Not So Much A Celebration Cruise (September 3-9)

[Lee Cruiser]

While we had a decent time, this certainly was not one of our favorite cruises.  In over 20 cruises it would rank in the bottom two or three.  This is definitely the most negative things we’ve written about any of our cruises.  This would also be the first time we could remember coming back from a cruise and not thinking about our next cruise or booking another cruise.

 

Dislikes:  (While there were a lot of things we didn't like on this cruise, here are the main ones)

 

1.      There seemed to be a good amount of disorganization on this cruise.  Here are a few examples:

 

On embarkation day we were in the Captain’s Lounge.  On Celebration, they really don’t go by the zone number listed on your boarding pass.  They give you a zone letter based on what priority group you are in (Diamond, Suite, and then Platinum) and when you arrive.  For us, our boarding pass said A1, but we were given the Priority K boarding placard.  This wasn’t really a big deal because it would seem to make things go smoother instead of having everyone heading to the line at the same time.  The problem is that they didn’t do a good job of explaining it.  Though we pretty much figured it out and understood it, some others didn’t get it.  We were talking to some folks near us while waiting.  They also had Priority K.  However, when they called A, they went on up because their boarding pass was A1.  They essentially went with the diamonds, as diamonds had Priority A and B placards.

 

Another problem with embarkation was that they let FTTF go before the other priority groups were finished even though they stated up front that the order of boarding would be Diamond, Suite Guests, Platinum and then FTTF.  When it was our time to go, we were headed up the escalator towards the gangway.  As we got to the main hallway right outside the gangway, there was a long line of people coming up the hallway.  We didn’t know what was going on so several of us just merged into the line and kept going.  You would have thought we had just slapped people in the face or committed robbery as we were called lots of names.  My wife and I just pulled aside and let the most vocal ones go on by us.  As they passed we saw the FTTF on their boarding passes, so all of these folks were coming from the main waiting area.  FTTF was actually going before many platinum as there were many groups still behind us.  This confusion was completely cause by Carnival.  The wasn’t simply a miscommunication either because as we were headed up we heard them announce on someone’s radio to go ahead and send the next three groups from each side.  While we didn’t know what that meant at the time, we figured it out pretty quick after we realized what was going on.

 

At some ports getting back on the ship took way too long.  At Roatan we were going back to the ship around noon.  They were sending all of us to the far gangway to go back on.  There was two lines to go on at that gangway, but it was taking a long time with everyone standing out in the sun.  A Carnival employee then sent people from the back of the line up to a third line, which sent them in front of many who had been waiting a while.  As we got inside the ship, we noticed quickly why it was taking so long.  They only had one security agent scanning everyone back on the ship.  All three of these lines were merging together creating a huge bottleneck.

 

We ate in the YTD room three nights during this cruise. If you checked in and went as soon as the dining room opened, there was a line each night.  You were able to check in 20 minutes before opening time and you received a table ready notification in about 10 minutes even though the dining room was not open yet.  There would be a line waiting each night, but people would still push their way to the front because they had a table ready notification.  On other cruises they would announce this frequently to let folks coming up know what was going on.  But they didn’t do that much on this ship.  When people would get to the front of the line they would tell them, but many of these folks just stayed up front instead of getting in the line.  While it didn’t really bother most people, some did not appreciate it and let them know.  On one night a lady was making her way to the front and she basically pushed the guy behind us out of the way and said our table is already ready.  We thought they were going to fight.  As we were heading in to our table another guy was cussing out the hostess inside at the desk.  He was extremely ugly to her over this issue.

 

2.      The entertainment on this cruise was not very good.  After being on Mardi Gras we were looking forward to the Center Stage shows and the PG Comedy shows.  On Mardi Gras there were numerous PG comedy shows, with shows every day.  On Celebration, there were two nights with no PG shows and on the days when there were shows, they were the same show repeated throughout the day.  There were only four unique PG shows.  On Mardi Gras there were six comedians and all had PG shows, with some doing more than one unique shows.

The Center Stage shows weren’t that good.  The Magnificent Circus show about put us to sleep in the first 20 minutes.  They should have left that part off and it would have been a little better.  We would not have stayed for the whole show if we were not down on the floor where it would have been distracting to leave, although there were some who didn’t let that stop them.  The best night of entertainment was the Family Feud show in the main theater.  The rock band was not that impressive either.  We only listened to them once.  Other than Family Feud, the best entertainment was provided by the soloists, Owen Stephen and Scott Lucille who were at the Latitudes Bar and Golden Jubilee throughout the week.  We were thankful for them.

 

3.      The amount of rudeness and rowdiness on this cruise.  While this wasn’t at any stretch the majority of people, there was enough to make us feel uncomfortable and really unsafe at times.  There were people who didn’t mind cursing at others, including older children and teens.  There were those who would basically push others out of the way to get where they wanted to go, without any regard for others.  This happened frequently.  We came close to seeing people fight on a couple of occasions.  While this is not really Carnival’s fault, they could do more to help prevent this.  Though security was more visible on this cruise than some previous cruises, it wasn’t enough.  It’s pretty obvious that Carnival needs more security staff, especially on these larger ships.

 

4.      Elevators:  (While I would prefer to take the stairs most of the time, my wife cannot physical take the stairs for more than one flight or so.)  The mid-ship elevators aren’t nearly large enough.  They always seemed to be packed.  They had 8 in that area, but it probably would have been better to split these off into two banks as having 8 together caused other problems.  As usual, lots of people had no elevator etiquette.  When we approach elevators, we typically wait on those who were already waiting before us.  However, many people could care less that people had been waiting for some time.  They would walk right up and jump right on elevators in front of others who had been waiting.  Much of the time not even giving people getting off the elevator time to get off before pushing their way in.  Having 8 elevators together really doesn’t help.  If you wait in the middle for elevators to arrive and the one that arrives is on the end, those that just walked up get on those regardless of who was there waiting.  One night my wife and I were already on the elevator when it arrived at this floor and it was already full, I was just about knocked down by a lady who was determined to make room on the elevator.

 

Likes:

1.      Our Extended Balcony Cabin on the side of the ship.  This was a great balcony with a lounger, two regular chairs and a table.  We spent lots of time, especially the two sea days, out on our balcony enjoying some peace and quiet.

2.      Muster Drill.  Obviously still much better than pre-covid.

3.      Premium Internet was very good.  We were able to stream Braves games on the Bally sports app throughout the cruise.

4.      Debarkation (See more below)

 

Dining:

 

Pig and Anchor:

We ate at Pig and Anchor two nights.  This was better food than our previous experience on Mardi Gras.  The first night the service and food was really good.  However, when we went again on Friday night, the service was horrible.  We were there nearly two hours.  There were several people getting up and going to get their own water refills.

 

Cucina Del Capitano:

We went there for dinner on the first elegant night and then again for lunch one day.  The service and food for dinner was really good.  Though the food was good at lunch, the service was not very good.  We had to wait about 15 minutes before anyone ever came to our table and it was hard to get water refills.

 

ChiBang:

We did not go to ChiBang on this cruise as we are really not big fans.

 

Main Dining Room:

We ate in the main dining room three nights.  Service was good each night.  We were able to be in and out in around an hour, except for the second elegant night.  We didn’t order dessert as we have never really been wild about the main dining room dessert options.  We never had a wait for a table as we went as soon as the dining room opened each night.  The only waiting we did was for the dining room to open.  Just a side note:  the dining room opened 30 minutes early (5:00) on the elegant nights.  Food was normal Carnival food, though it was really that great.  One thing we didn’t like about the dining room was that, like many other ships, tables for two were sitting right beside each other.  They really weren’t tables for two at all, more like tables for four and six.

 

 

Debarkation:

Debarkation went pretty smooth for us, though we did not bother with elevators. We did checked luggage and had zone 3 priority tags delivered to our room with the letter.  The priority letter had self-assist meeting time at 7:30 and the priority checked luggage meeting time at 8.  Because of prior experience, we went on down to the waiting area shortly after 7. They dismissed priority self-assist at 7:20 and called zones 1-4 checked luggage at 7:30.  After collecting our luggage and going through facial recognition, we were outside waiting on our pre-scheduled Lyft to arrive at 8, although he arrived five minutes or so early.  Our flight was 11 am out of FLL.  We were through security at the airport and waiting at our departure gate at 8:45.

 

 

Again, we had a decent time and were able to relax.  However, this made us rethink our future cruising.  We’ve been on over 20 Carnival cruises, but we will probably look at trying other lines.  We had already been considering cancelling our November cruise because it would be the most expensive five day cruise that we’ve ever done.  This cruise made that decision for us. We cancelled that cruise earlier this week before the final payment date.  We will take another trip instead of a cruise.

[TravelE]

Thanks for sharing your review. It sounds like the worst parts of the cruise was the fellow passengers and staff communication!

[TravelGirlinDallas]

@MeganGC1983 had the same experience on this cruise in her review. I wonder if there was just a bad mix of pax on this cruise or if it is typical for this ship and/or homeport?

[Lee Cruiser]

4 minutes ago, TravelGirlinDallas said:

I wonder if there was just a bad mix of pax on this cruise or if it is typical for this ship and/or homeport?

Not really sure.  This was the first time on this ship.  We were on Sunrise out of Miami in September 2021 and didn't have any problems.  Of course that was right after cruising started back, so everyone on there was probably just glad to be cruising again.

[mz-s]

48 minutes ago, TravelGirlinDallas said:

@MeganGC1983 had the same experience on this cruise in her review. I wonder if there was just a bad mix of pax on this cruise or if it is typical for this ship and/or homeport?

 

I think it's society in general right now.

[pe4all]

Thank you for the very detailed review.  You gave fair and honest observations and opinions.  We are veering away from the "larger" ships, Magic being the largest we will be going on from now on.  We even found Horizon to be "too big" for us passenger-wise, even with having access to the Havana area on her.

As for behavior of passengers - there are too many who think they are "entitled" to do/act/behave the way they want to at the expense of others.  Seems to be worse since cruising resumed, imho.

 

[Lee Cruiser]

18 minutes ago, pe4all said:

We are veering away from the "larger" ships, Magic being the largest we will be going on from now on.

My wife feels the same way.  I like the food options on the Excel class ships and the comedy options on Mardi Gras (though that may have changed now), but the overall experience just wasn't as good on this one.  We are booked next April on Jubilee.  It was a pre-build special offer that included a good price and quite a bit of onboard credit.  We will have to decide by January if we want to keep that one or not.

[Butterbean1000]

I haven't cruised since Covid canceled our March 2020 cruise.  Our next cruise is scheduled out of Miami May 2024 on the Magic.  We've been cruising on Carnival since 2008 and have never run across such rude behaviour.  You hear a lot of this going on lately.  What has happened to people?  Is it that Carnival is laxed in controling unruley passengers or have people just gone crazy.  To say I am not concerned would be a lie.  What can we do as loyal Carnival passgengers?  We have always had a good vacation with Carnival at a reasonable price.

Edited September 13, 2023 by Butterbean1000

[Knights on the Beach]

Thank you for posting. We'll be on Celebration in December and I really hope we don't have such rude people cruising with us. It's been many years since we've gone out of Miami and I'm not looking forward to that aspect of it either.

[kctwinmommy]

We found some similar issues on our last cruise back in November of last year. Yes, it was a 5 night cruise, so not a total "booze cruise," but definitely different than the 7-8 night ones we normally do. And like you, some of the behavior is what we didn't care for. And like you said, it's not that it's Carnival's "fault," but they're not really enforcing rules that are set in place. It's why we're trying something extremely different for our next one.

 

I also agree with @mz-s - society in general has become so much more disrespectful it seems. Not trying to generalize it, but we do see it more and more in various places.

[Butterbean1000]

1 minute ago, kctwinmommy said:

We found some similar issues on our last cruise back in November of last year. Yes, it was a 5 night cruise, so not a total "booze cruise," but definitely different than the 7-8 night ones we normally do. And like you, some of the behavior is what we didn't care for. And like you said, it's not that it's Carnival's "fault," but they're not really enforcing rules that are set in place. It's why we're trying something extremely different for our next one.

 

I also agree with @mz-s - society in general has become so much more disrespectful it seems. Not trying to generalize it, but we do see it more and more in various places.

I think Carnival is going to have to get their heads out of the sand and grow pair and do something about this or they will start hemmoraging their customer base.  

[drvmywifecrzy]

Thanks for your review.  This cruise was likely the last hurrah!!! for northerners as school starts there after labor day.  Time of year does matter on cruises for sure.  Also you pack 6,000 people on a ship you much more likely to remember the not so friendly ones versus the ones you want to cruise with again

[Lee Cruiser]

4 minutes ago, drvmywifecrzy said:

Also you pack 6,000 people on a ship you much more likely to remember the not so friendly ones versus the ones you want to cruise with again

Definitely true. The majority of people were good and treated others well.

[kctwinmommy]

30 minutes ago, Butterbean1000 said:

I think Carnival is going to have to get their heads out of the sand and grow pair and do something about this or they will start hemmoraging their customer base.  

Or they'll end up getting an entirely new customer base, but it won't include us. Our last cruise reinforced that for us.

[Lee Cruiser]

6 minutes ago, drvmywifecrzy said:

This cruise was likely the last hurrah!!! for northerners as school starts there after labor day.

Wow! Schools around here have already been in session four weeks. I didn’t realize that there were still schools that started that late.

[Butterbean1000]

6 minutes ago, kctwinmommy said:

Or they'll end up getting an entirely new customer base, but it won't include us. Our last cruise reinforced that for us.

That is another possibility.  We have one more cruise booked with Carnival.  Truthfully, we have started to look at other cruise lines. 

[kctwinmommy]

32 minutes ago, Butterbean1000 said:

That is another possibility.  We have one more cruise booked with Carnival.  Truthfully, we have started to look at other cruise lines. 

Well, if you look at my signature, then you'll see where our next one is! LOL! We're going WAY different from Carnival. But I know that's not for everyone. And it's a big cruise, not a cheap one either. We're doing this as a celebration too (retirement for hubby, 50th birthday for me).

[pc_load_letter]

1 hour ago, Butterbean1000 said:

 they will start hemmoraging their customer base.  

 

Therein lies the problem. Their customer base is not those of us on here, or repeat cruisers for that matter.

 

They want blue cards, the more the merrier!

Edited September 13, 2023 by pc_load_letter

[Lee Cruiser]

4 minutes ago, pc_load_letter said:

 

Therein lies the problem. Their customer base is not those of us on here, or repeat cruisers for that matter.

 

They want blue cards, the more the merrier!

That's exactly right.  It doesn't bother them that we've cancelled our November cruise.  That ship was nearly completely full anyway.  They will not miss us at all.   I know a family that is cruising Carnival right now for the first time.  It appears that they are spending a lot of money on pictures, drinks and who knows what else.

[ninjacat123]

My mom's bday cruise on Sunshine May 8-13 was great but I have to say, the grown, older woman at the Alchemy Bar yelling out "motherf....." sporadically while I was waiting to order drinks was very memorable.  And then when she perched her feet on the bar stool next to her, yeesh!

Lots of great, positive memories of that cruise but all it takes is one bad apple.

[mz-s]

1 hour ago, kctwinmommy said:

Or they'll end up getting an entirely new customer base, but it won't include us. Our last cruise reinforced that for us.

 

The issue that places like Myrtle Beach are starting to experience.

[clskinsfan]

1 hour ago, Butterbean1000 said:

That is another possibility.  We have one more cruise booked with Carnival.  Truthfully, we have started to look at other cruise lines. 

We are coming back to Carnival next week out of Norfolk to Bermuda. Have cruised just about all of the lines at this point. And behaviour is down on all of them. It seems to be an issue with society right now IMO. This will most likely be our last cruise after cruising multiple times per year for 19 years. We have never been to Bermuda and wanted to experience it before we end cruising. We feel like cruising itself has passed us by. It used to be a fantastic vacation. Lately I have left more stressed than when I got on the ship. The food has gone downhill dramatically on all lines as well. There just isnt the value in cruising that there used to be. 

[mz-s]

9 minutes ago, clskinsfan said:

We are coming back to Carnival next week out of Norfolk to Bermuda. Have cruised just about all of the lines at this point. And behaviour is down on all of them. It seems to be an issue with society right now IMO. This will most likely be our last cruise after cruising multiple times per year for 19 years. We have never been to Bermuda and wanted to experience it before we end cruising. We feel like cruising itself has passed us by. It used to be a fantastic vacation. Lately I have left more stressed than when I got on the ship. The food has gone downhill dramatically on all lines as well. There just isnt the value in cruising that there used to be. 

 

Just got back from a Norfolk cruise on the Magic - the cruise that was right after mine was supposed to go to Bermuda but was rerouted due to the current hurricane. Hopefully yours sails as expected! Bermuda is getting pummeled this year so far. It is a very special place and unlike any other cruise destination.

[Etta1213]

1 hour ago, ninjacat123 said:

My mom's bday cruise on Sunshine May 8-13 was great but I have to say, the grown, older woman at the Alchemy Bar yelling out "motherf....." sporadically while I was waiting to order drinks was very memorable.  And then when she perched her feet on the bar stool next to her, yeesh!

Lots of great, positive memories of that cruise but all it takes is one bad apple.

Do you think the crass female was drunk, desperate for attention, or both?

[ninjacat123]

2 minutes ago, Etta1213 said:

Do you think the crass female was drunk, desperate for attention, or both?

Both.  I hadn't said anything, just waiting to order drinks and she turned to me and said "sorry".  I said "what for" with a smile.  She said "the karaoke song is way too slow".  Uh-huh, you are jonesing for attention, my drunk cruise friend.  Takes all kinds.