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Carnival Ecstasy Bermuda Cruise-May 12, 2016

onegroundcafe

By onegroundcafe,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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onegroundcafe

onegroundcafe

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Background:

 

My family and I booked this cruise after our Thanksgiving cruise on the Breeze. We want to go to ports we have never been to so we chose Bermuda. Carnival has limited Bermuda options we ended up choosing the Ecstasy out of Charleston.

My fellow cruisers are DH (43), DD (10) and me (33). We are Platinum cruisers with Carnival, we have not tried any other line. We were hesitant to cruise on the Ecstasy since it is the second oldest ship in the fleet but I did like going out of Charleston since it is close to home.

We drove down the night before and stayed at a hotel that allowed you to park for the cruise duration and offered shuttle service to and from the cruise port.

The morning of the cruise they called our room at 10:00 and told us the shuttle was ready so we grabbed our bags and headed to port.

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onegroundcafe

onegroundcafe

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Embarkation Day-May 12, 2016: The Port

Embarkation at Charleston is a beast which is why we chose to park at a hotel and get shuttled to the port. The day prior Carnival called and told us not to be at the port until 11:30. Our shuttle however left at 10:30 am.

Last year when we went on the Fantasy we parked at the port and did that whole process and ended up sitting in line to park inside the building for an hour, I did not want to do this again.

We arrived at the port around 11:00 and we were directed to a tent to drop off our luggage and it got carted away. We then went to another tent to wait for the port people to call and say we could board. About ten minutes later they sent a charter bus that we were allowed to sit in while we waited (yay air conditioning!).

As we waited we observed this was definitely a different demographic than we were used to cruising with and I began to worry about DD since we saw no children on our bus at all. We also were told that the Ecstasy usually holds 2600 people but our particular cruise only had 2100 people. We have never been on an under capacity cruise so we were excited.

About 15 minutes later we got the go-ahead to head to the terminal. The bus traveled one-half block and we reached the terminal and headed to check in.

Check in was awesome! There was no line at the metal detector/scan thing and no line at the check-in counter. If this was a sign of things to come this trip would be smooth sailing. The lady told us to go up the stairs and get on. We started to head to the stairs and we were stopped by someone telling us boarding had not yet begun.

I am not sure if Charleston has a priority lounge, if it does we did not use it. We watched the photographers set up their backgrounds and we happily took an embarkation photo.

Just a few minutes later we got the go ahead to get on and we were off!

Edited by onegroundcafe
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onegroundcafe

onegroundcafe

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Embarkation Day-May 12, 2016-On the ship!

We climbed the gangway to level seven, it was pretty steep and reminded me of a roller coaster and I tried to not think about the gangway in Baltimore. Once on board we headed down to level six to our room.

Since it was DH's birthday on our cruise I went ahead and had the room decorated for his birthday.

8ba33b9f-6fdc-4e2e-a259-0be8f115cf81_zps2cw0r0vh.jpg

I also got a pair of Carnival flip flops for 3.00 because I love flip flops!

DH had ordered a pack of bottled water for us and it was waiting in our room, as was our luggage. We have never ever gotten luggage this quickly on a cruise before. DH even unpacked his stuff before we headed up for lunch.

DD headed to the grill to get chicken tenders and french fries, I will miss this option as it seems ships are getting Guy's Burgers and DH and I went to the Mongolian Wok. I am very short, and the Wok on this style of ship has options that are too high for me to see, thus I can only get it a few days if DH wants it because I don't want to make him wait in line twice for food. Luckily he did want Mongolian and there was no line (there would never be a line for the whole cruise...unheard of!)

We sat outside and ate our lunch then observed the pool and hot tubs.

IMG_1306_zpstvgikqdl.jpg

We went to our room got on our suits and headed to the empty hot tubs, we used the one with the cover over it as DH doesn't like the sun. We stayed in there for about 45 minutes and DH got the funship special which now comes in a plastic cup, we miss the hurricane glasses, and I got a Miami Vice. DD rotated from swimming pool to hot tub.

We got out and headed to our room to unpack and dry off. After unpacking we explored our new home for a week and got more food from the lido deck. The time was coming for muster drill so we went back to our room to get ready.

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CruzinScotty

CruzinScotty

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Enjoying your review; can't wait for more.

 

 

Last year when we went on the Fantasy we parked at the port and did that whole process and ended up sitting in line to park inside the building for an hour, I did not want to do this again.

 

Last year, when you went thru the parking process, what time did you arrive?

 

We're leaving in a few weeks for our first Charleston departure. I know each cruise is different; and some people say it's not that bad. But.....I'm trying to avoid sitting in the car for an hour if I can.

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Gone2Beach

Gone2Beach

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could you tell me which hotel you stayed at that allowed had the park & ride.Also did you feel safe leaving your car.( I thing you did because you left it lol)

 

 

We are leaving out of Charleston next week. We've sailed out many times from there. We like to stay at the Holiday Inn in Mount Pleasant. Service is nice, shuttle is efficient, and has a good breakfast. Parking also appears safe.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

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cocacola86

cocacola86

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It's funny when I first met my DW and pardon my spelling I never knew what stumput was, bodokoyle, a double salted drupe only thing I pretty well knew was the girls had blonde hair

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

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Tracey/Thom

Tracey/Thom

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I would love to visit Holland someday but my DW is nervous about going to Europe right now.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Europe is still statistically safer than driving a vehicle (or crossing the street in NYC!) LOL

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evandbob

evandbob

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I am headed to Bermuda in September so I am excited for your review.

 

Just back from Bermuda, was able to stay there for 3 days on the NCL Breakaway out of NYC. Longest time I ever stayed at one port!

 

The south side beaches are all wonderful, we went to Horseshoe, but there are plenty more like Elbow, etc. You can walk 13 miles from one beach to another, they are all connected for that long.

 

2nd day was spent at Crystal Caves, the Bermuda zoo and aquarium, and lunch and shopping in Hamilton.

 

3rd day we were set to go to Snorkel Park Beach close to the dock, but morning rain changed our plans.

 

The Celebrity Summit out of Bayonne was docked next to us for the same 3 days in port!

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MCFTJCH2V

MCFTJCH2V

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Love love love Bermuda. We prefer the traditional two night/ three day stay, and would actually stay longer if we could. We also prefer sailing there in the summer months.

 

And with all our cruises there, STILL have never made it to the east side of the island. If any place is close to paradise, this is it.

 

Wish the OP would come back and complete the review.

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