Wonderful ship with some design flaws
Carnival Celebration Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 20
6 Night Western Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)
Sail date: May 14, 2023
Ship: Carnival Celebration
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 15287
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 1 year ago
Review summary
When Carnival offered us a nice deal to sail the Celebration, we jumped, and we weren't disappointed - this is a pretty spectacular ship with an almost overwhelming number of dining and entertainment options. Celebration is a definite design departure from other Carnival ships, which can be a touch on the whimsical (or even gaudy) side, and they're clearly after a more affluent clientele. The only downside here, really, is the atrium, which is a stunning design but doesn't function all that well as an entertainment venue. Otherwise, we highly recommend Celebration and would love to sail it again, if a) Miami weren't such a pain to get to for us, and b) if Carnival would give us another deal!Embarkation
Embarkation was fast and easy
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Depends on where you were eating - we had one knockout experience (Teppenaki, which was highly entertaining and delicious). Big Chicken, Guy's, and Pig and Anchor were all good choices for casual lunches or dinners. Food in the main dining room was okay, but the service was terrific - our waiter was excellent. We also did the Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse, which was rather disappointing - the food was good, but not $100+ per couple good, and the service was slow.
The biggest disappointment was the buffet, which was crowded and hot, and the food was not great. The same food is available at Pig and Anchor at the back of the ship, which is a far more relaxed venue.
Also, if you order the unlimited-soda package, beware - you have to scan your sail and sign card to access them, and most of the scanners on this ship don't work well. Carnival needs to fix these.
Of course, Celebration has plenty of Swirls ice cream dispensers.
Because there are so many food choices on board, there are some we didn't get to try, which include ChiBang (we heard mixed reviews), the sushi restaurant (we don't eat sushi but I hear it's good), and Emeril's Bistro. We're not big drinkers either, so we can't brag about the cool cocktails we had mixed for us, but they're all available, and the Departures Bar looks like a very nice, classy place to get a good cocktail.
Onboard Activities
If you're sailing on Celebration, definitely try Bolt - it's a blast!
We're not big on cruise ship pools, but the Celebration has quite a few hot tubs, and some are on the Serenity deck, which is adults-only.
Entertainment
The Celebration has a completely new theater concept - the Celebration Central, which is a glass-walled atrium amidships that's about four or five decks high, surrounded by several balconies with theater seating. During the day, you can find activities like Build-A-Bear At Sea; at night, the glass is covered up and the space becomes a theater. We caught a lounge singer show there (which was entertaining), and on the last night, they debuted a a circus-themed show. The show was a bit too, shall we say, high-concept at the beginning, but once they started doing trapeze stuff, things brightened up. This is where the atrium concept really suffered, though - there isn't all that much seating, and because of all the balconies, it was tough to see the going-on up high from the floor. And due to the limited seating, people were staking out their spots literally hours before the show.
I like the atrium concept, and it looks spectacular when you board, but it doesn't necessarily work all that well.
Service and Staff
Celebration is the fleet's flagship, and you can tell the crew is proud to serve on board. The wait staff, room stewards and other personnel were all friendly and quite good at their jobs.
We also did the "Behind the Fun" tour, which is a three-hour trip through Celebration's lower decks, kitchens, food and booze storage areas (which are huge, as you can imagine), backstage areas, crew living spaces (which are actually quite nice and include their own bar and pool), and the engine control room and bridge. It's a bit pricey ($300), but it's pretty cool to see what goes into making these cruises happen.
Ship Quality
The Celebration is a brand new ship, and even smelled new. The design is far more subdued and sophisticated than other Carnival ships - a JW Marriott hotel comes to mind, but this being Carnival, there are plenty of whimsical touches, like a Rolls-Royce on the embarkation deck.
Ship's cleanliness was excellent.
Cabin / Stateroom
Our balcony room was definitely a step up in terms of design and function from our last Carnival ship, the Sunrise (which wasn't bad). We really enjoyed the sliding door, which can be locked in an open position to let the sea air in. The room also had lots of clever storage spaces, like a bench with a removable seat, and plenty of power and USB outlets. We also liked the glass shower door versus curtains, which are almost always dingy-looking on cruise ships.
One caveat: if you're into balcony privacy, don't choose the "recessed" cabins on the forward and aft parts of the ship - the folks on the corner balconies can see right into your balcony (and vice-versa), and the recessed area works like a huge metal echo chamber - you'll hear everything going on in all the balconies in the recessed area. If privacy and quiet are your thing, choose one of the amidship balcony rooms. Otherwise, our room was very clean, and being 18 decks above the mechanical areas made it quite serene.
Ship tip
Definitely try the Teppenaki restaurant, and if you want a breakfast buffet, the Lido food is available at Pig and Anchor aft. And have a great time - this is a WONDERFUL ship.
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Ports of call
We got into Miami early enough the day before the cruise to hang around the city a bit, and we had a great time. We stayed downtown, had dinner in a funky burger joint, and had a nice walk along a city park on Biscayne Bay. I'd love to explore Miami more,
I know Carnival does offer excursions here, but they seem awfully "touristy" and the reviews aren't great. You're probably better off staying near downtown, or on Miami Beach if you've got the budget for it, and exploring the city for yourself.
Cozumel is standard cruise-port fare, but we picked a private beach, Nachi Cocom, which is a 10-minute taxi ride away, and we'd definitely recommend if you're looking for a mellow beach day. The food and drinks were good, the staff was excellent, and the beach was big and open. Otherwise, the big destination seemed to be Mr. Sancho's, which is more of a party spot, and if you're into that, it seems like a good bet.
Mahogany Bay, Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras
We had a "Boss underwater adventure" scheduled for this port that got cancelled, so we just decided to do the "cruise port" thing. Like all cruise ports, it's touristy, but you can find some mellow places to have a drink or two, and some quiet beaches. There is also a ski-lift type ride, which is rather fun. Not a bad place to spend a day if you're over budget on shore excursions.
Imagine an outlet mall that's packed to the brim with 15,000 sweaty tourists and vendors hawking every piece of low-quality flea-market stuff you can imagine, all in 90-degree heat, and you have Costa Maya cruise port. On the same day our ship docked there, two other ships the size of the Celebration also docked, so you had literally tens of thousands of people stuffed into a rather small space on a very hot day. Far as I can tell, there are no beach options, though there is a small swimming pool (and if you're just doing a pool day, why not stay on the ship?). My girlfriend came home from this cruise with COVID, and given how crowded this place is, it's a safe bet that's where she got it. On the plus side, there was a fun and cheap "bird zoo" activity, which involved some rope bridges and lots of tropical birds.
There are some activities to do there, which include the obligatory dolphin swim (if you're going to do one of these, take the cruise to Nassau and do Blue Lagoon Island, which has dolphins, sea lions, and stingrays - it's a far better deal).
Otherwise, book an excursion - any excursion - and avoid this little flea market. We ditched the port ASAP and spent the rest of the day on the ship.
Disembarkation
Outstanding - we got off quickly and our bags were waiting for us.