mamiamjo

Hello Cruise Critic Family. I’ve recently been spending a lot of time on CC as I’ve been preparing for our upcoming cruise on the Celebration and I’ve been inspired by reading a lot of the great reviews posted by the likes of Saint Greg, Jamman54, MeganGC1983, Sid_9169, TxTeach79, just to name a few (and others). Thank You all so much for taking the time to share your own adventures with me and everyone on CC, I find it very helpful and enjoyable to read about all your exploits. Well, I’m not sure how this will go as I haven’t done it before and I’m not real big on taking notes and remembering all the little details while on vacation (so I may end up with a lot of fond memories running through my head and nothing posted), but I hope to share with you at least a partial view of our cruise. Since I’m going to be working with only an iPhone what I post will probably be more pictures with a few comments, than a full out review or step by step recounting of the cruise. As you can see from my profile and signature, my wife, M and I have been cruising for the past 25 years. Although cruising has never been our primary vacation type, we’ve been on almost 30 cruises, with 21 of them on Carnival (including the infamous Triumph “Poop Cruise” of 2013) and continue to enjoy our cruising adventures. As I mentioned this will be our 22nd Carnival cruise and we have the Jubilee booked next year so I’m tossing around the idea of doing a B2B sometime next year also which would get us to our 25th Carnival Cruise Milestone. 😊 Our cruise next week will also mark a few firsts for us that we’re excited to experience. This will the be the first time sailing out of Miami, the first time on an Excel Class ship and the first time visiting the ABC Islands. Over the next week I hope to share more about preparation and plans for this cruise as we countdown to go! I hope you enjoy the ride 🙂

Wow, same day service! I know that's probably not typical. How soon do they normally get your laundry back? We don't typically use the laundry service (even though we're Platinum) but since we'll be embarking on a 8 day cruise next week, we will probably have some laundry done to help reduce the amount of clothes we pack and I'm curious as to the turnaround time.

Nice views from the Zipline and Sky Bar. Glad to see Patti got herself a drink while she was up there. Also nice view of the pool area from the cabana. Looks like you had a relaxing time in Amber Cove 😎

The Pepperoni Pizza Burger sounds wonderful. If I'm ever on one of the Italian themed ships, i will definitely try one!

I believe it is standard. We had them on the Breeze, but as you mentioned I didn’t think they were anything to write home about.YMMV

That will do it 😉

Thanks Jeff, I appreciate your insight 😎

After seeing all these B2B cruises her on CC, I've started thinking that maybe we should try that for ourselves. Question: Can I just book both cruises online myself or do you need to go through a PVP or anything special?

Thanks The way I see it is if they charge us each $15, then we should each get to ride solo. Hopefully that’ll be the case on Celebration next week. 🤞

Love the AC pics! 😎

If we want to ride Bolt on our cruise, are we able to ride individually, or do they always put two people in a car?

Never been to Brunswick but our son was stationed at Kings Bay Naval Base for three years before being reassigned to Key West in January. While stationed there they lived in Yulee Fl just north of Jacksonville, about 30 minutes from the base.

Hi Michelle Looking forward to reading about your trip. We enjoyed the Elation when we sailed on her, but that's been almost 20 years ago

We had a cabin on the Breeze in 2022 that would never cool very well (and this was in November). We had maintenance come look at it but they said it was normal. I think they measured it at 74F, which is ok during the day, but not really good for sleeping. We were with another couple whose cabin was noticeably cooler than ours so we knew it wasn't the system as a whole but probably something with that particular cabin. We've sailed on the Breeze again twice in 2023 and once this year without problem but we made sure we got a different cabin 🙂

Great photos of GT! I love that port and need to get back there again soon😎

Why does that look way better than any of the Mocha Chocolate Getaways that I've had 😉

The energy drinks they have onboard the ships are Celsius. I'm not really a fan of any of the flavors they offer onboard, so I bring Monster with me. Not sure if you know that Monster does sell some of their flavors in 12oz cans. I drink Ultra in the White can, They sell that one in 12 oz cans for sure and I believe the original as well. I can usually find them in the grocery store in a 6 pack box.

Thanks! I set our pick up for 9:00. 😎

Thanks for the great photos! I'd like to say that Patti has done (another) wonderful job with the pictures of HMC. We were there in March of 2023 and we didn't see nearly as much as Patti has shown from her photos! We also seemed to get lost a bit wandering around trying to find things there unless we just stuck to the beach (that was easier to know where we were but harder walking). Thanks Again

Sorry you weren't feeling well but it seems you started feeling better throughout the day. Let me ask, how was the pool and hot tub water temperatures?

Greg, let me ask your opinion while it's fresh in your mind. For our cruise later this month we arrive on a Sunday off the Celebration and I'm setting up transport to MIA for a 12:08 flight (so pretty similar to your experience today). If we do Self Assist, what time do you think is a good time to set for pick up at the port? TIA

Looks like you had a great cruise! Glad to see you made your flight on time and even landed early. Thanks for sharing your cruise with us! 🙂

All that Cuban coffee makes the stools loose!🤣

Loving your review so far and hoping and praying that Patti is able to get some relief from the pain 🙂

It seems that writing on the mirror is somewhat of a new thing! 🙂