Friday, April 12, 2024

Carnival Celebration Cruise Ship Review: How Does Newest & Largest Ship Compare

celebration carnival cruise

There’s a dedicated zone for families aboard Carnival Celebration – the Family Harbor Zone – that boasts its own lounge and larger staterooms on Deck 4 designed just for those travelling with the little ones. The popular Havana Club staterooms return to Carnival Celebration, complete with unique décor and private open deck spaces on Deck 8 that are accessible only for guests staying in the Havana Club-grade staterooms. The BOLT rollercoaster, the first rollercoaster onboard a cruise ship.

celebration carnival cruise

Carnival Celebration Cruise Ship Review: How Does Newest & Largest Ship Compare

In this review, I will be sharing my opinions after sailing aboard this fantastic new ship from Carnival. Carnival Celebration will also celebrate the line's history by integrating pieces from former Carnival ships into its decor. Guests can start trying to spot these homages as soon as they step onboard, as many will be located in the Grand Celebration atrium zone.

Carnival Celebration is a Win for Multigenerational Families

celebration carnival cruise

We swung by Guy's Pig & Anchor Smokehouse | Brewhouse for breakfast and barbecue dinner, played trivia, sampled beers brewed right on board and watched other people watch sports at the Heroes Tribute Bar. I was bummed that I never got to hear the band that played here after-hours because the setting is perfect for kicking back with a drink and listening to live music. Carnival Celebration's main dining rooms feature select items from the onboard steakhouse, available for an additional fee. Traditionally, shipboard dining includes a complimentary Lido Buffet Restaurant. A special venue is the New England-inspired casual eatery Seafood Shack.

Sit-down dining

The Carnival Celebration is the second ship to have BOLT, the Ultimate Sea coaster. BOLT is full of drops, twists, and turns 187 feet above the water line at incredible speeds. We also appreciated the excellent new accent lighting around the desk’s mirror and the bed’s headboard. The stateroom’s new color scheme and styling were very friendly and contemporary. The ship is also Carnival's second vessel powered by cleaner-burning liquefied natural gas.

CENTER STAGE + PLAYLIST PRODUCTIONS

The more than 2,600-stateroom ship is made up of six zones, with festive touches and nods to its history incorporated throughout. Guests enter through the atrium in Celebration Central, with a ceiling designed to mimic a confetti cannon, courtesy of roughly 1,400 colorful light fixtures. Carnival Celebration, the second vessel in the line's Excel class, will sail its inaugural voyage from the U.S. on Monday. The debut of the 17-deck ship, which bears the same name as an earlier Carnival vessel launched in the late 1980s, marks the culmination of the line's 50th anniversary celebration this year.

Carnival Celebration current position

Watching live music during the cruise, up close from string trios, piano players, full rock bands, and more, makes a Carnival Cruise extra special. Most evenings, you could watch live music shows in six other venues throughout the ship. We saw many people having full meals here, and it all looked and smelled amazing.

Several pools are available, and we were able to find lounge chairs easier than on other cruise ships. You won’t go hungry on the Celebration, even when you’re not paying extra for the specialty restaurants. Over we found the food not quite as good as on other cruises, we still rated it slightly higher than the higher-end all-inclusive resorts we’ve been to recently, such as the Hyatt Ziva Cap Cana in Punta Cana.

This spot takes over instead of having a typical atrium like you see. It offers a three-deck performance area (complete with stage and video backdrop) where performances are held throughout the entire cruise that’s also combined with a path through the rest of the ship. Located on top-deck (deck 19), Loft 19 is a new VIP leisure concept (secluded retreat for adults) designed as a premium resort complex. Here are offered full bar service, swimming pool, sunbathing area with cabanas, deckchairs and sun loungers available for rent. The cabanas are fully-stocked with beverages, chilled towels, plush bathrobes and provide dedicated concierge service with lunch delivery and fresh fruits. Carnival Excel Suite passengers enjoy priority cabana reservations.

Interior Staterooms

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In contrast, on our cruise the Celebration main theater was mostly used for game shows type shows involving audience participation like Family Feud, which took up several nights of our seven night cruise. We found the nightly entertainment to be much different than on Royal Carribean, which uses its main large theater for shows or broadway type plays each night. Thankfully, we found the Celebration no worse (or better) than any other cruise and limited the buffet to when we were limited on time, such as before or after a shore excursion. We usually select an ocean-facing (side of the ship) balcony room, but we opted to do a forward-facing balcony on this cruise.

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Carnival Celebration, while impressive in its own right, is not the first of its kind. The ship is the second Excel-class cruise ship to come from Carnival Cruise Line, following in the footsteps of sister ship Mardi Gras. Carnival’s Mardi Gras cruise ship debuted in the summer of 2021. The ship was only completed in November 2022, with the delivery ceremony taking place at the shipyard early that month.

Nearby, Bar 820 offers up South Florida-themed cocktails and coffees in a clever space that includes indoor and outdoor seating. Carnival Celebration also includes the BOLT roller coaster that was first introduced in 2021 aboard sister-ship Mardi Gras. For a nominal charge ($15 per person on our Eastern Caribbean sailing), you can have the thrills of riding the only roller coaster at sea.

However, I've been on older Carnival ships where all the casual venues are on the lido deck, and the area gets incredibly busy at lunchtime. Too many people crowd into the same spaces, lines snake around corners and bumps and spills are unavoidable. One of my favorite things about Carnival is that the line's ships offer a diversity of casual, included dining venues. New with the Excel class is Shaquille O'Neal's Big Chicken venue serving variations on the fried-chicken-and-biscuit theme from breakfast through the late afternoon. Carnival's pizza is some of the best in the biz, and the customizable tacos and burritos at BlueIguana offer something for everyone.

Food was served at the appropriate temperatures, and each course was well paced, with most meals taking about minutes. This gave us plenty of time to enjoy the evening entertainment around the ship. Each evening, we joined a virtual queue at one of the restaurants, and we never waited more than 10 minutes to get our table assignment.

Here, because of all the people and furniture, it just feels more tight. Carnival has filled the ship with different restaurants ranging from easy grab-and-go items (Street Eats, Guy’s Burger Joint, Big Chicken, etc.) all the way to high-end dining (Rudi’s Seagrill, Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse). But the big difference is that so many are included with your fare. Latitudes is another addition, with drinks from all over the world, and a travel theme complete with a flipboard like an old train station that displays changing messages. Other bars include Bar 820 in the Miami-themed 820 Biscayne neighborhood, The Watering Hole, Tropicale Bar, Havana Bar, Alchemy Bar, and more. Food & BeverageIt’s impossible to go hungry or thirsty aboard Carnival Celebration.

“They need to make sure that their destination is driving awareness,” Stein answered, “so that people want to go there. Once ports develop awareness and interest, they have to make sure they deliver experiences that resonate with guests, so they’ll want to come back. While the ship is huge compared to other Carnival options and brand new, it doesn’t feel as spacious as our favorite cruise ships like Royal Carribeans Oasis of the Seas. Carnival Celebration is one of Carnival’s newest and largest ships.

One of the most significant issues aboard Carnival Celebration is all the excellent and complimentary food offerings. You won’t go hungry aboard this ship; we found everything delicious. I had the pleasure of sailing aboard Carnival Cruise Line’s newest ship, the Carnival Celebration. Our sailing was one of her first from Port Miami, I was invited to sail as a guest with a media group. Our itinerary was a seven-night cruise from Port Miami, and we sailed a Western Caribbean cruise itinerary with port stops in Cozumel, Costa Maya, and Mahogany Bay.

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