We always enjoy our vacations on Carnival, but this has been our least favorite ship, so far. The food was good, but the variety was lacking compared to other ships. The ship is "modern", but has more of an IKEA feel than luxury. We were extremely disappointed that as much money as we spend on Carnival in a year, they offered no compensation for a terrible excursion experience. This tells me their customer service is not as important as they lead us to believe.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Sailing priority is the ONLY way to go. Always a seamless, effortless embarkation!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
I was actually disappointed in this ship. It was very plain. The food was okay, but the selections and the dining rooms were not as appealing as on the Freedom and Glory.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
We did like that it had pool tables and the ropes course.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
Terrific job
Children's Programs
1 out of 5
We walked up to sign our daughter up for the kid's club for the evening, and it was just utter chaos. I understand it was probably more to do with the quality of children in the program, but we just turned around and walked away... we didn't take her to the kid's club.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Our wait staff, Judy, Ramy, and Aftel were amazing! The Carnival staff is always very friendly and makes us feel welcome!
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
The ship was well maintained, but there isn't enough seating out on the Lido, and everyone was always saving seats so it made it impossible to find a place to sit outside by the pool.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
It was kept clean, but we have had better service on other Carnival ships.
San Juan is San Juan. We didn't do an excursion this time, but walked around and toured the city... and ate some delicious food at two different restaurants.
Grand Turk is one of our least favorite ports. It seems to always be a let down. This excursion was a disaster, and Carnival offered no compensation. The conch snorkel was scheduled for 1215, but we were notified by Carnival that it had been delayed until 2pm. We wasted 2 hours waiting to go on this excursion. At 2, we found out they combined two tours into one, so it was extremely packed. The guides then didn't even show up to get us until almost 2:30. As soon as we got onto the boat, they told us we would not be doing the conch snorkel (which is why we booked it). It was almost an hour before we finally got into the water, and we saw very few fish when snorkeling. It was extremely windy, which is why the conch snorkel was canceled. We snorkeled for about 15 minutes then took a rough boat ride to a small island where the guide proceeded to "tame a wild sting ray" by catching it, then proceeding to stick its barb in his mouth and lick it. I've been on a lot of sting ray encounters, and this one was very unprofessional. Lifting the rays out of the water and forcing them to spit water over people's heads... this was just a terrible excursion, and we really felt Carnival should do something to reimburse this waste of our day, but they wouldn't. As someone who cruises frequently, this was important to us, especially if they wanted to keep us as frequent cruisers. But they simply said no, we won't reimburse you for anything. Terribly disappointing.
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