The ship was fantastic. Gorgeous design, expensive materials, great facilities. One major inconvenience: their valet laundry service was outrageously expensive, but the self-service laundry room had insufficient capacity, we had to wait 2 hours to do our laundry because there were only two washing machines and 4 dryers for 3 decks!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
1 out of 5
The buffet food was of a fast-food joint/diner quality (no complaint about the quantity there!). In the formal dining room, the food on the first night was still OK. Then, starting from the second day, it really went downhill. The problem was that Carnival doesn't get fresh food in ports, instead they freeze all the food supplies and defreeze them right before cooking. They make very nice presentation of their meals, but you can really taste that all the produce was frozen and over-marinated for preservation.
Entertainment
1 out of 5
Their programs didn't fit with our taste at all. We looked for jazz music or live music performances and couldn't find any. I think they only scheduled them for half-hour a day and at most inconvenient times. We liked the Broadway-style show on the second night, but that was the only one for the whole cruise. One evening, the weather didn't permit outside walks and we looked for a nice cozy bar to relax in but everything was closed before 11:30pm!!! At night, we could only find a loud disco or a cheezy one-man singing show in the casino. For someone who doesn't spend all their time in the casino, it's quite boring during a sea day on the ship! Also (see more below), they should have a playroom/playground for small children where parents can also stay! Our toddler was bored the whole time.
Children's Programs
1 out of 5
The only reason we went with Carnival was because they offer child care for toddlers, and that was a huge dissappointment! Our 2.5 year old son had a hard time adjusting to their "Camp" room and the Camp staff didn't really want to bother to help him. The room had very limited choice of toys and was quite boring. Their scheduled activities were never on time and not as engaging as they should be. After all, the ship did not have any other play facilities for kids where parents could stay with their kids, so we ended up being stuck in our room or just walking the decks with a very bored toddler.
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
We had a balcony suite, and it was superb. Beautiful wooden floor, nice furniture, beautiful expensive (Murano Glass!) lamps, the bathroom was all marble and granite with modern european shower and faucet fixtures. The jaccuzzi bath tub was dissappointing though (they have much better ones in the Penthouse Suites).
We only had a couple of hours to walk around the old town, and it was just enough. The town is beautiful and has a rich history. We read about it before we arrived and it made our walk even more enjoyable.
There is nothing interesting to see in Tortolla. We went to the Cove Garden Bay beach, and it was very similar to the Megan's Bay beach in St. Thomas. I would have preferred to stay another night in St. Thomas instead of wasting 1/2 day in Tortola.
We didn't do any excursions, but instead headed straight to the beach. Megan's Bay beach was absolutely beautiful, perfect for our toddler to splash in the shallow still water and play with the sand very close to us.
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