Carnival Ecstasy questions

Hey y'all,

We normally cruise out of New Orleans on whatever ship happens to be doing the 7-day cruises out of there. So, usually the Dream, but we've also went on the Conquest when it was there too. We also took one cruise on the Elation about six years ago too.

Now we're looking at a cruise on the Ecstasy out of Jacksonville next September. It's a 7-day Eastern to Amber Cove, Grand Turk and Princess Cay. We've never been to any of those ports before (we've taken one other Eastern cruise on RCI, but it went to Coco Cay, St. Maarten and St. Thomas) so it's very intriguing to us.

The things I'm wondering about are, how are the 2.0 upgrades on the Fantasy class ships? Pretty similar to the Dream?

On the Dream, we generally like to try and get a room right underneath the Lido deck, so that we can just walk up a flight of stairs and not have to worry about the elevators as much. That's not really an option on these ships though, but I'm wondering if the size of the ship means waiting for elevators isn't as big of an ordeal as it is on the Dream? So maybe the deck location of our room doesn't matter as much. Is that true?

And since this is a 7-day on a smaller ship that normally just does 4- and 5-day cruises, does that make a difference? I just wonder if the crew and whatnot isn't as used to longer cruises and that would make the experience "different" than on a ship that usually does week-long cruises.

It's always good to sail from a different port, meet passengers from a different area, and visit places you've never been before.

A smaller ship means less walking. Unless you have mobility issues, you shouldn't need to wait for an elevator for 1 flight of stairs.

The length of the cruise doesn't have any effect on the crew.

Just to clarify, we don't wait on elevators to walk up a single flight of stairs. Ever. It's a pet peeve of mine. I try to avoid elevators whenever possible, which is why on the Dream we try to stay on the deck below Lido. So we can mostly avoid the elevators. But, on the Fantasy class ships, that isn't an option, since there are two decks of public areas with no staterooms underneath the Lido.

So, I'm wondering if waiting on elevators is much less of an issue on these smaller ships than on the Dream because there's so many less people. If so, we may look at staterooms lower in the ship than we normally stay in.

We always try to get the Empress deck on the Fantasy class ships. That is the closest to the action. As far as elevators, the waits aren't to bad, because they are WAY less people than the larger ships.. We tend to take the stairs a lot though,.

Never been on the Dream class, so can't compare 2.0 upgrades. I do know that I like the Fantasy class ships better than the Conquest class ships...

Just to clarify, we don't wait on elevators to walk up a single flight of stairs. Ever. It's a pet peeve of mine. I try to avoid elevators whenever possible, which is why on the Dream we try to stay on the deck below Lido. So we can mostly avoid the elevators. But, on the Fantasy class ships, that isn't an option, since there are two decks of public areas with no staterooms underneath the Lido.

 

So, I'm wondering if waiting on elevators is much less of an issue on these smaller ships than on the Dream because there's so many less people. If so, we may look at staterooms lower in the ship than we normally stay in.

Sure its less of a headache ,but still at peak times can get crowded around dinner and so forth.

Planning to try Ecstacy when she comes to Jacksonville since we're about an hour south. We did Elation this past January after her upgrade. Out of 21 cruises, I can say we won't go on her again. Got one of the new balcony rooms, it was so small there wasn't even a chair inside,had to bring one in from the balcony to have a place to sit. We liked the ship ok, really prefer the smaller ships, so much less crowded. So I'm assuming Ecstacy will be basically the same as Elation. We didn't notice the elevators being crowded and of our group of six,two were on mobility scooters. They were fairly crowded at dinner and because of the scooters we would have to wait a bit longer. No big deal, your table was waiting for you. We are pretty much Jacksonville natives, and have seen the Landing change so much. Hardly anything left to do there anymore, but if you enjoy being around the river you will enjoy it.

Hope you have a great cruise and maybe we'll see you on Ecstacy.

There's a huge size difference in the Dream and Fantasy Class ships. You'll love it!

There's a huge size difference in the Dream and Fantasy Class ships. You'll love it!

Great pic!:cool:

LOVE that picture! Thanks for sharing! We will be on Ecstasy in November. The 100 day countdown is ON!