Imagination Trip Report 6/14 4-night IT'S LONG!!

[WeatherGeek]

I try to put a great deal of detail into my reviews as I find those types of reviews the most helpful when I am doing cruise research – so sit down, grab a cup of coffee and make yourself comfortable. You'll be a while. You may not read it all and that's OK. Not everyone likes these detailed trip reports!

 

My husband and I are in our mid-twenties and every time we cruise, we say we are ready to branch out and try another cruise line, but we never do, thanks to Carnival’s generous military discount. We have no problems with Carnival, but you know what they say about variety being the spice of life. Then again, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? So when we were shopping around for a short summer getaway cruise, we couldn’t say no to Carnival once we saw the attractive prices offered to military for the 6/14 Imagination cruise.

 

We decided to go with just an oceanview room this time since balcony rooms on the Imagination are few and far between and only offered as the higher-priced Category 11 (where everyone can see into your balcony) or Category 12 (too much $$ for me for a 4-night cruise) and decided that for just 4 nights, we could cope without our beloved balcony with no problem. We did miss having a balcony, but it was no big deal. Besides, we’re overcompensating on our next cruise as we have the wraparound balcony on the Legend. :D

 

We booked a 6A guarantee when we found out it was the same price as picking a 6A cabin. Carnival booked us in cabin U-64, which is a 6C, an oceanview room located on the Upper Deck. It was the first room when you get off of the elevator. I am a light sleeper, so I had a few weeks to mentally prepare myself for the amount of noise coming from the elevator banks. While it was loud as all heck outside of our room during the day, it was, for the most part, pretty quiet at night and I had no problem sleeping. The final night of the cruise, a few loud, rambunctious teenagers decided to hang out in the lobby by the elevators at 12:30am. I was on the phone calling the purser to see if security would do anything (I was not holding my breath on that one) when they left on their own, I guess to go torture other people that were trying to sleep by the elevators. Overall, the room was just fine though and other than the loud teenagers (which really didn’t matter where your room was, as I had noticed them earlier that evening running and hollering up and down the halls near the Cat 12 rooms, which aren’t really located right off of the elevator), noise was never really an issue.

 

We arrived in Miami later than we anticipated the night before the cruise, as there was bad weather near the airport, so we circled over Naples, FL for about an hour. We finally landed, got our luggage rather quickly, and were in a cab to our hotel not too far behind schedule. If you’ve never been to MIA before and fly American, bring your walking shoes! The luggage carousel is soooo far away from American’s gates!

 

Our pre-cruise hotel stay was at the Holiday Inn Port of Miami. I booked a regular room (no bay view) and we arrived to find that we had been upgraded at no charge to a room with a view of the bay, so we were very pleased. The room was on the smaller side, but clean and comfortable, which is all that matters. We ate breakfast at their restaurant before embarkation and it was not very good. My pancakes were burnt on one side and tasteless on the other and my husband ordered a breakfast burrito with no peppers or onions and though there were neither in it, they tasted like it anyway. I do not recommend eating there for breakfast if you want pancakes.

 

Back to the night before the cruise, we ate dinner across the street at Bayside Marketplace at Los Ranchos steakhouse. The main course that they advertise as their signature item was decent, nothing spectacular. However, if you eat there, I highly recommend the platter appetizer for four (apparently you can’t get it with servings for two). The food on the tray they brought out was so good! Or maybe it just tasted that way because I do not generally eat fried food or overly-fattening food (hubby & I are both on pretty restricted diets as we have both lost a lot of weight recently), so it tasted wonderful to my taste buds after going so long without those types of foods. Regardless, the platter came with quesadillas, fried cheeses, sausages, fried bananas….and a couple of other things that I cannot recall at this time. It was fantastic and I had to really restrain myself to not eat too much of it! The main courses are served with as much red beans & rice and fried plantains as you want. It was a good restaurant and worth the trip for the appetizer alone. We wandered around Bayside Marketplace for a while, mostly while waiting for it to stop raining as we did not have an umbrella, got a cup of gelato and headed back to the hotel.

 

The next morning after breakfast, we grabbed a cab over to the port. We arrived just in time at approximately 10:25am as we were the last ones allowed in the check-in line before the early check-in was stopped to wait for the agents to open the main check-in lines at 11am. We had to wait in the security line until 11am and as I watched the check-in line grow and grow, I was very happy we had gotten there super early so that we could check in and only have to go through security and then upstairs to sit and wait for embarkation to start.

 

There was one incident during embarkation that I want to talk about that I think was very unprofessional of a Carnival employee. There was a separate check-in and security line for wedding parties and their guests that ran parallel to the security line we were standing in. A wedding party came in down the line as instructed by a Carnival employee and were patiently waiting to go through security. A second employee came by and had like this crazy breakdown when she saw the wedding guests waiting in their designated line. She seriously yelled (in front of all of us waiting in the security line) at the other employees that had instructed the guests to wait there. She did not just yell once and go about her business, she kept going on and on and on about it, very loudly for all of us to hear. I felt horrible for the wedding party/guests because they were caught in the middle, being shuffled back and forth from that line to the main waiting line and back again to the designated wedding line as the employee was yelling about it. It was very unprofessional and so rude to treat her fellow employees like that, especially in front of all of us. The employees that she was yelling at kept apologizing profusely to the wedding party; I could tell they felt horrible as well about how that played out in front of everyone.

 

At 11:45am, we were able to board the ship and since we arrived so early, we were in the very first group of people to embark. This was the first time I had actually seen Carnival enforce the policy of not going to your cabin prior to 1:30pm. They actually had the doors closed to the cabins on each floor and we saw stewards asking people to leave for the lobby if they found someone entered the doors anyway. It was no problem for us as I knew that our room may or may not be ready, so we hauled our luggage up to the Lido deck for a burger and french fries. Mmmmm more fried food! I paid for it though – it made me sick as all heck! My stomach apparently could not handle any more grease, so I did not go near the burgers for the rest of the cruise. Around 1, we went to check to see if they’d opened the lobby doors up to room access yet and we were in luck. Our room was ready to go. Our steward came by before too much longer and introduced herself. Her name was Molly and I never really caught what country she was from. She was just great! She remembered our names and called us by them every time she saw us and kept our stateroom sparkling clean. After I laid down for a while (remember, I was feeling sick from the burger) and felt better, we got up and went exploring the ship. This is the first time I have sailed on a ship that had a different layout – I’ve always been on ships laid out like the Conquest. Throughout the entire duration of the cruise, I constantly had forward and aft mixed up! I would turn and think I was heading aft, but I’d actually be heading forward. I do not know why I couldn’t grasp the directions! I’ve never been directionally challenged in my life. We headed back to the room and mulled around for a while waiting for the lifeboat drill to start and took a small catnap. It was finally time for the muster drill and we headed to our station in the Dynasty Lounge. This was also the first time I’ve went to the drill and not been outside on the deck with the lifeboats, so that was a different experience.

 

After the drill, we headed to put our life jackets away and headed for the Lido Deck for the sail away party. Except it was raining. So we went out the door to the deck on the sides of the Lido Deck, which was protected from the rain a little bit by the lifeboats. Pretty soon, we were sailing down the channel to make our turn and then we headed for the open waters. The whole process of getting out of the channel took about an hour or so! It did not feel like an hour had gone by so I was surprised when I saw that it was after 5:30. We headed up to the shops for a liquor tasting and to do some window-shopping. We did more relaxing and more exploring and before long it was time for dinner. We headed down to the Pride Dining Room and were a few minutes early, so we hung out outside the Mirage Bar to listen to the piano player. I didn’t catch the guy’s name in there but he was AWFUL. Seriously, he was awful. I feel bad saying that, but there is no nice way to put it. We noticed every night thereafter that people would wait outside the Pride Dining Room for dinner to start on the side opposite the piano bar….I guess they had the same idea we had, he was so awful, we needed to get away from him.

 

I had requested the main seating for dinner, but we were given the 8:30pm seating. We toyed with the idea of seeing if we could change, but decided that for just 4 nights, we would deal with it. We do not typically like to eat that late into the evening because we tend to go to bed early and I personally like to digest my dinner before I go to bed. It was no problem though and I am glad we stuck with it because I really enjoyed the company of our 8 tablemates…that was a first! I have never before really liked my tablemates, but they did great this time with seating us with other couples that were our age and we always had something to talk about and things in common.

 

Being the first night at dinner, we had to try the warm chocolate melting cake that I’d heard so much about from fellow CC’ers as well as my sister-in-law. It was too melty and too bitter tasting for my liking. However, I know it’s not really the same from day to day and later in the cruise we tried it again and it was perfect! Dinner was wonderful each night, except for the NY strip steak…it was so tough and I would chew and chew and chew forever and it still wouldn’t be chewed thoroughly. Everything else I had during the week was wonderful though…and I did fairly well ordering at least one thing off of the spa menu each evening and I went the entire cruise without ordering 2 desserts for dinner!

 

After dinner that first evening, we donated a few bucks to the casino, bought a watch for my husband from the $10 shop because we realized there was no clock in the stateroom and hung out in the Xanadu Lounge and watched karaoke. Went to bed fairly early since Key West would be an early morning the next day.

 

 

The next morning, we woke up and headed up to the Lido Deck buffet for breakfast. Hubby didn’t care for the syrup for his french toast, but had a good meal otherwise. I opted for cereal and a banana – and curdled milk. I was so grossed out when I opened the carton of milk to pour over my Special K and found it spoiled that I couldn’t touch cereal & milk for the rest of the week.

 

We headed down to the gangway close to 7:30 and we got off the ship pretty much right on time with no crowd whatsoever. We found out later that the probable reason there was no crowd was because since the ship docks at the NAS, they aren’t allowed to make announcements over the intercom because you can hear them around the base. After a ride on the train from the pier to Mallory Square, we were off on our own. We grabbed a taxi and went to the Southernmost Point. It was nice and quiet out there for being so early in the morning. There were several people on motorcycles there, but they didn’t take too long to get their photo ops done and we didn’t mind waiting…it was so peaceful out there on the water, I could have stayed there all day! After we got our photo ops, we wandered to Duval Beach Club one block east, but decided not to lay out since it was looking stormy out to sea and we weren’t sure if that was moving toward land, so we headed up Duval Street and that’s all we did all day. We walked, we shopped, we took our time, it was great! We stopped at the webcam outside of Sloppy Joe’s and hammed it up for the camera and called our families back home and told them to tune in to see us :) We got a piece of key lime pie from the Blonde Giraffe store on Duval and it was excellent.

 

In the morning, while waiting for the shops to open, we did stop over at Hemingway’s house and got the tour. I really enjoyed this tour and I thought I wouldn’t. I thought it was going to be a boring history lesson about Hemingway (the kind of history lesson my husband seems to love so much….sorry, history buffs, it’s one subject I just can’t get into!), but it was actually pretty fascinating. There are 40+ cats that wander around the premises and a few of them have 6 toes….they were so cute, they looked like they were wearing boxing gloves. After we left Hemingway’s house, we were back to shopping and wandering. We headed back for the trolley train back to the ship around 12:45 and a pretty big line was starting to form, so we got there just in time. A note about heading back to the ship – you will pass through a military checkpoint and they obviously take security screenings very seriously there. Please make sure you have your photo ID & S&S card on you – they had to kick off a little boy and the 2 people he was traveling with on our train because his mother was on the next train back from us and she had his S&S card, not the 2 people he was on the train with. Since these trains were full to capacity, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had to wait for several trains to pass by before they were able to re-board a different one and head for the ship.

 

Once back on board, we hit the Lido Deck for some fun in the sun. Hubby hung out in the pool and went down the slide and I lounged and soaked up the sun with a few fruity cocktails. After I’d had enough sun, we went back to our room to change and then headed off to Name That Tune in the Dream Bar. We didn’t do so hot…. oh well! Back to the room for a catnap and then Who Wants to be a Millionaire in the Dynasty Lounge. My husband tied for 1st place with another woman and he got a ship on a stick & medallion. Woo hoo! I took another short catnap back in the room and then started getting ready for formal night. I wanted to be ready 1.5 hours early for pictures and the captain’s cocktail party.

 

Once we were ready, we headed up to the photo areas and took tons of pictures with lots of different backgrounds. One of the photographers, Vladimir from Serbia, talked with my husband for a bit about his uniform (Air Force blues) and it would turn out that every time we would see Vladimir around the ship for the rest of the cruise, he’d remember us and we’d chat for a while. Nice guy, and really funny. After pictures, we headed for the captain’s cocktail party, but it was way too crowded in the lounge, so we headed for the Pinnacle Lounge for a cocktail of our own before heading down to dinner. We went to Livin In America after dinner and it was just like the last time I’d seen it with a few new scenes.

 

On a side note about the shows – Livin In America was on the Victory when we sailed her on our honeymoon in December 2005, so I was kind of surprised to see it again. Even more surprised was I to find that yet again, for the 3rd time in 4 cruises, Heather & Kendrix were the singers. I’d seen them on the Conquest on my very first cruise. The only cruise where they were not on as singers was on the Valor in February 2005. Not that I mind – I think they are both very talented singers. I just thought it was amusing that 3 out of 4 cruises they have been the entertainment.

 

After the show, we went back to the room to change and then wandered up to the Pride Dining Room to take pictures of the midnight gala buffet. We didn’t feel like sticking around for it to be served and I’m not sure I’d have wanted to – food like that is just too pretty to eat! We headed to bed shortly after that.

 

The next morning we were at sea, as we were not due to arrive at Calica until about 1pm. We headed up first thing to the Lido Deck buffet around 8:30 – not crowded at all; we just walked right up and got our food. Hubby tried the sugar free syrup with his pancakes this time and it tasted much better. I also had pancakes and they tasted great with the sugar free syrup. We goofed off for a while and wandered around the Lido Deck and up to the putt putt course, where we realized we were heading right into a giant white wall of rain!! We ran for cover just in time before the rain came pouring down. It was a really cool thing to see though, heading into that wall of pouring rain! I went back to the room and catnapped and got showered and dressed before heading up to grab a quick salad before we got docked. We had just finished lunch when we pulled into Calica and we went to the back of the ship to watch us back in. It was here that we saw a giant sea turtle welling up from the depths of the ocean…of course by the time I got the camera ready, he was long gone. We then headed to the room to get our bag together and headed for the gangway, which was far more crowded than it had been the day before in Key West. We waited for about 10-15 minutes before the line finally started moving. Thankfully, we went with the Carnival excursion to Xcaret so we were allowed off the ship first since we had a ship tour. After some general confusion, we finally found our bus and the ride to Xcaret was quick. We walked right in (yes, they were asking you to check sunscreen, but no one actually searched our bags) as there was no line. Once in the park, it was very confusing and everything was spaced very far out. We actually got lost on the trails through the park a time or two. By the time we got to the beach, I was so hot and sticky and humid that I was really grumpy and I just plunked myself down in a beach chair and didn’t feel like moving. Hubby went to look around for a quieter place to hang out and boy did he find one!!!! He quickly came back for me and told me to follow him. He took me a short distance to the land of hammocks and breezes. Ohhhh it was lovely. There had to have been like 25 hammocks and they were all swaying gently in the breeze. The ocean was off to the right and the beach chairs were plentiful. Most importantly, it was quiet. Hardly anyone was on this side of the park. What a great little hidden gem. We laid in the hammock for a couple of hours and slept off and on. Hubby went to go exploring again (he can never sit down and just relax!!) and I sat in a beach chair for a while just watching the waves and eventually moved back to the hammock. He came back and we looked around the park for a bit and then headed out to catch a cab to Playa Del Carmen. There was soooo much to do at Xcaret, but it was so hot and sticky that I was grumpy and just wanted to lay in a hammock. It was not money well spent, but it sure was time well wasted.

 

For the record, hubby & I have decided summer cruises are not for us :) Too hot, too humid!

 

We caught a cab to Playa Del Carmen, fearing for our life the entire time. Stop signs are merely a suggestion, as are all traffic signs & signals!! I was on a mission to buy vanilla. I started feeling sick from too much sun and not enough water, so I headed for the first restaurant I saw, which happened to be McDonald’s, which I don’t really care for, but I needed to eat to avoid the migraine that I could feel coming on (I’m susceptible to them and know what signs to look for to know one is developing). So I ate a burger and drank a lot of water and instantly felt better. We walked all over the shops down there and headed to the beach, where a guy tried to sell us a map showing us how to get to the beach, despite the fact we could see the beach about 200 yards up the road! Haha! I got my vanilla, some antibiotics from la farmacia and a few souvenirs before we headed back to the ship with an equally insanely driving taxi driver. Got back around 6:45, much earlier than anticipated. First order of business was a catnap and after some relaxation, it was time for dinner. We left port while we were eating and it wasn’t before too long that we could really feel some movement in the ship. I ate a very light dinner on this night with no dessert because I was looking forward to the Mexican buffet as Mexican is my favorite type of food. I gave up Mexican food in April and almost instantly dropped 5 pounds, so I have completely stopped eating it. I know…I’m insane eating it at midnight, probably the worst time to eat it is right before you go to bed with all of those calories sitting in your stomach all night! Oh well. After dinner, we watched Match Game, which was kinda lame and then we went to the Shangri-La Lounge and watched a really fun-loving family boogie down on the dance floor. They were really something to watch!! I wish my extended family was that fun! It was finally time for the Mexican buffet after the lounge. The food was so good! I could have went back for seconds, but I refrained. Hubby started feeling seasick from the choppy waters so he barely touched his plate. We went to bed shortly after that.

 

Our final full day on board was a sea day, which was nice and relaxing. We did our usual routine on the Lido Deck for breakfast, followed by, what else? A catnap! Hmm, now I’m getting kind of fuzzy….I think we went to some kind of morning trivia after that and then checked out the coffee shop for a frappucino. Hubby wanted to go read, so he did that and I relaxed in the room for a while playing my Nintendo DS and listening to music videos on the TV. Once hubby got back from reading, I lathered up the sunscreen and headed to the funnel deck for about 2 hours of sun. Some general observations up there – 1. a few women were sunbathing topless (I know there has been discussion recently about whether you can still go topless there or not) and no one said anything to them. 2. despite the big sign that says you must be over 21, people still brought their children up there to hang out and no one said anything to them either. 3. Beware of old man with video camera who tries to pass it off like he doesn’t know women sunbathe topless up there. *end general observations* Now, I did sunbathe topless, but only with my back exposed, not the other side. :) No one said anything to me nor are there signs that say you cannot sunbathe topless. I did get upset though, the drink waiter skipped me every time he came up to take drink orders. I could not seem to get his attention. Maybe I should have stood up when I was tanning my back and that would have got his attention!!

 

Met up with hubby for pizza & salad on the Lido Deck when I was done tanning. We then headed to the Newlywed show, which was hilarious as always and I was pleased to see they added a couple of new questions. I was in the newlywed show last time we cruised and it was a lot of fun! After the newlywed show, a group of teenage dancers that was cruising came out to dance a short dance for us and then we headed back to the room for an actual nap, not a catnap. Or rather, I did, I was exhausted from laying in the sun. Hubby donated money to the casino while I slept :D He brought back a piece of white forest cake from the coffee shop and it was soooooo good. Didn’t sit well in the stomach though, then again, I am not used to eating bad foods so often!

 

We packed up most of our stuff and then headed for one last dinner with our tablemates….only a couple of other couples showed up on this night. This was also the night of the good warm chocolate melting cake. I had a bite of hubby’s and wished I’d have gotten it instead of amaretto cake! I know they’d have brought me one if I asked, but I did NOT need 2 desserts!!! Went to the show Shout! on this night, which was also really good and I personally thought it was more enjoyable than Livin In America. After Shout! we finished packing up and set our luggage in the hall – the debarkation paper said we had until midnight and it was about 11:45. Well, one hour later, the bag was still not taken and it was only 1 of 2 bags in the entire hallway (there were more bags out when we put ours out…I do not know why ours was not taken), so we just pulled it back in (with the rambunctious teenagers running around, I didn’t trust leaving it out there until god only knows when) and decided to take all of our bags off ourselves, though we had a tour and would not be self-disembarking.

 

We woke up at 6am the next day and got ready, finished packing up all of the last minute things like hairbrushes and toothbrushes and headed down for breakfast in the Pride Dining Room. We enjoyed breakfast with another couple who was very nice and had actually gotten married on the ship. After breakfast, we took last minute pictures, one last walk around the ship and then headed to get our bags and meet in the Mirage Bar for our tour of South Beach.

 

I’d taken the South Beach tour before, but my memory was very fuzzy about it. Once we were on the bus (and even had the same tour guide as last time, Ignacio!), it all started coming back to me and I realized that they cut out a huge chunk of the tour part in favor of more wandering around South Beach time. Oh well. I really enjoyed the tour again, but it got really hot and humid again and I was grumpy (and kept telling myself “no more summer cruises!”). We did a little shopping, ate lunch, and reboarded the tour bus and headed off to the airport, where we were delayed by late flight attendants and weather. Got home about one hour late and since we were late, our bags took forever to come out on the carousel.

 

Overall, this was a great cruise. We loved the ship, the cruise director, Jorge, was genuinely funny, the staff was great and we enjoyed our time in the ports. A summer cruise is just not for us – we have plenty of humidity back home in St. Louis to keep us sweaty all summer long!

 

 

Well, if you made it this far, you should get some kind of prize! Please let me know if you have any questions. I’ll be happy to answer them as best I can. If you’re interested in seeing pictures, you can see them here. You do not need to sign in to view them, just click the picture.

[sjohnson529]

Great review, thanks. On a sidenote, I'm sorry you didn't do the underground river in Xcaret, it was incredible and the water very cool. We saw some amazing things.

[WeatherGeek]

My husband had expressed interest in the underground river (I don't really get in the water, so I wasn't going to be doing any water excursions) and I told him quite a few times to go for it, that I was staying parked in my hammock! Our tablemates did the underground river and raved about it. I really wish my husband would have went for it because it sounds like he missed out! I don't like to go in the water, any water, so I already knew I wasn't going to be doing it!

[cruisecruisecruise1234567]

. A summer cruise is just not for us

 

Summer cruise?? This is still our spring in FL.Wait until late July and August.:D

You lose 2 pounds getting the mail from the end of your driveway.

[WeatherGeek]

Wait until late July and August.:D

 

No thanks :) Any future summer travel will be taken to Las Vegas, where I can handle the dry heat with no problems whatsoever! It's the humidity that kills me :D

[tw67]

Tonya, that was a great review!! Thanks so much! We are booked on that ship and itinerary in November! I have been looking for a review like yours! Thanks!

 

Terry

[pacerzfan]

Thanks for the review