Sherry Bundy

Age: 41
Occupation: Housewife
Number of Cruises: 1
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Jubilee
Sailing Date: June 17th, 2004
Itinerary: Bahamas

I was a little concerned about going on this particular ship after reading the reviews. I really don’t have anything to compare my trip with since this was our first cruise. But I would like to say we really enjoyed ourselves. My husband and I were celebrating our 20th anniversary and decided to take this cruise and bring our kids as well. Our children are 15, 13 and 8. My children decided not to join the camp carnival so I really can’t say much about it other than we did see groups of kids playing ping pong together and the teens had the oz disco every night until 11:00. I wished my children had joined the camp carnival because I think they would have had a better time being with kids their own age.

We took the Jubilee out of Jacksonville, Florida. I was told that they have just recently started sailing out of Jacksonville. We found the port pleasant and the boarding process seemed to be pretty organized. It took less than ½ an hour to go through security and to receive our sign and sail account. Once we boarded there was a buffet lunch ready for us in the funnel bar and grille. We found the buffets to be pretty good. We all really enjoyed the 24-hour pizza and the ice cream. We never noticed any odors at all during the whole stay in the buffet or anywhere else for that matter. In other reviews people were complaining about the fans in the funnel bar and grille. They did have fans but they didn’t bother us a bit. The fans were there by the drink dispensers to dry up any spills so there was no one slipping.

We ate breakfast and lunch in the funnel bar and had dinner in the Bordeaux dinning room. Of course we also had the midnight buffet in the funnel bar. There was always something to eat. I never ate so much in my life. There were two sides to the buffet and one side was open at all times. At dinnertime we ate in the dinning room and found the food great. My kids loved trying things they had never had before. Our headwaiter Sydney and his helper Olga were great. They also do a little entertaining during your meal. We ended up having a table by ourselves during the cruise. It would have been nice to have another family sit with us.

My husband and I don’t really drink so we purchased the fountain card for the whole family. There was a hesitancy to serve us once they found out we had a fountain card. (It cost us $105.00 total. for all five of us. $92.00 plus 15% gratuity). We always had to go up to the bar ourselves to get our sodas. (Except in the dinning room.) We did purchase two of their drink specials. They are a little strong.

There was a little vibration on the ship that others spoke about in their reviews. You did notice it more in some places than others. It wasn’t something that was bothersome. In fact, I slept the best I have ever slept while on vacation. I usually have trouble sleeping in a different bed. I found the bed to be comfortable.

I don’t really know my cabin steward’s name but he did an excellent job. It seemed like he paid attention to when we left the cabin and was there cleaning it up or turning the beds down. The first night we didn’t get a towel animal everyone was taking about, but we did get one the second and third night.

The kids got a little bored on the last day because we were on the ship the whole day “Fun day at Sea.” There wasn’t much for them to do. The arcade was pretty small. I was also a little disappointed with the swimming pools. They were tiny. There were more things for adults to do than kids. (Of course there may have been more for my kids had they joined the camp carnival). The shows were ok. My kids really liked them though. If you miss a show or anything else that went on in the Atlantis lounge, they play it again on the TV in your cabin.

The ports we stopped at were Freeport Bahamas and Nassau Bahamas. We took the Glass Bottom Boat tour in Freeport. I was a little disappointed with that tour. I was expecting something like the glass bottom boat tour I had taken in Catalina Island. There really wasn’t much to see. The shoreline was really neat and we saw a lot of people having fun on the beaches. We arrived at 1:00 in the afternoon and left by 7:00 in the evening so we really didn’t have time to do anything else in Freeport.

Our next stop was Nassau. In a lecture by our cruise director she said to go have fun in Nassau during the day and come back to the ship at night. Bad things happen in Nassau at night. We had a snorkeling tour booked on Pearl Island. Now that was fun. The water was beautiful. They have guides who stay in the water with you and make sure you don’t get into any trouble. You are in the water for an hour and then you have about an hour and a half to two hours to go play on the beach, eat lunch, get drinks, ride the banana boat, or wave runners. We all enjoyed that tour. The only thing bad about it was having to go. It didn’t seem long enough for us. Once we were done with our tour we decided to walk around Nassau. I would not go back there again. I got so tire of all these people asking us to braid our daughters hair, need a taxi, want to buy this. They were like vultures. If it hadn’t been for the great time on Pearl Island, I would have been really disappointed. The tours really do book up fast so plan ahead. Have your agent get you a list of tours and research them and pick them out ahead of time.

We were told that the Jubilee was sold to another line and that it wouldn’t be with Carnival at the end of this year. I would recommend this cruise.