This was an amazing cruise, and its spoiled us for future cruises. Any cruise shorter than 14 days will never be long enough. The food was great, the staff was great and the ports were great. The only cons were the few excursions that got cancelled but we still had fun.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Pretty smooth process overall. The only issue was my husband, but that's because he is a British citizen and was in the process of changing his status so he had a travel and work authorization card and Carnival had some trouble recognizing it.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Blue Iguana Cantina
5 out of 5
Started eating here later on in the cruise and wish we had ate here more. The service was great, and the options are amazing. I loved the fish tacos while my husband loved the burritos. I loved being able to try different things each time. Everything I've tried was great here.
Steakhouse
5 out of 5
Had the lobster bisque and the surf n turf and it was phenomenal, and the service was good. The service wasn't all it was cracked up to be, but they weren't unfriendly. We each had the cheesecake for dessert which is impossible to eat because it's so massive but it's delicious nonetheless.
The Posh Restaurant
5 out of 5
Our waitstaff was amazing, we grew to know them quite well since it was a 14 day cruise and they were lovely. We thoroughly enjoyed coming to dinner and getting to talk to them each night just as much as the food. The food was amazing here as well, every single night. They had no problem customizing anything or bringing multiples of anything.
Guy's Burger Joint
3 out of 5
The burgers were alright but every single time we ordered from here they didn't make the burger we ordered like it's supposed to be made. The fries were good, a little spicy but good. The options for burgers were amazing but they never made them correctly
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
We played mini golf and basketball, as well as foosball. We did a little bit in the arcade as well. We really enjoyed these activities and they weren't crowded, especially since it was a journey's cruise and most everyone was over the age of 60 and not really doing this kind of stuff. We were going to go on the water slide but got intimidated since literally no one was going on it lol
Entertainment
3 out of 5
We went to one of the playlist production shows but wasn't really impressed, it reminded us of a high school production. But we did really enjoy the Love & Marriage show. The musicians around the ship weren't too bad but we didn't sit and enjoy them too much
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Everyone we encountered was amazing. Jayson was our room steward and was awesome, we loved getting to chat with him. Our dining staff was the real highlight, we enjoyed them so much. But everyone was so lovely and went out of their way to really cater to us which was so unnecessary in our minds.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
The cleanliness was always great, we never saw any issue with that. But the design was a little outdated. I know she was about to be dry docked after our cruise I think though.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
It was a little warm in our cabin, but we were able to get a fan which helped
This was a gorgeous port. We've been to Holland so we loved seeing the similar culture in this port. We went on an excusion that took us to a cave an then to Cas Aboa beach for snorkeling and it was cool, the beach was really small, secluded and nice. However, the coral was pretty dead and there wasn't a ton of sea life and the snorkeling was pretty short and they didn't give you fins. They also made us stay in a group while snorkeling which was lame. I'd imagine you'd have to go further out to see much but it wasn't the best snorkeling.
More of a review of the process, not the port. Our original excusion was cancelled so we got switched to a booze cruise catamaran snorkel, but we didn't mind too much since it went to the same places our original one was going to go to. However the snorkeling was crap and the excursion took about 6 hours and ended up getting back late so we didn't get to see any of the port. Aruba was one of the ports I was most excited to see.
This was one of our favorite ports. Everyone kept saying we may not even want to get off the ship because the people are so aggressive but that's not what we experienced at all. We got a 35$ taxi into town and the guy stayed with us the whole time pointing things out to us and explaining things about the old city, then he parked and walked around the old city with us and gave us a kind of private tour. It was a really beautiful place. We would really go back there without a cruise, we felt safe and everyone was friendly.
They cancelled our original excursion, which was disappointing, so we just went snorkeling off shore on our own and it was alright. Then we ended up taking a city bus to Cemetery Beach(public access) per bus drivers recommendation to snorkel along u
7 mile beach, which was super pretty and secluded and shady. The city is pretty, you feel safe and the locals are friendly.
Loved this port, it's beautiful. We did ziplining and it was amazing. This is a gorgeous place. We'd love to come back here someday. The ziplining was probably our favorite excursion so I'd recommend it, even if it's not in Costa Rica
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