Carnival Ecstasy (4-day) 6/7/04 Review

Hi everyone,

Here is my (long) review/trip-report about our cruise on the Carnival
Ecstasy. Thanks to everyone in the group. You've been informative
and entertaining.

Eric


--------------
Pre-Cruise
--------------

We drove the 400 miles to Long Beach the day before our cruise. I
couldn't bring myself to "throw caution to the wind and try to get a
deal on Priceline" so I reserved a room at the Holiday Inn on
Atlantic. When I called, they offered a package that included "two
king beds, free shuttle to and from the boat, and parking in their
underground garage during the cruise."

I called back the week before and confirmed our reservation and was
told again that our room had two king beds.

Then... we arrived and things got interesting fast.

After seven hours in the car with my Darling Bride, Debora, and our
two daughters, Amelia (6-yrs) and Natalie (3-yrs), I was more than
ready to unload and begin our vacation. But, when I was checking in,
the Desk Person told me that they were out of King beds. "But, I was
told twice that's what I was getting" "We only have a couple of King
rooms, they are assigned on an 'as available' basis." After a couple
of moments of having her confirm that yes my reservation specifically
said "2-king beds" and trying to explain that I never "asked" for them
but was instead "told" multiple times, I asked to speak to a Manager.

Now the real fun began. Turns out that EVERY manager was in a meeting
and that there was NO way to reach them and that she had no idea where
they were (they don't have their meetings in their own hotel) and she
had no idea when somebody would be back. Meanwhile, she had no
authority to do anything except put us in a room.

Our first room had two twin beds. That was not going to work. I'm
6'4" tall. I haven't fit in a twin bed (even alone) since 7th Grade.
The second room had one king bed. We had all the extra furniture
removed and two roll-away beds brought in. Between the beds and the
luggage, there wasn't an square-inch of floor visible.

While Deb tried to figure out what we absolutely needed from our
suitcases, I kept calling down to see if a Manager had returned.

After an hour or so, we headed out to dinner. When we got back, we
were told that a Manager had returned, left us a message in our room,
and then headed out to get their own dinner. No, they had no idea
when they would be back, but probably within another 30 minutes. We
went back to our room to discover that there was no message. Over the
next hour and a half, we bathed our kids and got them ready for bed.
I kept calling every half-hour or so only to finally be told that they
didn't actually know when (or even IF) the Manager was coming back but
they were leaving lots of notes for them. At 10:00, I finally gave up
for the night.

The next day, stopped at the front desk on the way to breakfast.
There still wasn't a Manager, but the Director of Sales was there.
She said she was the "Acting Manager" today. I introduced myself and
said "I'm the guy in 401 that you've seen all the notes about." Poor
Andrea, she looked shocked and admitted that the previous staff had
not left any notes. I told her the whole sad story and she asked me
"what would you like us to do?"

They have a Hospitality Pledge in the room that says that if you have
a problem you should alert the Management... if they can't correct it
then that portion of the stay is free. I asked her to honor the
pledge and give the me room free for last night. She said "no
problem" and started tapping away at the computer. At one point, she
said she was having a little problem with the system and asked one of
the desk guys to come over and enter a discount on my bill. When he
asked her how much and she said 100%, he said "we don't give a 100%
discount." She gave him a look that CLEARLY reminded him that one
does not tell the Director of Sales what she can and can not give.
So, from all this trouble, we got a free hotel stay (we were only
there the one night before the cruise), free shuttle and free parking.

One last word on the shuttle. I have now learned to ask HOW BIG the
shuttle is. They were using a 7-person minivan. Not a good idea
since that turns out to be one family at a time. We waited a good
hour until it was our turn.

--------------
Cruise Day 1 -- Leaving Long Beach
--------------

We arrived at the Carnival terminal at noon. The "regular" line
reached back towards the Queen Mary for an impressive distance.
Luckily, we had reserved a suite so we got to use the special Skippers
Club line.

At 12:45 they opened the doors to let us in. Unfortunately, they
tried to put all us Skippers in one small room with only one reception
desk. Right away we saw that this wasn't going to work; there wasn't
enough room to form a line so we sort of bunched up in the cramped
space and the very first person at the desk couldn't seem to get their
paperwork in order. The rest of us slipped back out, zipped through
the security check, and went to the regular check in desks. Fast and
efficient service and we were off to get a picture taken and board the
ship. We were at the door of cabin U75 by 1:30.

What a room! We had a balcony suite. It included a walk-in closet,
bathroom with a tub/shower, a KING bed, a big vanity, TV, VCR (I don't
get this, were we expected to bring videos?), mini-fridge, two chairs,
two little tables, and a sectional-style sofa that pulled out into a
queen bed. The door to the balcony had a hook so we could latch it
open. Out there were two chairs a table and a lounge. This was one
POSH cabin. We always had plenty of room for the four of us to be in
it together.

Deb unpacked our clothes; eight drawers and a walk-in closet with
three bars and a bunch of shelves made it easy. And all the empty
bags went under the king bed. We also liked the ability to close the
closet (it had a sliding door and a light inside).

Next stop was the Sapphire Grill on the Lido deck to get some lunch.
We also visited the Camp Carnival rooms. Nat and Amelia liked them
right away. They were two big rooms at the back of the boat and were
loaded with toys, games, and computers. Then we went back to the
cabin to try and nap Natalie. Getting comfortable was no problem.
There were three air-conditining vents so we could control the
temperature with no problems. Also, the curtains were heavy enough to
block all the sunlight from the big windows. Nat was tired, but too
excited. It took us a good hour to get her down. After that, we
realized that there was no way she was going to nap when her sister
was around.

We got up and read through all the extra information in our cabin
while the girls explored the room. We explained the rules for the
balcony: nobody stands on a chair, nobody goes out without first
asking an adult, and Natalie (the 3yr-old) is NEVER allowed out there
alone. Otherwise, the design of the balcony railing was perfectly
safe and we didn't feel nervous having them out there at all and they
loved the thrill of being out there.

We got dressed and headed to our 6:15 dinner seating. Right off we
changed tables. The family at our first one was nice, but they only
had teen-age daughters and we were hoping for one with kids closer to
our's ages. The Matre-D found us a new table right away. It had
three other kids and was perfect. Dinner the first night included
lobster. Natalie ordered off the kid's menu each night, but Amelia
was a "big kid" and used the adult menu (though she wasn't above
stealing some of Nat's chicken nuggets). The lobster was a bit salty.
I had the game hen and it was perfect.

After dinner they had the Camp Carnival orientation. They introduced
the counselors, had us fill out paperwork about each kid and then gave
us pagers so they could reach us. They also explained that it was no
problem to leave kids in Camp while we were in port; we just had to
let them know that we would be off the boat. After the orientation,
we followed the staff up to an ice-cream party. By the end of the
evening, both kids were eager to try Camp the next day.

We went back to our cabin and crashed.

--------------
Cruise Day 2 -- Catalina Island
--------------

We are bad about getting up early while on vacation. We didn't wake
up until after 9:00. We hurried to get ready and caught the tail-end
of the breakfast buffet.

We grabbed our "going ashore" stuff and headed down the stairs by
10:30. The line looked long for the tenders but we were off the ship
by 11:00.

It was a cool and overcast day. The girls needed sweaters most of the
afternoon. We walked over to Island Rentals (under Holly Hill House)
to see about getting a 4-person golf cart. These looked great since
all four seats faced forward and they offered free booster-seats (Nat
needed one). Just when we got to the line they announced that they
had rented their last available cart and directed everyone to their
nearest competitors. Everyone scattered. Luckily, while we were
deciding which way to go someone returned one so we got it.

They gave us a map and we drove off. We stopped a couple of times
along the way to enjoy the view or to look at interesting plants by
the side of the road. We also took the detour up to the Botanical
Gardens and walked all the way up to the Wrigley Memorial. The girls
loved all the different plants and the great view.

We returned the card just before the 2-hour mark and walked around
downtown Avalon looking for souvenirs and food. We ate at Luau
Larry's in a sort of "cave room" that they had built by enclosing a
table inside a fake tree. The kids loved it, the service was great,
and the food was excellent.

As we headed back to the tender dock, we ran into our
dinner-tablemates. Their kids had been swimming all afternoon and
playing on the little beach right by the dock.

We walked right on to the tender at 3:00 and were back in our room by
3:20. Natalie climbed into bed for a nap and Amelia and I went to
explore the ship.

We had a very nice carrot cake ($2) from the Rolls Royce bakery, ate
some pizza, played on the kids' play structure near the kids' pool,
and went up to the track deck where we watched a very short volleyball
game; on the second hit, the guy tried too hard, the ball went up high
enough for the wind to catch it and push it over the side of the ship.
It was fun to stand at the railing and watch it slowly float away.

By then it was getting late. Amelia and I went back to our cabin to
wake her sister and mother and to get dressed for formal night in the
dinning room. My girls all looked great. Normally I would have worn
my tux (yes I own one) but we had so many things going on just before
leaving that we had to pack in a huge hurry and ended up just throwing
anything we could think of in the suitcases. By the time I reached
for the tux I already had too much stuff and didn't want to deal with
figuring out what to remove so I tossed in a nice shirt and figured
that would have to be acceptable enough.

Dinner was very good again. The other kids at the table were so tired
from their day in Catalina that they all fell asleep in their chairs.

After dinner, we took the girls up to Camp Carnival. Deb and I were a
bit confused about what to do now that we were without children.
First stop was the casino where we lost $10 of our $20 into the slot
machines. Then we wandered into the theater just in time for the
start of their stage show "Hey, Mambo!" I had a couple of problems
with this show. First, most of the songs were sung in Spanish
(totally understandable given the theme, but it made it hard for me to
"stay engaged"). Second, the male singer was the "whitest" blonde guy
I've seen and he looked silly prancing around in huge puffy sleeves
while doing some Cuban numbers. Finally, (and this is nobody's
fault), I had to look through a curve in the plexiglass railing. Try
this experiment at home, take a clear glass of water and hold it up in
front of you at arm's length. Now watch somebody walk by while you
position the top rim so it's right at their neck. If you do it right,
their head will come off and appear to float in the air a couple of
feet in front of their body. Now imagine watching a whole stage full
of dancers like this. Otherwise, the show was fun and there was a
breathtakingly beautiful ballet segment.

Afterwards, we went to "rescue" our kids. Turns out they didn't
really want to see us. Natalie had made a butterfly and Amelia had
done a project where they made "turtles" and raced them. As we signed
them out, they both asked when the could come back again.

Our cabin steward had left two happy-face cookies for the girls and an
elephant towel animal on their bed.

While we were waiting for the girls to fall asleep, Deb took a nice
long bath and I discovered that our closet was big enough for me to
sit on the floor, close the door, turn on the light, and read without
bothering anybody.

That evening the waves got to Amelia; she woke up in the middle of the
night and was ill in the bathroom. I kept her on a low-dose of
Dramamine the rest of the trip and she was fine.

--------------
Cruise Day 3 -- Ensenada
--------------

Once again, we slept late and caught the end of breakfast on the Lido
Deck.

We got back to our stateroom just as they were finishing cleaning it
up. We grabbed our stuff and got out of their way. Just as we were
leaving the girls thanked them for the towel animal.

We got off the boat and decided to walk the short distance to the
shopping district instead of taking the shuttle bus. We did splurge
and take a 30-minute carriage ride once we got there. Deb and I sat
in back and both girls got to sit up front with the driver; they loved
it.

We spent a couple of hours shopping. Nothing major, mostly trinkets
for the girls. We started to get hungry and I was fed up with how
pushy the street-vendors were so we made our way back to the boat.

A quick lunch and it was nap time for Natalie again.

Amelia wanted to get to Camp Carnival since they were doing cake
decorating. I went up on deck and read for an hour before going back
for Amelia. She and I sat by the pool for a while sharing some
deserts and talking.

When we got back to the cabin, Natalie was very upset that Amelia got
to go to Camp Carnival and she didn't. She made us promise that she
could go after dinner. I swear, I've never seen my girls eat so
quickly. They didn't even want desert. So we took them back and then
used the time to do laundry and enjoy our suite.

Later, we got the girls, gave them a bath, put them in pajamas and
took them back for the slumber party that started at 10:00 and went
until 2:00am. Deb and I had a couple of drinks and then watched the,
very funny, "adult" comedy show at midnight.

When we picked up the girls, Amelia was sound asleep snuggled up in
blankets and a pillows they provided but Natalie was still playing and
having the time of her life.

--------------
Cruise Day 4 -- Day at Sea
--------------

It was finally time for the boat to start heading home. We all
noticed the difference in the ship's motion right away; the North-ward
trip results in more motion. But it was still not bad.

This morning we didn't even try to get to breakfast. It was almost
11:00 when we woke up so we ordered room service. They came in no
time at all.

The girls enjoyed the balcony and watched an aircraft carrier for a
while.

Then (more food) we headed up for lunch.

Afterwards, the girls played in the kids' pool for a couple of hours.
We ran into our table-mates there, chatted for a while, and just
enjoyed the clear hot day.

Amelia went to Camp Carnival again and learned all about animal
camouflage while I napped Natalie.

Deb went to the spa for a massage and some other stuff. She said it
would have been nice except for the fact that the massage room in on
the top deck and right in the front of the ship. There was too much
motion there for her to really relax.

We got Amelia back for a little and then both girls went to Camp
Carnival for the "end of cruise" activities; they had a dinner for the
kids, then they gave them Carnival t-shirts to color, and had a party.
They even did face painting on the older kids. Amelia got a great
cat-face put on. When we went to pick them up, they were bursting
with stuff to show us and tell us.

We ordered a late-snack from room service while the kids soaked in the
tub and we packed our bags and put them out for pick-up.

--------------
Cruise Day 5 -- Back at Long Beach
--------------

The early breakfast on the last morning nearly caught us. Deb didn't
even try to make it. The girls and I got there as they were taking
the food away. We still grabbed enough and made a plate to take back
for Deb.

Our color (green) was called at 9:30 as we were eating. We wandered
back to the room and collected Deb and the rest of our luggage.

It took us almost no time to get off the boat, clear Customs, and get
our bags. We ended up spending more time waiting for the shuttle back
to the hotel to get our car.

Unfortunately, some miscreant stole the Mickey Mouse antenna ball of
our car. On the plus side it gave us an excuse to go to Downtown
Disney, have lunch at the Rainforest Cafe and shop at the huge "World
of Disney" store there (Deb also found some great outfits at Island
Charters for our "just us" Anniversary trip to Couples, Negril in
Jamaica in December).

We ended the day by checking into the Radisson Hotel at Knott's Berry
Farm (where we would go the next day) and spending the evening
visiting with my good friend Val, who I've known since the first day
of Kindergarten, and her wonderful family.

Speaking of Knott's.... on Day 6 we decided to try something new and
go there instead of Disneyland. BIG MISTAKE, especially after
visiting Downtown Disney the day before. The workers at Knott's were
inattentive at best and the place was filthy. There was one trash-can
in the Ghostrider line that was so full it had overflowed and it was
like walking through a land-fill there was so much on the floor. When
I found a worker and told her she sighed and said "I've already called
4 times about it." Yuck!

But... the Ghostrider roller coaster was FANTASTIC so it wasn't a
total waste of a day.

So to sum it all up:

1) Suites are cool
2) Balconies are a "must have" from now on
3) Camp Carnival gets 4 thumbs-up (two from each kid)
4) The Holiday Inn, Long Beach needs some Manager retraining and a
bigger shuttle
5) Deb has the "cruise bug" and hopes the Pride of Aloha turns out
well because she want to do a Hawaiian cruise next year.

Eric, what a great review! It's good hearing something so positive about the
Carnival Ecstasy..I'm glad the Carnival kid's program worked out so well for
you..Our grandsons really loved it too.

What a weird experience with the Holiday Inn! I have never heard of any
hotel having two king beds in one room..sounds as if they need to re-train a
reservationist!

I hope that all parents are as careful and caring about instructing their
children as well as you did about being on a balcony..You sound like very
responsible parents..

You really got a lot in on a 4 day cruise and it's a pleasure to hear that
you all had such fun!

--Jean

Eric,
nice review, thanks for posting it. Sounds like you and family had a
good time.

You should have booked the Hilton San Pedro through Priceline. We got it for
$45 twice last year. Free shuttle to and from the Long Beach port or San
Pedro---whichever you need. Also, they will shuttle you free within 5 miles of
the hotel if you want to eat at a restaurant, see the sights, etc.
Free parking for the length of your cruise. Ours was 10 nights the first time.
7 the next. When we sailed out of San Pedro the year before and I wasn't
familiar with Priceline, we stayed at the Sheraton. Free parking, shuttle, etc.
Not sure if they shuttle to Long Beach. Both are nice hotels and we got the
beds we wanted.

byteguy wrote:

4) The Holiday Inn, Long Beach needs some Manager retraining and a
bigger shuttle

(Linsifer) wrote in message ...
You should have booked the Hilton San Pedro through Priceline. We got it for
$45 twice last year.

But, is there any guarantee that the Hilton is what you'll get if you
use Priceline? Nope. I'm a big fan of Priceline (even though I've had
to fight my way through a couple of issues with them), but I know not
to count on getting a specific hotel from them. I only use them if I
really don't care much where I stay (like for a single night, pre
cruise room).

Lee


Free shuttle to and from the Long Beach port or San
Pedro---whichever you need. Also, they will shuttle you free within 5 miles of
the hotel if you want to eat at a restaurant, see the sights, etc.
Free parking for the length of your cruise. Ours was 10 nights the first time.
7 the next. When we sailed out of San Pedro the year before and I wasn't
familiar with Priceline, we stayed at the Sheraton. Free parking, shuttle, etc.
Not sure if they shuttle to Long Beach. Both are nice hotels and we got the
beds we wanted.

byteguy wrote:

4) The Holiday Inn, Long Beach needs some Manager retraining and a
bigger shuttle

(Eric) wrote in message . com...
Hi everyone,

Here is my (long) review/trip-report about our cruise on the Carnival
Ecstasy. Thanks to everyone in the group. You've been informative
and entertaining.

Great review!!! Thanks so much for taking the time to write it and
share it with us!.

What a room! We had a balcony suite. It included a walk-in closet,
bathroom with a tub/shower, a KING bed, a big vanity, TV, VCR (I don't
get this, were we expected to bring videos?),

There was probably a library on board where there were movies
available for you to borrow during the cruise. Or, some folks travel
with video (the old fashioned kind) cameras, so having the VCR in the
room gives them the opportunity to see the day's footage. Who knows
how old the TVs are...maybe when they were installed, digital video
was more peripheral.

Lee

Eric
Thanks for a great review.
We had a bad experience with Holiday Inn in Orlando in the dining room.
We called their headquarters and when we checked out the next morning
we, too, received a 100% discount.

SUNNY..........Thats good business

S'nd I
XXX

If you go to Biddingfortravel.com you will find posts from people and lists of
known hotels in that area who honor Priceline. And, then after you narrow it
down to an specific area (and that area is small near the port), Hilton and
Best Western are the ones that came up. And, Hilton was the only 3-star hotel.
BW was 2-star. So, I knew I would be getting the Hilton. If, for some reason
the Sheraton was a Priceline hotel, I would have gladly gone with that, too.

I won't use Priceline in larger cities, though. I want to know exactly what I'm
getting.

Lindsay

Lee wrote:

But, is there any guarantee that the Hilton is what you'll get if you
use Priceline? Nope. I'm a big fan of Priceline (even though I've had
to fight my way through a couple of issues with them), but I know not
to count on getting a specific hotel from them. I only use them if I
really don't care much where I stay (like for a single night, pre
cruise room).

Lee

Thanks for the nice review, Eric.

Howie

Eric wrote:

Hi everyone,

Here is my (long) review/trip-report about our cruise on the Carnival
Ecstasy. Thanks to everyone in the group. You've been informative
and entertaining.

Eric
ant to do a Hawaiian cruise next year.

(Eric) wrote in message . com...
Hi everyone,

Here is my (long) review/trip-report about our cruise on the Carnival
Ecstasy. Thanks to everyone in the group. You've been informative
and entertaining.

Eric



Hello again,

I've put the review on my webpage and added a bunch about Knott's Berry Farm.

But, more importantly, I've posted pictures at:

http://www.geocities.com/deb_n_eric/cruise04.html#pics

Enjoy,

Eric