Carnival Imagination 11-2/11-6 2009

[PBA Pro Bowler]

I just returned from the Carnival Imagination on the 4 day cruise to Key West and Cozumel Nov 2-6 2009. I was a first time cruiser.

We had a great time. There were some items that were great and some that were not so great.

Embarkation: 30 min from time of drop off to get on the ship. We were dropped off at 1pm and were walking on the boat at 1:30. Pretty good if I have to say.

Room: we were in cabin R 128. We were allowed to go right to the cabin once we got on board. Most of the luggage was delivered by 6 pm. One piece, was delivered to the wrong room on the wrong deck. Luckily the occupant of that room brought the bag to my room. I was surprised at the size of the cabin. There was enough room for me to maneuver in the cabin and I am not a small guy. Biggest problem is the toilet would not flush for the first 6 hours and of course we found this out after we used it. I called for the room steward, got a busy signal. Called the customer service desk and it took 6 hrs to get it fixed. We did not meet the room steward until day 3. The in room TV had to be fixed 2x We didn’t get to go to the debarkation talk and wanted to watch it on the tv. We would get some sound and the screen was completely white. The first time it took about 6 hrs to fix the 2nd time was about 45 min

Cruise director: Brad. Was a trip. The asst directors were great as well George and Meyer.

Food: The food was great, except the pizza. I was raised in NY. The Pizza on the ship was no where close to being good In my opinion it was Horrid. Waiter and asst waiter were excellent got what I asked for in a reasonable amount of time

Casino: Staff was great. Left toooooooo much of my money there.

On board Activities: I actually won 4 ships on a stick. 2 for sports trivia 1 for the Match Game with my wife, and I was selected to play in the Game show mania game and won that too. I guess I am filled with useless knowledge. (AKA BS)

The shows were top notch. The comedians were hilarious. The one thing carnival needs to work on is where to let people stand once they get to Standing room only. We got to the late comedy show a 1/2 hr early so we could get a decent seat. Once the seats started filling up people would stand anywhere. We had a group of 6 people sitting in a booth and people would just walk up and stand in front of you. They need security to come and move people out of the way.

My wife wanted to go to the art auction so she dragged me along, under protest (the casino was open). Do they really think people are going to bring 20K for a lithograph. We had marked 2 items I would have been interested in and they didn’t bring them up and since they would have been low dollar items they didn’t seem to want to even talk about them.

Key West: we didn’t do any excursions so we just went down town and walked around. We had lunch at the Hogsbreath Saloon. They have a great Pulled pork sandwich.

Cozumel We were going to do the Deluxe Playa Mia Beach Break package but it was raining when we got to Cozumel. We picked up a few souvenirs at the dock and hung out in Fat Tuesdays. The show at Fat Tuesdays was pretty good They have a stripper pole and well some of the ladies took advantage of it. We even had a couple of ladies oblige the crowd when they were chanting Show your T - -s The Pina Coladas are great

Behind the fun tour was excellent. I can’t believe how many people can’t read or hear. They tell you that you must wear closed toe shoes NO sandals or flipflops cell phones or cameras. They had to send people back to their rooms to get shoes and they took about 4 or 5 cameras and phones away.

We started in the galley spoke to the chef for about 15-20 min. then we made our way down to deck 3 and saw the laundry , dry storage, the Liquor Locker (No samples dang it.) Saw some spare engine parts in the marshalling area Large pistons ( about 10” in diameter the rods were over 1 ½ ft long. Then we got to go to the Engine control room.

From the engine control room we went to the crews mess, lounge, gym, and the Bow of the ship. The bow is the crew smoking area. They have their own pool their.

We then got to go to the bridge and got to see all the navigation equipment and talk to the quartermasters that were operating the ship, along with the Captain We took a picture with the Captain at the controls of the ship. While we were on the bridge we were about 24 miles off the Cuban coast

The picture was delivered to our cabin along with chocolate covered strawberries. At the beginning of the tour we all received a baseball hat and lanyard. At the end they gave us some wristbands (The heavy rubber type like the LIVESTRONG bands.)

This tour cost $55pp and I think it was worth it

Debarkation we had group 22 and were in the last group off the boat. It took about 25 min to get our bags once we were in the baggage claim area. Customs clearance was a snap and that took only a few minutes.

We bought some of the pictures that the photographers took a little pricey. I worked as a photographer in the off season shooting wedings etc and their prices are double mine for an 8x10

I hope hope to do another cruise again soon.

[paleskin]

Thanks for you review. Were their any good rock bands onboard? How about at the pool? Was there a pool band?

[PBA Pro Bowler]

I really didn't pay much attention to the bands or the clubs. When not out bowling I manage a Bowling center and in our bar we have bands, Karaoke and DJ's. I actually wanted to avoid hearing the same music. I enjoy playing Black Jack and poker so that is what i did.

One band I heard on the lido deck was playing oldies 60's - 70's Beatles, Beach boys etc. music which I enjoyed