We love Carnival Cruise Line! From the Cruise Director, to the Wait Staff to the Room Stewards,…read morethey are all amazing! One of our favorite things is that they always call you by name. Makes you feel special. The food is always great and the activities and excursions are AMAZING!! You never go hungry and never can say you are bored.

I went on my first Carnival Cruise in the 90s when I was a child, and after several years hiatus…read morefrom cruising - for no good reason - I made it a personal goal to cruise at least once a year. So I have been - with the exception of a brief covid shutdown. It's hard not to compare the way Carnival used to be to how it is now, and while I still love my cruises, there's room for improvement. I've been on cruises as short as 4 days and as long as 8 (planning a 10-day... yay!) and they've all been great. Well, mostly. One was a particularly miserable time... I'm looking at you Carnival Breeze. The thing is that the menus never change between ships, the trivia is always the same trivia category and questions, the shows are good and you can tell that they work hard, but the productions aren't as grand as they used to be. They could also stand some variety like a magic show or something different. It's singing and dancing. Not like a play. They're very talented, but not for everyone. They've changed a lot of the procedures of things and while some of them are great - like not having to do a full muster station every time, others are not so great - like the new way people will be earning loyalty points. Not all of us want to spend gobs of money in the casino or around the ship. I already paid for my vacation and I should still be rewarded for my number of days, not my number of dollars spent. They have so many people at platinum and diamond levels because people have shown them brand loyalty... but now you have to spend more money to keep your status. They should, instead, add levels or change certain rewards. Anyways, that's just one of the things that they've done/are changing that is not necessarily in their customers best interest. Then again, I'm not privy to their annual gains and losses. Will I still travel with Carnival? Yes. In fact I just returned from a cruise and I have another one in just over a month. However, my desire to be brand loyal simply isn't there. If other cruise lines have a deal worth looking into, I'll be there! Carnival calls itself "the fun ship" and while you can and will have fun with Carnival, you can have other experiences with other lines that you simply won't find with Carnival.

Do not try to cruise through Monica Pena. It has been a long year ordeal for me and my family…read more Cruise that included 3 rooms were paid to her in full prior to due date in which she did not secure with Royal Caribbean by their due date. She stopped answering her phone and email. Office address listed on her invoice was vacant. I filed fraud/theft with the Galveston Police Dept. who stated small claims court would be easier. 1st trail date she did not show as she stated she could not drive due to a heart condition. Judge said he would give her the benefit of doubt and requested she provide the court within a month a physician letter. A month later, a new trial date was set as she could not provide one. 2nd trial day, Monica agreed to refund me. Monica told Judge she needed two weeks. Judge gave her a month. A month passed and she did not pay a cent. A third court date was set. This time Monica did not show up at all. This time Judge awarded me the judgement. Not sure when, how or if I will ever get the monies but I am hoping to save future sailors from the stress and heartache that Monica imposed on me and my family by writing this post.

We are Jan 2025 and still have not received a refund from Monica. She has told her customers in…read moreorder for payment to be returned she wants me to remove my post of awareness from her social media. That will not happen until my parents receive all of their money back from a trip she booked for them that they never got to fans because she claimed she was compromised.

I did a transatlantic cruise and this was so amazing. The ship was on its way to get refurbished…read moreand it definitely could use some updates. However, the overall experience was wonderful and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I enjoyed all the activities. I enjoyed the staff. Most of the food was really good, there again were areas for improvement, but overall it was great. I really enjoyed how easy it was to get around the aft elevators were sometimes of a long wait and sometimes did not want to stop on deck six for some reason. But the zip lining the shows the people the experience the ship as a whole is just wonderful and I can't wait to try her again once she's been Refurbished.

This was my first cruise ever on Harmony of the Seas. Seven nights out of Galveston with stops in…read moreRoatan, Costa Maya, and Cozumel. The ship is HUGE. So big you forget you're on water and start wondering if you boarded a floating outlet mall. It barely moves and the shows were actually really good. Now the chaos. There is a camera waiting for you everywhere. I have never felt so famous and so annoyed at the same time. You can't even eat at a specialty restaurant you already paid for without someone interrupting to sell you photos. I'm mid bite. Please stop. The ports were fine but the second you step off the ship you're swarmed by solicitors. Honduras especially felt sketchy and the beaches had so much seaweed it felt like swimming in a salad. I paid extra for the deluxe dining package which was a mistake. The app was glitchy, reservations were gone, and I paid for food I couldn't eat. On top of that, they charge an 18.50 daily gratuity per person whether you dine or not. Yes, even toddlers. My two year old apparently has a tab. The staff was amazing and honestly the best part. They work incredibly hard and deserve way more credit. Food was decent overall, with Chops Grille and hibachi being the highlights. The ship itself was insanely crowded and the elevators were packed, so I took the stairs for my sanity. Glad I tried it once, but I'd pick a different cruise line next time. Would not recommend unless you enjoy crowds, cameras, and surprise charges.

We stopped here for much needed drinks and a place to sit without lugging around bags. There is a…read morelittle bit of fresh food here, but we didn't grab any. The drink selection is rather small: two standing coolers of mostly soda and energy drinks. Thankfully they had bottles of water. The majority of this store seems to be last-minute items for a cruise such as toiletries. However, they have a pretty good area where you can sit at a bar overlooking the street. The store is pretty small though. The restroom is weird: you have to go out the back door and walk down to another office. It's odd. Plus, the door locks behind you, eek! Thankfully there were two of us so one was able to open the door. The stairs to get to the store are a bit hard to navigate with bags. A bit steep, so be careful.

During the past 3 years, Marchi Travel Services has helped us on with three separate trips. The…read morefirst trip was a seven-day cruise to Honduras, Belize and Cozumel. This was our first cruise and Marchi provided us advice on all aspects of booking the cruise, including the factors to consider when selecting a cabin location, the arrangements we needed to make in advance, etc. The trip was completely seamless. The second trip was a two-week trip to Ireland and Italy. Our requests for this trip were extremely complex, since we wanted to pick up our son who was studying abroad in Ireland, travel to Florence Italy, and then come back and spend the last five days in Ireland. This trip involved several connecting flights in several different countries. We also wanted hotels that had fitness rooms, which is less common in Italy and Ireland. Due to our travel agent's extensive knowledge of Europe, we were able stay in one of the most beautiful, elegant, oldest, and most charming hotels in Florence. We were actually sad to leave that amazing hotel. The hotel had also upgraded us upon arrival at no cost. Our trip to Europe would not have been possible without their help. Our third trip was a weekend trip to Florida and a cruise to Cuba. They were extremely helpful on this trip. They provided us with all the additional paper work that is required to travel to Cuba. When we arrived for boarding the ship, we were ahead of the other passengers, since we already had the necessary paperwork. Marchi Travel Services is not only extremely knowledgeable, they are responsive to all of our numerous questions. We sometimes have a hard time deciding where we want to go and they are always extremely patient. They also provide information and guidance that is very beneficial. For our flight to Ireland, they managed to get us an amazing deal on our tickets. They watched the prices over a period of time and let us know when the tickets had reached a really great price and purchased the tickets at that price as soon as we confirmed with them. We have never been anything but completely happy with their services. Thank you Jo Anita and Marchi Travel Services! Rodney and Andrea

Be very careful booking with this outfit! Horrible Service…read more Transferred a cruise reservation to them because the said they could get me additional room credits. While i did get room credits, they completely ruined my reservations. I had to switch people in rooms and then they changed the name on the reservation so i could not find the reservation under my name. It took me 2 painful days to figure out what they did and fix it. They claimed they couldn't fix it. Once I figured out what the problem was they were magically able to fix it in minutes.

Me and my traveling buddy just boarded the Breeze only to find out Sinclair is off work ugh that's…read moreall Caarter has talked about and when we return on Saturday we will load again Feb 5-9 and no Sinclair I'm so sad. But check in was absolutely amazing we got in and was on lido deck 30 minutes later. Fastest checkin this far

My family has sailed on 11 cruises since 2010, 7 of them were with Carnival, 3 with Royal…read moreCaribbean, and 1 with Disney. Without going into too much detail, here's my assessment (take it or leave it): - Best food: Carnival, hands down. Call me crazy. Royal Caribbean was spectacular back in 2010, but I would have to say that their food quality has eroded over the years. Still good, but not even close to Carnival. - Best dessert in Main Dining Room: Carnival's Melting Chocolate Cake with Vanilla ice cream. It's so good that I still dream about it. - Tips for a good Carnival experience: Stick with the newer ships if you can, like Vista and Jubilee. The slightly older ones like Freedom and Breeze are fine too, but you can't sail on a 20 year old ship with Carnival and try to compare it with other cruise lines, particularly Royal's new fleet of ginormous new ships like Icon or Harmony (Harmony was spectacular, by the way, but Carnival's food was still better). Also if you're a new cruiser, book a cruise that has as few seadays as possible. - What about the crowds and lines on Carnival? Honestly, it's not too bad. Just expect people to cut and for lines to be long. If you're not into large crowds, I don't know if a cruise is for you, particularly on a large ship with a ton of passengers. Overall, Carnival gets 4.5 stars in my book. Their customer service isn't the best overall (speaking of which, did anyone try calling their customer service with a question during COVID? The service was laughable...) but the price point and the quality of food still makes them freaking awesome. We are currently Gold VIFP members; can't wait to hit Platinum!

Earlier this month was my first RC cruise. I like this ship!…read more We booked a room (Deck 7) a couple of floors above and overlooking the promenade level. This was a good compromise between an ocean view room and an interior room because we could see some action but also not feel like we needed to get our money's worth out of the room. How convenient to be able to see how long the line for pizza was. And what fun people-watching across from our room and below the promenade. Studio B (Deck 3): Ice skating show themed on... Tarot? Zodiac? Sun and moon? With musical selections from Sarah Brightman's La Luna album and the rock opera Tommy. Fun show and all of the skaters were great! Royal Theatre (Deck 3): Saw 2 comedy shows (Jeff Shaw), a juggler (especially impressive talent @ sea), and a song and dance tribute to music in movies that was more like... showtunes and any song used in a movie rather than something orchestral like we had expected. The seats are comfy for theatre seats. Popcorn sold for $2.50 per container. I'm guessing it wasn't free because then more people would take some and end up throwing it or leaving it on the floor. Casino Royale (Deck 4): Decent time, but we struggled with card use at first. Games were only somewhat engaging/fun. Main dining room (Decks 3-5): We had selected My Time dining, but then I heard a few announcements that we should sign up for a dinner reservation, which confused us, but we did it anyway for 8:30 dining. We went the first night and the waiter was fine, the busboy named Edwin was my favorite staff member for the entire cruise, and a staff member who wasn't our server who will remain nameless unless RC sends me a message interrupted our meal to talk about how many people he manages. He's the reason we didn't return for dinner. We went again for lunch and requested a window area, but regretted it because we were clustered by a bunch of other people and we prefer a quieter experience. Promenade (Deck 5): Shops and good pizza. Pizza included. Ice cream at the nearby counter cost extra, so I didn't try it. Windjammer dining (Deck 11): We favored this buffet over the main dining room. Several salad bars and usually some seating was available. Food variety was good enough that I gained at least 5 lbs in 5 days despite much walking. Ice cream (Deck 11): Soft serve chocolate, vanilla, and swirl. Main pool area (Deck 11): Too crowded always for me to want to swim here. This is where folks with kids or extroverts hang. Solarium, the adults-only pool area (Deck 11): It's glass walled off from the main pool area. It's generally pretty quiet--at least more quiet than the main pool area. Kids can cut through there, but they're not supposed to stay to hang out. I didn't swim, but I got in the 1 of the 2 "whirlpools" (hot tubs) twice. Sports deck w/ Flowrider (Deck 13): We watched the surfing. We were surprised at who did well and who wiped out quickly. This had a smaller crowd than the bellyflop contest in the main pool area. Viking Crown Lounge (Deck 14): A nice bar area from where we struggled to watch the belly flop competition. Before some loud people changed the vibes, it was a good place to read and stay out of the brief and only rain of the cruise. Sun deck (no numbered deck): This is where to go to catch a sun/burn! Great views, though quite windy. Port of call #1: Nassau: We paid for a bus tour as a Nassau excursion and it was pretty bad because we didn't go where we were supposed to go, we weren't permitted to see the back-up location (a fort), our driver was uninformative overall and kept promoting certain restaurants, we had little time at the only activity that was halfway worthwhile (a rum distillery), and we also suspect our driver may have been under the influence. Port of call #2: Haiti: The private beach in Haiti, though, was quite nice. We enjoyed the views from some nature trails. We didn't do any of the rides or adventure activities because of cost. We enjoyed a couple of hours in the water and on the beach and then tried to shop, but were put off by pushy salesmen (I think all were men.) We explored another beach area, ate a little, and then checked out some nature trails that provided good views of the coast and our ship. I'd cruise on Voyager of the Seas again!

This was my first time cruising with Royal Caribbean. I'm on a quest to try every major cruise line…read moreand see who is the best. I was able to snag a black Friday deal to book Voyager of the Seas. I recommend that you either book yourself directly or book with a travel agent. A travel agent costs you nothing, and they literally take care of anything related to your cruise. I booked parking at galveston terminal 10 north lot, which is pretty close to the RC departure terminal. Since this was a 5 night cruise, it ran over a hundred bucks to park. The check-in was easy for the terminal, and it was not chaotic. We got on the ship at 11:45 am. Voyager of the Seas is the first of the Voyager class ships, and it was last refurbished in 2018. The pool was open on the pool deck 11, and we started off there. The reggae music was great, and the yes, the bar was open. Drinks on avg run $14. I did not purchase a drink package, but looking back, I will in the future. This runs around $72 a day. Finally, We got to our balcony cabin on deck 6 around 2 pm. Our cabin steward Christian was an all-star! The room itself was a bit small, and the bathroom was even smaller. For this reason, I will only book suites going forward. It was lovely having breakfast on the balcony a few mornings. Full service breakfast runs $7.95. Hang your order on your door the night before to secure your order. They will call you in the morning to let you know they are on the way. We dined mostly in main dining every day with a few visits to windjammer buffet. Every night was themed. French cuisine was the formal night on day 2. Carribean and Mexican cuisine followed. Do order more than one appetizer, entree, and dessert for yourself. It is included. My favorite dishes were crab cakes, new york strip, coconut shrimp, jerk porkchop, fish sandwich, creme brulee, tiramisu, and yes the vanilla ice cream! We got cafe promenade a few times, which has the pizza and a few sandwiches and desserts. I really liked the pizza and tuna salad sandwiches from here. Overall, the dining was awesome, and the service was good. Entertainment ranged from trivia, casino play, live music, silent disco, karaoke, dance lessons, bingo, a show dedicated to music in the movies, and an adult show that involved adventurous people stripping to their underwear lol. There was also a 70's dance party that was led by the cruise director Kat. We really enjoyed our cruise but felt there were not enough food venues on board, room was small and really only one nightclub onboard. I will book RC again in the future but will book a larger ship next time.

I lived in Houston most of life and just recently found out about Galveston's Historic Downtown…read more From what I have heard, this place was severely damaged by Hurricane Ike. It is a lot better now and you can't even tell that it was damaged. Galveston's Historic Downtown is a nice place to visit when you are in the area. On the weekends, there is live music and some street performers and painters. There are some small restaurants, coffee stores, clothing stores, and souvenir shops. You can also see the Carnival Cruise Ships from Galveston's Downtown. I have heard great things about the cruise and will definitely give it a try one day!