I have sailed with Carnival cruise lines many times. Of all the ships, I would recommend that no one sail on the ship called Celebration. I
originally decided to sail on this ship because it sails out of Jacksonville, FL and that was a closer port for me. Instead of the 14-hour drive to Miami, I would only have to travel 6 hours. The driving benefits of the closer port were soon outweighed by the ensuing awful experience. This is an old ship. Although they say that it is refurbished with all the amenities to bring it up to the current Carnival gold standard, I do not think that they could really bring about the needed changes to this ship. The carpet was new and the walls seemed to be recently painted, but there were structural issues that remained. For example, the elevators are small. And there are not many elevators on the ship. It seemed to me that I spent a lot of my time waiting for the elevator to come. Even when the elevator came, if there were more than about 5 or 6 people, you might as well wait for the next elevator. They were so cramped that it would be a squeeze to fit more than that. The open lobby that everyone is used to seeing in the Carnival commercials is not on this ship. I felt claustrophobic when I entered this ship. It felt like the ceiling was so low that it was closing in on me. The cabin rooms are small too. Actually, everything about this ship is small. As a result, rough waters seem worse. I could feel every turn that the ship made. That was not good. When I am on a cruise, I do not want to FEEL like I am on the water. When I am on the one of the Mega-liners, I do not feel a thing. I love cruising with Carnival, but I hope that they retire Celebration very soon. Or at the very least, I hope they have another ship sailing out of Jacksonville, FL.
Rating: 5