I have been on 12 cruises, Carnival Celebration by far THE WORST - Wouldn't do it again

Carnival Celebration Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

1windstead

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 10

Overall rating:

2.7 out of 5

6 Night Eastern Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: August 04, 2024

Ship: Carnival Celebration

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 15425

Traveled as: Family (young children)

Reviewed: 2 months ago

Review summary

THE BAD AND THE GOOD The Bad: 1. Main theater design in the center of the ship makes absolutely no sense. You don't have a full view of the show from over half the seats? Seriously, spend close to 1Bill on this ship and design so poorly. From my location, my kids and I could only see 1/3 of the show. Oh yeah, the glass railings say "Don't lean on the railing" - Very unsafe design, you can move the glass railings by hand. 2. FULL OF BOTTLE NECKS with too many people. Guess were Guest Services is? In between the very busy Pizza/Sandwich area and the very popular Ice Cream/Bar/Eating Area. Not very smart, always a huge line. 3. FOOD OPTIONS HAVE THE LONGEST LINES - Guys Burgers/Fries - usually 45min-1hr standing in line at all times of the day. Street Food - less lines but the workers are slow, Pizza (understaffed) - 15-30 minutes standing line most of the time, Sandwich Line 15-30 mins, didn't even bother with the other lines for food as the lines were to long. Never had to wait on RC or smaller Carnival Ships for more than a few minutes. Getting food becomes stressful on the Celebration 4. Buffet Area - Everything is built in compartments causing traffic jams. The design makes no sense. Additionally, both walk ways on either side of the ship smell like dirty sweat and mildew. Like someone spilled milk and it is rotting under the carpet. I thought it might be people but one time I walked through before dinner started and those areas still smell that way. 5. They tried to split food and swimming options into 2 different decks. 15 and 8. The only problem is this causes people trying to use the elevators to constantly go between both decks which leads to the next issue. 6. ELEVATOR WAIT IS LONG AND THEY ARE SLOW. - When you split the food options and pool options to decks 15 and 8 it causes elevator jams. People are trying to move back and forth between both floors. On most ships, the majority of the pools and food are on the top decks. People don't need to use the elevator because they walk back and forth on the stairs. 7. KIDS CLUB - No walkie talkies or phones. The line to drop off and pick up kids was always a minimum of 20-25 minutes. One time, 45 minutes. How can you have fun like this realizing you have to pick up your children 45 minutes early just in case. 8. TOO MANY AREAS WITH INSUFFICIENT AIR CONDITIONING - There are floors were it is very hot and humid. I get that people are going in and out but the air conditioner can't handle it. Have never had this problem on big royal ships and small carnival ships. It's hot in the Havana Bar (Stupid door to outside), stairs on 13, 14, 15, 16 and more. 9. DISEMBARKATION - THE WORST!!! - On every cruise ship I have been on RC and Carnival you can place your bags outside your door the night before and the attendants will bring them to the terminal to collect. Not on this cruise. If you don't sign up for it fast enough you bring your bags down yourself. This caused an elevator nightmare. With bags, only a 3-4 people can fit on any on elevator. Now calculate moving 6000 people off the ship with elevators fitting only 3-4 people. When we finally got an elevator and tried to get off on floor 6 to disembark, there was no room to get off the elevator, so we went up and down again multiple times. This is the worst DISEMBARKATION on ANY SHIP ever. 10. KARAOKE MACHINE BROKEN for 3 days 11. ICE CREAM MACHINE OFF for NO REASON on floor 16 a couple times, had to go down the long elevators to get to floor 8 for ICE CREAM 12. PIANO BAR SHOW Not happening multiple times when it was on the schedule 13. NOT ENOUGH ENTERTAINMENT OPTIONS 14. NO EVENING (DINNER TIME) Housekeeping in the room THE GOOD 1. HAVANA BAR Latin Band was fun 2. POOL on 8th floor AFT was nice but hard to get to 3. GYM was nice when not crowded 4. THE HOST FOR NAME THAT TUNE Contest IS FUN OVERALL I wanted to give Carnival Big Ships a try. I will never go back to them again. The smaller ships are more fun. If you want to take a big ship, go on an OASIS Class Ship with ROYAL. Better Design. Too many bottleneck areas that are crowded on CELEBRATION. Too many people. Lines for food too long. Would not recommend.