Just off Imagination!

[sunlovingirl]

Just did a B2B2B on Imagination. We had a great time... Sure there were things that concerned us for a second (a water line breaking on upper deck flooding the room next to my parent's suite and the sewage smell for about 3 days) but overall, we had a great time.

 

I will post a review with lots of picutres (I even snuck around and took a variety of pictures of the various room types while using shipmate to see the deck plans) but this will take a while as I am off to a conference in Atlanta tomorrow...

 

However, any questions etc let me know... Otherwise I will begin to post to this every day! :)

 

We went May 3-13 (so two 3 day cruises and 1 4 day cruise).

[Rockee4055]

Just did a B2B2B on Imagination. We had a great time... Sure there were things that concerned us for a second (a water line breaking on upper deck flooding the room next to my parent's suite and the sewage smell for about 3 days) but overall, we had a great time.

 

I will post a review with lots of picutres (I even snuck around and took a variety of pictures of the various room types while using shipmate to see the deck plans) but this will take a while as I am off to a conference in Atlanta tomorrow...

 

However, any questions etc let me know... Otherwise I will begin to post to this every day! :)

 

We went May 3-13 (so two 3 day cruises and 1 4 day cruise).

 

Well, welcome to Atlanta! You'll enjoy some gorgeous weather while you're down here. Today was crystal clear, 78 with alight breeze. May rain later in the week.

 

Have a safe trip.

[SunshineOnTheBrain]

We are doing a B2B this summer on the Imagination. Looking forward to your review and pictures!!!

[Avril]

Thanks a lot in advance for your review!! I can't wait to read it and see your pics. :D The Imagination was the 1st ship I sailed on back in 2003 and this November/December, I'm sailing on her again, super excited!! :D I'm looking forward to seeing the changes they've made to the ship over the years. I'm doing a B2B on her (3 Day then 4 Day).

[sunlovingirl]

Sorry I haven't been updating like I said. I had that conference in Atlanta and then came down with Colitis and today is the first day I have been able to sit up and focus on anything! What a bad time!

 

 

Buuuut today I am starting on my review, so I will keep you posted :)

[wrigley80]

I will be looking forward to seeing more. We cruise on the Imagination in December.

[ATL2LAS]

I love reviews of my favorite ship:D

[Elaine5715]

Waiting....

[Cruise-Crazy]

I like the Imagination, sorry to see it leaving Miami.

[HappyMom75]

My families first cruise will be on the imagination so looking forward to reading your review.

[jenng1976]

I'm looking forward to this review too!

 

Cruising on the Imagination in December with my parents :)

[sunlovingirl]

Okay, so here it is... finally! I apologize again, like I said, I was pretty sick there for a few days, so I needed to recoup before I could sit down to the computer.

 

 

Introduction:

 

I am 29 and my DH is 25. We got married on the Carnival Liberty last year. We LOVE cruising, and I think we are pretty reasonable about expectations, especially knowing we are going on a bunch of short cruises from Miami.

Along with us the first weekend were our friends Val 34 and Brian 33 and the middle leg was with my mom (56) stepdad (turned 50 on the cruise) and my brother (28). The last weekend we were alone in our travels. (but not really, there were so many people there!)

 

We live in Erie PA. It literally snowed the day before we left to go for our cruise, and yes, we went May 3-13. We flew from our small local airport to save some travel time. We took United. We paid 85 bucks for our two checked bags and the garment bag. We arrived around 11 AM into Ft Lauderdale, and our friends Val and Brian and set up travel arrangements with Larry’s Limos. (found on cruisecritic). Loved this guy. Picked us up in a huge SUV like monster, and stopped off to a liquor/wine store and a grocery store (I like to carry on pop) on the way to the port.

 

We arrived at the port around 12:30pm. We literally walked through security, upstairs, got our room keys, took our pictures and were on the boat by 1pm. We decided to go to the LIDO and get food because we were all starving and then go to our rooms Riviera deck R116 (us) and R124 (them).

 

Of course we also had to get DOD :)

 

 

I have a lot of pictures, but of course this is telling me my uploads failed, so I will have to figure out what I'm doing wrong

[reddgrits]

My family has booked this cruise for next month, so I am anxious to hear what you did in Cozumel. Docking at 1 pm has made planning what to do kind of hard. I look forward to the rest of your review!

[re-re]

Can't wait for the pictures, Imagination was my first cruise in 1999, she started my addiction...lol. I can't wait to cruise her again in October.:)

[sunlovingirl]

Sorry guys, I am trying to figure out where to upload my pics so I can just use the URL picture thing. ANYWAY!!

 

continuing:

 

My DH and I had over 200 dollars of OBC for each leg of this cruise due to some really great early saver price drops, and although we did eventually figure out how to just get this back as cash, we, and by that I mean my DH and his friend Brian, used it the first leg of the trip for, well, beer. lol

 

So, we set our bags down in our room, and hurried off to explore the ship. We wanted to find all the observation decks/hidden decks, less crowded areas, see what in all there was to do etc. I am not going to continue to give you a play by play because I feel like sometimes, that gets a little tedious so instead, I will tell you things as I remember them :

 

I have to say, this is the perfect size ship for me. It’s easy to get around, there is plenty to do, but it doesn’t seem to take all day to get from one end to the other. I also adored the waterworks area. They have areas that just spray, so you can lay out, then go run through that area, and go back and sit down again, without having to fight all the kids for a slide. Though, it is rather annoying when the kids keep turning the water off when you go through, but whatever!

 

I still don’t understand having a serenity deck and not having a pool there for adults. This serenity deck was really nice and it had two hot tubs, which were always full of barely clothed women, but they didn’t have a pool. I can’t imagine being really hot, wanting to cool off, and then having the only options to be walking up two flights to the waterworks area or jumping in a hot tub, but that’s just me. We just stayed with the waterworks area instead.

[sunlovingirl]

Some of my opinions… and you know what opinions are like…

 

I loved the show SHOUT (second show). It was great. We saw it twice during our 10 days onboard. I did not care for the first show at all, Coming to America. My stepdad is fairly religious and walked out because of the outfits the women were wearing. I could hardly blame him.

 

We routinely go to the art show champagne auction. It has become a sick joke with us, as my husband bought some artwork on the cruise when we got married. Now he has to be sober before we go and I get to keep the bidcard. Do we find anything amazing and we have to buy it? No. But I like looking at the art and learning about the artists. This time however, there was a really really rude guy working for them, who came up and yelled at me for not putting my bid card up. I politely said I declined to do this. He amped it up and began to yell at me, infront of my husband and our friends who were cruising carnival for the first time. I offered him the card and to leave. He said “why did you even come then lady?” and I left. My husband did speak with the art gallery director after this, and he did apologize and send wine, strawberries and a flower, but I just hope he speaks to that guy about his attitude. Our friends, who would buy things, will probably never go back to another auction now. (Of course, they probably will because we told them it was resolved, but you know how it is!)

 

I love the taste bar. The food is always the same it seems boat to boat, but it’s great food, so I don’t care. I love going there, and then going to dinner at 7. It’s our thing. I’m so glad they came up with this option.

 

I do NOT understand the coffee bar. I tried a few things on this trip since we had some money to spend. I didn’t care for any of the coffee alcoholic drinks, and why would you buy coffee or hot chocolate when you can get that upstairs on Lido for free?

[sunlovingirl]

I also do NOT understand dressing in the skimpiest things in the world and then walking all over the place in them. Case in point, there are all those lovely signs that say “bathing suits are cool by the pool, but cover up inside” (something to that effect). Well, it didn’t stop boys from coming in without shirts on and hanging over the lido buffet and likewise girls wearing basically nothing just wandering around by the food. I just think its so disgusting. You think you have the body for the swimsuit, fine, but I don’t want your body hair in the food. Thanks. Blah.

 

A few mishaps occurred on our trip. We had some neighbors on the second leg that wouldn’t stop smoking in their rooms. I know our steward was trying his hardest to bust them, and I’m pretty sure they were busted about 3 days into it, when they decided to smoke pot instead, but it was really annoying! Our room consistently smelled bad! We did call and complain, and he placed the ozone machine in our room, which did help for a while, but it was just a continual thing.

 

Also, a water pipe burst on my parents floor (the floor with the suites). It ended up flooding out their neighbors suite. Luckily it was clean water. My mom also said they had terrible noise coming from their room all night long every night, and she met every one of the ships engineers whom couldn’t seem to figure out what it was.

[sunlovingirl]

And lastly, the day we were at Cozumel, apparently they decided to clean the sewage line, which made the entire ship smell like sewage for two days. That was not fun at all.

They did do some great stuff though. They sang really loudly and in broken English for my stepdad’s 50th at dinner. Cesario, our waiter, was positively the nicest happiest guy I’d met on the boat.

 

When we were in the Bahamas the first weekend we did go to the British Colonial Hilton. This is such a great plan. The snorkeling sucks, so don’t bother, but the area is amazing. It’s now 65 dollars a person to go, but 40 goes towards food/drinks. Be careful to use the same waiter as the rest of your party. We didn’t know this and my husband grabbed someone at the bar after he used the bathroom, and then they refused to even carry our food out to us, while our friends’ waiter was bringing everything to them. I didn’t like that point. But the place was immaculate. They have tons of bathrooms which are very clean. They have a pool, lots of chairs w/ the clam shell over them, areas in the shade etc. They also allow you to have free wifi access in the lobby if you ask!

 

The best part was watching the other cruise ships come in the port and turn around, literally right infront of us.

 

The second time we were in Nassau we just stayed on the boat. We got to do all the slides by ourselves. It was fantastic.

 

I can’t speak to the Lido food. I have a huge buffet phobia and I don’t eat there if I don’t have to. But I can speak to the dining room food, and it was amazing. Breakfast, lunch (when available) and dinner. We also did tea time, which was cramped up in the piano bar next to the dining room, but that was still okay.

 

I never walked into the spa. My husband and I are doing the Couch to 5K program (again) and so we just used the track. I do wish they kept the clocks running up there correctly all the time, because it was be easier to time our trips if we didn’t have to look at my ipod and try to keep pace. (He’s about a foot taller than me so he leaves me in the dust routinely).

[KirkNC]

Welcome home, glad you had a good time.

[sunlovingirl]

As for Cozumel, we went to the Money Bar. This is by far the best place! I love it! We have our own snorkel gear, and we hit a cab (9 dollars US for the entire CAB, not per person) to the Money Bar. There, we grabbed some chairs (free) and a locker (3 bucks US, good til 5 pm their time) and lounged and snorkeled. The bathrooms are super clean, the food is not bad at all (all prices are in pesos so just realize that it doesn’t really cost like 100 bucks for a drink), and you can stay there all day. We have been to the Money Bar a few times, its always the same guys working there. They are wonderful, and they are very attentive. There are also showers and places to wash your gear. When you are ready to head back, there are cabs just sitting there waiting. I cannot stress how great this place is. (maybe I shouldn’t!) Also, it’s always fun to watch all the shore excursions pull up in the water and drop a bunch of snorkelers off right where I went for 9 bucks. This is a great deal!!! The water is amazing, clear and has TONS of stuff to see. You can also rent equipment there and towels I believe, but I always just take my own. I’m not sure on pricing for those.

 

 

Oh, and as far as how to get back your onboard credit. So, we had a bunch of nonrefundable onboard credit from some price drops. What you do, is you go to the casino, and you charge to your card whatever amount you have, say 200 bucks. Then you immediately cash out to your card. Then you go to the casino cashier and cash out. And Viola, you have your 200 bucks. We used a portion of this each cruise for extra tips, taxi money, etc. So essentially our “extras” were paid for as well. YAY!

 

A tip about "My time dining": if you are planning to use this, vs traditional, please go early. By 8 pm every night, there was a line that wrapped around the whole deck outside of the dining room. The place is a ghost town until then. We loved our waiter (Cesario) and so we would always show up at 7, because thats when he started his shift. If not for him, we would have gone earlier, but thanks to Taste Bar, we were okay. Most of the time, we ate a big breakfast and didn't eat lunch if it was't served in the dining room, so I'm telling you, 7 pm is a great time to go (even though I was really hungry sometimes by then!).

 

The bar waiter, Wilson, in the bar in the back of the Lido buffet was awesome. My DH loves Thirsty Frog beer, and thats one of just a few spots you can get it on that boat, and Wilson learned us quickly, and remembered us through all the cruises. He began to grab the cup before my DH got to the bar. lol!

 

 

Overall, I had a fantastic time... I had been on the sensation when I was younger, and it was nice to be back to that class. We're actually looking to book our next cruises on the Glory (because of location) and Sensation (because of nostalgia). I can't stop cruising, I just love the experience.

 

And I will add some pictures with captions as soon as I get this sorted out. I'm trying shutterfly, but if anyone has a better suggestion, please let me know.

[cruiseclues]

Thank you for posting your review. :):):):)

[HappyMom75]

Thanks for the review! Loved reading it. 8 more days for me. Or is it 7 days and a few hrs. :)

[sunlovingirl]

Thanks everyone!!! We just booked our next on the glory!! We're addicted!!

[jenng1976]

Thx for your review! :)

 

For pictures, if you have Facebook it's easy to upload.

 

Just right click and copy the picture (full-size picture, not the teaser), then in the body of your message here, paste.

 

Jenn :)

[sunlovingirl]

Thx for your review! :)

 

For pictures, if you have Facebook it's easy to upload.

 

Just right click and copy the picture (full-size picture, not the teaser), then in the body of your message here, paste.

 

Jenn :)

 

Thanks! I will try it!