It was a little overwhelming at first but became very manageable quickly. Very nice ship and great food. The shows were amazing! The main dining room staff was awesome! Lots of staff in common areas were very rude and not happy, you could tell they were sick of people. Don’t waste your money on the coffee package, it’s a complete rip off unless you just want a plain hot latte. Overall it’s a great ship, just could work on their general staff. Maybe make some kind of incentive for them to be friendly. You could definitely tell which staff was working for tips and which were not.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
By far the easiest embarkation I have ever experienced. It’s a 45 minute drive from the airport but from there, it was straight off the bus, took a picture with an IPad, and straight to the ship where our room was already ready. Plenty of places to eat and hang out while waiting for set sail.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
The food was great and the main dining room staff was fantastic!! The windjammer was always overcrowded and was not set up to handle the amount of passengers this ship has. The staff and passengers were generally always grouchy in there. The coffee select package was a waste of money!! You could get a hot latte and that was about it. If you choose anything else, although price wise they were $0.25 cents more, they would charge you 2 drinks on your card which effectively had you paying more for the package than you would if you just used cash.
Windjammer Marketplace
2 out of 5
Plenty of good food, it was just miserable trying to get in, find a seat, and deal with all the masses of people. This was not set up to handle the amount of passengers this ship had.
Sorrentos
5 out of 5
A favorite late night snack place. Always quick and stocked.
Main Dining Room
5 out of 5
The main dining room staff was awesome! They always tried extra hard to accommodate any request!!
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
The pools were great and there was plenty to do. The only issue is with so many people, the lines for most activities were very long. Twice I waited over 1 hour for the Flow Rider, but it was awesome once you got up there. The Abyss was a neat concept, but way over commercialized. It was a lot slower than you would expect from all the hype, but still very cool.
Casino Royale
1 out of 5
I believe this was the worst ran casino I had ever been to. I am biased toward the tables because that’s all I play so if you play the slots, this review might not be helpful to you, there looks to be lots and lots of slots, so you might not have the same experience as I did. The craps table is a $10.00 minimum but at $10.00 you can only place single odds. You have to really put some major money on the pass line to get double or 3,4,5. Your commissions are paid up front for buying, and they charge a 5% charge for using your seapass card, but you get no comps for using cash. They are really hurting themselves by trying to nickel and dime people too, the craps tables were nearly always empty. Most other cruises, the craps table is packed and hard to get a spot. This one had 2 and most of the time both were empty.
Beach Pool
5 out of 5
Very neat concept! Loved the waves.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
The shows were absolutely amazing!! Broadway worthy! Make sure you reserve you seats before you get on the cruise. Lots of people did not realize you could reserve them so they waited in long lines at a chance to get in. If you had reservations, you just walk in and get seated right away.
The DJ’s and musicians were great!
Central Park
5 out of 5
Central Park was just beautiful!! Such an awesome, unexpected location for a cruise ship. Live trees and vegetation have this a real “park” feel and at night it was even more beautiful!!
Comedy Club
2 out of 5
This is something the ship really needs to work on. Carnival really out does Caribbean on their comedy. One guy was funny and that was about it. Sometimes it was just painful to watch.
Royal Theater
5 out of 5
This is right up there with Broadway. The stage is very hi-tech. I had read some poor reviews about Columbus, but I have to admit, it was my favorite!! I think some people don’t realize it is a comedy. The stage had a ship on it that became part of the show. It was very awesome how they could position the ship to make a prop the main stage!!
Center Ice Rink
5 out of 5
The special effects of the stage added so much to the show. The ice itself was a big part of the show. It changed with every scene change and at one point even appeared to be breaking apart. Very awesome!!
AquaTheater
5 out of 5
This was an awesome show! Had me holding my breath most of the time. The high dives and the tight rope walker were spectacular!! The stage was impressive on its own. It can go from dry stage to deep water in less than a second and supports multiple high wire supports.
Children's Programs
5 out of 5
Kids loved it. Always wanted to spend more time there. Don’t know what “fireball” was, but it was a huge hit with my 11 year old girl.
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
The main dining room staff was great and on the last night, you understand why. All of them was pining for more tips. Which is fine, they were awesome and deserve to be tipped well. The guest service desk was very nice and helpful. The stateroom attendants were very nice. Most of the other staff was less than friendly. It’s a huge ship with lots of people and you could tell that a huge portion of the staff was just fed up with the guests. And I can only imagine how annoying it must get but that’s your job.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
This was the cleanest and best layout I have been on. It was a little overwhelming at first but once you get an idea of where things were, it just flowed very nicely.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Very nice and clean. Great view of the port side. Enjoyed the balcony, took a couple of naps there. The shower has been enlarged from older ships and was very appreciated! It’s a small room, but hey, you really only sleep there.
Ship tip
Make reservations as soon as you can for all the shows. You will want to see them all and if you don’t reserve, you will wait in a long line and might not get in.
I had heard this island was so beautiful but we must have missed that part of the island. We left port to go to Maho beach to do the airplane experience. The island was in very bad disrepair, still recovering from the hurricane I imagine. I had heard people compare this island to Grand Cayman, even better, but it seemed like a very impoverished island from what I was able to see. The French side might be completely different because we did not go to the French side. The planes were fun to see but all in all, I would never really care to return.
Loved this port. We did a snorkeling excursion on the Fast Cat. You learn why it’s called Fast Cat right away. We were flying past all the other boats, jumping waves and just having a blast. Went to turtle beach to swim with the turtles and then to honeymoon beach for lunch and a little R&R.
We did the valet where they take your luggage and you pick it up at your final destination. We were able to just exit at our leisure. We waited at the coffee shop for a gap in the line and walked right out into a bus that took us to the airport, already checked in so we went right to security and to our gate. Customs used facial recognition so you just walk right through.
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