce himself. He had a clipboard with him to record when we wanted turn down service and any special requests. He also explained his schedule and some other things. We were very impressed, hadn’t experienced this on NCL. We didn’t see much of him after that first day but he did a very good job, the room was always spotless.

 

This next bit about the muster drill was written up before the Concordia tragedy and I told Carnival my thoughts on this in the post-cruise survey as well. It seems to have taken on a whole new significance since then. Our muster station was the Dynasty Lounge, so it was pretty comfortable. It took a while to get started as people kept coming in more than 10 minutes after it was scheduled to start. This was probably because of the lack of announcements. They didn’t announce it until 3:25 (it was scheduled for 3:30) and as I'd said earlier, this was the only announcement we'd heard since getting on the ship.

 

In the lounge, they showed us how to put on a life vest and then we had to make our way up to the lifeboat station. They told us nothing else other than that was where we were going. Once we got up on the lifeboat deck, they lined us all up in rows, we got packed in nice and tight, and then we stood there. No further instructions, just standing there for a while wondering what was going on. Eventually, we were told we were free to go. That seemed strange to me and not particularly effective in the event of a real emergency. I'm curious as to what Carnival would make of that showing up in their survey feedback now, if anything.

[spacepotatoes]

As soon as muster was done, we made a beeline for the Serenity deck to watch sail away. The ship had already pushed away from the dock since muster had run so long, but we hadn’t missed too much. It was a bit cloudy but still nice. Port of Miami is just a beautiful port to sail out of. DH went and got us some DODs and I was excited to finally have my own “best day ever” glass. I thought I'd read somewhere that those had been discontinued but apparently not. We learned pretty quickly that those drinks are no joke, wow! They were strong. Or maybe I’m just a lightweight - I was still nursing it 3 hours later at dinner :p

 

Sailaway Cocktails by adomokos, on Flickr

 

Bon Voyage Message by adomokos, on Flickr

 

Untitled by adomokos, on Flickr

 

Sunset, Sort Of by adomokos, on Flickr

 

We left to get ready for dinner but didn’t make it in time for the dining room opening. We got there around 7, which we know is the worst time on any ship to show up at the dining room but we were hungry so we were willing to wait in line. We had YTD and were hoping for a table for two, but we didn’t get it on this night. They were too busy. We ended up sharing a table with two other couples. It was a little awkward at first but once we got to talking, we discovered that both couples were also Canadian and both of the wives were teachers like me. We ended up having good conversation throughout the meal and it was nice running into them later on in the week.

 

We didn't take any pictures of the food but I do remember what we ate! We both had the marinated tropical fruit to start, lasagne bolognese, and warm chocolate melting cake. DH also had the key lime pie. Everything was good, though nothing specatular. Following the advice of many of you here, I had two ice creams for the wcmc, and was very glad I took that suggestion. Very rich! Too rich even for DH, who is a dark chocolate fan.

 

Dinner took almost two hours and I know it’s supposed to be an experience, but this really felt too long. The waitstaff seemed overwhelmed and there was no connection whatsoever with us. They just took our orders, served the meal, and cleared the table with minimal interaction. No one ever asked about drinks either. We were surprised by this as we expected better, even for YTD. Unfortunately, this type of service would turn out to be the norm for all of our MDR meals even when the dining room wasn’t busy.

 

We went to the Welcome Aboard show after dinner, where we were introduced to Cruise Director Skip. He brought up some random people from the audience to chat (and a play an impromptu embarrassing game) with, which was very entertaining. We had a great mix of passengers on this cruise, they were good sports. The performance by the singers and dancers was good, though a bit cheesy. Aretha, the female singer, was very talented. The comedians came out to do a brief bit. Eddie Capone was really funny but Carl Rimi did not make a good impression.

 

Back in our stateroom, we filled out the room service card for breakfast the next morning and headed for bed. We enjoyed the large bed and the super comfy bedding!

 

Coming up tomorrow: Key West and some rough weather.

[spacepotatoes]

I agree completey. We have sailed Carnival more often than NCL, but have really enjoyed our NCL cruises and find a lot of things they do well. The free style dining (plus all the choices of specialty dining rooms) are really strong points for them. Nobody does "anytime dining" as well as NCL, and while we would prefer the freedom of anytime dining we usually choose traditional on Carnival because we felt service suffered the couple of times we tried anytime. Carnival and others have to juggle traditional and anytime dining in the same time frame and in the same dining rooms and that makes it harder for them to do it well compared to NCL which has only freestyle dining.

 

Now that we've tried YTD with Carnival, I'm kind of tempted to try fixed dining to see if it's that much better. The only thing holding me back is that we'd really prefer to have a table for two and I don't think they can guarantee that with fixed seating.

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review! I really love comparisions between the two lines as it will be our turn in October.

 

It was really hard not to constantly compare! But aside from the dining, the differences were pretty minor to us. Hope the review helps you prepare!

[crusinpsychRN]

On my last cruise the steward decided to introduce himself about 4 min. after muster was called. I really tried to make it short. I wonder if that's why some were late.

[spacepotatoes]

On my last cruise the steward decided to introduce himself about 4 min. after muster was called. I really tried to make it short. I wonder if that's why some were late.

 

It's very possible. That's exactly what our steward did as well. But our stateroom was pretty conveniently located for our muster station so we were able to book it there pretty quickly. I'm sure others orobably did get held up by this too.

 

My thinking, initially, was that many people (especially first timers) were probably just distracted by all that was going on onboard and lost track of time. By not announcing anything until right before it's supposed to start, of course it's going be choatic because now people are trying to figure out where they have to go and how to get there. I just thought that could have been better planned on Carnival's part.

 

Since this was my first time on Carnival, I have nothing to compare it to so don't know if this is the norm or not. I just know it's different my NCL experiences and I think there was room for improvement.

[csunshine860]

Were also on this cruise - retired Canadian teachers as well. Your review was good and thanks.....sure brings back memories. I agree with you on the comedians. We experienced great service in the MDR. Only negative thing... on the Serenity deck before we sailed away I got hit by some wonderful droppings. Would have been nice if the people eating lunch outside were more careful not to feed the birds.....lol

[mama_2_boys]

Enjoying the review! Can't wait for the rest!

[gapearl]

Great review so far!

[Payd]

Thanks for the start of your review, I''m looking forward to the rest.

 

You can get a table for two in the early or late seating. Request when you book your cruise, and then confirm once you embark.

[cdamion]

Thanks. Looking forward to more!

[gelo7]

Great start.

[ATL2LAS]

I love reading reviews of my favorite ship:D Keep up the great review and pictures. I do like the comparisons with NCL.

[trvlqueen]

We boarded as you got off ... and were on for a week, B2B. I totally agree with you about the crab cakes in the dining room - they weren't normal - just weird! I'm not sure why they were so strange this trip because they're usually pretty good - although the ones in the Carnival Steakhouses are so much better!

 

We had a similar situation with muster - there were people drinking, laughing and talking all the way through - I was stunned. This wasn't what we have experienced on any of the other Carnival ships/cruises we've been on, so things have either really deteriorated since September OR this ship's management didn't take the drill as seriously as others I've been a part of. My last muster on Imagination was a lot more organized and professionally run than what we experienced on the 6th and again on the 9th - it was really quite pointless.

 

As to dining - we have found that traditional dining is usually much better than YTD on Carnival and thus have opted to stick with traditional. You can get tables for 2, but need to make your request in advance via John Heald's blog - he'll send a note to the maitre'd - no, there is no guarantee, but we've never had a bad experience with our tablemates, either and you can always approach the maitre'd if your dining arrangements are not what you wanted and ask to have them changed - I find it amusing how some can't live without a table for 2 (not the OP - just in general) and others are offended if they're given a table for 2. I'm not cooking, serving, or cleaning up, so unless I'm seated with truly offensive people or the service isn't up to par, I'm game for anything, lol. Even traditional dining was a little "off" on this ship, though, this time - not sure what was going on the first night, but the maitre'd even came on the microphone at the end and stated "we'll serve you better tomorrow". On the second half of the cruise they switched our dining time from late to early to keep us with the same staff - whom we really liked, but we chose late dining for a reason, so had to ask to be switched back. Then, the maitre'd was seemingly oblivious to the serving patterns when calling for "entertainment" by the waitstaff.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I love the Imagination and will likely sail on her again, our experiences were a little "off" this time from what we normally experience. However, I have a lot of good things to say, too - but will shut up and throw the review back to the OP - thank you, by the way for taking time to put the review, complete with photos, together. These are a lot of work and greatly appreciated! And I agree - NCL and CCL are more alike than different, but NCL really does have "freestyle dining" down to a science - and despite the complaints from those who don't understand the system, I found the food in every dining room we experienced on NCL (and we paid minimal surcharges) to be fantastic, along with the service - I wouldn't hesitate to sail either line if itinerary, timing, and budget fit.

[MissKIA]

DH went and got us some DODs and I was excited to finally have my own “best day ever” glass. I thought I'd read somewhere that those had been discontinued but apparently not.

 

From what I understand, the Best day ever glasses are being discontinued on the ships with the new 2.0 upgrades. They are still available on the other ships for now.

[futureAG]

Thank you for taking the time to do this review!! I love detailed day-by-day reviews as well!!! I'm subscribing! :D

[Jimmy Geegitz]

nice review!

[4hunters]

Thanks for your review. BTW, your username rocks! :D

[spacepotatoes]

Thanks for all the great feedback! I'm glad you're all enjoying the review so far :)

 

Great review so far!

 

Thanks! Your Imagination review was the first detailed one I read the very night that we booked this cruise and you made it sound like so much fun, we couldn't wait :D

 

We had a similar situation with muster - there were people drinking, laughing and talking all the way through - I was stunned. This wasn't what we have experienced on any of the other Carnival ships/cruises we've been on, so things have either really deteriorated since September OR this ship's management didn't take the drill as seriously as others I've been a part of. My last muster on Imagination was a lot more organized and professionally run than what we experienced on the 6th and again on the 9th - it was really quite pointless.

 

That's interesting and disappointing. Our fellow passengers were very cooperative at our muster station and staff was pretty good about getting them to put the phones, etc. away and keep them quiet. It was just the logistics of it that I thought were strange. Amazing what a difference a few days makes!

 

I'm glad it wasn't just me put off by the crab cakes! I should have known when I could smell them coming that they wouldn't be good but I ate them anyway. Not a wise decision :o

 

From what I understand, the Best day ever glasses are being discontinued on the ships with the new 2.0 upgrades. They are still available on the other ships for now.

 

Ah, that explains it! I knew I'd read about it somewhere. I must have missed the 2.0 connection. But they can discontinue them now if they want, I've got mine ;):)

 

Ok, ready for more? Key West is coming right up...

[spacepotatoes]

Oops, not quite yet! Somehow, I forgot to include this in my multiquote...

 

Were also on this cruise - retired Canadian teachers as well. Your review was good and thanks.....sure brings back memories. I agree with you on the comedians. We experienced great service in the MDR. Only negative thing... on the Serenity deck before we sailed away I got hit by some wonderful droppings. Would have been nice if the people eating lunch outside were more careful not to feed the birds.....lol

 

You would have fit right in at our table that first night :) I also got a little something on my pants during sail away but until reading your comment, I didn't know for sure what it was! I thought something had rubbed off from the seat cushion but couldn't see anything obvious. I had to wash those pants in the sink that night so I could wear them in Key West, lol. I'm glad your MDR experience was better than ours! Did you have a fixed time?

[spacepotatoes]

TUESDAY: KEY WEST

 

We were supposed to be docked at 7:30 AM so when DH and I woke up around 7, we were surprised to look out the port holes and see nothing but water. We had ordered our room service breakfast to be delivered between 7:30-8:00. It came around 7:15. We had fresh fruit, a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon, and some pastries. Everything was good. DH noted that the orange juice was much better than what we got from NCL’s room service breakfast. While we ate, we watched the ship arrive on the TV (not too much later than scheduled) and noticed the whitecaps in the water. That should have been our first clue that it was going to be an interesting day!

 

They were letting people off by the time we were all ready to go, so we made our way down to the gangway. We could feel the wind the second we stepped off the ship, it was chilly and the gusts were strong. One of the staff was dressed as a pirate wench for pictures and the poor woman was literally holding on to her hat for every picture! I almost wish we’d posed for one of those because it would have been great to show everyone at home.

 

We were docked at the Navy Yard, which was probably why the wind felt as bad as it did – it was a completely open and unsheltered area. There were Conch Train trolleys operating as shuttles to get people downtown. It was a really quick and efficient process. Our trolley driver told us that the other two ships scheduled to be there with us today didn’t make it because of the wind. It turns out that that was why it took us so long to dock this morning. Our trolley driver also warned us that we better have our S&S cards and government ID with us because on the way back, when we get to the Navy security checkpoint, the entire train gets held up if one person is missing theirs. It used to be just that one person who was detained but that has recently changed.

 

The trolley dropped us off in Mallory Square and we started working our way down Duval Street. Not much was open that early in the morning but we were on a mission – we wanted to go straight to the Southernmost Point, to try to beat the crowds. It was a nice walk; as the sun got higher, it warmed up and the wind didn’t feel so bad with buildings around to block some of it. We ran into a lot of locals out for a morning jog, walking dogs, having coffee, etc. Everyone was so friendly, it was a nice welcome.

 

 

There was already a small crowd at the Southernmost Point, but it wasn’t too bad. We waited our turn for photos, then headed up the street for the Hemingway House.

 

Southernmost Point by adomokos, on Flickr

 

The timing worked out really well, we got to there just after it opened (9 AM). Admission is $12.50 per person, which lets you wander around the property on your own for as long as you like or you can take one of their guided tours for no extra charge. There was one just starting up as we walked into the house so we joined it. I highly recommend this! Our guide (and all of the staff we encountered during our time there) was very knowledgeable about the history of the area and of Hemingway’s life. He was engaging, obviously enjoyed his job, and was more than willing to answer questions. I've been trying to match up our picture of him with the guide pictures on the HH website but I'm still not sure which one he is. DH thinks maybe Loren. Either way, he is awesome.

 

 

Hemingway's Living Room by adomokos, on Flickr

 

We learned a lot on the tour and there are some funny stories associated with parts of the property that we wouldn’t have heard about if not for the tour, so it was well worth it. The cats were pretty affectionate, they are clearly used to the attention and loved it! Even if you don't know anything about Hemingway, I'd still recommend it.

 

I've included the stories behind some of the parts of the house in the descriptions on flickr so if you are interested in those details, just click through to the album and you can get your fill of Hemingway House trivia :)

 

 

The Thinking Chair by adomokos, on Flickr

 

 

Where the Magic Happened by adomokos, on Flickr

 

 

Urinal Fountain by adomokos, on Flickr

 

 

That last photo seems random, I know but it has a pretty funny story associated with it. The bottom part of the fountain is actually a urinal from the original Sloppy Joe's bar. The rest of it is decoration that Hemingway's wife added to pretty it up after Hemingway refused to get rid of it. They sounded like they had an interesting relationship, those two.

 

These are just some of the pictures that we took. There are lots more in the flickr album if you are curious!