I doubt I'll sail out of Miami again. I've never seen so much unwarranted skin on display, rude manners, and simply "WTF" moments as on this trip. As I said above, I can't blame Carnival. But I'm not sure I want to be on a fun ship if it means sailing with the great unwashed that this last trip had onboard.
Carnival Corp. would be well advised to establish interchangeability in their loyalty programs so that when customers tastes change they can switch over to lines that have a different focus, (e.g. Holland, Princess) and more discerning customers.
Embarkation
3 out of 5
Embarkation was perhaps smoothest we've ever had. A bit confusing not getting your room key before boarding. I suppose that's just post-COVID for you. But not having our stateroom ready when we boarded lead to a mishap on the Lido deck that put my wife in a wheelchair for three days when she burned her feet on the hot deck.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
The buffets were mainly standard fare. But the main dining room had a few exceptional items each night. And the staff were very welcoming.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
The clientele this trip made mixing less than enjoyable. Even the serenity deck seemed over crowded. Now that I'm in my sixties, I appreciate others around me to have a bit more decorum than those on this cruise. Perhaps it was indicative of Miami. We had never cruised out of Miami before. And it may be a regional culture thing having many locals aboard. Nevertheless, my wife and I more than once during the voyage remarked that we may want to look next time at a more upscale line.
Entertainment
Most of the cruise we were in our cabin due to my wife's injury.
Children's Programs
No kids.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
The service staff were all excellent and clearly made an effort to remember our names and our preferences. The only negatives we encountered were when the initial responder arrived from the med center to triage my wife's condition on the Lido deck. She at first acted like we were wasting her time. The medical center staff, though, were very attentive and caring. And seeing my wife, by this time, had bulging blisters the full length of each foot, the moved quickly and professionally to get her pain free.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Nice ship. very glad the casino skylight is glassed in to keep cigarette stink confined to that deck.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
Cabin was what I expected. Just enough room to be comfortable and relaxed. Because my wife had injured herself on embarkation, we spent a lot of time the first three days relaxing and watching the tele. The Carnival interface failed to recognize remote clicks often. And we discovered that when the screen froze it was best to cycle the tele off and back on to reboot the system. It would be great if you could swap the live programming options into full screen mode just like the on-demand movies. And it would be even better if I had been able to stream content stored on my phone to the tele
Ship tip
Don't walk on the sun-drenched pool deck with bare feet in September. Be ready to see every shape and size of buttocks and breasts. (Seriously, do these women in Miami not own mirrors?)
MIA is like flying into a third-world airport; it's filthy. Leaving out of FLL was much more pleasant. Miami itself is a weird mix of the vulgarly affluent and hopelessly impoverished. I see no reason to cruise out of Miami when I can go through Tampa or the Cape.
It's a pretty little port. Friendly locals. Not many shops near the port, which is good and bad. I'd like to come back when it isn't so hot and I feel more like exploring.
I really wish Carnival would quit tacking this tourist trap onto so many cruises. There is so few redeeming qualities of this Mexican port it isn't worth getting off the boat...even though I did. And again, once you get ashore you're bombarded with pushy merchants trying to pull you into buy junk. And when you do step into a shop, they often hang on your shoulder. I even had one tell me I couldn't leave without buying something because he had a family to feed. "leave me alone" just doesn't seem to be in their language. Ugh! I am so over Cozumel!
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