My friend and I had a good time and made it memorable. However, the port is horrible, staff weren’t friendly, and ship was run down. Food was average. Won’t use this port or go on this ship again.
Embarkation
1 out of 5
Embarkation in Charleston is horrible. Once you park your car you have to walk roughly 1/4 mile to a tent where you then stand in a long line for dogs to sniff your carry ons (approx 1 hour.) You then move forward into another long line for them to check your documentation in another building (approx 30 mins.) Once that’s complete you have to board a bus (we waited approx 20 minutes for it to move) to another building and stand in another long line (approx 30 mins) to go through security. Once that’s complete you can board the ship. It took us roughly 3 hours from parking to getting on the ship. I have never experienced anything like it at any other port I’ve been to, domestically and internationally alike.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
Food and drinks were average. I did not like the majority of the food in the buffet, and it was an extremely small buffet compared to other ships. Main dining was hit or miss. Some dishes were absolutely delicious and some were mediocre.
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
The pool was tiny, as was the adults only pool. There didn’t seem to be a whole lot else to do on the ship.
Entertainment
2 out of 5
We loved the bingo host, Grant. We went most days because he made it fun.
We went to Friend’s trivia. The guy doing it had never seen friends so didn’t know what he was asking and we couldn’t hear/ understand him very well. Im a huge friends fan and was excited for this and it was definitely a let down.
Love & Marriage was average. Something to go to but I wasn’t wowed with how they presented it.
Service and Staff
1 out of 5
The single star I’m giving is because of our room stewardess. If I was rating her alone she would get 5 stars. Very nice, did a great job cleaning our room everyday, and remembered our names very quickly. Always gave us a friendly greeting in the hallway.
The rest of the servers / bar tenders seemed like they’d rather be anywhere else. We felt like an inconvenience most of the time. I work in the service industry so I am always kind to them but that didn’t seem to matter. Perhaps they are overworked/ understaffed. Carnival should reevaluate their crew size if this is the case. We always waited at least 10-15 minutes to get a drink. Servers at dinner rarely introduced themselves and seemed to rush us through dinner.
Ship Quality
2 out of 5
The ship was clean, but it’s been a long time since the last renovation. Lots of areas looked run down and the closet door in our room was held together with Velcro command strips that were no longer even working. It’s in desperate need of a reno.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
It was fine other than the closet being held together with Velcro command strips that’s weren’t even working. Beds were comfy though and lots of storage space available.
Ship tip
Pick a different ship and port when planning your cruise. Driving / flying to Florida would be worth it in my opinion.
It was organized by deck number which made it easy for us to know when to get off. However the elevators were clogged, we waiting 20 minutes and ended up carrying our heavy suitcases down the stairs ourselves so we didn’t miss our flight. Waited in a long line disembarking and then once outside we could either wait to take a bus to the parking lot or walk. We opted to walk as we figured the bus would take a long time to load up and leave, however it ended up being quite a long walk and it was raining. Definitely my least favorite port I’ve ever used.
I agree with you 100%. This was the worst cruise we had ever been on! The ship is falling apart. ~ Staff was amazing as always, Half-moon & Nassau both were good, per usual. I'm really surprised they scraped better ships this one.
Sorry you had such a bad experience, I cruised from there but back in 2019. It was 10 of us and we had none of what you described. Not sure what happened and it’s sad you had to go through it.
We also ported out of there once.. it is definitely not ideal set up for both getting on ship and off. Hopefully they will come up with a better idea. We enjoyed out cruise tho :)
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