Cruise Ship Review
Carnival Holiday - Ship Review provided by Cruise Critic
Another design wrinkle is the placement of the ship's two restaurants and galley--putting them on a deck that includes other public rooms creates a major passenger flow issue. Passengers seeking the ship's shops, library, piano bar, or the entry level of the show lounge can only get there by using the forwardmost stairway or elevators.
Many of these flaws and deficiencies are forgivable, however, taken in the context of Holiday's position in Carnival's marketing plan. Over recent years Carnival has aggressively developed the Gulf Coast by moving a Holiday-class ship to a city that had not previously homeported a major cruise line, offering short cruises to the Western Caribbean. This strategy yields a triple enticement to first-timers: short duration, affordable fares, and a pier that can be reached by automobile. First-time cruisers, ipso facto, have no other ships to compare with Holiday, so it does not suffer so badly by comparison. Thus, these sailings get extremely positive local reviews. The word of mouth generates repeat customers and an expanding market, which a larger ship eventually moves into service.
But it is not only lack of prior cruise experience that generates such enthusiasm and forgiveness for Holiday's physical shortcomings: There seems to be a genuine esprit de corps among crew and staff in most departments, and the result is a level of service in most departments--both in warmth and efficiency--superior to most of our previous experiences with the line. In the early 80s when I lived in Los Angeles, I often sailed with my family on three-night Baja California cruises aboard an older, outmoded ship called the Azure Seas. This 15,000-ton, 800-passenger vessel was already 30 years old and showing its age. What Azure Seas lacked in bells and whistles, it made up for with compensatory warmth, personal service, and a real sense of camaraderie, much like Holiday to Alabamans. In the early 90s, Carnival moved Holiday to Los Angeles to compete for passengers in the same three-night sailings. I sailed that itinerary aboard Holiday a decade ago. Ironically, it was Holiday then who was the "new kid on the block," state of the art, fashionable, but lacking the warmth and caring service found on the nearly decrepit Azure Seas. Though I always enjoy a sailing, it was clear in those days that staff and crew wished they had been reassigned anywhere in the Caribbean, anywhere but doing short cruises on the West Coast. How the tables have turned!
But the question remains: What will happen when Holiday and Celebration--both clearly in the sunset of their lives in the U.S. market--are retired? Currently Carnival has no ships on the drawing board in the 50,000-ton range, and no current plans to develop any in the future.
Dining
Holiday's dining experience reflects the much-touted fleetwide improvements in service, ingredient quality, imaginative recipes, and proficient preparation and presentation. Newcomers such as duck breast, unusual varieties of fish and fowl, and Asian fusion elements like bok choy and lemongrass have crept into the recipes. Meats are of a higher quality, more tender than the offerings of half a dozen years ago, and on our sailing, they came out precisely at the temperatures ordered.New as well are the services of Michelin three-star chef Georges Blanc, who has created new dinner recipes for the entire fleet. On Holiday, these include one starter, main course, and dessert each evening. These recipes were consistently tasty, interesting in ingredients, and artistically presented. One menu, for example, included an appetizer course of citrus cured salmon served with gingered potato hulls, and raspberry and sherry dressing; a main course of pan fried fillet of grouper with crispy fried vegetables, black olives, cauliflower ragout, grilled tomato, lemon and caper emulsion with Verbena froth; and for dessert, roasted pineapple with caramel pineapple sauce, streusel and vanilla cream. Spa and vegetarian courses can be put together from choices on the main menu.
Dinners in Holiday's Seven Seas and Four Winds restaurants follow traditional shipboard assigned sitting and seating format, with the two basic seatings further broken down by restaurant into four by staggering the start times by 30 minutes. (Seven Seas seatings start at 5:45 and 8pm; Four Seasons starts a half-hour later for each.) Carnival claims this offset makes it easier to have all guests receive their food quickly and at the correct temperature.
The decor in the dining rooms is one aspect of the ship noticeably improved by the renovation. Though the rooms were always pleasant, new color schemes, carpeting, upholstery, and higher ceilings accented with wood and contemporary moldings impart a new sense of class and elegance, and the multilevel recessed ceilings ameliorate the noise level. Seating layout hasn't changed--it still relies heavily on banquette four-tops separated from each other by glass partitions, creating a feeling more like booths than banquettes. The partitions also help to break up the noise level, which can be prodigious on Carnival ships.
Lunches in the dining rooms were a welcome surprise, weighted toward low-cal and low-carb offerings. A nice variety of salads was offered through the cruise, ruined somewhat by the fact that all are made and dressed in advance. For example, as a result it's not possible to get a salad without onions, or to order one lightly dressed.
The Wharf Grill on Lido Deck serves the conventional cruise ship function of providing buffets for breakfast and lunch, as well as doubling as an alternate dining venue for those seeking a more relaxed ambiance or wishing to dine al fresco. This venue is exceedingly casual, though cordial and accommodating, and since our initial review, linen napkins have replaced paper for all meals. Though there are waiters present to assist with trays, their numbers are limited.
There are also dedicated salad and deli/sandwich stations open during lunch. A pizzeria and ice cream station are open (at no charge) 24 hours a day. Curiously, one popular aspect of between-meal food service has disappeared from Holiday: the early evening sushi bar.
Public Rooms
Nearly all the public rooms on Holiday are tightly clustered on two decks, Admiral and Promenade. One can trace the age and evolution of Holiday by the changes in style and usage its public rooms have gone through. The aft-most lounge on Promenade Deck, once a high-tech virtual reality experience, is now Doc Holiday's, a country and western bar. Carnegie's library now also houses the ship's Internet cafe. There are two midship groupings of bar/lounges. The more forward grouping is devoted to socializing and gaming, and is Broadway themed. The large "set piece" emblematic of this area in the Holiday-class ships is a vintage bus, and the sitting area forward of it is dubbed Times Square. The bar serves the typical cruise ship casino on one side (the smoking side) and those wishing to socialize on the other.The aft block of lounges is devoted to entertainment and libations, with the aforementioned Doc Holiday's appealing to the two-step and line-dancing crowd, Tahiti for those who enjoy listening music, and Reflections for the late-night disco aficionados.
During the renovation, Doc Holiday's gained new flooring, ceiling, and furniture; state-of-the-art "cyber lighting" (effects lighting that automatically changes based on the music currently being played) was installed in Reflections, and Tahiti's furniture was also replaced. Flat TV screens have been added along Promenade Deck, some carrying sports programming, others promotions for shore excursions and travelogs, still others with informational displays. Wi-Fi capability has been extended to all of the lounges and major public gathering areas. The Casino added a poker table and a slew of new slots, including one-cent machines (really!).
Editor's Note: One thing we wished for was canapes and appetizers at the bars during happy hours. We found a solution when we had had more than our fill of goldfish crackers and salted nuts. It was a simple matter to have our late afternoon/early evening drinks at the inside Wharf Bar. It was just a few steps from there to the pizzeria, or even the French fry bins at the sandwich/deli station, all of which served as dandy spots to pick up appetizers.
Cabins
Virtually all standard cabins are identical, differing only in their deck levels above waterline. The 10 verandah suites have whirlpool bathtubs. All other cabins have stall showers. Hair dryers and robes are not included amenities, but there is no shortage of grooming and hygiene products, piled high in a basket in each bathroom. The commercial provenance of all these "free" products (read "free samples") is boldly visible; you don't have to look closely to find the logos, making this amenity a basket full of product placement.The color scheme is bright and warm with lots of reds, rusts, and tans. Framed lithographs on the walls are among some of the best art pieces on display around the ship. Most cabins have twin beds that can be put together to form a king. As part of the recent renovation, all cabins on Holiday were upgraded to the new Carnival Comfort Bed sleep system, which features plush mattresses, deluxe duvets, and upgraded linens and pillows.
In-room televisions offer Fox, CBS, ABC, either NBC or TNT, three movie channels (most family-appropriate), two all-cartoon networks, three CNN's (Domestic, Latin and International), the Discovery Channel and eight channels of ship information/promotions.
Editor's Note: Holiday's cabin walls are very thin. If your next door neighbors are having either a very bad or very good time you will be sharing the experience with them. A word to the wise: sound passes equally well in either direction.
Entertainment
Anyone who has ever sailed on any Carnival cruise in the past can write up a report on Holiday's daily onboard activities from memory. There's the usual spate of pool games, hairy chest and knobby knees contests, bingo, horse races, art auctions, trivia games, and the like. The casino provides slot and blackjack tournaments. As on all the ships in the fleet, the cruise staffers double as onstage performers in the evening production shows. Again, because of a seemingly genuine camaraderie among the workers on this less-than-glitzy, far-from-new vessel, there is an elevation of the fun level over some of the ships in the line, where the musical production performers seem to resent having to sell bingo cards or host trivia quizzes.Carnival is known for its flashy, Vegas-style reviews, and on Holiday's four-night itinerary there were two such shows. The other two nights featured individual variety acts and a typical "Welcome Aboard" show.
There is an extensive list of shore excursions, including some rarely seen on other ships' lists. For example, though every cruise line calling at Cozumel has a scuba excursion, Carnival offers scuba divers the opportunity to dive the Chikin Ha Cenote. And though many lines offer off-roading in the Yucatan in four-wheel-drive vehicles, Carnival offers off-roading by jungle bike. The shore excursion department personnel are knowledgeable and helpful. If there is a fault at all, it's that the staff pushes both shore excursions and "recommended" stores and purchase suggestions far too aggressively.
Fitness & Recreation
Holiday has two pools on Lido Deck for adults and a separate children's pool area one deck down on Promenade Deck. There are sunning areas around the pools on both decks, as well as overlooking the pool areas from Verandah Deck (one deck up). The midship sunning area on Verandah also has a pair of whirlpool hot tubs.Holiday has a typical Steiner spa operation located amidship on Verandah Deck. Aft of the spa is the gymnasium, also a Steiner operation. Steiner of London spas are a familiar shipboard fixture to seasoned cruisers. Competent, efficient, and offering a full slate of treatment options (from typical massage to various herbal wraps and scrubs, relaxation, toning, and skin care), Steiner's main fault is its staff's high-pressure selling techniques. Don't be surprised if, while being massaged, your masseuse informs you that the oil they're using is available for sale, but that they are down to their last six bottles, so you'd better put in your order soon.
Holiday was built in an era when physical workouts were low on the priority list of Carnival's guests, and both the diminutive size and limited number (and variety) of workout machines reflect this. A relatively recent addition is the inclusion of a golf learning center on Lido Deck, complete with an onboard PGA pro who conducts clinics and gives lessons, utilizing the V1 golf instruction computer. Golfing excursions, packaged by Elite Golf, are offered through the ship's shore excursion department. There is a jogging track on Lido Deck (five circuits to the mile).
Besides the addition of the miniature golf course, other changes during the post-Katrina dry dock included replacement of the ship's two outdoor whirlpools and resurfacing of the swimming pools.
Family
Families are as much Carnival's long suit as is its reputation as the cruise line for high-energy twenty- or thirty-something couples and singles. The minimum age accepted for passage is four months. There are no adjoining cabins, and other than suites, no "family cabins" per se. About 25 percent of standard cabins have third and/or fourth upper bunks.Camp Carnival is divided into four categories: Toddlers (2 - 5), Juniors (6 - 8), Intermediates (9 - 11), and Teens (12 - 15). There's a playroom for under-3s. Group babysitting is available in cabin at a rate of $6 for the first child and $4 each for each additional sibling. Daily kids' specials are offered in the dining room, and there is a standard children's menu comprised of the usual suspects: chicken nuggets, hot dogs, pizza, peanut butter and jelly, etc. Teens-only shore excursions are offered, and walkie-talkies are available for rent. A fountain fun card for unlimited soft drinks and juice is available for $16 ($22 for "kids" over 21).
Fellow Passengers
Holiday attracts mainly fun-seeking Alabamans and Mississippians looking for a short spate of high-energy hijinks. The onboard bars were most crowded during the times their TVs were running NASCAR races. Carnival's reputation for family friendliness attracts families as well.Dress Code
Since most of the days on these sailings are sea days, daytime dress tends heavily toward beachwear and cutoffs. There is one formal night, with a fairly high compliance rate, most men opting for suits or sport jackets. Women tended to glitz up more than the men. On the remaining nights, casual was very casual, the only no-nos being beachwear, tank-tops, and shorts.Gratuities
$10 per person, per day is automatically charged to guests' onboard accounts.Cruise Critic
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