First Carnival Cruise thoughts.

[ellasmomanddad]

Just got off Carnival Celebration and after a rough start because of the port issue I have to say I finally felt that I didn’t get nickel and dimed for everything. I have cruises NCL Disney and Royal but never Carnival. Besides the room charge for the casino( that was a bit much but hey when in Rome) the only thing I had to pay for was the bolt. And why not when do you get to ride a coaster at sea! I had the cheers package and it included all my coffees, milk shakes, and alcohol. My wife said my attitude on the first morning was completely different with my cold brew instead of mud coffee. Granted I haven’t cruised since a cancellation because of real bitterness about the 9 month refunds on Ncl during covid, I have never had anything included on alcohol packages except alcohol. Maybe that’s the new norm across the industry but man was I happy.

 When it comes to the celebration itself there are so many options for food you have no reason to pay extra for Fahrenheit or Emeril unless you’re trying to escape the kids. Guys burgers are delicious and the food truck options are an excellent idea in my opinion. Pig and Anchor was mostly hit with 1 day an over seasoned brisket lit my but up with heat but 1 day is nothing. I didn’t even have a chance to try Chibang because there’s not enough stomach on the human body to eat that much. 
  Really my only negative comment would be the central theater is not enclosed and in-front of the sushi, stores, and other restaurants and bars as well as the casino on the 7th so dings are audible when the doors open. It’s nearly impossible to hear dialogue from the circus show. But other than that well done CCL. 

[edspec]

Love Cheers compared to NCL’s package. On NCL I always upgrade since I drink a lot of waters and coffees and the included wines aren’t good.

[Honolulu Blue]

@ellasmomanddad thank you for the review.  When you say you got a room charge for the casino, I can only imagine one way that would happen - you walked up to the table games with your S&S card and charged chips directly from there.  You get dinged 3% if you do it that way.  There are two ways around it - 1) go to any slot machine first and charge the room from there and then either leave it on the account and head to the table games or go to the cashier, cash it out, and then walk it to the tables, or 2) bring cash to the tables.  

[ellasmomanddad]

41 minutes ago, Honolulu Blue said:

go to any slot machine first and charge the room

That’s all I do, and there were many of them. On the last night I also do this to grab some envelope money for room stewards, club staff, and a couple of my favorite servers throughout the week get a little extra pocket money. 
   I got pick pocketed about 10 years ago in Miami so I don’t bring more than a couple dollars and use the room charge on slots as my personal atm and pay it back to the cc company when I get home. 

[Honolulu Blue]

1 hour ago, ellasmomanddad said:

That’s all I do, and there were many of them. On the last night I also do this to grab some envelope money for room stewards, club staff, and a couple of my favorite servers throughout the week get a little extra pocket money. 
   I got pick pocketed about 10 years ago in Miami so I don’t bring more than a couple dollars and use the room charge on slots as my personal atm and pay it back to the cc company when I get home. 

Ok, it sounds like you were noting the large amount of room charges from the casino, as opposed to being charged a lot of fees for room charges from the casino. It sounds like you're doing good, so keep on keeping on. 👍

[havanadaydreaming]

my first Carnival thoughts were:  dang, this boat is big! (Breeze) 

 

and the rooms, while small, were more than sufficient.   i had dreaded cabin fever beforehand.  

 

third -  DRANKS! 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

Thanks for the post cruise thoughts.  Our very first Carnival cruise was on the original Celebration.  We thought she was huge (36000 tons).  Our most recent was the new Celebration and LOVED it.

 

 

[momof3cruisers]

So glad you had a good time. It’s always nice when something new turns out well! 
 

It has always baffled me that NCL doesn’t include specialty coffees in the drink package.