Jennifer Cerda

Age: 29
Occupation: Accounting
Number of Cruises: 1
Cruise Line: Carnival
Name of Ship: Jubilee
Sailing Date: May 22nd, 2003
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

This was our first time on a cruise, and it was overall a pleasant experience. We went on this cruise with low expectations in hopes that we might be surprised in the end. We read several different reviews (mainly with negative points) before we decided to go ahead and book the trip. You figure in the end that Carnival must be doing something right, or they wouldn’t be in business.

I was impressed by how smoothly the boarding process went. Although there were lines to wait through, they all went relatively fast. It took less than 10 minutes for us to go through the different procedures and get on board the ship. We were told in advance that it might be several hours before we received our luggage, but they managed to arrive promptly and in decent condition. Overall, our cabin was bigger than what we had anticipated, but of course the restroom was tiny and outdated.

Our first day on the cruise was a little disappointing at first. We put on our suits and went to the back of the boat for some sun, as we were about to pull out of Galveston. A few minutes into our tanning soot started to fall on us out of the tail part of the engine. It kept drifting in the air, finding its way onto us, and making us black. After a short time of this we moved to the front of the boat. After about fifteen minutes our skin started burning. We didn’t know what the heck was going on and you thought you were almost hallucinating, that is until you looked around and everyone else was beating themselves due to the stinging as well. Upon a closer look, there were little whitish yellow bugs that were landing on us, and boy did it sting. A few minutes after this we ran to the hot tub to attempt to stop the stinging. It worked. Anyway, we weren’t sure what we signed up for at this point…. But it did get better. The bug issue must have been something we just passed through, as we never saw them again after that day. And the soot incident must have been from the initial starting of the engine. We never had another run-in with the bugs or soot after the first day.

We were on the Riviera deck, which in comparison to other rooms and floors we visited was the best. Our room barely vibrated, and there wasn’t the yucky sewer smell that you sometimes would smell on the other floors. The boat overall was pretty steady. We never got sick or felt an inclination for such. However, where we were seated in the Bordeaux dining room vibrated quite a bit. It apparently was just the location of our table, as we sat at a different table on another night, and the vibration was very minor.

Shows, the comedy show was pretty hilarious. The Vegas style show was extremely dated; I would not recommend watching it.

The pools as another review has stated are salt-water pools and extremely small, but they are still enjoyable. They were just a lot smaller than I expected.

Alcoholic drinks of course you have to pay for and they are equivalent to what you would pay in a bar ($3.50 for a beer, and $4.50 for a mixed drink). The food is decent in the dining room, some night were better than others. If you can’t decided between two appetizers just order them both, not a big deal. It is a round the clock eating frenzy.

Overall this was a very valuable trip and a lot better than I expected.