My review of the Carnival Imagination 07-21-03 to 07-26-2003
Monday:07-21-03
Decided yesterday rather than taking 2 separate cars and driving ourselves from ft lauderdale fl to miami fl, to take a van with a driver from 1 of the many limo services. We were travelling with my 80 year old mother in law and this way we could sit back and relax and let someone else drive us to the port, all arriving at the same time and place. Decided on Ace Tours. They were the most reasonably priced and the owner even called me back with a better price. Great choice! The driver and van were at my M-I-L's at the correct time and the driver, Eddie, took us and all our bags from ft lauderdale to miami in a courteous and comfortable manner. We arrived at the port approximately 11:45 ish, earlier than we ever arrived before and I'm glad!!! I still don't understand why Carnival has no chairs to set in while waiting in this awful serpatine check-in line. especially if you are traveling with kids or seniors Fortunately, they had a lot of personnel working and the wait went fairly quickly and we were on board by 12:30PM ish . Great to be back aboard the Imagination.
We were 8 people. Me and my wife and 11 yr old son, my 26 year old stepson and his 22 yr old sister, my 80 year old M-I-L(for her 80th birthday), and my brother in law and his wife, all the way from Massachusettes. This was mine and my wife's 8th cruise, my son's 5th cruise, my M-I-L's 2nd(1st in 20 years however), my stepson's 1st cruise, his sister's 2nd, and my B-I-L and S-I-L's 1st. The lobby was pretty as ever. We explored the ship, went to see our cabins(everyone liked how big the cabins were and said they were larger than they expected), and then up to the Horizon Grille for some eats. The 24 hour pizza was serving and it was utilized at lot during the whole cruise. My son says it's better than Royal Carribean's. and I loved the chicken caesar salad. The fire drill went fairly smoothly, the baggage was there at the room timely and we had early seating for dinner.
Actually there are 2 early seatings and 2 late seatings. the first is at 5:45pm in the Spirit dinning room and the 2nd at 6:15pm in the Pride dinning room. The 3rd is 8:00pm in the Spirit DR and final is 8:30PM in the Pride DR. We had the 6:15PM time slot and it was perfect. Our table was along the window and it was just the 8 of us. Isn't it wonderful to eat at a table next to the window where you can eat and look out at and enjoy the ocean? I love it! We had 2 women as our wait staff and THEY WERE WONDERFUL!!!. We even tipped them extra even over and above the amount that is standard. If you have a sail and sign card(register your credit card and use the ship's card for shipboard purchases), they automatically now bill your card $9.75 per day per person, to cover tips for the wait staff, the cabin steward staff,etc. The food as usual was fabulous. Every evening I ordered a cold soup as an appetizer. I don't have them regularly but i really enjoy them on the cruises. The 1st night was Gaspacho.Yummy and Spicey! I had a delicious steak and everyone loved their meals. My S-I-L is a gourmet cook and they were very impressed with the meals and the service. At night we walked around and then saw the welcome aboard show. The whole week the rest of my clan was usually impressed with the food, the service, the shows, etc and they all appeared to have a wonderful time. Monday was my M-I-L's 80th birthday and the wait staff came over with a cake and sang a lovely rendition of Happy Birthday.
My 11 yr old spent a lot of time with his 26 year brother and slept next door in my M-I-L's cabin with her, and it gave my wife and I lots of time alone together with no worries. It was wonderful and restful. My son this time spent no time at all at camp carnival so i am unable toevaluate that, this time.
The disco seemed to have a lot more kids in it, even after hours, and we spent little time there. My wife and I enjoyed the shows, tho one we had seen before. I guess you can't cruise 3 times in 1 year and not get some repition. Small price to pay. Shows were good and when not, I napped(yes, during the show).
Mrs. Meziggy and I did a lot of walking, around the ship,on the olympic track, and up and down the steps. In fact, we never even stepped into the elavator. Great eating but great exercising meant gaining only 1 pound this whole trip
Tuesday, 07-22-2003(meziggy's sister's birthday)
Day at Sea. Our kids, young and old, hung out and swam together. Mrs. meziggy and I walked the track in the morning. then we ate breakfast in the dining room, and then we relaxed in the hot tub or read in the sun. After a few hours, roasting in the sun, we went on the side of the ship, in the shade(my favorite place), and read and slept.
We went to the Captain's cocktail party and the free drinks and hor d'oerves were yummy. Mrs. meziggy and I each had 2 lobster tails which were YUMMY!!!
In no particular order, the dinners were all yummy, again, esp the cold soups, the Prime Rib, steak, escargot, lobster and lobster newburg, baked alaska, cherries jubilee, tarimisu, et al. However, the sausages for breakfast was better on the S/S Norway.
One thing different. heading west each night, we were instructed to set our clocks back 1 hour monday night and 1 hour tuesday night. so the Gala Buffet was Tuesday night, the longest night?. Beautiful Gala Buffet, as always.
Wednesday, 07-23-2003. In Belize.
Belize SUCKED! That's the best I can say about it. We had to tender to Belize and it was all stores for shopping built especially for tourist. We decided not to take a tour and after reading some posts on the Board about the water taxis to Caye Caulker, we decided to do that. BIG MISTAKE! The water taxi was only $15.00 per person but we had to pile onboard and the taxi ride was not 20-30 minutes..it was 45 minutes. However, 1 of our boat's engines blew and it took an HOUR to get to the Caye, which is in the middle of no man 's land in the Caribbean Sea. not a great place to lose an engine. Then, we only had time to walk to what is supposed to be the best area to sunbathe and swim, at "the split". The split was the "PITS". Broken cement piers and hard cement "beaches" that people laid on for sunning. We wasted 1 1/2 to 2 hours there. The stores, what there were of them, refused to give change in US dollars and with the Belize dollar worth 50% of the US dollars, we ended up with a hungry 11 yr old as we didn't want to break more 20 $$ bills to be stuck with Belizean funny money! We got the water taxi after a little wait and then came the 45 minute ride back. fortunately, the water taxi driver dropped us off at the tender area and we didn't have to wait long to go back to the ship. Mrs. meziggy and young son went up immediately to the pizzeria upon arriving back on the ship. My advice about Belize is plan a better trip or don't leave the ship!
The most enjoyable thing about the day was the dancing on pool deck under the stars, at night, with the calyso band playing. Gosh, I love listening to and dancing to, the steel band music, and doing so at night, outside, under the stars is so much fun!!!
We then started heading east, and had to set our clock ahead 1 hour.
Thursday, 07-24-2003 Another fun day at sea. Mrs. Meziggy and I walked in the a.m. on the olympic track and then headed up on deck for another fun day of sunning, shading, and napping! We had to turn our clocks ahead 1 more hour again, so we were now back to correct Eastern Daylight Savings Time.
Friday, 07-25-2003 Key West.
Everyone had to report to clear US immigration and that was a pain. Necessary I understand but a pain none the less, as there seemed to be no organization and the line wrapped around and around and it was not until they made more US customs agents available did we finally make progress. They have GOT TO GET A BETTER SYSTEM for this necessary
event.
Living in florida and cruising, i have been to key west several times so i had no desire to see it again and I stayed on the ship the whole day.
I stayed a little with my son and then he and Mrs. meziggy went into town again. I watched everyone who got off the ship, shuttle back and forth, while i read and relaxed and napped some more in my shady chaise lounge. Boy, did I do a lot of napping and no worrying on this entire cruise. IT WAS WONDERFUL! Dinner was delicious and we said goodbye to our wonderful wait staff, Claudia and Tara. They kept the ice tea glasses and chocolate milk glasses full the whole cruise and were always sweet to us all, from my 80 year old M-I-L to my 11 year old son.
We caught a few of the kareoke's this trip, which were fun and the late night "comedy" acts, which for the most part weren't. These so called comedians were nothing more than loud screaming and cursing acts and I guess people feel if you talk about anatomy parts and use the "F" word enough, anything becomes funny. Hey, I am not a prude and can toss the curse words around with the best of them, but I am also a big fan of comedy, and believe me, these people were not funny and this was not comedy.
Saturday, 07-26-2003
Debarkation...BOO HOO. the one word us cruise addicts hate to hear. Not bad tho. Ate breakfast leisurely and then we all waited on the promenade deck. the debarkation was by colorcoding based on luggage tags issued according to where your cabin was. This time, as we left the ship, Carnival employees were on borad to collect from us our Sail and Sign cards, which was disappointing, as I like to save mine as mementoes.we waited but not unduly long. we got our luggage fairly quickly and then waited for our driver from Ace tours. The driver was there about 15 minutes or so later(lots of traffic) and we were in our house by 11:45a.m.
This concludes my book report entitled "What I did on my cruise on the Carnival Imagination from 07-21-03 to 07-26-2003." Everyone had a wonderful time and now...bring on the Carnival Triumph, 11-08-2003, our next cruise!!!
Hope this helps some cruisers who are thinking about taking or have already
scheduled, a cruise on the M/S Carnival Imagination.
take care and happy cruising everyone.
meziggy@juno.com
take care,
meziggy
"Cruising Life is Grand, or more than a grand if you have a lousy travel agent;-)"
NV0803 Triumph..BALCONY!
Ap2404 Navigator of the Seas!!!
Song of America 11/88
Song of America 11/89
Azure Seas 02/92
Imagination 08/00
Paradise 08/01
Monarch of the Seas 07/02
The S/S Norway 02/03
Imagination 07/03
Post Edited (09-29-03 21:49)
