Ecstasy Oct. 8-13 First Cruise & First Review

[firstcruiseoct11]

It's late and I'm tired but I'm gonna try to start my Review. A little bit of history...This cruise was a gift from my dad and my BF for my DH and I's 10 year anniversary. A cruise is something that I've wanted to do for a long time, but my DH was not as excited as I was. I just kept hoping that once we got on board he would loosen up. I'm not sure if it matters but I'm 29 and my DH is 33. Prior to our cruise I did ALOT of research on here and read ALOT of reviews!

Saturday morning did not start the way I had planned at all. My DH woke up not feeling well :(. He headed to the after hours clinic as soon as they opened. I was so upset that I had planned so much and was so excited and was scared our vacation would be ruined. He told the Dr that we were leaving on a cruise so he fixed him up! He said it was his sinuses but since we were leaving he gave him a shot and some antibiotics, just in case.

We only live about an hour from the port of New Orleans so we had family drop us off. We got to port right at 12 on Saturday. The line was already pretty long. To my surprise it moved pretty fast. The first line was just for them to look at your ID and boarding pass. Once you got inside we had to have our carry on luggage checked. That line also went pretty fast. The next lines were seperated by the deck you were on. We got in line for the upper deck. This line was a little slower. This is where we gave them our birth certificates and ID and they gave us our S&S card. After we did this it was time to get on board!! We got on board at about 1:30. It was a little overwhelming! The rooms were ready so we were off to find our room to drop off our carryon luggage. Our room was U124.

Then we were off to find some lunch. We went to the mongolian grill.

We went back to the room to see if our luggage had arrived and DH wanted to see if he could find the LSU game on TV. Luggage was not there yet my we found the game on TV. That made my DH very happy!! We watched it until it was time to go to the safety drill. We were station F which was on the Lido deck. It was quick and painless! After the drill the captain came on and said that we would be running into a storm once we hit the gulf. He said it would not clear up until Sunday afternoon. I was a little concerned :eek:.

We made our way to the top to wait for sail away. For some reason we didn't leave until around 4:30. Here are some pics I took of the Mississippi River before we left. [/ATTACH][/ATTACH][/ATTACH][/ATTACH][/ATTACH]

I hope my pictures show up!! I'm not sure if I'm doing this right. :confused:. I feel like I'm being long winded!! I will continue my review tomorrow. I need to get some sleep:).

[new_cruiser_75]

I sail on the Ecstasy in under two months, can't wait to read more of your review and see more pictures :D

[gelo7]

You are doing fine, keep it coming.

[txponycruiser]

Yes, keep it coming! Long winded with pictures is great! We sailed on her in August and LOVED IT!:cool:

[firstcruiseoct11]

Thanks Everyone. Does anyone know how to make the pics big instead of the thumbnails? I'm gonna try to post more later. I had to take my little girl to the doctor this morning and she isn't feeling well. As soon as she lets me I'll post more.

[Meyer2]

Thanks Everyone. Does anyone know how to make the pics big instead of the thumbnails? I'm gonna try to post more later. I had to take my little girl to the doctor this morning and she isn't feeling well. As soon as she lets me I'll post more.

 

I'm so glad you are doing a review with some pictures. I know you were excited about your cruise. :) I can't wait to read more. For pictures, I post through Photobucket, so I'm not sure I can help you as that's the only way I know on how to post them here. LOL. I hope your little one feels better quickly. :(

[hlb76]

We leave for NOLA tomorrow and sail Monday..

 

I am excited to read the rest of this review (prolly when I get back)!!

 

Congrats on the 10 yr anniverasry too. We are sailing for that same reason ( with the kids crazy I know)! Seems like everyone picks Ecstasty to sail for there 10 yr!!

[nolababe504]

Keep it coming!! We will be on her soon!! I can't wait to read more!!

[nolababe504]

We were on the ferry going to Gretna Fest!!! We passed by ya'll!! We might be in this picture!! LOL!!

[cruisenanny]

We leave for NOLA tomorrow and sail Monday..

 

I am excited to read the rest of this review (prolly when I get back)!!

 

Congrats on the 10 yr anniverasry too. We are sailing for that same reason ( with the kids crazy I know)! Seems like everyone picks Ecstasty to sail for there 10 yr!!

 

We are doing it for our 12th anni!

OP hope your daughter feels better real soon!

I also post through photobucket & my pics are almost TOO large, but I have no clue how to change the size when I post..

[Carol1560]

I was also on the cruise, and I thought it was very strange that prior to entering the lane where you pay to park, they asked to see my husband's driver's license.

 

We arrived around 1130 and was on the boat by 1215. It was awesome!!

[firstcruiseoct11]

After sail away we wondered around a little more and I got my first DOD! We ended up sitting at the Lido bar and watching some more of the LSU game. While we were sitting there I saw that they were doing airbrush tattos. I am too scared to get a real one so I figured I'd get a fake one.

After sitting there for a little while we decided to head back to our room to get ready for diner and to finish watching the game. We had anytime dining in the Windstar dining room. We never had to wait to be seated. This first night we were seated in Louis's section and was told he was the best waiter in the dining room. We agreed and asked to be seated in his area every night. My husband started with a salad and I got the spinach dip. Louis thought I'd like the lasagna and he was right. It was really good.

 

DH ordered the steak and I ordered fish. Louis also brought me the brisket. I was glad he did because I liked it better than what I ordered.

We got the warm choclate melting cake for dessert. It is really sweet!

 

After diner we went to the welcome aboard show. The comedians were great. Once that was over we wondered around a little more. We took advantage of a few photo ops. We ended up in the starlight lounge listening to karoke. We only stayed for about 30 minutes and decided to head back to the room. We were still awake when we hit the gulf and you could feel the difference. The boat was rocking alot!! We even had some stuff in the bathroom fall.

[firstcruiseoct11]

1st day at sea:

I had planned on sleeping late since we were on vacation, but that didn't happen. I didn't sleep well and was up early. The boat was still rocking ALOT! We didn't get sick but I later talked to quite a few people that said they did. I actually took a few pics from our window.

I had read and been told that you can't tell you are even on a boat! Well we could tell! It didn't calm down until our last day at sea.

We headed to breakfast on the Lido deck. We both did the omlet station. There was no seats on the Lido so we sat in the hall area between the lido and the buffet area. The omlets were really good. After we ate we did some more exploring. We found our way to the sports deck.

We headed back to our room. For some reason when we layed in bed the rocking didn't seem as bad. I think we both ended up falling back to sleep. We got up and grabbed some lunch on the lido deck. After lunch we found a group of older ladies sitting by the starlight lounge watching the saints game. We decided to join them for a little while. I thought they were hilarious!! The rocking was really bothering my DH so he wanted to head back to the room. I wanted to find the Serenity deck. So I changed into my bathing suit and found my way there. The view was beautiful! I loved just sitting there and watching the water. I got in the hot tub for a little while. There was lots of people out there but no one in the hot tubs. It was so quiet and peaceful back there that I think half of the people were sleeping.

 

After hanging back there for about an hour I decided to head back to the room so we could get ready for formal night.

[Ms. Fun Bunch]

Enjoying your review! Keep it coming!

[snow52408]

Good review so far! We also live not far from the port of Nola.

[pink roses]

Great review so far, love the pictures!

[firstcruiseoct11]

For formal night we had shrimp cocktail and the alligator fritters. They were both good.

DH had the prime rib and Louis added a lobster tail. He didn't care for either one. I had the shrimp and lobster and I liked it.

Huband had ice creme for dessert and I had bitter and blanc. I liked it better than the warm choc. melting cake. Sorry I didn't take any pics.

We decided to change and get more comfy. I was glad that we did cause it was cold on the boat. After diner we went to the country show. It was ok. The best part was watching Steve play the fiddle. After that we headed to the starlight lounge for the adult comedy shows. Both of the comedians were great. I forgot to post a pic of our first towel animal. Here are pics of our first and second one.

[firstcruiseoct11]

Progresso

We didn't have any excursions planned for Progresso so we were in no rush to get off at 7 when we docked. After reading other peoples reviews I had two goals for Progresso.... the double decker bus tour and a massage on the beach. We got up and decided to have breakfast in the main dining room. I think we got off the ship around 8:30-9. Walking thru the shops on the port were a little overwhelming. Everybody wanted you to buy what they had. We caught the free bus to town. Once there we paid for the double decker bus and found a spot on top and waited for it to fill up. I think we waited about 15 minutes. The tour was nice but it was hard to hear what the tour guide was saying. Here are some pics that I took during the tour.

 

 

 

[firstcruiseoct11]

After the tour we decided to walk to the beach. As we were walking a lady approached me about a massage. I asked if it was on the beach and she said yes. So we walked with her. Well it was not on the beach. It was on the side of an open air kinda restrauant. I told her that I wanted to do it on the beach and tried to walk away. She bargained with me and followed us. I think my DH felt bad that she had walked with us for a while so he talked me into doing it. It was ok. I guess for $15 I couldn't complain. My DH was able to sit while I had my massage. One of the guys at the restrauant heard him cough and talked him into a shot of tequila. He said it would help his cough!

After that we headed to the beach. We found a table and had a seat. I wondered down to the water. There were tons of sea shells. When the waves came in and went back they sounded like wind chimes. I picked up some to bring home to my son. There were lots of people on the beach trying to sell stuff. Most of them just left with a simple no thanks, but others still insisted on showing you everything in their bag. We did buy a pretty wood carving from one of them. I didn't take enough small bills off the ship to get more things.

We decided to walk a little and ended up at buddy's. We both ordred the beef nachos. They were very good. I asked what the blue tequila was and they asked if I wanted a shot. I figured I'm on vacation so why not. Well I thought they would bring a shot glass but they didn't! They just pour it in your mouth. I'm not a big drinker but whatever it was it was good.

While we were sitting there someone caught an octopus and they attached it to a corona bottle.

I'm pretty sure that the guy in the brown shirt is Buddy. He was a really nice guy.

We decided to head back to where the buses were. On the way DH got a $1 corona. We did most of our shopping in the open air market right where the buses bring you. I think we got some pretty good prices.

[aintsetlin]

Keep posting...we are going on the same cruise for our honeymoon, 10/31. The info is helful!

[Magic City Cruiser]

I am enjoying your review! Me and my 11 GF's were on the cruise and it's fun hearing your experiences :-).

 

After sail away, the Captain announced that we would be going through a bit of bad weather but the weather should clear by 4 the following afternoon. I noticed we were going unusually fast down the Mississippi and into the Gulf through the night. We had room service the following morning and the room service attendant said he had to set up the room service area twice because everything fell in the floor! The waves were white capping the first sea day so the seas were a bit rough. However, by 10 that morning, we had blue, sunny skies :D. I said all that to say that often, a Captain will increase the speed for a bit and endure some rockin' and rollin' to get around some bad weather for a good sea day and I think that's what we experienced! For me...I thought the cruise was pretty steady except for that first night and morning.

I love your pics, keep 'em coming!

[FirstTimeCruisr]

I was also on this cruise... We loved the boat and the people.... Can't wait to do it again

[Meyer2]

Enjoying your review & pictures!

[firstcruiseoct11]

We headed back to the boat. I wanted to go down the water slides. I was hoping that since we were still docked alot of people would still be off the boat. We went to the room and I put my swim suit on and we headed to the slides!! Well the big one was not open and the racing ones had tons of kids on them. Oh Well!! I took a few pics of the port. Then we headed back to the room.

I think we ended up taking a nap before dinner. That night I had a chicken pasta that I didn't really care for. My DH ordered steak again!! Louis also gave him the fried shrimp. I ended up eating that. Afterwards we went to the rolls royce cafe cause I wanted some choc. covered strawberries. They didn't have any. The guy was really nice and said to ck back in an hour. He said the kitchen was very busy getting ready to the mexican buffet on the lido. We went up the room. I went back down about an hour later, but still none. So I headed to bed.

[firstcruiseoct11]

Cozumel

We booked the dune buggy and snorkel excursion thru carnival for Cozumel and I was very excited!! We got up, got dressed and went up for breakfast. We went to the inside buffet and it wasn't that good. But the plus side was we sat outside and the water was beautiful!

We didn't think we were docked yet, but we headed down to get in line to get off. To our surprise we were docked and people were getting off. I took a couple pics of the boat and beautiful water as we walked along the pier.

We were to meet for our excursion at 9:30 on the pier. We found where we were suppose to go and waited. Our tour guides walked us thru the shopping center to a parking lot. Juan and Jerry were great!! They had us laughing the whole day. I thought we were going to have stick shift buggies, but turns out they got some new polaris automatic off road vehicles. It is suppose to be 4 in a vehicle, but we had an odd number of people so DH and I had our own!

They guided us thru the town and out to punta sur. It was beautiful! We stopped to see crocidiles, a mayan ruin, and to climb the light tower.