Jump to content

Carnival Imagination! 9/27/10! Short cruise, LONG review with lots of pictures!


gapearl
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hi everyone! This will be my first time posting a play by play review like this. I just returned from an awesome 4 day cruise on the Imagination yesterday. I will try to be as thorough as I can. If I don’t cover anything, please ask. BTW, My review will be in pink in honor of breast cancer awareness month. Ok, here we go.

 

Background

This is my fourth cruise, all on Carnival, and my mom’s first time on Carnival but her second cruise (first one was on Disney about 9 years ago). I’m a single 30 year old flight attendant and she’s a retired school teacher that busies herself with church work. I began working on a family cruise for everyone that could come earlier this year. Lots of extended family was initially interested. Gradually people that said they were in started backing out. Then out of nowhere we had a death in the family in June followed by another one 6 weeks later. I suggested that we wait until later this year to take a cruise, but she seemed so disappointed when I said that. She was really looking forward to taking a cruise, so I got on carnival.com and found a nice 4 day itinerary to Key West & Cozumel at a very reasonable price. I booked it about a month in advance and she paid for it. Who would turn down a free cruise?

 

Pre-cruise time in Miami

We flew into Miami on Saturday night. I booked us at the airport Comfort Inn for at a discounted airline employee rate of $57 a night. The room was very basic with 2 double beds. This seems to be an older hotel. I’ve stayed at nicer Comfort Inns elsewhere, but we didn’t need anything fancy.

 

cruise115.jpg

 

cruise116.jpg

 

On Sunday, we took the hotel shuttle back to the airport to pick up our rental car for the day. My mom has never been to Miami and I wanted to get her out and show her the city. I booked directly through Alamo.com for an economy car for $16 with a gps for $12. The total reservation came to about $40 with taxes. Much to my luck, Alamo was completely out of compact, economy, midsize, basically all of the smaller cars. I got upgraded to a Jeep Liberty! Woo-hoo!

 

We found what looked to be an interesting place in a brochure called Jungle Island. It sure didn’t disappoint! It’s only a few miles from the airport area, and literally across the street from the port of Miami. We spotted the Carnival Valor and Liberty of the Seas in port. Beautiful ships! In 24 hours I’ll be on one of those beauties!

 

cruise008.jpg

 

It was $8 to park at Jungle Island. Admission for the two of us was $61 after a small discount with a coupon. Jungle island is a decent size animal park, much smaller than a zoo. They have some pretty good exhibits- flamingo, alligators, all kinds of birds, bamboons, tortoises, kangaroos, etc. The tiger exhibit was temporarily shut down so we didn’t see them, but they did bring them out for one of the stage shows. I got the inside scoop from an employee that they’re renovating the tiger area because one escaped during business hours a few weeks back. He said he and other employees and guests in the area took refuge in the close by petting zoo area. I bet that smell was lovely.

 

cruise013.jpg

 

cruise023.jpg

 

cruise059.jpg

 

Next we grabbed something to eat, stopped by the store to pick up some bottled water, and headed back to the hotel. Time to get ready for the cruise!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 1

 

We left the hotel around 10:15 am to take the rental car back to the airport. Alamo has a free shuttle for customers to the cruise port. (Note: They don't check for an Alamo receipt prior to boarding. I don't think everyone on the shuttle had rented a car, and I know for a fact everyone didn't have a rental car when we took the shuttle back at the end.) We boarded the big blue bus but had to wait for more people to fill it up, which took about 10 minutes. The drive to the port was short, about 15 minutes. The first stop of the bus was the Norwegian Sky. Beautiful ship! Next was my stop, the Imagination, and there was a Royal Caribbean ship behind us. We were inside the terminal at about 11:35.

 

(picture taken from the shuttle)

cruise123.jpg

 

Both my mom and I each had 1 suitcase to check. A porter approached us immediately to take our bags. I tipped him $5 and off he went. Once inside the building, we went immediately through security. There was only about 20 people in line in front of us. I’ve been a flight attendant for almost 5 years and have gotten spoiled by getting to cut to the front of the TSA lines at the airports. I can’t do that here! Each us us had a 6 pack of water. I also smuggled some Bailey’s Irish Crème in a Nesquick chocolate milk container and had 2 bottles of wine. They asked to see it, but I barely took one out of the bag and they said I was ok to go on through.

 

I did see the self check in kiosks. I opted not to use those since it was my mom’s first Carnival cruise and she was putting down a cash deposit. We stood in the check in line for about 35 minutes. There was only 4 check in desks available at the time which is why it took so long. We got our sail & sign cards and then had to go to another line so she could give her cash. Being that there was a line specifically for cash deposits, you would think they would have some change, but they didn’t. My mom spends very little money and only wanted to put down the $40 to take care of the gratuities and took out a $100 bill. The lady said she would have to get change and it would be a few minutes, so my mom went back into her wallet and found two $20 bills. After that, we went straight to the embarkation photo station for a picture and we were on!

 

It was about 12:45 when we finally made it on the ship and up to the lido deck for lunch. We chatted with some people in the elevator and ended up sharing a table with them. Mom had a slice of pizza and a hot dog. I told her she has to try something a little more interesting! I went to the Mongolian Grill for some chicken & veggies in the Thai bbq sauce, some rosemary potatoes from the Italian station, a salad, and a very rich slice of chocolate cake. Yummy. No lines were long at all.

 

After lunch, we came to the room to drop off our carry ons and then walked around the ship to take some pictures and get acquainted with where everything was. We came back to the room again around 3ish and stayed until the muster drill, which was at 3:45. Both of our suitcases arrived while we were in the room. The muster drill was very quick, now it’s time to start my cruise!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our room was very comfortable. We were in an interior 4A or 4C, don't remember which. We were in a perfect location. Our room was on the empress deck (7th floor) towards the aft. The empress deck is where you will find guest services, the shore excursions desk, internet cafe, and a bar. It's also the floor for embarkation and debarkation. We were right by the elevators and stairs. The stairs by our room led directly to the Spirit dining room on the 8th floor, where we had dinner every night. Also those back elevators led right to the lido deck buffet on the 10th floor, as well as all the night life on the 9th floor (casino, Illusion's Disco, Xanadu Lounge).

 

 

Our cabin steward was Julius from the Philippines. He was such a nice guy! Every time I saw him he made conversation and was so pleasant. He was great about providing us with anything we needed. Here are some pictures of the room.

 

cruise2160.jpg

 

cruise125.jpg

 

cruise127.jpg

 

cruise479.jpg

 

cruise128.jpg

 

cruise131.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the feedback so far. Queen Mimi, keep reading. I have tons of pictures and videos to share.

 

I was looking forward to meeting some of the people from my roll call. We agreed to wear Mardi Gras beads so we could spot each other and meet by the lido deck bar. I met cozumel bound, indyrobb, and tyler 6597 and his wife. We had a drink and had a great time chatting and getting to know each other.

 

cruise187.jpg

 

Next order of business: unpacking. I took all of my clothes that needed ironing to the laundry room so I only had to visit there once. There was 2 ironing boards and irons. Both were occupied but I only waited about 5 minutes for one.

 

We had late seating in the Spirit dining room. Our table mates were wonderful. There was two friends around my age who were coworkers from Wichita, a couple about 50ish, and a lady about 40ish traveling solo. We all had great conversation. I ordered the iceberg salad for an appetizer, chicken a la greque (or something like that), and the warm chocolate melting cake with 2 ice creams. Mom had the fruit cocktail, the pork chops, and cheesecake. Everyone else ordered the steak. The fruit cocktail was TINY! Two grapes and 4 cubes of watermelon is just a tease to the stomach. Where's the rest?

 

cruise227.jpg

 

Tonight’s dinner entertainment was our dinner servers dancing to “Low.” I love to get up there with them and participate. As amusing as this is, I wish they would change this up a little. This was my third cruise in the last 12 months and I’ve seen it every time. I would love for them to change the music and have the servers dance to maybe Michael Jackson or Lady GaGa.

 

cruise235.jpg

 

cruise239.jpg

 

cruise240.jpg

 

After dinner, I popped my head in karaoke and the comedy show for a few minutes each. Then I headed to the Illusions Disco where I danced until 2:30 am. I didn't get to bed until 3 and we were to dock in Key West at 7:30. Not much sleep that night!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alamo has a free shuttle for customers to the cruise port.

 

Excellent news! We got Alamo through the name your own price site for our Imagination cruise in 43 days! :D

 

Very much looking forward to the rest of your review!

Edited by gargoyle999
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 2

I made an effort to sleep in today. My mom was up, showered, and had breakfast, and I was still sleep. I managed to be ready to head off the ship by 8:30. We were parked behind a Royal Caribbean ship and didn’t have access to the port where you exit the ship and are immediately in the tourist area. There was a free trolley operating to take people into the city, which took about 10 minutes. It was a very pleasant day, not too hot at all. It was a little cloudy and looked like rain. We took the City View trolley tour for $19. You can hop on and off at different points of interest at your leisure and they run every 30 minutes. We didn’t get off at any of the stops, but rather just enjoyed the ride and our tour guide. The tour lasted 1 hour. Afterwards, we walked around and picked up a few souvenirs. There are a lot of stores where everything is $5, and they have some nice merchandise in them.

 

cruise337.jpg

 

cruise261.jpg

 

cruise263.jpg

 

cruise299.jpg

 

cruise391.jpg

 

cruise392.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Once back on the ship, we went straight to the lido deck for lunch. It was about 12 noon and there was very few people on board. Today’s theme in the lido buffet was Jamaican food. The jerk chicken was great! My mom went to the room to take a nap and I went straight to the pool. Since there was so few people on the ship at the time, I was able to get rock star parking on a chair right by the pool, hot tub, and stage. We left right on time at 2 pm and there was another awesome lido deck sail away party. Funship Freddy came out for the sail away party and then took pictures with passengers. The cruise director, Tory, was awesome! I think she is my favorite CD to date. I love her fun personality and energy and how she really encouraged a party atmosphere. Right after that was the hairy chest contest, and it was funny as always.

 

cruise389.jpg

 

I migrated between the pool and the Jacuzzi. The sun gradually started to disappear, and all of a sudden a downpour came. The pool cleared out fast!

 

cruise401.jpg

 

I then went in search of the serenity area since I knew there was covered chairs and hot tubs there. As soon as I got to it, about 5 minutes after the rain started, it was gone. There was plenty of chairs available but the hot tubs looked over capacity. No thank you. I went back to the lido pool. Lots of people came back out when the rain went away, but it still was not as crowded as it had been earlier. I was planning to exercise today, but just was not feeling it. I did go sit in the ladies’ dry sauna for about 15 minutes, and then went to my room for a shower and a nap before dinner.

 

Tonight was the elegant evening. There was the introduction of the captain and the ship's officers at 8 pm.

 

cruise427.jpg

 

Our dinner table tonight was packed. The lady traveling solo brought a new friend to join our table. Also, we had a couple from NJ who didn’t come to dinner on night 1 to join us. Both of them were celebrating their birthdays. They were born the same day of the same year. How funny! I ordered the farfalle with turkey for my starter. This is also available in a dinner size portion with vegetables. For my entrée, I had the roasted Cornish hen with mashed potatoes and vegetables. For dessert, I had the warm chocolate melting cake again with 2 ice creams. Our dining room staff sang "Thats Amore" for our entertainment.

 

cruise437.jpg

 

 

I love the towel animal Julius left for us .

 

cruise452.jpg

 

After dinner, I went to the adult comedy show with some of my dinner mates. My mom made her way to the casino where she won $300. If she had put in 3 quarters instead of 2, she would have won $600. I spent a few minutes in the casino with her. I put a dollar in one of the quarter machines and won $31, so I quit while I was ahead!

 

After the comedy show, everyone left straight out of the Xanadu Lounge 50 feet away to the Illusions Disco. It was packed! I think everyone on the ship between the ages of 20-40 was in there.

 

cruise468.jpg

 

I saw my roll call friends cozumel bound (Glenna) and indy robb (Rob). One of my favorite songs of the moment came on, which is OMG by Usher. I insisted that Rob come out to the dance floor with me. He did, and I taught him how to shake his booty. That was the only song he gave me. No worries though, because there was a lot of other guys I got to dance with. I danced in the disco until they closed it down at 3:30 am. The DJ played good music all night to keep the crowd going, a mix of top 40, pop, hip hop and r & b. He would also throw in there the occasional cupid shuffle and a new dance called "the wobble." The wobble was also done at all of the deck parties. I had never heard of it but I stumbled on a link today with Beyonce doing it.

 

If you can do the electric slide and the cupid shuffle, you can do this dance too. I learned it just by sitting back and watching it for a few minutes. If you will be sailing in the next week or 2, learn this dance! My night still wasn't over though. I went to the 24 hour pizzeria in the back of the lido deck dining room with some new friends for some conversation. It was well after 4 am when I went to sleep. Note: My bed times will continue to get later and later over the next 2 days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good morning everyone. Back to the review. Here are some pictures of the ship.

 

Tha adult only serenity area. There was 2 hot tubs out here. Not once did I see kids try to sneak in.

 

cruise160.jpg

 

cruise409.jpg

 

cruise407.jpg

 

cruise194.jpg

 

Lobby area.

 

cruise188.jpg

 

cruise192.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank so much for the review. You just brought back memories of the cruise my wife and I took last year on the Elation, the ships look almost exactly alike, and your cabin looked identical to the cabin we stayed in. Great to see all of your pictures so far, glad you had a great time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank so much for the review. You just brought back memories of the cruise my wife and I took last year on the Elation, the ships look almost exactly alike, and your cabin looked identical to the cabin we stayed in. Great to see all of your pictures so far, glad you had a great time.

 

Thanks! The ships do look a lot alike. I was on the Fantasy last year and got lost a lot. I never got lost on this cruise because I finally had the layout figured out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really enjoying your great review!

 

I will do this same itinerary on Destiny at Halloween and then the 3 night

again on Imagination in Dec

 

Imagination looks to be in great shape, such a pretty ship

 

was yours one of the first cruises after she came out of drydock?

 

was she as "good" as she looks ?? ie, elevators working, nice carpets

nothing "broken" ??

 

And bands..how were the bands on board?? did they have a cover band?

Island band (or duo?) were they good?

 

Comedy club ?? thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really enjoying your great review!

 

I will do this same itinerary on Destiny at Halloween and then the 3 night

again on Imagination in Dec

 

Imagination looks to be in great shape, such a pretty ship

 

was yours one of the first cruises after she came out of drydock?

 

was she as "good" as she looks ?? ie, elevators working, nice carpets

nothing "broken" ??

 

And bands..how were the bands on board?? did they have a cover band?

Island band (or duo?) were they good?

 

Comedy club ?? thanks

 

Thanks a lot for the feedback! I think my cruise was the 3rd one after the dry dock. I didn't notice anything in poor shape or broken. My only complaint would be there was a sewage smell in the bathroom the whole cruise. I've read reviews on the Dream where people said there was a bad smell that lingered throughout the cruise, and I noticed that here too, but only in my bathroom. It was present from the minute we walked into the room and was there even after it was cleaned. It was not unbearable, just a little unpleasant.

 

Lots of people loved the Latin band. If I had a salsa dance partner, I would have spent more time in there. From what I did hear, the music was great and everyone in there appeared to be having a good time dancing. The calypso duo was ok. Not bad, but not great. The synthesizer and keyboard really overpowered their vocals. Also not all of the music they performed was island music, and their island music didn't always sound very "islandy", for lack of a better word. I've heard better. I do have a video of them, about a minute, that I will post later.

 

The first comedian on nights 1 and 2 was not very funny to me. The first show he did was a family show. People were heckling him in the audience and he had to try very hard to restrain himself and not cuss. His adult comedy show not that much better. I only stayed about 15 minutes. The adult comedian we had the last night was very funny! I stayed for the second show as well. He made sure to acknowledge all of the military in the audience, which was nice. I wish I had their names, but I'm sorry I don't. They were not printed in the Fun Times and I didn't make note of them during the show.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 3

 

I slept in since I didn’t get to sleep until 4 am. Once again, my mom was up, showered, and had eaten breakfast, and I was still knocked out. It was around 11 when I finally woke up. I had the unpleasant realization that I could not talk. That’s right, I was hoarse! I had a very slight cough on day 1, not a cold, not allergies, just a few random coughs. The night before at the disco didn’t help. I’m a nonsmoker and there was a lot (and I do mean A LOT) of smoke in there. The music was really loud and trying to yell over it to talk to people just added to the problem. So yes, I lost my voice on vacation. Oh well, I’m still going to keep the party going.

 

We were due into Cozumel at 1 pm, but it was about 12 noon when we arrived. The Celebrity Solstice and Carnival Legend were already in port. We were right next to the Legend. Lots of people from both ships were watching the ship park from various balconies. I was super hungry and wanted to eat before going out into the city. The lines for the Mongolian Grill and lido buffet were looooong, but then there was my saving grace, the rotisserie grill. No one was in line there! There was a pork roast they would slice for you, whole chicken they would cut in quarters, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn on the cob, macaroni and cheese, and a few other things. I sat with my mom and our new friends we met on day 1 to see everyone wanted to do. My mom and the friends decided to find a tour, and I was not in a tour kind of mood, so since I knew she was in good hands I decided to go to Paradise Beach. We went back to the room to get our bags, some water, and I put my swimsuit on. We were off the ship right at about 1 pm.

 

cruise011.jpg

 

Up close with the Legend.

 

cruise482.jpg

 

cruise020.jpg

 

The Imagination & the Legend.

 

cruise501.jpg

 

cruise613.jpg

 

I got a warm Cozumel welcome.....for a small tip of course. :-)

 

cruise507.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...