Celebrity cruiser on Carnival

[killarneylady]

We needed a quick 4 night cruise from Port Canaveral, so with options limited we booked a Carnival Bahamas trip. I wasn't expecting a comparable experience to my usual line and wasn't disappointed. Boy, I it makes you realise how well Celebrity do things. The layout of the ship I was on made every area seem dark and pokey. No open airy areas. Casual dining area had the feel of a diner. Queues,queues, queues. I longed for breakfast at the oceanview sitting out watching the wake of the ship... but instead I found myself sitting on a bench eating a hamburger watching a mr hairy chest competition!

MDR was a big disappointment. Food not good. Never approached by drinks waiter or sommelier. No tea or coffee offered after meal. . - No one was having wine with their meals - that I could see anyway. Strange.

Dining style called 'American Table'. You can see the table, (as there are no tablecloths) and the place felt like Denny's and that's American I guess.

We enjoyed our couple of days as we had two full days in port, weather was great, our family was together - (I'm running out of things..)

I was glad I tried it though. Sometimes you don't appreciate what you've got until its gone! I realise that people are looking for different things from their holiday experience. On the other hand, I do think that the 'waiters in costume standing on tables doing the macerena'' idea, iis something that Celebrity should seriously consider.!- if not the hairy chest competition.

[ChucktownSteve]

We needed a quick 4 night cruise from Port Canaveral, so with options limited we booked a Carnival Bahamas trip. I wasn't expecting a comparable experience to my usual line and wasn't disappointed. Boy, I it makes you realise how well Celebrity do things. The layout of the ship I was on made every area seem dark and pokey. No open airy areas. Casual dining area had the feel of a diner. Queues,queues, queues. I longed for breakfast at the oceanview sitting out watching the wake of the ship... but instead I found myself sitting on a bench eating a hamburger watching a mr hairy chest competition!

MDR was a big disappointment. Food not good. Never approached by drinks waiter or sommelier. No tea or coffee offered after meal. . - No one was having wine with their meals - that I could see anyway. Strange.

Dining style called 'American Table'. You can see the table, (as there are no tablecloths) and the place felt like Denny's and that's American I guess.

We enjoyed our couple of days as we had two full days in port, weather was great, our family was together - (I'm running out of things..)

I was glad I tried it though. Sometimes you don't appreciate what you've got until its gone! I realise that people are looking for different things from their holiday experience. On the other hand, I do think that the 'waiters in costume standing on tables doing the macerena'' idea, iis something that Celebrity should seriously consider.!- if not the hairy chest competition.

 

Sounds like you hit rock bottom. The only way is up from there. ;)

[Braveheart11]

Last year we sailed our 26th and last voyage on Carnival. Shame really as we have had some wonderful memories over the years on Carnival. The last straw for us on Carnival was the dining room. The worst food by far of any cruise ship we have ever sailed on (5 nt Sunshine out of Charleston). It was not the waitstaff.....they tried. The kitchen could not deliver a palatable meal. I am saddened by the deterioration of this product, but on the plus side am enjoying the switch to suite class on Celebrity and the atmosphere, food, and service of Luminae on our last two cruises.

[Duanerice1]

Unfortunately the shorter Carnival cruises are on the less desirable ships (usually). We used to take the quick weekend trips and they were always on the smaller, older ships. And I mean older....

 

Last Carnival cruise we were on was the Breeze and had a cabin in their Spa class. It was very nice. They do a lot of things right. Their spa puts Celebrity Aqua Spa to shame. Not talking about Blu, just the spa area.

 

We are elite on Celebrity and usually choose them but I wouldn't hesitate to taking another Carnival cruise, especially in the spa cabins.

[aSiAnRiCk]

We haven't sailed Carnival in a while but we enjoyed our sailings with them. Don't have too high of expectations and you'll be fine. Yes, you'll spend more time waiting in lines, especially at the buffet. But you're guaranteed to have a lot of fun on Carnival cruises. At least we did.

 

However, having done so many cruises, we're at the point where we just want to sit somewhere and relax and enjoy the cruise. That's why we have no plan to sail on Carnival at the moment. But if someone come up with a super great deal on a 7 or 8 day cruise with Carnival, we'll be there with our Redbull :)

 

 

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[bunnyette]

We haven't sailed Carnival in a while but we enjoyed our sailings with them. Don't have too high of expectations and you'll be fine. Yes, you'll spend more time waiting in lines, especially at the buffet. But you're guaranteed to have a lot of fun on Carnival cruises. At least we did.

 

However, having done so many cruises, we're at the point where we just want to sit somewhere and relax and enjoy the cruise. That's why we have no plan to sail on Carnival at the moment. But if someone come up with a super great deal on a 7 or 8 day cruise with Carnival, we'll be there with our Redbull :)

 

 

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I'm with you, we sailed on the Magic in September, we had minimal expectations and took it as a cheap vacation to relax. I love Celebrity for their itineraries but for the Caribbean, Carnival is fine. Some ships have the child free serenity deck which we made use of as well as a spa pass. We had a balcony and hung out there rather than the noisy pool deck. We had a good time and enjoyed all the ports and met some nice people.

 

DH still prefers Celebrity but Carnival is not bad especially the 7-8 day cruises. I would never take a 3-4 day cruise.

[disfan13]

As others have said, your experience would have been different on a 7-8 day cruise. We can't wait to finally try Celebrity next year - but we have never had a bad cruise.

[stevec999]

The short cruises are not the best way to experience Carnival. We have sailed mostly on Carnival but are starting to branch out looking for new itineraries. Try a 7-8 day and you will have a different experience.

 

If you go expecting to have a good time, you will.

[Softball20]

We did a quick girls' trip on the Sunshine out of Port Canaveral last year because it was close and very reasonably priced, so we figured "what the heck." I did go in with pretty low expectations, but in some areas I was pleasantly surprised. The food in the MDR overall was not good! The menu wasn't even interesting on some nights - although, they did serve lamb shanks one night that I cannot complain about at all. It was, however, hit or miss. We went to three of the specialty restaurants. The steak house was fine - no complaints. The Asian restaurant was actually excellent, and the Italian place was not very good.

 

The ship itself was fine, and it was pretty lively. I will say that they had the best cruise director I've ever had on a ship. He was terrific. Great personality and knew when to kick it up and tone it down.

 

For a five night to the Bahamas and back it wasn't bad at all. I don't think I could do it for much longer, however. We are back on Celebrity for this year's girls' trip.

[cruise pup]

Too bad Celebrity got rid of the Century. The short cruises on it were great.

 

There was a time when Carnival used their newest ships for 4 night Canada cruises in the summer. Those were very good (well, for Carnival). I'm talking when Destiny, Triumph, and Victory were first launched.

Edited January 3, 2017 by cruise pup

[killarneylady]

I know. I was loriginally looking for a short Celebrity cruise but none available. In fact I'm looking for a med cruise this summer and can only manage 7 nights but all Celebtity sailings seem to be 10 days plus.. the gods are conspiring against me ...

Anyway , I don't mean to knock Carnival. We enjoyed our trip overall . As an earlier contributor said ' you get what you pay for' and next time I think I'll pay a bit more!

[Softball20]

I am about to sail on a four-nighter on the Silhouette with some girlfriends on Sunday. It was a steal; couldn't pass it up. Sometimes these short ones are a lot of fun for just a quick get away. This time, however, we are driving to Ft. Lauderdale as we had enough of Carnival last year.

[HokiePoq]

I'm with you, we sailed on the Magic in September, we had minimal expectations and took it as a cheap vacation to relax. I love Celebrity for their itineraries but for the Caribbean, Carnival is fine. Some ships have the child free serenity deck which we made use of as well as a spa pass. We had a balcony and hung out there rather than the noisy pool deck. We had a good time and enjoyed all the ports and met some nice people.

 

DH still prefers Celebrity but Carnival is not bad especially the 7-8 day cruises. I would never take a 3-4 day cruise.

 

I would also not take one of their four day cruises, based solely on a group that was at our hotel when we were getting on another cruise the same day. They are the only line that goes out of our nearby port, once or twice a year. Have been tempted to try them once but apparently it sells out and goes for more than I think it's worth.

[Softball20]

We didn't book this four-nighter until just about a month ago - it was a steal. I made the mistake of clicking through one of the weekly "Exciting Deals" emails, and it was just too good to pass up. Prices stayed really low until right before Christmas when they went up a bit. They sold the ship out.