James and Donna Sheen

Age: 58
Occupation: aircraft technician
Number of Cruises: 4
Cruise Line: Carnival
Name of Ship: Imagination
Sailing Date: December 28th, 2002
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

Both my wife and I were pleasantly surprised with Carnival's Imagination. We had read very mixed reviews with the majority of these being rather negative. so it was with a hint of trepidation that we booked the Imagination for the New year's cruise.

We took my 14 year old step son and his friend with us as we had read that Camp Carnival for teens was a good way to keep youngsters occupied!. More about this later.

Starting with the biggest complaint! We had to walk nearly half a mile with our suitcases in 80 degree heat to the transportation buses to the ship's terminal from the arrival lobby at MIA Int: Airport! Then we waited another 35 minutes before the bus took us to the dock where another wait ensued before we joined a long, long line up to check in! Fortunately the embarkation process itself went smoothly and we easily found our rooms on the fwd main deck cabins  132 and 136.

I had ordered various gifts and a room decoration for the boys'cabin,132. It was with great joy that we saw the cabin beautifully decorated with a cake and chocolate gift. ( I think my wife and I were more thrilled than the boys!)

In our room 136 I had ordered flowers, wine and other assorted goodies.Again Carnival made a lovely presentation and we were very pleased.

The Imagination was virtually full with over two thousand people aboard. I thought service was going to be hurried and abrupt. How wrong I was!

This was by far the very best service of any of the previous ships we had been on including Holland America. From cabin staff to the maintenance staff-everyone went out of their way to be friendly. Our cabins were kept spotless as was the rest of this beautiful ship.

The food was a huge surprise. Lots of it and well presented every evening. High marks to Carnival for that.

Entertainment was terrific with one exception. A rather un-funny comedian headlined the 2nd night's show. The Imagination dancers and singers were absolutely great and richly deserved the ovations they received.

Surprisingly line ups hardly occurred for anything even the food courts. One thing Carnival must improve on though are the line up's for tenders to shore on excursion days. They were horrendously long. It took over 50 minutes to leave the ship in the Cayman Islands!

The boys did not sign up for Camp Carnival. Having never left Canada before they were reluctant to meet others and join in the fun despite our pleadings. So for the first two days they moaned and complained a lot about having nothing to do! However they met other teens at the end of the 2nd day and by the time the 5 days were up they didn't want to get off! I have never seen teenagers eat like these two! At home it's one piece of toast or sometimes nothing. On the Imagination it was 4 pancakes each plus tons of bacon, sausages and syrup-then they would go back for seconds!

New Years Eve was a party to remember for a lifetime. Tons of food and free champagne flowed like water on the very windy Lido deck. At midnight the ship's horn was sounded and 2000 people seemed to go mad with happiness! Simply fabulous.

Only one more complaint. on leaving the ship at the end of the cruise those of us on the lower decks were the last to leave the ship. After being told to report to Immigration at 7 am we did not leave the ship until close to 1030 am.

To sum up the cruise was great. We will definately take another Carnival cruise in the future.