Carnival Celebration Cruise Review with Photos Jan. 15-22

[lovestocruise19]

Our 15th Carnival cruise was quite memorable for more reasons than one. I'll start with a quick pre-cruise synopsis and then get on with the main event.

 

Hubby and I were delivering my parents car to them in Florida where they were wintering. We decided to take the auto train for the first time. The pros were that is cut out about 9/10 hours of driving time, but the big con was that we didn't get much sleep in coach class. Very hard to get comfy. 

 

 

We visited my parents overnight in their campground and then drove a rental car from Jacksonville to Miami for our cruise. Pre-cruise we stayed at JW Marriott Marquis which was amazing. The room was huge and there was even a TV screen in the mirror of the bathroom. Fancy! Quite the change from sleeping on the train!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lovestocruise19]

I did my cruise nails at the hotel. 

 

 

Hotel lobby:

 

The day of the cruise we took a ride share to the Port of Miami. We got there around 9:45 a.m. as we had a 10 a.m. check in. We are Platinum so we waited in that lounge. Boarding began at 10:45 a.m. 

 

 

 

[pirate4me2]

Off to a great start! Thanks for doing this review, I sail next month and am chomping at the bit for it to hurry up and get here! 

[lovestocruise19]

Once onboard, we dumped our carryon bags in the room, did e-muster, explored a bit and ate lunch on Lido. E-muster consisted of meeting at our location (casino bar) and checking in. Then they asked if we knew how to put a life jacket on. There was a chorus of "yeses" and then we were dismissed. 

 

We booked a junior balcony. The actual balcony is the same size as a regular balcony (in fact, this balcony felt larger to me than balconies on the other ships). The only difference that we could see was the clearance between the foot of the bed and the wall that holds the TV. You have to slip by sideways. But I'd do that a million times over to be able to save a bit of money on the standard balcony. 

 

 

 

The features I loved about the closet were the pull out rack for shoes and the fact that the shelves could be put up or down with a pin type thing if you had longer clothes.

 

 

The bathroom itself was a little small, but the shower made up for it! The little bar to rest your foot on to shave was convenient and the best thing about it was the fact that is has a door. This prevents water from getting everywhere like on the ships where they just have a shower curtain and a small lip on the floor.

 

 

 

 

 

[lovestocruise19]

For reference, our room number was 15229. Another awesome thing about our room was that Lido was just one deck up! 

 

 

 

[lovestocruise19]

The next part of this review will be all the pictures I took around the ship while we were exploring. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lovestocruise19]

For lunch, I had chicken tacos from Blue Iguana. They were long awaited because our last cruise was in May on the Splendor and Splendor doesn't have Blue Iguana! 

 

 

Hubby had a Guy's burger which is actually up one level on Deck 17.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lovestocruise19]

 

 

 

I definitely lived by this mantra during the cruise!

 

 

 

[Riles34]

Thanks for sharing! Welcome back to the snow!! A crew from VT will be going in 4 weeks.

[lovestocruise19]

 

 

 

 

 

I thought this was super cool and my husband thought I was a dork. Lol! A clock on the floor! 

 

 

 

We actually never went in here all cruise: 

 

 

 

 

[lovestocruise19]

1 minute ago, Riles34 said:

Thanks for sharing! Welcome back to the snow!! A crew from VT will be going in 4 weeks.

 

I'm actually back living in NH now, but snow here too! We flew home to a snowstorm. You'll love the ship!

[lovestocruise19]

This was our main dining room. We had your time dining. We also ate Sea Day brunch in here twice and breakfast once.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 27, 2023 by lovestocruise19

[lovestocruise19]

 

In the floor surrounding this giant model of the ship were coins from all the other ships. I took a picture of every ship that we have been on. I won't bore you with all of them, but here is one:

 

 

We have been on Pride, Freedom twice, Liberty twice, Glory, Conquest, Valor, Sunshine twice, Vista, Breeze, Magic, Splendor and Celebration! 

 

 

[lovestocruise19]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lovestocruise19]

 

 

 

 

[lovestocruise19]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lovestocruise19]

After lunch and exploring, we spent a little time on Serenity. The only bummer about this Serenity deck is that the "nap shacks" as my husband has dubbed them, aren't as covering as ones on other ships. There are some that are in the middle of Serenity near the pool that have canvas hung up that provides shade, but it definitely isn't our favorite nap shack. And wouldn't you know it, I don't actually have a picture of the inferior nap shacks. Just take my word for it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lovestocruise19]

 

 

 

 

[lovestocruise19]

Hubby napped back in the room and I ended up snoozing a bit too. I put our stuff away as soon as we got the luggage. We watched sailaway from our balcony. Another random thing I liked about our room was this gap between the couch and the wall. It was a perfect spot to store our carryon items, with the suitcases of course slipping right under the bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lovestocruise19]

We lived in Florida for a few years (2018-2020) and are contemplating moving back in a few years. Wonder how much one of these would set us back! 🤣

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lovestocruise19]

 

 

 

Goodbye, Miami! Hello, FUN!

[lovestocruise19]

We ate in the Festivale Dining Room and service was very slow, but the food was great. Sometimes when you get a "table for two" it can look like this:

 

 

Not exactly private. Lol! Luckily this only happened I think twice. A couple times we got a four top and some other times we got a table for two, but it was spaced out better. 

 

Strawberry bisque

 

Vegetarian lasagna

 

Low cal strawberry dessert

 

We watched the show in Celebration Central where we were introduced to Lee, our cruise director, and the live musicians. We walked around some more and hubby got pizza (his "nightcap"), I got ice cream (my "nightcap") and then we saw a comedy show. 

 

Some more pics from around the ship:

 

 

Guy's Pig and Anchor:

 

 

Pool on Deck 8 aft (part of Summer Landing zone)

 

Punchliner (the green chairs swiveled which was cool): 

[wardwhitty]

Thank you for the review.  We leave on the 12th and can not wait !!!

[lovestocruise19]

The next morning we ate breakfast at the Sea Day brunch. Service was quick. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lovestocruise19]

We went back to the room for a bit, but then our room steward, Made, knocked on our door to clean it so we left and hung out in the Gateway area and then watched the Travel through Time which was different scenes on the LED screens and lights on the ceiling and floor. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a little cheesy, but different.

 

 

We saw the Horizon on the horizon. 🤣