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Carnival Cruise Line

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Carnival Celebration

Wellington

We just disembarked from the inaugural Caribbean cruise for the Carnival Celebration. This my first Carnival Cruise and it will likely be my last. Overall it was meh, and the food was awful and service was awful everywhere except two bars and the cabin staff. 

I’ll start with positives. The ship itself is physically nice as any new ship should be. The cabins are well designed and comfortable if small. We put the kids in their own balcony cabin and my wife and I in another and that seemed to work. Many of the bar and cabin staff members are helpful, and some are standouts. Jason, Stefan, and the rest of the bartenders at Alchemy are solid. The Golden Jubilee was the only bar with decent wine and it was my favorite spot for that reason along with the good service. Our cabin attendant has also been wonderful. She and the Golden Jubilee and Alchemy bartenders all deserve five stars. The three violinists who performed both on the main stage and in Golden Jubilee were great. The brewmaster was fun and we enjoyed the brewery tour. The Carnival Kitchen was fun and they saved our poor performance by bringing out good Indian food rather than having us eat the marginal Indian food we cooked ourselves. That was a nice touch, and I think one of only two good meals we had. The piano bar is definitely a good time, but the waitresses were meh, and the trivia staff at limelight are fun. As for the drinks themselves, except for the Alchemy mixed drinks and the wine at Golden Jubilee most are average at best and many are truly bad. There is good beer to be found in the aft BBQ place/Hero's Lounge.

Now for everything else. The food was one of the worst parts of the cruise. Service being the other. With the exceptions of the multi-course Chef's table, the Carnival Kitchen and Rudi's seafood (all extra which is fine) none of the food service staff is particularly helpful or friendly, and god forbid you ask for anything like crab claw crackers or seafood forks at the Seafood Shack.  The seafood shack staff were simply jerks when I asked for them after paying. The steakhouse was okay and an up-charge, but the New York Strip was definitely not prime, but edible enough and the staff there were pleasant. The Green Eggs and Ham breakfast was inedible, but one of the kids had fun. Frankly, I didn’t have a single decent breakfast on board, even in Festival. How are eggs that difficult to make? The buffet on the Lido deck is marginal, with the exception of breakfast. Breakfast there was inedible and they handed out bacon carefully like it was prime rib. There's also the issue of being run over by restaurant staff several times both in the Lido Cafe and Festival. It was not only me who was actually pushed out of the way, but also my wife and daughters. I walked away to avoid losing my temper. Rude beyond belief and rage inducing to say the least. Long story short if you pay additional then you get edible food. Not good food or great food, but edible. If you don't then you get awful food. 

I also reserved massages for my wife and I using their app and when I tried to get the second massage moved under my wife's name (they reserved both under my name at the same time), the staff over the phone told me they would charge 50% cancellation fee. My wife went to guest services and they fixed that issue, but we didn't go to the spa given the phone treatment. The overall poor service is a deal breaker for me. I also didn't bother with the casino because I didn't want to give this company anymore money. The app itself needs work. 

The comedy shows have been pretty meh. The PG versions were ok, but the adult ones were just bad. I'm into over the top adult humor, so don't take this as me being offended, but they weren't funny. I'm also not sure the racial jokes were a good idea (seriously?) and again I'm anything but easily offended. These just weren't well written. I'd be surprised if people haven't complained. 

And for the crowd, two women cursed each other out over an elevator the first night. Nothing like watching crowds of people push and shove their way onto elevators in front of multiple wheelchairs. Part of the issue is the elevators are too small and weren't working so there were long waits. We also watched a couple punch each other and scream at each other in the hallway the last day. That was a nice touch for my 12 year old to watch domestic violence. Keeping it classy. There were other incidents. There are also the multitude of You Tubers sticking cameras in everyone's faces when we are trying to relax. Overall, my experience was "meh" to god awful, and not something I'd voluntarily repeat. I’ll stick with Norwegian and am thankful that my first cruise wasn’t this one because I’d never cruise again!

Never again

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