Carnival Celebration Quick Recap March 3-10

[1019throw]

Wanted to give a quick review for everyone.

 

We've only cruised 2 ties before (2017 Conquest, wife and I only, and then last summer 2022 Legend, with 2 kids aged 4 and 6). After we took the kids with us last cruise (which was a result of having FCC and OCB from COVID), they loved it and we decide to book another cruise with them. We actually were going to try Royal with their kids sail free deals, and then after diving into the details (there are tons of exclusions), Carnival still came out way cheaper.

 

We flew in a day early and stayed at the Homewood Suites Blue Lagoon near the airport. Great place, easy shuttle from the airport. We took an Uber XL the next day to the cruise port, which was about $40 and 20min drive.  Boarding time was 10:30-11, we got to the terminal about 10, and walked through quickly until we were seated for a about 25 mins and they started calling the first groups.  I heard a lot of complaints about the port, traffic, etc but we didn't experience any of that.

 

Food:

Everything is perspective people, but we truly enjoy the food on Carnival. Shaq and Pig & Anchor are really nice additions compared to other ship classes for some extra variety.  For lunch, we pretty much ate Shaq, P&A, Guy's, or Blue Iguana.  We were also happy with the MDR for dinner, and used the free dinner nights at Chibang and Cuccina.  Chibang was just ok, while we really enjoyed Cuccina. Either way, it was something different and gave more variety.  We always choose Your Time Dining because we're early eaters and check in right at 5:15 for the 5:30 opening.  MDR was good, but for some reason we had 2 nights where they brought us down to the 6th floor to Carnivle (assume this is early/late dining) and the service was slow. 2nd Formal night we didn't get apps for 45mins, which I kindly mentioned to the manager.  Personally I'm fine with it, but our kids were getting hungry and the servers should be aware they served other tables their full apps, dinner, and desert before we received anything. Other than that, very happy with the service during the week.  We only ate at the Lido for breakfast, and then did a sea day brunch and Dr Suess.  Oh - we also had pizza and sandwiches a few times.  Shaq and Blue Iguana were probably our favorite two spots to eat.

 

Entertainment:

Maybe because we did smaller/older ships, but we were blown away by the entertainment on this ship.  The center stage performers were amazing, having the ability to sing, dance, and acrobats.  The regular theater also put on some great shows and their vocal talent is really good.  Super impressed with what they put together.  The solo artists and bands around the ship were also really good, particular Kiara Johnson (she did a Taylor Swift tribute set, which our girls loved, and it was absolutely packed).

 

Ship:

We were a little nervous from some reviews that we've seen for Excel class ships.  After going on this ship, I honestly don't think we could move to a smaller ship class (I guess maybe Vista).  There are so many food options, so many bars, and we loved that there is always placed to sit down to talk, have a drink, read, etc.  Not one time did we feel like the ship was too big.  The one knock that I would give, which I've read similar reviews, is that Center Stage really isn't setup well for seating. We knew this going in, so would get there 30-45 mins before the show to get the seat we wanted.  It helps that we do the early dining, so we just ran over to get a seat.

 

Boarding, Director, Rooms, Misc:

Getting on and off the ship was pretty seamless, very happy with that. Louis was our CD; he was pretty good, better than the 2 previous we had, and was fairly energetic and interacted with our 2 kids quite often.  We booked an interior room with 2 Pullman beds. Yikes that thing is small. We had more than enough store space in the closets and under the beds, but moving around was tight.  If our kids get bigger, we would book a larger room, but we still would rather save the money to use on other things because we honestly only go there to sleep and change. AC seemed to work fine, so we didn't request any fan.

 

The kids loved the water slides, and there are a handful of pools/hot tubs available. The main deck chairs get snatched up quickly, but I think you can say that on any ship no matter the size. Serenity was huge, but also get snatched up quickly in the morning.

 

We were part of 2 groups on Facebook just to see what everyone is saying. Lots of complaints that they didn't like the cruise, the bars were packed, soda machine didnt work, etc.  We didn't have Cheers, but has no issues getting drinks when we needed them.

 

 

I'm probably forgetting something, but just wanted to put down a few thoughts.  We loved the Celebration and will be booking something else on Excel or maybe Vista class, perhaps giving Celebration Key a shot. 

 

[princess76021]

Thank you for doing this!!

Hugs from Texas

[ober134]

We were also on this sailing. After many cruises, we decided to do things differently and much more casually. We didn't even try MDR for any meal. In the past we've enjoyed SeaDay Brunch... but skipped it this time. We did Bonsai Sushi and Emerils. I agree with you on the casual eating places were good and getting drinks never seemed to be much of an issue (no Cheers for us either). We also enjoyed the entertainment. Celestial Strings was good. And we went to quite a few Trivia games - also new to us and we found fun (no ships on a stick for us).

The other thing I saw on the book of faces groups: complaints of weed use and room stewards. Our steward was fantastic and responsive. We asked him to check our 'frig cause it didn't appear working; he got it changed out for us, got us extra towels when requested. And our inside cabin on 10 forward, we had no issues with any small of weed.

The only thing about the cabin - I think this was the absolute smallest bathroom we've ever had on a ship. I mean it was TINY!

[1019throw]

3 hours ago, ober134 said:

We were also on this sailing. After many cruises, we decided to do things differently and much more casually. We didn't even try MDR for any meal. In the past we've enjoyed SeaDay Brunch... but skipped it this time. We did Bonsai Sushi and Emerils. I agree with you on the casual eating places were good and getting drinks never seemed to be much of an issue (no Cheers for us either). We also enjoyed the entertainment. Celestial Strings was good. And we went to quite a few Trivia games - also new to us and we found fun (no ships on a stick for us).

The other thing I saw on the book of faces groups: complaints of weed use and room stewards. Our steward was fantastic and responsive. We asked him to check our 'frig cause it didn't appear working; he got it changed out for us, got us extra towels when requested. And our inside cabin on 10 forward, we had no issues with any small of weed.

The only thing about the cabin - I think this was the absolute smallest bathroom we've ever had on a ship. I mean it was TINY!

We were also on deck 10, midship. No complaints. I thought the bathrooms were small, but the showers were much nicer than the older ones.  Occasionally the elevators were slow, but we noticed a lot of people would use it to go up 1 floor (no noticeable health issues, but who knows). Typically anything less than 5 floors and we are taking the stairs.

[Frank12]

I didn't think I would, but really like Excel class ships.  Glad you had a good time.  You cannot go wrong with Big Chicken and Blue Iguana for lunch!