This was my first Carnival cruise, and I suspect it will be my last.
Embarkation
2 out of 5
This was among the worst embarkation experiences I've ever had. This was our first time cruising out of New York and I don't know if it's the terminal or the cruiseline, but it took FOREVER, plus it was very disorganized. All told, it took about 2 hours to get onboard.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
Pepsi products only, which is only a little bit of a bummer for this Coke loyalist. Cocktails were fine, as in not terribly made. But candy straws were all they had for frozen drinks and they were gross.
But the buffet venue seemed very claustrophobic. The food was average there. The Mexican and Burger stands were great.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
The gym was a little tight for me, as a tall guy. The freeweight area required me to duck a little bit in order to get to what I needed.
The minigolf was fun, although we did have a tough time figuring out where the second half of the course was because the real way to access it was blocked off for some reason.
We had friends that did the ropes course and they loved it.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
I'm convinced cruise stand-up acts are the worst. The comedian we saw this time around was bad. He simply yelled everything in a Samuel L Jackson manner, and it was your basic "The food on cruises is terrible!" "Have you met THESE kind of people on cruises?" jokes. We didn't laugh a single time.
Karaoke was decent. Their selection was alright, but there were better venues they could have held it.
There was a musical trio that played in the atrium area that was fantastic.
The opening night "Welcome to the cruise" show was really bad. It was like an amateur improv class with little to no production value.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Nothing jumps out about the staff, which is good. That means they didn't adversely affect our experience. Our room attendant was really good.
Ship Quality
2 out of 5
This was one of my least liked ship designs. We're used to being able to go from one end of a ship to the other without needing to go up a deck. More often than not, we experienced "You can't get there from here" with this ship, especially around the deck with the waterslides. We eventually got the hang of it, but navigating the ship was never intuitive.
The elevator situation is bad. I don't mind having to select your floor before the elevator comes. It's the fact that you have to specify how many people are in your party, as well. You don't get to just choose a number, you have to repeat the process for each person, and no one does it. So if a group of 8 people get on the elevator and they only called it for 1 person, your family isn't going to be able to squeeze on because the elevator thought it was carrying 1 person.
On embarkation and the night before debarkation, the elevator bay closest to our room was disabled so that they could use the elevators and the bays to manage luggage. Losing a whole elevator column is terribly inconvenient. Other ships have service elevators that facilitate this process.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
We cruises as a family of 4. Our room was good. It was spacious and the pullman bed was far better than the pullout we had on a different cruise, as it allowed us to still have walking space around that area.
I agree about the comedian's.... We never laughed so my wife and i never go to the comedy shows anymore. About the elevators I can't wait to try them.... I have waited for 10 minutes or more many times... This should help alot. Thanks for the review... Heard so many good things about this ship... Can't wait to board
Thanks for the review. Glad you had an ok time. Yes if you get to the New York port at rush hour it can take a long time to board but I wouldn’t consider 2 hours to be an eternity. True that the buffet is small on this class ship but that is because all the other free food venues are great that not too many people bother with the buffet. I’m sure you noticed the MDR food was pretty good too. Agreed it helps to learn the deck layout of the ship beforehand and don’t assume you can walk the length of the ship along the bottom and top deck.
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