Beware: I didn’t get this cruise documented in a reasonable amount of time after sailing, so have lost some context, but still want to keep track of all sailings for key reminders and later reference.

A childcare annual shutdown week loomed in early July, and it was clear that we needed some solid plans to avoid early summer boredom, irritation, and sloth. The same week in 2022, Kayla and I were able to sail by ourselves on Norwegian Joy while the kids stayed with their grandparents. In March 2023, though, we’d already gone on Bliss child-free for a week and didn’t want to make the same request of my parents for only a few months later, so thoughts once again turned to a full-family sailing.

With time, we’d also suppressed the challenges of our January 2020 trip with infants in tow on Escape. Things would surely have improved in the intervening 3-and-a-half years! Issues such as mobility, solid food, formula, diapers, and special sleeping arrangements would no longer be in play. And the fully supervised kids’ club, with potty-trained children who were old enough to attend on their own, might give us adults a few occasional hours to relax.

It turns out that cruising with children at this age comes with a new set of things to account for, which made this sailing challenging in several ways. Our kids had a good time on the ship, but not in the Camp Ocean program, and it’s important to catalog this in contrast to many positive reports of the kids club experience.

From my cruise enthusiast perspective, and as someone who had not sailed on Carnival before, I enjoyed seeing what the largest mass-market cruise line had to offer on their newest ship, and was especially impressed with the pool facilities and food options like Big Chicken and Deco Deli. This was also my first sailing without some type of beverage package. I wasn’t a fan of paying by the drink, even if financially Cheers! wouldn’t have made sense for the week.

Trials of transit

I’d described this voyage beforehand as a series of planes, trains, and automobiles, and organized it as a route that would allow us to avoid bringing car or booster seats for the children. Flights to Fort Lauderdale were significantly less expensive than those into Miami, and even though there’s at least half an hour’s car trip between FLL and PortMiami, I’d become aware of Tri-Rail, a regional train that could bridge the gap from Fort Lauderdale Airport and MIA.

Our convoluted but successful travel sequence to the ship ended up looking like:

• The day prior to the cruise, drive (with car seats) to Toronto Pearson airport and park at the Value Park Garage
• Take airport train from Viscount station to Terminal 1
• Board Air Canada flight to Fort Lauderdale airport
• At FLL, exit terminal and locate complimentary Tri-Rail shuttle bus stop
• Take the bus to Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport train station, board Tri-Rail train to Miami Airport station
• Take the “MIA Mover” airport train from the rental car centre to the main airport terminal
• Catch a (free) hotel shuttle from MIA to the Marriott airport complex
• Stay at Residence Inn overnight
• In the morning, take the hotel shuttle back to MIA to one of the cruise transfer/coach pickup points
• Take coach bus to PortMiami and the ship

Carnival’s MIA transfer documentation notes that pickup is either at terminal D (near baggage claim carousel 22) or terminal J (near carousel 1). I’d consulted CruiseCritic prior to the trip to see if one of these options was better. Mainly, I was worried choosing terminal J might result in a worse bus experience – a longer wait, or one that had limited seating if passengers were picked up at terminal D first. Folks from the boards weren’t helpful as they got hung up on the cost and inflexibility of the Carnival transfers. At $22.99US/person, it’s probably a 2x premium over a taxi or Uber, but it avoided car seats, and I didn’t want to have the car seat argument.

We chose carousel 22/concourse D and arrived at 9:50AM, stood in a short line, showed our documentation, and were given four green bus tickets with assigned group 2. There was about a 40-minute wait from the time we’d checked in to the time our coach left, and we did not make any stops to pick up other passengers. There was also a brief 6-minute wait to enter the port tunnel.

Embarkation

Our arrival zone was E02 with an 11:30-12:00 checkin time, but they let us proceed in the on-time guests queue at 11:15am. It wasn’t the worst embarkation experience we’ve experienced – that one is likely still Manhattan Cruise Terminal for Breakaway in December 2016 or San Pedro/Joy in March 2020 – but with the kids along, any amount of time spent in line resulted in vocal disapproval. There were a lot of phases: check-in podium, wait for escalator, drug dog line, security/x-ray, and the final slow shuffle towards the gangway. We stepped foot on the ship a couple minutes before noon, just as they began to call all boarding groups.

We were immediately directed to our muster station (another line, but really only to visualize a lifejacket and scan our cards) and then onward to a station that distributed children’s wristbands (one more line!) At this point we were promising many things for good behaviour and patience. Our swimsuits were in carry-on luggage, so the promise of ice cream and a visit to the water park was attainable.

There are several soft-serve stations: one by Guy’s Burger (midship deck 17), one by Big Chicken on deck 16 at the aft, and one in Heroes Tribute Lounge on deck 8 aft. Intermittently throughout the trip, one of these offered a strawberry flavour rather than the usual vanilla/chocolate options – so it’s worth your while to explore.

Everyone then ambled up to to Carnival Waterworks on deck 18 aft, which does offer a splash pad area and a smaller dual slide suitable for younger kids with no apparent minimum height requirement. Our kids enjoyed the area, but there was basically no shade, so the heat and UV radiation made the session short before we had to relocate.

Cabin

We had a 4-person Oceanview categorized as 6A, number 4381 on the starboard side of the ship. The Excel-class Carnival ships are pretty generous in terms of cabin size, at least in this category, at 245 square feet. A standard balcony room has the same footprint, but 45 of those square feet are balcony, so it’s a smaller interior space.

While I know a number of adults advocate a true balcony room when sailing with kids – put the children to bed and you can sit outside and have a drink and conversation – the Oceanview configuration worked out quite well for us. The window also had a small ledge that both of our small children could comfortably sit on, so that expanded the usable space further for everyone.

In this type of quad-occupancy cabin, you can configure the main bed as either two twins or one “king” (not as large as a true king bed). The sofa can be made up like a third bed, and there is a Pullman bed that comes down from the ceiling for the 4th individual. The top bunk was the more desirable option for our kids, and we had to enforce a one-night-up, one-night-down rotation.

Our Deck 4 midship/mid-aft cabin was a good choice. There was very little ship motion, it did not have a connecting door to another cabin, it was far enough away to avoid noise from the elevator bank (which was a congregation area for other kids and families), and there were also cabins (and not a noisy public venue) on the deck above. It wasn’t completely noise-free as we could hear children galloping through the hall in the evening hours.

Because of the proximity to the youngest kids club areas, though, there are definitely cabins on this deck that are not ideal. 4365 and 4367 are respectively beside, and directly across from an emergency exit door for the 2-5 year old area. The hallway outside this door was filled with audible screaming on several occasions. I suggest you avoid booking those cabins.

If we were to sail Celebration or a similar ship again with our children, I would certainly consider a Family Harbour cabin with access to a dedicated lounge. With the size of this ship and general mayhem that the main venues can have, it might be worth it to have a restricted-area, kid-friendly spot to grab snacks or play quiet games.

And while our room steward was friendly and helpful, the cabin wasn’t completely cleaned: we located a printed boarding pass, hair ties, and other miscellaneous trinkets from previous guests in harder-to-reach spots.

Food

Much more than NCL in the same mainstream cruising category, Carnival has embraced the idea of fast casual dining – and with the number of passengers on Celebration, wisely split these venues across multiple decks. There’s still a more conventional buffet (Lido Marketplace) and two main dining rooms; one is used for traditional/fixed dining and the other for the Your Time/flexible option.)

Unlike NCL, though, where The Local/O’Sheehan’s pub food is your main free alternative to the buffet and MDR, Carnival Celebration has:

• BlueIguana Cantina (tacos and burritos)
• Big Chicken (chicken sandwiches, strips and fries)
• Guy’s Burger
• Guy’s Pig and Anchor BBQ
• The 3-section Street Eats (steamed stuff, skewered stuff, and loaded fries)
• ChiBang! (Mexican and Chinese-focused MDR)
• Cucina Del Capitano (Italian MDR offerings)
• Miami Slice (pizza)
• Deco Deli (a dozen different types of sandwich, plus a hot dog option)

Now, not all of these venues are open at all times. Some really only offer one item with a couple customizations, and food is incredibly subjective. I also haven’t sailed a newer Royal Caribbean ship, and they appear to have food options more closely aligned to the Carnival approach, so NCL and MSC may just be odd ducks. [In early 2024, NCL also moved American Diner from an upcharge venue to complimentary, which is unusual, but may be a response to competition or to address traffic.]

Of the fast casual venues that we tried, I’d have to say that the offerings were very good to excellent, five stars, no notes. The Big Chicken sandwich is a very strong point in Carnival’s favour, to the degree where it might reasonably sway a booking decision, and I could absolutely eat my way through the whole Deco Deli menu on a long enough cruise.

The one drawback on our sailing in July 2023 was that after 9:30pm, the options for food quickly dried up; Deco Deli stayed open (and remained quite busy) for another half hour until 10pm, and then you had to wait in line for pizza or pay for room service. [This has changed since our voyage with the introduction of a Late Night Snacks option, which has mixed reviews – but I certainly wouldn’t turn down a hot dog or meatball sub from that menu.]

In terms of the main dining room, we had average, occasionally less pleasant experiences. Pacing/service speed, drink service, food quality/temperature, accuracy (mainly in the realm of missing items), and the unpredictable interruption of “Showtime!” during the dinner seating were all points of contention during one or more meals.

I did have a good solo experience in Cucina later on the first night, which is typically a very challenging evening for main dining. I was allocated a table within the time estimate on the app, which was a good start. Wine and water service was prompt, the soup was hot, and I enjoyed my food choices of cured tuna, minestrone soup, spaghetti carbonara, and chocolate melting cake from the &More menu.

On the first evening I noted that the MDR portions seemed smaller than expected, so I embraced ordering multiple appetizers and entrees throughout the trip, as well as saying yes to dessert.

ChiBang! was one of the better MDR-like experiences. On Celebration, you can go there once as a complimentary venue; subsequent visits are $8US/person. The family enjoyed our meals from the Chinese side of the menu.

The buffet removed the problems with service, but had a much more limited selection during the dinner hour. I observed six or so hot dishes, a carvery, a salad bar and dessert area. It was a convenient option to pacify the children if they were already at the end of their patience, and we could usually find a couple things they’d eat.

Drinks

I mentioned that we didn’t purchase a drinks package. I do like a variety of alcoholic beverage options on vacation, but you have to buy the drink package after booking – Carnival doesn’t regularly offer the Cheers! package in publicly available fares. Special casino rates might include “Drinks on Us” (exclusively in the casino) or “Drinks on Us Everywhere” (for big gamblers, where their casino spend is taken into consideration in light of the beverages they might consume across the ship.)

Neither of us drink much pop/soda (unless, for me, it’s a component in a rum and coke or rye and ginger) so buying the non-alcoholic Bottomless Bubbles package just for soda water made little sense.

There’s a bit of sticker shock on the fully-loaded, alcohol-included option: for a 7-night cruise, the pre-cruise Cheers! cost is $69.95/person/day plus 18% service charge; all adults in a cabin have to buy it; so you’re looking at close to $1K US for the add-on.

NCL, Celebrity, MSC and other lines definitely bundle a similar upcharge into their Free at Sea and equivalent rates, but every time I’ve looked it’s generally much less than a straight-up increase of $1000 on the same sailing, and you tend to get wi-fi and maybe another perk as well. [NCL’s retail rate for the Unlimited Open Bar package is truly even more eye-watering at $109US/person/day, but it’s highly unlikely you’d pay that outright – rather than booking the Free at Sea rate where you’re only charged 20% of that.]

Given that we had our kids on this trip, it seemed like it might be hard to make Cheers! worthwhile if I wanted to be a semi-responsible parent. As examples, a 16-oz draft beer ran $9.38 and the Watermelon Crush cocktail was around $13. To break even on the plan – not even come out ahead – you’d need 7 beers per person, per day or 5-6 cocktails. I’m certain I could easily have that many drinks over the course of a sea day, and still be a decent role model for our children, but both parents would have to match that pace. Thus, no sale.

But did I ever hate pay-as-you-go.

First, you’re signing a receipt for every drink, with the 18% service charge and an additional tip line very in-your-face. This also carries along to dinner, where now you might get stuck waiting for the bill when you just need to get out of there – again, potentially with upset children. Carnival still prints a $0 receipt for covered Cheers! purchases, though, but that’s so NCL Epic 2015.

Second, paying ad-hoc on vacation causes my inner rat brain to have to think about whether I should really order a domestic beer at a lower price, but not a light beer, because that’s not worth it – versus something I might like better (which might only be cents to dollars more.) Interesting drinks like the Pig and Anchor Bloody Mary or anything at the Alchemy Bar are in the $14 realm, plus 18% grat, plus potential tip – big city pricing when I’m already a captive audience.

Pre-cruise, we did take some additional measures. Carnival allows you to pre-order a small amount of beer, cider, wine or liquor to be delivered to your cabin on Day 1, with the liquor and wine options being totally overpriced. The Carnival-affiliated beer cost $7.50US each for a tallboy can (in a 4-pack), including tax and service fees. Slightly less than bar pricing, at least. We bought 8 cans of beer and also carried on a bottle of wine each, which let us have a few beverages during the afternoon while the kids had some “tablet time” or in the evening, after they’d gone to sleep.

For the wee’uns

Camp Ocean and the other children’s facilities on Carnival Celebration seemed like the perfect way to make sure that everyone in the family got what they wanted out of a vacation – some brief breaks for Kayla and I, and some novel activities for the kids. The included kids’ program was highly reviewed online and had great hours of operation (10am-5pm; 7pm-10pm).

We had pre-registered for Camp Ocean though the Carnival website, knowing that this was a summer cruise, and likely to have a large number of children. The registration did make it to the ship and our Day 1 check-in was straightforward. The whole family was able to review the Penguins area and we were all impressed with the kid-sized furniture, books, and other activities. We promised to come back later that evening.

Before leaving we also checked out the well-stocked Dr. Seuss Bookville, which was a library-style room with multiple copies of nearly every Seuss book ever printed. Again, comfy cushions made an appearance and everyone was very excited to see the clean, high quality, and well-designed venue.

Sadly, when we actually tried to drop the children off on their own on the first night, as soon as they were on the other side of the gate apart from us, they immediately burst into tears and became completely inconsolable. This was somewhat unexpected as they both regularly attend childcare without issues at drop-off. We gave up on Camp Ocean for the night.

We did try again the next day with only moderately better success. I’d booked the Pig & Anchor Brewery tour for both Kayla and I – you can’t realistically bring kids along to that, even if they are well-behaved. Camp Ocean issued us a phone with WiFi calling, and only about 15 minutes after our first drop-off we were called to collect them, again for distressed crying. Kayla walked them around and everyone settled down, agreeing to return to the kids club in a slightly better mood.

We were able to make the brewery tour and chat with Robert (onboard brewer) for a while afterward, but when I went to collect them they were upset again – the staff indicated that the attitude change had just happened and things had gone OK otherwise.

Apart from their discomfort at being separated from us, it turned out that the schedule of activities (in the app, and in the Camp Ocean paperwork) was not being adhered to in terms of timeframe or content. The schedule showed truly interesting-looking arts and crafts, group reading time, games, and science experiments, but those specific activities didn’t seem to start or end at the advertised times.

At some point, kids were sat down in front of a TV with a movie, which certainly wasn’t on the schedule during daytime hours. Despite being comfortable watching TV shows for similar amounts of time, the content in many movies causes big feelings for our kids. I understand minor activity changes or rescheduling might be necessary in these programs – and may even be the best choice based on group dynamics – but at the same time, knowing their likely reaction, we wouldn’t have knowingly sent them to watch a movie.

We tried a few more times throughout the cruise to utilize Camp Ocean. Kayla and I tried our best to empower them to ask the staff to let them read quietly or colour, instead of being directly in front of the TV, but this didn’t help. The children still objected, so we focused our attention for the rest of the trip on whole-family activities like Dr. Seuss Bookville, swimming in the pools and story time in the theatre.

It’s hard to make a completely fair evaluation of the program as we’re going with what our kids told us and how they reacted. They are still quite young and more time and lived experience will no doubt help, but it was still disappointing for everyone.

One other caution for kids with noise sensitivity: while the Carnival Waterworks splash pad/dual slide area was highly enjoyable on embarkation afternoon, later that day and throughout the rest of the cruise, the Bolt rollercoaster overhead makes enough noise that we had children covering their ears as they played. The Patio pool at Summer Landing on deck 8, as well as the main Beach pool on deck 16 both seemed to be acceptable alternatives, and the complimentary lifejackets by the main pool area were also useful.

Amber Cove was the only port we exited at, and we were also pleased with it as a family pool and splashpad venue.

Ship experience

Carnival Celebration was the largest ship I’ve been on so far, both by gross tonnage and passenger capacity. Overall it was well-designed and seemed logically laid out, decorated in a reasonable manner, and had a wide variety of amenities. The service staff we interacted with (custodial, towel exchange, guest services to get an earlier disembarkation luggage tag) were all very helpful and friendly.

There was certainly a constant presence of other people, but only a few times was it truly overwhelming. We were able to carve out space in pools, usually able to snag a table in the buffet, and waited an acceptable amount of time for both main dining room tables and at casual dining options. Deco Deli and Slices had long lines late in the evening, but they moved quickly. Probably the worst and most obviously noticeable crowd was on disembarkation day, where a huge wandering line backed up the stairs and throughout the ship; this could have been much better controlled. Alchemy Bar and the one comedy show I attended were also very popular.

We did notice some obvious maintenance issues, which was surprising for a ship launched in 2022. The exterior stairs from deck 16 to 17 had a peeling surface, almost like they had been perpetually wet and then the material curled up as a result. There was also a line ribbon dividing it in half, perhaps in an attempt at crowd control, but it looked pretty janky. On Deck 4, we occasionally heard from the kids that the hallway smelled like “pee”, and they weren’t wrong. Carpets, though, were generally in good shape with little visible wear.

Having the kids with us, who were generally exhausted after dinner and before any of the evening entertainment started, meant we didn’t get the opportunity to fully explore the whole ship – so I don’t have any experience with the theatre shows, specialty dining, spa or adult-only sections. The children did enjoy dancing to the occasional live music performances outside the Latitudes Bar on Deck 6.

The Carnival mobile app, used for dining reservations, review of daily activities, and aggressively notifying that the casino was open, was somewhere in between the clunkiness of the NCL app and fairly polished nature of the Celebrity (Royal Caribbean Group) app.

Wrap-up thoughts

While we didn’t arrive home as exhausted as after the 2020 Escape sailing, our less-than-ideal experience with Camp Ocean meant that our kids were with us all the time. It wasn’t much different than a week at home might have been if we’d done a few swimming and restaurant outings. I don’t know how this will be perceived – after all, they are my kids and I should be responsible for them – but even a couple hours to spend time just with my spouse during the week would have been nice, and that didn’t happen apart from two hours at the brewery tour.

I did get more of an appreciation for the Carnival product and experience, at least in terms of an Excel-class ship, and enjoyed a majority of it. The main dining room and buffet experience is certainly not on par with Norwegian, and also doesn’t come close to Celebrity’s Edge-class options – but none of those cruise lines’ casual options approach what Carnival provides with Big Chicken, BlueIguana, or Deco Deli. Without having been on Royal Caribbean proper, there’s a gap in my experience that clearly needs some context by way of a cruise on a Behemoth of the Seas.

We had considered trying two more Carnival cruises after this one. For a brief time, we’d put a deposit on adults-only trip on Panorama in late 2023 but couldn’t make it work childcare wise. We’d also planned to repeat a similar sailing on Celebration in summer 2024, again to align with childcare shutdown, but ended up replacing it with an MSC cruise that seemed more appealing to our children (meeting their “waterslides we can use, but no roller coaster” request.)

I think I’d give Carnival another solid chance if we were able to sail as a couple and the all-in price with Cheers! was right, maybe in the highly-reviewed Havana area on a Vista-class ship. At that point, though, I’d be aggressively comparing against NCL and Celebrity options with drink package bundles. For future family cruises, we’ll keep looking to see if there’s something with a children’s program better suited to our needs, let the kids grow up a bit more, and maybe explore Carnival in another few years.

Cruise docs and dailies

Paperwork for this cruise can be found at https://cruisedocs.billo.ca/cruises/carnival-celebration-2023-07-02/. That website is a new project that combines my interests in cruising and tech, and is dedicated to all the documentation you might collect on the ship such as daily programs, menus, notices, and flyers. Submissions welcome!