Looking forward to an easyCruise review!

[nfused2cruze]

Would like to know how the cruise experience really is, wouldn't you? :cool:

[sceptic]

I'll be on easycruise in a couple of weeks for 7 nights in the southern caribbean. I'll provide a full report. We're really looking forward to it, and are going in with realistic expectations on what we're getting. Heh.

[nfused2cruze]

Septic,

 

Good for you - if anything - enjoy it. Laugh as much as possible ........ and take as much as possible! :D

[nfused2cruze]

Sceptic - - - oops - sorry with the spelling.

[sceptic]

That's okay about the spelling. Some of my posts have a certain "air" about them anyway.

 

BTW, I just checked the easycruise website, and there are some photos up from the Caribbean first-week. There aren't many of them, yet I found them oddly reassuring. The original set of pictures my spouse and I thought were (intentionally??) hilarious in that they were so obviously posed, and the pix of the "crew" looked like something from the movie "Catch me if you can" - not that I dislike a crewmember dressed like a go-go dancer from 1967...

 

Anyway, these new pictures show people certainly above their supposed "target" age group of 20s and 30s. More like active 40s. And Sir Richard Branson was on board. He probably found a kindred spirit in the guy who started the whole "easy[whatever]" concept.

 

I simply intend on having fun, and enjoying some places I've always wanted to see but were slightly off the normal cruise itinerary, like Bequia and St. Vincent.

 

I'll let y'all know what it's like, good bad and funny.

[SaylorGirl]

Sceptic - I will look forward to your review. We are book in May in the Med, looking forward to it, I think it will be a great experience. We were getting tired of the "big" ships so it will be a great change of pace.

[foureyes]

I just returned from a week in the southern caribbean on Easy Cruise 1. Overall it was a great experience., but definately not for everyone. It is truly a no frills cruise and the rooms are tiny. We paid extra for cabin cleaning and fresh towels. They had a midweek special. The crew is great. Terrible DJ. We ate on board a couple of times. The food is mediocre, but sometimes just convenient. They offered a handful of shore excursions in each port. The weather was pretty overcast and rainy so the excursions were a good alternative on days we had planned to go to the beach. We went tree swinging in Martinique. Great fun but very challenging. Only for the physically fit and not for the faint of heart. We hiked through the rain forest in Grenada to the Seven Sisters waterfall. Rainy and muddy but fun. Fellow passengers were mostly English, some German and French, with a handful of Americans. Being in the minority made it more interesting. We made alot of good friends. For me, the best part was the great itinerary and length of time in each port. I would do it again just for that. I'll never vacation on a mega ship again.

[foureyes]

I just returned from a week in the southern caribbean on Easy Cruise 1. Overall it was a great experience., but definately not for everyone. It is truly a no frills cruise and the rooms are tiny. We paid extra for cabin cleaning and fresh towels. They had a midweek special. The crew is great. Terrible DJ. We ate on board a couple of times. The food is mediocre, but sometimes just convenient. They offered a handful of shore excursions in each port. The weather was pretty overcast and rainy so the excursions were a good alternative on days we had planned to go to the beach. We went tree swinging in Martinique. Great fun but very challenging. Only for the physically fit and not for the faint of heart. We hiked through the rain forest in Grenada to the Seven Sisters waterfall. Rainy and muddy but fun. Fellow passengers were mostly English, some German and French, with a handful of Americans. Being in the minority made it more interesting. We made alot of good friends. For me, the best part was the great itinerary and length of time in each port. I would do it again just for that. I'll never vacation on a mega ship again.

[foureyes]

I just returned from a week in the southern caribbean on Easy Cruise 1. Overall it was a great experience., but definately not for everyone. It is truly a no frills cruise and the rooms are tiny. We paid extra for cabin cleaning and fresh towels. They had a midweek special. The crew is great. Terrible DJ. We ate on board a couple of times. The food is mediocre, but sometimes just convenient. They offered a handful of shore excursions in each port. The weather was pretty overcast and rainy so the excursions were a good alternative on days we had planned to go to the beach. We went tree swinging in Martinique. Great fun but very challenging. Only for the physically fit and not for the faint of heart. We hiked through the rain forest in Grenada to the Seven Sisters waterfall. Rainy and muddy but fun. Fellow passengers were mostly English, some German and French, with a handful of Americans. Being in the minority made it more interesting. We made alot of good friends. For me, the best part was the great itinerary and length of time in each port. I would do it again just for that. I'll never vacation on a mega ship again.

[foureyes]

I just returned from a week in the southern caribbean on Easy Cruise 1. Overall it was a great experience., but definately not for everyone. It is truly a no frills cruise and the rooms are tiny. We paid extra for cabin cleaning and fresh towels. They had a midweek special. The crew is great. Terrible DJ. We ate on board a couple of times. The food is mediocre, but sometimes just convenient. They offered a handful of shore excursions in each port. The weather was pretty overcast and rainy so the excursions were a good alternative on days we had planned to go to the beach. We went tree swinging in Martinique. Great fun but very challenging. Only for the physically fit and not for the faint of heart. We hiked through the rain forest in Grenada to the Seven Sisters waterfall. Rainy and muddy but fun. Fellow passengers were mostly English, some German and French, with a handful of Americans. Being in the minority made it more interesting. We made alot of good friends. For me, the best part was the great itinerary and length of time in each port. I would do it again just for that. I'll never vacation on a mega ship again.

[foureyes]

I just returned from a week in the southern caribbean on Easy Cruise 1. Overall it was a great experience., but definately not for everyone. It is truly a no frills cruise and the rooms are tiny. We paid extra for cabin cleaning and fresh towels. They had a midweek special. The crew is great. Terrible DJ. We ate on board a couple of times. The food is mediocre, but sometimes just convenient. They offered a handful of shore excursions in each port. The weather was pretty overcast and rainy so the excursions were a good alternative on days we had planned to go to the beach. We went tree swinging in Martinique. Great fun but very challenging. Only for the physically fit and not for the faint of heart. We hiked through the rain forest in Grenada to the Seven Sisters waterfall. Rainy and muddy but fun. Fellow passengers were mostly English, some German and French, with a handful of Americans. Being in the minority made it more interesting. We made alot of good friends. For me, the best part was the great itinerary and length of time in each port. I would do it again just for that. I'll never vacation on a mega ship again.

[magictootsie]

Thanks for the review I will be going on the Easy Cruise the 2nd week of December. A few questions. Does the ship dock at the stops or do they tender you in? Was the Tree swinging tour offered by easycruise? Did they have a tour in Bequia on the Passion to Mustique?

 

I fortunatley have been to all of the stops except Martinique on a pass Windjammer Cruise. I highly recommend the Lobster pizza in Bequia.

[SaylorGirl]

Foureyes- Thanks for your review. We will be in the Med so the ports will be fantastic. How can you go wrong with Cannes, Nice & Portifino? We are expecting it to be small and orange but I think it's a great concept and a great price. Was the ship full? Did you use the gym or hot tub? Were you able to buy coffee in the morning? Thanks!

[sceptic]

We just got back from 7 days on easyCruise1. We had a great time, and I will make a long review in a day or so, but I will answer one question here that I know a lot of you are wondering about:

 

How orange IS it?

 

The answer...................... not much.

 

The reception area looks a bit like a 50/50 bar, and the cabins have the orange pod bathroom (plus some on the back wall and shelves) but the Sports Bar is more woody, the Cafe is light and bright, the jacuzzi area is wood, and most of the interior is white, light grey and metal.

 

It's also very clean.

 

(Magictootsie, the only Tender is Bequia.)

[nfused2cruze]

I'll never vacation on a mega ship again.

That is some statement! ;) Thanks for the review.

[sceptic]

Here's a more detailed review of easyCruiseOne (the official name of their ship, which I'll reduce to EC1).

 

We were one of the lucky ones who snagged the $4 per night deal in August. As it turns out, this incredible price - essentially free - resulted in a lot of empty cabins, between 30 and 40. People made the reservation at $28 for a week and then tried to book to Barbados but found out it was rather expensive, so they just bagged it all and didn't bother trying to get a refund. The result was that there were only 70+ passengers! with a crew of over 50, this was a passenger/crew ratio better than perhaps any cruise ship in the world. Heh.

 

We used FF miles to Trinidad, then found a LIAT puddle-jumper flight to Barbados for only $100 PP r/t. (LIAT stands for "Late In Arrival Time", btw). The end result was the total Out of pocket for the cruise and air fare was a bit under $250 for both of us. Of course, food isn't included. But that's pretty darn cheap as a starting point.

 

The ship met and exceeded our expectations. It was surprisingly short on actual orange paint onboard. The concierge/lobby area looked a bit like a 50/50 bar, and our room had the orange bathroom pod and part of the back wall in orange, but other than that the ship was either white, silver, or other earth tones. Actually, it was rather sedate for the most part.

 

CREW: Uniformly friendly. British and other nationalities, only two US citizens in crew, apparently hired so that Sky TV, a Brit network that is filming a reality-based show on the ups-and-downs of Easy Cruise, could sell the show to the US Travel Channel. The Brit cruise director had been on several Princess megaships and was funny, quick, and occasionally a little lewdly hilarious. The Caribbean portion of the easy cruise is still getting its sea legs, so to speak. On each round trip they've added new excursions, gotten more infor about the ports, etc. AT each port many members of the crew would go on new excursions to test them out for future passengers.

 

AMENITIES: Clean! The ship was very clean, and maintenance (varnishing, etc.) was constant. The air conditioning worked great, thank the lord. I detected a slight odor one day on Deck 2, but only once. The rest of the ship looked and smelled very clean always.

 

The Cafe Ritazza, on deck 3, is open and bright. It's part of a European chain, so I've been told, sort of akin to Starbucks. I'm not a coffee drinker, but those who are told me the coffee was excellent - which is apparently something of a rarity on some cruise ships. We'd have croissants or muffins for breakfast while planning activities and watching the local customs officers deal with the ship's paperwork, something they did every morning in the Cafe.

 

The Sports Bar was the primary restaurant. The whole concept of EC1 is that you enjoy local restaurants and food - departures from port aren't until between 9:30 PM and 12:30 AM - and not eat on board, but this restaurant was there just in case. How was the food? Satisfactory. Some meals were excellent, often those cooked from local ingredients like fresh fish or lobsters. Others were okay. I also had the worst milkshake ever. I'd liken it to a TGIFriday, with similar prices.

 

The problem with the Sports Bar is that its ambience is weird. It's more like a sports museum, with displays of fencing equipment, ancient tennis rackets, and some flatscreen TVs that show looped DVDs of odd extreme sports from around the world. That sort of thing. I told some Brit friends I met onboard that this must be like a British sports bar, because it is nothing like those in the US. They laughed, because they thought the opposite - this must be what US sports bars are like, because UK ones are so different!

 

IMO, Easy Cruise is really missing out on creating a nice place for people to congregate at night. This place is typically very quiet - who wants to hang around a sports museum? With a little thought and marketing they could make this a fun place to hang out. I'm available for consultation if they're interested.:)

 

The place where people hung out was on the "jacuzzi deck." It's on the fifth deck at the back, where there is a hot tub, a bar, many teak tables, on a teak deck. It's a lot of fun, where the "games" are played at night (scavenger hunts, trivia, not-so-newlywed.... the standards). THere is also music. A previous poster said the DJ wasn't too good. He must have been referring to the US one. The other, a Brit, was great.

 

One thing about a ship with only 70 passengers, each with similar expectations (a bit more adventurous, perhaps?) is that you get to know a nice group of people, see them constantly, begin to form friendships and plan things together. If for no other reason, this fellowship would be reason enough for us to want to book EC1 again. We met almost every night on the jacuzzi deck.

 

Typical age was perhaps mid-30s. There were few passengers over 60, and none as far as I could tell under 21.

 

There is also a small gym that as far as I know not a single person used. There was a sundeck on Deck 6, and a small store next to the concierge desk. It had odd hours and was never open while I was on the ship - however, the people at the concierge desk would always open it for me if I wanted. (the only thing I bought there was a gaudy EC1 beach towel. Yes, it is orange.)

 

CABIN: We had a standard cabin. Despite what I was expecting, the first view was frankly hilarious. It is dinky. However, it is nicely laid out. The bathroom pod has a very large shower, a euro-modern sink, and toilet. There is a large sliding glass door that locks; water into the cabin was never an issue. However, the shower (a good shower, I might add) is simply one end of the bathroom without a curtain. So anything in the bathroom might get wet. We even removed the TP while showering, just in case (not necessary, as it turned out.)

 

The beds are "twin" mattresses on a raised area that we pushed together. Each had its own duvet. I must say, they were extremely comfortable; we both had excellent nights' sleep.

 

There is little extra room for much of anything. You can stow a couple of carry-on bags at the foot of the bed, and a few backpacks in the "hallway" to the door, but that's about it. No chair, no table. There is a shelf above the bed with a lip that was well used by us. Next to the space for the carry-ons was a double outlet, 110V. We used a nightlight in one and plugged in a power strip in the other - this worked out fine.

 

There is no daily maid service, but it can be purchased. They do offer a mid-cruise special, but on the 5th day rather than the 3rd or 4th, so we didn't take advantage of it. The trick for us was to shower in the late evening to keep the sheets etc. as fresh as possible. (Also, the ship is still in port and there isn't a lot of motion then). It worked out okay for 7 nights for us.

 

This cabin is not for everyone. You basically must get up off the floor when getting out of bed. For someone with limited mobility this cabin could be a problem. Clearly, it's not for lounging about. But for showering, changing, and sleeping it was fine.

 

There are four "suites" on board, and I saw one. It's dramatically larger than the standard, with a long balcony. I'd liken it to the size of a mini-suite on a standard cruise ship. The people who had them loved them.

 

One thing about ship motion. There is a lot of it, especially coming/going from Barbados. We took bonine (generic from Target) and never felt the slightest twinge of nausea. It was a non-issue. But if you are prone to seasickness despite all possible remedies, just know that this ship occasionally does some rockin'. (I liked it!!)

 

PORTS OF CALL: St. Vincent, Martinique, Bequia, Grenada, St. Lucia, Barbados.

 

We were docked in all ports except Bequia, which was a tender port. Sometimes at the "cruise terminal," sometimes elsewhere. For example, in Grenada we docked at the cruise terminal, opposite a Holland America ship. Later, the swells were so big that several EC1 docking ropes snapped and they moved to the Carenage, a much nicer place to dock anyway. (This was an example of them getting their "sea legs." They moved the ship during the day, but forgot to have an EC1 crew member at the first dock to tell passengers where it was now, or provide transportation to the new place. When told about this at the concierge desk, a sweet young british lady said, "Oh dear, that's rather naughty of us." They then got things right. LOL)

 

I won't go into a lot of detail about likes/dislikes. The point of EC1 is to be there all day and late into the evening. No "fun days at sea" - each day a new port. The earliest we disembarked was Martinique at 8:15, the latest was St. Lucia at 10:15. The earliest we had to be on board for sailing was 9:30 PM in Grenada, the latest was a bit after midnight in St. Lucia. What this gives you is the opportunity to see, do, and eat more in port than in standard cruise ships.

 

For example, in Martinique we rented a car, went up to St. Pierre, saw the museum and then drove around (lunch in a boulangerie) then over past Mt. Pelee and down to the Gorge de la Falaise (FANTASTIC!!!!!! Neatest hike/swim/waterfall climb in the most beautiful location!!), then back via The Trace road, stopping at a botanical garden, then returning the car and taking a water taxi to Pont de Boot for shopping, walking, and a great dinner, then back via water taxi to Fort de France. Long, and exhausting, and wonderful.

 

If nothing else, the previous paragraph is almost the make-or-break thing for anyone contemplating EC1. If this doesn't appeal to you (or any variant, such as snorkeling then hiking then dinner, or local "bus" (heh) to hiking to beaching) then the EC1 concept might not be for you. They stress getting out and doing things on the islands rather than shipboard amenities, such as they are.

 

If there was a negative to so many ports in so little time, it's that you didn't have time to catch your breath! We jokingly longed for a sea day, just to sleep!

 

COST: Sure, this was cheaper for us than a regular cruise out of Barbados. But that isn't a fair comparison. By any method of adding up costs vs. benefits, you have to decide what you want in a cruise. It is equally silly for someone to complain that EC1 doesn't include the food in its cost as it is for someone to complain about Princess or Carnival because you can't stay in a port until 11 PM. They are simply different animals. Comparing the cost of a dinner in an amazing little restaurant along the Belmont Walkway in Bequia to a certain percentage of the cost of an inside cabin on the Sun Princess for a wonderful formal night dinner simply makes no sense.

 

If anyone wanted a complete breakdown of costs, too bad. If you're a cruiser you know how much you spend on the extras, including alchohol, sodas, ice cream, excursions, etc. Well, we spent for these also (they weren't unreasonable on ship). We had to pay for food also. (We also brought fresh fruit from the islands on board, and some rolls from a boulangerie. The only time they searched what we brought on ship was upon check-in; they never checked our backpacks after that.)

 

In every cruise, you make of it what you want, or what you can. We made of our EC1 cruise what we could, and had an absolutely terrific time. Would I do it again? Absolutely - even at their regular price. Has this dissuaded me from regular cruise ships? Of course not. I'd go on these with different expectations, and make of it what I can.

 

If you have any ?s about this, just ask them in this thread so everyone can get the answer.

[Doc Savage]

EasyCruise in the Caribbean is Great if you know what you want...

 

I agree with everything Sceptic says in his review. I was on EC1 for a week in March 2006, and had a great time. No wasted time sitting on a boat during the cruise, since it was in port all day, allowing you to explore the local culture and terrain. Food was Denny's quality, and fairly reasonably priced on board, so if you happened not to find a place to eat on shore you could comfortably make do.

 

The one important piece of advice I have for travellers on EC1 in the Caribbean is to do a little reading up on each island BEFORE you get there. That way you can decide whether to try the local minibuses to get around, or to hire a driver for the day. The latter is a good idea, especially if you can split the cost with a few other people - you get to see more of the islands, and don't have to worry about driving on sometimes very ill-kept roads.

 

If you are travelling to experience new cultures and see new places, you'll love EC1. If you are cruising to be pampered and stuffed with food while stuck on a ship, you probably won't.:cool: