Carnival Cruise Lines
Holiday Cruise Review
Western Caribbean

David
Age: 42
Occupation: College Professor
Number of Cruises: 1
Sailing Date: December 18th, 2006

This was our first cruise and we did know what to expect. We traveled with a family group of 16, including a grandmother in her 80s and children as young as 9. Overall, our experience was awesome, and we all say that we would like to take another cruise in the future.

The kids really enjoyed the pool which had a long spiral slide which was really cool. They would hang out in the pool for hours. The pool was adjacent to the open dining area where you could get food anytime, and they would frequently run in to get another ice cream cone from the soft-serve machine. The pizza place was always open, and we ate pizza at all hours of the day and night. The kids also had fun in the arcade.

For us, the cruise centered on eating – the constant availability of good food was incredible. Our waiters in the formal dining room were Cokurda (Coco) and Addy. They were awesome. Our group of 16 sat at two large round tables that were side-by-side. They would sing to us, and Coco did a different magic trick for the kids every night.

The entertainment was also great. The cruise director, Steve, was very funny and was an incredible violin player. His “Devil Went Down to Georgia” was amazing. The game shows, where members of the audience were selected to participate, were always funny and entertaining. Our 12-year old daughter was a participant in game show mania. Mel, the announcer, was great.

There were tons of activities, including putt-putt golf, ping pong, board games, a hairy chest contest, dancing on the deck, ice carving, live music, and so on – always something to do if your were up to it. Our family exercises quite a bit, and we used the exercise room every day. It was small, but included about 5 treadmills, 5 bikes and a couple of Stairmasters. There were also weights. My wife did one of the organized exercise classes and enjoyed it.

We had four people in four cabins, but it worked out fine. The cabin hosts made towel animals for us. Our shower didn’t work very well (low water pressure), but the showers for the others in our group worked fine. Two people in our party got sea-sick in the beginning, but my mom had some prescription “patches” with her that seemed to help, and she got one of the elastic bracelets (acupuncture??) that helped too. So, in the end, the ones that were feeling sick got past their troubles.

Our excursion in Cozumel was not so good (the unlimited snorkel) – there are better choices. The shopping at the dock in Cozumel was good, and we really didn’t feel the need to take the mile or two trip to downtown to do additional shopping. The dock was blown away by a hurricane and is under construction, so we had to take a tender (a boat ride) from the Holiday to the dock (a little waiting, but not too bad). The excursion in Calica was awesome (lagoon snorkel and reef snorkel from the beach). We saw some sea turtles and lots of fish. Much more expensive than the Cozumel snorkel, but the smaller group, better snorkeling area, and more help from the guides was worth the cost.

All in all, we loved the cruise and plan to go again. We would travel again on the Holiday.



 

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