We enjoyed this cruise albeit we encountered some very rough seas, especially on return home. crew and passengers sent to their cabins due to 70 mph winds and thunderstorms!
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Very smooth. Showed up at our arrival window and waited about 45 minutes for our group to be called. No priority boarding for diamond and platinum passengers due to the huge number of us on this sailing.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Loved the new menu in the main dining room. First time we ate their every night because the options were so interesting.
Guy's burger, deli, and cantina always good alternatives to lunch buffet.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
We enjoyed hot tubs on the Serenity deck. Gym had plenty of treadmills and a nice assortment of equipment. We were able to pull loungers to the shady side of the ship.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
Carnival always seems to have excellent live music ranging from solo and duet performers, a kicking cover band, and phenomenal violin trios. The theater cast was particularly good on this cruise.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
We're on your time dining and normally don't care which servers we have but on this cruise one team was so attentive and friendly that we requested to be seated in their section every night. Room steward very friendly and stayed on top of our only request to fill the ice bucket twice daily.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Easy to navigate and plenty of places to sit indoors and outside. Our main problem with Lido deck seating is that the booth seats are extremely low making it very uncomfortable for anyone under 6' tall to reach the table. Unlike on other ships, very few tables with chairs unless going to the small upstairs dining area.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Bed and pillows extremely comfortable! Plenty of drawer and closet space although we don't overpack. I also remove the bulky wooden hangers and replace them with the slim velvet hangers I packed.
There was an issue with a more forward balcony dividing door banging throughout the night and the next sea day. I contacted housekeeping and maintenance. They were prompt in sending someone up. Had him go to our balcony to hear it. He looked over the top and was able to identify which cabin caused the problem and fixed it immediately.
Ship tip
Check in early for sea day brunch! If checking in at 10-10:30 your wait will be about 90 minutes.
Did an excursion on previous cruise and just chose to walk across the floating bridge and do some shopping. Next time we might hire any one of many local taxi drivers offering island tours at a reasonable price.
Skyline is gorgeous. We did a ship excursion visiting the fort(the climb will be difficult for anyone with mobility issues), old Town, and other historic areas. Be prepared to be bombarded by street vendors. I think worth seeing if it's a first time but on our next cruise there we'll probably stay on the ship.
When we first booked this cruise it was advertised as a partial transit. At some point for whatever reasons that changed and the only way to see or go through the locks was through an expensive excursion which we didn't do. Colon is a bit hinky and I didn't feel safe walking alone outside of the port area. Next cruise there we may try something.
We did a canal and rainforest tour. Blessed with actually seeing sloths and other wildlife. Mock plantation was also interesting. Note: it's a rain forest and it pours so bring an umbrella or rain poncho.
We've been to cozumel many, many times and these days there are at least 7 ships in port at the same time which makes for crowds everywhere downtown and near the ports. We generally stay on the ship but this time we did an excursion that took us to the non touristy parts of the island we've never seen. Made fajitas with a local family, went to a small distillery, and a beach on the other side of the island.
What a hot mess. We opted for the latest time allowed to get off the ship thinking we'd just grab our luggage and breeze through customs . Wrong! Very crowded, had to do a scavenger hunt for our bags, a good half hour wait to nab a porter (we passed on that) but a 30 minute wait to clear customs as this Journey cruise required a manual check of passports.
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