Celebration
Carnival Cruise Lines
Sailing from Jacksonville, FL
January 2007
Positives
Service every where on ship was fine, except Joseph the Maitre d’ and his waiters at our tables. Joseph was very uncooperative.
The comedians were very good especially Kim the self proclaimed big girl from South Carolina who was FANTASTIC! It was an hour of non stop, gut busting laughter!
The Filet Mignon, Sirloin Strip and smoked Salmon were all very good.
Food was presented extremely well. It's just too bad that they did not expend a quarter of that effort in making it taste good.
Negatives
Cabin
Dirty underwear was found in room the first day along with M&Ms on floor.
Toilet was dirty upon entering room. Repairs had been done in bathroom previously that would be unacceptable in any house in the country. Grout was dirty or rusty and non existent in some places. There was exposed rusty metal in bathroom.
Main dining room
The first night we could not get our water glasses refilled. The Caesar Salad had no garlic and was the worst I had ever had. The desert was supposed to be some type of chocolate cake in a bowl. It was uncooked and still liquid under the crust (editor's note: that dessert is supposed to be semi-liquid in the center). After a serious discussion with Joseph the uncooperative Maitre d’ we were moved to another table the following evening.
The second night our waiter spent more time studying his orders than serving. He had four tables and would get everyone’s order and then serve all the soups at all the tables at once, leaving the people who ordered something other than soup with nothing to eat.
The third night, after he started to do the same thing, I told him to serve each course to everyone at our table at once. He started serving properly at that point. I was served Seafood Newburg that smelled bad. I was in the seafood business. I know what good seafood is supposed to smell like! I had the Cherries Jubilee for desert. It was served as Cherries Jubilee soup.
The fourth night we actually got good service. YEA! Too bad the food was awful except the steak.
The fifth night the service continued to be good. I ordered one of my favorite dishes that I have had at least 100 times before. Escargot, it was terrible and only one snail was eaten. I also ordered the Chateaubriand. It was like shoe leather. I sent both of those to the trash and ordered the NY strip. As usual it was very good.
In general the food on the ship was terrible. No better than cafeteria food at a FAIR cafeteria. The coffee was the worst coffee I can ever remember having, anywhere. The milk I received when ordering room service came out in chunks. I never could get a ripe piece of melon and I tried it every day. On the second to last day of the cruise my wife ordered a Bloody Mary and it was served without celery. We asked for a stalk of celery and were told that they had run out. There was no apology given.
There were very few scheduled activities on this cruise in comparison to most cruises. I found myself wandering around aimlessly trying to find something to do besides gamble. Most of the gambling on this ship was done on the slots with very little table action.
When disembarking we were supposed to have gotten VIP service. This means that we were supposed to have been escorted off the ship prior to the rest of the cruisers. They forgot all 18 of the "VIPs" who were waiting in the designated area for this service.
One of the pools was out of service the whole trip. In general this ship is in shoddy condition everywhere except the main public areas like the casino, food service areas, bars and lobbies.
This was truly our cruise from Hell. Now I know that Carnival could not stay in business if all their cruises and ships were like this, but why did it have to happen to me? I would not cruise on the Celebration again if they gave me the cruise for free and $500 to gamble with!
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