I remember the first time I went on a cruise as a child to Atlantic Canada, it was an experience I loved. Regardless of how super seasick I was, I remember the ports we stopped at and the views we saw, and I look back with appreciation until this very day as an adult. I eventually grew out of the sea sickness on cruises the more I went on them. Cruises are a brilliant way to travel, which I explain furthermore on this blog. You’ve probably heard of the popular cruise line Carnival and you’ve probably seen ads on them.
Carnival is a cruise line my family and I have taken for many years from the first time I stepped on a cruise ship at maybe 10 years old. There are so many cruise lines out there and many that are in competition with Carnival.
Having been on more than 5+ cruises with them, I thought I would share how Carnival cruises work in case you’re interested or curious in cruising with them at a future destination on your bucket list. In no way did Carnival sponsor me to write this post, these are just my thoughts with having so much experience cruising with them.
The demographics of Carnival
It’s important to remember that many cruise lines like to target specific groups of people that would find interest in their services or products. The good thing about Carnival is that the demographic is pretty stretched out! You can be a senior citizen, a young parent with kids, a solo traveler in your young adult years, a person going with a group of your friends or on an extended family reunion.
There’s definitely something for everyone and it is evident when I’ve seen their day-to-day program listings or itinerary for activities on their ship. The ships also range from sizes so that can affect how the experience will be for you. There are ships that can have 3,000+ capacity of passengers or 2,000+ and then you can determine if it will be overwhelming for you or just right with the research of the ship for a specific destination.
Carnival’s ships travel everywhere in the world from their most popular, the Caribbean, to Europe, Asia, Central and South America, and even as far as Australia and New Zealand. So, the choices for travel are wide.
Cruises are good for short stays at a city, and sometimes that feels enough.
If you haven’t gone on a cruise yet, which I’ve met soo many people who have not been on one yet, you will start to get a glimpse that cruises, especially with Carnival, the ship can take you to multiple destinations, interchanging from day to day. Honestly, as someone who loves to see the major things that a city can offer and have a willingness to see other cities too, I love this part of traveling with Carnival cruise.
Sometimes it is enough for me to explore a city within a day for a few hours. You can still appreciate cities this way and do multiple attractions or sights if you plan accordingly and use a good transportation method. I recommend doing hop-on and hop-off buses once you get to a port (there will be options) to take you to attractions or spots of a city that are worth exploring. There may be options of guided tours once you get outside to the port if you want to save from booking with shore excursions with Carnival, as those are pricier options. You just need to keep your eyes and ears keen.
You can still interact with locals and the culture at port stops and interact with the thousands of passengers on the ship.
With only a few hours to explore for a city, you may feel like you might not be able to see what the local culture is like or have a chance to get to know locals, but that is not true! Some attractions are meant for you to learn about the local culture and you may run into many locals on the streets, asking them for their recommendations or if you’re looking to find a certain spot nearby. Your tour guide is most likely going to be a local too, so you can learn from them too.
If you’re wanting to meet people, your cruise ship would have thousands of passengers from all over the world. You can meet them when you join activities and that’s what I love about Carnival is how interactive it can become. Even if you’re looking for more solitude around the ship, you can do that too.
Carnival has so many deals to offer, so it is not as expensive as you may think.
It’s true. Many people who tell me they haven’t been on a cruise can have that preconceived notion that cruises are expensive. Cruises are not as expensive as you think, especially when you can put down money for it and pay for it again months later. It can come in installments if you want and Carnival cruises are really good at handling that.
Carnival offers so many different deals and will come through more, the more you travel with Carnival. Some of these deals may offer a free $100 onboard credit or free play money for casinos and/or lower the cost per person for the cruise. These deals are the reason my family and I were able to travel with Carnival and if it wasn’t for them, we probably wouldn’t have gone with it.
Carnival comes with rewards and has different tiers to reach for more benefits.
Carnival cruises always finds a way to reward their passengers and more so when you reach to different tiers; Carnival calls this program the VIFP Club loyalty program. Carnival also hosts lots of giveaways through their activities and contests to win a special item (for example, a real valuable art piece) or cash. Below, I have listed out what the different tiers are in the VIFP Club and how to reach them:
- Blue – Your first sailing.
- Red – Your 2nd sailing / 24 points
- Gold – 25-74 points
- Platinum – 75-199 points
- Diamond – 200+ points
In order to get points, that will depend entirely on how many days you have been sailing on your Carnival cruises. You can get more points if you choose cruises that are 7+ days longer. Although my family and I have been on cruises with Carnival when I was a kid, the system must’ve reset after a longgg hiatus of not traveling in cruises, and it only restarted when we did the Long Beach-Catalina Island-Mexico cruise in 2019.
You can click here to read about what benefits can come with the different tiers.
Another way to get more rewards on your cruise is if you play the casino. Now, I don’t do this, but my parents and my mom’s siblings do. I’m not going to lie, I have gave in a few times doing the “try to grab the cash” machines in the casinos and I lost everytime and instantly regret it after haha.
Anyways, the more points you rack up in casinos (or the more you spend in there), the more rewards you can get like free vouchers for food or gifts! Some of those food would be specialty restaurants around the ship and you could be given options.
The Carnival Hub app, which is the app that Carnival created for every passenger, is the way to keep track of how much you are accumulating so it is important to check on that often. Also, that app is useful to see what activities are going on, as well as your way to do reservations for restaurants or shore excursions.
There is a schedule of a wide range of activities given everyday.
As I mentioned prior, there will be activities on the ship everyday. There will be a paper pamphlet (although I think it is wasteful but understand why they do this) delivered to your stateroom everyday and you may find that outside of your room on your mail holder.
These activities can range from concerts from various types of artists (acoustic, violinists, bands, etc.), trivias, game shows, holiday celebrations (if your cruise lands on a holiday), contests, nightclub events, parties, and Carnival will hire professional singers and dancers to throw some amazing musical shows in their theatres. There will also be some presentations held by the spa or art auction staff; some are really worth going to so you can get some free gifts or not miss out on a chance to win something (that will be announced).
In some cruises, there may be a naturalist/scientist onboard to present some presentations on topics of their choosing if you’re into nature/history/geography and I find them very educational.
That amazing food you hear on cruises? The buffet is included as free!
And it’s the best part of all. The Carnival cruises works SUPER hard to make sure their passengers are well fed and are given options (vegeterian, gluten-free, protein, sugar-free, etc.). It nearly feels luxurious to come by this and you actually start to miss the goodness of these foods when your cruise trip ends. The buffet is not the only way you can get food for free, but there are some sections around like the pizza and bar food there that are free. Only some specialty foods like seafood and sushi and coffee bars would require payments. Their signs will be posted everywhere to let you know what requires payment or not.
Each port runs different and has their own timings.
An important thing to note with ports is that your cruise director will announce how some ports will be like the day before or so, so you’re prepared how to leave the cruise safely. Some ports would require you to get on shuttle buses (some of them can require payments or could be free) or even water shuttles if there isn’t exactly a port made for ships to dock at.
You’ll have to pay attention too as to what deck/floor to report to for you to exit the ship to get to the port. You would always need to have your Carnival card with you to present to the workers before exiting and always have that with you too if you’re returning. DO NOT miss the time you have to be back on the ship as that will help you plan when you should return so you don’t get left behind. That would truly suck! So plan accordingly with your group or stateroom buddy on when’s a good time to get off the ship and get back.
Safety is prioritized in Carnival.
I’ve heard some people who haven’t been on a cruise say that it can scare them because the idea of being in the middle of the ocean seems fearful. However, you kind of get over that quick once you realize how relaxing and how hard the workers work to ensure you are safe.
It is mandatory for cruises to run a briefing session in muster stations of how to correctly put on a lifejacket. I’ve seen some emergencies carry out on ships and people have been airlifted in the middle of the ocean to take them to the nearest hospital by land. Workers on Carnival cruises work hard to clean up any messes, sanitize places and will be by your side to accommodate anything that needs maintenance (for example, the last cruise I was on, the room’s heater did not work and they got to fixing it). Just make sure to communicate your needs and prepare to bring any medications that will require you to have a seasick-free trip.
Do you think after reading this, would you want to go with Carnival cruises? Or make you confident to go on a cruise?
Tell me what you thought below!