My family and I went on this cruise for a family reunion. There were about 16 of us. Overall, I am glad I got to experience a cruise, but I am not anxious by any means to do another. I downloaded the app to be able to communicate with people on the ship, but it turned out you could only communicate with people in your room. There needs to be a way to communicate with people onboard the ship without having to pay for Wi-Fi. I didn't want to be connected to the "outside world" only the group of people that I was there with. We missed out on a lot of time and experiences together because of this.
It would have been nice to know -if you weren't doing excursions, how to get to places that you didn't have to pay for. Also, with the amount of money that we spent on flights, then the transfer to the ship (and the tipping that the transfer drivers pretty much told you to tip them), the cruise itself, drink package, insurance, tipping, and souvenirs - it was completely insane to even think about spending a couple hundred dollars on excursions. We really wanted to hang out together on the beach, which we were able to do at Half Moon Cay, but definitely did NOT feel safe to even think about locating a beach at Nassau.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
The breakfast wasn't great and with limited "specialty" area's there were long lines for things like omelets.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
I didn't feel like there was very much for children to do on this cruise ship. I had a 6 and 8 year old with me. The pools were fun for them as well as the kid zone but I wish there was more that we could all do together. Granted this is our first cruise so I was unsure what to expect in the first place.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
We loved the stage shows. We met Stephen at our Muster Station F & he bonded with my 2 sons. He sent chocolate covered strawberries to our room with a sweet note about the kids and invited us to a performance. We went to 2, one of which our kids joined us. We all loved it and Stephen and the others are EXTREMELY talented.
Children's Programs
5 out of 5
Miss Rainbow Fish sent a note to our cabin as well and the kids talked about her non stop and how awesome she was. They really enjoyed having her as a leader while they were in Camp Ocean. All of the staff was great but she definitely stood out to my kids which is so important to us!
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
no complaints.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
There was a strange odor on deck 1 where we stayed. Not sure what the cause was but it was pretty bad.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
The layout of the cabin was good. I rated a 3 star because we complained that the AC was not moving throughout our room our first two days on a 4 day cruise. It was pretty humid in the room and my kids were uncomfortable enough with the temperature that they slept in their underwear. We figured that since we reported to housekeeping that our room was unbearably hot and how miserable we were, that when they called (whoever they called) to report it, that it would be fixed. It never was fixed and thankfully after a half hour visit with guest services they were able to obtain the only fan on the entire ship for us to use the last night we were on the ship. To me this was completely unacceptable for us to be so uncomfortable for the majority of our nights in the cabin. We would walk into other family members cabins and it would be FREEZING cold.
Honestly I wish that we could have stayed at Half Moon Cay for both days. It was gorgeous and my kids had a blast. This honestly was the highlight of the entire cruise for us. It was great for folks who had kids. My only complaint was the servers who were taking drink orders took 30+ minutes to bring orders back to customers.
I would never go back to Nassau again. First, the announcement at 6ish a.m. regarding "Do not bring large sums of cash, valuables, & do not wear jewelry due to high crime rate against American Tourists" and "Wear long sleeves and long pants due to mosquito bite disease" was enough to discourage anyone from getting off of the ship. I am not sure if it was a liability announcement but it really had much of my family on edge. When my step-dad convinced my mother, husband, and I (and our two kids) to check out Nassau, we walked around the shops to purchase a few souvenirs. The people would pull on you and try to take you through mazes to make a dollar. It seemed very poor and sketchy to us all. I was disappointed in this stop 100% and had I known then what I know now, I would have not wasted my time or money.
Sounds like you don't understand how any of this is supposed to work. A little research would have helped you. The HUB app has worked great all over the ship with only a couple of hiccups for me, BTW.
When there is a problem in the room , do not call any dept. go directly to guest services . Face to face and get their name this way you have someone to fall back on . It always works . I have 55 cruises in with carnival and over 400 sea days in and another 8 crises and 60 cruise days to add on by the end of this year . I know from experience
You could use a wAlkie talkie. Why did you not feel safe? It does take a bit to make omelets and there is a lot of people but doesn’t ever seem that long to us. They have games to play and the tons of on board activities like shows, games.
Did you ever think about researching your ports, ship and other venues prior to boarding? A couple hours of research on your part will give plenty of free or almost free options at every port of call.
We never buy the drink package, you need to drink at least 6 drinks each a day to make it worth it, may be hard to do on port days.. I don't know where you live but driving might be a lot cheaper. You could have went to the restaurant for breakfast/brunch. Yes you should have used the hub or got the social media package. We did the top 10 in Nassau and had a good time and it wasnt expensive. Some motels offer free shuttles to the port. We just tip the drivers. Lots of ways to cut cost, just have to do a little research.
katrinasmith, That's a great price for 6 people. How did you do it? We go in March (looks like same itinerary as yours)
and just the 2 of us was that amount. We have a balcony and that includes the insurance and all.
Hmmm, make it cheaper by not purchasing drink package, steak house selections and book Interior rooms... I'm bringing 6 at $2200 for 5 days. If you can't afford it then don't go. Also, do your homework you could've linked the rooms if everyone paid the $5. Plus, even though I pay for the text feature I wouldn't want someone I don't know to have my number and text me at random, that's creepy
Agree with oceanwaver.... people cannot give a bad review when all the issues (except the AC) are 100% lack of one educating themselves and doin the research. Boggles my mind how many people go on vacation.......spending thousands of dollars.......to foreign countries even and do absolutely nothing to prepare . Sheeeeesh
The hub app is set up with everyone in your room. If you link your bookings together then those rooms will also be automatically added to your chat feature on the hub app. Anyone that wants to use the chat feature will then have to pay the $5 per device for the entire cruise. We had a party of 37 and it worked great. We could also see who was doing what activities when they hit like or attending in the app.
Not being able to communicate with your family doesn't sound right. Carnival has what they call the Hub. Do not need wifi from outside. It's the chat feature, which let's you chat with anyone on the ship, not just people in your room,however each device must be set up. The cost for EACH device to have the chat feature is $5.00 for the whole cruise.
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