Galveston/Celebration

[Cajun Cruiser]

Any thoughts on the Celebration Cruises? I've been on a couple of other Carnival cruises before, but just curious about this one.

 

Get Me Outa Here!

[sha308]

Just a few words here this was my first cruise but we loved it,were on the 5 day had an ocean view cabin, staff was excellant,we loved it so much that we are going in Dec. again,any specific questions? Just email me at Scol300102@aol.com or ask here have a great time !!!!!!

[nascarcruiser]

Two words about this cruise... DO IT! We have twice and loved it. Sorry to see they are moving the celebraion out of galveston.

[Birms38]

My DH and I have cruised this ship twice before and loved it both times. I think we enjoyed it more the second because we knew the ship layout. We are now going to try the Elation so we can see what a 7 day cruise is like but we would not hesitate to do the Celebration again. I think we saw something about Carnival planning to move the Celebration sometime in the next few months or so.

 

Steph.

How Much Longer Do I Have To Wait?

Until we are cruzin'on the ELATION!

NCL 5/1988

Celebration 5/2001

Celebration 9/13/2003

Elation 9/26/04

[ginag]

Give the Celebration a try! We were on her in December and had a fabulous time! The whole staff is outstanding and the ship is in tip-top shape. All the meals were scrumptous,plus the waiters entertain you...don't miss this!

 

I think Galveston is a beautiful city and the terminal is so easy to get around in...can't wait to go back! Enjoy!

 

 

~gina~

 

11/20 Ecstasy cruise

[oldvato]

I think we saw something about Carnival planning to move the Celebration sometime in the next few months or so.

 

I understand the Celebration is being replaced by the Ecstasy. Looks like a nice ship.

 

Elation May16, 2004 Video link

http://www.imagestation.com/album/index.html?id=4286679677

Click on Index to select clip.

[texas cruise kitty]

Birms,

 

Our first cruise was on the Celebration last October, and we just got back from the Elation 2 weeks ago. You will love the Elation. It is a beautiful ship, and the service and food are outstanding. Of course we are partial, we got upgraded from a 6A to a 12 (balcony suite). My parents are already looking at sailing Elation again in October. You will have a great time!!!

 

 Elation 5-23-04

 

[DreadPirateRobert]

Did the Celebration once. I think we are going again in Sept. IMHO don't do the 4 day trip. Day and a half down there, day and a half back. Only one day in port. I've done both and the 5 day is so much more fun.

 

Windjammer Fantome May 1988 ?

Elation Sept 2001

Voyager of the Seas May 2002

Celebration July 2002

Jubilee Sept 2002

Destiny June 2003

Jubilee Sept 2003

[Cajun Cruiser]

Thanks for your input

BTW Olvato, I sailed in the Ecstacy out of Florida and loved every minute of it. She's the sister ship of the Fantasy, so if you've been on one, you've been on both...really

 

Get Me Outa Here!

[christhree]

Celebration.....

 

hmmm..it was new in 1989.. Went, had a blast !!

15 years later , we repeated...AWESOME to see her again, but she is OLD. The noise, creaks, whatever kept me awake..must be a light sleeper... But never again...

 

Thankfully....it is moving on..may SHE Rest In Peace

 

READY for the next cruise !!!

 

Victory 5/2004

Celebration 7/89

Triumph 6/2001

Victory 5/2002

Triumph 5/2003

Celebration 2/2004'Noro'SURVIVOR

 

[Kenster]

Just got back from our second Celebration cruise. Last time was in 2001 before she was renovated and spruced up. She looks great! We had a wonderful time, but after two trips, we are ready for Ecstacy.

 

 

Pirateover 40 said: <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>IMHO don't do the 4 day trip. Day and a half down there, day and a half back. Only one day in port. I've done both and the 5 day is so much more fun.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

We think the four day cruise is perfect. Why go on a cruise and get upset that it takes a day and a half "to get there?" 'Getting' there' is about 99% of the fun!. If you just want to 'be there,' just fly down and skip the ship!

I could care less about the ports-of-call. I'd sign up for a four, five, or seven day cruise-no-nowhere in a heartbeat!

 

Carnival Carnivale -1988

Carnival Celebration - 2001

Carnival Celebration -June 2004

[douglinc@msn.com]

We have been on the Celebration several times and loved every minute of it. She is still my favorite ship. It is definately not time for her to "Rest in Peace" I really hate to see her leave Galveston.

Happy Cruising

Doug

 

Doug & Pat

Wichita Falls, Tex.

Celebration 11-28-97

Celebration 10-02-98

Enchanted Capri 7-23-99

Enchanted Capri 3-12-00

Celebration 11-11-00

Inspiration 9-09-01

Celebration 4-13-02

Rhapsody of the Seas 9-15-02

Splendour of the Seas 4-7-03

Elation 10-5-03

Rhapsody of the Seas 1-04-04

Elation 2-29-04

[ginag]

I agree with Doug...nicely put!!

 

 

~gina~

 

11/20 Ecstasy cruise

[DonBurns]

I'll just add my 2 cents worth. We took our first ever cruise on the Celebration in March 2001. Had a great time! I have nothing to compare her to but I loved the ship. Now, a few years later, we are going on the Esctacy. I am happy for a chance to go on a different ship. By the way, I don't know what constitutes 'old' in a ship. They called the Celebration old... builtin '85 I think. Now I read that the Ecstacy is old,having been built in '91! What gives? I would think a ship from the '40s would be 'old'.

 

Don Burns

Celebration 3/23/2001

Ecstacy 11/1/2004

 

Sailing on Ecstacy 

[Janel]

But 1st - Don - I've wondered about the "old" ship thing, too. Are you aware the African Queen is still afloat at a dock in Key Largo? So, I'm not too worried.

The questions:

I have a bunch - If you take a three pronged surge protector thing for extra outlets, can you plug it in? I sorta know about grounding a saliboat, but thought I'd better ask - are the ship's plugs grounded?

Is there a little safe in each room? Are there telephones? Hair dryers? Robes?

How about beach towels you can take on shore?

Can you get to an ice machine or do you have to ask the steward for it? How do the people who take their own drinks keep them cold?

How's the room service coffee?

Do you have to fight old people for deck chairs? We will have some old people if we have to use them. (I have time before the trip to hold off on the hair color.)

We'll also have young people - youngest is my nephew at 19 - can he win money in the casino?

How's the room temp in the cabins? Do we need to bring sweats to sleep in?

That's about it for the moment.

Thanks to all who can help.

Janel

p.s. Hi Cajun - I lived in Ned & PA a dozen yrs. How's PNG's team look this year?

[gonetomaui99]

Been on the 4 and the 5 day cruises. Loved them both, but as the pirate said do the 5 day. Hardly any more money and so much more cruise!!

[changinlat]

I have a bunch - If you take a three pronged surge protector thing for extra outlets, can you plug it in? I sorta know about grounding a saliboat, but thought I'd better ask - are the ship's plugs grounded?

Yes, three prong grounded plugs work on the celebration.

 

Is there a little safe in each room? Are there telephones? Hair dryers? Robes? How about beach towels you can take on shore?

There is a safe in the room. I think it is the standard type that you put your own 4-digit code in to lock it each time. There are telephones in the cabin. I think there was a hair dryer, but if you have long hair that requires significant drying time, you will be much happier taking your own hair dryer. We were in an inside cabin (4C) and were not provided robes. The room steward will provide you fresh beach towels each night.

 

Can you get to an ice machine or do you have to ask the steward for it? How do the people who take their own drinks keep them cold?

I don't remember seeing an ice machine. We took our own drinks and kept them cold in the ice bucket. The room steward brought an extra for us.

 

How's the room service coffee?

Sorry, didn't have any. Anyone else?

 

Do you have to fight old people for deck chairs? We will have some old people if we have to use them. (I have time before the trip to hold off on the hair color.)

We'll also have young people - youngest is my nephew at 19 - can he win money in the casino?

We had no problem getting deck chairs on our four day. Of course we sailed her in September, so school was in session. Not sure how full the ship was. I think 18 years is the gambling age, but not certain about that. Anyone else?

 

How's the room temp in the cabins? Do we need to bring sweats to sleep in?

You might want to bring parkas to sleep in. We came close to freezing to death... and I like the cold. The A/C was broken (in the on position) in our cabin, and even a visit from maintenance didn't warm the place up.

 

Even though it was short, the Celebration was one of our favorite cruises, and hands down, was our favorite Carnival ship. I wrote a brief review of the trip. It was posted here on CC prior to the new boards. You can still read it on my website. The link in my signature should take you there. If not, email me. Feel free to email with any other questions as well. Have a great time!

[hilltopfamily]

Hey there! Changinglat did a great job of answering your ??'s but I can add just a little.

 

Pool chairs: we went in March over spring break & did have trouble getting chairs during "prime" laying out time but as we all know, spring break is a busy time to cruise!

 

Coffee: I got it once from room service & it was great, got it several more times from up in the Wheelhouse self-service drink area & again was fine (I'm a 24 hour a day coffee drinker!)

 

Hair Dryers: Nope, they don't have them. But yep, they do have safes and provide beach towels daily (but don't lose one or you're charged a hefty amount--$22 I seem to recall!) Nope to the robes for us but then we had 2 inside 4C's also.

 

No ice machine, we just had to ask a few times for ice from our room steward. I had a soft-sided beverage cooler packed that I opened up and kept bottled water & 2 bottles of wine in.

 

Gambling: Don't know if your nephew can win in the casino--I know we sure never did :p ! And believe me, we tried a few times!! But seriously, not sure of age requirement.

 

We had a great time on this ship and found the size to be perfect for easily getting around, with plenty of things to do, great food, fabulous service, and a great itinerary on the 5-day (we even enjoyed Calica --we went to Tulum). I think you'd have a great cruise on the Celebration. Happy sails!

[Janel]

Changinlat and Hilltop family - Thank you so much. And Changinlat - I read your review - great! - and bookmarked it to send to the rest of the group.

If I may - a couple more ??: I'm a big fan of breakfast - my favorite meal. On one ship I found out on almost the last day that there was an omelette station on the other side of the buffet. Any hope of one on Celebration? And, by chance, Eggs Benedict in the DR? After I've had breakfast, they could feed me a bag of fritos the rest of the day and I wouldn't care. Since I read about the food being so great, just thought I'd check.

Oh - one other thing - and I think I may have read this somewhere but can't remember. Is the tipping automatic on your card for your room steward or do you need to set aside cash?

Sorry it took me a while to thank you. I'm crawling to the computer after work these days. There were seven in our section and after tomorrow we'll be down to two. I think they'll have to dolly my body on board and just dump it onto a deck chair.

Janel

[changinlat]

Glad you enjoyed my review of the Celebration. If you get the desire, and have a couple of days to kill, let me know what you think of the Triumph Review. It's more of a story than a review, and hopefully easy to read.

 

My fiance totally agrees with you on the breakfast thing. I can't tell you how often we have pancakes for dinner. You know, I honestly can't remember if there was on omelette station on Celebration - which is kind of strange, because I usually eat at least one omelette on a cruise.

 

(Side trip for some background. We eat in the dining room on sea days and in the buffet areas on port days. Since our only port day on the Celebration cruise was Cozumel, we only ate a light breakfast of fruit and maybe a muffin because we don't like to eat heavy before going out on the scuba diving boats. That's why I can't remember if there was an omelette station.)

 

The dining room definitely will have eggs benedict. I can't tell you how good they are, because I didn't try them, but they are definitely on the menu. Probably not available through room service though.

 

The tipping for the cabin steward, waiter and assistant waiter will be automatically added to your S&S account. You may go to the purser's desk to either add to the amount, subtract from the amount or remove them completely if you want to give them cash. We usually leave the standard amount on the card, but then also give extra cash to them if they gave us outstanding service. The Matre' D tip is not put on the S&S card and is "at your discretion".

Have a great time on your trip. Sure wish we were going with you. Let me know if you have any more questions.

[Janel]

I can't resist - I have to rib on this one. Changinlat - I started reading your Triumph Review - very well written -tho, I haven't made it far yet. But....Hmm...I can't resist quoting this one statement cause all women everywhere who read it must raise their eyebrows and go - "well, uh-huh - he's a man - okaaay":

"When Carnival says 18 inches by 18 inches for carry-on bags, they mean it. I actually thought 18 inches was a liberal estimate – which is odd, because my length estimates usually tend to be longer than actual."

I know - I'm not being nice - I could be your doting, yet ravishingly beautiful Aunt but I'm still giggling.

And - oh - maybe Margaret could be slugging down Pepto Bismal before these trips - I just found out that causes the wierd black tongue syndrome. It doesn't say so on the bottle so you really think you're dying.

I promise to make it thru the rest of the review this week. I've flown to Ft. Lauderdale twice in Dec. to cruise - so I understand the trauma of making it to the ship in Florida. It'll be nice to just struggle down the Gulf Freeway to the dock.

I did the first direct flight out of Bush, but until we were in the air, I worried.

Heck, I'm worried about our vehicles parked in Galveston during hurricane season in August. Storm surge - hail. Oh my. Does anyone know if there are shuttles from Hobby where we could park in garages?

Hilltopfamily - Thanks so much for your answers - Coffee is very important to us. We're zombies without it. And we'll really watch those high dollar beach towels.

On one web site I read there are no self serve laurdromats and on another it says there are. Does anyone remember? My nephews can get pretty stinky pretty fast. All the females in the group are of southern heritage and don't sweat of course - we just glow.

We're not divers - just snorkelers so far - wondering if we should go on the Fury boat excursion that goes to two reefs and a beach where they have kayaks, etc. or just take a taxi to S.F. beach. It looks like there's only one other ship in port with us. But I remember Cozumel as being quite small. Since it will be the hottest temp, will all the nice fish be swimming at lower depths - will it matter? After Galveston, just seeing our toes in more than one foot of water is a thrill.

Oh - are there two Carlos and Charlies now? I saw a map and don't remember it being where it is on the map.

Many years ago I spent a week in Cozumel and the local people were very conservative. Has anyone noticed this lately?

Thanks so much for everyone's help,

Janel

[hilltopfamily]

I forgot all about this thread, and not getting email notifications about postings is making it hard for me to "follow" with new questions. Sorry!

 

Omelette station: yes, in the back part of the buffet (where they do the caesar salads during the day). (BTW-they had terrific "greek" salads here one day at lunch---was soooo good). The morning we "found" this area the line moved really slowly and the omelette "chef" was really heavy-handed with the oil in the pan, so I made sure to ask for a lot less when I finally was the next in line. He did just as I requested. It was great, you got to pick from several different things to fill it with. You can also get a few sides here to go with the omelette, such as potatoes, bacon, ham, or sausage. And I believe there was fresh fruit right next to this area, so you could really almost skip the main buffet line when you enter & head to the back of the room. We never made it to the dining room for breakfast & lunch, but you should know that the Celebration is one of the few remaining ships that have set dining times for breakfast in the dining rooms vs. open times for the buffet. Since we had early dining seating, our breakfast dining time was impossible (too early!) for our family to make it to.

 

Laundry rooms: sorry I can't be certain but I think they have them? We had no need so I didn't check into this. Love your comment about "glow" rather than sweat! LOL

 

Snorkeling: we are no pros in this area, but we did our snorkeling at Chankanaab park. Had a good time there, but I've read great things on the boards about Planacar (sp?) Reef and Dzul Ha for snorkeling. When we go back in 3 weeks we're checking out Paradise Beach---looks fun & relaxing.

 

Have never gone to Carlos & Charlies (we've got little kids so not appropr) but I thought I heard it had "moved" to it's current location? Sorry not much help on this.

 

Yep, as changinglat said the tipping is auto on your S&S card. $10 per day per person, including kids, so was $250 for our family. Our service was SO extraordinary that we kept that on the cards & gave an extra $20 to each server in the dining room, $10 and a bottle of wine to cabin steward and many words of sincere thanks to them! Can't believe how attentive they all were to our whole family---our enjoyment really seemed to matter to all the staff on the ship. I've read several times that Celebration consistently has some of the highest regarded crew/servers of the line, including beating out the "new" ships. I believe it---they were just great!!!! Hope I have as great a time on the Elation. All you Celebration cruisers, ENJOY!

[changinlat]

I can't resist - I have to rib on this one. Changinlat - I started reading your Triumph Review - very well written -tho, I haven't made it far yet. But....Hmm...I can't resist quoting this one statement cause all women everywhere who read it must raise their eyebrows and go - "well, uh-huh - he's a man - okaaay":

"When Carnival says 18 inches by 18 inches for carry-on bags, they mean it. I actually thought 18 inches was a liberal estimate – which is odd, because my length estimates usually tend to be longer than actual."

I know - I'm not being nice - I could be your doting, yet ravishingly beautiful Aunt but I'm still giggling.

Hi Janel,

 

Hope you're enjoying the Triumph Review, and glad my subtle humor wasn't lost on you. I was trying to put in enough humor to make people laugh, but keep it rated PG at the same time. It wasn't always easy. Sometimes I think I was too subtle and people didn't get the jokes. In fact, you are the first to comment on "length estimates", which I thought was one of my better lines in that review. I was a little disappointed that more people didn't laugh at that one.

 

Let me know how you like the rest of it and let me know how you like your trip on Celebration.

[TexasAlexus]

We had a fantastic cruise in January on the Celebration. I also agree that booking the five day cruise would be much better, and for some reason that I do not understand, the five day cruise was cheaper than the four day cruise when we were looking to book. I have now been on 8 cruises ( RCI,Disney,Princess, Carnival and Norwegian) and this was the only cruise that I have felt compelled to write corporate headquarters to tell them how much we enjoyed our cruise. The staff is top notch and the cruise director at the time was so much fun. The ship also looks great since it's refurb. and the new beds are so comfortable. I wish they weren't taking the Celebration away from us!

[tjohn159d]

TexasAlexus, Are you going to the DFW M&M on Aug 7?