CARNIVAL CELEBRATION
Carnival Celebration Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 18
7 Night Eastern Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)
Sail date: June 23, 2024
Ship: Carnival Celebration
Cabin type: Inside
Cabin number: 4247
Traveled as: Family (young children)
Reviewed: 4 months ago
Review summary
Overall, not a bad ship. Lots to do with the littles. I would get the HUB app for sure if you are going on any carnival ship. It's helpful to keep up with events and talk with passengers. The automated doors were awful on this ship- would not recognize you walking up, even if you waived like it said, you would stand there for almost a minute waiving like you've seen your long-lost friend you haven't seen in a decade. I complained once to guest services about our room, but it was more about the design of the ship, the room we were in was right next to a crew memeber only area and starting at 6 am (ish) they were being so loud it would wake me up and keep me up. It was like they were moving carts and slamming luggage around. it was SO BAD it rattled my wall where my head was. That was single handedly the most frustrating thing I ever dealt with on a cruise ship. I didn't complain till literally the last night, and i only said something because I was up at guest services adding something to my account. I even told them I knew there was nothing they could do because the rooms were full, but it was SO bad. SO bad I stored that room # in my phone so I don't ever get booked there or close to a crew member only area the next time I book. I'm heavily critiquing because I want Carnival to get raw feedback, but I would book again. My overall experience I would say 7.5/10 - not bad but needs some improvement.Embarkation
For the most part, it was okay. It was frustrating that we came a little early and waited and we couldnt board ship will well after the time we scheduled because our boarding group wasnt called for a while so we ended up sitting on the floor for over an hour waiting to actually get on.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The food in the dining hall was good, the staff was not so much. We had a large group so we separated kids at one big table and adults at the other. The kids had drinks, food and dessert by the time we woule have our drinks and apps so they were sitting a waiting a long time till the adult table was finished. even after mentioning maybe to pace their food out a little, they still didn't. One of our group members had to go to guest services about that and the staff themselves. Just wasn't the service we were used to from previous Carnival experiences. The buffet food was just okay, to be expected. We purchased the soft drinks package, and I would say 60% of the time we got it from the fountain, it was like soda water with barely any flavor which was very frustrating. Big Chicken & Guys burger was our go to since the buffet wasn't up to par. We loved their food but lines tended to be long. It was worth the wait. Also tried the seafood joint on Mid 16 & the lobster rolls were good there. Pizza was good. Mixed drinks we had were good. Breakfast food on buffet was okay. Like a hotel breakfast kinda.
Onboard Activities
Our group did a lot. Splash pad/ water slides, mini golf, roller coaster, aerial course, family harbor, Bingo, Love & marriage show x3, comedy shows, scavenger hunt, Build a bear. Circus, dr Suess breakfast, pool & hot tubs, Movies at pools, casino.
love & marriage show was my personal favorite & lee did AWESOME with this. We watched all three. Its more of an adult thing although Lee did great about making it fun & keeping it PG.
We were excited about the movies at pool, but wasn't a fan of the movies that were playing in evening and night. One of the movies was the second movie and we had never seen or heard of the first. just odd choice.
I would definitely rec. the dr suess breakfast for small children.
Build a bear workshop was very smooth sailing ( See what I did there ;) ) only complaint is they ran out of snorkel gear fast ( which my daughter was very upset because she snorkeled for her first time and she wanted that one but THIRD WORLD PROBLEMS) She picked a cute ocean themed bunny
Scavenger hunt was fun for all. Our group kicked butt.
attractions on ship were great.
I would recommend getting the carnival HUB app and heart all of he things you were interested in and it will notify you they are coming up so you dont miss them.
I wanted to do the Latin dance class but I missed out, heard that was good.
Entertainment
Lee, our cruise director was amazing. most of the performers were great! the two comedian, both named Manny, not a fan of either.
Children's Programs
We didnt send our kids to the kids ocean care.
Service and Staff
our room steward was AMAZING !!! he should get 5/5 stars all day. the waiters at dinner in formal dining hall, I already wrote about them. Not great, not horrible, but they could for sure do better.
Ship Quality
mostly clean, a couple times i went into bathrooms and there was some mess but thats to be expected on a ship with that many people. the center stage mid ship where they did some of the shows & performances ( circus and such) wasn't good for circus show. if you were on bottom level it was hard to see aerial acts.
Cabin / Stateroom
I thought room was fine. Only complaint was the bathroom had a sewage odor even starting from first day. I found out from some other travelers they had the same issue with that smell in bathroom. not sure why.
Ship tip
Book excursions ahead, make sure you get on hub app for communication & events & bring your own cup !! The ones provided are VERY small.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Amber Cove (Puerto Plata), Dominican Republic
We went to Ocean World. It was good. We swam with dolphins & utilized water slide & beach swimming area. DR is kind of dirty in itself, Although Ocean world was clean. Plenty to do. Do your research prior too because I didnt realize there was a kids pool but we ended up utilizing beach. Water slides were fun. They have an obstacle area.. A parent or guardian has to watch kids under I believe it was 12 and the max time in obstacle area was 10 min which I felt was kind of short. Buses that transported us were very nice with AC. Our guide was great. The only reason I gave 4/5 was because the country itself was not in great shape, lots of trash but the excursion & port area were nice and clean.
The excursion some of us did was a snorkeling excursion. It was horrible. Snorkeled from beach, water was ROUGH and murky. They said they would never do that excursion again. The other half of the group did some shopping. We were sad to find out that umbrella street is gone. We took a taxi ( from the taxi station at the end of the port) and they drove us to a beach. It was a smaller beach ( playita del Condado) that was across from a fort, small, but blocked from open sea by rocks, which was good because water was rough and it kept the water calm where we were. No where to rinse feet off outside of beach & you had to pay for chairs. The resort of hotel that was attached to it was offering drinks. There was another beach recommended to us but because of the water conditions that day we chose to play it safe. We ate at a restaurant down there called La Casita de Rones. It had very good Empanadas and other food. the port had vendors lined down the road (locals) selling different things. Not a terrible port, just was a bad weather day with rain and wind on and off and I wish we would've been able to go to one of the more famous or open beaches.
Again, island is very run down and not taken care of that well BUT they have been still dealing with hurricane damage from 2017 they said. Shopping area had lots of shops, but alot of them had similar items (The souvenir shops is what im refering to here)- We did the Beach day/ tour of skyline excursion. The beach we went to was GORGEOUS! Clean water, secluded, and the view was fantastic. They provided rum punch and drinks but the chips they had that i thought were included were the snack size bags and they were $3 a bag, so bring snacks if you book this. We saw lots of fish at this beach and a spotted ray. The ride to and from was in an open bus, similar to a safari bas, most of the views were nice. Sad to see all the damage that has yet to be repaired.
Disembarkation
We were off the ship in minutes, we did early disembarkation. It was smooth and I would say it took less than 20 min to get from our room and through customs. I had no complaints here. We carried our luggage off.
6 Comments
24MyLuckyDragon 4 months ago
Thank you for sharing your greatly detailed review. This itinerary runs through all the islands that were impacted by Hurricane Maria, and sadly some are still in recovery. Albeit gorgeous islands, the area is like a geographic magnet zone for storms. Great Ship Tip! Happy cruising 🤩⚓️😎❣️‼️