Overall, this was our first cruise and it was extremely disappointing. Food options were limited. When you book, there seem to be a multitude of options available that do not require extra fees. However, they are not all open at all times. Some are only open 1 day for lunch. So for dinner, unless you pay for speciality restaurants, you are limited to main dining hall or buffet. The pizza place is a joke. You can't even order the pizza you like. I don't expect to travel with Carnival again, unless they make some major changes.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Embarked on time. Lines were extremely long. Assigned boarding timeslots didn't seem to help.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
2 out of 5
Food options were severely lacking on this ship. Dined in the main dining room several nights. Waiters did not know the difference between vegetarian and vegan. They kept giving us vegan meals. The regular dishes, like the salmon and chicken were just ok. Food was not seasoned well. Even after going to the same dining hall, we had to explain dietary needs again every day and they got it wrong almost every day. Buffet options were poor as well. Meat was dried out. Key ingredients such as bacon for breakfast and jalapenos for omelettes were not available. We went to the pizza place one night and there are only 5 options for pizzas. You cannot have the topping you want on a pizza. For the amount of money we pay we should be able to order a pizza of our choosing.
Pizzeria del Capitano
1 out of 5
If you can't order pizza with the toppings you want, it is useless. This is no better than mall pizza.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Skyride was a great experience. There are no where near enough pools for a ship this size. We played trivia games once in a while. They were ok, except when we could not understand the questions being asked because the reader had a thick accent and was not pronouncing the words correctly.
Beach Pool
3 out of 5
Too crowded. Another pool is needed for a ship with this many people.
Sky Ride
5 out of 5
Great for kids and adults.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
The comedians were great. The DJs and performers were great as well.
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
Room Stewards were phenomenal. No complaints whatsoever regarding the housekeeping staff.
We were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary and my parents 50th wedding anniversary. Our travel agent said she would put a note in so that Carnival can do something special for us and my parents. She said they would send us cake on those days. That did not happen. I called guest services several times, then they said they are gifting us and my parents a $50 off spa coupon. They said this on the phone, but then when we went to the spa to schedule no one could find the coupons on our account. The coupons themselves were not much since the spa is super expensive to begin with. However, I had to go back and forth with guest services and the spa several times to figure this out. Disappointing and a waste of time. My parents cruised previously with Norwegian and were gifted a bottle of champagne on their anniversary. Same with Royal Caribbean. So this was a downer.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
Ship's common areas were clean. We were on the 9th deck, so noise was prevalent.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
Cabin size was as expected. Beds were comfortable and room was super clean. The Shower curtains would stink after every shower. They need to replace those with plastic liners. Other than that no complaints about the cabin.
Time here was adequate. We took a tour, went tequila tasting, had local food and visited the beach. We did not purchase and excursion via Carnival. We negotiated with the locals.
Did not purchase an excursion through Carnival, but hired a local tour guide. He took us around, we were able to shop, and see some sights. We also had a meal.
The debarkation time for Cabo was 6:30 AM and the ship leaves the port at 1:30 PM. You have to take water shuttles to and from so add a half an hour on each end for those lines. This was the shortest stop and should have been the longest. We did not really have time to enjoy Cabo. So I would consider this as part of the itinerary. Not worth visiting for just a few hours.
There are so many food options for free and the speciality dinning you have to pay extra, but are worth the extra price. Maybe you should of research the ship and all the food options before your cruise.
The food options will get better, but not that much better. I think the other guys are only slightly better. Just remember, instead of prepared toppings on a froze crust, your getting a pretty fresh unique pizza.
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