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"JW and Jerome's Ecstatic ECSTASY Adventures"

cruiseguys2009

By cruiseguys2009,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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cruiseguys2009

cruiseguys2009

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The Cabin

 

While we are waiting for The Faster To The Fun Luggage to arrive, which Jerome has now coined “Hurry Up And Wait”, it gives me a minute to describe the Royal Cabin and Amenities.

 

As I just wrote earlier, we have the same cabin on The Ecstasy as we had in 2009 on our Carnival Sensation sailing, Empress 61 Outside Forward. For those who have not been on this class of ship but on any other Carnival ship, the cabin is exactly the same as a standard balcony/outside cabin, minus the sofa. No sofa, so the room is about 7 feet shorter. Sofas on the Ecstasy are in the Junior Suites on the Veranda Deck (which by the way, are exactly the same size as a standard balcony cabin on another ship say, The Dream). We have two twin beds that can be converted into a queen size, but we opted to keep them separate. The balcony cabins on Ecstasy are also the exact same as our Outside Cabin, because they once used to be just "Outside Cabins". Only now they come with that odd, built out addition of balconies that just kind of "hang" on the side of the ship, like an over the door hanging shoe storage holder. Don't get me wrong, the cabin was quite comfortable and quiet.

 

As far as the beds being separated, look, Jerome and I have been together a long time, we can afford to sleep apart for 5 days. And because we did, we had a lot more room in the cabin. If the beds are pushed together, we learned that we lose precious floor space. If they are separated and in the “L” shape, we have some romper room! And getting dressed is so much easier with the beds separated.

 

There is a desk with a wall phone, four drawers, mirror and vanity lights, and underneath the desk, a vanity chair. No Refrigerator! That I forgot about, but no worries as we brought our larger soft sided cooler for ice. There is a new flat screen Remote Controlled Television, and by the way, the TV got great reception the whole cruise, and all Miami Based Network Channels too. We also had one additional chair and a tiny nightstand.

 

There are three closets. One with shelving and a safe, and the safe is accessed by a personal pin number. Two other closets for hanging clothes equipped with ample hangers. One of the closets contain the Life Vests and the other contain two plush robes. And by the way, I think it is quite odd and strange to see folks walking all over the ship with their cabin robes on, at all hours of the day and night, sometimes open to the "Hairy big Belly-Fonte" button and all. And most especially, some are found sauntering into the Buffet Lunch Area wearing their robe. I personally wouldn’t do it. Just sayin’. And I happen to love Harry Belafonte too!

 

The Bathroom is quite adequate and large enough. We hung our travel toiletry bags on the door hooks and only needed the essentials on the glass shelf over the sink. There are the usual Carnival Free Samples and Coupons……Yay! This trip we had Lipton Tea Singles, Breathe Right Nasal Strips, a lovely Dove Soap bar and an Arm & Hammer Whitening Toothpaste sample.

 

There was plenty of room in the shower as well. Although there was that fabric shower curtain again, yuck, but at least our shower is an ample size and the curtain never stuck to my body. Oh that is the least favorite part of a cruise for me. It’s when I am in a tiny cruise ship shower with a shower curtain, and I go to turn around and the shower curtain is stuck to me and it follows me…..and then I think, well if it happened to me, then it happened to everyone that has been in this shower before me….and then I think…..eeeewwwweeeee…….and then I think I need another Martini to drown out too much thinking going on!

 

Also in the shower are the standard Duo Of Shower Accoutrements de Carnival, their Shampoo and Body Soap Gel in dispensers. Of which I swear they have been using the same shampoo and gel for the past 25 years or so.

 

We had fabulous plush towels, not the thin kind in cheap hotels mind you, but nice, thick, fresh, white, soft towels that did not hurt when you dried off from the shower, especially those sun burn days.

 

The commode was the same old same old, but a strong word of caution. We like the room cold at night and adjust the air accordingly. The air also flows in the bathroom but we mistakenly kept the door closed. The bathroom turns into an ice cube. So, if we had to get up in the middle of the night to venture into the latrine to “Sit”, well the only word I can think of to say is "Yikes!" That first plop down on the seat made me bounce right off and hit the ceiling. Dang! Cold, cold cold! I would let out a whimper every time! Sweeeet BeJeeezuz! It’s like sitting on a Johnny in an Out House in an Igloo in Alaska! BRRRRRRR! Nearly froze my beejubees off!. I guess we just had to grit our teeth and bear it those first few seconds. Then watch out. The pressure that builds up if I “Courtesy Flushed” while still sitting…..Oh My Gosh! WHOOOOSH! I got stuck right to the seat and almost went clear down the pipes, or at least some of “me” almost did! WHOOOOOSH! There it is! Yikes!

 

The air conditioning unit is located in the ceiling and we loved the temperature control handle. Very easy to adjust. At night we would turn it all the way on, love it cold as I said. When it was on high, there would be a soft, “White Noise” hum of the fan. We usually keep a fan going in our home at night, for the soft background noise. The fan on the air conditioning unit in our cabin was not intrusive at all, and the sound lulled us to sleep each night, along with the gentle back and forth rocking of the ship.

 

As we had an Outside Cabin, there is a large Picture Window with black out curtains. The window afforded us great views of the Ports and the Grand Ocean Waves dreamily drifting by. We ended up in our Cabin at Sail A Way after all was said and done. Why? We had no choice. It was pouring rain! Teaming, horrendously drenching, RAIN, complete with thunder and lightening for our departure. Yes, we were certainly leaving from Port Canaveral on a Carnival Cruise. It was raining. Typical!

 

Now Where is our luggage????

Edited by cruiseguys2009
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GreytRacer

GreytRacer

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Loving your review! Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and highly amusing story.

 

I, too, am a firm believer in Old School Customer Service (ie, Be Nice to People). I worked at Walt Disney World in the '90's when this was the order of the day. I've carried that outlook with me ever since, both giving and, hopefully, receiving.

 

I look forward to the rest of your review! Sounds like you two would be a blast to cruise with!

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southernbreezes

southernbreezes

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Oh my gosh...I can't wait for this review! I loved your Celebrity review. I see you will be on the Sunshine next year....we just got off her on a cruise to the Mediterranean and had a wonderful time...you will love her![/quote

I am hooked when are you going to post the rest? This is just to good.

We still love Carnival as we have so many great memories my wife and I were married in 1982 and our honeymoon was on the Mardi Gras our first cruise together, my wife’s best friend was married on the Ecstasy in 1992 she was the maid of honor we loved the ship. We have enjoyed 59 cruises and have yet to have a bad experience. :):cool:

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cruiseguys2009

cruiseguys2009

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Our Wonderful Room Steward, I Gusti



 

Our Room Steward, his name was I Gusti, was charming and efficient, absolutely professional and polite. When we arrived to our clean and fresh awaiting cabin, I Gusti was frantically getting all the other surrounding cabins ready, but ours was definately first on his list because of FTTF. He introduced himself to us, knew that we were FTTF, and asked if there was anything that we would need for the week. I showed him our soft sided cooler and asked him if he would kindly keep it filled with ice for us all week, and he said of course, and it was. Twice a day I might add. I Gusti was one of the best Room Stewards we have ever had. He learned our names and from the first night, Hello Mista JayDoublewoo and Mista Hayromee! He was truly remarkable, especially because he had to deal with me!

 

As we are all sitting around waiting for our Luggage to arrive, I have to digress and tell you what happened on one afternoon.

 

Okay, so me, “Trouble“, has had a couple of martini’s. Well, all right, not just a couple. We were out on the Serenity Deck all day and I was thirsty, but not for booze, so I head back to the room to get my Bubba Keg Covered Drink Mug, which I always fill with ice and bottled water to take up on deck with me while I am laying out in the sun. On every cruise I also bring those MIO/Crystal Light/Kool Aid liquid drops so I can add it to the water in the dining room, my Keg, make a flavored Martini, etc. Well, being more than a bit tipsy, I fill my Bubba Keg with ice to the top and went to put some Crystal Light Blueberry Drops in the Bubba Keg so I could fill it with water. Now I also happen to be wearing a white shirt, and as I am attempting to add the very Blue drops to the ice, but one of the cubes is positioned just so, that when I squirted the blue into the cup, it came flying out, projectiling all over the room. I don’t know if that is even a word, but it describes exactly what happened. Me thinks I also may have squeezed a tad bit to hard on the bottle, nonetheless, blue was everywhere. And not just any blue, SMURF BLUE.

 

Smurf Blue dye was on the mirror, on my face, dripping from my nose and ears, on the desk, covered my white shirt, Smurf dots on the carpet, it spewed out all over the walls, all over my bed and it looked like my bed had Smurf Blue Measles. Oh My Gosh! As I stood there in my momentary disbelief, don’t ya just know it, I hear a card key go in the slot of the door, and low and behold, Jerome walks in the room. Great, just great. I turn around to look at him as I have blue dripping from my forehead, face, nose and ears, my shirt is a hot Smurf Blue mess, the sheets, pillowcase and carpet have Smruf Blue splats, it’s a total wreck. All Jerome can say is “I see you are auditioning for the roll of The Blue Berry Girl in Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory!” I retorted “Funny, and I thought you were an Umpa Loompa, ya'bigazz!”

 

Jerome said, as he seems to say this a lot to me all of the time, “JW, what did you do?” “It just squirted out all over the place!” I said, then continued “How in the heck am I going to clean this up?” I tried using a wash cloth on the carpet and the bed but it turned blue, and the stains just became a big blue blob. I did get them out of the carpet, (must have been a Stainmaster Carpet), off the walls, and the desk and mirror area. But the sheets had blue blob dots all over them! I am in so much trouble. What is I Gusti going to think? "I Gusti is gonna think we romp around with Windex or something." I said to Jerome. He answered back, "JW, who would pack Windex to go on a cruise?" At that moment I turned and went to my hanging toiletry bag and pulled out handy dandy trusty Windex Wipes. "Oh My Gawd" Jerome exclaimed, "Only Trouble, of course?" He continued "Now JW, why on earth would you need Windex on a cruise?" I looked at him with a deer in headlights look and for the first time in my life, could not come up with any answer at all. I was dumbfounded. And I found me thinking to myself, "Why did I think we needed Windex?" Blame it on the Martini's.

 

Well, I clean myself up, and change my shirt and we go back up on deck, as I reside to myself that I will be sleeping on Smurff Blue Measles sheets for the rest of the week. When Jerome and I returned to the room later on that afternoon, the sheets were completely changed as if nothing had happened. The wash cloths that were once white and then blue from my cleaning up, vanished and were magically replaced with fresh ones. Wow. I loved I Gusti! He was sooooo cool and I am so embarrassed. He also never ever mentioned it, and that is true Professionalism. I just can't imagine what he was thinking?

 

Tap, Tap, Tap. Oh joy! A knock on the door. It’s I Gusti! “Well, these fine folks on Cruise Critic and I were just talking about you!” (Clever ehh?) I Gusti handed me a letter from Guest Relations and it read aloud to Jerome, that there was going to be a delay in getting our FTTF luggage. Hmmmm. I thanked I Gusti for the news and closed the door. “Delay?” Jerome said, then retorted “Yep, Hurry Up and Wait!”. He then said “JW, what did you put in the luggage?“ I said “Whatever do you mean?“ Knowing full well knowing exactly what he meant. “Are you going to get us sent to the Naughty Room?“ I looked at him in shock! “Me? I said, “Jerome, in the past two decades of us cruising together, have I ever been sent to the Naughty Room to reclaim luggage? “ Jerome said that the difference is, on all those other cruises, he packed the suitcases. “There is a difference when Trouble packs, and it better not mean the Naughty Room or I am going to throw ya’azzovaboard!" Jerome always so eloquent and to the point. I frowned at him and then I decided to go to the Atruim Bar for some libations instead of hanging around the room waiting to be thrown “Ovaboard!”

 

 

You all coming or ya just gonna sit there in the room?

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