Covid is the nasty secret of cruising. This is the 2nd time I have gotten covid on a cruise. The first was a Royal Caribbean cruise to Alaska in 2022. Luckily, this time was different. RC did nothing for us even though we were sick as dogs from covid. Carnival did everything in their power to make my quarantine comfortable and stress free. Plus, they gave me a cruise credit of my fare for the days spent in my cabin. A nice thing was that they allowed me to order on my cruise card, gift shop souvenirs and pictures and delivered them to my stateroom. Since I had a balcony cabin I didn't feel claustrophobic. Carnival had its medical staff visit me twice during the quarantine and were extremely compassionate and kind. Unfortunately, so many people on my sailing had covid, were coughing and sneezing and failed to say anything. This kind of behavior is selfish. Even though the US government has declared that covid is over...it is not. It is pure wishful thinking that if we just pretend this awful virus will just disappear. Cruiselines: shame on you for not doing more to prevent the spread of covid. This 2nd bout is making me rethink whether cruising is safe. Plus, there is nothing worse than returning from vacation and having to take more time off with covid. The reimbursed cruise fare does not compensate for the hassles this caused. It is just GREED that has caused the cruise industry to stop doing any sort of health screening to keep this kind of menace off of the ships. This would have been an almost perfect review for the Venezia, but for the fact that I got covid at the end of the cruise.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
My embarkation time was less than 30 minutes, even though I arrived more than an hour before my selected time.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
The food on this ship is a nice mix of elevated gourmet fare in the main dining room plus the fun foods like Guys Burgers, the Pizza and the Deli which all done to perfection. I like the fact that Carnival has the Emeril selections which were excellent but still maintain quality over the fun foods.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
I enjoyed the shows, and group activities on the Venezia. It was too cold to do many outdoor activities such as rock climbing or mini golf. I wished that the gym classes were later. The only classes were yoga and pilates at 8 AM. I overslept all of them. I wished that they had zumba, or spinning at say 10 or even in the afternoon say at 3:30 or 4. I also went to the spa and got a wonderful Fire and Ice mani/pedi which lasted well beyond the duration of the cruise.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
The staged shows were good. The singers and dancers were very talented and I also enjoyed the magician at the Italian street festival.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
My room steward, Constantin was very good. The dining room staff were friendly and responsive. My only complaint is that they are not very flexible with dining times and I had trouble scheduling to eat with a few Facebook friends who were not on the app. I did "my time" dining, so I never had the same wait staff twice. However, everyone served the food and drinks in a timely manner.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
This ship appeared to be new-ish so I thought the layout, art work and designs were beautiful and clean. No strange smells like on some older ships.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
I was a solo traveler, so my cabin was spacious and clean. The mattress was a little hard. However, after a couple of nights I adjusted to it. I particularly liked the fact that it had a plexiglass shower door instead of one of those nasty mildewed, germ-infested shower curtains.
I wished that the cruise line had a better variety of tours for Miami. It rained during our stop and so I ended up going to the Brickell Center Mall which was a little expensive. It would have been nice if there had been a tour to the Outlet Mall.
Ho-hum...visited the Ardastra Garden and Wildlife Center which was lovely. Otherwise, because there was a travel advisory on Nassau, I didn't spend much time in town in the shopping area.
Another ho-hum. I did the island tour of homes of the stars and the beach. Our tour guide repeatedly said we should try the couch fritters during the tour. They were greasy and kind of bothered my stomach. I wished that for the money charged, we could have had lunch, even hot dogs and burgers would have been better.
Thank you for your review! I will now wear a mask in crowds on the ship since some folks seem to not take appropriate precautions. Hope you are feeling better.
I was on this cruise sailing solo as well. I wore a mask anytime I was in a congested area and made use of every handwashing station I went by. Thankfully I did not get sick. I like to use my PTO for vacation and not sick time.
I’m glad they did the right thing. Took care of you and compensated you. Cruising is definitely a high risk environment. Your only course of action is to protect yourself.
In response to the above comments, I want to reiterate that Carnival cruise line CARES about its passengers. Covid "is what it is"... but I can assure anyone reading this that the staff of the Venezia during this difficult time responded with 100% compassion. It was a little frightening to be sick and solo on the cruise. However, by the end of the cruise I knew that they cared about me and that I will most definitely use the cruise credit given to me after this unpleasant circumstance.
Sorry about you getting COVID, but it’s bound to happen anywhere you’re in a large group so don’t blame the cruise line. We still wear our masks anywhere we go. I never caught COVID in the first 3 years it was here and in August we went on vacation and had to fly. Wore our masks the whole first day as the plane was cancelled and we had already been there about 8 hours. Second day almost as bad and we made the mistake of taking off our masks. Of course we got COVID. I was very sick for over a month and I had the vaccines and boosters. Please be careful and get the shots.
Sorry you got Covid, but you can’t blame it on the cruise lines. Any crowded condition enables the spread. Sounds like the cruise line tried to make the quarantine as painless as possible.
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