How was the Sailabration?

[matymil]

Now that people are back id like to hear some reviews of the Sailabration. We were supposed to be part of that but as per usual unfortunately our plans changed. We were super excited about going. Just curious how it was on the different ships. I remember hearing that they were going to shoot fireworks off during the different meet ups? How were the menus different? Were there different activities/shows etc? Thanks!

[Tnlynch81]

Disappointing. We were on the Vista and there really was not much difference between a normal cruise. The ship meet up was OK. Neat to see all the ships together, but you could barely hear any horns. They burned a logo into the buns at guys,  had a few banners hanging, and the special menu was not all that special. Definitely did not live up to the hype.

[Moviela]

On Panorama they had a few menu items from days past, like beef Wellington, and Baked Alaska. There was a dance party on Lido that was fun. The Miracle sailed out of Ensenada and stopped parallel about 1/2 a mile away. Then they blew their hooters for a couple of minutes and sailed away. It was frightfully cold, but that did not damper the spirit of the crowd. 

 

There was a string trio aboard, and they played live with a track carrying the rest of the orchestra whilst the talented dancers performed a show with hints of Phantom of the Opera. 

 

The shops had a few 50th items for sale with large tumblers, adult shirts, and fridge magnets selling out fast.

[cruisingguy007]

11 minutes ago, Moviela said:

On Panorama they had a few menu items from days past, like beef Wellington, and Baked Alaska. There was a dance party on Lido that was fun. The Miracle sailed out of Ensenada and stopped parallel about 1/2 a mile away. Then they blew their hooters for a couple of minutes and sailed away. It was frightfully cold, but that did not damper the spirit of the crowd. 

 

There was a string trio aboard, and they played live with a track carrying the rest of the orchestra whilst the talented dancers performed a show with hints of Phantom of the Opera. 

 

The shops had a few 50th items for sale with large tumblers, adult shirts, and fridge magnets selling out fast.

 

Quick question, how was the nightlife now that the casino bar has been removed? Did it feel dead on the ship at night? Are more people going to the nightclub now? Just trying to get a sense of the vibe now as I've seen some video reviews on cruises where it looked like everything was pretty dead after 11 or so.  

[matymil]

29 minutes ago, Tnlynch81 said:

Disappointing. We were on the Vista and there really was not much difference between a normal cruise. The ship meet up was OK. Neat to see all the ships together, but you could barely hear any horns. They burned a logo into the buns at guys,  had a few banners hanging, and the special menu was not all that special. Definitely did not live up to the hype.

That stinks. Dang no fireworks? Was i dreaming that or did they say at one point they would have fireworks?? lol

[Moviela]

The nightlife was still there. I don't think anyone missed the casino bar. They filled the space with four giant wheel of fortune games. The Atrium was well attended. Some guests sang in the Havana bar with a medium size crowd. Piano bar was packed, with light crowds in the hero's bar and alchemy space. Some Punchliner shows were packed while others could have been performed in my cabin shower. The ship had 4,000 of the normal 5,000 person capacity. There were no crowds anywhere to mention

[skrufy]

2 hours ago, matymil said:

Now that people are back id like to hear some reviews of the Sailabration. We were supposed to be part of that but as per usual unfortunately our plans changed. We were super excited about going. Just curious how it was on the different ships. I remember hearing that they were going to shoot fireworks off during the different meet ups? How were the menus different? Were there different activities/shows etc? Thanks!

We were on the Miracle two weeks ago. Met up with the Radiance by Ensenada. Ships were pretty close and the horns were loud. Was nice but not spectacular. Wife thought there were to be fireworks also. The second week of the cruise we had numerous deck parties. They were much better than others I've attended. Overall it was a topical Journeys cruise.

[ray98]

I thought it was fine.  The gathering of the ships was pretty neat and there was a great deck party with plenty of drinks flowing.  Lots of people seemed to enjoy filming the TikTok video, I was content with watching holding a cold drink.  

 

There were quite a few decorations around the ship and there was a menu one night with some older favorites.

 

It was pretty much what I expected it to be.  Other seemed to have had much higher expectations.  It was nice to have something different in my opinion.

[Jelly_Toast]

I was a little disappointed because there was no midnight buffet, but we already knew that going in. The ship meet up was okay.  We did watch the Freedom do a (pretty fast) 360 which was neat. I stayed away from the tik tok party on the lido, that sort of thing isn't for me.  All in all, it was not much different from a normal cruise but I got to spend time with my family and that is a precious commodity so I'm glad I was able to go.

[Saint Greg]

I think the meetup would’ve been better if the other ships got as close as ecstasy did.

 

 

 

 

[May1cruiser]

We were on the Pride. Cruise itself was close to normal with a few hints of celebration. The meetup was okay seeing ships together. Horns could not be heard as we were towards the back of the pack. My thoughts were if the ships formed a semi circle and faced each other, we could have heard the horns. Apparently Mardi Gras turned, but we could not see from our vantage point. I thought it could have been more spectacular. But overall great to be on a cruise...

[2wheelin]

3 hours ago, Jelly_Toast said:

I was a little disappointed because there was no midnight buffet, but we already knew that going in. The ship meet up was okay.  We did watch the Freedom do a (pretty fast) 360 which was neat. I stayed away from the tik tok party on the lido, that sort of thing isn't for me.  All in all, it was not much different from a normal cruise but I got to spend time with my family and that is a precious commodity so I'm glad I was able to go.

We were on the Freedom. I was disappointed that it took so long to get lined up, especially since most of the viewers were in the front of the ship waiting for something to happen (as in the pictures) and then everyone lined up behind us. Horn blowing was a farce. Couldn’t hear and they were not timed right. Then that was it. No party except the tik tok. I did not think it was worth the higher cost they charged from similar non-sailabration cruises.

[LRDR01]

Completely disappointing.  We were on the Radiance on March 4th.  Met up with the Miracle outside of Ensenada.  Miracle was late for the meeting due to passengers on Carnival excursions not returning to the ship on time.   Cruise director gave us no indication of why we were outside in the freezing cold waiting for the Miracle for an hour.   He just kept trying to get the Tik Tok video correct.  Someone standing next to us had a friend on the Miracle and she kept us informed as to what was going on.  No announcements from the captain, no information provided by the crew.   The horn blasts were ok, but, after being totally freezing for a while, we had to head inside just to get warm.   There was a rainbow over the Miracle which was pretty cool.   There was no merchandise on board to purchase in regards to the Sailabration (stuck in a container somewhere).  We were told by Guest Services that none of the West coast ships received any merchandise, which we found out by Social media that was incorrect.  The Radiance was the only one that had nothing.  Special dinner was ok.  Basically the same menu as a regular cruise, only with paper menus.  Absolutely not worth the extra money spent to be on this cruise.  We did get a colorful towel animal one night.....   

 

Edited March 16, 2022 by LRDR01

[Rudyard]

11 hours ago, matymil said:

Dang no fireworks? Was i dreaming that or did they say at one point they would have fireworks??

 

There was a strong rumor going around for months that there would be fireworks. The rumor grew legs and  eventually got to the point where it came to be believed to be something that was actually going to happen. At that point I'm surprised that Carnival didn't step in, since they monitor the various social media sites, and squash the rumor. So many people were asking about this after the fact that John Heald posted on FB that there were never any plans to have fireworks. I'm just glad I cruised the week before and had a great time rather than wait a week, pay Disney prices (there were no deals showing for me the week of the Sailabration cruises), then be disappointed. 

Edited March 16, 2022 by Rudyard

[scoobysnacks70]

3 minutes ago, LRDR01 said:

Completely disappointing.  We were on the Radiance on March 4th.  Met up with the Miracle outside of Ensenada.  Miracle was late for the meeting due to passengers on Carnival excursions not returning to the ship on time.   Cruise director gave us no indication of why we were outside in the freezing cold waiting for the Miracle for an hour.   He just kept trying to get the Tik Tok video correct.  Someone standing next to us had a friend on the Miracle and she kept us informed as to what was going on.  No announcements from the captain, no information provided by the crew.   The horn blasts were ok, but, after being totally freezing for a while, we had to head inside just to get warm.   There was a rainbow over the Miracle which was pretty cool.   There was no merchandise on board to purchase in regards to the Sailabration (stuck in a container somewhere).  We were told by Guest Services that none of the West coast ships received any merchandise, which we found out by Social media that was incorrect.  The Radiance was the only one that had nothing.  Special dinner was ok.  Basically the same menu as a regular cruise, only with paper menus.  Absolutely not worth the extra money spent to be on this cruise.  We did get a colorful towel animal one night.....   

20220306_050945808_iOS.heicUnavailable

At least the rainbow looks cool!

[LothCat]

We were on Spirit and were in port at Nassau for the day along with Legend and Sunshine.  I thought it was pretty cool because we had a Carnival caravan coming out for the meetup.  Spirit left first with Legend right behind and right behind her, Sunshine.  The Freedom, Liberty and Conquest were outside Nassau waiting for us so we could look forward and see 3 Carnival ships and look back and see 2 behind us.  

I really enjoyed seeing all the ships line up - a sort of triangle with Freedom at the point, Conquest and Liberty in the second row and the other 3 of us in the back row.  However, it did take way too long.  The meetup was scheduled for 4:00 but we were still on the bow at 5:30 waiting for something to happen.  Most people had already left because they had to get ready for early dining.

 

Overall, I enjoyed being part of it.  One thing that was weird though, there wasn't any 50th birthday stuff for sale in the Fun Shops that I could find.  I went on day one expecting to find a Sailabration t shirt or something and there wasn't any.  Did any of the other ships have Sailabration souvenirs?

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

All I know is that, because of this 50th birthday thing, on the Liberty Saturday night their regular Cruise Elegant MDR menu was a "special one", meaning NO PRIME RIB..

 

Funny how special events seem to impact us... we went on the Conquest over Christmas. As it turned out, Cruise Elegant night was - you betcha - on Christmas. So... SPECIAL menu again (guess what they skipped?)! 
 

No worries, we'll be back on the Liberty very soon and, as far as I can tell, there's nothing "special" happening... yet.... LOL

 

Tom

[BlerkOne]

All kinds of Sailabration crap for sail on Ebay. I saw hoarders carrying off bags of it. The magical funnel hats were $35 on the ships. I wasn't about to fight the masses for junk I don't want or need. I was glad they ran out of most.

 

I see Carnival is selling a couple of things on their website - a mug and an espresso (?) mug

https://shop.carnival.com/

 

 

 

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

15 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

All kinds of Sailabration crap for sail on Ebay. I saw hoarders carrying off bags of it. The magical funnel hats were $35 on the ships. I wasn't about to fight the masses for junk I don't want or need. I was glad they ran out of most.

 

I see Carnival is selling a couple of things on their website - a mug and an espresso (?) mug

https://shop.carnival.com/

 

 

 

 

Perhaps they should give all their Platinum and Diamond guests a meal in the steakhouse in celebration!

[BlerkOne]

7 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

Perhaps they should give all their Platinum and Diamond guests a meal in the steakhouse in celebration!

That would have been over 2000 on Mardi Gras alone. Nice way to go bankrupt.

[keels81]

I was on the Breeze and had a blast! We had a VERY active roll call group on FB and our sailaway meetup had over 200 people at it. It was crazy, but also really great to feel like you "knew" everyone you were on-board with. Like over 100 people participated in the gift exchange, so it was crazy to open our stateroom door in the morning and see all the thoughtful gifts from people in our exchange group just piled up! It was like Christmas!

 

Of course, Cookie was Cookie so I've been officially indoctrinated into the Cult of Cookie. 🤣

 

The crew was SO happy ... this was my fifth Carnival sailing since the restart, and they just had this awesome, excited vibe about them. Plus, they were duck CRAZY. I've never experienced a crew that has been so obsessed with ducks, but it made me so excited to come across some and give them over to them. 

 

The ship meet-up was really, really cool. I enjoyed watching marine traffic all day to see where the in-bound ships were and being able to see a couple of them enjoying their sea days just off the coast of Cozumel and then just cheering loudly for the Ecstasy to finally join the party (little did we know, she'd have an extended day in Cozumel the next day). 

 

It was my first time sailing out of Galveston, so it was a good opportunity to learn the ropes before my big group sailing on the Vista in two weeks. 

 

All in all, I really had a blast. I loved the Birthdaytini and was able to get two cans of the Birthday Beer to bring back to my husband. I never expected fireworks, honestly. I've sailed Disney and have seen how they've done them and it's just unrealistic to have expected them with that many ships close together. I was a little sad there wasn't the Midnight Buffet because I was really looking forward to the ice and fruit sculptures, but ... again, it wasn't anything that was going to ruin my cruise over.

 

On top of that, I'd severely dislocated my elbow about two weeks before sailing, so I was in a massive splinted cast for this cruise -- and it still was one of the best I've been on, as far as weather and sheer enjoyment goes. 

 

I did get quite a deal when we booked this back in January, so at the end of the day it was a fun perk to be able to get the birthday stuff when I could've been sitting at home feeling sorry for myself with a busted arm.

[TravelGirlinDallas]

5 minutes ago, keels81 said:

I was a little sad there wasn't the Midnight Buffet because I was really looking forward to the ice and fruit sculptures, but ...

Why did they not have the throwback Midnight Buffet? Those were so much fun back in the day.

[keels81]

1 minute ago, TravelGirlinDallas said:

Why did they not have the throwback Midnight Buffet? Those were so much fun back in the day.

 

John Heald said a few weeks prior that they wouldn't be offering it due to restricting indoor gathering sizes (like Atrium parties, etc.) due to Covid protocols. 

[CruiseAdict218]

All and all the Sailabration was a nice cruise; we were on the Carnival Freedom. The cruises didn't really feel all that different from a "normal" cruise as others have said. The ship itself could definitely use a touch up, she looked worn from the outside. 

 

There was no memorabilia for a few days until we got some in when we docked in Nassau with the Conquest. Which in turned, made it seem like Black Friday shopping in order to get the items, as a long lined formed outside the shop and then a free for all when the doors opened, but they had mostly everything expect the t-shirts, hats and the beer mug. 

 

We also go the pin after two days, and at check in you received the lanyard (but I heard some people did not and were refused when asked). The also had the limited edition birthday beer, I believe they had the other limited edition red ale. Totally forgot about the Sea-Day Brunch so never got to try the new Bellini.

 

On one night, they also handed out special menus you got to keep.

 

Was disappointing that there was no mid-night buffet but understandable.

 

As far as the actual meetup, honestly the Tik-Toc was a waste of time and too much time was spent on that. I thought it was going to be horns then the tik-toc but it was the other way around and when it got time for the horns, I think people just became bored and carried on with their day. Thought the horns would lead off with Freedom but it went in a different order (had a idea that maybe the captain would come on to talk us though but didn't), regardless it was still neat to watch. I never expected fireworks, don't think that was even mentioned In the original plans but it would have made it a bit more special. 

[Rudyard]

1 hour ago, keels81 said:

Of course, Cookie was Cookie so I've been officially indoctrinated into the Cult of Cookie

 

Cookie's awesome! I've sailed with him on my last two cruises and will miss him in December. I was on Breeze the week before you and he hosted a fantastic Mardis Gras party on the Lido.