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3 hours ago, ober134 said:

We were also on this sailing. After many cruises, we decided to do things differently and much more casually. We didn't even try MDR for any meal. In the past we've enjoyed SeaDay Brunch... but skipped it this time. We did Bonsai Sushi and Emerils. I agree with you on the casual eating places were good and getting drinks never seemed to be much of an issue (no Cheers for us either). We also enjoyed the entertainment. Celestial Strings was good. And we went to quite a few Trivia games - also new to us and we found fun (no ships on a stick for us).

The other thing I saw on the book of faces groups: complaints of weed use and room stewards. Our steward was fantastic and responsive. We asked him to check our 'frig cause it didn't appear working; he got it changed out for us, got us extra towels when requested. And our inside cabin on 10 forward, we had no issues with any small of weed.

The only thing about the cabin - I think this was the absolute smallest bathroom we've ever had on a ship. I mean it was TINY!

We were also on deck 10, midship. No complaints. I thought the bathrooms were small, but the showers were much nicer than the older ones.  Occasionally the elevators were slow, but we noticed a lot of people would use it to go up 1 floor (no noticeable health issues, but who knows). Typically anything less than 5 floors and we are taking the stairs.

Wanted to give a quick review for everyone.

We've only cruised 2 ties before (2017 Conquest, wife and I only, and then last summer 2022 Legend, with 2 kids aged 4 and 6). After we took the kids with us last cruise (which was a result of having FCC and OCB from COVID), they loved it and we decide to book another cruise with them. We actually were going to try Royal with their kids sail free deals, and then after diving into the details (there are tons of exclusions), Carnival still came out way cheaper.

We flew in a day early and stayed at the Homewood Suites Blue Lagoon near the airport. Great place, easy shuttle from the airport. We took an Uber XL the next day to the cruise port, which was about $40 and 20min drive.  Boarding time was 10:30-11, we got to the terminal about 10, and walked through quickly until we were seated for a about 25 mins and they started calling the first groups.  I heard a lot of complaints about the port, traffic, etc but we didn't experience any of that.

Food:

Everything is perspective people, but we truly enjoy the food on Carnival. Shaq and Pig & Anchor are really nice additions compared to other ship classes for some extra variety.  For lunch, we pretty much ate Shaq, P&A, Guy's, or Blue Iguana.  We were also happy with the MDR for dinner, and used the free dinner nights at Chibang and Cuccina.  Chibang was just ok, while we really enjoyed Cuccina. Either way, it was something different and gave more variety.  We always choose Your Time Dining because we're early eaters and check in right at 5:15 for the 5:30 opening.  MDR was good, but for some reason we had 2 nights where they brought us down to the 6th floor to Carnivle (assume this is early/late dining) and the service was slow. 2nd Formal night we didn't get apps for 45mins, which I kindly mentioned to the manager.  Personally I'm fine with it, but our kids were getting hungry and the servers should be aware they served other tables their full apps, dinner, and desert before we received anything. Other than that, very happy with the service during the week.  We only ate at the Lido for breakfast, and then did a sea day brunch and Dr Suess.  Oh - we also had pizza and sandwiches a few times.  Shaq and Blue Iguana were probably our favorite two spots to eat.

Entertainment:

Maybe because we did smaller/older ships, but we were blown away by the entertainment on this ship.  The center stage performers were amazing, having the ability to sing, dance, and acrobats.  The regular theater also put on some great shows and their vocal talent is really good.  Super impressed with what they put together.  The solo artists and bands around the ship were also really good, particular Kiara Johnson (she did a Taylor Swift tribute set, which our girls loved, and it was absolutely packed).

Ship:

We were a little nervous from some reviews that we've seen for Excel class ships.  After going on this ship, I honestly don't think we could move to a smaller ship class (I guess maybe Vista).  There are so many food options, so many bars, and we loved that there is always placed to sit down to talk, have a drink, read, etc.  Not one time did we feel like the ship was too big.  The one knock that I would give, which I've read similar reviews, is that Center Stage really isn't setup well for seating. We knew this going in, so would get there 30-45 mins before the show to get the seat we wanted.  It helps that we do the early dining, so we just ran over to get a seat.

Boarding, Director, Rooms, Misc:

Getting on and off the ship was pretty seamless, very happy with that. Louis was our CD; he was pretty good, better than the 2 previous we had, and was fairly energetic and interacted with our 2 kids quite often.  We booked an interior room with 2 Pullman beds. Yikes that thing is small. We had more than enough store space in the closets and under the beds, but moving around was tight.  If our kids get bigger, we would book a larger room, but we still would rather save the money to use on other things because we honestly only go there to sleep and change. AC seemed to work fine, so we didn't request any fan.

The kids loved the water slides, and there are a handful of pools/hot tubs available. The main deck chairs get snatched up quickly, but I think you can say that on any ship no matter the size. Serenity was huge, but also get snatched up quickly in the morning.

We were part of 2 groups on Facebook just to see what everyone is saying. Lots of complaints that they didn't like the cruise, the bars were packed, soda machine didnt work, etc.  We didn't have Cheers, but has no issues getting drinks when we needed them.

I'm probably forgetting something, but just wanted to put down a few thoughts.  We loved the Celebration and will be booking something else on Excel or maybe Vista class, perhaps giving Celebration Key a shot. 

On 2/3/2024 at 8:03 AM, nydney1 said:

I like a challenge. 

 

Which exact tour are you booked on so I can look for an exact comparison?

Damajagua Waterfalls & Monkey Land $129.99/$109.99

Monkey Land & Puerto Plata City Tour $94.99/$79.99

Monkey Land & Dominican Flavors for Families $89.99/$79.99

 

This will tell me which one to try and find a comparison.

It was Monkey Land & Dominican Flavors for Families. We were unsuccessful but kept it anyway. It was about 5 emails back and forth and they kept coming up with new excuses.

On 3/5/2024 at 2:13 PM, Testifying said:

Any update on why all excursions offered were not populating in the drop down?  Was wondering if only purchased excursions were showing up and the original poster hadn't given enough time for it to load?

From the one time that they called, they said those were the only ones that they guaranteeing. I'm guessing those are the only ones they might be exactly the same. Part of my complaint is that they list the guarantee on every single page, not just the ones they are matching.

Regardless, we had a good time, albeit at a premium.

1 hour ago, KLUTZYJO said:

I also am trying to fill out the form and get an error message every time I hit submit.  I also only see 4 tours listed in the drop down menu despite many more being offered.  I am trying to match a dog sled tour in Alaska that is 50 pp cheaper and even has the exact same name!  I would prefer to book through carnival since many years ago I booked through another company and then the cruise diverted due to weather in cabo and we had to fight for refund but I might risk it for the difference if carnival  doesn't price match 

Based on what they told me on the phone, I'm going to guess they will only price match the ones in the drop-down list.

Lots of different opinions in the thread, but I'm still going to try to get ours honored and adjusted if I can.

14 minutes ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

Then it's not comparable because your 'comparable' tour doesn't include transportation from the port.  Full stop.

It includes transportation from about 20 hotels, so yes it does include transportation. I could probably just pick a hotel that is close to the port if I wanted to.

So is Carnival specifically not allowing the excursion operator to pick up at the port so they can carve out their weird exclusions?  I'm still booking and will attempt to get the difference.

13 minutes ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

What is the Carnival excursion and what are the Viator excursions you are matching to?

 

The net for you is actually $10, not $130.  If you booked through Viator you wouldn't be paying the extra $120 in first place.  So $120 of the $130 Carnival OBC makes you whole vs. what you would have paid with Viator, and the other $10 is your net.  Is all this trouble worth $10 to you vs. canceling your Carnival reservation and rebooking with Viator?

I tried, and the excursion company won't allow cruise customers to book with them, need need to pick a hotel pickup location.

Also, it's 110% of the difference. I believe it's $350 with carnival and 240 viator. So we'd get 110% of the $110 difference which is $121.

22 minutes ago, nydney1 said:

I would keep trying to submit the form, I have had issues with the error code in the past. Can’t remember how I fixed it but I do remember it was crazy frustrating.

 

My last cruise I had two rooms, they approved the match on one room and denied it on the second room. Same excursion and I even told them they had approved the other room. 
 

I finally gave up with email and when we got onboard went to the shore excursion desk with a copy of my approval email and had them add the second room. 
 

They had to show email to supervisor and it was approved and had the credit by the next morning.

 

If you get no satisfaction from email, I suggest printing the screen shot with the error code, a copy of your attempts to contact them and resolve and go to the shore excursion desk once onboard.

Thanks, I may have to try that.  Is there any way to email customer service other than calling in and wasting 30 minutes on the phone again?

I just tried the form twice again, didn't encounter any error on the form itself, but the next page says it encounters a problem and to try again.

7 hours ago, Purvis1231 said:

You have to buy the Carnival excursions and then file the claim. It worked for us several times. They denied both of them at first and appealed and after an exchange of emails, they were approved. Once, we did one while onboard and this was approved right away by the shipboard staff. Good luck.

I did purchase and then immediately went to fill out the form. The drop-down list to pick the excursion only have 5 options, which I thought was a mistake since amber cove had 20+to pick from. Then the comments box gives an error code no matter what you tried, so I couldn't even submit the form. That made me call them. 

4 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

I suspect what they meant was that from the probably thousands of claims that have been submitted, they've only found a few independent excursions that exactly match Carnival's excursion, and the Monkeyland excursion you were trying to file a claim for isn't one of them.

 

Do the two excursions exactly match in every advertised detail?  Even if yes, is this worth the extra $15 in OBC that you'll net?

There are 2 excursions that are basically exact matches. Regarding the value, the price difference was about 120, so the net would be 130 in OBC.

Anyone know who to contact at Carnival to discuss? I don't see John Heald has a messaging option on Facebook.

The "Best Price Guarantee" is posted everywhere. I found a shore excursion (Monkeyland in Amber Cove) that is $150 cheaper for our family by booking direct through Viator. The guarantee claim form does not work on the website for filing a claim,  so I called customer service.  They sent me over to the excursion group, and ultimately told me there are actually only a few excursions that qualify for the guarantee. I tried to get them to understand how that doesn't make sense, because every single shore excursion webpage notes this language "Find a better price for any excursion we offer and we will refund you 110% of the price difference!".  Trying to understand how Carnival can put the Best Price Guarantee on every page, but then state it's only available for certain excursions without any exclusions listed. 

I tried to ask for a supervisor or to escalate, and the rep just kept stating that this is the only department that handles the claims.

On 1/8/2024 at 7:16 AM, mitsugirly said:

 

We just sailed out of Miami a few weeks ago (on NCL) and it was definitely a better experience this time than when we went in April. It was on a Sunday if that helps. Going there was great. After the cruise it was crowded but didn't wait in lines after we got in our Uber and we were out in no time with no issues. 

That's good to hear. We're leaving out of Miami for the first time in March and have heard hit or miss traffic. We have an 11:30am flight on disembarkation day, so we'll be in a hurry.

How long is the dinner? We'd like to try it out but would need to bring our kids to camp because they wouldn't enjoy the for our long dinner.

Was just on the Legend, which is a very old ship, and they didn't have anything exciting but did have blantons in the steakhouse. I'm surprised to see people post that the Celebration didn't have much for a new ship. That's our next cruise, so we'll see.

We are early eaters so we typically go right at 545. I would just checkin through the app 45mins before you want to eat if not checking in right away.

7 hours ago, UGACamper said:

Had an extended balcony - lounger was already there upon arrival. 

 

Sadly, we literally went out on our balcony twice during our cruise.  There was just too much to do! Made me start considering insides or OV on the larger ships.

Thanks for saying this. We just booked an interior and were second guessing if we should keep it or get a balcony ( only have done interior and OV before). Our main argument is that we're never in the room anyway, and we've only been on smaller ships before.

Thanks everyone. We ended up booking the celebration eastern itinerary in March!

We'll be sailing out of Miami for the first time in the spring. Likely will get an airport hotel with shuttle for the pickup day before. For cruise day, does Uber have restrictions for traveling with kids? They will be 5 and 7.

We were on a month ago and checked our room about 2. The room was still being finished up but our steward let us drop our bags and is the bathroom.

We've only been on the Conquest 6 years ago alone, and just got off the Legend last month with our 2 kids. We're looking to get into a more modern and larger ship to compare.  Actually, we were planning to try Royal Caribbean and one of their newer ships to see the difference between the lines, but are undecided on that.

Anyway - we haven't been to any of the ports (Western out of Port Canaveral - Cozumel, Costa Maya, Mahogany Bay) or (Eastern out of Miami - Amber Cove, San Juan, St Maarten).  Does anyone have experience on which ports are better and more accessible to beaches right off the ship, rather than having to take a taxi/shuttle to get to the beaches? Also, an opinion on departure port?

Do we just go to the desk to adjust gratuities? We might slightly reduce tips and give cash directly to certain staff. 

On 6/30/2023 at 2:29 PM, NJEMT29 said:

Just got off the legend and we had a open pat of butter on a dish at dinner

Any tips on the Legend? We've only cruised once alone on the conquest, and have two kids(4 and 6) this time. We're not doing the drink package. Hoping the is a lot to do onboard. 

Thanks for the post. We are taking the Legend out of Baltimore in July with our young kids for the first time, so happy to hear the nice review.  What time was your check-in time and what time did you get to port? I've heard parking there is great, but lines can get super long.  Any other general comments on this ship itself? We've only sailed once on the Conquest in 2017.

9 minutes ago, ibarrio said:

You can also drink the top shelf stuff without worries. Blanton's and Eagle Rare or the good tequila...it's covered. I plan on killing their supply of Blanton's and Eagles Rare on my next cruise (June) 

Where on the ship? From what I've seen, the best bourbon choices are only at pig and anchor, and unfortunately the ship we're going on doesn't have it on it.  Not sure what other decent bourbons I can find.

To OP- Length of cruise and amount your spouse drinks factors in. If its a long cruise, are you really going to drink enough every day to break even? Or, maybe you can break even but your spouse won't.  My wife and I did it our first 5 day cruise today and it worked out well. This time we will have our smaller kids and its a 7 day, and we definitely aren't getting.

10 hours ago, Bees29 said:

My view on the kids clubs, I’m bringing my kids on vacation to spend time with them, not have someone else watch them. 

Absolutely. We just figured it would be nice if they want to go play for 2hrs on a sea day while we relax and read would be nice. We'll give it a try the first day to see how they do, but are certainly content with them with us all cruise.

Thanks for the feedback. I called and had our room moved back away from the piano bar, and booked Dr Seuss right away.

So an anniversary cruise in 2020 is now turning into 7 Day cruise with our kids after 3 years.  We’ve only been on one cruise back in 2017, so had a few questions:

7 Day cruise out of Baltimore:

• How many formal nights are there are on a 7 day cruise, and what nights are they typically on?
• We are planning to go to the Steakhouse one night, and didn’t want to miss formal nights in the MDR.

Drinks:

• We had Cheers last time but won’t be getting it this time. My wife wouldn’t be able to breakeven and we have our kids with us this time around.  I believe average drink prices were about $7.50 for beer and $10-12 for other drinks. Is that accurate?
• We have $800 in cruise credit which will just be used for gratuities and drinks.
• Are there typically daily specials in different locations? We didn’t look at for that with Cheers last time.

FTTF:

• Is it really needed? We did it the first time because it was our first cruise and we wanted to get off the ship ASAP to get a flight. This time we aren’t in a rush but do have 2 smaller kids with us.

Legend out of Baltimore:

• We were on the Conquest last time out of Fort Lauderdale, so another older ship.  Anything specific we should know or look for on this ship?
• We are on the 4^th deck, above the piano bar. Will we hear any noise at night? Looks like there are 2 rooms further back on the deck plans that we could move to if needed.

Kid stuff:

• Dr. Seuss -- Is the breakfast a worthwhile activity for the kids (6 and 4)?
• Our kids actually enjoy being with each other, and not sure how interested they will be to split up in different age groups. Are there a lot of kids activities on board outside of the kids clubs?

Thanks in advance!