Carnival Jubilee
March 2003
by Kathy
The Jubilee is the smallest of the
Carnival fleet. There are not as many public areas as some of the
other lines, but I found the crew to be predominantly friendly, and
the atmosphere to be fun and casual. My 10 year old had lots to do, as
the Camp Carnival was great. My 16 year old was bored the first day,
but made friends and was bored no more. The Oz Disco provided lots of
evening entertainment for her and her friends. They serve no alcohol
to the underage crowd, but allow them to dance and have fun.
The food on the ship was good. It was
not all as fantastic as I've read about, but it was good. On the first
cruise that I took, which was a Premier cruise to the Bahamas, the
food was excellent. But, they're out of business. I guess I was
expecting the same from Carnival, but it just wasn't. Don't get me
wrong, it was good, just not excellent. And don't let Carnival's web
site fool you, there is no "Seafood Bistro" on this ship.
They are referring to the many buffet services on the Lido Deck. It
was good, but you will find no Prime Rib or Lobster here. The omelets
are fabulous though, and the pizza is good. If you can order whatever
kind of pizza you want, I didn't figure out how to do it. But the
always present pepperoni was great. The waiter that we had in the main
dining room was way burnt out. He was nice, and the service was good,
but it was the assistant waiter that did all of the work. Only until
the last day, tip day, did our waiter do any of the real work. He
served bread, poured tea, cleaned dishes, smiled and chatted, etc. He
did not do this the first 4 days. While we opted to do the auto tip on
our sign and sail, I gave a little extra to the assistant waiter
because I really thought he deserved it. I wish now that I had
adjusted the tip to the head waiter, but I didn't. I observed many
of the other head waiters doing a fantastic job though. And some
friends that we met were thrilled with their waiter.
The first port that we went to was
Calica. We opted for the XCaret tour. All I can say about this is that
if you want to wander around a lot, see "some" interesting
stuff, then spend the rest of your time at a really small beach area,
pay the money for it. About 51.00 per person. I was a little
disappointed, and wished that we had just gone to a beach club, and
hung out. Calica is nothing more than a quarry, and DON'T buy from the
sellers in the tents there. They are way too expensive, and they will
beg. XCaret is actually in Cancun, and any tour in Calica takes you to
another city. Our second port was Cozumel. The water is SOOO BLUE!!!
We opted for the Playa de Sol beach break, and we had a great time.
The taxi from there back to the pier was the taxi ride from hell, the
driver kept trying to pass everyone while there were cars coming at
us! It scared the hell out of me, but we made it back safely. Our day
was wonderful though, with that exception.
In other reviews, I've read that
smokers are everywhere and it is unpleasant. While I do smoke, there
were many areas that were non-smoking. Even the Lido deck (open air)
was split for those who do not smoke, and there were several bars and
areas where smoking is not permitted. When we were disembarking, they
called on the speakers for smokers in the immigration line to not
smoke in line, and go to the Lido deck to smoke when they had gone through
the line. I thought that this was a perfectly fair and reasonable
request. There is no smoking in the cabins, but that is fine, because
the Lido deck is not far from any of the cabins, and the dress is
casual.
The last Fun Day at Sea was great. We
spent our day soaking in everything! Debarkation was way slow.
Carnival did the best they could, but lines take time. It all went as
fast as it could, except don't expect to be on the Empress Deck and
get off the boat first. We were the last to be called. Go to the Lido
deck and have a good breakfast and enjoy sitting down. Wait to be
called. I think that Carnival actually gave us a break, because there
were VERY short lines in customs, and we walked right onto our shuttle
and went to our car. No fuss.
All in all - our whole family had a
great time on this cruise, and I would recommend it.
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Cruise Line
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