Imagination: Good, But Not Great!
Written: Jul 26 '00 (Updated Jul 28 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Plenty of activities, generous cabin sizes, good price
Cons: service was lacking at times, limited kids' menu, inaccessible cabin doorways
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| travelmom's Full Review: Carnival Imagination |
As an "extended-family vacation" my group of eleven people sailed on the Imagination's five night itinerary, with ports of call in Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We picked Carnival for the cruise because we had three generations traveling with us, and Carnival is known for appealing to a wide age range. The five night cruise was chosen as a shorter length of stay for the first time cruisers in our group. My parents picked the western Caribbean ports, since they were their favorite on previous cruises and Caribbean land vacations.
First of all, I should mention my background and my basis for comparison: I am a travel agent who specializes in family travel. I've sailed before on Carnival's Tropicale, Holland America Line's MS Ryndam, the Big Red Boat I, and Norwegian Cruise Line's Norway. I love cruising in general -- it's my favorite type of vacation.
Service
My cabin steward was great, but out of the five cabins that were in our group, our cabin steward was the only one that met us shortly after we arrived and showed us around our cabin, and instructed us in the air conditioning, etc. The rest of my family either didn't meet their cabin stewards until the 2nd day of the cruise, or didn't get all the information from them they needed. In fact, my parents, in a suite, didn't even find a cabinet for three days -- it was hidden behind a mirror over the desk, and contained stationery, laundry lists, and other information about the ship!
Our waiters were pretty good, but we had a few special needs that they just weren't very sharp at taking care of. My father uses a wheelchair, but moves to a regular chair at the table, but needs one with arms on it to steady him during the transfer. I don't think they ever had it waiting for him....someone always had to go find it every meal after he arrived. And we found that my two year old was much happier if once they brought the bread basket to the table, so that he had something to munch on right away. Considering that most of his restaurant experiences are limited to the drive-through at McDonalds, he really was very patient. Finally on the fifth night, they brought the bread right away, before we asked! On previous cruises, I have experienced a higher level of having our individual needs noticed and met.
The Ship Itself
I had an outside cabin on a mid level deck, and in general, I was satisfied with that. The cabin had two twin beds that converted to a king size bed, and an upper berth for one of my children. There was a very small chair and smaller yet table for extra seating, and a desk with a stool in front of it that doubled as a vanity. The desk/dresser had five adequate sized drawers There was a good sized closet with two sections for hanging clothes and a few more shelves for storage. The only thing we had a shortage of was hangers. The bathroom was smallish, but big enough, with a toilet, sink medicine chest and shower.
My brother and sister-in-law had a demi-suite with a small private balcony. Their cabin was very nice. It had more storage than the regular rooms, and in addition to what I mentioned in our cabin, also had a wet bar, refrigerator, VCR and extra sitting area with a couch. It was the same width as a regular cabin, but was deeper, plus the balcony. A note about their balcony. Instead of a solid "half-wall" railing, they had three or four horizontal pipes to form the railing. It was nice to be able to see through the bars, but having them eight inches to a foot apart made it extremely unsafe for young children. Not only could kids slip through the bars, but they just beg to be climbed! Of course kids have to be supervised all the time, but you want your cabin (or homebase) to be a "safe zone".
My parents had a full size suite. This usually works very well for them because, although the suites are not handicapped accessible, they have plenty of room for a wheelchair to get around in. This suite was double the size of a regular cabin, and the balcony was deeper too. The balcony on the suite had a solid wall as a railing. The suite's bathroom also had a jetted tub as well as a shower. The accommodations were generous, although not as large as the suite on Holland America Line's Ryndam. The major downfall to the suite was the width of the doorway. My father's wheelchair is very narrow, just 22", yet none of the cabin's doorways were wide enough for him to wheel through. I realize that he was not in a handicapped accessible cabin, but to design all the cabin's exterior doors less than 2 feet wide is really cutting corners! He had to wheel down the hall, get out of his chair, go into his room, get someone to collapse his chair and bring it in the cabin, and then set it back up again for him. Imagine doing this every time you want to enter or leave your room! This meant that he was not able to come and go independently, as he had on previous cruises.
Outside of the inaccessibility of the cabin doorways, we found the ship nice. Like all of the Fantasy Class Carnival ships, it is very much "Las Vegas At Sea" with lots of glitz and flashing neon lights. They have a nice pool on the Lido deck, with a 114 foot long spiral slide. Unfortunately, the slide was rarely open, because Carnival mans it with security guards to help control the kids as they use it, and they were evidently unavailable most of the time. I'm very glad they were concerned about the kids' safety, but I wish they had arranged for their staff to be more available to the kids on those two days when we were at sea all day.
That Famous Cruise Line Food!
We enjoyed the food -- but I have to admit that I'm not too hard to please in that department! The menu was varied, and the portions were such that you had plenty to eat, but you didn't find yourself uncomfortably stuffed at the meal's end. Most mornings part of our group went to the main dining room for a leisurely breakfast, and the rest of us at on the Lido Deck at the informal breakfast buffet. Although I didn't hear many compliments about the buffet's lunch and supper menus, I found their breakfasts to be quite good. Nothing fancy, just bacon, link sausage, ham, scrambled eggs and omelettes, pancakes, waffles, hashbrowns, cereal, rolls, etc. There was plenty of milk and juice, and REALLY strong coffee!
The other food item I want to compliment the Imagination on was their Pizza station. There was pizza available all day every day here, and it was very good! There were only about five or six different types available, but it was consistently excellent.
I was disappointed with the kid's menu. For a family oriented ship, I thought it was strange that they only had one menu for the kids lunch and supper. It had: peanut butter and jelly, hot dogs, hamburger/cheeseburger and chicken nuggets. All were served with french fries and cookies or brownies for dessert. Now there's nothing wrong with any of those choices, but I would have liked to see more choices of "kid-friendly" meals served for supper, like fried chicken and mashed potatoes, or spaghetti and meatballs, macaroni and cheese, etc. There are a lot of simple hot meals that most kids like, but they weren't on the kids menu! Jake (my two-year-old) ate the same hotdog/cheeseburger/chicken nuggets for TEN meals! I would never do that to him at home!
Entertainment
The Imagination Dancers were wonderful -- the level of talent was super. They brought on a couple of comedians to do stand up shows, and the general impression from our family was that they were "okay", but everyone of all ages enjoyed the musical shows, and their band was great!
Ports of Call
Our ship's ports of call were in Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios Jamaica. We took advantage of the shore excursions on each island, and found them to be well run and entertaining. There was no shortage of friendly help getting my father with his wheelchair on and off the ship, even when we had to use the tenders in Grand Cayman. Be sure you recommend Stingray City to anyone who might like to snorkel. My family LOVED this place, and the experience of snorkeling with and feeding the stingrays is something that my nine-year-old will never forget!
Of course, in Ocho Rios, the thing to do is climb Dunns River Falls. Everyone says that you have to do it once, just so you can say you have! Most of my family did climb the falls, but I stayed with my parents at the top and waited for our group. My brother and sister-in-law kayaked to the base of the falls and then climbed....but they are definitely the adventuresome type!
I guess my summary would be that I had an overall "so-so" impression. I really enjoyed my first Carnival cruise (on the Tropicale) but I think Carnival may be going through some growing pains right now. I like the "fun" atmosphere (they had a SUPER video game room for the kids), but the decor bordered on tacky....and I haven't found that to be the case on other cruise lines and other ships.
As a travel agent, I'm lucky -- sometimes I have the opportunity to tour ships and see what they are like without having to invest my money and a week's vacation -- but many of the concerns that I had with our trip (service related) would not be discovered unless you were a passenger. I will certainly take my family on more cruises, we love the ability to see different destinations without having to pack and unpack along the way -- and we enjoy the good food and the nightly entertainment. I'm sold on the "bang for your buck" that cruising gives you -- but I think it might be a while before we try Carnival again
It wasn't a bad experience....it just wasn't the great one that I know cruising can be!
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
travelmom
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Member: Cricket
Location: Missouri
Reviews written: 29
Trusted by: 10 members
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