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Not a full Ecstasy review, just some Cliff Notes

BeccaBecca1713

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BeccaBecca1713

BeccaBecca1713

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*Disclaimer - I'm typing this quickly at work so to the Grammar Police, I will go ahead and apologize*

 

Cruised Ecstasy to HMC-Nassau-Freeport April 23-28 2012

 

This was my first time on a Fantasy-class ship. I've sailed Spirit-class and Conquest-class before. I was looking forward to trying a different class of ship, but in the end, I think Spirit-class is my favorite.

 

Ecstasy had some very nice updated spaces. Wasn't a huge fan of the layout as it felt choppy, but it's not a "cruise-ruiner" for me. The stairways had the typical garish neon orange walls and psychedelic carpeting. Bleck! Again, not a deal-breaker, but just sharing what I saw.

 

Absolutely did not like the Blue Sapphire Lounge. Only because their seating up on the balcony was ridiculous. Unlike newer ships, with true stadium seating, if you didn't have the front row, you couldn't see the whole stage. Had to lean from side to side between the heads in front of me to see the shows. Shows were okay. (But let me add I'm not really a show person, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt). One was called Extreme Country. It was kinda cheesy, but we did enjoy seeing the CD play a mean fiddle. The only other show I went to was the Talent show. It was pretty good as I enjoy seeing us common-cruisers displaying our talents. Some great singers on our cruise!

 

Speaking of the CD. He was Steve Cassell. Now I'm not a big "OMG! Who's the CD gonna be!!!" kinda person. I can't even tell you who the CD was on my first 3 cruises. But we ended up liking Steve a lot. Me and the hubs nicknamed him Woogie (Something about Mary). He's tall and lanky and kinda nerdy, but that's what made him cool. He's EXTREMELY talented. Not only did he play "fiddle" for the Country show, but he played a classical piece on the violin for the Talent Show. Then another night he did a juggling act that was very entertaining (oops! I guess I did atttend another show).

 

Lido Area - OK, so my major beef with Lido was the INSANE lines I always encountered at random times when I wanted to get a burger. There's only one section on Lido that does the burgers and dogs and it was always a crazy line (at least when I went). On the opposite side was the Mongolian Wok which had a decent line but seemed to move swiftly. But in the middle of those 2 was the "Rotisserie" which never had anyone in line. It was usually some type of meat, some corn on the cob, mac-n-cheese and mashed potatoes. I think that area would of been better utilized as a second grill area but hey, who am I to make a suggestion.:rolleyes: The inside Buffet area almost always seemed to have lines that moved well with just a few minutes wait. I noticed on this cruise that they no longer had "real" plates. They were plastic. Makes sense I suppose as I can fondly remember hearing a few plates break on past cruises. But of course MDR still has the real stuff!:D

 

MDR - we did Any-Time Dining. We've done this on a previous cruise but I enjoyed it more this time around. The first night we had an excellent waitstaff who were friendly and efficient, so we stuck with them for rest of our trips to the MDR. On a side note, the "2-tops" are laughable. We often sat where 2-tops were set up against a long booth. With chairs on the other side. So I would sit in the booth, hubs in the chair. Each night I had to apologize to a fellow diner for shoving my butt in their face when I went to sit down since all the 2-tops were about 5 inches apart (ok, so maybe that's an exaggeration, it was more like 6 inches:rolleyes:). But in the end, we chatted a little with our fellow cruisers sitting so close and it was enjoyable.

 

Food - I didn't go hungry (although I felt like I might waiting in line for a burger!:p). I'm not a foodie, so I was satisfied with all the food I ate in the MDR. One night we went to Lido for dinner and got a piece of "steak" that I absolutely could not cut, even with a steak knife, but I just went and got something else. Steak + sitting in a pan on the buffet line for a long time = brick.

 

Cabin - we had a 6B OV cabin AFT on the Main Deck M262. We were literally AFT as in I could look out the window and watch the ship's wake. It was a nice room, no complaints. The only thing I would caution to others that may want to book this specific room, there was a small hallway directly outside our cabin door that was the crew stairs. So we heard that door a few times. But even worse, in the same little hallway outside our door was a stewards closet. It had the room cleaning supplies including the big clanky vacuum that I heard them getting out early every single morning. Grrrr! When I book cabins I always go over the deckplans with a fine-toothed comb, but the plans don't show that supply room, so just beware. For what it's worth, hubs heard NOTHING the whole cruise, although I'm pretty sure he could sleep through an A-Bomb.:rolleyes: As for movement, I'm not one to notice if it was more extreme all the way aft, but I will say, being that low (main deck) when the ship was turning to back into a port early one morning, I thought I was suddenly at a cheap motel and had just put a quarter in the bed. Yowsa! We shimmied for a good 5 minutes. :eek:

 

Music - I'm becoming a broken record, but let me say, I'm not someone obsessed with who's gonna be on the ship in terms of musicians. But wow, we had a great band on board! They are called "The Best Day Ever." They're a cover band out of Tampa FL who play music from the 60's to now. They mostly played 80's music and as a child of the 80's I was extremely delighted to hear them play!

 

Ports - I'm a beach bum and we considered this our cheapy cruise, so we didn't splurge on any excursions:

 

HMC - plopped on the beach

Nassau - shopped then went back to the ship to plop out on the empty deck

Freeport - shopped at Port Lucaya then back to the ship and, yeah, you know, plopped out on the deck.

 

OK, so that's about it. If I think of anything else I'll try to post. I'm at work and don't have access to my pics but if anyone requests a pic of something specific I'll try and post another day.

 

 

Thanks!

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gbphatcat

gbphatcat

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Nice review I am sailing on the Ecstasy next February. I am looking also at getting an aft oceanview like you got, how was your expeience and do you have any pictures of the room. which end of the hall was the supply room, and did you keep your funtimes papers, do you have any pictures of them thanks for your review and if you can help with any of my questions

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GradUT

GradUT

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Thanks for the good "Cliff Notes" review. I sailed on the Ecstasy a few years ago out of Galveston and will be on her again in a couple weeks. Your assessment of the ship meshed with what I remembered.

 

A couple of questions--

 

1) Did you "plop" on the Serenity deck? Like you, we are not doing any excursions so I plan to be on the ship when others are out-and-about in Nassau and Freeport. Was the Serenity deck nice? Was it difficult to get chairs?

 

2) Did you sit at the "2-tops" for all your dinners in the MDR? My husband and I did Anytime Dining on Princess last year and preferred the tables for 2 (despite their proximity to other tables) to sharing a larger table because it took so long for the waiters to serve a table for 8. Did you have a similar problem on the Ecstasy?

 

Thanks again for the great info and any answers you can give to my questions.

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bplazo

bplazo

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I was just on the Elation and agree with you on the buffet and agree that it was choppy and that you had to stand in several difference lines. The burgers were great and so were the chicken tenders.

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cruisenanny

cruisenanny

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Nice notes Becca, thanks for the overview! We thought CD Steve was a hoot too. DH wouldn't go to the country show with me, but I enjoyed the little bit of cheese the show served up, lol:D Agree CD is super talented!

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forwardcabin

forwardcabin

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Great review. We really miss Carnival Ecstasy and Steve Cassel and sailing out of Galveston. Ecstasy is a really great ship with a wonderful crew and staff. We know you had a good time. If you go again, tell Steve we said, "Hi."

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GradUT

GradUT

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Gbphatcat, you may want to go ahead and bring your hairdryer. I have found the Carnival-supplied hair dryers to be very low-powered and it takes forever to dry your hair.

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GradUT

GradUT

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I was wondering the same thing, gbphatcat. I'm leaving next week on the Ecstasy, so I'll probably have to answer my own questions.

 

If you have any questions, let me know and I'll try to answer them upon my return.

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gbphatcat

gbphatcat

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I was wondering the same thing, gbphatcat. I'm leaving next week on the Ecstasy, so I'll probably have to answer my own questions.

 

If you have any questions, let me know and I'll try to answer them upon my return.

 

Thanks i was hoping she would respond with a picture of her cabin because that is the one i am booked in for my trip. there are so few pictures of Ecstasy cabins on the web. I was also hoping to see a copy of the fun times because that is the same itenerary i will be on Thanks for any info you can pass on I live reviews if you plan to do one when you come back Enjoy your cruise.

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BeccaBecca1713

BeccaBecca1713

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great review do you have any pictures of this cabin , also i saw on a review site thaat this room allready has a hair dryer in it is that correct. one thing less i would have to pack lol

 

No hair dryers, although I think if you ask your cabin steward he'll get you one. But they are weak. Only 1200 watts.

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BeccaBecca1713

BeccaBecca1713

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Thanks for the notes....

I am wondering how the pool/slide areas were....we will be on her in July with kids, and i am wondering if these areas can accomodate the crowds.

Thanks!

 

The slides are in the aft part of lido deck. I only took a few pics at night but hopefully you'll get the jist:

 

[ATTACH]233615[/ATTACH]

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1337224891.541608.jpg.2113b22b8913cdc145b8841a75bc8bed.jpg

 

 

Then here is the main Lido area. Down there behind the stage is a pool area:

 

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1337224927.516418.jpg.5ec638b7dbf2c5e3e838a71ce6eb8018.jpg

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GradUT

GradUT

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GBPHATCAAT, here is a link to the Fun Times for this itinerary (HMC, Nassau, Freeport) posted here by someone who took the cruise in Jan/Feb. I've been having a lot of fun reading them in anticipation of my trip:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1577892&highlight=ecstasy+fun+times

 

 

BECCA BECCA, 1) Did you use the Serenity deck? Like you, we are not doing any excursions so I plan to be on the ship when others are out-and-about in Nassau and Freeport. Was the Serenity deck nice? Was it difficult to get chairs?

 

2) Did you sit at the "2-tops" for all your dinners in the MDR? My husband and I did Anytime Dining on Princess last year and preferred the tables for 2 (despite their proximity to other tables) to sharing a larger table because it took so long for the waiters to serve a table for 8. Did you have a similar problem on the Ecstasy?

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princessjanee

princessjanee

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GBPHATCAAT, here is a link to the Fun Times for this itinerary (HMC, Nassau, Freeport) posted here by someone who took the cruise in Jan/Feb. I've been having a lot of fun reading them in anticipation of my trip:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1577892&highlight=ecstasy+fun+times

 

 

BECCA BECCA, 1) Did you use the Serenity deck? Like you, we are not doing any excursions so I plan to be on the ship when others are out-and-about in Nassau and Freeport. Was the Serenity deck nice? Was it difficult to get chairs?

 

2) Did you sit at the "2-tops" for all your dinners in the MDR? My husband and I did Anytime Dining on Princess last year and preferred the tables for 2 (despite their proximity to other tables) to sharing a larger table because it took so long for the waiters to serve a table for 8. Did you have a similar problem on the Ecstasy?

We were on this same cruise....and it was great! we had ATD everynight and sat at the table for two everynight...the service was great..fast and the food was excellent...we were not that close to the larger tables and we had our "own space comfortably"..we also did not have any wait to get those tables for 2..I would highly recommend ATD.

 

The senerity area was also very comfortable...we always found chairs to sit at, even on sea day. If you need anymore info just let me know..:)

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