Ecstasy-11 Dec Review

[noelm]

Overall, this was a fantastic getaway...our family of 6 thoroughly enjoyed it! We really lucked out with the weather, as we had just a few sprinkles on sea days with both days in Mexico being sunny and warm. "brianinidaho" posted a thorough review so I'll just hit some hightlights...

 

Ship:

 

I found Ecstasy to be very clean and not to "overdone" as you see with some of the newer ships...ie, Miracle dining room! We had rooms 134/138 on the Main deck... I had read a negative review of these rooms earlier, but after I had booked, regarding "engine noise" - the review was accurate! Very loud hum/whine as a result of the stabilizers. DO NOT BOOK these rooms. Very annoying...although it certainly didn't dampen our overall experience.

 

Food:

 

Dining room food was outstanding. "Teriaki Short Ribs" on day 4 are a MUST! Our servers, "Enrico and Marvi" were the best we've had in 6 cruises - really made dining a great experience! Lido deck food, including buffets, was not great, but good enough.

 

Ports:

 

Progreso - our ages ranged from 60 to 4, so we decided to just shop at the market at the end of the pier and then head to the beach. This is the SAME beach as the "Corona Beach Break" excursion that Carnival sells for $35 p/p...DON'T BUY THIS AS AN EXCURSION. Carnival throws in drinks, but you can buy beer for a buck on your own - it's the same beach! It's not the best beach anyway as Progreso sits on the gulf. But, we still enjoyed just relaxing and the kids had fun.

 

Cozumel - we hit our normal spot, "Mr. Sancho's Beach". It's further down from Paradise beach but we really love it. $30 for taxi each way from the pier.

 

Debarkation - sucked! Not very well organized. We were "self assist" and by 9:15 our deck still hadn't been called. We got in line anyway (they didn't check our deck tags) and got off the ship pretty quickly, only to find a huge line in the terminal building to clear customs. Hint, in the customs building, if you use a porter with luggage cart - the line is half as long!!!! My mother-in-law had a 12:45 flight out of Houston-Bush - we got there at 12:15 - she barely made it!!

 

Like I said in the beginning, all-in-all a great vaction for the price. We're already planning cruise #7!!