I would not cruise Carnival again due to the mass of people and the impact it has on your overall experience. When I do cruise again, I'll go back to NCL. The only reason we chose this cruise was because of the itinerary (which was outstanding).
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Very easy and staff extremely friendly
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
Main Dining Rooms - Dinner - service was slow and menu was redundant. Breakfast - Sunday Brunch was same stuff as Bugfet but the menu when in Ports was excellent. The breakfast service was also outstanding.
Blue Iguana - Tacos were awesome and never a line.
Guys Burger Joint - Burgers were great. Wish hours extended a little further into the evening.
Guys Pig N Anchor - It was okay, the sauces all tasted the same.
Steakhouse - By far the best meal on the ship.
Italian - Dinner was okay and I heard the free pasta bar at lunch was really good.
Mongolian Wok - long lines all the time so must have been good.
Tandoor - This was good with nice variety.
Pizza - Pizza was really good.
Overall the service was so so. The lunch options were great - so much variety. The dinner was redundant and boring and the dinner service was slow. Breakfast was generally really good.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Pools were shoulder to shoulder and people constantly saved lounge chairs. Some leaving their chairs for 3-4 hours (c'mon people). It's amazing how disrespectful people can be. The waterworks was great fun for the little ones. The casino was nice (but excessively smelly). The casino staff was great and had the best bartenders. The serenity area was nice and much less crowded than other areas of the ship. It's a nice little getaway. But again people save all the chairs early on.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
Dr Suess at Sea was fun for the kids. Wish the characters perused the ship a little more frequently.
Children's Programs
4 out of 5
Nice facilities and great staff. They made kids feel very welcome. Camp Ocean gave us a break and broke up the day for the kids. Being at sea for that many days tends to get boring for the kids.
Service and Staff
2 out of 5
Service with a smile is all I ask. About half the staff were less than happy, whereas the other half were excessively happy. You never really knew who you were going to get. The amount of people on the ship was excessive. I've never seen so many people jammed into such small areas. This is my biggest complaint about this ship. It definitely hinders the service and I'm sure some of the staff deal with a lot of grumpy people. So I understand it can take a toll on you. Also, because there are so many guests it's hard for the staff to provide personal service to everyone on board. It's harder to get to know your bartenders / stewards /waitstaff since they have so many people to tend to. Major downfall.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
We stayed on Deck 8 Mid which was clutch. We essentially were able to avoid the overcrowded elevators and just walk everywhere. The ship was always very clean.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
In comparison to NCL, the cabin was not great. It was smaller and the bathroom was little. Overall the room was smaller , including the balcony and the decor was blah. There was a lot of storage space, which was nice. It served its purpose, just wished the bathroom was bigger.
Ship tip
Eat breakfast early and lunch and dinner late to avoid the crowds. Prepare yourself for crowds and get on Deck 8 Mid for ease of access to everything. Make sure to check out the Serenity Area.
The island itself is very run down and dirty. We rented golf carts to explore which was awesome. It gave us the freedom to explore and was a really neat way to explore the island. The beaches are beautiful. It's a shame the rest of the island is so run down. It'll probably be worse after Irma hits.
We never pick a cruise because of the ports, as someone said that can change for various reasons.
Cost is always a factor, and Carnival is not always the best. We have sailed with only Carnival and Royal, so can not speak for NCL. We book over a year out, and found Royal will drop their price when ever they have a sale.
How you are treated and how problems are resolved are important factors for us, and we think Royal is far better in this area.
So as ships go, we felt the Navigator of the Seas offered the best cruise experience for the seasoned cruiser to even those on their first cruise compared to the Carnival Magic. Another aspect to consider is how past guests are treated and rewarded for returning to cruise again. Check out the links below and you can see that Royal Caribbean offers far better benefits to continue sailing with them again.
http://www.royalcaribbean.com/cas/benefitsLoggedout.do
http://www.carnival.com/loyalty/benefits.aspx
I have cruised royal Caribbean and carnival. Carnival is the fun ship appealing to family and kids. Royal Caribbean is for the older crowd. It's very quite and laid back. Carnival is a lot more fun.
Mass of people???? Did you expect to be the only ones on the cruise??? A mass of people let you know how much we ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️carnival. If that was your only complaint that is sad. Happy sailing with NCL.
Mass of people???? Did you expect to be the only ones on the cruise??? A mass of people let you know how much we ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️carnival. If that was your only complaint that is sad. Happy sailing with NCL.
Either a fake review or inexperienced cruiser because a season cruiser would know don't choose a cruise for the itinerary only because if you haven't noticed with Hurricane Irma Itineraries are subject to change.
It still one person opinion, if you're not happy why stop someone else for trying it. Carnival is targeting the family and young cruiser. The other companies might be better but the cost in most cases are more than Carnival. You guys who didn't enjoy carnival just want admit that your decision was bad and blame it all on Carnival. You make your vacation not any company, if you drive to Vegas and didn't enjoy it do you blame your car since it got you there. Take some blame you and carnival share the blame.
If you have only sailed Carnival then you have nothing to compare With! We have done 8 Carnival and over 30 Royal and see a big difference. Turned down another free Carnival trip because it wasn't worth it. Check out my blog (above) and see where I rate them.
Don't understand why you blame Carnival and it was your choice. Something caused you to venture away from NCL, I'm happy with Carnival and would not leave if I am happy. So you wasn't totally happy with NCL either.
I'm going out on the Magic next March for spring break. Hope it is better by then. But I'm used to cruising during spring break. Lots of people and a whole lot of running and screaming kids.
My wife and I were given two weeks free on any Carnival ship and picked the Magic. (incentive to come back to Carnival) Hated it and turned down another week. We realised we had enjoyed the Conquest ship, just something about Magic. Will stay true to Royal
You tried a different cruise the for the itinerary. I give you credit for that adventure. Now you can go back to your comfort or preferred line. Happy cruising!
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