12 night Southern Caribbean Journeys cruise. The ship was one of our favorites. Great layout, lots of private places. The inside stateroom was roomy. We traveled as a family of four; mom, dad, adult daughter and 12 year old son. Every one of us labeled this as either our second or third favorite cruise of all time (we all have between 10-14 cruises under our belts). We tend to book for itinerary and like to sail out of the northeast so we can avoid flying. Dominica and St. Lucia are our favorite islands ❤️
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Showed up about an hour before our scheduled time (11:30am) and we were able to get right on board. Really no wait aside from walking through the winding ropes.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
Buffet was very repetitive. Same dishes for 12 days. MDR was reasonable. Some food good, some not great. Overall I’d say worse than NCL, better than our RCCL experiences. My daughter and I are GF due to Celiac. Twice I caught employees at Guys Burgers taking the GF bun and plopping it on the counter where the regular buns go causing cross contamination. They are supposed to do everything in the back in a separate area. We also found GF labels put next to the wrong food several times in the buffet and had to correct the staff. The level of sloppiness given to special diets was very disappointing.If you have an allergy or other dietary restrictions, be vigilant!
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
The ropes course, water slides and mini golf were pretty much always open when they said they were going to be, so that was awesome! The pools were tiny, so we didn’t really use them. Not very many scheduled activities on sea days, and this cruise had 6 of them.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
Definitely not up to NCL standards. Some of the entertainers were laughably bad. The comedians were decent. So was the juggler.
Children's Programs
5 out of 5
My son is 12 and utilized Circle C. He went every time it was open and didn’t come back to the cabin until 11-11:30 every night….so Id say he had an awesome time. I was surprised that Circle C often had the kids playing hide and seek and tag out on the decks. Now I question when I’ve read reviews of guests complaining about packs of children running “unsupervised” without their parents……it’s literally a Carnival sponsored activity!!!!!
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Most of the staff were amazing. I read so many reviews for this ship where people said staff were rude or unhelpful. I did not find that to be the case at all.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Ship is beautiful. We loved the layout. There were so many nooks and crannies to find a nice private spot to read. It was a full sailing, but you wouldn’t know it outside of the occasional buffet traffic jam.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
As a family of four, we are used to being shoved into tiny inside staterooms to maximize using our money for the fun things. This was probably the roomiest inside cabin we’ve ever been on in our 14 cruises.
Ship tip
Be vigilant if you have a food allergy or special dietary need. Some of the staff do not take it as seriously as they need to!!!!
I just finished the same sailing and shared the same feelings about this ship and all the staff of good people. Thanks for writing this review. Saveed me time to do it. A+
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