I liked everything except for:
- high gratuity ($90 per person is ALOT!!!!)
- rude stateroom steward
- poor Embarkation/Disembarkation experience
Embarkation
1 out of 5
4/28/18 we were in line for about 2 hours before getting on the ship. We got on the ship at about 11am and were told that our room will be ready @ 1:30 and we'll get luggage at 6pm the latest. So after we had lunch on Lido deck we are all tired, sweaty (we flew in from Seattle) and were waiting on the stairs of the second floor for our room to be ready. I got yelled at by Joaquim (who turned out to be our steward, more about him later) for trying to get to our room before 1:30pm. Finally @ 1:30 pm we got to our room and tried to sleep a little. 30 min later, there was a knock and the door opened without us answering it. It was Joaquim who told us he is not done cleaning the room yet and he started frantically wiping surfaces. Thanks God we weren't naked. He was very rude, so I was happy when he left. Overall, when you knock on the locked door, you should wait for an answer before allowing yourself in.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Food was amazing, service was very prompt. We didn't get booze packages, so we didn't use any of the bars, but everyone in the Posh restaurant were awesome.
However, $90 gratuity per person is too high for someone who doesn't drink!
The Posh Restaurant
5 out of 5
Lilex was amazing. She deserves to be a head of the stuff. She's so sweet and very kind and always happy to see us.
Anak and Suityono made our dinners so much fun. Anak with his dancing moves and Nono with his jokes.
All 3 of them made every dinner an amazing experience, thank you so much guys!
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
we only went to the show @ 8pm, since my mom doesn't speak English very well, so not much feedback here. Overall, activities were well organized and fun (especially lip sync and hairy chest contests on Deck 9). Malcolm is one of a kind (wohoo!) :)
Entertainment
4 out of 5
see my above comment. Show with dancers/singers is amazing, we had a blast!
Children's Programs
no kids with us
Service and Staff
2 out of 5
Note: this is for Joaquim specifically, our steward. Never in my life I had a staff member treating us so rude.
We later found that $200 disappeared and my mom left it in her purse. We decided to do a last minute room clean before we left the ship (on 5/4) and then she discovered that $$ is gone and the ONLY person that was in our room is him. Of course I can't prove anything, but it's obvious what has happened.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
everything was very clean, shops were shops :)
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Cabin was amazing, we expected it to be much smaller. Storage space was good, there were lots of hangers.
Ship tip
- expect long embarkation process (to and from)
- expect $90 per person gratuity (which I don't think is fair for someone who didn't use 80% of bars/restaurants like us, since we didn't drink).
Jamaica was good and I liked that there was a mini-market right before we got back on the ship. However all activities are 2 hour away from the port and it's a looooong drive.
So we drove 4 hours just to have 1.5 hour activity so we had to get on board on time.
Love love love! We did sting ray swimming, turtles, snorkeling, visit to Hell and lunch by the ocean. Everything was top-notch, I highly recommend Captain Marvel tour company.
We didn't do any excursions there, just went shopping. They have this big mall right by the port, so there's where we spend our $$ :)
I've been to Mexico many times before, so no surprises there
5/5/18. We were kicked out of our room by Joaquim @ 8:30. There was a delay of letting people off the ship, so we waited for 3 (!!!!) hours with our luggage and everything. Thank God we were able to find a spare table on the deck 9, but other people were standing all this time on deck 5.
Overall, embarkation experience was one of the worst ones on this ship.
Gratuities can be removed at the pursers desk so that you can decide and pay on your own...we do each year because we dont eat at main dining, but do use camp carnival (whose staff does not share in gratuities)...
Not sure what the $90 gratuity has to do with the fact that you don't drink? That money gets spread across stewards, assistants, waiters, even cleaning and laundry staff. And sometimes there are delays on the ships that are out of Carnival's control. Maybe a land based vacation or resort would better suit you.
I'm sorry you had a bad experience. If you consider how many people that $90 is split between, I would say that's pretty fair. We always pay gratuties up front and give extra throughout the week.
$90 per person for a week vacation....to be split between your room stewards, waiters, amongst others....I think that’s pretty reasonable. Room stewards- sorry you experienced that. Glad I never have. They’ve always been great!
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