Ecstasy = Chocolate Melting Cake! My week-in-review...

[Chat Noir]

Carnival Ecstasy December 13 – 18

I’ll begin with the fact that I’m no Carnival Cheerleader and don’t cruise Carnival unless it’s a bargain ($pirit in Ala$ka has everything to do with that but it’s a whole ‘nuther story)… and this was a good trip! We (DH and I) booked post-final payment; Galveston is our nearest port and the flight is short. Maybe our happiness with a cruise is directly proportional with the dent, or lack thereof, it puts in our kid’s inheritance. :)

Ecstasy is a lovely ship for her age, my opinion. Better than me at my age! The atrium is eye-catching without being pretentious, and the holiday decorations were tasteful. I like the size and the layout of the ship.

I didn’t find fellow passengers to be slobs or snobs. Just average folks like I see in my hometown. Dinner mates were enjoyable and we all found something in common to talk about. No one at our table showed up in tees (torn or otherwise), barefoot, or wearing ball caps, neither did they show up in sequins and taffeta, dripping (real or imaginary) diamonds. No one even had glittery eyeshadow…

Food was good, not great, but good, though the Chocolate Melting Cake is to die for (literally). I looked up the recipe online, yum, yum, but at a million grams of fat :mad: per serving decided I’d best not make it at home unless I’m ready to start shoveling a scoop of dirt for every spoonful I shovel in my mouth! On the Spirit we had Pistachio Cake once…delicious, too, and a recipe I’ve not found to duplicate since. Otherwise, food is good, and we didn’t leave dinner hungry! Waiters were just that, waiters… not as entertaining as we’ve had on some sailings, but certainly did their job, and were pleasant. We usually had burgers and fries for lunch.

Shows were good, Extreme (X-treme?) Country is my favorite. I don’t care for fluff and stuff so maybe that’s why I prefer it to the ‘feathers and boa’ kind of shows. Something about dyed feathers sticking straight up 6’ on a glitzy bathing cap freaks me out a bit.

The Ecstasy CD is fabulous!!! I can’t recall the first thing about previous CD’s we’ve sailed with. Steve Cassel is one I will remember. Very, very talented and very, very entertaining! I love you Steve… and you don’t even know I exist… boohoo. (Yes, that’s a joke, but seriously, he is a great CD!)

We had a Riveria cabin (cheap seats!) and our steward, Indro, was wonderful… friendly to us and attentive to our cabin. The cabin had a fresh odor when we first entered. I’m sure it’s been occupied by smokers in the past, however, my super-sensitive-smoke-seeking nose couldn’t tell it for a fact.

Speaking of smoking, the only places I had difficulty with smoke odors were upon entering the Windstar Dining room (a bar is just outside) and the Starlight (same reason). In fact, we skipped the late-night comedy shows and other activities in the Starlight for this reason. Once in the dining room, the odor diminished greatly. Guess that’d be my main complaint, but we didn’t lack for entertainment, regardless.

Cozumel – we rented a car (Avis) and enjoyed driving the island loop. One beach in particular I could’ve spent all day looking at the shells. It is on my list to repeat! However, we’ll reserve the car in advance to save money, time, and hassle. We went for a quick dip on the east-side… something I’ll never repeat. Waves were stronger than on the west side of the island, and I ended up with nothing but a swimsuit bottom full of sand (don’t EVEN ask :eek:)! I prefer to remember it as my own personal salt-and-sand skin polishing scrub… organic, even!

Progreso – booked a narrated tour with AutoProgreso (?) of Dzibilchatun. I expected the narration to be similar to my first Dzibilchatun visit and it paled in comparison. Our first visit we used a taxi for transfer, then hired a narrator at the ruins. He was excellent (Jose’, Hosea) if I recall correctly, and he described what we were seeing at the actual ruins. The AutoProgreso narrator was way too heavy on narration at the museum and replica of the Mayan housing followed by virtually none at the ruins themselves. My opinion only, but I highly recommend forgoing narration except what’s offered for purchase on-site.

Disembarkation day. Interesting… We awoke to a stationary ship… surrounded by thick fog. Pea soup, anyone? Around breakfast-time an announcement was made regarding the fog and our inability to sail into port. We were scheduled to begin disembarkation around 8am. By noon, we hadn’t moved an inch, so the announcement was made for us to enjoy the lunch prepared for the December 18th embarkees. (Well, not exactly those words.) Playing cards were made available to pass the time as shops, the casino, etc were all closed up. About 2pm our plane departed from Houston to Tulsa without us… we were still hanging out on the ship enjoying a little ice-cream with our fog. We finally began moving around 3pm (foghorns a-tootin') and disembarked just after 6pm - to a closed car-rental office and no hotel reservation. We were extremely thankful for a taxi and a Motel 6 that night!!! Continental rebooked our flight late the following evening so DH and I enjoyed lunch and a movie in Houston before heading to the airport. We now refer to it as our ‘extended vacation’.

Seriously, I do hate that the cruisers following us had their cruise shortened and that we were forced to eat their lunch. Throughout the day many of us remarked to one another that it really must be difficult sitting at the terminal without the ship even in sight not knowing when it would dock. I hope your cruise was great once finally embarked, and that Carnival treated you well. :)

[Ms. Fun Bunch]

Very nice review. I really enjoyed it!!

[hockeyluver]

Thanks for the review, how sad is it that I have read up on all the Legend info I can find ( even looking at our pictures and video from our first cruise) that I am searching out and reading others reviews :rolleyes:

[jimgev]

Thanks for the review. We are considering taking this cruise in the future.

[faith31617]

Thank you for such a positive review. I was on the ship right before you and our cruise was good as well, with the exception of some ups and downs...literally. We fought the winds and waves all the way down to Progreso and had calm seas to Cozumel and by the time we arrived in Cozumel the wind was very high and all water excursions were cancelled, so we walked around the shops at the pier. We fought those winds and waves all the way and were delayed on our arrival to Galveston by almost 2 hours due to lost time. The captain said the winds were 65 to 70 mph and the waves up to 12 foot.....and it was believe me.

In Progreso we did Discover the Yucatan and Mayan World.....I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to experience a little bit of everything, I wrote a review under the thread for that port of call. The Carnival description didn't list everything we got to do and see.

I was seasick the first couple of days and used a patch after we got to Progreso and was fine from then on.

I was wondering if there were any rumors or anything about our cruise.....I have heard that ya'll were delayed boarding by a couple of hours because they had to disinfect the ship due to so many people being sick on our cruise. When we got home late Saturday evening and went to bed, my DH and DS woke up within a couple of minutes of each sicker than you can imagine. We had eaten at a restaraunt that we really like on the way home and I was afraid they had food poisoning from there, but then read a complaint about people getting sick on our cruise and yours....so now I am not sure. I was prepared never to eat at the restaraunt again but after reading the article I am rethinking.....I know the people in the cabin next to ours were so ill the last day that they weren't even able to pack their bags and the woman's family was in the hall Saturday morning discussing how they were going to get them off the ship and they were all thinking it was seasickness......not sure now. You can read the article be sure to scroll down to the one that starts out Lindsay of Denton TX (12/21/08)

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/carnival_cruise_lines.htm

[Chat Noir]

Thank you for such a positive review. I was on the ship right before you and our cruise was good as well, with the exception of some ups and downs...literally. We fought the winds and waves all the way down to Progreso and had calm seas to Cozumel and by the time we arrived in Cozumel the wind was very high and all water excursions were cancelled, so we walked around the shops at the pier. We fought those winds and waves all the way and were delayed on our arrival to Galveston by almost 2 hours due to lost time. The captain said the winds were 65 to 70 mph and the waves up to 12 foot.....and it was believe me.

 

In Progreso we did Discover the Yucatan and Mayan World.....I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to experience a little bit of everything, I wrote a review under the thread for that port of call. The Carnival description didn't list everything we got to do and see.

 

I was seasick the first couple of days and used a patch after we got to Progreso and was fine from then on.

 

I was wondering if there were any rumors or anything about our cruise.....I have heard that ya'll were delayed boarding by a couple of hours because they had to disinfect the ship due to so many people being sick on our cruise. When we got home late Saturday evening and went to bed, my DH and DS woke up within a couple of minutes of each sicker than you can imagine. We had eaten at a restaraunt that we really like on the way home and I was afraid they had food poisoning from there, but then read a complaint about people getting sick on our cruise and yours....so now I am not sure. I was prepared never to eat at the restaraunt again but after reading the article I am rethinking.....I know the people in the cabin next to ours were so ill the last day that they weren't even able to pack their bags and the woman's family was in the hall Saturday morning discussing how they were going to get them off the ship and they were all thinking it was seasickness......not sure now. You can read the article be sure to scroll down to the one that starts out Lindsay of Denton TX (12/21/08)

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/carnival_cruise_lines.htm

 

Not a rumor, is true. Each family received a newsletter signed by the captain, attributing the slight delay in boarding to an increased incidence of gastrointestinal disturbances being reported to the medical clinic. We were told our cruise also had an increase. One of our table mates became ill enough to seek medical attention. We didn't see her again, but luckily it was the last day and she lives close enough to the port that they used their personal transportation.

 

Otherwise, glad some of ya'll enjoyed my review... I wrote it mainly because I'm a bit whiney since the cruise is over, Christmas is over, I go back to work tomorrow, and I just wanted to re-live it, even if only in words. :)

[Wardenru]

Sym, thank you for the review. The "fog" reminds me of my last cruise last December on the Conquest. It delayed us overnight in the port of Galveston and we missed our Jamacia port of call. It was quite an experience let me tell you. Glad you enjoyed yourself though...

[happy cruzer]

I think the illness in Noro Virus. DH and I were on the Dec 8 sailing of the Ecstacy. He was sick the last full day of the cruise and stayed in the cabin until disembarcation. I got it the night we got home. There were many passengers visiting the Doctor on our cruise too.

 

Dallas is having alot of cases right now.

 

I think it may be an area problem and it will probably be a problem for everyone in the Texas area for a few months. If you do some research you will see that many hospitals, schools, etc. have the problem too not just cruises.

 

Wash your hands before eating. The way you catch it is to touch something that has the virus on it and then put the virus in your mouth. Also hand washing will keep infected people from spreading the viurs. Put to protect your self you must not ingest the virus. DH is pretty sure he got it from eating his bread from the bread plate at dinner with his hands. He is not practising eating everything with a knife and fork.

 

Our cruise was Great even with the bad memory of getting sick at the end.

 

Cheers.

[orthotist]

I- like you, also fell in love with the chocolate melting cake and would love the receipt---if you would be so kind as to forward it to bstewart@hanger.com I would be so appreciative. thanks so much

[seahorsecruising]

I appreciate the review on the Ecstasy! My wife and I took out daughter and 2 grandkids on the Conquest over Thanksgiving, and had a blast. A situation came up where we are going to babysit the 2 girls (age 10 and 7) the first week of February, so the oldest said "Papa, can we cruise again if we bring our homework?" Had to say yes, so now the 4 of us are on the 2nd of February cruise and REALLY looking forward to it.

[sube]

Carnival Ecstasy December 13 – 18

Food was good, not great, but good, though the Chocolate Melting Cake is to die for (literally). I looked up the recipe online, yum, yum, but at a million grams of fat :mad: per serving decided I’d best not make it at home unless I’m ready to start shoveling a scoop of dirt for every spoonful I shovel in my mouth!

 

If you have a store called Trader Joe's near you, they have something in their frozen food case called Lava Cake that is VERY similar to the Chocolate Melting Cake. Someone told me about it and I was able to find it and made if for dessert last night with a scoop of ice cream. YUM! The cake on the ship is the best, but this is a nice substitute.

[cks]

Great review, Sym, thanks. We're sailing on her in May and I can't wait of course. I'm also cursed with getting to see her leave and come into port every time. So, I remember not being able to see my hand in front of my face the day you guys were late getting in, and worrying about the poor people waiting to board. Hopefully they had a good cruise as well.

[sunnylasvegas]

nice review, SYM. Your fog story reminded me of our cruise on the Elation last fall. We were leaving Ensenada at about 5pm and the fog was so thick, the ship had to sound the fog-horn for about 30 minutes while leaving the port. It was loud!!

 

Can I add one more fog-story? A couple of years ago BF and I were flying to California from Fl--layover in Atlanta. Atlanta was having horrible fog. As we approached Atlanta, there was an awful THUD sound on the plane. People even screamed! I looked out to 100% fog and then said, "Oh, my god, we just landed! That was the thud we heard. It was so foggy we didn't even know we were landing. The Captain stood at the front entrance as we got off. Just about everyone said, "Thanks, GOOD landing!!"

[Casino Player]

Carnival Ecstasy December 13 – 18

 

I’ll begin with the fact that I’m no Carnival Cheerleader and don’t cruise Carnival unless it’s a bargain ($pirit in Ala$ka has everything to do with that but it’s a whole ‘nuther story)… and this was a good trip! We (DH and I) booked post-final payment; Galveston is our nearest port and the flight is short. Maybe our happiness with a cruise is directly proportional with the dent, or lack thereof, it puts in our kid’s inheritance. :)

 

Ecstasy is a lovely ship for her age, my opinion. Better than me at my age! The atrium is eye-catching without being pretentious, and the holiday decorations were tasteful. I like the size and the layout of the ship.

 

I didn’t find fellow passengers to be slobs or snobs. Just average folks like I see in my hometown. Dinner mates were enjoyable and we all found something in common to talk about. No one at our table showed up in tees (torn or otherwise), barefoot, or wearing ball caps, neither did they show up in sequins and taffeta, dripping (real or imaginary) diamonds. No one even had glittery eyeshadow…

 

Food was good, not great, but good, though the Chocolate Melting Cake is to die for (literally). I looked up the recipe online, yum, yum, but at a million grams of fat :mad: per serving decided I’d best not make it at home unless I’m ready to start shoveling a scoop of dirt for every spoonful I shovel in my mouth! On the Spirit we had Pistachio Cake once…delicious, too, and a recipe I’ve not found to duplicate since. Otherwise, food is good, and we didn’t leave dinner hungry! Waiters were just that, waiters… not as entertaining as we’ve had on some sailings, but certainly did their job, and were pleasant. We usually had burgers and fries for lunch.

 

Shows were good, Extreme (X-treme?) Country is my favorite. I don’t care for fluff and stuff so maybe that’s why I prefer it to the ‘feathers and boa’ kind of shows. Something about dyed feathers sticking straight up 6’ on a glitzy bathing cap freaks me out a bit.

 

The Ecstasy CD is fabulous!!! I can’t recall the first thing about previous CD’s we’ve sailed with. Steve Cassel is one I will remember. Very, very talented and very, very entertaining! I love you Steve… and you don’t even know I exist… boohoo. (Yes, that’s a joke, but seriously, he is a great CD!)

 

We had a Riveria cabin (cheap seats!) and our steward, Indro, was wonderful… friendly to us and attentive to our cabin. The cabin had a fresh odor when we first entered. I’m sure it’s been occupied by smokers in the past, however, my super-sensitive-smoke-seeking nose couldn’t tell it for a fact.

 

Speaking of smoking, the only places I had difficulty with smoke odors were upon entering the Windstar Dining room (a bar is just outside) and the Starlight (same reason). In fact, we skipped the late-night comedy shows and other activities in the Starlight for this reason. Once in the dining room, the odor diminished greatly. Guess that’d be my main complaint, but we didn’t lack for entertainment, regardless.

 

Cozumel – we rented a car (Avis) and enjoyed driving the island loop. One beach in particular I could’ve spent all day looking at the shells. It is on my list to repeat! However, we’ll reserve the car in advance to save money, time, and hassle. We went for a quick dip on the east-side… something I’ll never repeat. Waves were stronger than on the west side of the island, and I ended up with nothing but a swimsuit bottom full of sand (don’t EVEN ask :eek:)! I prefer to remember it as my own personal salt-and-sand skin polishing scrub… organic, even!

 

Progreso – booked a narrated tour with AutoProgreso (?) of Dzibilchatun. I expected the narration to be similar to my first Dzibilchatun visit and it paled in comparison. Our first visit we used a taxi for transfer, then hired a narrator at the ruins. He was excellent (Jose’, Hosea) if I recall correctly, and he described what we were seeing at the actual ruins. The AutoProgreso narrator was way too heavy on narration at the museum and replica of the Mayan housing followed by virtually none at the ruins themselves. My opinion only, but I highly recommend forgoing narration except what’s offered for purchase on-site.

 

Disembarkation day. Interesting… We awoke to a stationary ship… surrounded by thick fog. Pea soup, anyone? Around breakfast-time an announcement was made regarding the fog and our inability to sail into port. We were scheduled to begin disembarkation around 8am. By noon, we hadn’t moved an inch, so the announcement was made for us to enjoy the lunch prepared for the December 18th embarkees. (Well, not exactly those words.) Playing cards were made available to pass the time as shops, the casino, etc were all closed up. About 2pm our plane departed from Houston to Tulsa without us… we were still hanging out on the ship enjoying a little ice-cream with our fog. We finally began moving around 3pm (foghorns a-tootin') and disembarked just after 6pm - to a closed car-rental office and no hotel reservation. We were extremely thankful for a taxi and a Motel 6 that night!!! Continental rebooked our flight late the following evening so DH and I enjoyed lunch and a movie in Houston before heading to the airport. We now refer to it as our ‘extended vacation’.

 

Seriously, I do hate that the cruisers following us had their cruise shortened and that we were forced to eat their lunch. Throughout the day many of us remarked to one another that it really must be difficult sitting at the terminal without the ship even in sight not knowing when it would dock. I hope your cruise was great once finally embarked, and that Carnival treated you well. :)

 

Carnival is a really good cruise line and I enjoy my cruise experience with Carnival. My last cruise, the Miracle, wasn't like a typical Carnival cruise, but it was better than some other lines I was on. On that cruise I had the chocolate melting cake. It was pretty good. My wife is looking forward to having it on our next Carnival cruise this year.

[mcsd63]

FWIW you can buy cookbooks while on the cruise just ask your waiter. The Pistacio Cake recipe might be in one of them.

[Chat Noir]

Thank you all for replies... and for the other interesting 'fog' stories. I can imagine what life would be like inside a giant cotton ball, and I am absolutely certain I'd rather be on a stationary ship than landing on a runway!!!

 

Pistachio cake wasn't in the onboard book :( I looked at, and wow, I'm too lazy to make most of the recipes in the book. The towel folding book is more my speed. :)

 

Here's a copy of the Carnival Warm Chocolate Melting Cake recipe I found online at HungrySisters... but I'll email it too. Yum, yum!

 

Anonymous said... Here you go -- direct from the kitchen onboard the Carnival Destiny (just got home last night - Nov 1, 2008)

 

WARM CHOCOLATE MELTING CAKE

 

8 ounces semisweet chocolate

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

7 eggs, divided use

6 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup flour

Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt chocolate and butter; cool 10 minutes.

 

In separate bowl, mix 4 eggs with sugar. Whisk. Add flour and whisk. Add remaining 3 eggs. Add egg mixture to chocolate mixture. Pour in individual baking cups or ramekins.

 

Bake until just done, about 15-20 minutes (interior will be melting, not set).

 

Serve with vanilla ice cream.

 

Makes 8 servings. Approximate nutritional values per serving: 460 calories (64.7 percent calories from fat), 8 g protein, 35 g carbohydrate, 27 g sugar, 2 g dietary fiber, 35 g fat, 250 mg cholesterol, 60 mg sodium.