Carnival Ecstasy profile and photo tour

This week we present the 100^th ship to be profiled on Beyondships.com. There were less than a dozen ships profiled on the site when we started in 2007 and so it is with something of a feeling of accomplishment that we reach the century mark.

Our 100th ship is the venerable Carnival Ecstasy. Ecstasy is one of eight ships built for Carnival during the 1990s, which are collectively known as the Fantasy class. While all of the ships in the class were built to essentially the same design, one of the things that I have found interesting about exploring them is to see just how different they are one from the other.

One of the reasons they are different from one another is that their interiors were all originally designed by the same man, Joe Farcus. All of the Fantasy class ships have essentially the same interior layout. But Farcus made the corresponding rooms in each ship different. This does not mean that he used blue wall paper on one ship and red on the next to decorate a particular bar. Instead, he let his imagination run wild and produced some extravagant rooms each of which is unique.

For example, on Ecstasy you have the Chinatown Lounge complete with the entrance to a Chinese movie theater and a real delivery truck parked near the dance floor. There is the Neon piano bar, which has that name for a reason. Then there is the beautifully elegant Explorer's Club Library. Compare these to the corresponding rooms on say Carnival Fascination and you will see just how different rooms can be.

Also, Carnival has invested substantial amounts in refurbishing and revitalizing the Fantasy class ships over the years. As a result, there have been significant changes to the ships. For example, the pool deck areas have been transformed and given a resort-style look. A large water park has been added to the upper deck of each ship. An adult sanctuary has been added as have more rooms for the youth program.

But Carnival did not call in all of the Fantasy class ships at the same time and make these changes to all the ships at once. Thus, you can find differences between the ships that reflect changes in Carnival's thinking over time. For example, on Carnival Fantasy, the Camp Carnival youth center is on Deck 9 whereas on Ecstasy, it is on Deck 11.

Recently, Ecstasy's dance club was transformed as part of the Fun Ships 2.0 program. It now has the cool sophistication of the dance club on Carnival's latest ship Carnival Breeze.

Thus, while Carnival Ecstasy has many sisters, she does have her own distinct character and that is the way it should be.

Beyondship's profile of Carnival Ecstasy with copies of daily programs, menus and other information, is at http://beyondships.com/CarnivalEcstasy-Profile.html The multi-page photo tour of Carnival Ecstasy begins at http://beyondships.com/CarnivalEcstasy-Tour-1.html