This was my 4th cruise, my 2nd on carnival and the first for all of my party. We chose carnival because we like the exciting atmosphere of the carnival cruises. We were not disappointed! From the start of the cruise to the finish there is always so many things going on that you could never possibly be bored. There is a new cruise director as of three weeks ago. Her name is Britnney and she is super energetic and so much fun. My boyfriend and I were chosen to play the sticky ball game on the beginning night of the cruise which landed us an incredible package of free wine, champagne, bingo, chocolate covered strawberries and reserved second row seats to all the shows . This was an added perk which we loved. Our room steward, Astika, was super great. We gave him a $10 tip upon meeting him with an envelope of our needs daily and he accommodated every single one. We left him an additional tip at the end of the cruise . Brought on our allocated amount of wine which was really nice to have before dinner. We also purchased a 12 pack of water before the cruise which came in very handy and I would recommend doing this . We Did not pay for Internet service as I heard it is spotty rather choosing to pay the five dollar chat option for two out of four of our phones. It worked great . As we are couples in our 50s, we found the serenity deck to be an awesome option. Quiet and so, so nice . In Cozumel Mexico we hired a private driver to take us around. We enjoyed the chocolate tasting and dropped books we brought at the children’s library. In Roatan we had hired a company to take us to jungle line zip lining. They did not show up to pick us up so it was a bit of a hassle to find somebody to find out where they were but eventually a private driver got us to our destination which was lovely. I would recommend this excursion without a doubt. They also had animals and monkeys to visit afterwords and it was close to town. This is a very poor city so there’s not a lot to do in town. The trip was about 15 minutes from the carnival port which is not where other cruise lines port. Grand Cayman was by far my favorite but I have been there before. We swim with the stingrays and snorkeled. On this quarter day excursion they also took us to the turtle center for about 30 minutes which I found to be quite enough time. It included a chicken and fish lunch on the go. The chicken was OK but the fish was amazing. The last place we visited was Belize. We had booked an excursion to take a boat to a private island. I absolutely loved this excursion. We got to snorkel around the island and the instructor picked up different things like conch etc. to show us along the way. Lunch was not included but their lobster lunch on the island was amazing and very reasonably priced. Did include unlimited rum punch. Yum! The shows on the ship were quite good. the comedy shows were also very good. We did not go to piano bar as I had read it was not that exciting. Now to the food. I felt the food was just mediocre. The side dishes were mostly a disappointment. Some of their entrées were amazing like the lobster and shrimp and the filet minion but others were sorely lacking. I do remember this from my last cruise. Although the food was better this time than before. The chocolate molten cake is unbelievably good. Most other desserts I thought were just OK. Or last night we did splurge for the steakhouse because somebody had said to. This was by far one of the best experiences of the cruise. From start to finish that meal was incredible. You would pay hundreds for that meal in other restaurant around the cities. Highly recommend this. We also did the chefs dinner. This had good points and bad points in my opinion we felt that some of the food was weird and not that good and I’m a foodie. Some of the food was just absolutely unbelievably good and it was paired with wine the whole night. That made it worth the 75 dollars All buy itself. We were treated like kings and queens that night. Would I do another carnival cruise? Absolutely. It was by far the best vacation I’ve ever had and I felt like I got the most out of my vacation. By the way, the pizza place is really good, guys burgers is really good too. Cantina was good as well. BBQ place was just ok. Some good, some not as good. The second to last day we found the sandwich shop and I wish we’d found it earlier because it was amazing. Didn’t think much of the buffet so we pretty much stayed away from that for the most part. Overall, I would recommend. Others on boat said there’s other carnival boats that are a must!
Spacious, lots of storage. Pillows not so good.