Liveish Carnival Celebration January 21-28

[sid_9169]

On 1/27/2024 at 8:13 AM, BermudaBound2014 said:

We skipped dinner and grabbed a couple pieces of pizza instead. It’s very good pizza by ship standards. 

 

Saw a set from Rob, attended the 50 Motown dance party, and capped off the night with a double feature comedy show in the theatre. Good times

 

Woke up to the towel animal take over at the pool. Towel animals on every single chair, hanging from the fixtures, on the floor. I have never understood this tradition. I’m sure some people like this, but I’d personally rather them give the cabin stewards the time off. What are they up to midnight making animals and return at sunrise to stage them? Make two alligators, couple monkeys, maybe a sting ray and call it good. But that’s just me. 

 

Costa Maya today. We shared port with the Breakaway so things were packed. We decided to just come back up to serenity (which was also packed) and a closed serenity bar. Bar opened at 1:00 to a large crowd and two bartenders. Understaffed. Yesterday there was only one barista in Java. There are lines on this ship but not because the staff is incompetent, the staffing ratios are way off. 

 

Dinner tonight in festival. Just checked the app. 110 minute wait. Be sure to plan for this, with the app it’s easy. I got in the virtual line for dinner on the app before I got in the shower.

 

Dinner in festival was surprisingly good again. The lobster tail was excellent for cruise ship variety. Nice that it is still complementary.

 

We spent the entire evening in pig and anchor listening to Backyard band do three sets of classic rock. We are classic rock kids so this was our favorite evening so far (but they have all been good- carnival brings the fun).

 

Midnight by the time we left there and we went up to serenity to check out the moon. Much to my surprise all the furniture was accessible and there were more than a couple people sleeping on the super comfy loungers. We may have nodded off until 2am too. Warm sea breeze. Full moon. Queen bed. I love this serenity area! It’s much busier than the retreat areas on the other ships but the furniture is super comfy and the fact that it’s complementary is a huge bonus. I start a 35 night cruise on Holland America in three weeks and a cabana in the retreat area there will set you back $1,950.00. Granted the cruise is much longer and the service in the retreat is significantly better, but I would MUCH rather have something like serenity. 

 

The internet is working ok (not great), but I can not get Cruise critic message boards to open with any regularity. It’s as if I’m blocked half the time. I have no idea how Megan and Sid did such excellent Lives. Hopefully i can do a better live job next week from the ncl encore. I’ll post photos from Miami when I get some stability.
 

Go lions!! 

***Try clearing your history, cookies, and cache for whatever browser you're using. Or, even switch to a different browser. I was using a five year old piece of junk Pixel II XL on board 90% of the time and it worked pretty well for me... YMMV...

[BermudaBound2014]

5 hours ago, sid_9169 said:

***Try clearing your history, cookies, and cache for whatever browser you're using. Or, even switch to a different browser. I was using a five year old piece of junk Pixel II XL on board 90% of the time and it worked pretty well for me... YMMV...

Thanks Sid. I did clear cache and try multiple browsers. I was shocked how bad it was because you and Megan seemed to have no difficulty. What’s weird is that it was only the cruise critic message board that I had trouble with. i could use cruise critic and could surf and social media with no difficulty. I could even stream a bit, but I could not get to the CC forum site.
 

We are currently on the Encore and I’m having no troubles getting to cruise critic forums on this ship. 

[TeresaJ]

We just got off the Mardi Gras and I agree with you that Serenity on this class of ships is awesome!! Enjoy your cruise!

[BermudaBound2014]

We are home and while I planned on doing very specific comparisons between the Celebration and Encore, time is getting away from me. I’m currently in laundry hell and getting ready to repack for a 35 night cruise thru Tahiti on Holland America. From there I’ll fly direct to May until mid-may so I’m actually packing for 3 months. OH…. And throwing a Super Bowl party on Sunday!! Somehow that seemed like a good idea last summer. I truly am an idiot 

 

Anyway, here are my final thoughts comparing Carnival Celebration and NCL Encore. 

 

Important Note- I do not believe you can make accurate comparisons between cruise lines in general as there are enormous differences between ship classes on each line. For example, you cant read a review for RCL Grandeur of the Seas and expect to be relevant to the Icon. Those days are long gone. Instead, IMO it’s wise to compare cruise ship to cruise ship.

 

With that, the encore and Celebration are somewhat close in size. They are about the same age (Celebration is newer). Similar price points and demographics. The Celebration has a higher space ratio and it shows (feels more crowded). 

 

IMO- The ships and experiences are more alike than they are different with a few exceptions…..

 

The service on the Encore was infinitely better than Celebration. It’s not that the servers on Celebration were bad, it’s just that the venues were grossly understaffed.

Entertainment choices goes to Celebration by a mile. Probably twice as many things to do in the evening and more thought went into how things were scheduled. 

 

Other than those two very noticeable differences, here are some things we liked better on each line:

 

Encore- waterfront area, observation lounge (w/snacks), better meal scheduling, brew house, the Local dining until 4 am, more complimentary drink offerings, procedure for sharing one internet package. 

 

Celebration- serenity adult only sanctuary (this area rocked!), the food truck concept for eats is revolutionary, better app in terms of content, Pizza!, more complimentary dinner dining options (Chinese, Mexican, and Italian sit down restaurants are all complimentary), cabin layout, much more fun vibe with lots of choices for things to do in the evening,  

 

Ultimately we would sail on either again. Like I said early on, I haven’t met a cruise ship I didn’t like and these last two were no different. They all offer pros and cons. 

 

I’ll start a live Koningsdam thread next week and can add comparisons to both the Encore and Celebration if interested.