HolySpearit

SEA DAY 1: Up and at ‘em around 9am, seas are not too bad and the sun is out! We had signed up for a Pasta Master class at Carnival Kitchen and had to report down there on deck 6 by 10:55 am. Skipped breakfast and made it down there on time where Chef Michael lead us though making noodles and a pasta dish. Overall this was fun, easy even for someone who does not cook AT ALL (aka me), and noodle dish was tasty! Total class was about an hour and I think we paid $30/person for it pre-cruise. Worth it to us and we’d do it again. We spent the rest of the day just hanging around reading, napping, and playing some cards. Went to ChiBang for dinner around 7, it was an hour wait when we checked in via the app and it took the full hour. This was NOT GOOD. D got nachos (meh), steak ranchero (not good), and the chocolate c-bang (it was fine). I got the spring rolls (good), mapo tofu (didn’t taste bad but it was cold. Like cold cold, not lukewarm), and c-bang (fine). Service was incredibly slow and servers seemed to be losing their frigging minds despite the restaurant being ½ empty. I sit around for 10 minutes after our plates were cleared thinking I need to sign for my drink. Nobody ever came back so we left, I figured they know where I am if they want to come arrest me. We also encounter a woman full on picking out a wedgie in the entrance. Like full on, not even trying to hide it, hand up her dress PICKIN. Immediately douse myself in hand sanitizer and decide ChiBang is none of my business for the rest of the cruise. 3/10 would not recommend. Nice day at sea! Bout to get our noodle on, pray I dont burn down this ship because based on my cooking experience that's a real possibility. Success and the ship is still floatin!

EMBARKATION CONTINUED: Head into our room, we had room 11208 for this cruise which is a balcony in the VERY front of the ship which was different. Some overall thoughts on the room: balcony is INCREDIBLY windy while at sea most of the time. If you are sitting down it’s fine but don’t plan on standing on your balcony for long or your cheeks (facial...mostly) will be flappin in the breeze. It’s partially shaded which I enjoyed. It is above a crew smoking area and occasionally you’d get a waft of smoke. Didn’t bother me but if you’re very sensitive to smoke I would avoid it. Overall 7.5/10 room. Hung out in the room for a bit, met room attendant Bayou who was an absolute sweetheart. He did not ask when we wanted service and just said he’d take care of it while we were out of the room. We are not picky with this so fine by me. Our only request was an extra blanket and he said he’d see what he could do. Up to sail away run by Lee which was widely attended and a good time. Back to the room to change for dinner, suitcases have arrived! MDR for dinner around 6. I had tomato soup (good), Indian Vegetarian (decent, a lot smaller than it used to be though) and some melting cake with a side of peanut butter. Dinner service was quick, we were in and out in about an hour. D want to stop by the shops so he looks around and ends up buying a backpack, and I check out the “preview” thing that’s going on at the Center Stage. As far as I can tell, they sit on stools and sing some songs from upcoming shows. Ok then. Hit the casino for a bit, D wins, I do not, my liver is winning via the casino bar. Head over to the theater for Color My World. This is a SNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOZE. The singers are decent, some of the effects are cool but I was falling asleep. Idk what it was, but shows were not hittin on this cruise. Theater was also the most empty I have EVER seen it and that includes that time on the Vista when we had the world’s worst singers front and center. Back to the cruis-ino for a bit, then we head back into the theater for the 11:30 comedy show. This is way past my bedtime. Comedian #1 I do not remember his name (#killingit) and was ok, he spent most of the show trying to hook 2 people up? Second comedian was Doug Williams, who I know as the man who got absolutely WRECKED during the roast of Jamie Foxx back in the day. Glad to see he’s still doing his thing I guess. He was somewhat funny. Total runtime for the show between the 2 was about 45 minutes. I have worked up quite the appetite sitting there so we head to Miami slice for some pizza. I have cheese, D has pepperoni, both are readily available and you just grab a plate, you just have to wait if you want a specialty one. Call it a night and finally hit the hay around 1:30am and I AM SLEEPY. Bayou has officially delivered on the extra blanket request. COME THRU BAYOU!!!! Lee and the fun squad are getting it poppin Adios America! That section down below is the crew smoking area, for ref. PB + WCMC the GOAT Previewing the shows for the week, that black box is part of the glass barrier that man is not in witness protection The world pre-color. Coldplay and a mockery of Prince perks us right up apparently.... Drun-chies pizza at 1am is always a good idea on a cruise.

EMBARKATION/DAY 1 (by far the most we did any day of this trip!) We had a check-in time of 11:30-12 for the cruise. Woke up around 9, hit Dunkin in Davie for breakfast, let me tell you this is the fanciest Dunkin of all time. There is a Dunkin themed bike you can buy for $700. There is also a conference room you can rent out? Like full on conference room with a board room table etc. Imagine your boss tells you to come meet him at the Dunkin, you think you’re gonna get some delicious munchkins, then you get pulled into the Dunkin conference room and get fired. That would be really terrible. Anyway, make our way to the MIA airport to drop off the rental. Grab a cab outside, get to the port for $44 including tip. Uber/Lyft would have been roughly $23 pre-tip, but D gets weird about Ubers thinking somehow these jalopys the cab drivers have are safer. I love that man but sometime the logic is questionable. I just roll with it at this point. Picking your battles is the secret to marriage. There’s your free advice for the day. Arrive around 11:45, give bags to the porter. We are on the ship QUICK. Literally did not stand in a single line for more than 3 minutes the entire time. We did have to get sniffed by the drug dogs, I was not a huge fan of that as it made me feel like a felon and also I really wanted to pet that dog and couldn’t so that was like a bummer to start the trip. Deemed appropriately drug free we are let on the ship. Go to muster outside the dining room it takes 3 seconds. Head to Golden Jubliee for a couple drinks (we did have Cheers, paid for not free from the cruis-ino). D has a smoked Manhatten and I have a Vesper. Both good and bartenders are adorable. Go off in search of some food, end up at Guy’s Pig and Anchor on deck 8 (the outside BBQ is open, the smokehouse inside is not). It is DEAD. Literally nobody is there. Workers are super sweet. D gets some chicken (good), sausage (ok), greens (ok) and mac and cheese (good in a “this reminds me of my 5th grade cafeteria” type of way). I get pulled pork (good), coleslaw (grossssss tastes like legit nothing), bread (also gross which like I am whatever the polar opposite of keto is so if I dislike bread it’s gotta be really bad), and mac and cheese. Cruise director Lee announces rooms are ready so we go check it out. D needs a new lanyard so we also swing by Pixels on our way up and pick up our oh so snazzy elite gold level pins. I lost mine within 48 hours. Once again killing it over here. BBQ Action Very exclusive gifts Miami sure is pretty!!!!

Pre-Cruise Flew to Fort Lauderdale on 11/3, we went this route as it was significantly cheaper to fly/stay in FLL vs Miami. Flight uneventful, landed around 11am at the very tiny terminal 2 which I love, and picked up a rental at the airport (easy process). Stayed at the Courtyard in Plantation, they let us check in at noon, score. Hotel was fine-good location. Largely populated by a group of kids that I am assuming based on age/gender were members of some kind of dance/cheerleading team. Surprisingly didn’t her a ton of noise. I was leery as some recent reviews mentioned an ant problem…I did not see any ants. Must have went marchin. I'll see myself out for that. Great location-tons of stuff close by. Napped for the afternoon, went to Tiajuana Flats for dinner, it was fine. I like the hot sauce bar but I think it got smaller which is lame. Saturday we went to Starbucks and then spent the day at the Hollywood Hard Rock. Casino/property is beautiful but we did not win much. Oh well. Just went to Publix and picked up some sandwiches for dinner and called it a night pretty early (told you this review is gonna be snoozy). Tijana Flats eats. Quesadilla was fine. Queso was good. D's steak bowl was OKKKKK. Courtyard Plantation pool. Never saw a single person in it and it was warm. Do kids not do hotel pools anymore? I loved those as a kid. Big Casino winnings baby!!!! Next up: CRUISE DAY

Hello CC world and welcome to another review that LICH-ERALLY nobody asked for. We recently got off a 7-day cruise on the Carnival Celebration and I figured I would share a brief-ish (I can tend to get wordy so that's being real optimistic here) review, and some pics. My last review I did got to like 5 pages so clearly, I can’t let my enormous fan club down. In reality I just like re-living vacation and going back and reading these. Maybe something will help someone too. As the If you have questions, ask away. As the title indicates, this was definitely a snoozy cruise…we did a LOT of relaxing so this may also be a record for the most boring review of all time. We're off to an excellent start already, really killing it over here. About us/this cruise: Cruise was taken by me and my husband, henceforth referred to as D. I will continue to be referred to as “me” and “I” (creativity is my passion). We are in our early 40’s (wow first time I wrote that in a review, gross!!! JK better over the hill than buried under it), childfree, and live in Minneapolis. This was cruise #8, #6 on Carnival. We are not loyal but tend to enjoy Carnival. We are degenerate gamblers so we got this cruise on the cheap via casino offer. Originally booked in an interior on deck 10. Upgrade peddler called about a week before we sailed offering to upgrade us to a balcony for $300. SOLD. Cruise left out of Miami and our ports were Amber Cove, San Juan, and St. Thomas. Not our first time in any of them. LETS GOOOOOOO

Thanks for this! Looks very interesting!

Must be doing something right if we have been blessed with another wildra review! Following along, we’ll be in this cruise in about 2.5 months! 🤩

Beautiful thank you!!!!! They'll get my coins so I guess their scheme is working 😁

🎶 COME ON DOWN TO HEIDISSSSSSSS 🎶 gonna have that in my head all day now lol

Hey Wildra! You are one of my favorite reviewers around these parts, you and W seem like so much fun! Question for ya-I know you mentioned renting a car at MIA and then returning it and catching a cab/uber to the cruise port. If I'm remembering right the car rental place at MIA is off site. Can you pick up a cab/uber at the rental center, or did you have to take the tram thingy back to the main terminal to get one? We're heading out on the Celebration in Nov and haven't rented a car in MIA since they had the free cruise port shuttle that went away with Covid.

Following along, long time lurker of your reviews, we have a similar cabin booked for the Vista next year. Have fun and thanks for taking us along!

This is incredibly sad. We had him as a cruise director back in 2020 shortly before the shutdown. He was wonderful. Genuinely sad over this 😓

The week before you! 😎

Pulled the trigger on the Celebration for November next year, so I want alllll the details! Looking forward to following your review!

I hope that lady from the other night got her chicken!!!

That subset is STUNNING thanks for sharing it!

Great start! We were on 2 weeks after you so I’m looking forward to your thoughts!!

Love your reviews, and love your hair too! That blue/purple combo is 🔥

…I actually can’t express how much I want to see this 😹

Excellent review as always thank you for always sharing your journey with us! Makes the time to the next cruise go so much faster! Glad to see Gabe as a cruise director, he was on the Mardi Gras with us as part of the fun squad and he was adorable!