Imagination Review 05/28-06/01

[dettlja]

Introductions: Myself (36), DH (48), DS (18), DD (10) and DD (turned 8 on the cruise). My husband and I have been on two prior Carnival Cruises, but this was the first cruise for our kids. We took this cruise to celebrate my step-son’s high school graduation and my daughter’s birthday. We picked this cruise because we wanted to try a shorter cruise with the kids and we though Cozumel would be a great port for the kids (and it was).

Overall impressions: Junior Suite sucked! Totally not worth the money. I LOVED my OS on the Victory and was determined to have a balcony this trip. I should have just gotten on OS on this ship too. The balcony was so tiny we could barely use it. The girls and I stayed in the JS and DH and DS had an inside across the hall. The girls room seemed crowded, while the boys seemed ok. I cant imagine if we had tried to do 5 in one room. Yikes!

The food was just “meh”. While we never went hungry, I just found the food to be uninspiring. My last cruise we used to get so excited to go to dinner. This time it seemed like a drag. One night we didn’t even eat in the Dining room, which is unheard of from us. The buffet was good though, omelets good, and we ate a million ice cream cones. Oh, and we had one good piece of pizza and one really gross piece. Go figure.

We didn’t see any of the shows. My kids just weren’t interested. I couldn’t get them to go to camp carnival either, so I cant comment on that. We did Karaoke one night and bingo a couple times and those were both a blast, although the Karaoke books were a bit outdated and my girls had trouble finding songs they knew.

Overall, we had fun, but it wasn’t our best cruise. Part of that was probably the age spread in our group. My teen boy pretty much slept his entire cruise away, and barely even spent any time with us, which pretty much pissed me off. I felt like his trip was just a waste of money. My girls just wanted to hang out in the room a lot, so I spent a lot of time on the balcony. At least that kept me out of the casino for the most part.

Ok, on to the detailed review.

[dettlja]

Arrival: We flew in the day before, non-stop from PHX to FLL on Us Airways. I hate Us Airways, but I got a smoking deal on tickets. So, we proceeded to pack 5 carry on bags and check one bag with all our liquids. What a drag carrying those all through the airport. I wish they would just check them for free like SW.

 

My daughter Kelsi at the airport

 

Kelyn- she doesn’t like getting her picture taken. You’ll see this face a lot during this review.

 

The flight was uneventful. We arrived on time and the driver from QLS was there to pick us up. We paid $75 for a private van for 5 people from FLL to POM. I’d use QLS again, they were great.

 

We stayed at the Holiday Inn POM. I used our priority points to get a free nights stay and they had rooms that could sleep five. The room was very nice. 2 double beds and a nice pull out couch. Mini Fridge, microwave and coffee maker. CVS was an easy 1.5 block walk from the hotel. Hotel pool was tiny and no hot tub L

 

[dettlja]

We walked across the street to Bayside and had dinner at Bubba Gump.

 

Giant tree!

 

 

 

The teenage attitude began already and it was only day 1!

[dettlja]

Embark:

I woke up to this view-

 

We got up, had hotel breakfast (expensive buffet, but yummy) and headed over to the port.

 

 

Embark was a nightmare. We arrived about 11am and the line was out the door. We got in line and about 20 minutes later we were through security. We headed to the VIP lounge which was packed. We gave our boarding pass and took a seat. It took over 45 minutes for our names to get called and by the time we got checked in, general boarding had begun. So much for being first. We finally got through all the lines and the long !@#%$ gangway and got on the ship about 12:30.

 

 

 

I grabbed the first drink I could find.

 

[dettlja]

Headed to Lido for lunch. Rooms were ready by 1pm so we dropped off our bags and went swimming before it got too busy. The waterslides were a blast.

 

 

 

 

 

[dettlja]

We went to Muster about 3:30pm. They did not take attendance, make anyone be quiet or put down their drinks. It took forever and it was a total waste of time because you couldn’t hear anything. Meanwhile, sail away started while we were still doing the drill. Totally sucked! We rushed up front to Verandah deck forward to watch.

We had dinner in the DR that night but I cant tell you what we ate. We had YTD and never waited for a table. We were in and out in less than 90 minutes, so the service was good, but the food was unremarkable. I cant even remember what I had.

Next day: Key West!

[dettlja]

We were off early to hoof it to the Hemmingway house before our excursions. We were off the ship at 8 and had Parasailing at 10 so we thought we had plenty of time. It’s a pretty long walk though. The kids got tired and we ended up taking a pedi-cab back for $15.

 

DH and DS took the tour while DD’s and I pet some cats.

 

 

 

Next up was Parasailing. I booked direct through Fury and they were awesome.

 

 

 

[dettlja]

 

My older daughter cried the entire time. She hated it. But everyone else had a blast, including my 7 yo daughter. We bought the photos they took for $40 and they were great.

 

At 11:30 we were scheduled to go on the Jet Ski. My 10 yo daughter decided not to go because she was scared of going fast. So we took her back to the ship to get settled in. When we got back to Fury we found out the 18 yo had to take a class and a test in order to drive and we didn’t have enough time. He decided not to share a jet ski with his dad. Fury was super awesome and refunded us for the ski we didn’t use, which was unexpected. It wasn’t there fault I didn’t pay attention to the website. So, DH rode out on his ski and I rode out on mine with DD (7) behind me. We did the island tour.

 

Note: this tour goes extremely fast and is extremely bumpy. My daughter was petrified the entire time. I don’t recommend it for anyone who isn’t a total thrill seeker. Having been a passenger on a jet ski before, its much more scary on the back than it is when you’re driving. Just be aware. The tour also ran late. All aboard was at 1:30 and we were still in the marina, right behind the cruise ship at 1:30. We didn’t get back to the ship until 1:45, but there was a long line to get on, so we were ok. I think Fury knew this because they weren’t worried. But we sure were and it put a damper on the excursion to always be watching the clock.

 

 

DH

 

 

[dettlja]

 

 

Key West was also elegant night. I had prime rib which was ok, a lobster tail which was really gritty. My daughter had the ribs which she said were good. I cant recall what anyone else had. We weren’t going to take pictures, but then we couldn’t resist. Note- this isn’t what I wore to dinner. I changed after dinner, but before pictures.

 

 

 

We went to family karaoke after dinner and the girls had a blast. It wasn’t busy so they got to sing three or four times each. No pictures- they didn’t turn out for some reason.

[dettlja]

Cozumel:

In Cozumel, I booked Dolphins at Chanakaab. It was also my daughter’s birthday. We woke up to rain L It stopped raining for most of the day, but it was still cloudy which made visibility poor. But, we still had an awesome time. We walked out the port and easily caught a taxi. $15 for 5 ppl. I had bought the dolphin swim online using code “ecommerce” and paid almost ½ what the ship was charging. We had no issues once we got to the park. Maybe because of the rain, or maybe because there was only one or two ships in port, but the park was dead. It was nice to not be crowded. We did the dolphin swim and then went snorkeling. DH and I are certified scuba, and DS, DD’s have never snorkled. We all had a blast! We brought our own masks and snorkels, no fins, and free life jackets.

We had lunch there- expensive. About $60 for three entrees, 5 drinks and an ice cream but the food was good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dettlja]

 

 

 

 

 

[dettlja]

 

 

 

 

After Chanakaab we went back to the ship, got the kids settled in for the night and then took DS back to Fat Tuesdays for his first drink. He obviously wasn’t having fun hanging out with the ‘rents so we only stayed for about 30 minutes and then headed back. By then it was raining pretty hard. So there were no pier runners and sail away was uneventful.

 

On the Sea Day we played bingo, played some cards and just hung out. At least 20 ice cream cones were to be had. DS literally slept all day- until we dragged him out of bed for dinner. That drink must have been stronger than we thought! We tried to go to family karaoke but it was soooo crowded. We headed back to our rooms to pack and undecorated the doors. I don’t know why I don’t have pics of our door decorations. We used window clings from Amazon. They were cute!

 

Debark: We used priority debark and it was so easy. We headed to buffet about 7 and got breakfast- no lines. Headed to the lounge at 8 and we were off the ship at 830. We rented a car from national at MIA and we were going to take a cab. Turns out they have a free shuttle. Score! We took the shuttle and got our mini-van. I used our free day we had been saving so it was only $17 for the day including insurance and tax.

 

We had planned on doing an everglades tour and a beach day in FLL before out 5pm flight but it was pouring rain! So we headed to Grampa’s bakery which we saw on Diners, Drive ins and Dives to figure out a game plan. We got there about 11am. We sat down and tried to figure out what to do for the day. We thought of going to Sawgrass mills but we were all very tired. So we decided to try to find a hotel and rent a room for the day. We found the Holiday Inn right around the corner. For just over $100 we got a very nice room for the day. By afternoon it stopped raining so the kids headed out to use the pool and hot tub. It was VERY nice. We would totally stay there again. The pool was awesome!

 

About 3pm we headed to FLL for our flight home. Again, uneventful and everything went well. We got home about 8pm to three very excited dogs.

 

So- that’s the end of my review. Other than to say what the heck was the designer thinking when he decorated this lounge?!

 

[happylady]

Thanks for sharing....:D

[vivavegas]

Love your photos! Thank you for sharing with us! Looks like you had a good time!:)

[happylady]

 

 

 

 

Did you take the "royal swim" with the dolphins? I just did a fake ressie and the code gives a 25% discount of the reg price. Yeah!!:) Haven't made our mind up 100%, but thanks for all the great info.

[so excited!]

Introductions: Myself (36), DH (48), DS (18), DD (10) and DD (turned 8 on the cruise). My husband and I have been on two prior Carnival Cruises, but this was the first cruise for our kids. We took this cruise to celebrate my step-son’s high school graduation and my daughter’s birthday. We picked this cruise because we wanted to try a shorter cruise with the kids and we though Cozumel would be a great port for the kids (and it was).

 

Overall impressions: Junior Suite sucked! Totally not worth the money. I LOVED my OS on the Victory and was determined to have a balcony this trip. I should have just gotten on OS on this ship too. The balcony was so tiny we could barely use it. The girls and I stayed in the JS and DH and DS had an inside across the hall. The girls room seemed crowded, while the boys seemed ok. I cant imagine if we had tried to do 5 in one room. Yikes!

 

The food was just “meh”. While we never went hungry, I just found the food to be uninspiring. My last cruise we used to get so excited to go to dinner. This time it seemed like a drag. One night we didn’t even eat in the Dining room, which is unheard of from us. The buffet was good though, omelets good, and we ate a million ice cream cones. Oh, and we had one good piece of pizza and one really gross piece. Go figure.

 

We didn’t see any of the shows. My kids just weren’t interested. I couldn’t get them to go to camp carnival either, so I cant comment on that. We did Karaoke one night and bingo a couple times and those were both a blast, although the Karaoke books were a bit outdated and my girls had trouble finding songs they knew.

 

Overall, we had fun, but it wasn’t our best cruise. Part of that was probably the age spread in our group. My teen boy pretty much slept his entire cruise away, and barely even spent any time with us, which pretty much pissed me off. I felt like his trip was just a waste of money. My girls just wanted to hang out in the room a lot, so I spent a lot of time on the balcony. At least that kept me out of the casino for the most part.

 

Ok, on to the detailed review.

 

I thought there were no balconies on the Imagination?? We booked for Next April and it was not even an option.

[dettlja]

Did you take the "royal swim" with the dolphins? I just did a fake ressie and the code gives a 25% discount of the reg price. Yeah!!:) Haven't made our mind up 100%, but thanks for all the great info.

 

yep we did the Royal Swim and booked in advance to get the discount. So I think we payed somewhere in the $500 range for 5 people. It was WAY cheaper than the ship. The photo disk is priced by how many people are in your group so it was $199 for our group of 5.

[dettlja]

I thought there were no balconies on the Imagination?? We booked for Next April and it was not even an option.

 

You're right. No balcony rooms. Junior Suite is the lowest class room with a balcony and they are on Verandah Deck. Then there are Ocean Suites with balconies. The balcony on the JS was soooo tiny. But it was still nice to have the space when the kids just needed to decompress. The location was also fabulous. It was very easy for my kids to go to the water slides or the ice cream machine by themselves and not get lost.

[LandlockedCruiser01]

I thought there were no balconies on the Imagination?? We booked for Next April and it was not even an option.

There are no regular balconies. Suites (all types) on the Imagination have balconies by default. That's also true for other Fantasy class ships, although some of them had balconies pretty much tacked on to the chassis of the ship, mostly in the aft area. Imagination is not one of them.

[epa8310]

Hello,

I am looking for anyone that might have purchased the DVD sold by Carnival. Did you happen to? Also what Camera do you use, your photo's are awesome!

[durdenpb]

I thought there were no balconies on the Imagination?? We booked for Next April and it was not even an option.

 

there arent... only suites.. the suites all have balconies