A Little Bit Of Vitamin Sea With A Twist

[Cyndyga]

Loving this trip report, you have a comedic writing style that is a very fun read especially with all the accompanying pictures! Have a great cruise!

[Jen Jen]

Just catching up on your TR looks like you are having a fabulous time. Thanks for sharing your NOLA cruise it's on my bucket list. Enjoy your family cruise.

[Mary9915]

I'm really enjoying your trip report so far Hoofy...more please!!!

[Mimi]

The Grannies must have been hitting the Hurricanes hard, HHH. Be thankful you weren't on the Carnival cruise out of Australia, total free for all family ruined the cruise for everyone! They were terrorizing all the passengers

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[Hoofy7]

Hi everyone! Sorry it’s taken me so long to update. I wasn’t sure if I should even finish this report as I don’t want to ruin the optimism any of you may have about an already booked cruise on Carnival, but don’t want to leave you hanging either. I’ll start with the port. It was very easy to get on and literally took us 15 minutes to get checked in and to our captains lounge to wait until they allowed us to board. It was much faster than Port Everglades. I was onboard the ship before 11am! Couldn’t ask for an easier process. Unfortunately, that was where the luck ended. Our room wasn’t ready til around 3pm. When I first got into our suite, I looked around and thought the 1970’s threw up in it. Lol Very worn and outdated. Then I noticed the thick dust all around the television. There was only ONE tv in a suite! It was probably only a 32” television too. Boo! Very disappointed. Then I look down and see an open safety pin sticking straight up out of the carpet. THAT would have been a disaster had any of us stepped on it. The other cruise goers were a mix of ages, but totally classless. Now I can sit at a dive bar all day and don’t claim to have the manners of Princess Di or anything, but these people were slobs. Kids running all over raising hell without ANY supervision. Even at the pools where there are no lifeguards. Running on the wet decks...I was stressed watching them. People throwing garbage all over the floors, spilled drinks everywhere.......I just could not believe the difference between Carnival & Princess.
Played in the casino awhile and at first I was doing ok. I got my $100 bill up to almost $600 and felt good about it. Then any luck I may have had departed with the ship leaving port. No matter how much I bet or what machine I tried, I could not win! On the Wonder 4 Tall Towers betting $10.20 a spin, I would open up the tower to the top and not win more than $25! It was brutal and I never saw a single handpay the entire cruise! The slot selection was just ok. No Wonka! Boo Again! There were a lot of the Asian themed slots, but nothing really new. My biggest hit the entire cruise was $300 and I lost $4000! I should have learned my lesson, but I just kept chasing like an idiot!

[Hoofy7]

The service.....there wasn’t ANY! I would have to walk and walk and walk to find a coffee. If you wanted a drink, you had to wait 20 minutes in line everywhere on the ship. I bought the Bottomless Bubbles drink package and it was a complete waste of money. They also print a receipt for every single drink...even bottled water....and you have to sign it each and every time you order anything! On Princess, you just handed your card and that was it. Not Carnival! You hand your card, they make your drink, you get your drink and a few minutes later you get a black leather booklet with the cost of your drink and an added 15% gratuity to EVERY drink and are required to sign for it. It really makes the process take so much longer than it should! The wait staff was almost non existent and you pretty much are on your own. There’s no smiling waiter walking around offering to grab you a coffee like on Princess....there are no waiters in the entire buffet on Lido deck! You either have to bring a drink with you or get your own water and lemonaid in plastic cups in the center of the buffet! So having that drink package, you can’t even get a coke or beer to go with your buffet! Another Boo!
The food....I’m sorry to say it was absolutely disgusting, inedible, and I literally went 3 days at a time without eating. Horrible! Again, I’m sorry I can’t give you all anything positive as there was NOTHING good about this cruise. I hate sounding so negative, but it was not the Carnival Dream, but it WAS the Carnival Nightmare!!!

[Hoofy7]

Ok, so obviously you can tell by now that the ship was a nightmare and were not enjoying ourselves at all. So we were all ready to get off the ship and looking forward to our excursions. One thing I really don’t skimp on is the excursions. I make sure to book the more expensive ones at least a few times. I had such a great time on my last cruise booking the catamarans that take you snorkeling, to swim with sea life, and that also include a beach stop with open bar and lunch. It’s always the most expensive excursions you can choose, but in my previous experience, worth every penny. Well we get a note under our door late at night that EVERY single excursion we booked was cancelled due to not enough people! Again, this is all due to the cheap, disgusting people onboard this shitty ship we were on. Out of 4,000 people not enough would spend the money to fill a small catamaran? There were 6 of us booked!!!!! It was so disappointing, my kids were devastated! We had to just wing it at every port. Ruined it for us in every way. We were badgered by sales people soon as we got on the piers, ripped off by taxi drivers on the islands, and just not at all what we envisioned. The first stop was Jamaica and if one more person stopped me trying to get me to pay them to put braids in my hair.....I was gonna lose it. Jamaica was a shit hole! Dirty and poverty everywhere. We ended up just going to Margaritaville on our own instead of the cancelled excursion. It was fine, but nothing special. Cost us more money since nothing was included than it would have if the excursion hadn’t been cancelled. There was a nice play area with water slides into the ocean and a DJ. Had a few drinks and just watched the kids swim. Even in the bar, locals were trying to sell you junk. Montego Bay is definitely off my list of future travel destinations. Lol

[foamy]

Well that sucks I have never been on a cruise and don't want to go this just makes my decision seem better.

[Mary9915]

I so appreciate your honest feedback Heather. I'm sorry the trip was such a bummer...

[TwoArmedBandito]

Wow Heather! That sounds like an awful experience for the whole family. If theyre lax on the ship about so many things you can see. I wonder what theyre cutting behind the scenes. Thanks for reporting.

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