Carnival Celebration
I boarded the Carnival Celebration on Sunday 07-23-2023 at Port Miami at about noon. While the port itself was very busy, as this was a sold out cruise, things moved very well. From check in, through security and onto the ship in about 30 minutes. The Carnival Celebration is the second ship in the Excel Class of ships, including its slightly older sister Mardi Gras. This is a Mega sized ship at 183,521 Gross Tons! At over 1100 feet long and 130 feet wide & 20 decks high, you cannot miss this mega ship from a distance! For our cruise, we stayed in a Lido Deck Balcony on deck 16 forward. We really liked the cabin and location as it was close to everything and very quiet.
Our stateroom came complete with a sofa bed, a big 60 Inch Flat Screen TV, a cooler box for your drinks, plenty of closet space and an extended sized shower stall. The bathroom itself was smaller to make room for that extended size shower stall. The stateroom was also a bit narrower throughout the cabin than older Carnival ships, but was still very nice and brand new just the same.
Our summer cruise was sold out with way more than the standard 5374 passengers, based on double capacity as several people had 3/4 people in their stateroom with children or friends. The ship also had close to its 1735 crew on board, to make this cruise experience possible for everyone else.
The main dining rooms are called Festivale and Carnivale; they are very large with a busy crew. The food quality in the main dining rooms, as well as the Market Place Buffet, were comparable to other large cruise market standards and had several options for types of foods. The Celebration has many other food options, some are included in your cruise fare, some come with surcharges. Those options included Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse, Emeril’s Bistros at Sea, Guy’s Pig and Anchor, The Carnival Kitchen, Rudy’s Seagrill, Big Chicken, Bonsai Teppanyaki, Guy’s Burger Joint, Chibang, Lucky Bowl, Blue Iguana Cantina, Cucina del Capitano and Room Service. I must mention that during our cruise, we opted to try the Fahrenheit 555 steakhouse for dinner one evening. That was an amazing dinner experience and well worth the $48 per person surcharge for it.
Bars are always plentiful on any Carnival cruise ship and the Carnival Celebration will not disappoint. Carnival Celebration has 15 bars and lounges on it to keep that action going late and provide your guests with many options for group space. All the Carnival favorites including the Piano Bar, Alchemy Bar, the two story high Red Frog Tiki Bar plus 12 more bars or lounges. During our cruise, we attended several different evening shows and found the live entertainment in the Grand Spectrum Theater to be very enjoyable and worthwhile. The Casino on the Carnival Celebration is one of the largest at sea with several table games and hundreds of slots to choose from with all the latest and most popular slots.
During our week, several customers stayed busy on the back outdoor entertainment decks that included BOLT, An actual Roller Coaster at Sea that costs you $15 for 3 laps around the rear outdoor section of the ship. The ropes course was also popular, as well as the mini golf and outdoor enclosed ball playing area. These are also great option for team building activities. Do not forget that if the main lido deck pool has too many kids for your liking the largest adult serenity area in the Carnival Fleet can be enjoyed on Carnival Celebration. This ship has a lot of open areas during the day that are not used often that could make for great meeting space for your group.
My final thought on the Carnival Celebration. As the newest biggest ship in the Carnival Fleet, The Flagship, Carnival Celebration is a big beautiful new build with many things you can do to have fun on it. If you are looking for a very large, mass market ship with lots of options and you’re not opposed to 5000 people having fun around you, the Carnival Celebration won’t disappoint.
Review completed by: Kurt Budde 07-2023
