Imagination review--May 14-19,2005-long

[Buttonlover]

My sister and I just returned from the 5 day Imagination cruise to Grand Cayman and Ochos Rios, Jamaica. We left early! (5:50 am) from Kansas City and flew into Ft Lauderdale (11:30) The Carnival people were right at the baggage claim and we were on our way to the pier in about 20 minutes in an air-conditioned bus with big windows so got to see some of Miami. Had no problem with the porters and our luggage. At first the lines to process our documents seemed over whelming but it moved very quickly. They have it down to a science it seems. Soon we were on the ship and finding our room. We had booked a guarantee interior room and ended up with a great oceanview room near the elevators. We couldn't have picked out a better place to stay!:) Everything was clean and ready for us. Our bags hadn't arrived yet so we explored the ship and got something to eat in the Horizon Bar and Grill on the Lido deck. We ended up with a very fresh salad from the salad bar and a couple of pieces of pizza. I was a little disappointed in the pizza but a lot of other people really like it. Actually all the food wasn't quite as good as I had remembered from my cruise in 2000 but having it prepared and served to me was great! We really enjoyed being treated special in the dining room. Some of the waiters made eating there a real joy--ours wasn't so entertaining and seemed as though any request was an imposition but we enjoyed watching some of the others. Our busboy was extremely nice and attentive. We really enjoyed the cruise director-Jeff Brrrronson and his crew. They made everything so much fun. The welcome aboard in the Dynasty Lounge the first day was a hoot. We also enjoyed the shows at night. The dancers were fantastic and so up-beat. The woman singer was terrific but the man singer was hard to understand and definitely not the same caliber. The last show of the cruise was Legends and was very entertaining. There were 8-10 of the cruisers who had tried out and were on stage with the dancers and singers. It was fun. They had two comedians during our cruise. The afternoon shows were good but the latenight shows weren't just R rated but seemed like they just used foul language to "spice" up their shows. The ship was kept extremely clean--there were people working all the time. We found a wonderful quiet deck with lounge chairs just outside the pool area on the Lido deck. Great for reading, listening to the waves, and napping.

 

We were disappointed in our excursions. Grand Cayman--we went by bus to the turtle farm (interesting and will be much nicer when their new buildings are done), Hell-what a waste of time, and then on a boat where we sat in the bottom with big glass windows 5 ft under water. That was pretty neat. We saw lots of fish and sunken ships. We did love that part of our tour. The shopping was a flop. It was way over the price we could spend. Mostly jewelry store after jewelry store. Ochos Rios--What a beautiful island!!We got off the ship and onto a bus that took us to another pier. There we got on the Sanara catamaran. They took us to a place to snorkel that was pretty shallow near a reef. Unfortunately the sun was in for a while so the underwater wasn't anything special. The people on the boat were constantly trying to get us to buy their souvenirs, trying to braid our hair (for a good high price), and to rent their water shoes-but of course the only change they had was Jamaican. Then they took us to Dunns River Falls and left us to go get another group. We chose not to climb (45 min climb and it looked a little dangerous). The beach had no chairs but we stood at the bottom of the Falls and people watched. It was cool there and we had fun taking pictures for other people. The trip back to the pier took forever with the people on the ship again constantly trying to sell us their stuff. We were an hour late getting back so had very little time left to explore. Next time we'll know a little better what we want to spend our time doing.

 

The only thing wrong with debarkation was that we had to go home!:( We went up to the dining room and had a great breakfast while the selfdebarkation people battled their luggage to get off the ship and by the time we finished it was our turn to leave. Everything was very easy and well planned.

 

One warning--don't get sick on ship. My tooth was giving me a little trouble and the last full day at sea I woke up with the left side of my face swollen and my eye swollen shut so didn't have much choice but to go see the doc. The infirmary was $60 for less than a minute with the doctor and $150 for 10 antibiotic pills. Ouch!:mad: Anyway, that wasn't fun.

 

We had a great time and can't wait to go again. The Imagination is a great ship--lots of fun and we'd recommend it to everyone.

[jerseygirl3]

If you had travel insurance, you can submit your bill for the infirmary and meds and you will be reimbursed.

[hazeleyez3]

My sister and I just returned from the 5 day Imagination cruise to Grand Cayman and Ochos Rios, Jamaica. We left early! (5:50 am) from Kansas City and flew into Ft Lauderdale (11:30) The Carnival people were right at the baggage claim and we were on our way to the pier in about 20 minutes in an air-conditioned bus with big windows so got to see some of Miami. Had no problem with the porters and our luggage. At first the lines to process our documents seemed over whelming but it moved very quickly. They have it down to a science it seems. Soon we were on the ship and finding our room. We had booked a guarantee interior room and ended up with a great oceanview room near the elevators. We couldn't have picked out a better place to stay!:) Everything was clean and ready for us. Our bags hadn't arrived yet so we explored the ship and got something to eat in the Horizon Bar and Grill on the Lido deck. We ended up with a very fresh salad from the salad bar and a couple of pieces of pizza. I was a little disappointed in the pizza but a lot of other people really like it. Actually all the food wasn't quite as good as I had remembered from my cruise in 2000 but having it prepared and served to me was great! We really enjoyed being treated special in the dining room. Some of the waiters made eating there a real joy--ours wasn't so entertaining and seemed as though any request was an imposition but we enjoyed watching some of the others. Our busboy was extremely nice and attentive. We really enjoyed the cruise director-Jeff Brrrronson and his crew. They made everything so much fun. The welcome aboard in the Dynasty Lounge the first day was a hoot. We also enjoyed the shows at night. The dancers were fantastic and so up-beat. The woman singer was terrific but the man singer was hard to understand and definitely not the same caliber. The last show of the cruise was Legends and was very entertaining. There were 8-10 of the cruisers who had tried out and were on stage with the dancers and singers. It was fun. They had two comedians during our cruise. The afternoon shows were good but the latenight shows weren't just R rated but seemed like they just used foul language to "spice" up their shows. The ship was kept extremely clean--there were people working all the time. We found a wonderful quiet deck with lounge chairs just outside the pool area on the Lido deck. Great for reading, listening to the waves, and napping.

 

We were disappointed in our excursions. Grand Cayman--we went by bus to the turtle farm (interesting and will be much nicer when their new buildings are done), Hell-what a waste of time, and then on a boat where we sat in the bottom with big glass windows 5 ft under water. That was pretty neat. We saw lots of fish and sunken ships. We did love that part of our tour. The shopping was a flop. It was way over the price we could spend. Mostly jewelry store after jewelry store. Ochos Rios--What a beautiful island!!We got off the ship and onto a bus that took us to another pier. There we got on the Sanara catamaran. They took us to a place to snorkel that was pretty shallow near a reef. Unfortunately the sun was in for a while so the underwater wasn't anything special. The people on the boat were constantly trying to get us to buy their souvenirs, trying to braid our hair (for a good high price), and to rent their water shoes-but of course the only change they had was Jamaican. Then they took us to Dunns River Falls and left us to go get another group. We chose not to climb (45 min climb and it looked a little dangerous). The beach had no chairs but we stood at the bottom of the Falls and people watched. It was cool there and we had fun taking pictures for other people. The trip back to the pier took forever with the people on the ship again constantly trying to sell us their stuff. We were an hour late getting back so had very little time left to explore. Next time we'll know a little better what we want to spend our time doing.

 

The only thing wrong with debarkation was that we had to go home!:( We went up to the dining room and had a great breakfast while the selfdebarkation people battled their luggage to get off the ship and by the time we finished it was our turn to leave. Everything was very easy and well planned.

 

One warning--don't get sick on ship. My tooth was giving me a little trouble and the last full day at sea I woke up with the left side of my face swollen and my eye swollen shut so didn't have much choice but to go see the doc. The infirmary was $60 for less than a minute with the doctor and $150 for 10 antibiotic pills. Ouch!:mad: Anyway, that wasn't fun.

 

We had a great time and can't wait to go again. The Imagination is a great ship--lots of fun and we'd recommend it to everyone.

 

 

Just a few questions - were there other excursions you wished you had taken? I'll be going in July and am looking for some info.

 

What was the price range for the shopping? Also how much was bingo?

 

They still have a midnight buffet, don't they? I haven't been on Carnival in about 10 years - I'm hoping that they still do this, but didn't see it listed on capers I found for the Valor.

 

Do you have any of the capers still?

[BettyB2]

thanks for the review! We are looking for a 3-5 nighter in spring 06 and the reviews I read here will help me make up my mind on the ship we want....

 

thanks again:D

[Buttonlover]

They had at least two midnight buffets--the gala and a mexican one.

 

You have a Capers for the next day everynight on your bed when you turn in. We found highlighters very helpful to plan our adventures for the next day.

 

The shopping in Grand Cayman was very expensive--mostly high end jewelry and cut stones there. The See and Sea tour that we took was okay--lots of people liked the swim with the stingrays.

 

Jamaica shopping was good and prices moderate--what we got to do of it. Check the goods closely. In one store at Island Village they said their straw purses were locally made but they had a Made in China tag inside!:eek: I would not do the cruise Sanara excursion-snorkel, Dunns River. They didn't take you to a very good place to snorkel, Dunns River was okay but looked difficult, and they were over an hour late getting us back to Ochos Rios. They were into holding us hostage to sell us their stuff!!:mad:

 

Bingo is $10 for a single card and $20 for a triple. If they play more than one game at a session you can keep using your cards during that session but most of the time there was just one game at a session. They also sell scratch off tickets during the bingo.

 

I would recommend the Imagination! Fun crew! I wish I was there right now!!:)

[Albgoblue]

Glad to hear you liked the cruise Buttonlover. We had a ''great" time as well. It was even better than my expectations, which were high to begin with. It's amazing how friendly the crew was, especially when you realize they are going non-stop for up to 8 months, without a day off. As for the midnight buffets, they had food every night. Sometimes they were a theme (Mexican) but often just a mix of food. The pizza bar is open 24 hours a day (we really liked the pizza, in fact we cleaned them out of the goat cheese pizza) as is the soft serve ice cream station. We had one of the "fun" waiters at dinner and he made dinner a blast. Besides being very professional in his duties, he was constantly doing something to entertain us (magic, dancing, telling stories, etc) and made our whole group not want to even consider skipping dinner.

 

The only complaint we had about the entire cruise, was the selection of music in the disco. Too much hip-hop which really wasn't the audience. When ever they would play an 80's dance tune or a disco song the dance floor would fill, but would empty out when the hip-hop was played, which unfortunately was the majority of the time.

 

One nice thing about the Imagination is that being a smaller ship, you don't have as many problems with crowds such as fighting for deck chairs. The ship is smaller in terms of number of decks compared to others in the fleet, but the top deck space is similar in size so there are far less people to fill up the deck chairs. In fact our group of 10 never had any problem finding plenty of chairs and space. And once we parked, Putu took good care of bringing us the icy cold refreshments!!!

 

At Grand Cayman, we did the Stingray City snorkling excursion with Capt. Bryan (a non-Carnival Excursion) and it was a lot of fun. They have a large Catameran that was a great ride and looked much more comfortable than the Carnival excursions that packed the people onto boats like sardines. And it was a lot cheaper than the Carnival excursions.

 

The Bingo wasn't a lot of fun. With so many people playing, it's over with in less than 5 minutes and you usually only play one game. The casino is much more fun, and in my case, it was rewarding as well.

 

I definitly reccomend this ship, just wish the cruise was longer.

[awsmrn]

Buttonlover: We are taking the same itinerary in Sept. What time was the last tender back to the ship when you were docked in Grand Cayman? The Itinerary says departure is 4pm...which would be 3pm Grand Cayman time, right?