bettyboop16

On ‎10‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 1:20 PM, mapleleaves said:

We were there for 3 days in mid Sept prior to a cruise.  Absolutely loved Barcelona!!  Will definitely return.

Our group was 3 women and 1 guy, ages 60-70.  (the 3 women had small cross body bags and the guy had a small daypack which he carried instead of wearing it.) 

I hadn't read anything about muggings, just the usual articles about pickpocketing which is prevalent in Barcelona, Rome, and Athens.  We were a little concerned about it beforehand, but once we got there we decided it was a case of  being aware of your surroundings and using a little common sense, just like any other big city.  We always felt safe. But in crowds we held our bags a little closer.

 

Our hotel was 2 blocks from LaRamblas and Placa Catalunya so we walked the area a lot.   Walked Las Ramblas from our hotel down to Placa Reial for dinner twice and never felt unsafe,  even after dark.  Saturday afternoon it was really busy with locals and tourists, so we were mindful of groups of people walking together.  Same with the Market which we visited Friday night and again Saturday noon; jam packed with people so  you're frequently bumped or jostled but again we held our bags a little closer. 

 

So that was our experience.  We averaged 3-4 miles of walking each day. We were certainly in the busy tourist areas but no pickpocketing, no muggings.  And as I said, we all LOVED Barcelona .... a beautiful, clean, walkable city.

 

You might want to look on the Barcelona forum of tripadvisor too which has lots of input from locals and people who visit frequently.

 

If you don't mind, please share the hotel you stayed in. We are looking for a hotel next year. Thanks

I've never been on the Freedom, but have sailed on the Glory 4 times, last time was Feb.2019. She need a refurbishment bad all across the ship.

On ‎9‎/‎30‎/‎2019 at 8:41 PM, jlabs03 said:

I sailed on the Glory earlier this year and it was my first time on Carnival. I have been on HAL, RCL, and NCL and we had a great cruise but I went in with expectations of a more budget experience. The Glory is not as well maintained as other cruise lines (comparing ships of similar age). I think if you go in with the correct expectations you will have a great time. 

That's true, We've sailed on the Glory 4 times, Feb.2019 was a journey's cruise. She needs a refurbishment bad. Furniture in public areas is worn out & the same for cabins. Tables on the Lido deck look dirty, I guess the finish has worn off. Food wasn't good either. I can say the best food I had was a sandwich from the deli. Cocktails were good. Shows were ok. A lot of the staff seem to care less about service especially guest services. 

What made this cruise was the group we travel with & the ports. I was truly disappointed with the ship....use to be my favorite.

I know Freeport was hit extremely hard by Dorian. Has the port reopen to cruise ship passengers?

On ‎8‎/‎25‎/‎2019 at 8:36 AM, A&L_Ont said:

Florida Grits aren’t for this Canadian boy. Tried them with cheese and butter. Cleaned off that layer and tried them with honey. Should have tried maple syrup. 

 

Worth a shot, but no bueno. 

My hubby likes his grits with strawberry preserves/jam. I like my with butter & sugar

20 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Do you have the link to that?  

I believe I read it on www.caribjournal.com

Interesting, I read an article on the internet that Royal Caribbean bought the Grand Lucayan Hotel was going to turn that area into a big resort.

On ‎8‎/‎23‎/‎2019 at 1:57 PM, Jamman54 said:

Ahoy Everybody!  My son Ryan and I have just returned from our yearly father and son cruise. This year we sailed on a five day cruise aboard the Carnival Ecstasy from Jacksonville to Princess Cays and Nassau, with sea days on both ends.

 

I will not be doing a full blown out picture review of this cruise. Frankly, I just don’t have enough time. In three weeks Patti and I will be doing a B2B on the Carnival Sunrise from New York to Bermuda and New England / Canada, so our focus now is to prepare for those cruises. I did however, take plenty of pictures. I also have the Fun Times and other stuff to scan and share with you. Once I get that done, I will upload them to my photo hosting site, then come back and provide you with a link if you want to see them.

 

The Carnival Ecstasy. We love cruising on the Fantasy Class ships from time to time, as they give you a more intimate cruise experience. Yes, they don’t have all the bells and whistles of the newer ships, but they never feel crowded, and it’s great to get to know most of your fellow passengers and crew members. More than one crew member told me that after working on the Vista and Horizon, they couldn’t wait to come back to a Fantasy Class ship. These ships are great for the shorter Bahamas, Western Caribbean, and Baja California runs, especially when a tender port is involved. Would you rather tender ashore with two thousand of your fellow passengers, or with the four thousand plus passengers that the bigger ships carry? Yes, I know that the tenders are now called water shuttles, but screw that, I’ve been cruising since 1985 so they will always be tenders to me! 

 

The Carnival Ecstasy. I have only cruised on her one time before, and that was twenty eight years ago in 1991 when she was brand new. She is exactly as I remembered her, a Joe Farcus acid induced design with enough glitz and nonsense to cause a sensory overload. I love it!  Many people today will say she is outdated, garish, and just plain ugly and outlandish. I say it’s nostalgic and it brings me back to my cruising roots, however the ships that I first sailed on with Carnival are long gone.

 

She will going in for a short dry dock in October which will only involve some cosmetic stuff, sprucing up, and the usual hull work. To tell you the truth, I didn’t see anything major that needed attention, nor did I smell any funky smells. To me, she seems to be in pretty good shape.

 

We booked this cruise with a Hot Streak casino promotion. This gave us a great casino rate for an inside cabin, DOU for both of us, and $500 OBC (not free play!). We also purchased the Cheers program for those out of the casino moments, and besides, we had to spend that OBC somewhere!  We knocked it out of the park with Cheers. We maxed out every day, plus had plenty of coffees and sodas. Looking back, it turns out that only 30% of our drinks came from the DOU cards, and the rest were covered by Cheers.

 

We drove down from New Jersey the day before the cruise, and as is our custom, we stayed at the Country Inn & Suites in Kingsland Georgia, which is off of Exit 3 on I-95. From here it is about a thirty minute drive to Jaxport. The next morning, after enjoying the hotel’s free breakfast, we arrived at Jaxport at 10 am. I immediately noticed two major changes from when we were here last year. First, the parking lot is now to the right on the opposite side of the terminal from where it used to be. This now puts the parking even closer to the terminal itself, which is a good thing. Parking is still $17/day or $85 for the five day cruise.

 

The second thing is that they have built a ramp so that you now embark into the Atrium Lobby on Empress Deck 7, instead of boarding on Deck 3 forward. Great job Jaxport! 

 

Check in was a breeze, and after a short wait in the Captain’s Lounge we were the first to board the ship after a pretty large wedding party. I know that we were on before 11 am. We were in cabin E85 which was just a short trip down the hall from the Lobby. Our Sail & Sign cards were waiting for us, wedged behind the cabin number plate. There aren’t any mailboxes on Fantasy Class ships. The cabins are outdated, but they are clean, the beds are comfortable, and everything worked. There are no mini fridges, and the cabin safe was the keypad type. One other thing to note. If you are an early or light sleeper, this location would not be good for you. Even though they close the heavy doors at 9 pm to cut down the sound of the music and buzz from the Atrium, it can still be heard pretty far down the hall.

 

Here are some notes about our cruise, as much as my alcohol infused brain will allow me to remember. Ryan and I never saw the dining room. We ate all of our meals on the Lido, even though we had been comped steakhouse selections from the casino one night.

 

Other than to take pictures, I never went to the Blue Sapphire Lounge, which is the main show lounge on the ship. For those that want to know, the Playlist Production Shows are  Motor City and America Rocks.

 

Ryan and I did go to some of the comedy shows which are held in the Starlight Lounge, which is the aft lounge on Promenade Deck 9. The two comedians on this cruise were Derrick Eason and Steve Burr and they were very good. They performed the first night and on the two sea days. On port days, in the evening, they showed movies, since there are no Dive In Movie screens on the Fantasy Class ships. The night we left Nassau, Carnival Quest was held back there at 10:30 pm. What happens at the Quest stays at the Quest, but it was great as usual. 

 

The Diamond Event (12 Diamonds), and the VIFP Party (around 60 D/P) were also held in the Starlight Lounge. Both were a lot of fun!

 

I won the blackjack tournament and frankly, it was like taking candy from a baby. As is usual for these types of cruises, there were a lot of newbies on board. For our final table it was me and six newbies that had never played in this type of tournament before, including this gentleman who had never played “jack black” in his life. After two hands I knew what these players were trying to do, so I just bet the minimum, sat back, and watched the carnage. After five hands, four of them had busted out and the other two had $500 or less remaining. I was sitting with the $2000 I started with. Game over. BTW, Mr. “jackblack” came in second! They all were a great bunch of guys, and I think most of them learned something tonight.

 

Both sea days were sunny and hot. There were plenty of adults in the pool, and kids in the hot tubs. Walking by, If I had wanted to find a lounger it wouldn’t have been a problem.

 

When we arrived at Princess Cays, they were experiencing severe thunderstorms. I thought at first that the Captain would be skipping this stop, but he simply waited for the storm to pass. Tendering started about an hour late. It rained until mid-morning, but even after it stopped, it remained cloudy all day. Ryan and I had never been here before, so around noon we took the tender over to check it out. We walked around taking pictures, had the BBQ lunch, had some beers at the different bars, and then went back to the ship. It looks like a nice fun place, but I still like HMC better.

 

In Nassau we had no plans to leave the ship, which was a good thing since it rained all day until just before sail away. I felt bad for those who booked this cruise for the ports, and hope the rain didn’t “dampen” their spirits! 

 

The people that cruise from Jacksonville are some of the nicest people you want to meet. What a diverse group. Everyone was polite, friendly, respectful, and just plain fun. All I saw were smiling faces! As I said there were a lot of blue and red cards on board, I think Carnival has won them over!

 

I can’t say enough about the crew on board the Ecstasy. All were friendly, smiling, energetic, and true assets for Carnival. I wish I could name them all, but my two standouts were Catherine (Cat) from the Atrium Bar, who would serve my 15^th every evening, and William at the Red Frog Rum Bar who started my every day by pouring me a Red Frog Wheat to go with my breakfast burrito. Kudos to all the casino staff, and the bar waiters there, who would never keep us waiting for a drink. Thank you all so much. 

 

Debarkation was also a breeze. We were in our car and on our way back to New Jersey at 7:55 am.

 

I think that’s it for now. If I think of anything else I’ll add on. I guess the million dollar question is would you sail on the Ecstasy again? The answer is a resounding “YES”. If you have any questions I’ll be sure to answer them. For now, may you all have calm seas and clear skies! 

Enjoy your review! We will be on the Ecstasy in Dec. & we are driving to Jax. What are your thoughts on the Country Inn & Suites in Kingsland.

We stayed at Clearwater Beach 4 nights & never rented a car, walked or took the trolley. We did a have car service for transportation from/to airport. This was before uber/lyft was popular 2015.

Thanks everyone. Pics are very helpful.

Anyone who's been to Barcelona before, did you purchase an electrical adapter for your electronics? Two or three prong?

Can birth certificates still be used for getting on the ship for a closed looped cruise?

Thanks GTO,

How's the JAX Beach area for a hotel? How far is the beach area to the port?

Looking for a hotel near the port & is there an off site parking lot? This will be our first cruise out of Jacksonville.

Tia,

Hello Dana, I just found your review by accident. I was looking for your Barcelona cruise for taking notes when we cruise on the Radiance next year. For some reason I thought this trip would be in August. Looking forward to reading more.

Glad you enjoyed your stay! Great location with plenty of restaurants nearby. Staff has always been polite & helpful when we stayed there.

On ‎5‎/‎10‎/‎2019 at 9:33 AM, mitsugirly said:

On our way back to the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We could see her off in the distance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I always laugh when I see fast food at places in the Caribbean...I don't know why.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made it back around so it was definitely a short ride since we were packing up to leave the beach AT 3pm, which means we left after that time.   It now gives me an idea of how close that string of beaches is and next time I might just hit up Jolly Beach. 

 

We had a lovely day of seeing several different beaches and some of Antigua along the way. It would definitely be a place I'd like to head back to but next time, I think I will just pick a beach and stay there. All this running around beach hoping is nice to see the various beaches and sites, but you just don't feel like you've got your "fair share" of being at a beach. This place is definitely a place I need to come and STAY on the island to explore those 365 beaches. LOL

 

I would recommend Lawrence of Antigua tours. For $50 taking you all over the island...well you can't beat that. Mr NotLawrence was nice (despite the misunderstanding at the beginning about "staying 10 minutes"). He provided drinks during our rides and let us stay where we wanted for the amount of time we wanted with no issues. Lawrence himself was nice, although we didn't get to talk much at the beach because we were on limited time there and wanted to experience the place. I'm not sure if he had a group of his own. I do believe that I saw 2 Lawrence of Antigua buses in the parking lot because I remember walking out and was like...wait, which is ours?

 

I don't know how much a taxi to the furthest area (Long Bay Beach) is, but if you have a large group, need a van, and wanted to go that far, it might even be worth it to just hire Lawrence to get you all there together (like a private tour) even if you was to stay there all day. But anyhow...very nice company.

We took a taxi to Jolly Beach this past Feb. cost was $6.00pp each way. Nice beach & wasn't crowded.

On ‎5‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 7:34 PM, Sparky2 said:

 

We were on a 12-day Journey's cruise on Glory while still in Miami this past Feb. just before they moved Glory to NO.  We're Platinum and our luggage tags were left in the cabin.

We were on the same cruise & we are "Gold" our tags were left in our cabin.

We took Little Havana Food & Walking Tour with Art Deco Tours. Christine was our guide. All 4 of us enjoyed our tour very much & it included lunch at a Cuban Restaurant. We went to Wynwood Walls & back to Bayside. We used Lyft to get around.

10 hours ago, deladane said:

Ok, let's see if I can finish posting about Costa Maya day before I need to go to work today...

 

After our private photo session with those amazing Mayan temples, Brian led us back down the steps via the easier route, and as we got to the bottom, we saw the bigger tour groups approaching.  What great timing!  We made our way back towards the entrance, briefly stopping to see the houses where the Mayans lived.  We were back at the visitor center around 4pm, so we spent just over an hour walking around the ruins.  I’d say that was the perfect amount of time.  Sure, there are other Mayan Ruins sites across Mexico and Central America that are bigger and more developed than Chacchoben, but I don’t think I would have needed to spend any longer than an hour walking around the ruins.  We saw plenty, got to climb around and explore, and learned a bit about Mayan history and culture.  Overall, it was time well spent and I’m glad we booked this tour.

 

After another break to use the restrooms, we piled back in the van for the drive back to the cruise port.  Or at least, that’s what we thought!  Brian had one little surprise planned for us… a stop at a pineapple stand for a little snack. 

 

 

The van stopped on the side of the road and Brian told us to stay seated and he would pick up a treat for us.

 

 

He gave one of these bags to each pair of two people.  This was by far the sweetest pineapple I have ever tasted, even better than in French Polynesia!  The only issue was that this was way too much for us to eat, especially with less than 2 hours to go until our dinner time back on the ship.  We each had a few slices, but we had to throw the rest away because they won’t let you bring fresh fruit back on the ship.

 

Those pineapples are beautiful!

We were in Miami this Feb. we took a tour with "Art Deco Tours" Walking & Food Tour in Little Havana. We all enjoyed our tour & the tour included lunch at a Cuban Restaurant. We visited Wynwood Walls....quite interesting.

We sailed on the Glory in Feb. for the 4th time. Our cruise, I did see obvious decline in many areas that I didn't see with our previous cruises on her. Food, customer service, staff at some of the eateries, entertainment, & furnishings. We did have a good room attendant. Glory needs to be refurbish in all public areas & cabins. We still had a good time.

So the Paradise isn't the only ship with issues. 

23 hours ago, deladane said:

 

Oops, just noticed you wrote two replies and I could have responded to both at the same time. 

 

Spoiler alert... we did get beignets on disembarkation day and they were amazing! 😋

Did you try the coffee?

On ‎3‎/‎28‎/‎2019 at 8:20 PM, deladane said:

 

haha I know, pizza is kind of embarrassing considering the other options available in NOLA.  Partly, we just wanted something quick and easy so we could spend more time exploring.  Partly, we had some trouble finding restaurants that would work for both of us because I don't like spicy food and DH doesn't like shellfish, so that nixes nearly everything in NOLA lol  At least we did get to try a few NOLA staples with the muffeletta, poboy, and of course, we had beignets on the last day of the trip!

Hope you got your beignets at Café Du Monde.....So Good!

On ‎3‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 8:09 PM, deladane said:

 

Funny you mention that... I've been debating if there was a way I could post a similar style of review for Paris and London on the board for Northern Europe cruises.  Technically, yes, it is a land vacation and we are not taking a cruise on that trip, but lots of people go to Paris and London pre- and post- cruises from Europe, and some itineraries even dock nearby those cities.  I do have a blog (you can find it here:  deladane.home.blog) but it doesn't get nearly as much traffic as my posts on cruise critic.  I'm afraid I won't be as motivated to write a good review if hardly anyone is reading it haha  I was considering posting in the Europe ports of call section to ask if anyone had interest in reading about my time in Paris/London to help plan their pre- and post-cruise stays, and if so, then I will definitely do it.  Just not sure if it's against the rules because we're not going on a cruise and this is a forum about cruising (...does a one hour "cruise" tour along the Thames and Seine River count as a cruise??? haha)

I would enjoy reading about your trip. I haven't been to Europe yet. If all goes well, I will be in Barcelona May 2020 for a cruise on the Carnival Radiance. I think your trip report would benefit travelers that will be in that region. Maybe I can get Paris & London in the future.