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

[csm5986142]

We will be getting off Celebration in the morning when you get on - it has been an awesome week (perfect weather) hope it continues for you guys next week. Have a great cruise!

[TravelBluebird]

39 minutes ago, csm5986142 said:

We will be getting off Celebration in the morning when you get on - it has been an awesome week (perfect weather) hope it continues for you guys next week. Have a great cruise!

@csm5986142 Glad to hear you’ve had an awesome cruise, but sad for you having to leave the ship (I hate that last-day “the trip is almost over” feeling.  I hope the weather continues to be perfect or at least good—my last cruise was in a tropical storm and it rained the whole week!

[TravelBluebird]

Second flight was perfect and on time. Grandfather and 5 year old had been separated for seats, so we switched for them. We ended up on 2 window seats across the aisle from each other—no problem, and that is too young not to sit with your parent or grandparent!

 

Baggage claim was swift—we were in the Uber and at the hotel at about 9:15. Checked Uber—they wanted $37 to get to the hotel, and there was a 5 minute wait. We looked and the taxi line was full of taxis with no wait, so we took the taxi, and it was $35. Neither amount includes tip!

 

As mentioned, we are at the JW Marriott on Brickell. Staying here on points (I’m going to run out of my free points hotel rooms next year 😭.

 

Really lovely. This is a HOTEL. As opposed to the TownHill Suites and Courtyards and Spring HIll Suites and Fairfield Inns, which is my usual pre-cruise type of hotel to save the $$.  Its lovely. Big, beautiful lobby, giant Christmas tree, very old fashioned (in a good way) bar called Drakes that look like it belongs in the English country side. 

 

Got a lovely upgrade to a corner room, which is one of their renovated rooms.  Roomy, with windows on 2 sides. Its called an “Inspired King.”. Big TV, comfy Marriott bed, really nice! Even has individual toiletries items including a sewing kit, mouthwash, makeup cleanser, etc (unfortunately the shampoo, conditioner, body wash and lotion are those “shared” things that I won’t touch).

 

Poor Russ has a horrible headache. He doesn’t normally get headaches so I’m a little worried. He took some Advil and is trying to sleep. 

 

Coffee options for the morning are plentiful; there is an Illy Coffee maker with espresso pods in the room (YAY!), a restaurant on the second floor, and a coffee shop and bakery across the street.

We arranged an Uber to the port for the morning. Its a little pricey at $42 but we just don’t want to worry about it. No port shuttle at this hotel; we’re about 15 minutes away.

 

I took mostly video tonight; will get more photos in the morning; I’ll do some screen shots in the next post!

 

 

[TravelBluebird]

Here are the photos at the hotel tonight:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by TravelBluebird

[princess76021]

Can't wait to get this cruise on the water!!!

Beautiful hotel btw!!

Hugs from Texas!

[bethfelk]

Following! We have been looking at a couple different Excel class itineraries for next year

[TravelBluebird]

We are in TRAFFIC to the port!  1 hour 15 minutes so far.  More to follow.  Worse port traffic I have ever been in!

Edited November 26, 2023 by TravelBluebird

[TravelBluebird]

Wow that was gnarly port traffic! We got off and walked with our luggage from before Terminal 6 to Terminal 7!  Took us over an hour 45 minutes to get to the ship—with no traffic, 15 minutes.

 

if we hadn’t walked bet it would have been at least another 1/2 hour!

 

On the PLUS side took us 10 minutes from entrance to the terminal to the ship!  No line anywhere and a brief sniff by the drug dogs.

[TravelBluebird]

Here’s us walking, the drug dog, my Guys Burger, casino where we muster drilled, and my current lovely view fro Red Frog pub!

 

 

 

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by TravelBluebird

[TravelBluebird]

I am chillin in a clamshell by the Serenity Pool and Russ is having Second Lunch  at Pig & Anchor!

 

Its great to be married 33 years and everyone be OK to do your own thing! 

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by TravelBluebird

[Knights on the Beach]

1 hour ago, TravelBluebird said:

Wow that was gnarly port traffic! We got off and walked with our luggage from before Terminal 6 to Terminal 7!  Took us over an hour 45 minutes to get to the ship—with no traffic, 15 minutes.

 

if we hadn’t walked bet it would have been at least another 1/2 hour!

 

On the PLUS side took us 10 minutes from entrance to the terminal to the ship!  No line anywhere and a brief sniff by the drug dogs.

 

Holy cow, that's crazy. Is there something going on in Miami today that caused the traffic to back up? This makes me a bit nervous - we'll be on Celebration two weeks from today and will be driving up from Key West. What time were you picked up from your hotel today?

[TravelBluebird]

23 minutes ago, Knights on the Beach said:

 

Holy cow, that's crazy. Is there something going on in Miami today that caused the traffic to back up? This makes me a bit nervous - we'll be on Celebration two weeks from today and will be driving up from Key West. What time were you picked up from your hotel today?

 

@Knights on the Beach We left our hotel at 9:50, aiming to get to port at 10:30.

 

After talking to a bunch of other cruisers, it appears that someone stole a police car, crashed it in the tunnel. Tunnel shut down completely; may have been a fatal accident. On top of that hugely busy port day with 20,000 people disembarking and 20,000 people boarding.

 

Odd thing is that I think that was AFTER were stuck in the traffic, BUT there are STILL people in massive traffic! They are afraid they’ll miss the ship!

 

People who have cruised Celebration multiple times say they have NEVER seen it this bad.

 

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by TravelBluebird

[TravelBluebird]

Russ joined me in the clam shells after his Second Lunch.

 

We hung out till 1:30 and were on the way down to our room as the announcement was made that rooms were ready!

 

Nice balcony room, but I keep looking for the “rest” of my room because I’ve only been on Mardi Gras in Ocean Suites 😂

 

Waiting in our room for us were the Ultra Lanyards and an invitation to the Ultra Cocktail Party at 4:30. I’ll go to Sail Away at 4 and leave a bit early I guess! 

 

We are unpacked; Russ taking a snooze.  

 

We also received a list of our events for the week. My ULTRA draw for the guaranteed prize is 3:20 tomorrow, so wish me luck! That is good timing because I arranged an informal get-together of all the YouTube creators on board at 2pm tomorrow, and was worried the draw would be at the same time.

 

Hubby is eligible for all the events//drawings except for the ULTRA draw.  To get in on the !K giveaway(6 of them; midnight) he just needs 100 Casino Points. And must be present to win. He’s not a night owl like me; will have to ply him with coffee!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by TravelBluebird

[lazydayz]

The port of Miami on Sunday is crazy.  On our last cruise from there, it took us over two hours to get from downtown to the port.  That day, there was an overturned tanker in the tunnel, and for whatever reason, they only had one lane open going over the bridge to the port.  It took so long we didn’t even bother with the parking garage.  Just found an open lot and walked over to the terminal.  This is an issue that should be addressed by Miami-Dade, the City of Miami, DOT and the cruise lines.  Complimentary shuttles from the airports and downtown would cut down on the traffic, but I know the Port doesn’t want to lose the parking charges, the cruise lines want to charge for shuttles, and taxi companies, Uber and Lyft would lose revenue.  Or they could move some of these ships to Saturday or to Fort Lauderdale.  

[TravelBluebird]

Also included above is our information about our El Fuego Latin Incident Class.

 

Its on Formal Night, but that is OK as we’ve done so many Carnival Formal nights (I mean its just prime rib and lobster, right 😢) But that is the only night we could get a reservation.

 

We are looking forward to our first ever Carnival Cooking Class!

[TravelBluebird]

2 minutes ago, lazydayz said:

The port of Miami on Sunday is crazy.  On our last cruise from there, it took us over two hours to get from downtown to the port.  That day, there was an overturned tanker in the tunnel, and for whatever reason, they only had one lane open going over the bridge to the port.  It took so long we didn’t even bother with the parking garage.  Just found an open lot and walked over to the terminal.  This is an issue that should be addressed by Miami-Dade, the City of Miami, DOT and the cruise lines.  Complimentary shuttles from the airports and downtown would cut down on the traffic, but I know the Port doesn’t want to lose the parking charges, the cruise lines want to charge for shuttles, and taxi companies, Uber and Lyft would lose revenue.  Or they could move some of these ships to Saturday or to Fort Lauderdale.  

 

If this is an ongoing problem, I agree, there is NO excuse for it to continue!  

 

I was lucky; my two prior embarkations out of MIami were Carnival Spirit and HAL (long time ago) and no traffic issues for those two, but now it seems with 20,000 guests going each way on a Sunday, any liattle thing is going to create a traffic nightmare!

 

 

[Knights on the Beach]

Ugh, I'm used to Port Canaveral since we live right down the street. We haven't cruised out of Miami in years and it was a mess then too. I was hoping it was better now!

[maxandmolly]

The traffic sounds miserable!  Glad you’re aboard now. Eagerly following along!

[pajazz28]

On 11/24/2023 at 9:10 PM, TravelBluebird said:

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! 

Looking forward to Live review. DW and I sailing on Celebration in  January for our 25th wedding anniversary. Please picture of daily activities, day of lobster night and best places to eat. Thank you once agian. 

[maggieq]

18 hours ago, TravelBluebird said:

Here are the photos at the hotel tonight:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stayed there pre cruise for the rccl freedom. It was a beautiful hotel then.  Happy to see it’s still much the same.  Happy cruising and thanks for taking us with you 😊 

[pajazz28]

4 hours ago, TravelBluebird said:

Wow that was gnarly port traffic! We got off and walked with our luggage from before Terminal 6 to Terminal 7!  Took us over an hour 45 minutes to get to the ship—with no traffic, 15 minutes.

 

if we hadn’t walked bet it would have been at least another 1/2 hour!

 

On the PLUS side took us 10 minutes from entrance to the terminal to the ship!  No line anywhere and a brief sniff by the drug dogs.

Were they checking boarding times?

 

[TravelBluebird]

It was PACKED for the sail away party! I love Lee Your Cruise Director—had him YEARS ago on the Splendor.  He knows how to get everyone dancing and everyone having a good time!  I danced & hubby tried to take photos (and failed miserably at that! 😂)

 

Got Oasis of the Seas on the way down to the Ultra Cocktail Party.  

[TravelBluebird]

Currently enjoying the Steel Drums at Center Stage after a very lovely MDR dinner!  

[Knights on the Beach]

16 minutes ago, TravelBluebird said:

 

 

Whoa that's a lot of people! Lee is the best!

[tropicaledrink]

Hey I recognize that airport! They really need that additional parking garage before the 2026 completion date I have seen rumored. Have a great trip!