Hello everyone! We are back from our cruise on the Celebration and Dave, we are HOOKED!
My husband is already planning our next cruise.
We knew that the Celebration was one of Carnivals oldest ships and not as big as most of the others, but, this being our first cruise, it was plenty big for us. It may have not had the “WOW” factor when you entered the lobby area, but it is in immaculate condition and white glove clean.
The embarkation process was not as smooth as I had hoped it would be, but customs and Carnival kept the line moving as fast as possible.
We found our room, which was very nice. I have heard people say that the rooms on cruise ships are not big enough to turn around in. In our case, the room was plenty big enough. The bath was very small, but how much time do you want to spend in the bathroom anyway
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We were hungry enough to start chewing on the furniture by this time, so to the Lido deck we go.
Lido deck is where the pool and buffet are located. The food on the buffet left a lot to be desired, but like the comedians always said, “It’s free”.
Anyway, they have burgers, hot dogs, fries, and a different theme each day, Italian, Mexican, ect. We did not do the Drink Card thing, you have to go to the bar to get the soft drinks, and they are always too busy serving the alcoholic drinks than to serve you, you have to wait too long for a Coke, then your food is cold. There is iced tea, not sweet enough for us southerners, but the fruit punch and lemonade were sweet and delicious. Tons of deserts, ice cream and frozen yogurt machines, and 24 hour Pizza, which was not Pizza Hut, but good.
There was always something for you to do onboard the ship, so you were hard pressed to be board. The first day they had a free liquor tasting!! It was so funny to see the little old ladies shooting shots of liquor. We saw a great show with the Celebration dancers and the comedians were side splitting funny. We also did some of the game show things like Millionaire and the Newlywed game (not to be missed!!).
Our cabin was always cleaned and stocked each time we returned to our cabin. Turn down service at night and the cute towel animals. The beds are SUPER comfortable and the pillows too!
We had a late seating for dinner in the Vista Dinning Room. Our waiters Senvil and Morty (we all called him that because he is from Bali and we could not pronounce any of his 4 names), they gave us top notch service and learned very quickly what each person liked and did not like. For instance, who liked tea to drink, or wine, or water. On the third night, Senvil gave everyone a dessert menu except for me. He came over to me and smiled and said, “Melting Chocolate Cake?” I had one every night!! The waiters put on a show for us on three nights and it was a blast! We had 3 other couples at our table and all were very nice and easy to talk to. We ended up hanging out with two of the couples most of the cruise. Breakfast in one of the dinning rooms was only served in the Horizon Dinning room and if the same waiters that we had for breakfast were the ones that served dinner, I feel sorry for the people who had to put up with utter rudeness and lack of personality that the waiters in that dinning room had.
First day in port, Freeport. One word, RAIN, and lots of it. We decided to go ashore anyway. We took a ‘taxi” to Lucya(sp?), and after kissing the ground after the taxi ride
, we tried to do some shopping. It was raining so hard and we were so drenched, we decided after about an hour to go back to the ship. FYI, for the first time cruisers I will throw this little life lesson in. Taxi rides are $5.00 per person one way!! DO NOT let anyone tell you any different. We got in the taxi(which is a mini van in America) with 8 other people whom we did not know and we were taken to Lucya, shops and hotels and beach. The woman driving the taxi told us that it was $5.00 per person for the ride to Lucya, UNLESS we wanted her to come back and pick us up. In that case IF we ALL went back as a group, it would be $5.00 per person to take us back paid in advance, or IF we went back just two or four of us, it would be $25.00 per person paid in advance and we HAD to do one or the other or we would be stuck on the island and the ship would leave us behind. I could see all the other taxis waiting to take people back to the ship, so I knew that was BS, NO ONE said that they wanted her to come back for us. It is just sad to think of the people who fell for that as I am sure there have been.
The next day we were in Nassau, and as the ship was pulling into port, I looked out the window and what did I see, RAIN. But, we went ashore and went to Atlantis, which was breathtaking! After the rain stopped we finally got to see the blue water and had a blast. It was still cloudy, but we were in the Bahamas mon….
It is true what they say about the town closing down at 6:00pm. We did what little shopping we had time for and back to the ship it was. We came out of the straw market and were talking about finding a taxi(mini vans again) to take us back and a tour van was parked in front of us and the nice, well dressed man offered to take us back for the usual $4.00 per person. He took is on a mini-tour of the city on the way and explained what we were seeing, which he was in no way obligated to do. I put that in so the 1st timers would not think that everyone on the islands were rude and just trying to cheat you.
The last day at sea was fun, one big party at the pool. The hairy chest contest was hilarious. All kind of games in the main Lounge and sales in the shopping area. If you see something early in the cruise, WAIT to buy it, it will be half price by the end of the cruise!
Debarkation went smoother than embarkation, and then it was back to reality. I can see how it only takes one cruise to be hooked and we are!
I want to thank all of you for your advice. It makes the process more enjoyable when you have had input from experienced cruisers to guide you.
If anyone has any questions or comments, fell free.
Cindy
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