Our Carnival Cruise to the Carribean

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 16

Review summary

A newly remodelled ship. Great decor and interior design. Staterooms were larger than on a lot of ships we'd sailed with before and ample storage space and in-room accomodations. The food was superb and if you were dining in one of the two major restaurants, it was presentation with a touch of elegancy. We haven't had a vacation in about two and half years till this cruise and our main objective was for me and my husband to have a nice quiet couple of dinners without the kids (6yrs. and 10 months, at the time of sailing). A point that was made clear to the service rep that helped us over the phone with our vacation booking was a full schedule Day Care or Babysitting services on the ship, otherwise we would not have chosen this cruiseline. We were assured by your rep that the service existed not only for infants, but for older aged children as well (camp). Shockingly, the ship only offered daycare for children under 2 regularly between 10pm and 3am everynight and that was not acceptable, since families with infants usually either go to bed early or the children fall asleep early to wake up early. We complained to the person in charge of the children's center and they said the travel agents give out false information. The 6 year old had a nice time in camp. Honestly, even if we had known about this before embarkation, it would not have made a difference because of the penalty we would have sustained by cancelling less than 30 days in advance. We just lost precious vacation time by tending to our loved ones, especially that we had been to 3 out of the 4 ports of call on previous cruises. At least at home we can put the infant in a play pen or in a crib and grab a bite, but you can imagine having to put up with crying, discipline and feeding at a restaurant. I can assure you that we will never make a cruise reservation again using your services. In reference to dining accomodations, during booking we were asked for seating preferences which we chose late seating, and during embarkation, we noticed we were placed in early seating. Despite multiple requests, we were told that it was only a request on part of the passenger that the ship may or may not fullfill. After a couple of days sailing our request was only honored due to a medical condition for one of our family members. The dining space was limited to accomodate most passengers for the late seating. On formal nights (2) there were huge lines, up to 30 minutes on one night, to be seated. Embarkation: We were in the line for a good two and a half hours. We had done the necessary Fast Speed pre-embarkation procedures, so did everyone else, but it did not seem to make a difference in speeding up the process.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Entertainment

Children's Programs

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Roseau, Dominica

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

Oranjestad, Aruba

Bridgetown, Barbados

Pros: The cusine was good. Great Chef. Size of Staterooms and Stowaway compartment.

Cons: Onboard Day Care, Babysitting and Dining accomodations, Embarkation procedures