On spring break vacation, I started reading a long, epic book, but this book is so long and so epic (I’m really building the suspense on this one) I need a lot of time to process every page and every chapter. Thus, I have thus resorted to multi-booking and am updating my spring reading list with short reviews as I go, while I read and enjoy the epic book slowly.
So today I’m going to tell you about our spring break cruise!
This was my fourth cruise ever, but it was my first cruise in the last 15 years! (When you are on a cruise ship, the most common small talk question is how many cruises you’ve been on.)
I decided we would go big on our return to cruising (and first cruise with our kids) so we booked the new Carnival Celebration. The water slides and roller coaster on the top (which none of us even ended up riding) and just the excitement of a brand-new ship lured me in, plus the itinerary went to San Juan, which was one of the vacation spots I was looking at anyway.
My husband and I have cruised on Carnival before (15+ years ago for our honeymoon), and I’ve also been on Royal Caribbean (with my Granny through the Panama Canal) and Princess (with my parents and family friends to Alaska). All were great experiences. But for taking our kids and looking for two balcony cabins (adjoining) Carnival was the best value for us.
Miami!
The ship set sail out of Miami, and I had never spent time there. We loved the multi-culture vibe of Miami! We ate at two Cuban restaurants and swam at the Venetian pool.
The Ship – Carnival Celebration
The Carnival Celebration had so many people on it. Maybe 6000 (that is 3x the population of the town I grew up in)!! But the ship is huge so I didn’t feel like there were that many people at any given time. There are dozens of restaurants and bars, three pools, several hot tubs (not that we got in any of them), and several entertainment venues. My family loved the comedy clubs and the evening shows, both big shows were string instrument focused with aerobatics and dancing.
Because I have cruised before I knew we wouldn’t spend too much time in the pools. The pools on cruise ships are “people soup.” This ship did have a smaller and less popular pool on deck 8 aft (back of ship) that we could usually find chairs at but still, rarely did we want to get in the people soup except to cool off.
We stayed on floor 9 aft, 9481 and 9485 to be exact. These were adjoining cabins with balconies. I loved our location because it was close to the restaurants and the pool on deck 8. The balcony is a must for me because I can enjoy the water view anytime without being around other people.
Other things we enjoyed on the ship were the arcade (kids), the casino, Bonsai Teppanyaki restaurant, all the bars, the drink package.
There are lots of opportunities for eating (kids loved all-day included ice cream and pizza) so I tried to stay active. I didn’t use the elevators once the whole time, and I took cycling classes on three of the mornings. There’s also a running/walking track at the top and a ropes course (guys did that).
Our kids are old enough now that we can leave them behind and go get a drink or two by ourselves and they could navigate the ship by themselves too (though I always knew where they were going etc.).
The Ports
I also knew, from past experiences, not to get too excited about the ports on a Caribbean cruise. My thoughts are that you’re not going to get a true feeling for a place in six hours and only as far away from the port as you can safely get in that timeframe. Oftentimes you are staring poverty in the face, in over commercialized situations, and/or not real cultural experiences.
The “Amber Cove” stop, for example, is a secured town that Carnival has literally created on the coast of the Dominican Republic. It has a resort style pool and lots of shops. Here my husband went on a bad fishing trip excursion, and although I took the kids to the pool for a while, we quickly learned the “people soup” with loud music had just transported itself there so we bought our Dominican coffee and chocolate and went back to enjoy the ship’s pools to ourselves for once.
San Juan was a really nice stop. I successfully navigated my family by foot to both of the historical forts and a cemetery right on the coast by El Morro that is one of the most fascinating things I’ve seen. But after this sightseeing, we still experienced the cruise ship problem of having 15,000? people dumped in this small area – four ships were there – and we couldn’t even get into a restaurant. So that aspect of this port would require some better planning.
Our final stop was St. Thomas, and it was a beautiful place. We went on a great snorkel excursion and decided we would really like to spend more time in St. John specifically (that’s where the snorkeling excursion went, off of Honeymoon beach).
Overall we had a great time. There are downsides to cruising and things I don’t like about it (I don’t mean this post to be negative, I’m just being real) but to guarantee sun and warmth during a March spring break it is one of the best values. I would do it again!
If you read this blog regularly, you know we take all kinds of vacations including RVing, traveling by train, other road trips, and other warm places where we try to incorporate experiencing different cultures.
If you have any questions about cruising or this ship specifically, I am happy to answer them!