Carnival Ecstasy

As Carnival Corporation’s flagship brand, Carnival Cruise Lines, founded in 1972, sets the pace as the world’s largest, most popular cruise line (based on carrying about 2.5 million passengers annually). Carnival offers affordable cruise vacations with Fun Ship appeal. Today’s Carnival, a far cry from modest beginnings, defines contemporary cruising with expanded options in dining, children’s programming, spa pampering and shipboard weddings. Carnival’s fleet, composed of six vessel classes, has grown to 20, with more Fun Ships forthcoming, including five on order.

Quick View

The Ecstasy yields 10 passenger decks of fun, featuring varied dining, dancing and entertainment venues, all enhanced by a dramatic "cityscape" décor designed by Carnival’s award-winning interior architect Joe Farcus. Ecstasy provides guests with the feeling of stepping into a vibrant metropolis from the moment of arrival into a Grand Atrium stretching seven-decks high, enhanced by two glass elevators and a pair of marble staircases with polished brass rails. Among Ecstasy highlights is Promenade Deck’s City Lights Boulevard, a 450-foot-long enclosed promenade providing easy access to many of the ship’s bars, lounges and nightspots. Guests experience a neon-metallic skyscraper motif as they stroll past such themed public rooms as Chinatown, Society Bar, Neon Bar, Stripes Dance Club and Rolls Royce Cafe. A vintage Rolls parked along the promenade adds to Boulevard authenticity. When repositioned to Los Angeles, Ecstasy became the newest, largest short cruise option from the West Coast, and one of the most value-packed vacations around -- by land or sea. Three-day round-trip voyages depart Fridays calling at Ensenada, while four-day cruises departing Mondays call at Calalina Island and Ensenada and add in a fun day at sea. Ensenada shore excursions range from Baja Bandidos horseback riding to city shopping and a wine country tour to the Calafia Valley.

About Gratuities
Gratuities are automatically added to Sail & Sign accounts, or can be pre-arranged and paid prior. The total is $9.75 per guest, per day ($5.50 for dining team, 75 cents for bistro service, and $3.50 for cabin services.) Guests can adjust upward/downward at the information desk.

Disabled Access
Ecstasy has staterooms equipped for wheel-chair users.

Ship Features

Ecstasy, the first of Carnival’s Fantasy-class vessels, has drawn raves because it’s large enough to provide plenty of powerhouse entertainment, with lots of deck space for sunning, and separate facilities for adults and kids. Yet its size is not overwhelmingly huge, so guests on a short cruise can quickly learn their way around and navigate between staterooms and dining areas without maps. As with all Carnival vessels, Ecstasy has multiple swimming pools and cascading waterslides and a comprehensive golf program offering professional instruction both aboard ship and during golf excursions.

Staterooms
Quarters totalling 1,026 include 28 suites, 26 demi-suites, 564 ocean-view cabins, 389 interior twin cabins, and 19 interior cabins with upper and lower berths.

Stateroom amenities
All cabins feature closed-circuit TV, stereo, telephone and 110 a.c. current. In-cabin amenities baskets, available on all Carnival ships, offer a wide variety of brand-name products for men and women. Plush terrycloth bathrobes are available for guest use in ocean-view accommodations.

Kid & Teen Stuff
A record 350,000 youngsters were welcomed aboard “Fun Ships” in 2003, with Carnival continuing to expand activities, amenities and facilities of the “Camp Carnival” children’s program. Recent enhancements include high-tech play areas featuring computer labs and indoor climbing mazes, as well as updated children’s menus and turn-down service providing kids with fresh-baked cookies on the first and last night of their voyage. Plenty of activity is scheduled for teens as well.

Cruises Specials

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Life Aboard

Dining
Ecstasy guests enjoy Carnival’s Total Choice Dining, offering a variety of formal and casual options. The 650-seat Wind Star Dining Room is forward while the 658-seat Wind Song Dining Room is aft. Other venues are Chinatown, the Rolls Royce Café, and Lido Deck’s Panama Bar & Grill. In addition to full-service meals in main dining rooms featuring upgraded menus and wine lists, the Panorama Bar & Grill offers breakfast, lunch and dinner alternatives, and a 24-hour pizzeria. Carnival menus include SpaCarnival dishes that are low in calories, fat, sodium and cholesterol. Complimentary 24-hour room service is also available.

Sports / Health / Fitness
The Ecstasy has three swimming pools – one with a 114-foot-long corkscrew water slide – and six whirlpools, a 12,000-square-foot health and fitness facility with sauna and steam rooms, a jogging track, and shuffleboard. Spa Carnival pampers guests with massage, manicures/pedicures, facial masks and loofa treatments for both men and women.

Entertainment
Carnival ships boast some of the largest showrooms and most spectacular entertainment at sea, and Ecstasy is no exception, with lounges, bars and clubs to suit most tastes. Blue Sapphire Lounge houses elaborate Las Vegas-style production shows, and no two shows are the same during a cruise. After the show, guests can stop by a dance bar or a sing-a-long piano bar, and there’s also a library and Internet Café.

Casino
The Crystal Palace Casino accommodates up to 450 for trying out luck at slots and table games. Guests are invited to vie for MegaCash, the world’s largest cruiseship jackpot, where one lucky guest on Carnival’s Jubilee recently won a whopping $1,065,428.

Bars
Among a dozen bars and lounges are Stripes, a high-tech dance club, Society Bar, a refined lounge popular for cocktails, and Chinatown, featuring such memorable design elements as a smoke-spewing dragon, hanging Chinese lanterns and pagoda-style street lamps.