The Agony and the
Ecstasy
 |
| Not my favorite cruise, but we still had a great time. |
Very smooth. There
was no line to get checked in when we arrived around noon. My wife had checked a couple of weeks before
to see about any upgrades to an Ocean View cabins and was told that the ship
was sold out but that didn’t seem possible based on the few people at checkin. The clerk got our room key packet - and what
may have been an omen of what was to come occurred. My wife’s key was there but mine wasn’t. Instead was another passenger’s named
Cynthia. This lead to a few jokes with
my wife about who this Cynthia person was and why she was in our cabin. It took the clerk about 10 minutes to finally
locate my key and we were on our way onboard.
Rooms wouldn’t be ready until 1:30 so we went to Lido for lunch and a
Drink of the Day (Funship Special). Food
was pretty good. I most enjoyed the
Mongolian Wok which hadn’t been on any previous Carnival ships.
Cabin
We arrived at our cabin and found it quite impressive. One
of the larger insides we have seen. More
than enough room to move around and adequate closet space. Luggage easily fit under the bed. Bathroom was clean and well appointed. We had Crest toothpaste, nasal strips,
moisturizer and Nutris Shampoo and Conditioner in the amenity basket. Our room steward greeted us in the hallway
as we met the other couple who was staying a few cabins away. It was a nice touch.
Public Spaces
We next did a tour of the ship finding out where everything
was (we already knew where the pool was).
Took a little while to find our dining room but then realized we had to
walk over the galley and then down one deck.
No problem once we figured that out.
One of the coolest public lounges is Chinatown.
We went to the Spa to see whether they had a
steam and sauna. When we asked where the locker rooms were, there was a
somewhat surly attitude from the clerk about why we needed to see them. We had to ask twice more before they pointed
out where they were. We felt like they
were trying to sell us something. We did see that the locker rooms are very
large. And both men’s and ladies have
free separate sauna and steam rooms. My
favorite bar ended up being the Society Bar which was right above our dining
room.
In general, the ship is well kept and
the public areas are kept clean but didn’t see cleaning crews as often as I did
on RCCL Monarch of the Seas.
Dining Room
This is where our cruise went horribly wrong. We were seated a table 396. This was hands down the worst service we have
had on any cruise. Our waitstaff
disappeared for long periods of time.
There were huge gaps between courses.
One night we didn’t get our entrees until 40 minutes after appetizers
and we ate them in the dark because the dancing show was about to start. Two nights we ordered coffee and it never
came. Water refills were rare. We compensated by getting multiple glasses
filled from the extras on the table. I
didn’t get the sense that our head waiter even concerned about us. Not once did she ask how dinner was. She never made any recommendations from the
menu. Every night she disappeared and
the assistant waitstaff had to pick up the load as best they could. They were adequate but simply had too many
other tables to truly provide good service.
Even the Maitre D wasn’t much help.
First time I have been on a cruise where he didn’t provide information
about the next day’s breakfast or what would be on the menu the next
night. Seemed more concerned about the
singing and dancing.
The worst service
we experienced was on disembarkation day.
We went to the dining room for breakfast. We planned to leave the ship at 8:30. We got to the dining room at 7:45. We ordered our meals by 7:50. My wife got the melon platter and I ordered
eggs benedict. We were not offered
pastries. About 5 minutes later, my
wife’s fruit arrived but no eggs. About
8:15 after a few coffee and water refills, my wife asks the assistant waiter to
help find my order. He literally just
shrugged his shoulders as if he could care less if it ever arrived. Five more minutes and nothing. We then ask if we can get the pastry basket
since it is obvious that I am not getting eggs.
That seemed to be an unreasonable request to the waiter, but it was
brought to the table. At 8:30 we see our
waiter coming out with a large order of other tables. He had a somewhat smug
look on his face. He apparently had my
eggs but it was too late. We had to
leave to bring our friends to the airport.
Entertainment
We love the Punchliner Comedy club although Kenny Miller
needs to change up his act. It was the
exactly the same as we had seen a few years ago. Same audience gimmicks. The other comedian (Lance??) was funny. We saw both his family and adult shows. We saw “The Brits” and it was really
great. Terrific music and a talented
cast of singers and dancers. The set
was “interactive” – I won’t give away any spoilers – just see it to believe
it. By far, the best show I have seen on
any cruise ship. Angie also enjoyed the Thriller Dance Class.
We also saw the Hasbro
Game Show and it was well done. A great
for passengers to get up on stage and it was fun to watch. They had poolside trivia on the port
days. We didn’t get off the ship so that
was fun while we were at the pool. And
we won a Ship on a Stick on Music Trivia.
I did notice that most of the Cruise Director staff seems
indifferent. Just going through the
motions during the activities. The
Assistant Cruise Director Adam was being very vulgar just prior to the adult
comedy telling anyone under 18 to “Get the #&^* Out!!”. I didn’t think that was necessary.
Overall
I had yet to be on a cruise ship where I didn’t want to sail
again on the same ship. But I found that ship this time. The situation in the dining rooms was so bad
that I don’t wish to sail on Ecstasy ever again.
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