The Good, Bad and the Ugly of the September 30th Ecstasy sailing

I am going to break this up so if there are questions or comments I can answer if needed. I want to say from the start that there were some good things about this cruise and there were somethings that needed to be improved.With that being stated, It is still much better to be on a cruise then being at work. Also these are my views and someone may see the events differently. Please feel free to disagree as everyone is entitled to their opinion.

What ports on your cruise? Thx!

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Excited for your review as we leave the 14th

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My DW and I arrived in Charleston on Friday before our cruise and headed to have lunch over at Shem’s Creek. We ate at Red’s Ice House,it has a great view and it is a good place to have a drink but I wouldn't recommend the food. It just isn't up to what we have to come to love about Low Country food. After lunch we headed over to Sullivan Island (Beautiful), Fort Moultrie (maybe not as impressive as Fort Sumter but still pretty cool) and the Isle of Palm (beautiful town and beach, think I would like to live there). After sightseeing we decided to check into our hotel Sleep Inn in Mt. Pleasant. Very reasonably priced and they will let you leave your car for the length of the cruise if you check with them first at no cost. You will have to take a cab, Uber or Lyft to get to the cruise port. So after a bit of a rest we headed off to City Market in Charleston and a bite to eat. We decided to grab a bite at Tbonz, the service and food were really good; I would recommend to anyone. After a visit to City Market it was back to the hotel and get ready for Saturday’s embarkation.

What ports on your cruise? Thx!

 

 

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Princess Cay and Freeport

We woke up Saturday and headed over to Charleston Café to get breakfast since we had eaten here before I knew it would be a hit. There are two things that I would recommend one is the Deep Fried Cinnamon Roll and the other is their Corn Beef Hash. After Breakfast we headed back to the hotel room to check out and get an Uber. Uber took about 10 minutes to reach us and the cost without tip was about $16.00. We arrived at the terminal at about 11:15 and had a small wait to start the boarding process. Once this started it really was one of the smoothest embarkations I have been through. It was so good that we didn’t have to wait to board and were headed to the ship as soon as we got our Sail and Sign Card, this was true for all priority embarkation passengers. Got to our cabin and dropped off our carry-on luggage and while dropping these off, the head of the Stewards met us and introduced himself.This is the first time this has happened I was very impressed. I believe his name is Nazzari and wanted to let us know if we needed any thing we could reach out to him and asked if we needed anything. He also introduced us to our Steward Mark who asked if there as anything we needed and we just asked for Ice for our cooler. Once those pleasantries were taken care of we took off for some lunch and to explore the ship. Since breakfast was so filling it was a lite lunch. The layout of the Ecstasy is pretty standard to all the other Fantasy Class ships so no big surprise here. So after lunch and exploration it came time for the Muster Drill, seems Carnival has added some new technology to the system as they actually have you check in, when you get to the meeting place. Which you would think would speed up the process and I am sure it will once they get used to using it but at this time since they are learning the system is did slow down the process down a bit. Once the Muster Drill was done it was really time for the cruise to start. Went and watched sail away and really saw how much the wind was pushing on the ship. This would lead a hard night for some cruisers as they learned if they had sea legs or not. After dinner which had some issues like having to ask have my Iced Tea refilled three times and the time it took the meal,it took two hours from sit down to finish. So with dinner finished it was time relax on the top deck and meet some new people. I got the chance to meet Chad(informed me that the Ecstasy is a training ship hence maybe some of the issues already), Barb and Pam (some of the best people you could ever meet), and I also had the chance to meet Rebel and Erin and also Tiffany later in the cruise. I really do enjoy meeting new people andgetting to know them and their stories and this cruise didn’t disappoint.

Being welcomed by the Steward with his Head is a nice approach. Could be one of training lessons on ship.

Will be following along.

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I'm enjoying following your review! Thanks for sharing

We woke up Saturday and headed over to Charleston Café to get breakfast since we had eaten here before I knew it would be a hit. There are two things that I would recommend one is the Deep Fried Cinnamon Roll and the other is their Corn Beef Hash. After Breakfast we headed back to the hotel room to check out and get an Uber. Uber took about 10 minutes to reach us and the cost without tip was about $16.00. We arrived at the terminal at about 11:15 and had a small wait to start the boarding process. Once this started it really was one of the smoothest embarkations I have been through. It was so good that we didn’t have to wait to board and were headed to the ship as soon as we got our Sail and Sign Card, this was true for all priority embarkation passengers. Got to our cabin and dropped off our carry-on luggage and while dropping these off, the head of the Stewards met us and introduced himself.This is the first time this has happened I was very impressed. I believe his name is Nazzari and wanted to let us know if we needed any thing we could reach out to him and asked if we needed anything. He also introduced us to our Steward Mark who asked if there as anything we needed and we just asked for Ice for our cooler. Once those pleasantries were taken care of we took off for some lunch and to explore the ship. Since breakfast was so filling it was a lite lunch. The layout of the Ecstasy is pretty standard to all the other Fantasy Class ships so no big surprise here. So after lunch and exploration it came time for the Muster Drill, seems Carnival has added some new technology to the system as they actually have you check in, when you get to the meeting place. Which you would think would speed up the process and I am sure it will once they get used to using it but at this time since they are learning the system is did slow down the process down a bit. Once the Muster Drill was done it was really time for the cruise to start. Went and watched sail away and really saw how much the wind was pushing on the ship. This would lead a hard night for some cruisers as they learned if they had sea legs or not. After dinner which had some issues like having to ask have my Iced Tea refilled three times and the time it took the meal,it took two hours from sit down to finish. So with dinner finished it was time relax on the top deck and meet some new people. I got the chance to meet Chad(informed me that the Ecstasy is a training ship hence maybe some of the issues already), Barb and Pam (some of the best people you could ever meet), and I also had the chance to meet Rebel and Erin and also Tiffany later in the cruise. I really do enjoy meeting new people andgetting to know them and their stories and this cruise didn’t disappoint.

Did you have FTTF?? Just wondering since we haven't purchased it if you can drop your carry on like that as soon as arriving on the ship.

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Did you have FTTF?? Just wondering since we haven't purchased it if you can drop your carry on like that as soon as arriving on the ship.

 

 

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Part of FTTF is your cabin is supposed to be ready once you board. So you should be good.

We don't have it. And I was asking if you did. I didn't think you could go to your cabin early if you didn't have it.

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We don't have it. And I was asking if you did. I didn't think you could go to your cabin early if you didn't have it.

 

 

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I am sorry I missed understood your question. I am a platinum cruiser so that is why I could.

So at this time we will get to the first ugly for this ship. After a good evening I headed to the cabin to get some sleep and once I put my head down I keep hearing a banging noise and thought it was just people still getting their luggage but it wasn’t as there was no one in the hallways at this time, not sure what is was and still don’t know what it was, but I got through it and went to sleep. Not sure if the banging ever stopped for the night, but at 6 in the morning I was awoken to the banging noises again. The noises were pretty consistent and I thought maybe someone had just left something lose and with the ship moving it was causing the noise. So up I was at 6 in the morning on the first sea day. After a bit of fighting to get back to sleep which didn’t happen due to the noise, we decided to head to the main dining room to grab some breakfast. I have really started liking eating breakfast in the main dining room for several reasons I don’t have to fight the buffet line, or find a place to sit and I can order my eggs anyway I want them. With breakfast behind us we decided it might be a good time to lose some money in the casino and it didn’t take long for the two of us lose our money. With the weather being a bit of a pain with the rain and wind we decided to go to the shoppers talk. Now I have been on plenty of cruises and know pretty much what is going to be said but there just wasn’t a whole lot to do. With the shoppers talk over we thought why don’t we head back to the cabin and maybe get a nap in, no the banging is still going on. We watched a bit of the in cabin movie and decided to get a bit of lunch. Lunch was a hit we both had the Guy Fieri hamburger which was really good. The weather improved during the afternoon so most of the afternoon was spent doing things outside on the deck and just enjoying the cruise. This evening was Elegant night and it seemed that pretty much everyone accommodated the dress code. So we enjoyed the evening and turned in for the evening about 11:00, no banging noise.

So the second day on ship, the day we get to go to Princess Cay we are woken to the same banging at 6:00 in the morning. At this point I am pretty sure this isn’t an item just randomly banging it is too consistent. So I get up and get ready for the day and head to guest services to discuss the banging noise. After a small discussion they have someone from Engineering meet me at my cabin to listen to the noise. It didn’t take a minute for the engineering person to hear the noise and say she heard enough and left. At this point we just finished getting ready for our port day and would check back with guest services later.

Looking forward to more of your report and the banging noise.

Enjoying your post so far. HAd some friends on that sailing. I live in Charleston ;)

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Can you tell us what cabin you were in? Depending on how the banging noise part of this story ends, I may want to avoid that cabin.

Thanks!

Can you tell us what cabin you were in? Depending on how the banging noise part of this story ends, I may want to avoid that cabin.

 

Thanks!

sorry forgot that detail r146

Patrick so many thanks for the compliment but perhaps you are far too kind. :o And the pleasure was all ours, like a clam in the mist of chaos! ;p

I look forward to reading the rest of "the story"!

Barb

Patrick so many thanks for the compliment but perhaps you are far too kind. :o And the pleasure was all ours, like a clam in the mist of chaos! ;p

 

I look forward to reading the rest of "the story"!

 

Barb

I don't think I am too kind and I already miss you guys.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the cruise.

Keith

So off we go to Princess Cay and our excursion was the Adults Only Bungalow, since we had done Cabanas before at Half Moon Cay, we assumed(shouldn’t assume) that these would pretty much be the same. The size and what is provided AC, loungers, chairs and table, shower and a floating mat are the same but what isn’t is beach access. To access the beach with any kind of ease you have to walk down to where the sandy beaches are for Princess Cay not a hard or difficult walk just an inconvenience especially if you are carrying a mat. The other option to get to the beach is to climb over the rope, I for the life me can’t figure out why they didn’t provide a small wooden ramp to allow access to be beach right in front of the Bungalows and maybe there is a reason I just don’t know it. While we did lose power to our Bungalow this really wasn’t a big deal due to I was here to spend a day in the sun and do some swimming. Also the Bar Service stunk for this area, I had to go down to the bar twice to get my own drink and on the last trip I found my bar server on his phone texting. I will say lunch was pretty good and the lines moved quickly. Also be warned that the beach here is nothing like the beach at Half Moon Cay, Princess Cay has a mostly coral/rock beach so make sure you bring your water shoes, saw one young lady cut up her foot on the coral. For a day at the beach this really was a good day the weather was great not too hot, really had a good time until we went to leave.

At about 2 it looked like a storm might be approaching and we decided to head to the ship. We now get to the second ugly for the cruise. As we were walking up to the tender area we noticed a huge group of people already at the area and a pretty long line filling the tender lines. So we decided to wait for the line to shrink and headed over to the bar where there were some chairs and shade, refreshments and music. While waiting my DW decided to go take another swim and I ordered a soda and waited. As I was sitting there looking at the ship and the ocean, I noticed that there weren't any tenders going back and forth which I found odd. They both were stuck at the Ecstasy and apparently not going anywhere. So we waited and about 3:30 the bartenders started to break down the bar and not long after the music quit playing. At this time, you see both tenders coming back to pick up cruisers. So once they get the tenders in they quickly load them up. So the line starts moving, with the bar closed up and the music gone we thought it would be a good time to head to the line. Once we get there I notice the tenders aren't headed out there are just sitting there and not going to the ship. So I am now in line and will be here for two hours. Standing in this line could of been worse at least it was covered and had ceiling fans moving the air but there should have been no reason to have people standing in line for this length of time. The ugly in this is due to Carnival not having a plan in place in a situation like this. A simple solution would have been to ask everyone to get out of line and have them head over to the covered areas to keep cool, open up the bar so that refreshments could be served, crank up the music. This would of given cruisers a relaxing way of dealing with an unpleasant situation. They could have gone swimming or even had access to the facilities. I just feel that as a large corporation like Carnival should have plans in place for situation like this. I work for a small corporation and we have plans in place for when things go wrong. It wasn't as if this situation was too hard to predict everyone knows at some time a vehicle won’t preform as intended.

Just curious...what was the issue?? Did you have high seas that day that made getting back onto the ship dangerous?? Or were there problems with the tender boats? Were they using the lifeboats or the larger tenders?

Also...what happened with the banging noise in your state room?

We just got off of the Ecstasy Monday the 9th and stayed in R204 and it was always quiet and had wonderful AC. Our only complaint was the heat in the casino and lack of cocktail waiters. Otherwise a wonderful cruise.

Hope the "ugly" things didn't ruin your cruise.

Just curious...what was the issue?? Did you have high seas that day that made getting back onto the ship dangerous?? Or were there problems with the tender boats? Were they using the lifeboats or the larger tenders?

Also...what happened with the banging noise in your state room?

We just got off of the Ecstasy Monday the 9th and stayed in R204 and it was always quiet and had wonderful AC. Our only complaint was the heat in the casino and lack of cocktail waiters. Otherwise a wonderful cruise.

Hope the "ugly" things didn't ruin your cruise.

The problems getting back where two fold, first was 2 of the 3 tenders broke down they ended up getting one up and running and due to the storm that was approaching the seas got to be too much for anyone to get off the tender to the cruise ship.

will get to the banging noise in just a bit.

I haven't been able to have a bad cruise yet in the 20 that I have been on. knock on wood

We get back to the room and are changing and I go to put my bathing suit on the dry line in the shower I find it covered in Mildew maybe even Black Mold. So since I am already headed to guest services I will just bring up then. I head to guest services to discuss the banging and now the mildew, as soon as I talk to the young lady and give her my information she informs me that she needs to get her Manager. Her Manager comes around and informs me that they have another cabin for us to get away from the banging noise. I actually thought I would retold that there isn't much they could do and would be giving me an email address or phone number to Customer Service to talk to when I get back. I was really surprised; I mean really surprised. So as the Guest Services Manager is taking me to our new cabin I did discuss the Mildew issue in our former cabin and I also brought up the issue with getting off the island. She did say she would get someone to look at the drying line, so if you staying in this cabin you might want to make sure it has been cleaned or changed. As we were talking about the issue with the island she tried to make the excuse that they didn't find out until 4:00 that there was an issue I informed her that I knew they were having an issue before 3:00 and she backed off of that stance but I also thought that Carnival needs to have a plan for situations like this so your guests aren't inconvenienced as I mentioned before no need to say it again.So the cabin that would be moving to was E108, it is the same interior room that we had as we really do like the almost complete darkness you get from these rooms. So now it time to repack all of our stuff and unpack it, while not the thing I would want to do in the middle of a cruise because part of the reason I like cruising is I only have to unpack once but the bright side is no more banging. So what was the banging noises, I did get an answer from guest services is that there seems to be a lot of work being done in the back ground and where they run the pipes and cables is right where our cabin was so they were installing new pipes or cables which explains the banging noise but why they couldn't have waited until later in the day to start I don’t know. After pack and unpacking it was just time chill and relax. My DW made the comment that we are now on a three day cruise.

The problems getting back where two fold, first was 2 of the 3 tenders broke down they ended up getting one up and running and due to the storm that was approaching the seas got to be too much for anyone to get off the tender to the cruise ship.

 

will get to the banging noise in just a bit.

 

I haven't been able to have a bad cruise yet in the 20 that I have been on. knock on wood

Good to hear!

Sounds like multiple issues with the tenders. I do agree about having a plan that doesn't involve people standing in line for 2 plus hours. I have back problems that would not have even allowed for me to stand in line for over 2 hours. They easily could have given people a number and then called out the numbers when they had a tender ready and let everyone enjoy the island a little longer. I'm not sure about the bars...I think they have to pack everything up and get all of that back on the ship with their staff. But in a case like that, they could even have complimentary beverages while everyone waits. It would certainly be a gesture of good will and go a long way towards making amends for the issues.