Carnival Cruise Lines has always been a name that I hear whenever someone is talking about a cruise. They have over 24 different ships leaving out of multiple ports all across the world. I just finished up a cruise this past weekend and will give you a rundown how my thoughts.
My family and I left out of the Port of Miami on the Imagination. We picked this ship and port, instead of the port 10 miles from our house, based on the price for a family of four. The group of four consisted of my wife, 9 year old son, 7 year old daughter, and myself. The Water Works feature was a huge deciding factor for this cruise as well, but we will discuss that later.
Once we arrived at the terminal, we were greeted by the security check point. There were two stops. The first was to verify who you were and to make sure that you were an actual passenger on the ship. This is done by verifying your itinerary and your passport or government issued ID and birth certificates. Since we did not have the time to get our passports, we opted for the latter. The next checkpoint for the standard metal detector and bag scanner. This all went pretty quick. The next area that we entered, we were greeted by a long line of fellow cruisers. This took about 45 minutes to get to an open teller. Once there, they verified our information again and took our pictures for our room keys. These keys are the “Sail and Sign” cards. These cards let you in your room and act as the on-board credit card. We were then allowed to proceed to the actual ship. Prior to the entrance, you are required to take a photo to “remember” your cruise. I am not a fan of this, but it is a source of revenue for the company. Once at the entrance to the ship, we were asked to present our Sail and Sign cards again to have them scanned and verify that we were us. Finally, we were on board.
Once we were on board, we made our way to our cabin. We paid for an inside stateroom and knew what to expect. The room had two twin beds pushed together to make a king sized bed for my wife and me and two pull down twin beds for the kids. We also had a TV with the usual limited channels, not that we needed it, two closets and a bathroom. Once we were settled in, we made our way to the Lido Deck for some lunch. The food on this ship was the worst part about it. The buffet was hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, Asian food, and a deli type bar for sandwiches. There was also a 24 hour pizza and ice cream bar for our convenience. The food was lukewarm at best the entire cruise and typically tasted like it belonged in a jail to be served to inmates. The same food was served at these places for the entire cruise. There was a slight variation, but nothing major. The ship also has a dinning room with an assigned time to eat and assigned seating. We skipped the first night, didn’t go the second night because I am not one to dress up and the attire called for an elegant dress code. I am on vacation, I shouldn’t have to dress up. We went the third night and sat with two other families, but had to leave early to get the kids to their functions.
The ship is equipped with a jogging track, 9 hole mini golf, one pool, two hot tubs, numerous bars, casino, and a water park for the kids. The water park was the favorite and had a small slide for little children, a bigger slide for the older kids/parents, and a large twisting slide three stories high. Our children also participated in Camp Carnival. This allowed the parents to drop off their kids to enjoy activities with children of the same age range. This was a very enjoyable place for our kids and they always looked forward to going back. Festivities around the pool reminded me of a frat party. I am not the drinking or partying type and felt very out of place in this area. It certainly didn’t feel like a family friendly atmosphere to me and would rate this cruise as a 4 out of 10.