Over all, it was a trip to remember. We were with good friends, enjoyed the food, the entertainment and I even got a chance to relax on deck 11 a couple of days. Deck 11 is above all the partying so you can hear the music, but it's not crowded and people up there are just relaxing, too. The food was plentiful and I wish I could've eaten more of it. ;-) One thing they need to address is their app. I couldn't get that to work to save my life. It would have been very cool if it had. But we had no problems and look forward to doing it again.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Carnival has this down to a science. We moved steadily through the check in process, were instructed along the way what to have ready and were on board in no time.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
The main dining rooms were the way to go. The food is hot, which wasn't always the case when we went to the buffets. We didn't have enough time to try all the various places to eat so we'll just have to go again. ;-) More on the food: they give out popcorn during the movies on deck, but it's neither salted nor buttered, so all in all, not good. Also, we bought some caramel corn in the Cherry on Top sweet shop. It was $8 and very, very stale. I recommend you stick with the dining rooms, the burger, Mexican and pizza joints. The buffet was best for breakfast since you can go anytime and pick from a variety of dishes.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
We didn't participate in any activities, but we did watch and it looked like everyone was having a great time. It's just a fantastic party all day and into the night.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
The shows were fabulous. We enjoyed our time in the Rome.
Children's Programs
We didn't have any children with us.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Everyone was friendly, helpful and went above and beyond to make our cruise great.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Of course we were totally confused half of the time aboard the ship, but it was easy enough to find our way around. If you don't smoke, you'll want to steer clear of the casino, though. We hated walking through it.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
We didn't know what to expect, but the room, though small, was not bad and very efficiently laid out. The bed was comfortable and there was plenty of room in the closets to put our stuff out of the way.
Ship tip
Skip the Endless Bubbles pop pass. If you can do without the carbonated beverages for a week, they have plenty of lemonade, tea and juice. I think the pass was about $7-8 a day, but the only place to get pop was at the bars so it wasn't very convenient and we didn't get our money's worth. But if you love soft serve ice cream...it's all you can eat, baby! We did have ice cream a couple of times a day.
We arrived early so we wandered around for a while and had lunch. It was quite nice. We had good weather, too, so it made walking around outside very nice.
We didn't do an excursion, but we did wander around the port. It was all shopping. I think that the vendors and Carnival have some kind of partnership. I loved the shopping, but I will say that you should never buy anything without checking around. They haggle on everything! In fact, that got old real fast. I love to look around and might have bought more than I did, but the merchants launch themselves at you and start pitching anything you happen to look at. I was pretty uncomfortable and started avoiding eye contact just so they wouldn't start in on me. I did come home with a great pitcher set. The ladies in that shop were a lot less aggressive.
We took a tour bus to the Mayan Ruins. We had a great guide, Luis Eck. He was very informative, reminded me of a retired history teacher, actually. It was fascinating and we took loads of photos. On the way back, we stopped at a hacienda and had a nice lunch on a covered patio. It was a hemp farm originally and much of it was being restored while we were there. The lunch was light and tasty. There isn't any port to speak of in Progreso.
The cruise director, Jess from the U.S., gave a nice presentation on the ins and outs of disembarking. Just like boarding, everything was very organized and we were directed at every turn. We chose to keep our luggage and take it off the ship ourselves. Again, going through the checkout and customs was a quick, constantly moving line. Shuttles were running back and forth to the garage.
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