07/04/2024
My Thoughts on doing 6 back to backs on the Celebration followed by flying to Tampa for the Pride.
I started the journey on Dec 31st to celebrate New Years Eve on the Celebration. Let me just say overall I had a great time. Food and drinks were good. Staff was great but they were short staffed the entire 6 weeks I was onboard.
Embarkation was quick and easy despite the ship at full capacity. First day was crazy with passengers starting New Years Celebration the moment they boarded. Bars and food venues were extremely busy.
I’m used to first days being a little crazy as passengers try to figure out the layout of the ship. This first day was another level of crazy! Passengers were loud, pretty rude and really disrespectful to the staff.
I thought tomorrow will be better. To my surprise tomorrow was even worse and it continued the entire week. I don’t know how many fights broke out, but there were several that I witnessed who were being restrained and escorted by security.
There were drug dogs onboard and they got a workout as well. Several people were escorted off the ship at our first port stop. I spent much of my time on my balcony when things were so crazy I needed to get away from the chaos!
On Thursday morning I went to bar 820 to get my coffee which was my morning ritual. There was a line for coffee maybe 3-4 people and one man who came and sat at the far opposite end of the bar. As my turn came for coffee the bartender said to the man if you want coffee you need to get in line. I mean it was obvious what we were standing in line for but this man stated he didn’t see any sign and he had been waiting long enough! I told the bartender go ahead and take him in front of me but she said to the man. I’m telling you there is a line and there are not signs up anywhere on the ship to tell you to wait in line… and with that he got up spouting obscenities and took the bar stool and threw it at the bartender! Thankfully she didn’t get hurt but she was shaken up and I ran and got another staff member to call security. 🤦♀️
I chalked this week up to it being a New Years
Cruise and was looking forward to normal at the next week.
Week two was a different type of crazy but week 3-6 we’re back the way I was used to.
I will say there were a few things that were a first for me. Getting followed by jewelry store sales staff each time I walked by to try and sell me something was disappointing. I know Carnival does not control the shops but I have never experienced this on any cruise line. I expect it on the islands but on the ship is a big no from me!
Wi-Fi was good which I was thankful for as we had quite a bit of rain and rough seas. A few nights the outer decks were closed because of the storms.
I met some really great people who were doing several b2b’s and we all spent a lot of time together.
The process for b2b debarkation changed every week. We had between 2-300 each week. Some went better than others but all in all it was ok.
Ok so did I get bored being on the ship for 6 weeks? Absolutely not!
I found myself relaxing more and not in a hurry to fit things in. I knew if I didn’t feel like seeing the show or going to specialty restaurants there was always next week. I was able to get a lot of work done as well and didn’t feel like it was cutting in to my vacation time! Because the itinerary was virtually the same for 5 out of six weeks some port days I stayed on the ship. There seems to be more and more people doing this.
There are so many food venues and choices I could always find something I wanted. It felt like I was moving from home at the end of six weeks!
I disembarked and went to the airport to fly to Tampa to get on the Pride. My flight was running late and I barely made it to the ship. 1:50 pm with all aboard at 2! I sailed the Pride many times and she’s my favorite of the small ships. A lot of familiar staff which was great!
I will say that it was a bit of a let down not to have the food choices but I enjoyed my last week at sea! The Pride is a great little ship!
Please note if any of you are doing a side to side and you have bottles of wine or alcohol from one ship to bring on the other ship it’s a bit of a hassle! I had six bottles wine and alcohol I was gifted by the casino that I was bringing with me. The celebration gave me a Carnival marked box but I didn’t want to carry it through the airport so I packed it in my suitcase. Now I knew the rules about bringing one bottle of wine onboard so I asked on the Celebration if it would be an issue to take all the alcohol on the Pride. They told me it would be fine as if they saw it in the Carnival box they would just hold it for me. For good measure I taped my last boarding pass from the Celebration to the box. I get my suitcase delivered to my stateroom and the dreaded we have confiscated your probitited items (alcohol) AND IT WILL BE DESTROYED!
Off to guests services I go and you know how long that line is on embarkation day😂
I explained my situation they made a call and told me they would let me know if it was already destroyed or if they could save it!
I heard nothing all week. I figured it was long gone ( I don’t believe they destroy it under any circumstances🤷♀️) but I resolved myself to not getting it back. I’m packing up the night before to go home and guess what got delivered to my stateroom? Yes my alcohol was all there! 👏👏
It was a fantastic journey for me overall and it wouldn’t hesitate to do it again!
