Carnival Celebration May 18-26, 2024, A Non-Review- Coming Soon

[mamiamjo]

Hello Cruise Critic Family. I’ve recently been spending a lot of time on CC as I’ve been preparing for our upcoming cruise on the Celebration and I’ve been inspired by reading a lot of the great reviews posted by the likes of Saint Greg, Jamman54, MeganGC1983, Sid_9169, TxTeach79, just to name a few (and others). Thank You all so much for taking the time to share your own adventures with me and everyone on CC, I find it very helpful and enjoyable to read about all your exploits.

Well, I’m not sure how this will go as I haven’t done it before and I’m not real big on taking notes and remembering all the little details while on vacation (so I may end up with a lot of fond memories running through my head and nothing posted), but I hope to share with you at least a partial view of our cruise.

Since I’m going to be working with only an iPhone what I post will probably be more pictures with a few comments, than a full out review or step by step recounting of the cruise.

As you can see from my profile and signature, my wife, M and I have been cruising for the past 25 years. Although cruising has never been our primary vacation type, we’ve been on almost 30 cruises, with 21 of them on Carnival (including the infamous Triumph “Poop Cruise” of 2013) and continue to enjoy our cruising adventures. As I mentioned this will be our 22^nd Carnival cruise and we have the Jubilee booked next year so I’m tossing around the idea of doing a B2B sometime next year also which would get us to our 25^th Carnival Cruise Milestone. 😊

Our cruise next week will also mark a few firsts for us that we’re excited to experience. This will the be the first time sailing out of Miami, the first time on an Excel Class ship and the first time visiting the ABC Islands. 

Over the next week I hope to share more about preparation and plans for this cruise as we countdown to go! I hope you enjoy the ride 🙂

Edited May 10 by mamiamjo

[Jamman54]

Just know that whatever you are able to post will be greatly appreciated. Have fun!!! 

[mamiamjo]

19 minutes ago, Jamman54 said:

Just know that whatever you are able to post will be greatly appreciated. Have fun!!! 

Thanks Jamman. Let me ask a newbie question, what font size do you use on your reviews? I was trying 18 but it looks a little small. This one is Arial Font Size 20. I'm going to try this but may experiment with others along the way.

Edited May 10 by mamiamjo

[Jamman54]

1 hour ago, mamiamjo said:

Thanks Jamman. Let me ask a newbie question, what font size do you use on your reviews? I was trying 18 but it looks a little small. This one is Arial Font Size 20. I'm going to try this but may experiment with others along the way.

I use 18. 😎

[pirate4me2]

I will absolutely love whatever you post. It’ll bring back memories of my time onboard Celebration last year. 🙂

[tha sista]

For those of us with older eyes the 20 is great!

[KarmaCruisers]

Looking forward to reading…I board as you get off

[mamiamjo]

14 minutes ago, KarmaCruisers said:

Looking forward to reading…I board as you get off

Awesome, I’ll try to leave the ship in good shape for you 😎

[mamiamjo]

51 minutes ago, pirate4me2 said:

I will absolutely love whatever you post. It’ll bring back memories of my time onboard Celebration last year. 🙂

Thanks, 😁

[ninjacat123]

DH and I will be on Horizon out of Miami this January to the ABC’s so I’m really looking forward to your review!! Thanks in advance for taking the time👍😁

Edited May 11 by ninjacat123

[mamiamjo]

9 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

DH and I will be on Horizon out of Miami this January to the ABC’s so I’m really looking forward to your review!! Thanks in advance for taking the time👍😁

Thanks ninjacat123! I just wanted to let you know that I've enjoyed reading your reviews as well 🙂

[ninjacat123]

23 minutes ago, mamiamjo said:

Thanks ninjacat123! I just wanted to let you know that I've enjoyed reading your reviews as well 🙂

Thanks!! Get ready for the next LIVE…land trip to Japan!! Cruise Critic said I could post it in Asia Ports of Call. I’ll post a link end of June in my previous LIVE reviews 👍😁

[mamiamjo]

A little bit more about our cruise: We will be sailing the Celebration in a Spa Balcony on deck 17 (more about that later).

 

When we originally booked this cruise in Feb 2023, we booked an ocean suite, cabin #9284 with a casino offer that came with DOUE, $1,000 Fun Play and a $200 OBC.

 

However, about a year later, we received an even better offer that provided even more Fun Play and a higher OBC, so we considered changing to go with the better offer. We looked but unfortunately there weren’t any ocean suites still available with the new offer, so we ended up “settling” for the Spa Balcony on 17. We have sailed in a Spa Balcony before, but not on a ship that had the Thermal Suite, so we’re excited to be able to check that out on this cruise (another first for us). 😊

[mamiamjo]

Pre-Cruise, we will be flying to FLL the day before on Friday morning, not necessarily because we’re worried about missing the ship but to take advantage of the opportunity to spend the day visiting with our son, daughter in-law and granddaughter who will be driving up from Key West to see us. We’re excited to get the chance to see them again so soon after we helped them relocate to Key West at start of the year.

[ninjacat123]

Wow!! Key West!! Did they move for work, family or just because it’s Key West?!? How exciting!!

[mamiamjo]

6 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Wow!! Key West!! Did they move for work, family or just because it’s Key West?!? How exciting!!

For work, our son is serving in the Navy. He was stationed in Kings Bay Ga previously, but when re-upped he was reassigned there. It's a bit secluded for his taste, but they're still getting used to it. There are some benefits though, take a look at the view from McDonald’s Drive Thru 😎

Edited May 11 by mamiamjo

[mamiamjo]

Port Activities: I really struggled with trying to figure out what to do in port for this cruise. Our ports are Bonaire, Aruba & Curacao, in that order (so I guess this is really a BAC cruise 😉). We considered renting a golf cart in Bonaire, but by the time we decided that that’s what we wanted to do, they were all booked. I really wanted to go to Eagle Beach or Palm Beach on Aruba but weren’t sure if we’d be able to get chairs and a palapa, what kind of services there’d be etc. and in Curacao, we had no idea at all 😞

 

After reading the Ports of Call section on CC, checking out several different travel and excursion websites, we ended up going with a beach club theme...

Bonaire- We plan to visit the Chogogo Dive & Beach Resort and get a day pass there. Afterwards we plan to check out the port area on the way back to the ship.

Aruba- we made reservations for a day pass at Reflexions Beach Bar. After that we plan to check out either Eagle or Palm Beach.

Curacao- We made a reservation for a day pass at the Avila Beach Hotel.

 

Since we'll be the only ship in port on all three days, we're hoping nothing will be too crowded. 😎

[mlshum]

Looking forward to reading along!  I definitely want to do the ABC islands!

[Knights on the Beach]

Yay, I love this! Looking forward to following - we loved Celebration. (I could have sworn I posted this yesterday, so when I started to post again my comment was still sitting here waiting for me to post 🤦‍♀️) Anyway, have a great time and please post lots of pictures so we can live vicariously through you. 

 

3 hours ago, mamiamjo said:

For work, our son is serving in the Navy. He was stationed in Kings Bay Ga previously, but when re-upped he was reassigned there. It's a bit secluded for his taste, but they're still getting used to it. There are some benefits though, take a look at the view from McDonald’s Drive Thru 😎

 

Lucky them, what a great place to be! We love Key West and spend a good deal of time there. We have a 2/2 timeshare week in old town and some years we're there for 3 weeks if we just stay in a studio. This year, we'll only be there for a week since we're cruising more and vacationing elsewhere. We were there in December and I miss it already. Here's the view from where we stay. 

 

[mamiamjo]

2 hours ago, Knights on the Beach said:

Yay, I love this! Looking forward to following - we loved Celebration. (I could have sworn I posted this yesterday, so when I started to post again my comment was still sitting here waiting for me to post 🤦‍♀️) Anyway, have a great time and please post lots of pictures so we can live vicariously through you. 

 

 

Lucky them, what a great place to be! We love Key West and spend a good deal of time there. We have a 2/2 timeshare week in old town and some years we're there for 3 weeks if we just stay in a studio. This year, we'll only be there for a week since we're cruising more and vacationing elsewhere. We were there in December and I miss it already. Here's the view from where we stay. 

 

Beautiful picture 😎

[Jed12345]

We will also be on the Celebration with you.  Looking forward to our first time to the ABC's.

 

Have a great cruise!

 

[mamiamjo]

1 hour ago, Jed12345 said:

We will also be on the Celebration with you.  Looking forward to our first time to the ABC's.

 

Have a great cruise!

 

I hope you guys have a great time as well. Looks like the weather should be good 🤞😎

[SenatorsFan]

I'll be following along, too. I loved my 2 weeks on Celebration in January! 😀

[d-train]

Looking forward to seeing how your adventures transpire!

we are doing the Celebration ABC run in July!

trying to figure out what to do as well…

[mamiamjo]

Thanks to everyone following. I hope you had a great Mother’s Day and had a chance to spend some time with those you love.❤️ 

Edited May 13 by mamiamjo