Carnival Imagination Review

Great family cruise!

Review for the Mexican Riviera Cruise on Carnival Imagination
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bassspanker
2-5 Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Jul 2014
Traveled with children

Our family took the short 4-day Baja cruise out of Long Beach on the Imagination last week. My wife and I have been on a few cruises before, but this is the first time to bring the kids along. In addition to the travelogue, I'll do my best to point out tips, lessons learned, & other things we think others would find useful in planning their trips.

I think this particular cruise gets neglected a bit on these forums because it is shorter, on an older ship, and not as glamorous as most. But a whole lot of people do it, so I’m hoping a more detailed review on this short cruise will be helpful to some.

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Cabin Review

We were in cabins M1 & M3 on the Imagination. These were perfect for us, but maybe not for others.First of all, these are porthole rooms, which I loved. They don’t give you much of a scenic view, but you can tell if it’s day or night and see if you’re in port or not, or moving, which is what really bothers me about interior rooms. If I want a view, I’ll go hang out at one of my favorite spots on deck.These are at the very end of the hallway with no passing traffic. In general the rooms were quiet. EXCEPT- when pulling into port the front steering thrusters, the anchor, and other associated mechanical noise were VERY loud for maybe 20-30 minutes. So, basically this was our alarm clock. That was fine for us since we generally wanted to get up & get to the port before the rush. But if you want to sleep in, this is not the cabin for you. While docked in port there was some engine rumble that we could hear & feel, but not bad. It was very quiet while sailing.In our particular case, we were less worried about being insulated from outside noise, and more worried about protecting other guests from our noisy kids. With the kids in M1, they were insulated on all sides between my wife & I (in M3) and the mechanical area of the ship. There are no staterooms below this room, so they could stomp all they wanted. So this was a perfect setup for us.The ship’s noise while pulling into port was actually kind of cool for the kids since they would hop up and look out the portholes to watch all of the docking activity. Really helps remind you that you’re on a ship and not in a hotel, which is a good thing in my book.

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