Chillin’ on the Ecstasy: 6/20/16 Nassau, Freeport, Pics, Food, Travelogue

[Namelocg]

FYI, the balconies on deck 6 belong to the suites.

[ourcruiseyears]

Subscribed to & loving your review! :)

[NJsharon]

We are sailing the Ecstasy April 2017 & also our first time out of Charleston, so following your review!

 

Do you or anyone know, if we have a suite booked, do we get to go in the 'express' parking line & boarding line inside too? I think suites now get priority boarding so would think so? But just checking!

 

Thanks for the review so far!

[OceansOfTravels]

Enjoying your review so far as well as your writing style! I am subscribed, I cannot wait for the rest of it. We have family in Savannah, Georgia, so it would be nice to maybe to do a visit to SAV and then a cruise from Charleston! :D

[DutchCruiseFan]

Enjoying the review!

[ladygal4.4]

Still with me? So, we’re finally on the van to the terminal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I took this picture, I did not notice the people leaving the small white tent, some with their luggage.

 

 

 

Here is a picture looking back from the terminal. You can see Fleet Landing – with the orange umbrellas – where we had our imaginary lunch. ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey, the “walking people” have multiplied!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m guessing these are people being dropped off by shuttle or locals with some choosing to carry their luggage? Otherwise, someone please tell me where all these people came from. LOL

 

 

 

We had to wait until they all entered the terminal before we exited the van.

 

 

 

The gentleman holding the front door was helpful telling people if they had FTTF (or remember – Platinum and Diamond); to “look for Phil” when you get inside; “he has a purple tie”. So, the tie was blue, but he was easy to find in the sea of people. He then directed us around the corner to security. This time, the line on the right is the one for FTTF – with no line.

 

 

 

After Security, you get in line for your S&S card. They were very observant and grabbed the people coming from the FTTF security to get them in the FTTF check-in line. There was not a separate check in area, it was basically a separate “front of the line” line.

 

 

 

Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, I'm not a line or crowd person; glad that’s done.

 

 

 

Now it’s time for a

 

 

 

****SPECIAL NEWS BULLETIN****

 

 

 

CHARLESTON has just been announced as the next port to have Staggered Check-in Times (along with Baltimore). The have given less than two weeks warning – it starts July 9th!

 

 

 

We were early birds, at the front of the line. I have NO IDEA how Carnival thinks this is going to work here. Look at what it took to get to and thru the terminal. How can you plan that around a time frame? If they don’t start parking until they are ready to start boarding the ship; how can this work? And, if you are being dropped off by a shuttle from a hotel – are they really going to start running shuttles from 10 am until 2PM for each and every hotel that does this?

 

 

 

I see total chaos ahead.

 

 

 

This change does not affect FTTF/Platinum/Diamond. I’m glad I’m turning Platinum soon.

 

 

 

Now, back to your regular programming…. ;)

 

 

 

 

 

Like most terminals; no photos are allowed. Except for one.

 

 

 

Does this look like somebody ready to go to the Ba-HAAAAAM-as!

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

Yeah. I'm very scared about this for my Seot cruise. But hopefully they'll have the worst figured out by the time I get there. The parking is the worst zoo I've ever seem

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CruzinScotty]

With FTTF, your cabin is ready when you get on the ship.

 

Here are a a few pics of the bathroom:

 

The shower is bigger than the Conquest/Dream class, which is nice:

 

 

But, the sink area suffers greatly because of it:

 

 

The commode not being at an angle can also be a little tight.

 

So, It turns out we booked this cruise rather late. It was an opportunity that came about and we had to take what we could get. So, we knew ahead of time that our beds wouldn’t go together:

 

 

Knowing this, we did splurge and got a cabin with one of the welded-on balconies towards the rear of the ship:

 

 

We met our cabin Steward, Pierre, who is from Haiti. He did a wonderful job for us. He's been with Carnival for 19 years! I told him we needed ice twice a day. Both for the ice bucket, and also for the collapsible cooler I brought to keep water in. (Fantasy class ships only have fridges in the suites, I believe.)

 

Now it’s time to head to lunch before it gets too crowded.

 

Food porn on it's way in a bit!

.

[KPfromCT]

Awwwww! This review is GREAT.

Love your writing style and pictures....

No plans to go on Ecstasy anytime in the near future, but still love your review.

 

Waiting patiently for the next installment.....

 

Thanks for taking the time to do this.:D

[CruzinScotty]

Great start! I am going to check out the picture web site...as I have always wanted to learn how to upload pics to a thread:)

 

We've eaten at Fleet Landing and loved it....love Charleston and seriously thinking of booking another 5 day next year on the Ecstasy...we just sailed the Elation in May...love all the Fantasy class ships...

 

Thanks so much for doing this review...DH has not been on the Ecstasy but I sailed her out of Galveston a few years ago with a cruising friend from Texas:D

 

The Ecstasy is so close now; you really must book so DH can see what he missed.

 

There are so many great restaurants in Charleston; I thought Fleet Landing would be nice for this report.

 

I have found tiny pic easy to use. It's great at re-sizing pics; they were too big in my previous reports. The main problem I have is I can't get pictures to rotate. So the bathroom pics for example would have been so much better if I had turned the camera lengthwise to get a nicer shot. But, I had experimented and knew I couldn't rotate the pics - so they are what they are....

 

The site was suggested to me during my Conquest review in April when I said I wasn't posting food pics because of problems with Photobucket. The ironic thing is that Photobucket owns Tiny pic. LOL My Photobucket problem was using too much bandwidth. Not being a techie, I don't quite understand; but it seemed the pictures were viewed too many times and I was using up my allotted space on the free part of their site. And I'm too cheap to pay for uploaded pictures.

 

Tiny pic is free as well. I have actually loaded all of the pics for this report to make sure it didn't tell me I had to many. The time it takes to post the rest of the report is getting the dialog ready and matching it all up.

 

For posting pics, go to the Camera and Photo section. There's usually a post on the first page called, "How to post a pictures". Read the first few posts and then go to the end and try to post a pic until you get the hang of it.

Edited June 29, 2016 by CruzinScotty

[CruzinScotty]

FYI, the balconies on deck 6 belong to the suites.

 

Thanks for the info and thanks for contributing.

 

That makes total sense and would love to stay in one someday.

[CruzinScotty]

Subscribed to & loving your review! :)

 

Thanks so much for the kind comments. It's a labor of love.

 

Enjoying the review!

 

Thanks for the positive feedback; it only helps encourage me even more.

[CruzinScotty]

We are sailing the Ecstasy April 2017 & also our first time out of Charleston, so following your review!

 

Do you or anyone know, if we have a suite booked, do we get to go in the 'express' parking line & boarding line inside too? I think suites now get priority boarding so would think so? But just checking!

 

Thanks for the review so far!

 

Thanks for following along, what itinerary are you doing?

 

I'm not positive, but I think you're correct that suites don't get all of the perks (separate line at Guest Services); but I do believe you get priority boarding.

 

When you print your Boarding Pass, there could be something there. For FTTF, it has a circle that says "Faster to the Fun" on it. If so, they will notice it at the white check-in tent when reviewing your documents.

 

But, maybe someone else knows 100% for sure about this?

Edited June 29, 2016 by CruzinScotty

[CruzinScotty]

Enjoying your review so far as well as your writing style! I am subscribed, I cannot wait for the rest of it. We have family in Savannah, Georgia, so it would be nice to maybe to do a visit to SAV and then a cruise from Charleston! :D

 

Thanks for reading.

 

We met people on our cruise who were visiting family after the cruise. I asked because I didn't understand why they had driven all the way from Buffalo. :eek:

 

So, that makes perfect sense to me. Book that cruise!

[CruzinScotty]

Awwwww! This review is GREAT.

Love your writing style and pictures....

No plans to go on Ecstasy anytime in the near future, but still love your review.

 

Waiting patiently for the next installment.....

 

Thanks for taking the time to do this.:D

 

Thank you; it does take some time putting it all together.

 

I recognize your name, have you read any of my other reviews? The most recent were the Conquest in April and the Sunshine last September.

 

I'm like you; I love to read cruise reports on ships I don't necessarily plan to go on - but just for the fun of it. :)

[KPfromCT]

Thank you; it does take some time putting it all together.

 

I recognize your name, have you read any of my other reviews? The most recent were the Conquest in April and the Sunshine last September.

 

I'm like you; I love to read cruise reports on ships I don't necessarily plan to go on - but just for the fun of it. :)

 

Yes, I read all of your reviews:D:D

I am pretty much a review "junkie". lol

[CruzinScotty]

Yeah. I'm very scared about this for my Sept cruise. But hopefully they'll have the worst figured out by the time I get there. The parking is the worst zoo I've ever seen.

 

Well, maybe they have some master plan in place. Since parking has always been a mess; maybe they will send more specific instructions telling people if you have such and such check in time, to not go to the parking lot until that time, or maybe 15-30 minutes before that?

 

It's possible in the long run this will help.

 

The biggest problem I have is I am an early person. I'd rather wait in a long line and get on early than get on faster at a much later time. If this had been in place when we booked as late as we did; we'd have gotten the latest boarding time....

 

But, it looks like a change that's-a-coming. I wonder, are other cruise lines doing this or is Carnival the first?

[CruzinScotty]

Yes, I read all of your reviews:D:D

I am pretty much a review "junkie". lol

 

I thought so. :D

 

Welcome back. Lunch is served soon!

[CruzinScotty]

The Lido Deck Panorama Bar and Grill

 

This is looking at the aft of the Lido Grill. As you can tell, we beat the crowds:

 

 

There was no breeze, so we chose an inside table by the window, facing the harbor. I think the décor here is quite nice. On the left, you can make out Pizza Pirate and the Deli. I know it doesn’t look right because there are no people there yet. LOL To the right of the Deli is the bar.

 

Also note there is carpeting where the tables are, but tile along the main walkways. Yeah – we’ll come back to that later. ;)

 

Moving forward from the back of the Lido:

 

 

Boy oh boy, did we beat the crowds! Even with all the people lined up in front of us before we got on the gangway; plus the detour to our cabin. It was great. You can see a few food stations, a large one in the middle and a smaller one to the side. There is a small one on each side.

 

Here’s the smaller one. Life’s short – start with dessert first!

 

 

There’s a very nice selection to choose from. This area may seem small compared to other ships; but they replenish constantly, and remember – there are two of them.

 

Now, let’s take a look at part of the salad buffet:

 

 

To the right of this, toward the aft, are three separate ice cream machines. Having them all in one location as opposed to spread out on the Conquest class ships was much better, IMHO. It was easier to see what all of the choices were.

 

There were never any lines at the salad or dessert bars all week.

 

And, here’s the main section from the Buffet:

 

 

This area kind of makes a horseshoe instead of being a continuous straight line. There are still all of the breads, cole slaws, potato salads, etc that you normally see here.

 

This concludes the Main Lido Buffet area. But, there’s still more food options to come.

[CruzinScotty]

More lunch time options: it’s time to move forward to the outside food choices.

 

With no lines, I decided today was perfect to have the Mongolian Wok. You get to choose your veggies:

 

 

With space issues, the veggies are doubled up. They are more than happy to help you if you can't reach something on the higher level.

 

While I was waiting for my lunch to cook, I got a pic of part of the Rotisserie/Grill area.

 

 

They had carved roast beef here today, but I missed it.

 

Here is my lunch. I chose shrimp as my protein and a combo of Black Bean and Sechzuan for the sauce. I knew the Black Bean was bland, but accidentally asked them to add the spiciest sauce instead of the middle one (the name escapes me at the moment). So, it was a little hotter than expected:

 

 

I haven’t had Mongolian for a while, it was quite good!

 

Now lets look at some dessert choices a little more closely:

 

 

Let me tell you right now, I have a sweet tooth. So, there will be lots of yummy desserts to drool over. ;) And, while you will see a lot of things, that doesn’t mean I finished them all – I didn’t. I'm a "taster".

 

With a few cruises over the last few years, we’ve definitely noticed a pattern when it comes to picking desserts at lunch time. A few years ago, they really left a lot to be desired. Most cakes were dry and many filling type desserts lacked in flavor. But, the last few cruises, things have improved dramatically. You still have to look – if it looks dry, it probably is.

 

Among my choices today were the apple crumble cake, which is usually good. The chocolate cake is a prime example of something that has really improved. It’s called Choco Mint. I tasted no mint; but it was good. There is caramel cheesecake towards the back. This is also served at the Sea Day Brunch. In the back was something new; it’s called a fruit cup. It looks like a cupcake. But, it was a very dense cake that had candied fruit in it. Note – I did not say it was “fruitcake”. LOL It just has some fruit in it. It was different, but very good.

 

OK, after a very nice lunch, it’s time to walk it off and do some touring.

 

In a bit. ;)

[pipandgabesmom7]

Subbing! We are going in September! Great review so far, can't wait to read the rest!! :D

[Jamman54]

Enjoying your review! It's been a while since we've sailed on the Ecstasy, but she looks better than ever! We wanted to sail on her for our recent spring break getaway, but it was $200 more per person for the same exact dates and ports as the Fascination out of Jacksonville. We chose to sail on the Fascination again.

[CruzinScotty]

Subbing! We are going in September! Great review so far, can't wait to read the rest!! :D

 

Thanks for reading, I appreciate your comments.

[CruzinScotty]

Enjoying your review! It's been a while since we've sailed on the Ecstasy, but she looks better than ever! We wanted to sail on her for our recent spring break getaway, but it was $200 more per person for the same exact dates and ports as the Fascination out of Jacksonville. We chose to sail on the Fascination again.

 

Thanks, Jeff! I've read so many of your reviews, I feel like I know you in person. ;)

 

I think the first one I read was your solo on the Fantasy out of Charleston. I so wanted to go on it while it was here; but it just didn't work out.

 

Your comment about the price difference is so true. In spite of the parking and embarkation issues in Charleston; they continue to fill the ship and are able to charge higher prices while doing so.

Edited June 30, 2016 by CruzinScotty

[shonuf]

The Lido Deck Panorama Bar and Grill

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Moving forward from the back of the Lido:

 

 

Boy oh boy, did we beat the crowds! Even with all the people lined up in front of us before we got on the gangway; plus the detour to our cabin. It was great. You can see a few food stations, a large one in the middle and a smaller one to the side.

 

This concludes the Main Lido Buffet area. But, there’s still more food options to come.

 

Enjoying the review, in this photo I got a glimpse of our friend Chef de Cuisine Russel Pereira checking out the Lido!

[CruzinScotty]

Enjoying the review, in this photo I got a glimpse of our friend Chef de Cuisine Russel Pereira checking out the Lido!

 

Thanks for reading, glad I could be of service. ;)

 

I see your next cruise is on the Ecstasy, I'm guessing since you're coming up from Florida that you'll be meeting him on the ship?