We would not take this Carnival Canadian cruise again, but would like to try the Holland America Canadian cruise.

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 6

Review summary

Where to start? How about context? My wife and I are not frequent cruisers. We cruise out of Boston as we live in that area. We have taken the NCL cruise out of Boston to Bermuda 3 times and that ship’s repositioning cruise once in the last eight years or so. We loved all four cruises. In a nutshell: We would not take this Carnival Canadian cruise again, but would like to try the Holland America Canadian cruise. The ports were great, but the ship, entertainment, food and service was inferior to the NCL cruises and left much to be desired. Pros: I liked the waterslide. The “Serenity” areas for 21+ were good, but not without problems (more in cons). Our inside cabin was great as was the daily cabin service: all was very clean, reasonably well stocked and very spacious for us. Guy’s Burgers were great, as were the tacos at the taco stand. In the dining rooms, the following were great: flatiron steak, bolognese lasagna, filet, melting chocolate cake. Two of the four comedians where good, the piano bar is good (we always like piano bars). Cons: While none of the food was spoiled/bad, very little of it was better than okay. The service in the main dining rooms (Platinum and Golden) was very slow, not planned and casual slow, but irregular and too slow. One might wait half hour for apps, but then be served the entree prior to finishing the app, then again wait a half hour for dessert. The wait staff periodically does 3-4 minute long, odd dances to loud music in the dining room in the middle dinner. I guess some people like this, but few people we ever sat with did, nor did we. Once our waiter was serving salads and stopped with only one left to be served at our table, danced for a few minutes then, sweating, came back to serve that last salad only to find it had been taken off the serving tray by some other waiter. Twenty minutes after the interruption, the last salad was served. While the cruise was almost entirely smooth sailing, twice food was spilled on me as it was served (once was just bread, do no big deal), and I witnessed others experience the same problem. The buffet food was okay, but the seating areas, while regularly tended to, were always dirty, particularly the seats, which I think they never cleaned. The tables were regularly wiped, but never with much effort, often missing areas, and just about never removing any dried on condiments, spills, etc. We learned it was always necessary to check flatware and glassware prior to use. I know that often stuff comes out of a dishwater with lipstick still on the top of a class or food dried on flatware, but it was clear that staff did not inspect things prior to putting them out for passenger use. The main entertainment, in the Amber Theatre, was generally average quality at best. The 21+ “Serenity” deck areas literally surrounded the young child area, including an outside playground type of area. Needless to say, this positioning afforded only a minimum amount of serenity, yet the “Serenity” area(s) was still better than the mayhem that generally existed around other deck areas. The Serentity area(s) offered two hot tubs and showers, but no pool. At the other end of the ship, and several flights of stairs way was an adults only pool. There was exactly one place, a hut near the main pool, on the entire ship to get towels and various sports equipment. There was virtually always a line. Never was staff distributing towels. Two pool towels were available in our cabin, but who wants to carry them around? The accounting of towels and sports equipment was done by the one guy in this one hut using paper and pencil. The whole situation was genuinely surreal. Speaking of lines, on this cruise, lines were everywhere. To get into dinner, assigned time or not, you waited in line. Once we waited 35 minutes, only to get a pager that required another 20 minutes. The line at the water slide was very long – I went during a day in port when my wife and I decided not to leave the ship. The lines for entertainment often ran a third the length of the ship. Some bars were never opened, such as the one in the Serenity area. The shades blocking the windows overlooking the water behind the bar in the Ebony Lounge were never opened. I guess opening them in the morning and closing them prior to shows at night was just too much effort, even when this passenger requested they be opened. Another oddity I wanted to add, was that I used the bar soap in the cabin, but it was never replaced. When I got to the last sliver, I phoned and was told that it was sponsor supplied and they are probably out, so I might not be able to get anymore. I got a call back to learn they were bringing some up. This was the only hiccup/oddity having to do with the cabin. Frankly, I could go on, but I think anyone still reading gets a clear picture. It seemed that, overall, most all staff and all functions, etc. existed strictly to get their job done to some letter of the rule/principle, but never in the spirit of customer satisfaction.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Boston, Massachusetts

Portland, Maine

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Sydney, Nova Scotia