I’m excited to announce the Cruise Blog will be on the high seas!
This week, I will be sailing on Carnival Ecstasy from Mobile, Alabama for a 4-night cruise to Mexico and back. We leave on Thursday and return on Monday morning.
Throughout the cruise, I plan to live blog each day of the voyage to share our experiences both ashore and on board the ship.
Our itinerary is short and sweet with two days at sea and a stop in Cozumel, Mexico. This cruise seemed like the perfect opportunity for a weekend getaway.
On this weekend’s Carnival Ecstasy cruise, I will be sailing with my sister Angie. She is my long time cruising buddy and I look forward to making some incredible memories together!
One of the best aspects of this cruise is how close the departure port is to my home.
I live in the Florida area and Mobile, Alabama is, surprisingly, the closest cruise port to my home. The port is just under 2 hours from my house. On the other hand, Port Canaveral is 6 hours away and requires a hotel stay the night before.
With the current chaos at airports around the country, it will be really nice to be able to drive to the cruise port and not have to worry about flight logistics. It also saves time and money – we don’t have to take so much time off work or stay in a hotel the night before.
Memories of the carnival cruise
Although I’m a loyal Caribbean cruiser, I’m excited to try something different and take advantage of Carnival Ecstasy’s weekend getaway cruises.
While I have sailed over 30 times, I have only sailed twice on Carnival Cruise Line. My first cruise was back in 2011 when I sailed on Carnival Destiny (previously renamed Carnival Sunshine now). It was a 4 night cruise to Cozumel and Key West. This was with my family on a spring break cruise from Miami.
Here is a picture of me and my sister from our last Carnival cruise while docked in Key West. I told Angie she needs to bring back those trendy sunglasses to recreate this photo!
The second time I traveled with Carnival Cruise Line was on the Carnival Fantasy in 2016. This was another spring break cruise, but this time with my (now) husband for his 21st birthday. We were college kids traveling on a tight budget, but we still have really fond memories of ordering warm chocolate chip cookies to our room every night.
Carnival Fantasy was sold to be scrapped in 2020, but she is from the same ship class as Carnival Ecstasy.
I remember enjoying the variety of food offered, including Guy’s Burger Joint on the pool deck!
Free sailing
I’m all about traveling on a budget – the cheaper I can travel, the more often I can get away and see the world. When it comes to cruising, I usually book the cheapest possible cruise and room, which means I can spend money on things like special dining, port excursions, and drinks.
Earlier this spring, my sister and I took a free cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Seas for $499. This was also a 4-night Bahamas cruise.
This cruise was one of the cheapest cruises I could find for the Carnival cruise line. We booked this cruise through a travel agent but found the cruise on Carnival’s website.
This cruise cost about $600 for 2 people sailing in an inside cabin, including gratuities. Keep in mind we booked this cruise 2 weeks in advance so I think it’s a fair price for 4 nights.
I was excited to see the cheap fare sailing out of Mobile given its proximity to my home. We are planning to go to the port on the same day as the cruise departure as it is a very quick trip for us.
I’m sure there are several factors that go into this cheap price, such as sailing during the upcoming peak of hurricane season. Schools are also starting up again in August, so this is probably also contributing to the lower price.
I will be curious to see what the cruise occupancy will be for this cruise. On our free Royal Caribbean cruise, we discovered that the ship was sailing at 100% capacity – much to our surprise. A late summer cruise will have a different atmosphere on board than our free spring break cruise.
Expectations
Let me start by saying: I have never been on a cruise that I didn’t enjoy. I have a hard time understanding how anyone could go on a cruise and not have a good time!
That said, some cruises have inherently better experiences than others.
But I’ll be honest – my expectations for this cruise are pretty low. I wonder if this will be one of those experiences where you get what you pay for – or maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
For starters, Carnival Ecstasy will be canceled in October 2022. Being so close to retirement, I’m curious to see if the cruise ship is in bad shape.
The description on Carnival’s website even starts with “Carnival Ecstasy has the experience under her belt to ensure you have an amazing cruise” which really sets the tone.
I don’t expect the Carnival Ecstasy to have all the bells and whistles like newer ships, so I’m trying to be realistic about the amenities and offerings on board.
It also seems like Carnival cruise ships are infamous on the internet for being linked to incidents in the news – like onboard fires, exploding crashes, etc. Of course, these are rare occurrences and I’m sure our cruise will go smoothly.
When I first found this cruise I googled the name of the ship and the first search that came up was “Carnival Ecstasy death”…
Not necessarily what you want to see when looking for your cruise ship! I believe this incident was related to a crew member having an elevator maintenance mishap a few years ago.
I also watched some videos online of recent experiences at Carnival Ecstasy. To prepare, I read on several forums about recent sailing experiences from past cruisers. Most seem to be satisfied with their cruises on Carnival Ecstasy; some even note the wonderful service and amenities given the ship’s age and retirement.
Since this is a weekend cruise, I expect it to be a party atmosphere with lots of people looking to have a good time. We’re ready to go back and let loose!
It has been reported that the ship has an unusual smell on board. Since the ship is so close to retirement, this doesn’t entirely surprise me, but I’m interested to see if this is true.
Again, I’ve never enjoyed a cruise, so I’m sure we’ll have a great time, but I’ll keep my expectations within reason. You shouldn’t book the cheapest cruise on the oldest ship in a cruise line’s fleet and have unrealistically high expectations.
sailing
For a cheap getaway cruise, I look forward to enjoying some delicious food and fun entertainment. I plan to go back to the pool deck and enjoy some cocktails.
Carnival Ecstasy has a Serenity Retreat, which is an adults-only area. This sounds like a place I would like to spend a lot of time!
The ship also has a RedFrog Rum Bar, BlueIguana Tequila Bar and Alchemy Bar, which all look like great places to grab a fun cocktail. We are not buying a drinks package as it was almost the same price as the cruise and that doesn’t necessarily fit our travel budget. Hopefully the drinks don’t add up too quickly!
I loved Guy’s Burger Joint on my last Carnival cruise, so I plan on having it for lunch one day.
The Punchliner Comedy Club was also a fun place where my husband and I enjoyed live comedy every night on our last cruise. I’m excited to see what’s on offer there.
We haven’t made any plans for our day in Cozumel, although we’ve both been to Mexico recently. Since the cruise was so cheap, I wanted to keep the costs low so we could choose to just walk around the harbor area.
It’s always a pleasure to spend time with my sister and I’m excited to have this experience together!
