While we made the best of it, and managed to enjoy ourselves, we will never go on another cruise on this class of ship with Carnival again. Poor food, terrible service, rude staff - not the Carnival experience we have come to expect.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
On the plus side, it was much faster to get on the ship. The port workers were incredibly rude, especially the folks taking baggage and the drug dog line-up wasn't a great experience.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
2 out of 5
Main dining staff was surprisingly rude. We were treated like we were in the way. One night we waited over an hour and a half for our food, only to then be rushed out because they had to prepare for the next seating. At one of the breakfasts, we were in line about to get our food and a staff member cut in front of us and took all the plates but didn't say a word. When we asked another staff member for a plate, she didn't even look at us and just said, "we're closed". The food choices were also much more limited than on prior cruises, with breakfast and lunch being almost exactly the same every single day.
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
Several of the things listed in the app as activities, we not. They were just listed to get people to go to the various stores to buy things, and the "sales" were just the regular prices and had been the same the entire time.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
The musicians were solid and quite enjoyable, and some of the main stage shows were quite good. The comedy shows, which I generally enjoy, were bad. Saw three different comedians and each of them did entire sets of nothing but race-based "jokes".
Children's Programs
4 out of 5
We had one kid in each of the two older kid's clubs. The younger (13) enjoyed some of it, like the arts & crafts activities. The older (16) did not enjoy it at all and felt he was being "babysat".
Service and Staff
1 out of 5
Rude. From the food service to room stewards and bartenders. I have always been really impressed with the service and the way we were treated on a cruise, but this trip was the absolute worst. We spoke to a few of the "nicer" ones about it, and the consensus is that these bigger ships have the same size staff as the smaller ones, so they are all stretched thin, overworked, and absolutely miserable, and IT SHOWS. Several of them said they were counting the days till they get reassigned anywhere else.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
Compared to other ships we've been on, the shopping was spread out over 3 floors, the food options were arranged in an odd way, the smoking sections were remote so you felt banished if you wanted to enjoy a cigar you picked up in port. Other than that, the style elements of the ship were kind of cool and things were generally clean - although they really should be on a ship that is less than a year old.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
Cabin was nice enough, although for several days our air conditioning didn't work and it was nearly impossible to sleep. There were four of us in this cabin, so we had the two twins, the converted couch, and the twin that pulls down out of the ceiling. There wasn't a lot of space, but it wasn't bad either - close quarters as you would expect from a cruise ship.
Ship tip
Don't. Pick another ship - one of the smaller ones.
We love Amber Cove. We did the day passes to Ocean World this time. It was great but we wouldn't do it again. Would rather get out and see the local area, shopping, food, etc. Don't stress about an excursion, just grab one of the taxi drivers out front and negotiate a deal to see what you want to see. We did that last time around and it was fantastic!
Even with it raining on us most of the day, we walked all around old San Juan, visited the fort, went shopping and ate at a local restaurant (gotta get mofongo while you're there!). We love the city and the people there.
The island is beautiful, but there isn't a lot to do there that can be done well in the time you have in port. Trips to St John are great, but take so long you have very little time to spend there. The Pirate Museum is decent, especially if you have kids.
The process went pretty smoothly and there wasn't much of a wait. We opted to carry our own luggage out, so I can't speak for the luggage service but it seemed like the first-come, first-served luggage tag system they put in place wasn't well received by many who found that all of the early group tags were gone almost immediately after being set out.
Sorry your cruise didn't meet your expectations. We were on Celebration a couple months ago and had a nice experience. The drug dog line up was weird but it is what it is.
We were on the Celebration in January and loved everything about the ship. The crew, the food, the layout, and the entertainment. Would diffently sail her or a sister ship anytime!
Thanks for sharing. Sorry that you had a bad experience. We were on the Carnival Celebration in July and thankfully didn’t encounter this. Hope your next cruise vacation is better.
Sorry about your experience u had. I can say the same about the miami port.. They do have rude staff there.
Other than that. I've not been on the Carnival Celebrity yet, so I can't comment on that ship.
Sorry your cruise wasn’t the best. At least you tried and found out mega ships are not your cup of tea. Sorry to hear most of the crew members were rude to you. Thank you for your review.
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