Embarkation; Cruise Day 1
Less than 40 days ago, we booked a suite – cabin U73 – aboard Carnival’s Ecstasy. It just so happened that the suite was more cost effective for the five of us than booking two separate, smaller cabins, but the fact that it was a suite gave us a few perks. One such perk for suite guests is priority embarkation.
We signed up for the earliest embarkation time available – noon – and were through security and on the ship quickly and with ease. Our suite was also ready early, so we were allowed to head straight to our room while others had to stay in crowded public areas until 1:30 when all the rooms were ready.
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| Welcome Aboard |
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| crowds of people waiting in public spaces |
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| suite U73 upon boarding |
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| suite U73 upon boarding |
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| balcony of suite U73 |
Now, we knew the Ecstasy was an older ship, launched in 1991. We also knew that the ship had just been refurbished in 2017, so perhaps my expectations were a bit too high with that information. My overall impression was that the ship was a bit rundown. It felt beat-up, and a little dingy. Still, our room was pretty much as expected. But half the drawers in the room were stuck closed and unusable, and we found some trash left behind by the previous occupants, which made us feel like the cleaning was not very thorough and only served to remind us of just how many people have been in that room and how quickly they turn it over.
Some quick notes and tips for anyone finding their way to this post because they are researching a cruise aboard the Ecstasy:
The room will not be completely set-up for you upon arrival. Despite us booking the room to sleep 5, the sofa beds were not made up. Thinking it was like our usual hotel stays, we set them up ourselves, only to learn that the cabin steward would have done this at the evening “turn down” service. Turns out that may have been good, though, that we are do-it-ourself-ers, as we discovered that the trundle bed was broken and were able to request a replacement before we left port.
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| broken trundle bed |
Also, our complimentary bottles of water (two for being suite guests and one for my VIFP status) were not delivered until the evening rounds, though the case of water we ordered was in the room upon our arrival.
We knew to bring a power strip without surge protector but one thing we never found a clear answer about was just how many outlets to expect. It turns out that in U73 there was only one outlet along the counter in the main cabin. We were able to plug our power strip in there to be able to charge multiple things overnight: usually our electric razors and camera battery, though, if needed, we also could charge our phones and the kids’ Nintendo DSs (we didn’t use those while on the cruise and didn’t need to charge them on the ship).
We traveled with only carry-ons, so we were able to bring all our luggage directly to our room ourselves and unpack right away.
This may not always be the case but, for this cruise, the pools and water slides were open from the start. We read that would be a possibility and, upon confirming, the kids quickly changed into swimwear. We hung out at the water slides (with very few others) until it was time for the required safety briefing at our muster station.
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| WaterWorks was open upon embarkation |
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| enjoying the water slides while others embark |
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| enjoying the water slides while others embark |
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| Carnival Ecstasy in Jacksonville, Florida |
After the safety briefing, we headed back to our room to relax and change for dinner.
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| U73 balcony as we sailed away from Florida |
We were able to snag the coveted “Your Time“ dining option which allows arrival anytime from 5:45 to 9:30. We eat all our meals earlier than most, so even a 5:45 dinner time was later than usual for us. When having dinner in the dining room, we showed up a few minutes before the dining room opened and were seated right away at 5:45. A line would form as we waited for 5:45 and we noticed that there was always a crowd of other "Your Time" diners waiting to be seated as we left. If you don't want to risk having to wait and don't mind eating later, assigned dining might be the better pick.
After dinner, we played a game of mini golf. It was super windy but the kids thought it was fun to watch their balls rolling in the wind.
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| mini golf |
One of the first things we did onboard was to register the kids for Camp Ocean. We weren't sure if they'd use it and were surprised when all three wanted to attend events the very first night.
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| Camp Ocean |
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| Camp Ocean |
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| sunset from the back of the ship |
John and I enjoyed the sunset and checked out the piano bar before we picked the kids up by 10p. They seemed a tad disappointed; the "Color Wars" was not as cool as they thought they'd be. But that didn't stop them from trying some other activities throughout the remainder of the cruise.