Elizabeth Garrett

Age: 28
Occupation: attorney
Number of Cruises: 1
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Jubilee
Sailing Date: September 12th, 2002
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

Overall I had a great time on the cruise. Below I've highlighted advice and commentary by topics:

BOARDING--Initial Boarding and Final Disembarkation took a little while but were decently well-organized. Disembarkation in Cozumel was awful. When you initially board the ship, they take your photo electronically so it will appear on the computer when they swipe you sign and sail card, thus expediting reboarding in destination ports. Apparently the digital camera used to take these photos broke halfway through the initial boarding. Rather than have everyone have their pictures taken while we were at sea enroute to Cozumel, Carnival made each person stop for their electronic photo as they left the ship in Cozumel. The result was a disembarkation process that took 3 hours, with all passengers crowded in the hot stairwells above, not knowing the cause of the delay. What a nightmare, and it cut our snorkeling time in half.

FOOD--The food served in the dining rooms was pretty good. I was happy with the quality and variety of soups, salads and meats, and pleasantly surprised to see some meal selections each time recommended as light choices with calories and fat content listed on the menu. The food on the Lido deck (pizza, burgers, Caesar salad) was overcooked, too fattening, over seasoned and pretty much inedible. The Lido deck breakfast was ok as its pretty difficult to mess up yogurt, fruit and cereal, but otherwise be sure to show up for you seating in the Bordeaux or Burgundy dining rooms. Also, the sushi bar was good for late afternoon snacks.

CREW AND STAFF--All Carnival employees on the ship were a dream. At least 10 employees knew me and my friends by name and by sail and sign card number, and were always happy to help us. This made our trip very enjoyable. We also enjoyed that the workers came from all different countries. The staff even danced with us in the disco one night 'til 2am. Such fun!

CLOTHING--Be sure to bring a long sleeved shirt and pants for lounging/sleeping as the rooms get very cold, and also a shawl/pashmina or dressy cardigan for dinner as the dining room is quite cool. Otherwise, we lived in our bikinis, cover-ups and sandals, with sundresses in the evenings.

EXTRA CHARGES--I wish diet cokes and bottled water were free, but overall the drinks weren't that expensive (I spent $80 on drinks over 4 days and we stayed up at the disco late every night). I did take my own bottle of rum but we hardly drank any of it. The photos they take and sell weren't that expensive ($7-20) and our shore excursion (catamaran, snorkel, kayak, drinks) was only $45.

ROOMS--We paid $20 extra each to have a window and it was definitely worth it. Our window was big enough that we could sit in it like a window seat and watch the water go by, which was very enjoyable. There were 3 of us in our room and it really was not uncomfortable. The showers had lots of HOT water.

I had a great time and would go again.