LIVE! Celebration 11/26-12/3 Holidays & Casino Ultra—Let’s Cruise!

[TravelBluebird]

Yes! She’s back! After a jaunt over to Royal Caribbean for Wonder of the Seas last month, I’m back on Carnival, this time taking the Celebration out of Miami!  This is my 7th LIVE! Blog here on Cruise Critic, and I just love taking y’all along with me.

 

For those of you that don’t know me, I’m Dee, traveling with my dear hubby Russ. I adore cruising, have done a ton of it.  I’m particularly excited about this cruise since I LOVE Carnival, and also the Mardi Gras—been on her twice!  This is my first time on her sister ship the Celebration, and my second time cruising out of Miami since the pandemic.

 

I’m cruising on a casino invite offer called an Ultra. Basically, we get to partake in special events and drawings, and there are some gifts, etc. More on this during this blog! This is also my first Ultra cruise.

 

Another bit of spice to the pot is that I’m cruising during the holiday season, and Celebration will be newly decorated as of the day we board!  There are supposed to be some special Christmas events, music, etc as well. Will be sure to share photos of the decorations.

 

If you’ve read my LIVE!s you also know I LOVE to eat. We are mostly sticking with the free offerings this cruise, as I want to try as much of the new Carnival menus as possible in the MDR.

 

As for my blogging/review style? I’ll tell it like it is, but that said, I’ve never been on a bad cruise! I’m generally upbeat and I don’t let a few things that are not perfect ruin my good time. You can see that through my prior LIVE!s.

 

I have a cruising channel on YouTube, Cruising With Dee. You can completely enjoy this LIVE! without visiting my channel, but if you want to visit my channel, I won’t complain!  I write my blog (prose) here with lots of photos, and the videos and live streams go on the Channel.  Link to my channel is always in my signature, and I’ll include links for any videos I upload during the trip.

 

This particular cruise is the Western Caribbean Itinerary, so ports are Cozumel, Costa Maya and Roatan. We leave tomorrow and fly down to the port; pretty late in the day because the later flight was cheaper

 

So that’s it by way of introduction! I usually start these blogs earlier in the week of my cruise, BUT I was hosting Thanksgiving for my family, and I’ve been running around like crazy.  I generally DON’T cruise during the holidays because I’m crazy about the Christmas  season, and with all of my family visiting from near and far, my house is like a Holiday Inn during December. But I couldn’t pass this cruise up!

 

Thanks in advance for reading along and joining in! I don’t like my LIVE!s to be soliloquies; so please comment, suggest, ask questions! I’ll try my best to answer any questions I can while I’m on the ship. 

 

Let’s Cruise! 

[princess76021]

Whoopie!! Another live!!

Thanks for inviting us!

Hugs from texas!!

[TravelBluebird]

9 minutes ago, princess76021 said:

Whoopie!! Another live!!

Thanks for inviting us!

Hugs from texas!!

 

Hugs Back, Princess!  Thanks for coming along!

[HolySpearit]

Wooohoo following along! Excited to hear about the cruises of the gambling VIPs #goals 

[ninjacat123]

Awesome !! Looking forward to your review 👍😁

[TravelBluebird]

1 hour ago, HolySpearit said:

Wooohoo following along! Excited to hear about the cruises of the gambling VIPs #goals 

 

Glad to have you along @HolySpearit! I really enjoyed your review!  

[TravelBluebird]

1 hour ago, ninjacat123 said:

Awesome !! Looking forward to your review 👍😁

 

@ninjacat123 Great to have you along; the adventure starts tomorrow! Off to bed late; had to get through my pre-trip to do list.

[lazydayz]

So excited to see this.  Safe travels.  We are doing the NYE cruise on the Celebration, and look forward to hearing your thoughts on the new menu items.

[Jamman54]

We'll be following along! We're back on the Celebration in January. 😎

[TravelBluebird]

7 hours ago, lazydayz said:

So excited to see this.  Safe travels.  We are doing the NYE cruise on the Celebration, and look forward to hearing your thoughts on the new menu items.

 

@lazydayz How wonderful! I’ve always thought a New Years Eve cruise would be SO much fun! Big party and no driving with all the drunk crowds after midnight!  

[TravelBluebird]

5 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

We'll be following along! We're back on the Celebration in January. 😎

 

@Jamman54 Great to have you along! And nice that you’ll be boarding Celebration soon! I love cruising in January—generally, less crowded. Looks like my cruise is sold out or close to it!

[TravelBluebird]

Even though I don’t leave. my house till 12:30, I couldn’t sleep last night! I still get as excited as aa kid the night before a cruise trip!
 

Its Groundhog Day—of course I’ll be connecting in Atlanta. When I dream about airports, I dream about Atlanta. If you are in any small Southern city and fly Delta, you know what I’m talking about.

 

Everything showing on time so far! Good weather here AND in Atlanta.  I’ve been nervous about traveling Thanksgiving Weekend ever since the holiday airline meltdowns last year, but so far so good. It ALMOST  made me pass up on this cruise, but only almost. We DID decide to stay an extra night after the cruise because it saved us a ridiculous amount of air fare (worked thanks to free hotel on Marriott points). 

 

We’ll be staying tonight at the JW Marriott on Bricknell. We LOVE the Marriott on Biscayne Bay pre-cruise—right on the water, lots of restaurants in walking distance, but when we booked the hotel, the JW was way cheaper. The price on Biscayne Bay came WAY down and I almost re-booked, but I do like trying out different hotels, so we just stayed put. Plus, we get in SO late tonight, after 9pm, that we figured it wouldn’t matter a whole lot!

 

I have new luggage for this cruise! Which is great, but also a difficult situation for a person that doesn’t like change. I’ve been flying and cruising with the same style of luggage for 30 years (soft sided Travel Pro). Decided we should give the luggage a spin BEFORE the Antarctica cruise in January.  It’s hard sided and looks great, BUT it is heavier and lacks the pockets everywhere of my usual soft-sided Travel Pro. We shall see, it had BETTER fit under the bed int he cabin 😂. 

 

Ever see the movie Joe and the Volcano—this new luggage reminds me of those trunks that Joe purchased. Sturdy. I think it can float if need be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TravelBluebird]

Our family is taking us t the airport at 12:30. Which is WONDERFUL, because we don’t have to look for parking at the airport lots which will be overstuffed with Thanksgiving travelers until tomorrow.

 

BUT are ready to go.  Now we have to sit and wait.

 

I’m READY. NOW.  🤣

[pcvtmom]

I'm excited to see this Live review! I love following your adventures. 

[TravelBluebird]

7 minutes ago, pcvtmom said:

I'm excited to see this Live review! I love following your adventures. 

 

@pcvtmom Glad to have you along! I’m counting down the clock till I begin…only 34 minutes to pick up to the airport now… 😀

[TravelBluebird]

At the airport! 

 

The usual breeze. I love having a smaller city airport only 15 minutes from my house. We even had time to play Holiday Cornhole with Delta and won some SkyMiles after we checked in!  

 

Reports on another site about how full, indeed, all the airport parking lots are. At BWI, all 51,000 spaces are full and people are having to park at Amtrak. At a smaller airport, people were having to park at the employee parking lot!  

 

Our airport is decorated for the holidays; looks so cheery and nice!  

 

Here is our obligatory Airport Selfie at the start of the trip.

 

Everything looking on time!! 

 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2023 by TravelBluebird

[TravelBluebird]

The little check-in desks at the Gate are even decorated for Christmas!

 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2023 by TravelBluebird

[TravelBluebird]

Flight is completely full!  On board, in Comfort + which we love when we can do it (more leg room, dedicated space for the carry-ons, closer to front of the plane, and theoretically snacks and free drinks (although this first flight, on a 737, is too short for any of that).

 

Lots of kids on this flight; we don’t know how many munchkins on the cruise.

 

Door about to close!

[pinto18]

We are doing our first Ultra in September so looking forward to your thoughts..looking forward to this review 

[ninjacat123]

2 hours ago, TravelBluebird said:

At the airport! 

 

The usual breeze. I love having a smaller city airport only 15 minutes from my house. We even had time to play Holiday Cornhole with Delta and won some SkyMiles after we checked in!  

 

Reports on another site about how full, indeed, all the airport parking lots are. At BWI, all 51,000 spaces are full and people are having to park at Amtrak. At a smaller airport, people were having to park at the employee parking lot!  

 

Our airport is decorated for the holidays; looks so cheery and nice!  

 

Here is our obligatory Airport Selfie at the start of the trip.

 

Everything looking on time!! 

 

 

 

JAX was totally booked as well and the freeway sign said to look for offsite parking. Fortunately we drove to the port so all was well for ninjacat123 family 😁👍

[TravelBluebird]

2 hours ago, pinto18 said:

We are doing our first Ultra in September so looking forward to your thoughts..looking forward to this review 

 

@pinto18 I’ve been gambling with Carnival for years, so was surprised and happy to get the Ultra offers!  Will be sure to give a full report and take photos as allowed (without identifying the gamblers in the casino—don’t want to get anyone in trouble with the significant other 😂)

Edited November 25, 2023 by TravelBluebird

[TravelBluebird]

1 hour ago, ninjacat123 said:

JAX was totally booked as well and the freeway sign said to look for offsite parking. Fortunately we drove to the port so all was well for ninjacat123 family 😁👍

 

@ninjacat123 Your Thanksgiving cruise looks like a BLAST; been catching up with your LIVE! thread! 

[TravelBluebird]

Our layover gives us about 2 1/2 hours to burn in Atlanta.

 

So we opted for a sit-down dinner at P.F. Changs.  Its a little hard to find—as you come up the escalator from the underground train and walkways from the other terminals, you go a bit right and you see a sign—then you go up a small elevator to the restaurant.

 

Large, service is very prompt, food is good (if a bit expensive) even a bar and views of the runways!

 

We shared the Mongolian Beef and Singapore Noodles (my only meal today..needed to eat LESS today sandwiched between Thanksgiving and the cruise!. Cost was $50 including 2 non-alcoholic drinks but NOT including the tip.

 

Also took a walkabout after dinner in the airport so have managed 8,000 steps so far.

 

We board in 15 minutes; looking on time! 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2023 by TravelBluebird

[ninjacat123]

23 minutes ago, TravelBluebird said:

 

@ninjacat123 Your Thanksgiving cruise looks like a BLAST; been catching up with your LIVE! thread! 

Nice change from our whirlwind Europe trip! I do miss the yummy food in Italy and Greece❣️

[TravelBluebird]

20 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Nice change from our whirlwind Europe trip! I do miss the yummy food in Italy and Greece❣️

 

Yes, Europe always feels like “If This Is Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium” to me!

 

But you cannot beat the food in Italy! Of course, I’m part Italian, so I’m a bit biased!