Carnival Cruise Lines
10 Reviews for Carnival Cruise Lines
I recently returned from a Caribbean cruise out of Galveston. One star for the fact that my waitress memorized the wine I drank on the first night. One star for the chocolate melting cake. One star for the fact that when my boyfriend asked the waitress what was better between the prime rib and the Lobster she brought him both. One star for the fact that we had the adult hot tub alone twice during sunset. One star for the fact that Noel cleaned our room twice a day, and we were messy. One star for the fact that the cabana pool boys where always smiling and offering the drink of the day, especially Kadek. One billion stars for the custom made emerald and garnet necklace my sweetheart surprised me with when we embarked. Minus one star for the fact that said sweetheart was also called down to security for bringing a diving knife on board and the fact that I'm pretty sure I gained five pounds. All in all, I understand why Carnival calls this a fun ship. This was my second cruise and I plan on taking my 12 year old son on the next one. There were a lot of kids & teens that looked like they were having a blast and parents that got to do there own thing.
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
Funny (2)
Cool (1)
I just got back from a cruise on the Carnival Fascination boat ... we went from Friday to Monday and went to the Bahamas.
Let me say first that I had an AWESOME time because of the company I was with. Probably some of the coolest ladies around!!! However, I can attribute very little of my fun to the boat itself.
1. Food- Pretty poor. I don't think there was really anything I liked. I mean, nothing was HORRIBLE either, but by the 2nd day i was so tired of the food... I know it's mass produced but seriously.
I also must address the MENU for the formal dinners.
They need to be MORE CAREFUL when naming their dishes. If two dishes are exactly the same, they should NOT BE ON THE MENU TWICE WITH TWO DIFFERENT NAMES!! (yes, beware, tiger shrimp cocktail and prawn something appetizer are EXACTLY the same thing, but both on the menu).
Also, if you call something a smoothie it should be a smoothie, not a dot on a plate with some fruit. Seriously!?!?!
ok enough about the food.
2. Service- Overall the service was pseudo-ok. There were several VERY rude employees, and the ones that were not rude were kind of irritating. Two different employees argued with my friends! For example, one of my friends wanted a different picture size and the photo-guy was arguing with her, telling her she should just cut it, it's only one dollar more, blah blah. Just give her the smaller photo!!!
Although it did provide us with much enjoyment, the other staff we had interaction with generally made us uncomfortable with their sense of humor.
3. Boat- Very cheesy 80's feel to this boat. I guess it was ok though. Nothing to write home about. I wish there was more pool. There are 2 pools. One small and one super small.
4. Gym/Spa- I'd give this area 5 stars!!. It is BEAUTIFUL. The gym is cool (temp wise) and really nice to work out in. It is also rarely crowded!!! The spa is all redone in stone and marble and looks awesome. My friends had some trouble with the spa/massage staff, however.
5. Activities- Other than docking and going to the bahamas, most of the activities weren't that attractive to me. Towel folding, bingo, game show, ...but I think these are typical cruise things....
So there you have it. I wasn't pleased with this boat... BUT, I did have an AWESOME time. Really, if I could review my friends on yelp they'd ALL get 5 stars.
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
Funny (1)
Cool (1)
I just got back last week from a 4 days W. Caribbean cruise out of Galveston and I loooooooved it!
My grandma treated my cousin (25) and myself (22) to our first cruise and it was great.
Carnival is definitely the "party line" of cruises. Bars/casino/dance clubs open until late into the night/morning. There were a ton of people in the 20-40 age group drinking and partying non stop.
But, really I think people of any age would enjoy this cruise. My grandma and her best friend had just as fun of a time and my cousin and I. She may not have been in to the dance clubs but, every night before dinner we met up with them at a piano bar called the Casino Lounge and had a few drinks and listened to some music.
And while we were at port for the day, Gma and friend took a shopping tour, and my cousin and I went snorkeling, rock climbing, zip line, and rappelling. They have something that everyone would enjoy!
The food was consistently good, not out of this world fantastic but, always good. In the dinning room every night they had 3-4 options for the app, 1st,2nd course, dessert and if you had wanted one of each you could get it! On the formal night one of our table mates decided she wanted two lobster plates and got it, no problem. As mentioned before there is buffets and pizza available almost all the time.
The service was excellent, I really like that you have the same 2 waiters at dinner and 2 stewards taking care of your room the whole time. We loooooved our head waiter, Erik. He was sooo fun and friendly. He had my grandmas bottle of wine waiting for her every night when we arrived for dinner.
And Mudy, our steward took great care of us, the rooms were always nice and clean when we came back from breakfast. He was always there when we had questions, was there when we locked our key card in the room the first day, and took wonderful care of my grandmas friend when she got sea-sick the first day.
Overall, if you couldn't tell.... I loved it.
My friends and I are already planning on booking a cruise. It really is affordable for everything included.
People thought this was:
Useful (2)
Cool (2)
I have been on three Carnival cruises so far, and I intend to go on more.
For starters, it is quite economical for a vacation. You can always find 4-5 day cruises (an ideal length, in my opinion) for less than $250. The price includes your room and all meals; you would be hard-pressed to find a hotel & meals of this quality elsewhere for $50 a day. Some beverages are free, but you have to pay for soda and alcohol. I have always been able to find a couple free drinks though, at receptions and liquor tastings and so on. So although your base rate is low, you can still drop fat cash on drinks, extra adventures, spa services, shopping, etc. It's kind of like Vegas in that way! I once had a $1000+ room tab on a 7-day cruise (then again, I visited the spa three times in that week). On my last cruise I only had a $300 tab since we only stopped at one port and I got just one massage. (sigh)
You generally will stop at a port every day or two. Getting off the boat at port is optional. This is one of the best parts for me; I always sign up for at least one shore excursion such as snorkeling, swimming with stingrays, riding ATVs through the jungle, kayaking, climbing waterfalls, riding horses along the ocean shore, SCUBA, etc. Every port has different options and each will set you back $30-$100. Or you can just wander around the island for free.
While you're on the boat, you will have plenty to do as well. Each night a booklet is delivered to your room detailing the various activities for the next day - shows, games & contests, demonstrations, etc. There is also a gym, a casino, a spa/salon, swimming pools and on-board shopping. Or you can lay around in a beach chair all day listening to live music and having fuzzy drinks brought to you.
Carnival delivers amazing guest service. Your room is cleaned twice a day (but only if you leave it). In the formal dining room you have the same waitstaff every night who remember what you drink and how you lilke your meat cooked. And if you have a problem or complaint, they will bend over backwards to fix it. For example, we were disappointed with a shore excursion once (out of about 15), as they kept having mechanical problems with the jet-skis so our time on the water was reduced. They apologized profusely, gave us a refund, and bawled out the vendor who had let us down. (Shore excursions are contracted to third parties, but they are rather picky about who they choose to work with.)
The food needs to be mentioned... you have several dining options: the formal dining room, the casual buffet-style dining room, several little shops here & there (deli, pizza, sushi are some that I've seen), and a simple room service menu. Then there are usually parties on the deck at night with another buffet. You can gain 10 pounds in a week; this is not an exaggeration. As for quality, everything I have had in the formal dining room has been outstanding. The buffet is fine, but it's a buffet. Deli was fine, but I've never been impressed by their pizza; I guess I'm spoiled by Chicago.
Being one of the most inexpensive cruise lines, Carnival's clientele as a whole is younger than Royal Caribbean or Norwegian's. (I have a friend who went on RC, and there was no one in the ship's bars after 9pm!) The younger clientele means there are also children on board. It's nothing like a Disney Cruise though, and you very rarely see them thanks to Camp Carnival - a daycare thing that keeps the kiddies busy and virtually invisible all day so their parents can relax and the other guests are unbothered. You can catch an occasional glimpse of a kid in the pool now and again, but for the most part they just kind of disappear. Nice!
Cabins are not particularly large or posh on Carnival - you could probably compare it to a Holiday Inn on land. The newer, bigger ships are the nicest, but the older ones are still very well-maintained. You are more likely to see the same people on a smaller boat, so if you want to mingle & meet people a smaller boat might be a better choice.
I've sailed out of Miami, Cape Canaveral and New Orleans. Miami is very cool; you sail past mansions and feel like the cruise begins as soon as you step on. New Orleans is cool, but you sail downriver for several hours first. Cape Canaveral was my least-favorite; you sail past nasty equipment sticking out of the water, and you have to fly into Orlando which can be hell for the childless.
To sum it up, a Carnival Cruise is great for young (or young-at-heart) people who want to have a fantastic time and truly get away without having to work for it. There's nothing like having breakfast on the rear deck and seeing nothing but ocean, then going for a massage before laying in the sun and listening to live reggae music all afternoon.
Now that I've written this review, I'm going to start checking out rates for my next cruise!
People thought this was:
Useful (7)
Funny (3)
Cool (5)
When filling out the comment card last week on my honeymoon cruise with Carnival, my husband and I both marked "NO" for the question "Would you sail with Carnival again?" We have several reasons why and until Carnival gets their act together, we will stand by our answer.
I've been on 3 Carnival cruises now (in addition to 3 on other cruise lines): I did the Alaskan cruise and a Caribbean out of Puerto Rico, and the latest was the Western Caribbean out of Miami. The Alaskan one was good- smaller boat, fewer people. It was also 10+ years ago so I think their quality has deteriorated since. Here are my issues that will prevent me from booking another cruise on Carnival:
1. The excursions are really a hit or miss. They are rather expensive, yet Carnival always ports in crap locations so you have to find something on your own (spending money to get to wherever you want to go) or pay lots of money on their excursions. I am 5 months pregnant, so it was difficult to find an excursion last week that allowed pregnant women. Most just have a blanket restriction on all pregnant women (what? like a pregnant woman can't be in shape and able to snorkel??). We booked an amazing sounding excursion on Grand Cayman- the Fisherman's Rock Snorkel. Turns out Carnival canceled the excursion without telling us (several times they rudely told us, no you should have received a letter last night under your door. no, Carnival, you skipped our room!). We were in port by 7am, but because our excursion wasn't supposed to leave until 9:30, we didn't find out it was canceled until 9:15. We went to shore to talk to the excursions guy to find out what we could still do. The only thing left (since we had already missed 2.5 hrs of the day) was the Cayman Shore Snorkel. Now the reason we had booked the other one was because a boat took you to a secluded area away from the cruises at port, so we kept asking the guy "do they take you on a boat or bus to the snorkel? do you walk there?". He kept answering "no, no, no, they TAKE you there". Well his definition of "take you" is they walk you from port about 5-10 mins. Plus he had us sign the receipt saying "$48" which we assumed was the total amount for the 2 of us (found out later it meant $48/person even though the price was really $35/person although we would never have paid that much if we had known) . The snorkel ended up being complete crap. They charged us extra for the use of a locker, the place was in full view of the 3 cruise ships in port, and there was almost no coral left in the area because the place allows so many beginner snorkelers who tramp all over the rock. To top it off, we had to pay extra to use their beach chairs, which were completely necessary as there was broken glass all over the beach. On board, we complained at the excursions desk, got absolutely nowhere with them, and they gave us an 800 number for Guest Relations. Since then, we've had trouble getting ahold of anyone at Guest Relations, they won't tell us what the excursions desk wrote down about our complaint, they said they would not be refunding us the excursion, and we were told the supervisor would call us back in 24-48 hrs. We tried complaining to the guy we booked through, but he said they are not allowed to contact Guest Relations on behalf of guests. Still working on this one, but so far I am not impressed. On another note, we were very happy with our excursion in Jamaica- ocean kayaking and walking up Dunn's River Falls.
2. Certain areas on the cruise are non-smoking, and yet, Carnival keeps trying to cater to the smokers and does not enforce the rules. The piano bar was typically smoky (we were in there with several people smoking), although there were non-smoking signs at the bar. Then on the Lido deck, we were trying to get pizza and we were disturbed to find 3 tables with smokers not 15 ft from the pizza counter. A Carnival security guy was standing nearby, not doing anything, so my husband went up to him, asked if smoking was allowed in the area, and when it was confirmed that it was not, he pointed out the tables smoking. The security guy then proceeded to ask 2 of the 3 tables to put out their cigarettes, leaving the one closest to us to smoke. We were also very disappointed to see that the cigar lounge was the one that had live jazz music so we couldn't enjoy it.
3. On my cruise out of Puerto Rico, my sister brought her son, who was less than a year at the time. Carnival charged us the children's price even though they had no food provided that he could eat. All he got out of the deal was an unstable crib and a high chair at meals; my sister still had to bring a week supply of baby food for him. Considering we'll have a small child if we go on a cruise in the next couple years, we'd have to find a cruise line that's more reasonable here.
So Carnival, you better start working on making your guests happy before you see us again.
People thought this was:
Useful (2)
I'm a big cruise fan. A really big fan in fact. To date, I've been on over 16 cruises, 12 on Carnival (and yes it's awesome being a platinum member).
As the others have noted, cruising with carnival is quite affordable. Inside cabins are the cheapest way to go if you don't care about having a window or balcony. If you want to spend more on your cabin and upgrade to something with a window, it's nice but not necessary. Carnivals cabins (even the inside ones) are fairly big compared to NCL and Royal Caribbean. There is room to walk around the beds and the bathrooms are small but could be worse.
The food is my favorite part!! Lets start out by mentioning that I hold a Bachelors in Culinary Arts. No, Carnival's cuisine isn't among the best meals I have ever eaten, but they are quite consistent and tasty. If you don't like something in the dining room, the waiters will bring you another entree or appetizer. Heck, I usually order soup, an app, an entree and 2 desserts. I'm a piggy but it's also my vacation and I'm not cooking :) I'm also a huge fan of the 24 hour ice cream stations, 24 hour pizza and endless buffets. As for alcohol, yes you do have to pay for it but there are plenty of times where you can get it for free, you just gotta do some research. Theres free champagne at art auctions, the Captains welcome party, wine tastings, and for the Carnival repeaters the past guest reception.
The excursions are amazing. They are expensive, but it's worth it. My favorites are just the trips to beaches to lay out. You can do as many tours as you want or none at all (you gotta do at LEAST one though!!).
Days at sea are also amazing. Sleeping in, eating, sunning, eating again, going to the casino, shopping, napping, getting a snack....love it! Those are times to just relax and spend time with family or friends you are traveling with.
All in all, I keep coming back to Carnival. I love the overall experiences and memories that Carnival has given me through the years!!
I wish yelp had negative stars because Carnival deserves all the negative stars I could give.
I've only been on one Carnival cruise and that was enough for me to decide I'll never step foot on one of their boats again. Until my carnival experience I was on the one cruise a year plan - but I normally chose Royal Caribbean. I was going on a trip with some friends and they chose Carnival so I decided to give it a shot.
I should have known when they canceled the first 2 days of our trip to give our boat a DEEP CLEANING because 3/4 of the guests on the trans-atlantic voyage before our cruise got sick, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt in thinking they would be adequately sanitizing the ship before our departure. Boy was I wrong. More on that shortly.
The boat was decent, not as nice as the Royal Caribbean boats I'd been on but not terrible. The food was decent. Not great, but it was OK.
Then came the 2nd night of our trip - formal night - and after our formal dinner we took a nap. I woke up from the nap feeling sick - I'd never been sea sick so i wasn't sure what was wrong with me. I tried a Dramamine and went back to bed. No such luck. I woke up again a short while later and realized that I needed to be sick. Once I gave in to that need it was downhill from there. I won't give you the details of my gastrointestinal dilemmas, but by the time my cabin-mate woke up I was literally curled up on the bathroom floor thinking I might die.
He carried me to the infirmary - which if you've never been is on the bottom bottom deck (think Leo's accommodations in titanic and you'll get it) and at the verrrrrrry end of the ship. It's a long damn way if you can't hardly walk from being sick all night. I get there and they inject me with anti-nausea medicine and give me a few pills and send me back to my room. They don't tell me whats wrong with me, but they do tell me that I shouldn't leave my room until I've been WELL for 24 hrs to avoid infecting others.
I go back to my room and take a nap - the shot knocks you out - and there's is a knock on the door. It's cruise staff and they've decided to move me to another room. JUST ME- ALONE and my fiance is advised not to visit me. Mind you - it's THANKSGIVING DAY and they are pretty much locking me away in a cabin alone. They put a nifty jinx on my key card so if I left my room and tried to use the card for something it would alert them that I was sick and shouldn't be out. Room service would only deliver me foods that were Dr approved - white rice, jello, sprite, chicken broth - you get the idea. This went on for 2 days. The doctor never visited me to make sure I wasn't dying alone in my prison cell/cabin. No one checked up on me at all. Ever. (except my fiance's illegal visitation).
On the morning of the 3rd day we were back at port Miami - which was great. I was SO DONE with this cruise it wasn't even funny. They distributed a note to all the sick passengers to meet in the Library on the _ deck for a special debarkation. Understandable - get the sick people off first (and separately) from the regular people. Sounds good, right? Not so. The Library was on a deck with NO BATHROOMS. Please tell me what genius puts gastrointestinaly ill people in an area with no facilities? There were literally people throwing up in trash cans. Disgusting, I know, but its true! We could look to other decks and see people getting off the ship, but yet all these sick people were still waiting in the library and it was over an hour past our "please meet in the library at 9 am" meeting time. Each time a carnival employee would pass by we would ask them what was going on and when we could leave. No answers, just avoidance. After about an hour and a half (the mother of a sick child actually called NEWS STATIONS TO report these conditions) we stormed the exit of the boat. When they scanned my card they advised me that I wasn't cleared by the doctor - really? Maybe because the INFIRMARY is closed today? I advised them to let me off the boat or face physical harm and they stepped aside.
As though all that wasn't tragic enough - I return home and a couple days later my carnival sales consultant (Karla!) calls to see what a wonderful time I had on my trip! I was sure to tell her all about my fantastic vacation in detail so she would be aware that I was SERIOUSLY DISPLEASED. Do you think she passed the info on for management to contact me? Nope. Do you think she made a note not to call me again? Nope. This was a year and a half ago and she still calls me every couple months to see if I'm ready to book my next cruise and every time I tell her.... I'M NEVER GETTING ON one of YOUR DEATHBOATS AGAIN! STOP CALLING ME! and it never works.
For anyone who might say it's my own fault I got sick from improper hand washing or what not - The only thing I touched that the rest of my party didn't touch was jewelry in the gift shop. My sapphire ring and necklace were certainly not worth it.
People thought this was:
Useful (4)
Funny (3)
I've been on a couple Carnival cruises and they have been GREAT! The ships are always really nicely done, even when I went on an older one that was just about to get remodeled.
The food is excellent! Everything I ever got was delicious!!! If I were to suggest something- it would have to be the fillet minion, and the ultimate chocolate cake. YUM!!!
They also keep you pretty entertained on those long days at sea. There are shows you can watch in the lounge, shopping, salons, gambling... you name it! When you finally get to a port, there are loads of excursions you can join in on. Last time I went kayaking!
One suggestion I have is that you should go on one that is 5 days or more. I've noticed that if you go on a shorter one, there are a lot of "low rent" people... I guess just because it's cheaper. Other than that, everything is great!
People thought this was:
Useful (3)
Cool (1)
Just got back....here is all I gots to say "get me off this damn floating turd!!!"
Absolutely the worst mini vacation I have ever been on. The food was horrible, the service completely sucked ass, the room was disgusting and I feel less of a person for being stupid enough to fall for the false advertising.
Die Carnival - DIE!!!
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
Funny (5)
Cool (1)
LATEST CARNIVAL UPDATE: just got back from our partycruise--- it was the best one by far that i've been on! besides all the obvious things like gorgeous beaches, warm tourquiose colored oceans, calypso music, tropical drinks..... some of our trip highlights included the first day getting deanna to go down that huge slide while she screamed all the way down : ), singing Sweet Caroline in the piano bar, lounging in the cigar lounge, the "solid gold" danceoff with amanda in the club, meeting mr cabin 9236 for the first time on the beach in honduras, tubing with flashlights through pitch dark caves in Belize and deanna making me do all the paddling while we bumped into all the cave walls. watching "the amanda modeling show" everynight in our cabin.....ooh, the Marilyn dress!!!! best day was MEXICO on cinco de mayo. being drunk by 11am and meeting a group of hot italian men..... the infamous show i put on for the entire beach in the water.... and then the one i put on later in apt #5 across from the beach. that drive back to the ship with Luca the hot italian..... Te Amo Con Todo Mi Corazon!!!!! the crazy pics we took. the cheesy dinner shows, the midnight comedy hours, making our "California" grand entrances at the club, meeting the hottest crew guy EVER, Sean who made us the official Valor cheerleaders and embarassing us in front of the entire ship. (go White team! haha) then for the final michelle-amanda-deanna "private awards ceremony".....DAMN! those connecticut cops, the new jersey guy who stalked michelle around the ship all week, the topless deck adventure and meeting mr cabin 1212. (deanna, you are my new hero). the Bingo game with amanda, the formal night and all that freaking food!!! and finally, michelles favorite, the night hanging out with mr cabin 9236 on the balcony........ oh me oh my.
mmm, the memories.....what an awesome vacation. thanks girls. oh, and one last shout-out that i PROMISED you i would mention to you Amanda and Deanna..... "DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE HAIR"!!!!!!! hahahaha!
ok, that's all till the next one--- and there will definitely be a next one.
UPDATE: leaving for my 3rd party cruise in just 5 days!!! this time i'm going with yelper Amanda H and Deanna Y. we're doing tabayna beach in honduras, cave tubing in belize and then to costa maya mexico for a cinco de mayo beach party. sooo excited--- stories to come after the trip.
ORGINAL REVIEW: carnival cruise ships may not be as fancy as the queen mary ones, but who cares. its all about the party. i've been on 2 cruises already and had such an amazing time on both. i admit, i used to be one of those people who was completely opposed to being "stuck" on some stupid ship....i actually thought it would be all old people or annoying couples from the midwest but i was totally wrong. the majority of people we met were young and from the east coast, score! 7 straight days of dining on lobster, drinking champagne, singing copacabana in the piano bar, dancing in the club, seeing comedy shows, playing black jack in the casino, laying out by the pool, partying with new cruise friends on the balcony of our cabin till the sun comes up, shagging the cute bartender from brazil out on the Aft deck at 3am.(did i just say that?) my first cruise was out of LA and it was a short 4-day cruise down to Ensenada. it was a bachelorette party and everyone on our ship was in the perfect 25-35 yr old age group. the carnival staff made sure to take care of our every whim.... my second cruise was a bit longer 7-8 days departing from miami and going to grand caymen, ochos rios and then cozumel. it was a girls trip and lets just say there was no shortage of hot single guys on the ship for us to play with. after 8 days of wild partying, we were beyond wiped out.... BUT being the true warriors we were, we bucked up and kept our stilettos strapped on. as the ship sailed back into port, we simply touched up our make up, took our vitamins, drank a gallon of red bull and hit up south beach for our final hurrah.(that's a whole OTHER review) i have nothing but great things to say about my carnival vacations and will cruise them again every possible chance i get. PS: very affordable too.
People thought this was:
Useful (12)
Funny (8)
Cool (10)
Hot and New
- Delano Hotel
72 reviews
Miami Beach, FL
- Tark's of Dania Beach
5 reviews
Dania Beach, FL
- Talula
8 reviews
Miami Beach, FL
- Scotty's Landing
12 reviews
Miami, FL
- Manhattan Cafe
2 reviews
Miami, FL
