Just off the Ecstasy....here is a review

[DH30]

Please note that this was our first cruise. Special thanks goes out to all those on this web site. Due to my research here, we had a great first cruise.

 

Day 1:

We arrived at the cruise terminal at around 1:00 pm, parked at a lot directly across from the cruise terminal and walked across the street where we turned our bags over to one of the porters there. We then proceeded to the check-in area where we showed our birth certificates and IDs. They then checked my carry-on backpack because I had brought some Monster energy drinks. From there we went to another line to set up our sign and sail cards. Once that was done, we went onto the ship. The whole process took around an hour. The lines were long, but they moved fast and it was very organized.

Once on the ship, we went to our room to see where we would be staying on our first cruise. The room was nice. We had a balcony and I understand what people mean when they say that once you sail in a balcony, you will never want to sail any other way. We met our cabin steward, Michael who was very nice and wanted to know if there was anything that he could do to make our trip more enjoyable. We then went to eat some lunch. I tried some Mongolian stir fry, which was good……very spicy, but good.

After lunch, I wanted to go and try to book my excursion for Progresso. I wanted to go on a mountain biking, and cenote snorkeling adventure. I had told Tammy that I wanted to get there early so I did not take a chance on it filling up. I am glad we went when we did because I got the last spot on the excursion.

After that, we went back to the room where Tammy took a nap. I did a little reading and then headed to the gym to get in a workout. The gym was nice, but a little small and not much free weights, so there were a few exercises that are a part of my normal routine that I could not do. After working my back, abs and legs for about an hour, I returned to the room to wake Tammy up.

Once she was up we went to a show where the cruise director, Steve talked about some of the activities and we got a chance to hear a preview from the two comedians on the ship. We really liked Dean Gaines so we planned on seeing him on day 2. From there we went to our dining room. We were in a large group of about 14 or 16 people and they had our tables close together. There were only 6 of us that went to dinner in the main dining room that night because some had worked the night before and were sleeping. Dinner was great. Tammy and I both had flat iron steak for our main course. I had a salad as my appetizer. Tammy had cheese cake for dessert and I had the melting chocolate cake because I had heard good things about it. It is hard to describe. It is in a bowl. The top layer is like cake that is very warm. Below that is a substance that is like a cross between cake, chocolate pudding, and hot fudge. It was very rich and AWESOME!

After dinner, while we were trying to decide what we were going to do the rest of the day, we ran into one of my wife’s co-workers. She was crying, stumbling and DRUNK. She kept telling us that she got on the ship and could not find anyone and was upset about that and then she got into an argument with her husband. She kept telling us the same story over and over and over and over again. I was thinking……”seriously…..are you 10……crying because you got on the ship and could not find your friends within the first couple hours?”

After we left her with another woman in the group, Tammy and I went back to our room to relax. We decided to pass on the night clubs and relax in the room. Once at our room, we used a bungee cord to prop open our door and relax on our private balcony. We just sat out there and looked at the stars and enjoyed the movement and sounds of the water. It was awesome. I have never cruised before, so I don’t really have anything to reference it to, but the seas seemed very calm. I think you could have taken a 20’ boat out on these seas and been fine. The movement that we felt was very minimal. After relaxing for a while, we turned in to get a good night’s sleep. I will say that the little bit of movement that there was rocked me to sleep like a baby.

Day 2:

I awoke early and headed to the gym. It was nice working out in the gym at the front of the ship with the sunrise. I put 30 minutes of arms and then 20 minutes of stair master before returning to our room. After my wife got up we headed to breakfast where we met some of our friends. We ate at the buffet and the food was good. I had a grapefruit, some potatoes along with some French toast, some bacon, grits, and a cinnamon roll and a piece of banana bread.

After breakfast, we headed to the pool for some relaxation time. It was pretty hot outside, but an occasional dip in the pool kept us cool. I will say that there is only one pool on the boat, and it is not very big. It even got crowded with people just standing around to cool off. After being by the pool for a while we decided to go meet up with several friends who were by the water slide. We found a corner of the deck where we could hang out and visit. Tammy and I made a few trips down the water slide which is fun for kids…..even 40 year old kids.

Around 1:00 we decided to get cleaned up and go to lunch. On this day I decided to try a hamburger from the grill. It was pretty good. A couple steps better than a Burger King, but not as good as a Fudruckers. After that, it was nap time.

After a nice nap, it was time to get up and get ready for dinner. This was the “formal night” so Tammy wore a nice dress and I wore a shirt, tie, and slacks. Dinner was good. I had the broiled mahi-mahi. I had the chocolate melting cake again because it was so good.

After dinner, it was off to some of the clubs We started out at a karaoke place for a little while and then moved to a spot where there was a small band playing mostly country music. From there a few of the ladies wanted to dance so we went to a spot that was playing some dance music. At midnight we went to see Dean Gaines. He was funny and we all had a good laugh. We returned to the small band and then headed in to get some sleep.

I was up bright and early to go on my mountain biking and cenote snorkeling excursion. I, along with the 12 others on the excursion met up with the tour guide, Gabby. We loaded into a van and headed toward San Antonio….that’s right…..San Antonio, Yucatan. Gabby told us a lot about the local culture. One thing that stuck out to me was that there was no pressurized water in the cities of the area. Each home had flat roofs and had a large water container on the roof to create water pressure for the home. After an hour drive, we arrive at the location where we picked up our mountain bikes. After an easy 2 mile bike over a gravel road, we were at the first cenote. The cenotes are underground rivers and we were at a cave where you could access the cenote. The water was clear and cold which was quite refreshing after the mountain bike ride. After swimming for twenty minutes or so we rode the mountain bikes a short distance to another cenote. At this cenote there was a Mayan medicine man who talked about some herbal medicine that he used for some common ailments such as kidney stones, fever, and cuts. After a short swim, we rode the mountain bikes back to where we picked them up where we were served a small meal of traditional Mayan food. One of my goals on this trip was to try new foods. I gave this food a try and was very impressed. After our quick bite to eat we loaded back up in the van and headed back to the pier. I bought a few t-shirts at the pier for myself, Tammy and the boys.

I made it back on the ship a little before 2:00. I made my way to our room where I found a note from Tammy that she was in the spa and would finish up around 2:05. I wanted to get something to eat so I made my way to the spa to catch her as she got out. I found out that she would not be done until around 2:30, so I headed to the gym to get in a quick shoulder workout. I then met up with Tammy and I got some food from the buffet. I had some broiled fish, a baked potato, and some pumpkin bread. The pumpkin bread was in keeping with trying new things as I had never had pumpkin bread before. It was good. I fixed a tray and headed back to the room.

After eating, we headed up to the pool where we met with some friends for some pool-time relaxing. After several hours, we headed back to the room to get cleaned up for dinner. After getting dressed, we made our way to the guest services desk to book our excursion for the next day. We headed back to the main dining room where I had a salad and some Caribbean jerk pork. This was yet another dish that I had never had and it was very good. It was spicy and had a great flavor. I did have a dessert which I had come to love…….chocolate melting cake. After dinner, Tammy was feeling a little under the weather, so we headed to our room to get a good night’s sleep before docking in Cozumel the next morning.

Day 3:

I got up at 6:00 to go to the gym. This was the first time during the cruise that there had been any noticeable sway to the ship, and even at that it was very minimal. Earlier in the cruise you could feel vibrations and could tell that you were moving but not any sway. After getting dressed, I headed to the gym where I lifted weights focusing on my chest and then did twenty minutes on the stair master.

Once back at the room, I got a quick shower, woke Tammy up and then we headed down for breakfast. After a good breakfast of French toast, grapefruit, and banana nut bread we went back to the room to gather a few items and then off to Cozumel.

We met with our tour guides for the snorkel and then boarded a boat at the pier. After a short boat ride, we were out of the boat and snorkeling. The water was about eight feet deep and there were lots of fish to see. We even had our picture taken while snorkeling. We loaded back up into the boat and headed to another spot where we snorkeled some more. We then headed back to the pier where we did a little shopping. We ended up eating lunch at Three Amigos, which was a Mexican restaurant. Three Amigos was directly on the water. We were sitting at the rail and if you looked down over the rail, you were looking at water. It was by far the best view we have ever had at any restaurant. I had beef fajitas and Tammy had quesadillas. The beef fajitas were a little different than what I am used to, but they were great. The salsa and chips were different than what I was used to as well. The salsa was more like pica de gayo.

After lunch we headed out and got our boys some hats and necklaces. We then headed back onto the ship where I did a load of laundry while Tammy took a nap. As my laundry was finishing, I saw the last person get on the boat. I saw a guy running down the pier with several carnival security guys behind him. As soon as he cleared the gang way they pushed it in and took the ropes off the ship. I took some good photos as we pulled away from Cozumel. After pulling away from Cozumel I took a nap so I could be rested for the evening.

We awoke from our nap and got cleaned up for dinner. One of our friends had a problem in their cabin that needed attention and there were workers in their room. The woman came down to our room to take a shower and we had left the door propped open for her. When she started to walk in, Michael our room steward told her “that is Mr. Kevin’s room.” I told my wife that he was looking out for her by keeping other women out of our room. I had a good laugh over that. We met all our friends at the main dining room and had a great dinner. I started out with some grilled chicken strips with Thai sauce and it was AWESOME! I could have eaten that for my main course. For my main course I had the steak again. I said that I was not going to repeat any meals and try something new every night and had done so up to this point. I wanted to have some fish but it was served with shrimp and I asked Prasi our server if they fried the shrimp and the fish in the same oil and he said that they did. Since I am allergic to shrimp and have had some bad experiences with eating fish that was fried in the same oil as shrimp, I avoided the fish. My wife said that it was good. For dessert I had the warm chocolate melting cake…….again. This was the one area that I did repeat every night. Maybe I will try a different dessert on the 5th night…….maybe.

After dinner we met up with some friends on the pool deck where there was some music and dancing. We spent a couple hours there and then headed to our room to get some sleep. Upon returning to the room I took some pictures of the moon which you could see from our balcony. This was the only night that we did not sleep with the door to the balcony propped open. Tammy was a little warm so I shut the door and we got a good night’s sleep.

Day 4:

I awoke at 6:20 in order to catch the sunrise. I took a few pictures and then headed off to the gym for another workout. I had intended to work out every day of the cruise and thus far, I had kept with that plan. This morning it was weightlifting concentrating on my back muscles and then twenty minutes on the bike.

I then headed back to the room where I showered and waited for Tammy to wake up so we could go to breakfast. Tammy did not want to eat breakfast this morning so I headed to the buffet line where I had a good breakfast and then returned to the room.

I started packing and watched a little television waiting for Tammy to get up and around. I went to the future cruisers talk where I heard about the new ship, Magic. It is almost twice the size of the ship I was on, Ecstasy. They also talked about a Carnival Master Card that would probably be a good idea if we were able to be disciplined and pay it off every month. They also talked about the $100 future cruise certificate that you pay for now and then use it toward a cruise sometime in the next two years. With that you also get some money toward the next cruise’s on-board credit. They also talked about other cruises from other ports.

I then returned to the room to see if Tammy wanted to go see the ice carving. She decided to pass on it and ordered some room service for lunch. I headed to see the ice carving which was neat to see. The guy made an Indian head from ice. It was neat to watch. Regretfully, I forgot my camera and did not get any pictures. I then hit the buffet for lunch. Today was broiled fish, baked potato, and some pumpkin bread followed by a dessert of diet chocolate cake which was not actually that bad.

I returned to the room to find that Tammy had headed to the scrapbooking demo and then was headed to the pool. I did a little more packing and then put on some sun screen and my swim suit and headed to the pool to meet her. We hung out around the pool for an hour or so and then headed back to the room for a nap.

After a short nap, we got cleaned up and headed to see one of the “Vegas style shows.” I have never been to any shows like this, so I don’t have anything to compare it to, but I can say that I was entertained and I guess that is all that matters. We then went to the main dining room for dinner. On this night I tried the veal parmesan, a salad, and chocolate melting cake……again. We said good bye to our wait staff, Prasi, Brenda, and Inyoman and then it was off to see another comedian. This guy was pretty good, but I cannot remember his name. We then stopped by the future cruise desk where we signed up for one of the $100 certificates for a future cruise. We have 24 months to book it and 36 months to take the cruise and we can apply the $100 toward the cruise and will get between $50 and $200 in onboard credits for free. From there it was off to finish packing, put our bags out and off to sleep.

Day 5:

I awoke at 5:50 and headed to the gym to find that it was closed. I wanted to get a workout in, so I headed upstairs to the track where I ran laps, did pushups, crunches, and leg lifts. After that I went up and down the stairs from the top of the ship to the bottom of the ship a few times. I then went to our room and cleaned up. I then went to the buffet to eat some breakfast. Then it was time to wait for our number to be called to get off the ship.

Once off the ship, we had to wait in a long line to clear customs. This was the only time that having a passport would have helped. The passport line was much shorter. After waiting in line for a while a porter got our bags and helped us bypass some of the lines. I’m not sure how that works, but it saved us time. We then crossed the street, and got in our car and headed home.

General Notes:

Our cabin:

We had a balcony room on the main deck near the back end of the ship (room M249). This was our first cruise so we had nothing to compare it to, but I understand what some people mean when they say that once you sail with a balcony, you will never sail any other way. We utilized our balcony a lot. I spent time every morning on the balcony praying and reading by Bible. My wife and I spent a fair amount of time just sitting and talking on our balcony. We also propped the balcony door open with a bungee cord (thanks Cruisecritic.com friends) during the morning and evening hours. We even slept with it propped open quite a bit. I can understand that if you were on a cruise by yourself or not with a romantic partner, it might not get used as much and then not worth the money. I could see that if I was single, I might just get an inside room to save money.

I found that there was adequate storage in the room. I have heard that some use an over-the-door shoe holder in the bathroom. My wife has a bag from Mary K and I have a shaving kit that will hang like that, but we ended up with those bags in the closet. I found that there was adequate storage around the sink for everything I needed and my wife used that space as well as the vanity for her stuff. A far as drawer and closet space, there was plenty of that as well.

I found that our room was comfortable. My wife likes our house cold. We keep it at 73, but if she had her wish, it would probably be at 70 or 71. We found that we could keep our room well within her liking.

The bed was comfortable. It was a little hard for my taste, but I slept well. Michael, our room steward offered to put a comforter under the fitted sheet and that seemed to help some.

The bathroom was small, but adequate. The water pressure and temperature were great. The only time that I was not totally happy with it was when I worked out right before getting off the ship and wanted a cold shower to stop me from sweating and the water temperature would not get cool enough in the shower.

Dining:

I thought the food on the ship was great. We ate breakfast at the buffet every day and found that there were always good choices. We ate lunch at the buffet several days and at the burger place one day. I ate Mongolian stir fry one day for lunch also. For dinner we ate at the main dining room every day. I know some that do not like to eat at the main dining room. My parents have cruised a couple of times and they only ate at the main dining room once. We did enjoy the main dining room. I was determined to try something new or different every night and for the most part, I did. It did not cost anything and I could order something else if I wanted. In fact, one night Prasi could tell that I was trying to decide if I wanted to try Caribbean jerk pork and he offered to bring me that and a steak which he knew that I liked from an earlier night. The main dining room was a place where we could be sure to meet up with some of our friends and talk about what we had done that day. The portions were good in the main dining room as well. It was not so much that I was totally stuffed when I finished eating. And if you were not full, you could order more, but I never felt the need.

Exercise:

I had intended to work out every day, which I did. The gym was small and I could not always do all the weightlifting exercises I wanted to due to limited free weights and benches, but there was enough to get in some good workouts every day. This helped fill my time as well. I am not the type to sleep in or sit around the pool all day so it gave me something to do. I had lost 22 lbs getting ready for this cruise and I did not want to put a lot of that back on during the cruise, because I hope to drop another 10 or so after I get back. I also took the stairs whenever Tammy would let me. I ended up gaining about 4 lbs on the cruise.

Cruise staff:

Our room steward, Michael was great. He was always on top of things and everything stayed in order. We rarely saw him, but when we did he always wanted to know if everything was to our satisfaction. One night he forgot to give us more beach towels. I called him the next morning and he was very apologetic and got us some towels quickly. I told him there was no reason to be sorry.

Our waiter in the main dining room, Prasi, who was from Thailand, was also great. He offered suggestions every night as to what he felt were the best dishes on the menu. There was another server, Brenda, who was Hungarian, who kept our drinks filled and supplied us with bread. She was also helpful. Our favorite Carnival employee was Inoman, who was from Indonesia, who was a drink waiter. We saw him within several hours of the first day and he never forgot our names. I don’t drink but did get the soda card package and he kept me supplied with diet Coke when I wanted it. He was one of the friendliest people I have ever met. We saw him all over the ship every day and he always had something nice to say.

All of the Carnival staff was friendly. I really enjoyed meeting all the people from different countries. They do truly work hard and you can tell that they work long days and are away from their friends and family quite a bit.

Seasickness:

Once again, this was my first cruise so I have nothing to compare it to, but I think we had as calm of seas as you could expect. I only felt vibrations and minimal swaying most of the cruise. When we went around the end of the Yucatan peninsula, I felt some mild swaying. I started taking Bonine the day before the cruise and took one each morning and had no problems with seasickness at all.

Chair Hogs:

I read a lot about chair hogs and the games of reserving chairs at the pool. I found it to be a non-issue for us. We did not spend hours on end at the pool, but managed to spend an hour or so there every day. We never had a problem finding a few chairs that were empty. They were never on the front row, but we never had to go to the upper deck to find some.

We did have an issue with a table at the bar next to the pool one time. We met some friends there and were going to sit in the shade at one of the tables and found some open chairs. After being there for a while, my wife had to go to the restroom. While she was gone, a young lady came by and tossed her bag in the chair that Tammy had been sitting in and walked away. She never even gave me a chance to say that my wife was sitting there. Someone told me that she had been sitting there earlier and that her bag had been near the chair. In five or so minutes the girl never came back so when Tammy got back, I moved the bag onto the ground and Tammy sat down. That girl stood at the bar for a while and never came back down there.

Stuff that I packed:

I did a lot of research on Cruiscritic.com concerning things to bring and tip for while I was on the cruise. Some of the things I will recommend are a bungee cord if you have a balcony. It is true that this was awesome for propping open your balcony door.

I brought some walkie talkies, but never used them. Tammy wanted to keep one for us and give one to her best friend so we could keep up with each other. They were never used. I used post-it notes to let my wife know where I was. These worked awesome. Just write a note to your cabin mate and leave it on the mirror. I went on an excursion in Progresso and when I got back, I knew where to find Tammy. This could work for friends in other cabins as well. You could leave one on the outside of your door and they could come by and see where you are. We never did that in our group, but it could work. I also used the post-it notes to leave messages for our cabin steward. I would write the note and leave it on the “service cabin” sign on the door and he always took care of whatever it was.

I bought matching thermal mugs for my wife and me. They worked great. I got the soda package where you could get unlimited sodas for $6.00 per day. I would get a drink and then dump it in the mug. This kept it cold longer.

I brought lots of sunscreen. I used a tanning bed getting ready for this cruise and one of my main goals for the cruise was NOT to get a sunburn. I accomplished this goal. I just did not want to spend any time in pain from a sunburn on vacation. I used SPF 50 spray on sunscreen and I used it often.

I did bring a three outlet adapter that I bought at Wal Mart for under $4.00. It was a great thing to have. There was one outlet in the bathroom and one at the vanity in the main portion of the cabin. This allowed me to plug in several items as once, like the laptop, Ipod charger, hairdryer, etc.

I bought a battery operated travel alarm clock for under $10.00 at Wal Mart. It was great as I turned off my cell phone when I got on the ship and never turned it back on until the last day. The fact that it was battery operated was great because there were no outlets anywhere near the bed. I know some people like to sleep until they wake up so they do not want an alarm clock, and my wife did that most of the time, but I like to get some sleep and get going every day. I also like to know what time it is if I wake up during the middle of the night.

I brought a bottle of Downy Wrinkle Release and it was great. I never used the iron at all. I rolled my clothes when I packed them which seemed to cut down on the wrinkles. Every day I would pick out the clothes I was planning on wearing and spray them down and they always looked fine.

One thing that I will bring on my next cruise is a small collapsible cooler to keep in the room. I like Monster Low Carb energy drinks and I kept one in our ice bucket at all times and drank about one a day. It would have been easier if I had a small cooler that the room steward could keep filled with ice.

I took a fair amount of clothing, but understand that I am the type to take several showers a day. I did one load of laundry toward the end of the cruise to ensure that I had clean socks and underwear for the remainder of the ship.

Overall, I feel that I did a good job of packing for the cruise. There was nothing that I felt that I needed that I did not have. Thanks go out to all the members of cruisecritic.com for all the good tips. It definitely made our first cruise a great cruise as we were better prepared than if I had not researched the web site.

Lastly, this will not be our last cruise. We plan on coming back next summer and bringing our boys who will be 12 and 14 at that time. We are planning on booking ourselves a balcony cabin with the boys staying in an inside cabin across from us. A lot of people say that either you enjoy cruising or you do not. We enjoyed it a lot. I was able to be active and exercise and be adventurous on the excursions and my wife was able to relax and sleep in. It was a great vacation for my wife and I and we plan to do it again!

[bobmal99]

Looks like cruising hooked another

couple to the dark side!!!

 

:) ;) :o :rolleyes:

[Essiesmom]

All that working out...I'm exhausted reading the review...I think I need a nap...EM

[cruisenanny]

Thanks for the excellent review! Enjoyed it!

[DpTxQt31]

Our first cruise was on the Ecstasy pre-makeover, and been hooked ever since. :D

[dgurule]

My first cruise was on the Ecstasy WAY before the refurbishment. Great ship, revisited once still before her refit. The M/S Ecstasy is responsible for my being 'hooked' on cruising...now checking out her sister ships around the fleet.

[Meyer2]

Thanks for sharing your review. I'm glad you had a good time & reading the review helps me get even more excited for my Ecstasy cruise!

[jmeans23970]

Great review! I am going on the ecstasy in around 40 days and I can't wait!

[Aoumd]

Awesome review, glad you had a great time!

 

Can't wait for DW and my cruise on the Ecstasy in January. I just posted on the Carnival board a general question as to how the Ecstasy is these days and I'm glad to hear it's still a lot of fun!

[Ryancoke]

Thanks for the review. I'm impressed with your discipline re the workouts. 22 pounds and going for more.

[happy cruzer]

Loved your review.

 

My DH likes the free weights too. We've been on alot of ships and each gym has different equipment. I'm not sure any ship ever had all the free weights he uses. But being adaptable like you were is the key.

 

The chocolate melting cake is loaded with butter (I got their recipe) that is probably what contributes to weight gain. We love fish at lunch too.

 

Saw so many things in common with our trip on the Ecstasy, loved your reveiw. Thanks for posting.