We missed a day and a half at sea because of flight delays. The insurance will obviously cover you canceling but just about nothing else is covered. They don’t help when it comes to us having to spend more money because of weather delays. Flying in the day before is what we will look to do next time. Or get insurance through carnival
Embarkation
1 out of 5
It was terrible! We were scheduled to arrive in Houston at 10:10am and get to the ship by 3pm for embarkation. There was multiple flight delays through southwest and any other flights coming from the west coast. Carnival knowing there were delays did not delay their port at all. Nor did anyone seem to care about the delays causing us to miss the port. Our insurance through leisure did not cover any of the expenses we accrued to the trip. We had to pay to stay in Houston for the night. We had to pay for flights down to Cancun the day after. The night stay in Cancun and the 5 hour hour transport to the port the following day to just get to the ship. We spent over $1000 out of pocket for the trip down because of the delays due to weather. leisure supposedly doesn’t cover any of this. Another family ran into the same issue getting to Houston and did the same plan getting to the ship and didn’t pay anything out of pocket. Their insurance through carnival covered everything for them.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
The food on the ship was amazing. You can basically get any kind of food you can think of and most of it was free!
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
The activities were great. Just wish they would have been more accurate with the schedules. There were a few times where the schedule said one thing but when you arrive, it wasn’t happening.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
The dj and cruise director killed it. The cruise director Matt really knew how to get the party going.
Children's Programs
4 out of 5
The children activities were pretty good. They had their own club to hang out in and slides for them to enjoy. There were a lot of things towards to late evening that didn’t allow for kids which kinda forces you to either not go or abandon the kids to be able to go.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
All the staff on the ship were amazing. They even remember your names by day 2 of the travel. They seemed to never stop working while we were out and about.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
This could have been much better. We spent so much time looking at maps to try and understand how to get to certain places. Once on a floor, a lot of times we had to go to the floor below or above just to get to the other side, making it very inconvenient. Once on a floor, it would have made sense be able to go from one side to the other. Another thing, we were guaranteed to see plates in the halls from room service. Seemed like they took a while to pick up.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
The cabin was definitely spacious in a small way. Room service did a great job keeping up with cleaning it. Just wish the window to outside was somehow cleaner. It got in the way of taking good photos. Also wish we had an iron in the room which didn’t seem to be included.
Ship tip
Make sure you fly in the day before your port day. It doesn’t seem like much is done to help in scenarios of flight delays. Make sure you are budgeting for drinks if you are not buying the drink package. It adds up quickly.
Horrible. They did not bother to delay at all knowing there were weather delays for many people. They also had no organization when it came to arriving back and letting people off to go through customs. They did a horrible job explaining the process to us and took much longer than it should to actually get us off. The process can definitely be simplified.
Not feeling the setup for Belize. Did not enjoy having to get on a separate bot just to get to Belize and back on the ship. It takes so long and much more of a process. The port itself also didn’t really give you a lot of options when ported there. Just stores for the most part.
Cozumel port was also very very nice. They had tons of stores and places to eat and drink right at the port. Only reason it’s not getting 5 starts is because the dolphin excursion is not at the port. You have to take a taxi to get there which obviously costs money
Horrible. They really seemed to be lost when it came to letting people on and off the ship. The process seemed to be more confusing than it should have been. Especially getting off.
And sorry but they are never going to allow irons in your cabin. They are a fire hazard it puts everyone on the ship at risk.They do have laundry rooms on different floors with irons and ironing boards to use for no charge.
Thank you for the review. I’m not trying to be negative or pass judgement, I think additional info would help many people. Can you explain a little more about missing a day and a half due to flight delays? You tried to fly in same day, and because of weather, you missed embarkation? You then had to purchase additional flights to where, the first port on the itinerary where they allowed you on board? How/who did you contact to make those arrangements, because I think you said you didn’t go through the cruise line for insurance or air purchase, is that correct? So sorry about that, but looks like you made the best of it. Thanks for sharing.
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