Imagination Review with pics!

Just returned from the 4 night eastern caribbean on the Imagination. I am not the greatest writer but will post pics and answering any questions you have...

Background of family:

We are a family of 5; myself 35, husband 43, daughter 7, son 3 and another son also 3. We booked the Grand Suite Cabin U76 and it was perfect for our family. We had enough closet/drawer space to unpack 5 suit cases for the week. Here is a few pics of the cabin:

View from Balcony door:

View from Bed to Balcony:

and finally balcony..it had 3 chairs and a small table with plenty of room for my family:

Boarding:

We arrived at the Port of Miami about 10:30 AM and we had our luggage picked up curb side then we entered the cruise terminal. We had no problems boarding with our birth certificates and my husbands is a city certificate NOT state as some people say you have to have..just be sure it is what is needed to obtain a passport since the new law change. Be sure to have pic ID for everyone over 16 and either a passport or birth certificate and your boarding passes that you print before leaving home. When we entered the terminal we were sent to the VIP waiting lounge where they provide you with your sail and sign card. They had lemonade and pretty comfy chairs..but no view of the ship as those in the regular waiting area. Here is a pic of the VIP lounge in Miami:

We arrived in the VIP area in about 15 minutes from getting to the port and we began embarkation about 11:00 (although they advertise 12 noon). As you enter the ship this is what you will see from the entrance:

Once we boarded we made our way to Lido for lunch and walked around to see the water works before we were allowed in our cabins at about 1:00 which is also earlier than Carnival states. Here are some pics of the water works:

and of course it wouldn't be a true pic without the whale tale!!

Once we were allowed in the cabin we got settled in and went onto the balcony for sail away..here are some pics leaving Miami:

Here is the Pilot Boat:

After sail away we made sure we had everything we needed in the cabin such as enough towels and life jackets for the kids. We went to the safety drill and then we had to go turn in the kids paperwork for Camp Carnival.

After meeting the camp staff and listening to their information we then started getting dressed for dinner and off to the dining room...we had my time dining and it was great with kids. We showed up to the Spirit dining room about 5:50 and walked directly in and to our table..which was directly beside the window so the kids could look out while we dined and it kept them entertained. The first night during dinner they had a dance which we all participated in. Dinner was good as always with no complaints and service was very timely so A+ to the wait staff!

At 7PM we took all 3 of our kids to Camp Carnival and thus began their love affair with camp. I have to say I am a very protective parent and was worried about the kids being away from me on the ship but after the first night all my fears were gone. All 3 of my kids LOVED Camp. They wanted to go to camp so often I actually started to feel guilty about taking them so much, thinking what an awful parent I must be. I am not joking when I say they would get up about 7AM and BEGGGG to go to camp until they opened at 10AM. I am sure that not every child will want to go to camp but mine didn't want to leave that place. They enjoyed it so much we only spent like 4 hours at the water works our entire cruise!! If anyone has questions about the camp please feel free to ask me, we had 2 in the 2-5 age group and one in the 6 up group..

While the kids were in camp DH and I enjoyed adult time in the casino until 10 when we went to pick up the kids. They were all hungry so off for pizza we went then back to the cabin for the night..up next Key West..

Keep it coming, we sail on Imagination in 6 weeks!! :D

Sol y Mar

Key West

Our first day was a stop at Key West. DH and I are early risers and enjoy sitting on the balcony while pulling into port and although our arrival for Key West was 7 AM this port arrival was no different. You see the most beautiful scenery when you wake early and here are some of our pics of the moon just before sunrise and the actual sunrise arriving into Key West:

After the sun had risen we woke our 3 sleeping angels and got dressed to head ashore for Key West. As you will learn, we are a very laid back family and use our vacation as an actual vacation not a marathon. We had room service deliver coffee and such and we enjoyed our breakfast on the balcony until time to debark the ship. Things don't really start opening up in the Keys until 10 so we took this opportunity to head to the southern most point on foot. It's about an 11 block walk from where the shuttle from the outer mole drops you into town but early in the morning the streets are not that crowded and it is quiet a nice walk.

After we took our pics we headed back to the ship but stopped off at the French Bakery on Duvall for some Nutella beignets YUMMY! After the bakery we went back to the ship and had some lunch at the lido buffet then took the kids to the water works for about 2 hours. After their little water time we took them in for a nap then up at 4 to get dressed for the elegant dinner night.

I must say after reading so many negative reviews about people not dressing for elegant night I was pleasantly surprised to see most people on our sailing took the elegant night seriously and enjoyed dressing. We arrived at the Pride Dining room at 5:30 for our 5:45 my time dining and again we were seated at a window table.

After dinner (about 7 PM) we returned to the cabin, changed our clothes, took the kids to Camp Carnival and spent another night in the casino until 10 to pick up the kids. As last night, all 3 of the kids were hungry so we ordered room service for a late night snack. The only bad thing we found on the menu for room service was the cheese cake. It wasn't inedible but not as good as the other things offered. After everyone ate off to bed we went for a fun 1/2 day at sea (arriving at Cozumel at 2 PM).

Great review so far, you have beautiful kids! And those sunrise pics are gorgeous. Almost make me wish I was an early riser...almost ;)

DH and I will be doing this cruise in January. How long did it take you to walk to the Southernmost Point? I'm wondering if we could just walk around easily ourselves during the day and not bother with trolley tickets.

Nice review.

We did this same itinerary for our kids first cruise! I love revisiting it- keep it coming!

Great review so far, you have beautiful kids! And those sunrise pics are gorgeous. Almost make me wish I was an early riser...almost ;)

 

DH and I will be doing this cruise in January. How long did it take you to walk to the Southernmost Point? I'm wondering if we could just walk around easily ourselves during the day and not bother with trolley tickets.

I honestly don't remember how long it took but even with 3 kids it wasn't a bad walk. DH said he thinks it took us about 35-45 minutes to walk it which seems about right. The shuttle driver told us it was about 11 blocks but that early in the morning we missed the crowds and the heat wasn't too bad. I think it was a good decision on our part because nothing was open yet and we used this time to walk to the point instead of just wondering around the streets. We almost waited/paid for the train because of the kids and I am glad we didn't pay for it because we actually took the train from the pick up to the ship inside the mole for free because it was running for the return mole trip instead of the buses. The kids got their train ride and we saved our money :). When we got to the southern point there were only 3 other groups there so no waiting forever to get that prized picture.

Cozumel:

We didn't arrive in Cozumel until 2PM so we slept in until 10 then went to lido for breakfast. My kids wanted to go to Camp Carnival and we took them up and when to get them about 1 so we could all enjoy arrival to Cozumel from our balcony. Once all clear we made our way down to the gang plank and made an easy exit off the ship. I am a crazy picture taker so here is a pic of our ship from the walkway into cozumel:

After walking down the walkway you have to go through the "shopping mall" to actually get to the true shops..here is the "shopping mall" you have to walk through:

We made our way to the taxis and took a bus into downtown cozumel to visit Carlos N Charlies for a late lunch. I must say that although the food is good the atmosphere and entertainment is GREAT here. We all got balloon hats and tipped the lady but remember you can not take these back onto the ship for the safety of marine line. We had a guy who also came and sat at our tables and did magic trips for the kids. If you have kids or just want to get your drink on this is the place to be. Just take a taxi to "downtown" and you will see the open air restaurant on the main street. Here is a pic of us during lunch:

The antics that goes on in this place are hilarious. You can see from one of my sons face that he got painted as a pirate in camp carnival before debarkation.

After we had lunch we bought some trinkets and remember to offer about 50% of what you are quoted. I bought 3 items and always offered 50% of the quoted price and was never told no. We then headed back via taxi bus ($11.00 each way for our family of 5) and walked around the main port shops for a while and took some more pics and of course I am going to post them for you:

and here are some more pics of Cozumel:

This guy was so funny. You see him riding his fake donkey and he looked at me and said "you wanna ride my ass". I smiled and said "no thanks I ride my husband's everyday":

I caught him dancing in front of the fountain to the "good music" as he called it:

Here is just a note for people who love to take pictures. Once you re-enter the "shopping mall" there are security guys standing by each glass door inside. If you ask they will happily open the door and let you take pictures of the scenery:

We returned to the ship about 6 and enjoyed time on our balcony, took the kids back to Camp and hit the casinos again..

Luckily before sunset the ship blocking our view of Cozumel left port. Here are some pics of Cozumel from our balcony after the sunset:

Our next day is a full day at sea so I won't have a lot of pics.

Last day at Sea:

For some reason my kids will not sleep late so we were up early again this morning. We enjoyed breakfast at the Lido again and just sat around the pool until the kids program opened at 10. We took our kids up and DH and I enjoyed a morning in the casino until 11:30 to pick up the kids for lunch. After lunch we took the boys down for a nap and let DD go back to the kids program until they closed to prepair for family activities for the afternoon. We woke the boys at 4:00 and headed to the water works where we let them play until about 5:30 when we returned to get them ready for dinner. All 3 kids wanted to have dinner with Club Carnival so we took them to Lido to meet their groups and DH and I enjoyed a nice dinner in the main dining room childless. After dinner we went and listened to some live music and enjoy a few drinks and each other until 10 when we went to pick up the kids. They all 3 begged to stay in the after hours program so we paid for them to stay until midnight :eek:. DH and I then his the casino..again..unti time to pick up the kids. Now it was time to pack and place our luggage into the hallway. They tell you to have your luggage sat out before 11 PM on the last night, but they will pick it up if sat out after that time. We didn't get ours out until about 1AM and had no issues.

Debarkation Day:

This is the sad day of a cruise. Dh and I set our alarm for 5:30 and enjoyed coffee on the balcony until time to wake the kids at 6:30. We got everyone dressed and sat on our balcony until about 8 then headed out to the main dining room for breakfast. Just so you know, they serve breakfast in the main dining room until about 9:30 on debarkation day. After breakfast we made our way off the ship and made a smooth exit through customs and to our awaiting vehicle.

Issues the good and the bad:

I must say I didn't find anything to really complain about so now I am going to go way out there with 2 issues I found:

1) The drink set up on Lido..it causes for congestion in this area because they have it set up with cups in the middle, ice on the left then the tea/lemonade on the right..it would be much smoother to have it cups...ice...then drinks :D

2) We were in the cabin with 3 small children and I noticed the balcony door or the door to the hall had an upper lock. They both only had 2 twist locks and the doors were heavy but not to heavy for my 3 year olds to open. I know the upper locks wouldn't prevent a child from figuring out how to open the doors but it would at least slow them down.

The GREAT:

I have to say everything about the cruise we enjoyed. This was our 2nd time on the Imagination and it was still as lovely as ever. However I want to give extra credit to the staff at Camp Carnival. When I first started planning this trip I looked only at the ships with the waterworks for our kids. In the end, we only spent about 3-4 hours total because each morning they would wake up wanting to go to camp. DH and I had agreed before the cruise, if our 7 year old wanted to go to camp we would let her and if she didn't she didn't have too. When she went we decided only then would the boys go and if they didn't want to they could stay with us. THEY all 3 LOVED camp. They actually cried to go back on our departure day. I have to admit, at times I felt like an awful parent, standing at the door of camp waiting on them to open, but our kids wanted to go. My 7 year old even asked to stay in camp when docked in Cozumel but DH and I both agreed that this was a family vacation and she needed to be with us in port. I can say this has greatly increased my cruise ship options for future cruises because now I am not limited to those with the waterworks because I know my kids will be just as happy in camp as on the waterslides, amazing but true!!

If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer them for you. I know I am not a great writer but hope you all enjoyed the pics. And until our next sailing..goodbye carnival.

great review...I told dh after our liberty cruise in Nov for a quick get away with the kids we should book the imagination we live in south florida so its easy for us :)

thank you for sharing...

I understand that the cruise director was James Dunn. We sailed with him on the Dream as assistant cruise director. How was he as cruise director? thanks.

great review...I told dh after our liberty cruise in Nov for a quick get away with the kids we should book the imagination we live in south florida so its easy for us :)

thank you for sharing...

I say go for it. We did the short cruise for our kids first to see how they liked it. On the last night, on the way to get pizza of course, I asked my 7 year old which she liked more, the cruise or Disney World..without hesitation she said "the cruise can we go again". After our 7 night stay at the Polynesian in Disney World last year she hasn't asked to go there again although I wish she would because I am a Disney Crazy. We will be doing a 7 night eastern our next cruise but on another line because no balconies available on any of the Carnival Eastern for a family of 5 unless we do connecting and we are not comfortable with connecting balconies yet. I only with Carnival had more balcony rooms for a large family because we truly enjoy the ships and service on Carnival and a little scared to venture into the "unknown" with another line.

and here are some more pics of Cozumel:

 

This guy was so funny. You see him riding his fake donkey and he looked at me and said "you wanna ride my ass". I smiled and said "no thanks I ride my husband's everyday":

 

 

quote]

 

When we were here back in November 2009, this guy was our waiter while drinking some drinks at Three Amigo's, we got a picture of him with our drinks balancing on his head.

 

TOO funny. I knew he was funny, but talented too wow! He was really funny, even if it was to get customers to come in, but it is the small things like this that make you want to revisit a place IMO.

Last day at Sea:

 

 

If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer them for you. I know I am not a great writer but hope you all enjoyed the pics. And until our next sailing..goodbye carnival.

Did they have creme brulee at dinner? (very important issue, lol)

Thanks for the great review, we sail in 6 weeks!

Sol y Mar

Did they have creme brulee at dinner? (very important issue, lol)

 

Thanks for the great review, we sail in 6 weeks!

 

Sol y Mar

Sorry to say I didn't see the creme brulee on the menu but we only ordered desert 2 nights (to full the other 2 nights).

I understand that the cruise director was James Dunn. We sailed with him on the Dream as assistant cruise director. How was he as cruise director? thanks.

I really didn't notice how he was as a director..I know this sounds awful but we don't really pay attention to these things because we are of the mind a cruise is what you make of it and a director won't make our cruise good or miserable. I can say he did a good job of making the announcements and everything on board was great.

Sorry to say I didn't see the creme brulee on the menu but we only ordered desert 2 nights (to full the other 2 nights).

It's funny, I didn't think too much about it until I heard it wasn't offered on the shorter cruises. It's one of the things I always order on the cruise, but never get at home.

Thanks Again!

Sol y Mar

I really didn't notice how he was as a director..I know this sounds awful but we don't really pay attention to these things because we are of the mind a cruise is what you make of it and a director won't make our cruise good or miserable. I can say he did a good job of making the announcements and everything on board was great.

:p Hee hee, I might have thought & said that at one time but just you wait, Graham Seymour is FANTASTIC!!!! :D Your children are beautiful and I enjoyed your review.

:p Hee hee, I might have thought & said that at one time but just you wait, Graham Seymour is FANTASTIC!!!! :D Your children are beautiful and I enjoyed your review.

Thanks for the heads up on Graham, my luck he will be off the FOS before we sail next year :eek:..I'm going to read your review now.

We were there in September and the man wasn't close to his donkey so my 15 year old daughter jumped on just in time for him to come over and say "hey...... get off my ass" ... haha Pretty funny. :D

and here

 

are some more pics of Cozumel:

 

This guy was so funny. You see him riding his fake donkey and he looked at me and said "you wanna ride my ass". I smiled and said "no thanks I ride my husband's everyday":

 

 

 

quote]

 

When we were here back in November 2009, this guy was our waiter while drinking some drinks at Three Amigo's, we got a picture of him with our drinks balancing on his head.

 

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Your children are gorgeous. Very nice review and wonderful pictures. Thanks for sharing