Sunday, April 21, 2024

Carnival Cruise Line guide: Everything to know about ships, itineraries and more

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(Enough USB charging ports for everybody’s stuff? Oh yes!) Thoughtful, guest-centric design is how we do it… and all this in-room convenience comes paired with a fresh new look. A Captain’s Suite aboard Carnival Sunshine features tons of indoor space, and a huge balcony when you need a little more. Everything the sunlight touches on Carnival Sunshine has been doused with an extra dose of fun.

Carnival Sunshine®

Carnival trips are all about letting loose and having a good time. Maybe you'll drink a little too much, eat a little too much, play a little too much — but in the end, you'll say it was your best trip ever. Carnival is the undisputed leader among North America-based cruise brands when it comes to affordability, which makes it popular with vacationers on a budget. The overarching idea for Carnival's ship deployments is that a large percentage of the U.S. population can reach one of the line's ships by car, saving the cost of flights. Entertainment, at times, is as lowbrow as the line is low-cost. This is, after all, the brand that for many years held a Hairy Chest Contest around the pool deck on every voyage, to a standing-room-only, hooting and hollering crowd.

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If you’ve strolled along New Orleans’ French Quarter in the evening, you’re not alone in feeling that mysteries and surprises lie around every corner. A French Quarter-styled zone on a new ship wouldn’t be complete without an unassuming little bar that feels like it’s always been there. Call us supernatural, but we’re sensing vacation fun in your future. A Cloud 9 Spa Suite is the ultimate in both stateroom and spa accommodations.

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They include Lip Sync Battle Carnival — a shipboard adaptation of the Paramount Network TV series — and Hasbro, the Game Show. Every Carnival ship has one big theater where you'll often find flashy, fast-paced production shows that string together a medley of loosely related tunes. Designed to be quick and digestible, they typically last around 30 minutes and have relatively small casts (just eight on some ships).

THE ULTIMATE PLAYGROUND

Playlist Productions™ takes songs you know and presents them like you’ve never known them before. Past favorites become full-blown musical productions featuring multi-talented performers absolutely bringing down the house with song, dance... With tunes from fan-favorite divas, crooners or rockers, each show has a different theme — and of course, a completely different playlist!

The quality of the food (and drink) on Carnival ships always surprises us, given the budget pricing of the brand. Despite being one of the industry's lowest-cost operators, Carnival manages to pull off one of the best steakhouses at sea in Fahrenheit 555, and even the no-extra-charge main restaurants get the basics right. The latter venue was created in partnership with Food Network's Guy Fieri and serves a free lunch on embarkation and sea days, with all items smoked on board. Most of these six ships (all but Carnival Venezia) have an a la carte barbecue-and-beer joint called Guy's Pig & Anchor Smokehouse Brewhouse, too. Other extra-charge eateries often found on Carnival vessels include Bonsai, an a la carte sushi restaurant (now on 14 ships), and JiJi Asian Kitchen, which costs $24 per person (now on four ships). Like other big-ship operators, Carnival packs a lot of dining options onto its vessels — some included in the price, some at an extra charge.

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However, for many years it chose not to follow rivals such as Royal Caribbean and MSC Cruises in building ever-bigger ships. Mardi Gras and Carnival Celebration are now the only Carnival ship on the list of the 50 biggest cruise ships. You’ll do more than just pass the time as you sail from port to port. The ship sailed out of Barcelona on Thursday for a 14-night transatlantic voyage to Port Canaveral. When it debuted more than 20 years ago, Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, was named its godmother. Its space-themed pedigree extends to enhancements added to the youth area Camp Ocean, which now has a large video wall for its Space Cruisers program.

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Created in partnership with Food Network's Guy Fieri, Guy's Burger Joint offers burgers that beat anything you'll find around the pool on other mass-market ships and even most luxury vessels. Note that Carnival's two oldest ships — those that are part of the 1990s-built Fantasy Class — have relatively few balcony cabins by today's standards. (After retrofitting, several have around 150 balcony cabins, out of a total of more than 1,000 cabins in all.) In part because of this, Carnival has been phasing these ships out of its fleet in recent years.

carnival com cruise

Carnival fans are quite peeved about this, and you should be, too. Most Carnival ships have self-serve launderettes on cabin decks with washing machines, dryers, irons and ironing boards. The launderettes also have vending machines that dispense small boxes of detergent and water softener at $1.50 per box. Carnival adds an automatic service gratuity of $16 to $18 per person, per day to final bills, depending on the cabin category (children under the age of 2 are exempt). If you are unhappy with the service you receive, you can adjust this amount at the Guest Services desk before disembarking.

In short, there's a ton to do up top on Carnival vessels — and it's almost all available to every passenger on board the vessels at no extra charge (the roller coaster is the only exception). In fact, when it comes to waterslides on ships, Carnival is the cruise world's king. There's now at least one waterslide on all but one ship in the Carnival fleet (Carnival Luminosa) — something no other line can say. In recent years, Carnival also has deployed two of its vessels to Australia to operate voyages from Sydney and Brisbane. In a departure from Carnival's American-focused business model, the Australia sailings are aimed mostly at the local Australian market, though they are open to American travelers. For the most part, Carnival ships sail relatively short voyages of three to eight nights.

Carnival ships are all about fun, in a lively, let's-not-take-this-too-seriously sort of way. Whether you use a travel agent or not, make sure to maximize your credit card points when paying for the cruise by using a credit card that offers extra points for travel purchases. This could be the Chase Sapphire Reserve, which offers 3 Ultimate Rewards points on travel and dining (excluding the annual $300 travel credit). There's also the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, which brings 2 Ultimate Rewards points on travel and 3 Ultimate Rewards points on dining.

There's almost always a piano bar that's home to lively singalongs. You'll find at least one of its ships sailing out of pretty much every major port city around the country. The arrival of Mardi Gras and Carnival Celebration over the past two years has marked a major turning point for the line.

In Grand Central you're never far from great dining spots like Bonsai Sushi™ and Bonsai Teppanyaki™, plus feel-good entertainment like Piano Bar 88™ and The Punchliner Comedy Club™. Balcony staterooms are proof that while it’s great to be cruisey… on vacation, breeziness is a virtue too. And any time you’re in your well-appointed Balcony stateroom aboard Mardi Gras®, you’re just steps away from the outdoors by way of your private open-air oasis.

Ocean Suites also include VIP check-in, walk-in closet and bathroom with whirlpool tub. Aft-View Extended Balcony staterooms feature a larger balcony for more lounge-around room, more kick-back space... Not to even mention some of the best stern-side views you'll find anywhere. Get ready to relax as you gaze upon Carnival Conquest's gentle wake from your spacious balcony.

Rudi’s Seagrill™ is the brainchild of cookbook author and master chef Rudi Sodamin. He has years of experience pleasing palates of vacationers… and this guy loves serving up a smile as much as Carnival does! But he’s serious about seafood, and an evening at Rudi’s proves it through the courses.

But you could easily forget, because when you're at Serenity you could not be further from it all. The world you'll find yourself in is one of complete peace, sea breezes and, of course, a nearby bar. It's the place to get done the kind of stuff you just can't seem to do anywhere else — reconnect with your partner, finish that book, or do absolutely, blissfully, nothing at all. Also, there are always several music venues where you'll find live performers in the afternoons and evenings, including — on some ships — the Atrium Bar and a secondary hub area called Ocean Plaza.

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