Carnival Ecstasy-October 16th Review! Long, sorry!

[rjmro]

We made the drive from Fort Hood, TX to Galveston on Monday morning and hit rain the whole way-good thing hubby was driving! We arrived around 11am and decided to just go to EZ Cruise parking where we got right in to the higher lot (the other lot was flooded or something like that). The shuttle was going to take another 30 minutes so one of the attendants actually gave us a ride in his jeep right up to the terminal! We literally walked three steps and we were inside of the terminal! We got right in line and waited oh about 10 minutes before they opened up the ticket gates to welcome in the passengers. It was a good thing, because I am 4 months pregnant and wouldn't have been able to stand in line for a long period of time. We got right onto the ship and headed up to the Lido deck for lunch. I have dietary restrictions, but I still found something that I could eat every day there. After that, we had to change our dinner time to the early seating, Wind Song, because I definitely could not have waited until 8pm! Then, we got into our room and took a nap (the waves were already making us sick!) until the muster drill. I wish that they had explained it to us a little better, because we got confused about where we had to go-but we ended up finding it eventually. After that, we had to get ready for dinner where we ended up sitting with two older couples who were very nice! My husband is in the Army so they sat and chatted about his recent trip to Iraq, and I got to eat! But, I really was not that impressed with the formal dining. I am a simple eater so I did not have the palate for that type of food-everyone was actually complaining at the table but we all enjoyed dessert! And, our waiter was not that interested in our table so it made us not really want to eat there-we only ate there 3 out of the 5 nights. We also were stuck at a table right by the kitchen and there were three tables around us that never had a person sitting at them...we were 6 people sitting at a tiny table when there were three 8 person tables empty around us. But, that's ok-wasn't going to ruin my cruise!

I got really sick on the waves the first night, but my husband and I both agree that we had the BEST sleep during the cruise! We never met our room steward-he seemed to skip every room but us! And, we wanted to thank him for all of the great animals! He even used my sunglasses one night to put on an "elephant"-it made a great picture. I do have to say, it was VERY nice to come back to the room all dimmed and the sheets rolled back! Oh, we had an Oceanview room on the Riveria deck and had NO complaints about it!! It was the perfect distance to all of the elevators, and we hardly heard any noise (R166).

We both really enjoyed the shows which really surprised me-my husband normally doesn't like that kind of thing but he was giving them a standing ovation each time! And, we were amazed at the fiddler-turns out he has family where we are orginally from! So, we got to talk to him about that for a little bit! He is just an amazing performer-I hope that he makes it big! And, we liked the cruise director-he had a very pleasing voice to listen to and his Elvis costume was great! The one person that we did not care for was Bingo Bill-he grated on my every nerve. He was nice upfront but the minute that he turned around he was either rolling his eyes or being a jerk. We especially noticed that during debarkation day! He just really irritated me...

Anyways, we couldn't do any of the excursions b/c I am pregnant so we just stayed at the beach at Progresso and went shopping at Cozumel. We were just getting too hot and irritated with the vendors (one grabbed my arm and I thought my husband was going to attack him!) so we went back to the boat for lunch (hey, it was already included in the price so why not!). We also sat on the deck and just watched everything (even got to see the woman who "fell" off the deck). We had an incredibly peaceful, romantic time. It was wonderful!!!

Debarkation-we got off right away b/c we did self-embark. Unfortunately, we got stuck behind a woman who complained the whole time (about an hour total) about everything under the sun. I am the one who is pregnant and didn't complain once! Finally, at the end she just pushed our buttons too far, and she said something to my husband about how slow the stupid custom people were. He just looked at her and said "I waited longer coming back from a tour of duty in Iraq than I have here." Yup, that shut her up and all of those around us. What is an hour of your time-it wasn't like the terminal was 110 degrees! Anyways, we got through the line (no problem!) and walked down to the EZ Cruise shuttle that literally loaded us up and took off! We got to our car (no problems) and headed home! We had a very pleasant time with no problems! Next time I think that I will go on a bigger boat or another ship line-I would like more things to do during the day. But, that is it-a long but satisfying review! Hope that helps!

[Luanne21]

Glad to see you had a good time. Good luck with the baby.

 

Luanne

 

Fort Hood