Imagin(ation) this!

[Sotermarler]

Boarded the Imagination at 11:30 am and now at the bar watching the Pat's! First ever Carnival cruise.  Easiest embarkation ever! Life is good! 

That is all!

[James4me]

Great start, have fun!

[BoDidly]

Now there's a Happy Camper 😀 41 to 22  , NE  ,4th 5:32 left

 

Edited January 13, 2019 by BoDidly

[Sotermarler]

Ha ha, very true,

 We are a few drinks in and Pat's are winning. Nobody seems to like us right now. I wonder why?

Ohand we just decided cheers might be worth it. Next stop, buy cheers, lol.

[Sotermarler]

Well I am home now and will share a few thoughts on this trip.it rained most of the whole 4 days, so we were all relegated mostly to the interior of the ship. We happily found plenty to do though. 

 

Things we liked:

 

This was our first Carnival cruise and we were flabbergasted at how easy embarkation was! We did get there early around 10:30 so we could get on and watch the game though, so that may be part of why it went so smooth. I think we waited no more than 15 minutes. Also, this was the first time we have driven To port, so no stress there either. We were surprised there was only 2 places to watch the game but we had no problem bellying upmto the Lido bar. Pats won, by the way! 

 

I really liked the staff, Michelle and Francisco were great! I couldn’t tell you what the CD’s on NCL looked like or their names, but on Carnival they are really fun. I would say the Fun Ship lives up to its name.  It was the little things like bingo, on NCL it was just bingo, but on Carnival they tried to make it more fun.

 

We also had a blast playing Name That tune trivia. DJ Mikey who ran it made is so much fun. The casino seems to be a little looser than on RCCL or NCL, so that’s always good. We kept running into Jue a Korean girl who worked at the casino and she was so nice and got so happy each time we would win. She truly seemed to love  her job. You don’t find that on  NCL.

 

The last stand out thing that we really loved was the Piano Bar with Kathryn Krull. She was such a blast we ended up there 3 out of 4 nights of our trip. She had an amazing voice and really got the crowd roaring.

 

Things that were meh:

Food was all ok, nothing that stood out as great or bad. The dining rooms were fine, even without a table cloth. We had your time dining which worked out ok for us.

 

i don’t know if it was because of the bad weather or not, but you would have needed a shoe horn to get another person into the hot tubs at Serenity.

 

We missed Catalina due to weather, which is no surprise, In 5 cruises I’ve never been lucky enough to actually make a tender port. We did make Ensenada, holy moly this is by far the WORST port I have ever visited. It was cool and rainy so if there were nice beaches or something we didn’t get to see them. 

 

Decor or on this ship is very old and ugly, but I do have to say I loved all the window seats. Since it was crappy weather we went to the shop to buy cards and they had all our, so they tracked some down for us elsewhere on the ship. Those window seats with tables were great for card playing and people watching.

 

This was our first time without a balcony and it didn’t kill me. I think the fact that it was cool and rainy helped with that. 

 

Overall the trip was great and exceeded my expectations. I had heard such negativity around this cruise and Carnival in general that I was really happy it was so much fun.

We will book this again sometime! 

[BENHANDEL]

Awesome! We will be on it in March!

[nicolelarios]

On 1/19/2019 at 3:06 PM, Sotermarler said:

Well I am home now and will share a few thoughts on this trip.it rained most of the whole 4 days, so we were all relegated mostly to the interior of the ship. We happily found plenty to do though. 

 

Things we liked:

 

This was our first Carnival cruise and we were flabbergasted at how easy embarkation was! We did get there early around 10:30 so we could get on and watch the game though, so that may be part of why it went so smooth. I think we waited no more than 15 minutes. Also, this was the first time we have driven To port, so no stress there either. We were surprised there was only 2 places to watch the game but we had no problem bellying upmto the Lido bar. Pats won, by the way! 

 

I really liked the staff, Michelle and Francisco were great! I couldn’t tell you what the CD’s on NCL looked like or their names, but on Carnival they are really fun. I would say the Fun Ship lives up to its name.  It was the little things like bingo, on NCL it was just bingo, but on Carnival they tried to make it more fun.

 

We also had a blast playing Name That tune trivia. DJ Mikey who ran it made is so much fun. The casino seems to be a little looser than on RCCL or NCL, so that’s always good. We kept running into Jue a Korean girl who worked at the casino and she was so nice and got so happy each time we would win. She truly seemed to love  her job. You don’t find that on  NCL.

 

The last stand out thing that we really loved was the Piano Bar with Kathryn Krull. She was such a blast we ended up there 3 out of 4 nights of our trip. She had an amazing voice and really got the crowd roaring.

 

Things that were meh:

Food was all ok, nothing that stood out as great or bad. The dining rooms were fine, even without a table cloth. We had your time dining which worked out ok for us.

 

i don’t know if it was because of the bad weather or not, but you would have needed a shoe horn to get another person into the hot tubs at Serenity.

 

We missed Catalina due to weather, which is no surprise, In 5 cruises I’ve never been lucky enough to actually make a tender port. We did make Ensenada, holy moly this is by far the WORST port I have ever visited. It was cool and rainy so if there were nice beaches or something we didn’t get to see them. 

 

Decor or on this ship is very old and ugly, but I do have to say I loved all the window seats. Since it was crappy weather we went to the shop to buy cards and they had all our, so they tracked some down for us elsewhere on the ship. Those window seats with tables were great for card playing and people watching.

 

This was our first time without a balcony and it didn’t kill me. I think the fact that it was cool and rainy helped with that. 

 

Overall the trip was great and exceeded my expectations. I had heard such negativity around this cruise and Carnival in general that I was really happy it was so much fun.

We will book this again sometime! 

Did you have FTTF?  If not, what time was your check in window?  We have FTTF right now but I might cancel it depending on your experience:D

[mikaula]

Glad you had a fun cruise. 

[Sotermarler]

10 hours ago, nicolelarios said:

Did you have FTTF?  If not, what time was your check in window?  We have FTTF right now but I might cancel it depending on your experience:D

No we didn’t have FTTF. It wasn’t needed for this  cruise. Our check in  window was 1:30 PM, but I think but we were on board by 11:15 AM.

 

It was honestly the easiest embark we have had in 5 cruises. We got to the port around 10:30 with the intention of finding a place nearby to watch the big game. Since we had no idea where we were we ended up at port,  and I asked where we could find a tv nearby and they said, on board (it was 10:30) and they said they were ready to board! So we just stayed there. Out friends arrived around 2 and said there were long lines though. 

 

 Our tender port to Catalina got canceled too, so you wouldn’t have needed it for this particular cruise. 

 

[rnr4thatsme]

On ‎2‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 9:31 PM, nicolelarios said:

Did you have FTTF?  If not, what time was your check in window?  We have FTTF right now but I might cancel it depending on your experience:D

We were just out of Long Beach as well on Splendor and same experience - very little wait.  Extremely organized.  We arrived at the port via shuttle minutes before 1:00 (the window we chose), carried on our own luggage and were dropping off our luggage in our room at 1:30.  I'm sure my son had downed two plates of food in the buffet by 2:00.

[rnr4thatsme]

Love to hear you had a great experience!   I'm considering that itinerary next year as I'm not sure I'm a mega-ship fan - too spread out, so I don't know if the Panorama will be for me.  Just do a short and sweet cruise add on a few days in Santa Monica.