Beautiful new ship with lots of pros and some cons

Item: Carnival Jubilee
Rating: 4.2
Author: danley2

Carnival Jubilee Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

danley2

Contributor Level: Second Mate

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 7

Helpful Votes: 149

Overall rating:

4.2 out of 5

7 Night Western Caribbean (Galveston Roundtrip)

Sail date: April 20, 2024

Ship: Carnival Jubilee

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: 15306

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 6 months ago

Review summary

The ship is beautiful and the service is excellent. Shows were hit or miss. Food quality overall was good. Next time I will avoid eating at Lido buffet, Chibang and Beach Buns and skipping the main dining room altogether. Definitely check out the steakhouse and the Italian restaurant. Also, if you want to start getting free interior room offers from Carnival, make sure you build up your gambling points in the Casino. I get so many free interior offers on a weekly basis and I'm not a heavy gambler. I just wish I could cruise that often.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Arrived within our time slot. Onboard within 22 minutes. Fast and efficient

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

The Steakhouse and the Italian restaurants were the best food with the best taste. Service was exceptional. Beach Buns was awful. Tried eating a sandwich one day and a hot dog on another day and both times there was zero flavor at all. Pizza was as expected...not exceptional but a quick meal when you need one. Service at the Pizza place was very slow. One afternoon, there was only one guy working and having to make the pizzas and serve at the same time. Guys Burgers and the Smokehouse was exceptional as always. We tried out Chibang and were not impressed. The food (Mexican and Chinese) that we ate was bland. Service was exceptional though. We had seaday brunch in the MDR on two mornings. Both days, service was very slow and the food was bland. Didn't try a third time. We never ate in the MDR for dinner. We also skipped eating at Street Eats because they were either a) no open or b) nothing looked appetizing to us. The bars were all busy all the time. We loved Dr Inks and Alchemy the most for speciality drinks but spent most of our time at the Marina Bar. The staff at all bars was generally exceptional but we had a few incidents where we ordered a drink that had a spicy Rum ingredient. We received the drink and it didn't taste anything like it did the day before. When I questioned the bartender, she told us they ran out of the spicy Rum. It would have been nice to tell us that beforehand so I could have ordered something else. We had the drink package so we tried almost everything. About 30% of our drinks, we could not taste any alcohol (based on the same drink at a previous time). That was frustrating to have so much inconsistency

Chibang!

3 out of 5

Food was blah with not much flavor (both Mexican and Chinese menu items). Service was exceptional though and it was pretty easy to get a table quickly. From what I understand, Chibang is free of charge during the inaugural sailings this year. But I wouldn't go there again based on the food.

Lido Marketplace

2 out of 5

Served the same stuff over and over again. Had to eat breakfast there on 2 mornings and the menu never seemed to change. The scrambled eggs are disgusting and seem to be reconstituted. They only served bacon on a few days and they served it to you. The bacon was more crisp this time than other sailings.

Dining Room

3 out of 5

Long wait times for Seaday brunch. Then long wait times for food to arrive. Tried eating brunch there two days in a row and wasn't wow'd by it. Wait staff were very nice though.

Guy's Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que Smokehouse

5 out of 5

Wait time for a table in the evening was very long. We had to sit in the lounge area for about 20+ minutes before getting seated. The food was delicious though. We would have eaten here more often if it hadn't been for the long wait times. Based on the number of people there, I think the consensus is that the place is awesome.

Guy's Burger Joint

5 out of 5

My go-to on embarkation day. The lines tend to be long but moved quickly. I love these burgers and can't wait to get one each time I sail.

Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse

5 out of 5

Classy, exceptional service (probably the best service anywhere), and the food was so good. Never a disappointment and worth the upcharge.

Cucina del Capitano

5 out of 5

Exceptional service, exceptional food. The taste had that wow factor. Service was a bit slow though.

Casino Bar

3 out of 5

Service was typically slow. Of all the bars we visited, the Casino bars made the weakest drinks. There were many times I could not taste any alcohol at all.

Big Chicken

5 out of 5

Never a disappointment. The food is always delicious whether you get a sandwich or chicken tenders. Also, people don't realize you can get breakfast sandwiches there in the morning and avoid the Lido.

Alchemy Bar

5 out of 5

They have the best, strongest and most unique drinks on board. The bartenders seem to love their job. Nicola is the favorite bartender

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

I have been on 5 previous Carnival cruises across different class ships. Previous cruises had so many more interesting activities but this one was different. We struggled to find things to do during the day on sea days beyond bars and casino. There used to be a ton more trivia variety or pool deck ice sculpting.

Entertainment

3 out of 5

We watched the Love and Marriage show which was good. We also tried to watch Soulbound and were excited to see it. I think my expectations were higher based on show quality on Royal Caribbean. I expected more of a story/play with songs in-between. But it was just spooky backdrops and singing popular R&B songs. We ended up leaving after 15 minutes. We skipped the other show, Dear Future Husband, as it didn't appeal to us. They had many Center stage music shows with aerialists but based on our comedy show schedule or other things, we never saw them beyond walking through the area. The Comedy shows were decent but only lasted 30 minutes. You have to line up outside a minimum of 30 minutes early just to ensure you get a seat. One of the headliner comedians was hyped up but we found him boring. He spent most of his 30 minutes just interacting with people in the audience but he didn't seem to have anything planned for comedy. We had cruise director, Louis. We was engaging and visible throughout the cruise. I was disappointed though that Kyndall Fire was off for 3 weeks. I've sailed with her previously and love her.

Casino

5 out of 5

While it probably isn't true, my personal experience on several cruises is that winning seems to happen more in the first 2 days than the rest of the week. The place is always packed. The smoking area is very smokey and takes up about 25-33% of the space. The non-smoking side didn't smell of smoke at all. There are a lot of slot machines but they really seem to love Buffalo slots with at least 30+ of those and an entire small area dedicated to nothing but Buffalo. I didn't see the appeal after giving away a lot of money in them.

Children's Programs

Adults only, no children

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Service was exceptional almost everywhere we went. The specialty dining, room stewards, bartenders and other ship staff were always friendly. The only exception was the Pizza place and Beach Buns which they didn't seem to want to be there. I felt sorry for the staff having to deal with very rude passengers that were demanding and barking orders at them. It costs nothing to be nice to people and you get a lot more in return if you are nice.

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

It takes a few days to get your bearings on a new ship. We eventually found our best path and could remember which way was front vs back. For the most part, navigation was easy. The ship is beautiful and very clean. The only complaints I have are that the elevators are smaller than other ships and wait times were bad, especially on debarkation morning and the bathroom in the cabin was uncomfortably smaller than other ships.

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

The room was always kept clean. Our room steward was great and greeted us anytime we passed her. We had an interior cabin so we were not expecting a big room. The room itself feels smaller than other ships and the bathroom was tiny. If you sit on the toilet, your one knee can touch the sink cabinet and the other knee touches the wall/bathroom door. I did like that the showers now have swivel glass doors vs the old style cloth shower curtain and always leak water onto the floor. There are 4 built in USB ports and several standard outlets under the mirror in the room. I use a CPAP and was able to string an extension cord around to the bed nightstand. The fridge was colder than other ships. We kept it stocked with water bottles and they were always cold.

Ship tip

Brand new ships are always fully booked. Be prepared for alot of crowds and people wandering haplessly when you are trying to walk around them. Things never go perfectly but you have to learn to adapt and not let it bother you. Just enjoy the downtime. Your attitude determines your enjoyment.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Galveston, Texas

5 out of 5

Embarkation was a breeze. Parked across from the terminal in the covered parking and the walk was minimal and easy.

Thumbs Up 0

Mahogany Bay, Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras

5 out of 5

Mahogany Bay port is far superior to the Coxen Hole port. But the port shops all seem to sell the same thing. Do people really buy gold and diamonds in these ports? Seemed like there were too many of those shops. I needed some Rum Cakes to bring home. Our excursion did not take us anywhere to buy them. I was disappointed to find that no shop in the port sold them. Seemed odd. Outside of our excursion, we very little time at the port shops. We aren't beach people but the chair lifts and beaches seemed to be a popular option for those that do. I've been to Roatan several times and they are doing a great job improving their infrastructure. The roads are much better than they used to be. We did the Brewery Tour excursion and Roatan Brewery. It was informative and the beers and food offerings were delicious. The tour was interesting and showed how creative they are to recycle and minimize waste anywhere possible. Operational expenses on the island are high so they find ways to offset it.

Thumbs Up 0

Costa Maya (Mahahual), Mexico

3 out of 5

This port is boring. They have alot of things in port to do because there isn't much outside of port unless you want to spend 2-3 hours in a cramped van/bus doing distant excursions. There is a swim up bar, an aviary tour, dolphin excursion, plus bars and restaurants. Beyond that, not much else to do. We spent about an hour in port and got right back on the ship. The port itself is very clean but full of too many people, especially when there are multiple ships in port at the same time.

Thumbs Up 0

Cozumel, Mexico

5 out of 5

There is always something to do in Cozumel. The port is large and there are plenty of excursions to choose from. We did a third party excursion for deep sea fishing and enjoyed it. But we were on our own for transportation to and from.

Thumbs Up 0

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

Very efficient. We did self-assist debark and grabbed the 8-8:20 am slot. Aside from fighting for an elevator to get from 15 down to 7, it was smooth. We only sat on 7 for 15 minutes before they called our group and we were actually off the ship at 7:45 and in the car by 8:05 driving home. It don't know why the freight trains always feel the need to block off exit roads on a Saturday morning. This is the second year on a row where we had to sit for 20 minutes waiting for the train to clear before finally getting off the island.

Traveler Photos

Deep Sea Fishing Charter-Cozumel Charters

8 Comments

Cruisers4Lyfe 5 months ago

Thanks for sharing

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Gwbigdog 6 months ago

Thanks for sharing

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Rehlah 6 months ago

We sailed on April 6 and your review matches ours. And 100% agree about Beach Buns and the pizza place. The guy at the pizza place had no help and other passengers weren’t that kind. When he handed me my order I smiled and told him thank you very much! He smiled and I could tell he REALLY appreciated the kind words! It’s not the crew’s fault that ships are understaffed. They work so hard and do the best they can - just smile, thank them and BE KIND!!! 🥰😍😊

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lsbs 6 months ago

Thanks for sharing.

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1rick1 6 months ago

Nice review, thank you for sharing.

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javawoody 6 months ago

Appreciate the detailed review

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HeavySeas 6 months ago

Thanks for sharing and glad you enjoyed your cruise

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cruising2004 6 months ago

Glad you a good time. Thank you for your detailed review.

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