Ecstasy trip report for June 2 - 6th

[Kuffam]

Before I get into the details of our trip, I’ll share a little of my history. This was my eighth cruise and usually we sail on NCL or Disney. My family is from the suburbs of Chicago. My wife and I are in our 40’s, my daughter is 13, and my son is 11. With money being tight this year and still wanting to do a cruise, we saw this cheap Carnival cruise and decided to try it. While I will not say it was a bad cruise, it was not a great cruise either. However, I did have quality time with my family and that was our whole reason for taking a vacation. I look at vacations as an investment into my family and Carnival provided the service I expected.

 

We flew into Fort Lauderdale Saturday morning, rented a car, and drove to Sawgrass Mills Mall. My teenage daughter is so into malls now and I thought this would satisfy her need for shopping and provide a few choices to eat after our flight. Sawgrass is similar to the outlet mall we have around here, but it is a nice mall and did provide a mix of familiar restaurants and local cuisine. Parking was hard to find and the mall was very crowded, but it made for a nice afternoon. We then headed to the Holiday Inn Express – Fort Lauderdale Airport/Cruise. The hotel was clean, well maintained, had a nice pool, and free breakfast. The surrounding area was also safe and a strip mall was across the street with a Winn-Dixie and Big Lots. This provided us the opportunity to stock up on snacks, pop, and a few forgotten items. On Sunday, we went to the Miami-Dade Zoo. The zoo is like a big figure 8 with animals on both sides of a walking path. We were told the loop is about three miles and it took us about four hours. However, we took many breaks. We have a good size zoo outside Chicago and it amazes me that I can still find different animals every time we visit a different zoo. My wife and daughter also paid to feed the giraffes, which made for a nice photo op.

 

I'll share some more later.

Edited June 8, 2014 by Kuffam
typo

[Kuffam]

The drive from Fort Lauderdale to Miami Airport was wet, but non-eventful. Dropping off the car and catching the shuttle (Car Rental bus) to the port was simple. Getting through security and embarking the ship was just the normal process. Chicago was the Carnival Live band for this cruise and the DJ in the terminal was giving away shirts and concert tickets, it was a little loud but it helped the time go faster. Chicago must not have been a popular band judging from the number of tickets they gave away and my wife and daughter were still able to buy tickets the day of the concerts.

The Ecstasy is what I call a mid-size ship and we really enjoyed her. She was well maintained and clean. We had an inside cabin (category 4B) that was spacious enough for two adults and two kids for five days. The bottom two bunks were pushed together to make a king size bed (but could also be separated into two twins), which was nice. The room had good closet space and a safe. The only negatives were it was hard to walk around the bed with the upper berths down and the room had only one electrical outlet.

 

The ship really didn’t feel crowded at all and didn’t seem like the wild party ship that Carnival a reputation for. We never had a problem finding space around the pool or a seat for a show. The only crowded spaces were the photo gallery, outside buffet, and late-night comedy act. The only thing I would say was better on the Ecstasy than any other ship was the production shows. We really enjoyed the Motown Classics and The Brits (however, my daughter was disappointed they did not include any One Direction songs, LOL). We also enjoyed Hasbro the game show, where I was a contestant. Didn’t win the big money, but did win a Hasbro card game. I also won some cheap gifts for the best male Whitney Huston impersonation and came in second place in the beanbag contest. The gym was typical for a cruise ship and I did miss the spa pools that NCL has, but Serenity did offer an ok place to escape the kids and sit in a hot tub and relax. We are not big into bars and lounges, but we did like The Neon Piano Bar. We also found that sitting in the library was a good place to play cards and still hear the liver guitar or piano player in the background. The kids also missed that the ship did not have the big wall screens for movies or video games that NCL has.

 

I will share more about food later.

[Kuffam]

I really don't have much to say about the food except that is was OK. I had one meal in the main dinning room that was bad and one that was good. We mostly ate at the buffet for breakfast and lunch. I like that the salad bar and sweets were set away from the main serving stations, but felt the main serving stations did not offer much variety. The line for grill items by the pool was often very long, as well as the pizza and deli section. I did not find the drink stations very busy and was happy to see lemonade and ice tea offered (I made a lot of arnold palmers or just added a little lemonade to my water). The coffee was horrible and my wife and daughter said the coffee at the bar was not any better. We had anytime dinning at Wind Song and never had trouble getting a table for four. I tried to be a little adventurous at meals and order things that I usually don't eat like fish and veal. My daughter was more adventurous and ordered more vegan meals, like tofu steaks. She mostly didn't like them and felt what she made at home was better (my wife also tried some of her dishes and agreed). I would have to agree with another reviewer, the melted chocolate cake was the best dessert I had the whole cruise. My wife states the key lime pie (on the night before Key West) was her best dessert.

 

Next stop Key West and Cozumel.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[ibcnusoon]

great intro! Thanks for posting, I'll be following along!

[lovermonkey]

Sorry you had so much troubles. I too am from the Chicago area. Been to Lincoln park and Brookfield many times.

I have been looking for reviews since we are going in Nov. Try to see what others have done, and if they have done something they don't like, I try to avoid it.

Anyway, thanks again for the review. It really helps.

 

If you have any photos, please post them.

Edited June 10, 2014 by lovermonkey

[Cruise-Crazy]

Ecstasy is a nice ship, been on there twice so far this year. Number three coming up soon :D

[Cruise-Crazy]

Looking forward to the rest of the review...