Long Review of Celebration, March 26-April 2

[Astromaid]

Start off by saying, I needed a cruise to get away from a stressful fall and winter and wanted to try the Excel class ship. I found a good deal on an inside cabin and booked it. Then the problems began. I did not think about it being spring break, when I looked at airfare from Detroit to either Miami or Ft Lauderdale, the cost was double what I paid for the cruise. The only way I could get cheap airfare was to book on the Wednesday before leaving and returning on the Wednesday after. That meant a lot more hotels and then I would want to go to theme parks, so my idea of a cheap getaway was gone. We kept checking airfare but realized that we would have to drive. Ok, after that decision, then I tried to find a reasonable hotel the night before the cruise somewhere along the coast. Well that was a disaster as everything was priced sky high, so I ended up booking a reasonable cost hotel just south of Orlando and we would have to drive the 3 1/2 hours to Miami the morning of the cruise. We planned on parking at the port, the week before we left Carnival notified us that traffic that weekend would be a problem as there was a music festival that weekend and many roads would be closed. Plan on extra time to get to the port. Great.  Let me also mention, we have usually have a balcony, but I didn't want to pay the price, almost $800.00 more than the inside I booked. I was apprehensive after reading about the tiny inside cabins on Celebration. Thursday night before we left I got a call from Carnival offering an upgrade to a handicap balcony on the same deck (14) for $300.00 more. I grabbed the offer.  For a bit of background, I will also say that I am 69 and my husband is 68, I have been on 12 cruises and he has been on 9, mostly Carnival, but a couple Royal and one Uncruise. We are not pool people nor do we drink much, so there won't be many reviews of the bars and drinks. We like good food and entertainment, and quiet areas. We had been to all the ports and did not book any excursions. This cruise was to get away from family issues and to relax. Celebration is the largest ship we have cruised on, so I was a bit concerned about the ship being crowded. I am still catching up on work, so I will post more later tonight. 

[jimbo5544]

57 minutes ago, Astromaid said:

Start off by saying, I needed a cruise to get away from a stressful fall and winter and wanted to try the Excel class ship. I found a good deal on an inside cabin and booked it. Then the problems began. I did not think about it being spring break, when I looked at airfare from Detroit to either Miami or Ft Lauderdale, the cost was double what I paid for the cruise. The only way I could get cheap airfare was to book on the Wednesday before leaving and returning on the Wednesday after. That meant a lot more hotels and then I would want to go to theme parks, so my idea of a cheap getaway was gone. We kept checking airfare but realized that we would have to drive. Ok, after that decision, then I tried to find a reasonable hotel the night before the cruise somewhere along the coast. Well that was a disaster as everything was priced sky high, so I ended up booking a reasonable cost hotel just south of Orlando and we would have to drive the 3 1/2 hours to Miami the morning of the cruise. We planned on parking at the port, the week before we left Carnival notified us that traffic that weekend would be a problem as there was a music festival that weekend and many roads would be closed. Plan on extra time to get to the port. Great.  Let me also mention, we have usually have a balcony, but I didn't want to pay the price, almost $800.00 more than the inside I booked. I was apprehensive after reading about the tiny inside cabins on Celebration. Thursday night before we left I got a call from Carnival offering an upgrade to a handicap balcony on the same deck (14) for $300.00 more. I grabbed the offer.  For a bit of background, I will also say that I am 69 and my husband is 68, I have been on 12 cruises and he has been on 9, mostly Carnival, but a couple Royal and one Uncruise. We are not pool people nor do we drink much, so there won't be many reviews of the bars and drinks. We like good food and entertainment, and quiet areas. We had been to all the ports and did not book any excursions. This cruise was to get away from family issues and to relax. Celebration is the largest ship we have cruised on, so I was a bit concerned about the ship being crowded. I am still catching up on work, so I will post more later tonight. 

Good start to your review, interested to read more.

[LUVMYGSDOG]

Nice start and look forward to more.

 

 

Kim

[lazydayz]

Thanks for doing a review. We were on this cruise as well and it has us considering whether we will ever cruise from Miami again. The traffic was crazy, and I was super stressed. Getting there was horrible, and leaving the port was bad. Hope it went better for you.  

[ninjacat123]

That is a looooong drive from Michigan!  Looking forward to your review!!

Edited April 5, 2023 by ninjacat123

[Jamman54]

Great start to your review! We'll be on her on the 16th.😎

[BrotherCraig]

57 minutes ago, lazydayz said:

Thanks for doing a review. We were on this cruise as well and it has us considering whether we will ever cruise from Miami again. The traffic was crazy, and I was super stressed. Getting there was horrible, and leaving the port was bad. Hope it went better for you.  

 

They don't always have special events like that that hinders traffic.  Cruised out there twice and no traffic thankfully.  Spring Break is always a little crazy in that area.  Bad thing is - Spring Break is about 4 weeks long.

Edited April 5, 2023 by BrotherCraig

[hapytobehr]

3 hours ago, lazydayz said:

Thanks for doing a review. We were on this cruise as well and it has us considering whether we will ever cruise from Miami again. The traffic was crazy, and I was super stressed. Getting there was horrible, and leaving the port was bad. Hope it went better for you.  

The traffic issue was due to the Ultra music festival and an overturned tractor trailer in the tunnel.  We have done over 20 cruises out of Miami and have NEVER experienced the nightmare that was on that weekend.

[lazydayz]

2 hours ago, BrotherCraig said:

 

They don't always have special events like that that hinders traffic.  Cruised out there twice and no traffic thankfully.  Spring Break is always a little crazy in that area.  Bad thing is - Spring Break is about 4 weeks long.

 

15 minutes ago, hapytobehr said:

The traffic issue was due to the Ultra music festival and an overturned tractor trailer in the tunnel.  We have done over 20 cruises out of Miami and have NEVER experienced the nightmare that was on that weekend.

 

Agree with both of you.  We have cruised from Miami multiple times but this was a classic cluster.  They literally only had one lane open on the bridge from downtown.  We were the next car in line when they closed an entrance to the port, which led to us having to circle the port, go from five lanes, down to three lanes, back up to four of five, etc.  The port itself was a madhouse, not just the expected traffic from downtown to the port.  I really don't know what they were thinking, or if the Port of Miami has just gotten ahead of itself in adding these new ships.  I think it is time for the Port and the cruise lines to figure out a way to move these staggering number of passengers to and from what, eight cruise ships, in a matter of hours.  I am convinced the cruisers who we saw walking from downtown to the port were on the ship at least an hour before we were.  

[d-lite-n-cruisin]

3 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

Great start to your review! We'll be on her on the 16th.😎

Cruising Again?!?!?!?  LMAO 

Just kidding.  That is awesome.  See you on the Venezia in September, Jeff!

 

Dan

[d-lite-n-cruisin]

Great start to the review.  I do not envy you on the long drive but understand why the decision was made.  Can't wait to hear more!  

[Astromaid]

So we left early Friday the 24th, figured we would do a 12 hour drive and tried a different route. Took I69 down to Indianapolis to I65, then through to Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama. Planned on stopping in Montgomery Alabama for the night.  Took a detour just south of Indianapolis to avoid a traffic jam on I65, not too bad. But then got the news on GPS that I65 was closed for an accident just north of Louisville. Scrambled to find a way around and so did everyone else, what a mess. Got back on I65 at Louisville, smooth through Kentucky and Tennessee and then hit Alabama. Traffic was awful, slowdowns and stops for no reason we could see, very frustrating. It took us 15 hours to get to Montgomery because of all the delays. Got up early Saturday and headed for Orlando. Hit a bad rainstorm before sunrise, that slowed us down. And just before Orlando had another huge traffic jam, got off the highway again and putted along. Finally got to Orlando about 2:15, decided to stop at Harry P Leu Botanical Garden for a bit, 85 degrees and sunshine was a treat for us from cold Michigan. Stayed in a Holiday Inn Express, and had dinner at Bonefish Grill, very nice. 

[Astromaid]

Embarkation day March 25th: My husband spent a lot of time studying the routes into the port and the road closures that would be in place. We even watched videos on driving to the port and what parking garage to use for Celebration. I can't imagine driving into this situation without an idea of where to go because we felt the signage at port was very poor. We took off from Orlando at  5:30 am, the traffic wasn't a problem most of the way. We had decided to use the tunnel to get to the port and where coming down I95.  As we came into Miami, we started seeing signs saying the tunnel to the port was closed. I understand now after reading happytobehr that there had been an accident in the tunnel. After a couple signs stating the tunnel was closed we made adjustments to get on Biscayne Blvd to get to the bridge. And our travel became slower and slower. It was very confusing when we got to the turnoff to the port, luckily we got into the correct lane but it was bumper to bumper and you could walk faster than we were moving. We could not believe when we had to merge into one lane on the bridge because of construction. Traffic was horrible when we got into port. My husband had planned on dropping me off with the luggage and then parking. With four or five lanes of traffic barely moving, I said no way was he going to be able to get all the way to the right to drop me off and then get all the way to the left to get into the correct lane to go to the parking garage. The video came in handy as we knew we had to go to the backside of the parking garage to get into it. We made it into the terminal about 10:30. Even though our arrival time was 11:30 to 12:00, they still waved us into the building to check in. I was not surprised to see that it was not very crowded. They started calling groups to board about 11:00 and we boarded about 20 minutes later. I am sure that anyone arriving much later than us would have been stuck in traffic for a long time. I overheard one person later saying that it took her 4 hours to travel 5 miles. We immediately went to our muster station and got that out of the way and headed to deck 8 to Guy's Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que. I have learned early on that you never want to go to lido deck on embarkation day. We walked right up and got our lunch, and we enjoyed the food there. Shortly there after we were able to get into our cabin. The handicap cabin we were in is 1 1/2 larger than a normal balcony cabin, but there is no couch or chair in there. I assume so that one has plenty of room to get around in a wheelchair. And to get on the balcony you have to press a button, that slowly opens the door and when open a small ramp falls down so one can get out there with a wheelchair. We did trip over the ramp a few times going out before the door was fully open. And them you have to press the button to close everything up. The bathroom again is much larger than the normal ones, which was nice other than the shower had the dreaded shower curtain rather than a door. And there was a drain the length of the shower to catch the water, but there was a gap on the side so we always had to put a towel down so it didn't flood towards the sink. And you couldn't open the door to get out of the cabin, you have to press a button and it slowly opens. And then after a length of time will slowly close. Which means we stand there waiting as we did not feel comfortable walking away with the door open. The extra space was nice, but with the inconveniences I would prefer a regular balcony cabin. What I also found out later, I would have been miserable in an inside cabin. Because I would not be able to find a quiet area to sit, I spent a lot of time on our balcony, more on that later.  Then we started exploring. We checked out the Serenity deck, I usually enjoy hanging out there but as stated in many other reviews, it is very windy. Of course no beds were available by then, so we sat on one of the couches and discovered that they are very uncomfortable. I am 5'4" and when I sat the back of the couch was probably 8" away which meant I had to slump to get my back up against it. I could have put my feet on the table to get comfortable or curl my legs up in the seat, but both options are gross. This would be a continuing problem with most of the seating in the pool areas and on decks unless one sits in a chair at a table. I also do not like lounge chairs unless I can get a pillow for my back. We sat for a bit and decided to see if we could get into Pier 19 and check that out. Not that  we could afford a cabana. No one was at the desk so we went in. The cabanas were really nice, but for $1750.00 (on sale) not an option. At this point we found our luggage in the cabin, unpacked and changed for dinner. Now one of the main attractions to Celebration was all the dining options. In the past we usually ate early dining in the main dining room. In March of 2022 we were on the Vista and in June of 2022 we were on the Pride to Norway. We were disappointed with the quality of the food and service in the main dining room, especially on the Pride it was simply awful. So on the Celebration we chose any time dining so we could make reservations at the alternate dining areas. And we like an early dinner, so in most situations the reservations could be done 15 minutes prior to the restaurant opening, which we did and we were usually seated when they opened. Others have complained about service at these restaurants, especially at ChiBang,  we had no issues at all. In fact we did ChiBang this night and were very happy with service and food. We got three appetizers to share, pot stickers, spring rolls and lettuce wraps. We thought they were all very tasty. I got Singapore Chili Shrimp which was on the spicy side but still good. My husband got the beef and broccoli which ended up being his favorite meal of the cruise. He got crema Catalona (excellent) I got Chocolate C-band, which was good. After dinner we went to Golden Jubilee to listen to Sky Breeze, a violin trio from Ukraine. They are AMAZING! They play a wide variety of music and we listened to them many times during the cruise. I also really liked Golden Jubilee, a much more intimate setting for music than Latitudes. We then went to the Punchliner Comedy to listen to Lowell Sanders (great). Then the Welcome aboard show with the cruise director, Chris the Flying Scotsman. Super good CD. Then on to Limelight Lounge for comedy with Doug Williams (great). And since we are not night owls, back to the cabin we went. At home, I typically get up around 5:30 and go to bed around 9:30. My husband is much more flexible with his times. On ship I stayed up late (for me) and slept in. One day sleeping until seven, which I haven't done in years. 

[luvs2beachit]

Loving you review! Thanks for taking the time to do it.

[tradewinds traveler]

Thank you for taking us a long. Great start.

[mlshum]

Thanks so much for doing this review!  I’m looking forward to it as we are on Celebration this fall.

[lazydayz]

Loving your take on this cruise.  We also enjoyed ChiBang. Did you revisit it for lunch? 

[edspec]

Great review, looking forward to the rest. Thank-you.

What did you think of the Pride? I’m also a fan of quiet places and would like to book the Pride for the itineraries.

Edited April 6, 2023 by edspec

[Momma1980]

Thanks for posting! 
I am enjoying this review. 

[Momma1980]

6 hours ago, edspec said:

Great review, looking forward to the rest. Thank-you.

What did you think of the Pride? I’m also a fan of quiet places and would like to book the Pride for the itineraries.

The Spirit class ships have the most unique and very private little spaces. Go all the way forward on deck 3. There is an interior promenade. Never anyone there. There are little tables and windows to look out!  I have always been one of the only people in this area anytime I go. Check it out! 

[jolyroger]

Enjoying this review, we'll be sailing on the Celebration this Sunday!

[Astromaid]

8 hours ago, edspec said:

Great review, looking forward to the rest. Thank-you.

What did you think of the Pride? I’m also a fan of quiet places and would like to book the Pride for the itineraries.

Pride was our first Carnival cruise in 2009 and we loved it. So we were looking forward our cruise on her last year. The cruise itself was our favorite, loved Norway. I was very disappointed in the food. The main dining room had problems with food quality and service. It sometimes took 2 hours to complete the meal, we were a table of six and courses came out at different times, missing appetizers, lack of water, wine showed up late, a sausage penne dish had one piece of sausage, short ribs inedible. Lido deck was not much better, most of the time at lunch two of the stations remained closed the entire time. So there were limited choices. One station would be listed as comfort food, to me comfort food would be fried or baked chicken, meatlloaf, beef stew, but it had courses I did not recognize. Yes it was in Europe and I was looking for American food, but a great majority of the passengers were American. Now there is a good chance the problems were because of being short staffed as this seemed to be a consistent issue over all the lines at the time. With Celebration I never felt they were short staffed anywhere but we never tried the main dining room so it is not a fair comparison. The entertainment was good on Pride and we like the size of the ship, Be sure to check out sunset garden. I probably would not sail on that class of ship unless it was an itinerary I wanted. (Spoiler alert) And I will say that Celebration has has raised the bar of my expectations in the future.

[edspec]

 

Thank-you @Astromaid and @Momma1980

[Astromaid]

Forgot to mention, after lunch we had our first alcohol. My husband really likes craft beers and he likes what he can get on Carnival. I ordered Fun Ship, first time I had it and I liked it. What I didn't like was these two drinks cost $25.00. Ouch. As we did not have much on board credit, at that point I decided to stick with the soda I brought and not buy alcohol very often. 

 

Sea day, Monday March 27th: I love sea days. We had breakfast burritos at Blue Iguana, they didn't open until 8:00, so we sat for a bit waiting. The line was never very long even when they first opened. Then we headed to Serenity and were early enough to snag a bed. I stay in the shade, I had skin cancer a year ago so I avoid sunlight at all costs. And it is very windy, so I got a towel to wrap up in to try and keep warm. I was content and stayed all morning, my husband wandered the ship which is one of his favorite things to do. I had five books on my kindle, so I was all set. Honestly, I only finished one and a half, so I did not spend as much time reading as I thought I might. When lunch time rolled around, I did not leave my towel to reserve the bed. I think this is a very rude practice and we saw a lot of it. We decided to try Sea Dogs,  My husband, Dave, had the Italian and I had the Andouille, we were both pleased. I also got Philly cheese steak fries at Street Eats, they were good. He got something else but I honestly cannot remember. Every day we hit the gelato, excellent. I did miss the the dessert station we have had on other ships. the Gelato station always had three other dessert choices which were very good. And right across from it was another small dessert station that would have plates of bite sized desserts and cookies. I had really thought I would like patio pool off Summer Landing. I never hang out at the lido deck pool, too loud and too noisy. First the chairs at the patio pool were uncomfortable, which will be a consistent fault throughout the ship. And being spring break, the pool and the hot tubs were full of kids. I mean full. Throughout the cruise I was amazed at how many kids could fit in the hot tubs. Practically no room for drunks, LOL!  So we rarely  spent any time at the patio pool. I had pre paid to partake in It's an Ice Cream Kinda Day at the Kitchen. I was horrified to find it was held the same time as Bingo. We love Bingo, and have often won some sort of prize when we have played it. I tried hard to convince Dave to participate without me (one time I played by myself and won $500.00). But he didn't want to. And I really wanted to try the class at the kitchen. The first thing I wasn't enthused about was that there are two to a station, so if you did not bring a partner you are paired with a stranger. I lucked out as one was a family of three and they wanted to cook together, so I ended up alone. Only one can actually do the cooking so you would need to trade off. The first thing the chef did was to make ice cream, by himself, we did nothing (other then have a bite of it at the end of the class). We then mixed the batter to make a waffle cone, but another assistant cooked the cones. We then made crepe batter and we actually made the crepes. And we made bananas foster to go on the crepes. But were not allowed to eat them until after the class was finished. I think they would be better warm, the caramel had seized up on mine by the time I ate them. Then we had bananas, strawberries, blueberries and pineapple which we pureed in a machine to make sorbet and put in the waffle cone we made. Then were allowed to eat what we produced and we received a carnival spatula. Would I do the class again? No, unless I took my grandchildren to a class. We then went to the Grand Spectrum, I have really mixed feelings about this area. It is on three levels with assorted seating and as others have mentioned, a lot of the seating will not give you a good view of the productions. They have rehearsals here during the day, and they were rehearsing Celestial Strings, the violin trio I was so enamored of where part of the production so I knew we needed to see this show. We checked out locations with the best view to have in mind where we wanted to sit. There was a matinee comedy with Doug Williams which we attended. We really like comedy and were thrilled with all the options offered, too many to attend them all. We then went to the cabin to get ready for dinner. The nice thing about the optional dining, it's casual, Dave just changed his shirt, he always wore short (not blue jean). I have numerous pretty outfits I wear for cruising, so I would be a bit dressy, which is fun for me. Again we made a reservation Cucina Del Capitano as soon as it opened and were seated immediately. By the way, we use the hub app a lot and love it, we had no issues and we also had the chat and had no issues with that either. We really enjoy looking at the menus and making a reservation using it. So easy. We both had Nonnas Meat Balls (don't know why it is plural as you only get one). And they were very tasty, I also ordered the shrimp cocktail. I had the short ribs (fantastic), crispy potatoes (fantastic), and Lemon frozen torte (ok). Dave have veal marsala (good), roasted broccoli and cauliflower (very good), and the Apple Crostata (too much crust). And then we headed to the grand spectrum and got a table for two on deck 7 right against the wall. Two hours before production. Yup, two hours we sat there before the show. The seating right at stage on deck 6 was cordoned off and was opened up one hour before production. You cannot move any tables or chairs as the show is partly done down there and the dancers need everything left exactly where it is. This show is the best show I have ever seen, costumes, dancing, music all fantastic. I almost cried during parts because it moved me so much. The singers were the best I have ever heard, it was simply amazing. We then had time to catch another comedy show, Doug Williams, and then the Love and Marriage show. They actually offered two sessions of this, one during the Celestial Strings. Celebration offers so much entertainment to disperse the crowd, they have done a great job of this. In the session of Love and Marriage we saw, the newlyweds had just gotten married that day. But the best thing was that the longest married couple were newlyweds parents and parents in law. What a hoot! That was our night. 

[Jamman54]

20 hours ago, d-lite-n-cruisin said:

Cruising Again?!?!?!?  LMAO 

Just kidding.  That is awesome.  See you on the Venezia in September, Jeff!

 

Dan

Of course! 😁

 

See you in September! 😎