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Carnival Cruise Line

MS Imagination

Your Rating:
Reviewed by: Jennifer Adkins
# previous cruises: 9
Date of Trip: June 7, 2001
Itinerary: Caribbean - Western

This was our first cruise (me and my husband), we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The service was excellent, and we never grew bored or ran out of things to do, even on our day at sea, which was a real concern of my husband's in particular! We are cruising with Carnival again with our children in January 2002.

Public areas were well maintained and spacious in most areas. Of course, the pool area could get a bit crowded, but we always managed to find a couple of chairs together. I had read that people tried to "save" seats but I noticed stewards walking around picking up towels left on chairs, when that was the only item on the chair. I was glad to see that.

The dining room was definitely the best place as far as quality went to get a meal on the ship. What I like the best was, if you find you didn't like something, it's as simple as requesting another dish. One woman at our table ordered at least two dishes every night, just to taste off each! (No, she wasn't huge either!) The buffets were ok, similar quality to a Shoney's or Denny's. We did these for breakfast and lunch the most. When we were in port, we liked to try local cuisine. Can't miss at Margaritaville in Key West or Carlos and Charlie's in Cozumel!

The cabin was roomier than I expected. The only real disappointment to me was the bathroom...no electric outlets by the mirror. And the first day we noticed an awful smell AFTER the toilets flushed (not us!). We notified the purser's desk, and they fixed the problem and sent us a bottle of champagne. They checked back, too, to make sure it was ok. Exceptional service there!

We went to a couple of shows. Our cruise director, Matt, was very funny if predictable with his humor. We heard a comedian, went to his "clean version" show, pretty funny. Also went to the show on the sea day, forget the name but it was a walk through all different types of music from many eras. The dancers were great!

We spent a lot of our time on board just listening to the band out by the pool. They were GREAT! Soaking up a lot of sun, reading, and we also used the gym quite a bit. Nothing like running off that huge meal you just ate , while cruising along looking out at the ocean. Feels like you're running across the water!

As to ports, in Key West we just walked around on our own and took it all in. I got a tattoo (temporary) and we ate lunch and sipped a couple of margaritas at Margaritaville. I am a parrot head since I was a little girl, so this was like Mecca for me!

In Cozumel, we took GREAT tour, that only three other couples from the ship were on! It was called Cozumel by Jeep, there was another tour that sounded similar that we understand was quite full, but this one was just the eight of us. Our tour guides were SO GOOD, and funny too! They took us in some backwoods areas, we saw an old cavern-like place where they told us this icky story about bones being discovered there. They also took us to the "blowholes"...fascinating caves where ocean water shoots up through the holes. Then to the BEST little seaside restaurant/beach area where my husband snorkeled with his equipment he brought from the ship, and we had the best fajitas I've ever tasted. The guacamole was incredible, too! I don't even usually eat guacamole. I cannot remember the name of this place to save my life, and as we are going to Cozumel again soon I really hope I can describe it to the cab driver, as we plan on getting a cab to take us there for the day.

Our companions at the dinner table were all very friendly, all couples about our age, from all different parts of America except a French couple on their honeymoon. As a whole, most other cruisers we encountered were friendly. I was surprised to hear there were several hundred children on board, as we rarely saw any of them, which led into us checking out Camp Carnival and booking our January cruise!