Imagination review

As promised, here is the cruise my wife and I took on the Imagination from April 1st to April 5th.

Just a little background information first, we are a happily married couple of just over 40 years. I am 62 and my DW is less than that. We decided to take this cruise instead of a 7 day or longer cruise to save a little money because we just married off our daughter last year and that took a significant bite out of our vacation budget. (I’m not complaining I would do that and more if I had to.) The reason we chose the Imagination was that the itinerary put us in Key West. We’ve been vacationing in Florida every year for about the past 10 years and have always thought about going to Key West but couldn’t justify giving up our time in the house that we rented. The fact that Key West was a port of call made the decision to book the Imagination like killing two birds with one stone. We got to see Key West and we got to cruise.

We have only one other cruise to compare this one to (the Legend in 2012) so please take this review with that in mind. My brother and his wife talked us into cruising last year on the Legend and that convinced us that cruising was a great way to visit other countries and they joined us on this cruise too

We booked a hotel in Deerfield that was recommended by a friend of my DW the day before the cruise. It is near I 95 and about 30 minutes or so to premier parking in Miami.

The hotel itself was fine. It has a heated outdoor pool, free breakfast etc. Pretty standard with no surprises good or bad. Our room faced the highway and was a little noisy. If you book a room there I would advise you to try and get one that doesn’t face the highway. It didn’t bother me but it did keep my wife up a little bit. There are no restaurants that you can walk to so we drove into Deerfield beech and ate dinner there on Sunday. (Our cruise was for Monday April 1st) This happened to be Easter Sunday and was the first time that we couldn’t spend Easter with our kids. We exchanged pictures of the tables that each of us were eating from. Theirs was an elaborate meal with all the trimmings and ours was pub grub. Somehow I think they came out ahead of the game even though we had a nice meal.

We pre-booked two parking spots at Premier Parking in Miami which is about a 10 minute ride to the port. It cost us $40 each for the time we were on the cruise. I thought that was pretty good. That included the shuttle to and from the port. They do this for a lot of cruisers and if you decide to take this be prepared for a little bit of a “wait your turn” kind of thing. It wasn’t a problem for us because we got there about 10:00 a.m. and we only had to wait for about 45 minutes or so for a shuttle to get us to the port. Not a big deal for us but others were a little cranky about having to wait. I’ve found that you have to have a little bit of patience when you’re in a situation that has you in a line. Airports, trains etc. and this was no different. The people that work there are moving as quickly as possible and getting upset at them for not moving as fast as you want them to doesn’t help matters.

We all got to the port about 11:00 a.m. and were on board by 11:20. We bought the Faster to the Fun thing and found that it was a good investment for us. It saved us waiting in another long line to board and we were able to drop off our carry-on stuff as soon as we boarded the ship. We were in room E240 which is at the very back of the ship just below the Serenity area. It’s a very quiet area and served us well. When we got to our room our bags were there waiting for us. The room itself was OK. On the Legend we got a balcony but on this trip decided that an ocean view would be good enough for us seeing as we were trying to budget our holiday this time around. I’m not even sure there is a balcony cabin on the Imagination. I was surprised to find that the room did not have a table or a fridge. That was a little disappointing because it would have been nice to have breakfast in the room but without the table it didn’t seem like a good idea. I know we could have eaten on the bed but……….no. Like I said, it was disappointing but not a huge thing. As for no fridge, we were told that we had to order one ahead of time. I’m not sure if that is a “perk” for having a balcony or if it was another of Carnival’s cut-backs. Our steward made sure we had ice every day and our room was always clean and neat. I always tip the people that clean our room the first day that I see them. I also tip them again at the end my stay. I’ve never had a problem with getting the service I like when I do that. It’s also a way to show my appreciation of how hard these people work.

After checking our bags in the room we went up to the lido deck to get a little lunch. The buffet lines were already crowded and it took a little bit of searching to find a seat but we managed to get a table for four. One person sat and secured the table while the rest of us got the food. Again, I can only compare this to the Legend so keep that in mind. I found the buffet area to be very crowded and congested. There wasn’t the same number of stations as on the Legend but I guess that’s because the Imagination is a smaller ship. After lunch we went on a walk around the ship to discover what was in store for us for the next four days. Although the ship is smaller, I found it more difficult to navigate than the Legend. My DW thinks that it is because there are “dead ends” on a couple of areas on the ship. For some reason I just couldn’t get the layout of everything. I was always going over to the information picture they have all over the ship to get an idea of where I was and where I wanted to go. Maybe it’s my age catching up to me. I met another lady later on in the week that was having the same trouble though so maybe there’s something more to it. It made for some extra walking which was fine because I know I could use the exercise. Both my DW and I made a deal that we would not use the elevators while on this cruise. Not a big thing considering that most of what we wanted to do and see were only one or two flights up from our room but still it was something. I also wanted to use the gym while on board too. That never happened. I got too busy doing other stuff. While on the Legend we didn’t do a lot of the things that were available to us so this time we decided that we would try and get to as many things as we could. We did a couple of the trivia challenges, went to the gym to hear a guy talk about how to achieve a flatter stomach, played mini-golf etc.

We had late night seating in the dining room and our wait staff were great! Lots of fun and very attentive to us. The food was always hot when it should be and cold when it should be. Every meal was tasty and met or exceeded the expectations that I have for dining out. No matter what I had as an entrée I always had the warm chocolate melting cake for desert. The others made fun of me but I don’t care. That is the best desert ever! Just to make them feel better I ordered a tiramisu along with the WCMC one time. That shut them up.

On day 2 we woke up in Key West. What a great port! The four of us did the pub crawl through Carnival and had a great time. I know that you can crawl to pubs on your own but the guide was helpful and pretty funny too. We visited 5 pubs and the price of the excursion includes a drink at each of the pubs. The bars in Key West open at 8 a.m. so our start time of 10:00 a.m. meant that we had some catching up to do. There are a couple of hundred different bars in Key West so it was nice to have someone take us to 5 decent ones. You also get a T-shirt that says you survived the pub crawl. I do recommend to take the tour. The only thing wrong with this port is that your stay isn’t long enough. The ship arrives about 8:00a.m. and you have to be back on board by 1:30 p.m. My wife and I are planning to visit here next year for a couple of days. We didn’t get to see Hemmingway’s house and there are a couple of museums to visit that we just didn’t have enough time to get everything in. We were told that the night life in Key West is special.

We got back to the ship on time and decided that we would spend some money in the casino. I like to play cards and my wife likes the slots. We both ended up winning for a change! Between the two of us we were up about $500! By the end of the cruise we were up about $600! WooooHooooo!! That night was also Elegant Night and we did our best to look as elegant as we can. I enjoy getting gussied up now and then. It adds a little spice to our otherwise not-so-exciting lives.

Day 3 we were in Cozumel. We’ve been to Cozumel two other times so it was decided to take the beach and shopping excursion through Carnival. I wanted to go to Nachi Cocum but the others wanted to go to Playa del Carmen so we compromised and we went to Playa del Carmen. My wife and I were there about 15 years ago for our 25th anniversary and were interested to see what kinds of changes there were. The excursion takes you by boat to the main land where you spend a couple of hours at a beach side resort and then you have a couple of hours of shopping in Playa del Carmen. The resort is crammed in with a bunch of other resorts and they allow you to stay on the beach with a lounge and an umbrella. The winds were very strong and nobody had an umbrella up so we ended up in the patio area where there was shade from the trees. We swam in the ocean which was a lot of fun. The waves were really strong because of the high winds which made it fun to try and fight them as you swam into deeper water. We had a couple of drinks on the patio and then went into town for the shopping. When we were there 15 years ago the shopping district was only a couple of blocks long and the vendors were willing to have fun with you and barter. Not so much in today’s market place. There are now hundreds of small shops and restaurants. If you are going to go to Playa and buy something, make sure that the vendor is willing to deal with US currency and will give you any change in US $ too. We shlepped to the end of 5th Avenue where we stopped for some lunch and then shlepped back to meet up with the tour group to get on the boat to take us back to our ship. It was OK but not my most memorable thing to have done. We do have try to have a good time no matter where we are but shopping on 5th avenue in Playa del Carmen isn’t what I thought it would be. We finally stopped and had lunch at a little pub that had a view of the ocean. The food was OK and the location on the beach was good for people watching. The bill came to about $80 US for a pizza, some chips and salsa, chicken wings and 4 bottles of beer. I’m pretty good at math and the bill showed what it would be in pesos and in US and the exchange rate that we were told about, it should have been about $70. I showed this to the waiter but he said that the exchange rate was different at the restaurant than every where else. We paid the $80 and didn’t leave a tip. I have no problem with helping people out by leaving a decent tip but I won’t be taken advantage of by someone. I think I’m pretty much done with Cozumel and Mexico but if we do go back there, we will be going to Nachi Cocum for sure. I’ve heard and read too many good things about that place to not want to go there.

Day 4 is a day at sea. We spent some time in the serenity area just chilling out and searched out some of the trivia challenges. We didn’t win a ship-on-a-stick but had fun joining in the games. In the serenity area there were always lounges available for us. I didn’t notice any chair hogs. There may not have been 4 chairs together but there were always at least 2 together. It may have been because there were so many younger people on this cruise that opened up the serenity area for those of us who are not so young. I did see where one woman was asked the age of her daughter (17) and was told that she would not be able to be in the serenity area so they do enforce the age rule.

Day 5 was disembarking day. As I wrote earlier, we bought the Faster to the Fun thingy and it puts you in group #1 so there was very little time spent waiting to get off the ship. We went to the dining room for breakfast and then left to our meeting area for disembarking and were the first group off. We made a quick call for the shuttle driver to take us back to pick up our car. The whole process went pretty smooth.

Overall, it was a great cruise. It was everything we expected it to be. We ate, drank, gambled, saw some shows, ate, drank, saw some new ports of call, ate drank had fun and ate and drank some more. Carnival is a great cruise line. That being said, if we go on another cruise, I think we might explore the idea of going with another cruise line. That’s not to say that we wouldn’t look at Carnival too but Carnival isn’t giving us any incentive to return any more. Last time we were so impressed that we bought a future cruise certificate that we used on this cruise. We were hoping to do the same again but they discontinued selling them. We also wanted to buy some drink coupons before the cruise but they discontinued selling them too. I understand that the company has to make a few cutbacks to compensate for the things that have happened to Carnival these past months but that doesn’t mean that I have to like them. The extra $2.95 for a cappacino was a little bit much. I’m not sure about prices etc. from other lines and I may end up going back to Carnival but I will explore the differences between the cruise lines so I can make an educated decision.

That’s it. I hope it wasn’t too long winded and that it helps someone in the future. If you have any questions about the cruise I will be more than happy to answer them.

Great review Al..... I think you and your family would definately enjoy Nachi Cocum... that's what Ally and I did on our Cozumel day.... relaxing, all inclusive and beautiful! Can't wait for my next cruise!

Thanks for the review! And congrats on the casino wins :-)

Thanks for the review and the info on Cozumel. Can't wait!

Thanks for posting your review...:):):):)

Thanks for the review.

We were on her last October and would have no problem sailing her again!

Thanks for the great review. Doing the same itinerary on our upcoming cruise and looking forward to seeing Key West for the first time myself.

Thanks for the review, wow 40 years that is great!

Thanks for the review and the info on Cozumel. Can't wait!

I hope you have fun! If you haven't booked anything in Cozumel, check out the salsa and salsa excursion. We did that last year and it was a blast.