catyob308

At the Chef's Table on the Ecstasy (August 11-16 sailing), there were appetizer bites in the galley, followed by a demonstration of the recipe prep for Chocolate Melting Cake. We couldn't hear a word! The galley was so loud, and the chefs so soft-spoken... oh well. When we moved from the galley to the library, we all breathed a sigh of relief! The food was great, and it was a delightful experience.

I was just on the Ecstasy last week! The balcony cabins don't have fridges or coffeepots, so I'm confident the inside cabins don't either.

My 9 & 14 yo kids didn't much enjoy the camp programs overall. They participated occasionally but mostly felt that it was too loud and overwhelming to enjoy in big chunks. They are both sensitive homebody-type kids, and are generally not confident travelers. We had a tough few days with them on this vacation--I hope we'll be better able to take advantage of all the fun next time we try a cruise.

We had a blast, in spite of the problems, but our expectations had to change really fast. Kids don't want to go to camps? No easy adult fun. Husband gets sick immediately? Vacation shifts into Mom entertains/enjoys kids while avoiding the cabin as much as possible.

Ship - Carnival Ecstasy

Deck - 6

Stateroom # - U206

Stateroom Category – 8B

Starboard or Port Side - port

Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) – lovely and quiet!

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? -nope, but it sleeps 4 humans with two bunks that come down from the wall-mounted hideaway panels

Balcony View - it was lovely and utterly unobstructed

Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? Normal

Was wind a problem? nope

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? - na

Any specific problems with this cabin? - nope! We chose to have all the bunks instead of the queen set-up + 2 bunks. The aisle was more critical to our peace than stealing all the blankets from my husband.

Any other comments? - it's in a great location, with the buffet four decks above the closest staircase, but its location was wasted on my family. We got lost nearly every time we stepped foot out our door, until the last full day when we finally figured out where we were.

Three days!

Wow, you've done me a service with this thread! Thank you for all the information! We leave on the Ecstasy on Saturday, so you did a lot to answer some questions I had lingering. Can't wait to compare pictures!

my goodness, that menu! Thanks for posting those pics. I think I'll share them with my family and see if the food choices will perk up their enthusiasm for our cruise (now six days away)! They've never vacationed like this before, so they don't know what they've been missing.

great review so far!

Depending on the ship and sailing, this could be an automatic bingo! So easy! Lol

That one should be the Free square in the center of the bingo card.

Thanks for this thread, y'all! I've been wondering some of the same things about our family cruise soon, and you've given me some good ideas and a lot of reassurance. Our family doesn't travel a whole lot, so we don't have a background of Travel Etiquette to draw on. Normal etiquette, yes. Looking forward to a new adventure soon!

Thank you so much for this! Y'all's discussion is helping me, waiting for our 4-in-one cabin cruise next month!