Great Carnival Celebration Cruise But I Missed the WOWs

by Peter
(McDonough, GA)

My Carnival Celebration Cruise Was Great But I Missed the Wow

My family and I recently completed a 7-night Eastern Caribbean carnival celebration Cruise. This cruise was truly great, but I missed the WOW factor.

When the Carnival Celebration was announced as a new ship, there was much talk about new things that would blow the minds of travelers. Some things mentioned were Bolt, a roller coaster at sea; themed areas such as Summer Landing; and Celebration Central with a grand stage for performances, etc. Yes, these places are on board or are really nice places to hang out or in the case of Celebration Central to enjoy an amazing show at night, but I missed the wow.

My Carnival Celebration cruise was really a celebration of my daughter’s graduation from high school, so it was the perfect fit – the name of the ship being Carnival Celebration. Perfect! There were twenty of us in the group and we had a good time - enjoying some of the activities on board, plus having a great time in the ports of call: Amber Cove, Dominican Republic; San Juan and St. Thomas. We also enjoyed eating – a lot. At least, I did.

My time aboard the Carnival Celebration was spent mostly eating. This ship has so many opportunities or places where you can eat, with many complimentary eateries. Consequently, I indulged myself.

I tried Carnival’s Big Chicken, inspired by basketball’s legend Shaquille O’Neal, for the first time. I certainly enjoyed the chicken sandwiches - fried and grilled. What a treat!

I was also pleased with something new that Carnival did on this ship. There are two specialty restaurants with a twist. One is the well-known Italian eatery, Cucina Del Capitano, and then there is a new one which is a Chinese-Mexican fusion type restaurant called ChiBang. What Carnival did on this new ship, the Carnival Celebration, is to allow guests to eat for free on the first visit to these two restaurants and then pay for subsequent visits - $8 per person. Well, I tried ChiBang and I enjoyed it.

In addition to the Big Chicken, ChiBang, the buffet, the main dining room, I also had a blast feasting on the best burger at sea at Guy Fieri’s Burger Joint. I had one burger on five of seven days while on this cruise. What a treat!

I have said enough about eating, although as I said a big portion of what I did on this cruise was in fact eat. However, I must mention other things that I enjoyed about the cruise

The Carnival Celebration was built with a lot of space around the ship for friends and families to get together, relax, and have a good time. There was a particular area on Deck 17 near the ship’s rear where I found a whole bunch of loungers and each time I was there it was just me or one or two other guests. I enjoyed that.

Carnival Serenity, which is the adults-only section of the ship found on Deck 18 forward was a much bigger space than I’ve seen on any other Carnival ship. In addition to the space, it was nicely done with different types of loungers. It had full beds, regular loungers and shell-like beds. There was also a nice area - not just a hot tub or pool - that was like a “watering hole” where guests could meet up, make friends and pass the time.

In addition to that, they had a place where you could grab healthy snacks to go.

I also enjoyed some of the shows that were put on at Center Stage in Celebration Central. As I mentioned earlier, one of the supposed WOWs of the ship is the Center Stage. This is a giant stage or performing center, which is in the open, unlike the main theater usually found at the front of a cruise ship. The Center Stage was in addition to the main theater.

I’m not sure why Carnival decided to put a grand stage out in the open, but they did. At this theater, called the Center Stage, performances were offered each evening. I will say that for those that I was able to see, the performers did a fantastic job.

The only problem was with seating. They did not do a very good job with how they designed the seating for the Center Stage. The performing center is visible from three decks: 6-8. The folks who are on the Deck 6 are able to see just about everything, but those on decks 7 and 8 are unable to see the full stage, based on where they’re sitting. This made it difficult to enjoy the entirety of any given show.

I will make a note regarding our accommodations on the ship. We happened to stay in a balcony cabin and I will say it was more spacious than any balcony cabin I have seen on any Carnival ship or any other ship. The room itself seemed bigger and the balcony was much bigger than usual.

One other thing I will say about my Carnival Celebration cruise was the smooth sailing. It was. We were on this big ship and you could hardly tell that you were sailing on the water. When the ship was leaving port or entering a port it was so quiet and smooth that I missed the event several times.

The captain and the pilot did a fine job and of course so did all the other officers.

I started out that by saying that my Carnival Celebration Cruise was great, but I missed the WOW. I truly enjoyed the cruise: the food, the space, the beauty of the ship, and the ports of call. While I did not feel wowed by what was presented as big WOWs, I really appreciated one thing in particular.

On deck eight (rear - near Guest Services), Carnival built what is called the Heroes Lounge. This is an area where you have a nice sitting section with comfortable seating and then you have restaurant tables and chairs, because it was also an area used by those eating food from the restaurant with good Southern cooking - Guy Fieri’s Pig & Anchor Restaurant.

The lounge is a section that is dedicated to our veterans and so there were emblems, pictures and other things pointing to our veterans. That was really a sweet touch, a beauty to behold, to see that Carnival took the time to honor these treasured folks among us. This was also a nice area to sit back, relax and watch sports or whatever on two giant TV screens that were located in the lounge.

So while I was not blown away by the ship overall, I was very happy with my Carnival celebration Cruise. I enjoyed the many different options for eating, some of which I did not mention before such two places to grab a nice sandwich, the pizza place, Street eats – which was a string of eateries, small places but we could grab a delicious bite. Added to those there were two seafood joints: one is takeout and the other a specialty restaurant. Finally, there was the popular barbecue place I mentioned above - Guy Fieri’s Pig & Anchor restaurant and several specialty restaurants.

My wife and I had dinner at Teppanyaki - the Asian restaurant. Great show by the hibachi chef!

I was also pleased with the provisions made for the younger sailors. They had a nice play area with a basketball court, which doubled as soccer field. There was also a ropes course, BOLT - the roller coaster mentioned earlier, and there were several places around the ship where you could find a ping-pong table and foosball, etc.

Overall, it was a beautiful cruise and one that I am so happy that my family had a chance to experience. This was especially true for my daughter who just graduated high school and this was her time of Celebration aboard the beautiful Carnival Celebration.