Room decorations, are they worth it?

[dogtaur]

We will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary with a cruise! 

 

I was thinking of ordering the anniversary room decorations with the cake or the wine, as a surprise for my husband. It's kind of pricey in the Fun Shops, is it worth it? 

 

Thank you in advance! 🙂

[coevan]

you can bring your own wine and decorations. The regular birthday cake is not very good. Is it worth it to you? 

[Amadawn1]

I ordered, then cancelled the decorations and cake for our 20th anniversary cruise next April.  It really wasn't the cost.  It was that the decorations were not very festive and basically boring.  I agree with coevan.  Bring your own decorations (and have fun with them!).  I haven't had the cake so I don't know.  But the cake can be ordered separately as well.

[groundloop]

I ordered cake from the Fun Shops once to surprise my wife.  She told me in no uncertain terms don't waste money on that again (I had to agree, it wasn't all that good).

[Organized Chaos]

We took our son's friend with us last year and he had a birthday while on the cruise. His mom called Carnival and ordered him the birthday decorations and chocolate cake as a surprise. It fell on a port day, so their cabin was decorated when we got back onboard. I see the packages have changed and the price has gone up considerably. He just got decorations and the cake. Now they include a picture frame & beach towel. But I'm pretty sure it was about $30 at that time...now it's $50 for the smaller cake. The decorations weren't much at all. We thought the cake was pretty good, but VERY rich, so we couldn't eat much. More than half of it was wasted. Overall, it wasn't worth ~$30 then, let alone the $50 it is now (unless you really want that picture frame and beach towel).

[SkyPiglet]

I cannot speak quality or value of the cake, as I have never had it but I have not read too many positive reviews of it. I think the other treats and pastries are pretty good, but it depends on what you like. I really think those gift packages are more geared towards people outside of the trip surprising cruisers with gifts, etc.

 

Wine or champagne probably won't be the highest quality, but it can certainly be very enjoyable, depending on how picky you are. I posted to JH's page on facebook and he had champagne and strawberries delivered to our room. It wasn't super fancy, but we enjoyed that a lot.

 

 

My mother-in-law once gifted us the pastry tray once and we very much enjoyed it. I would say it was worth it, but those fruit tarts were phenomenal!

 

 

As for the decorations, the price seems pretty steep for some paper hanging decorations, you might be better off going to a Party City store to pick up some decorations and magnets to hang them. You will get more bang for your buck and make it more custom to what would be meaningful to you and your husband. Then if you do order some sweets or wine or something, when you specify the time for delivery, just make sure he is out of the room, and then sneak off for five minutes to decorate the room before he sees it 🙂 

Edited November 24, 2019 by SkyPiglet

[Pyrate13]

My advice, forget the cake. We ordered one once for my wife's birthday. Not very good, we tossed most of it. Can't speak to the decorations, never had them.

[Tapi]

My daughter celebrated her birthday while on a Carnival Cruise last February. I went to Dollar Tree and bought similar stuff to Carnival’s cabin decor for $7. I then decorated the cabin myself. I’ve never felt so good about being cheap. 
 

[LakeWobegon]

The convenience factor of having Carnival do it is nice. Regardless of whether you purchase or not, make sure you note with them that you're celebrating a special event, provide the details, and express your appreciation for how much you like Carnival. They almost always do something small whether its a special dessert and song at dinner one night but sometimes it can be a little more. 

[Lynnye22]

Yes, they completely worth it. If you are celebrating something special. It is a nice surprise you don't have to  pack or mess with. The strawberry vanilla cake was delicious!. If you are the OCD type the decorations are magnetic so you can rearrange them as many times as you want. It awesome walking into a decorated cabin.   

[Shaded Lady]

I've had room decorations twice from my hubby- once on my birthday and once when I was cruising with a girlfriend and he wanted it to be a nice surprise for both of us... it was awesome and I loved them. But the last time that happened was 2007. I look at the decorations they have now and they're really boring and definitely not worth the money to me!

 

As for the cake, DH is diabetic so I ordered a special sugar-free cake from the Fun Shops once- he said it was pretty good, but not earth-shattering. I don't see it in the online shops today, so either you need to wait til you're onboard and go to the Fun Shops directly, or they stopped offering it, I'm not sure which.

[cmptrwiz]

I’m going to have to say probably not worth it.  We had some a few years ago and they were alright, but in the next couple of days they seemed to just get in the way.

[christyran1228]

It was cute when we did this for my daughter's 18th birthday in 2013 ... at first she thought Carnival did it for her.  Lol.  It did start getting in the way for her and my son later in the week.  And maybe it's changed, but her cake was delicious.  🙂

[VentureMan_2000]

I plan on doing my own decorating for my wife's birthday on next year's cruise.  I've been looking at magnetic hooks.  You can attach them to the ceiling and purchase celebration dangles to hang down from them.

Perhaps a nice dinner in the steak house would be money better spent, than on room decorations from the Fun Shop. 

[Cb1977]

For my cruise with my children this past summer I  did the Carnival bon voyage package for our balcony room. Came with the hanging decorations, towel and photo frame. I didn't do the cake or cookies because all of that stuff is available on lido deck. Totally worth it to me and I get to use the hangers on future cruises.

[jdemps]

I know my husband could care less about some cardboard decorations and cake when dessert is included all over the ship.  I would spend the cash on the steakhouse instead or some other indulgence that isn't so cheap looking.  Maybe bet it all on roulette!  Good Luck.

[dogtaur]

This forum is great! I appreciate all the responses and I did get some really good ideas! Thank you!! 🙂

[Cafedumonde]

We almost did this once for a birthday.  Then we started looking around for our own decorations on amazon.  So much less expensive!  Better decorations as well!  We did not care about the cake because there is so much food on board.  Lol.  We found the magnets for hanging banners and decorations.  They are amazing and we still bring them with us to this day.  They hold anything.  Wet swimsuits, bags of stuff, you name it.  Much better investment:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0796DCYFL/ref=ppx_yo_mob_b_inactive_ship_o1_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[LMaxwell]

On 11/23/2019 at 6:49 PM, dogtaur said:

We will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary with a cruise! 

 

I was thinking of ordering the anniversary room decorations with the cake or the wine, as a surprise for my husband. It's kind of pricey in the Fun Shops, is it worth it? 

 

Thank you in advance! 🙂

Go to Dollar Tree and for $5 you can have more decorations than the package 

[iheartmarshall]

In general, no I don't think they're worth it.  But I did do it once for an anniversary surprise and it was really cute!  The cake wasn't the best but it was a nice little surprise that I enjoyed doing.  However I'm not sure I'd purchase it again. 

[Organized Chaos]

Just remember, Carnival requires that any decorations you buy & hang yourself must be fire retardant.

[ricew001]

My sister had our room decorated and a cake sent for our 25th anniverary in 2017. It was really nice. I must say I actually missed it on our cruise last week. The decorations gave it a festive feel. The cake was pretty. We had one bite and I can tell you it was delicious, but there is so much food on the cruise it's just a waste.

[TNcruising02]

I ordered the Happy Anniversary Celebration package.  It comes with four magnetic danglers, a magnetic hanging banner, a 5X7 picture frame, a 30" x 60" towel, and a cake for 49.95.  It is definitely pricey, but our 25th wedding anniversary will happen while we are on this cruise.  We booked this cruise specifically to celebrate our anniversary.  I think it will be a very nice surprise.  I could get the decorations and do everything myself, but I really don't want to bother with it.  I am sure this will be the only time I will splurge for decorations on a cruise.

[JQTravels]

On 11/23/2019 at 5:49 PM, dogtaur said:

We will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary with a cruise! 

 

I was thinking of ordering the anniversary room decorations with the cake or the wine, as a surprise for my husband. It's kind of pricey in the Fun Shops, is it worth it? 

 

Thank you in advance! 🙂

If you don't mind doing the decorations yourself you can grab some at the Dollar Tree 

 

[May1cruiser]

worth mentioning a door banner as an option. Shindigz  will customer make a vertical banner for under $30. Make it personal and can reuse. printed on durable vinyl and reusable. We do save the carnival danglers and reuse them. The décor seems to make the cruise more fun, which is the reason we are on the cruise.

Edited November 26, 2019 by May1cruiser
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