Imagination
Written: Aug 11 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Grand Cayman
Cons: Ship, staff, food, Jamaica, value
The Bottom Line: Book and all inclusive land vacation instead.
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| blushpell's Full Review: Carnival Imagination |
I just returned from a 5 night cruise aboard the Carnival Imagination, 8/1 - 8/6. This was my first cruise and probably my last. What a disappointment this was. I have read several reviews on eopinions that you get what you pay for, well I certainly did not. Considering with port charges, tips, taxes, insurance, drinks and excersions costing $3000 for three people (2 adults and 1 13 year old)for 5 days I would expect a lot more than what I received.
The ship itself is older and is in need of a good cleaning and redecoration. The entire week we commented on how it felt like we were trapped in a cheap mini strip mall. The decor is neon lights with lots of metal and fake gold statues...very tacky. It looks like someone digested a small Vegas casino, digested it for about a week and then regurgitated it.
Our cruise was completely booked so the ship was crowded to the gills. When I say crowded I mean that the pool for adults had adults in it, but they all needed to stand at attention like little toy soldiers and not move at all. It was ridiculous. The other pool was overrun with children and the adults only hot tub was packed with children also.
By the end of the cruise certain areas of the ship smelled like a toilet. The bathrooms on the pool deck were filthy! I couldnt even bring myself to use them considering they were completely full and doing so would cause them to overflow. The pulbic areas were filled with dirt, they had people who were "cleaning" it but they seemed to be doing nothing but talking.
The food in the main dining area was "ok". If you ever have eaten at any upscale restaurant you will be disappointed, however if you like eating at Applebeas, Ground Round, Country Buffett, then you will think it is good. Nothing really impressed me. It was just average at best. The buffetts were nothing fantastic, some terrible. The 24 hour pizza was a God send. We ate pizza and burgers at the grill(quite tasty as far as burgers go) many times. And lived off the frozen yogurt machine. This is hardly worth the money that you pay. The main dining room service was nice and everyone did a good job with keeping everyone satisfied. The buffett at the Horizon Grill was a little different, waiters just stood around and nothing really got cleaned well. The tables were filthy most of the time and everyone was always looking for silverware.
Carnival is supposed to give you free lemonade, iced tea and fruit punch, however, most of the machines never worked and there were long lines for the ones that did. I wonder sometimes if this is a ploy to have you buy soda etc. that is at an additional cost.
The activites were not anything that caused me to leave my room. If you drink alcohol then this is the cruise for you. There isnt anything that when sober even remotely sounds fun. They had trivia, a bunch of old people trying guess how many times Spiderman kissed MJ in the movie...zzzz. Bingo which I tried for $10 a card and only one game that lasted 15 minutes tops. Movies, Finding Nemo, and Spiderman,which did'nt even interest the kids on the boat. Pool games which considering you could not get a chair or have room to walk around were not of interest. Not to mention that the music that they played at the pool area was totally inappropriate. Hip-Hop music blaring out of the speakers(profanities included!). Raffles that you tried to guess the weight of a fancy ring(but didnt win the ring) etc. The activities on board were things that you and your friends try to make up at home when you are bored, things that you try to escape on vacation, not pay money to do.
On our first excersion Grand Cayman (which is beautiful), the tendering process was a nightmare. I myself got back in time to the ship. The last tender was supposed to be at 3:15 pm, however I came across a wary few souls that got back at 4:45 and said they were waiting for hours to get back on the ship. The island itself is beautiful but our shore snorkel experience was kind of a "free for all" they were supposed to let us know when to come back in so that we wouldnt miss the tender but noone did, our guide didnt even bother coming out into the water even when asked.
Jamaica Dunn's River Falls was our next excersion. We sailed to the falls on Cool Runnings catamaran. The walk up the falls was alot of fun and beautiful. However when we came back on the boat our tour guides actually followed us on and harassed us for tips several times. When we left the falls we went to Mahogany Beach...very shady..and I dont mean because of the trees. There were people there trying to sell us food and drinks(we finally caved in just to be left alone), and others hovering over our beach bags then entire time. We were so nervous the whole time that we were there that one of us stayed with our stuff so that the other two could swim in the water. There were people selling things to some of the tourists as well that were'nt exactly legal either. Stray dogs infested with sores kept trying to climb underneath our beach chairs(they belonged to one of the employees I believe).
Back on the boat we had a few minutes to go to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. My son stayed on the boat and my boyfriend and I went the short walk (probably 1/4 mile) to the restaurant. What a fright! People harrassed us on the street the entire time. Cab drivers backed up and drove on the curb and yelled at us, children begged from the side of the street, people were calling us for blocks trying to sell us something. Well, when we arrived at the "mall" where Margaritaville is we had to pass through security, police and a metal detector..nice huh? I have never been so scared before, we bought a shirt and booked our way back to the boat.
Five and half hours out from Jamaica the ship experienced 3 medical emergencies that forced us to turn around. This caused our debarkation to take place at 2pm on Saturday not 8am. Many, many people missed their flights. The last day of the cruise Friday the information desk was crammed with people some waiting up to 5+ hours in line to straighten things out.
Debarkation was a disaster in itself. We arrived at 2pm but could not get cleared by customs because everyone was clamouring to get off the ship and blocked the stairs and entryways. I personally did not get out of the terminal until 5 pm.
The cabin was average. Thank goodness we had a window. We were on the Riviera deck. I have read that there is more vibration on these floors but you will feel less motion too. The ship was really rocking back and forth leaving Jamaica and people were getting sick. There were people grabbing on to poles and the such just to stay upright and the upper floors of the ship were alot worse than the deck that we were staying on. If you have any kind of motion sickness I would suggest staying on the bottom floors of the ship.
I booked a pedicure at the ship's Spa figuring it was an Elemis Spa and looked halfway decent. I got there and the girl that did the pedicure did an average job, but the laughable thing was that the pedicure took place in a Bubble Bliss foot bath...yes the ones you can buy at Walmart for about $20, balanced on a foot stool, how sad. Hardly worth the discounted $55 that I paid, with some oils that I purchased the whole thing with tip was $157!
Overall the Imagination was a big dissapointment to my family. After saving for months for that one big vacation a year(or every other at that price) I would have much rather have gone back to an "all inclusive" land vacation with better service, nicer accomodations and a more relaxing vacation. I am really trying to think of someone that this cruise would be good for but I really cannot in good faith recommend it to anyone.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
blushpell
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Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 0 members
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