CruiseMates' Readers Cruise Reviews

This was our 1st cruise. We are a mid 40's couple and enjoy travel of all kinds. We chose the Celebration because we wanted to sail from New Orleans. The reason was having family living near NO and combining a weekend with them before leaving. NO is a great town to visit and I would recommend giving thought to spending an extra day there just seeing the sites and enjoying the food. We booked through a TA, Just Cruises of St. Charles, Mo. Jerry & Linda Bosch were both very helpful in making sure all our trip went as planned. I highly recommend their service @ www.cruisenut.com.

We arrived in NO on Friday evening and spent the weekend enjoying the City. Having family there we used the drive up facilities too unload our luggage on Sunday around 12:30 PM. The lines for check-in were long so we checked our luggage and elected to spend a couple of hours enjoying the Riverwalk Mall before boarding around 3:30 PM. The Riverwalk offers a large Mall and an excellent food court featuring all the famous foods of the area and is well worth the time to explore. When we did board it took about 15 min. to go through the process.

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Upon arriving in our Cabin we found our luggage and sail & sign cards there and we were ready to go. I might add we booked a Cat. #7 cabin with a window and were lucky enough to get upgraded to Cat #9, our cabin was almost exactly in the middle of the ship. I know this contributed to the fact we experienced no motion sickness at all. Rather than breaking our trip down day by day I will break it down by categories.

1. Embarking- As I have already said embarking is a breeze if your patient and don't have to the 1st on the boat. I recommend checking your luggage with one of the available porters and enjoying the Riverwalk till the crowds thin out. Also make sure to fill your forms out ahead of time to avoid a delay while doing this.

2. The Ship- It's really hard for me to compare this ship to any other because it was our 1st experience. Instead I'll just give my opinion and what info I can concerning this ship. The ship was very clean, and the Cabins were very suitable for the 2 of us. There is plenty of closet space and shelf space. The only shortage might be in drawer space but that is easily overcome by using the shelves in the closet. There is a small safe in the closet for jewelry, Moines etc. It however is not large enough for cameras or large items. The bathroom was quite adequate with ample storage and a nice size shower. There was always plenty of water pressure and hot water. The only complaint was the twin beds that we had to slide together to make a queen bed.

The dinning rooms were very nice, the wheelhouse bar and grill area was adequate. There are 3 pools one with a large slide. The sun decks were large enough to accommodate all that wanted to sun. There is a walking track, volleyball area, as well as a spa and workout area. There are numerous lounges all providing a different atmosphere and music to satisfy anyone's taste. The Casino offers all major games and on sea days and evenings is quite popular. The Astoria lounge where the shows are nightly is quite adequate and is a very comfortable facility. There is also a library as well as numerous, shops and sitting areas. All in all for it's age, it's a well kept ship..

The only complaint is the ship is a little noisy but unless your a very light sleeper you'll have little problem.

3. Food- We ate most our meals in the dining room. The food was above average, presented well and a very good variety. The service was excellent and our waiter Roberto and busboy Mario made sure we were well taken care of. The matrade' George ran a great place and was very entertaining. The Wheelhouse was especially good for a quick lunch and the 24 hr Pizza was decent. We did not use room service. The bars were all fine and the drinks were good. Don't forget soft drinks and liquor not included!

4. Service/Staff- As I said above the dinning room service was great. Our cabin steward Andy was also very good and made sure we had any and everything we needed. In the cat #9 cabins we were provided with robes, and all linens for the room, trips and the pool are provided. The rest of the staff including the purser's desk were very helpful and it seemed everyone's' goal was to make us happy. The cruise director Steve Cassell was absolutely great.

5. Dress- the only reason I mention this is to eliminate any misconception you may have on dress. Around the boat the dress ranges from swimsuits to Slacks and shirts. For dinner in the dinning room, with the exception of the formal nights, anything goes except for shorts and tanktops.

6. Activities (on board)- Swimming, Casino, Volleyball, Dancing, Shows, Sunning, are just some of the things to do. The shows are average with the local crew dominated shows the best. Bingo is popular with pots of $500-$1000. Informational talks given by the cruise director are very good and a must for 1st timers, and the Food display is a must see. They will take your picture every time they get the chance as this is a big seller on board. Also daily specials are available in all the shops with some good buys!

7. Ports

Jamaica (Montego Bay)
Although the shopping in the designated area is good and some of the tours are decent if we missed Jamaica I wouldn't miss it. We did shop, and we took the Martha Brae rafting trip. The raft trip was interesting and we did see a good example of lifestyle there but all in all the people are very pushy to sell souvenirs, understandingly so with a 30% unemployment rate. Others we talked to went to Ocho Rios to the falls and most enjoyed this trip although it was a long ride!

Grand Cayman
Of what I've seen it don't get much better. Beautiful beeches, great snorkeling, nice shops and very friendly people. Would even consider spending a week here. Most snorkeled or went to Stingray Bay, all reports were very positive. This is a great place and don't miss the Rum Cakes.

Cozumel, Mexico
Cozumel is also a beautiful place, but not quite as much as Cayman. The snorkeling is great here also with many places to choose from, for history buffs the tour to the Mayan ruins is available and to those who enjoy this type tour I understand this is very interesting. We again snorkeled! Cozumel offers some of the best variety of shopping for jewelry especially and "Carlos & Charlie's" is a must. Warning: Even though the margaritas are great BE CAREFUL, their potent!

Transportation in Cozumel and Jamaica are by taxi $5 in Cozumel and $2 in Jamaica, In the Caymans you must tender on boats from the ship to the island.

8. Debarking
BE PATIENT! This is done in a very orderly fashion but it can get very hectic with around a thousand people trying to get off. All in all not bad.

OVERVIEW

This being our 1st cruise we had a GREAT time with little to complain about. The bottlenecks getting off the ship in ports and at debarking and the sometime rude behavior in the lines were somewhat annoying but we would have stayed on the ship for another week. We will definitely cruise again and if the itinerary fits would cruise with Carnival again. If you have any specific questions feel free to contact us @ crmusser@gte.net. We also intend to post pictures on a web page in the near future so watch the bullentin boards for that.