Cruising the Carnival Holiday for the Christmas holiday

This year for Christmas we did something a bit different than normal. My wife booked a four day cruise on the Carnival Holiday. A short jaunt to Cozumel Mexico and back. Sailing out of the Port of Mobile Alabama it was within driving distance which for us was a plus.

Christmas Eve day we headed out for Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Figured we'd spend the night there and drive in to Mobile on Christmas morning. A short hour and a half drive to Mobile we took our time waking and readying to head out. Leaving the hotel around 9:30 a.m. we figured we'd take our time driving and would still get to the port quite early. Early is always good! As we leave Hattiesburg I program the GPS for 201 S Water Street, Mobile, Alabama and push "Go." Hmmm, GPS shows an ETA of 11:10 a.m. Easy drive to the port, and the GPS came through, led us right to the port. Yippiee!!!!!

So we pull up behind the other cars in line to the parking deck. Hmmm, there is a police car, lights flashing, blocking the entrance to the deck. One by one the cars advance, one by one the cars are sent away. Behind me several other cars pull up. By the time we got to the police car, the policeman waves his hand and makes an announcement on his cars PA speaker. "If you are here for the cruise, follow me." So we proceed to follow him. He leads us to the civic center and waves us to proceed into the parking lot. Once in the lot, several police personnel are directing traffic to park. They announce that terminal personnel will be on the way to open the center. By now, there are probably a hundred cars in the lot and more coming. People milling about, some playing catch football, some just standing around chatting. So what the heck is going on?

Ahhh, the ship is late returning to port. Seems the Port Authority has closed the port to all traffic due to dense fog. Not that evident from our view point.

Finally after about 30 minutes the cruise personnel arrive with civic center personnel in tow. The doors are opened and we are directed to the restrooms and then asked to have a seat in the auditorium for an important announcement. People still milling around, some very upset, some absolutely uncalled for arrogant, but for the most part folks were calm. A female wearing a red terminal jacket came in and started to tell us the deal. While she was talking with us, she received a phone call. A lot of, "uh huh; oh; okay; I understand; alright; and finally keep me posted, talk with you in a bit." She announces to the crowd that the ship has been given the okay to proceed to port, however ETA was 4:30 p.m. The crowd groans!!!

She proceeds to tell us what was going to happen. A bit confusing as she told everyone they would have to proceed to the terminal to drop off baggage and pay for parking. Box lunches would be ordered and everyone would be processed in at the civic center. She spoke of 80 parking spots left on the parking deck and another 100or so spots outside the terminal being available. We could go over there and park and buses would be there to bring everyone back to the center. Other option was to proceed to the terminal drop off bags, pay for parking, and return with your car and leave your car in the civic center lot. If you'd like to go get something to eat and come back thats fine as well. You did read the part where this is Christmas Day! Nothing is open. One restaurant in the, I think Regency Hotel, is open. Thats it!

My wife and I decide to go ahead and proceed to the terminal and get all that stuff done and then walk back to the civic center, probably only a walk of a few blocks. We get back to the terminal area, take our place in line and slowly creep forward. Pretty smooth operation. As we get up to the terminal we are stopped to wait until all the cars in front are cleared from the terminal baggage area. Our turn comes, we are directed forward. Porters are there, I stop, hand the guy our bag (we only had one bag) and a tip and we are waved forward. Then we are stopped, told to back up and that we would be parking outside. So we wait, not long. Then we are directed to proceed to the parking deck. We pay our $60 parking fee and proceed to the 4th level. Figure we can leave our carry-on stuff in the car and when we return to the terminal I can go up and get it. We proceed to the elevators, go to level one. Here we are greeted by a very nice uniformed lady. She asks if we are ready to go into the terminal. We explain what we were told about returning to the civic center. She tells us no. If we are ready to proceed we can go into the terminal and process in. So back up to the car, get all the carry-on stuff and proceed back to level one. She directs us in, and the processing went very smooth. We are directed to a seating area and told that our sign and sail cards would be available as soon as the ship arrived. We were also told that box lunches would be arriving for each passenger, that never happened.

The terminal filled rapidily. The few vending machines were emptied quickly. No drinks, no food, no nothing! So we wait. Lots of folks complaining and stating that Carnival better do something, or offer reimbursement because of the delay. I turned to a couple of guys that were behind me and told them it wasn't Carnival's fault. The port was closed, nothing the cruise line could do about that. Still Carnival was being blamed for the weather. Finally the ship goes by. Seems like it took an hour to turn around and get back to the terminal.

Here is where things got pretty whacky!!!!

As soon as the ship was secured to the pier, sandwiches arrived. They were placed at the far end of the terminal. Yup, you guessed it, we were at the opposite end. By the time I got in line, no sandwiches were left. Many folks were grabbing handfulls of sammies to bring back to family and friends. I waited and waited, but never got lucky enough to get a sammie. Sign and sail cards were handed out. People started to disembark. Time passes. People starting to get restless. Afterall most of us have been in the terminal for 5 hours or more. Finally comes the announcement that we were ready to board. All of us in the seated area were told we'd be first to board. That never happened! The terminal personnel lost control at this point. Basically people in the terminal shifted to the lines that were being let on. So it was quite, no, very disorganized.

Finally aboard at 7 p.m.'ish, everyone was directed straight to one of the dining rooms. Open seating and not neccesarily your assigned dining room. Cabins would not be ready until 8 p.m. Dinner went okay and was quite good. During dinner they announced the cabins were ready. Luggage was delivered very quickly and a letter from the captain delivered to each cabin. Due to the delay and the still dense fog the ship stores and casino would not open until 8 a.m. the following morning. Oh well, time to explore the ship and early to bed. Also received a letter explaining that $36 per person had been applied to our sign and sail onboard credit for the fuel surcharge refund and an additional $15 per person applied for lunch meal reimbursement. We felt that to be a very nice gesture.

Our cabin, U155, was very nice. Even being an older ship, the cabin was much larger then some of the newer ships we've been on. Plenty of closet/drawer space etc. Luggage fit in the closet with no problem. The beds, probably the most comfortable bed we've had on a cruise ship. Carnival is rather proud of their bedding as they offer it for sale online! Bathrobes were provided for our use. And rather nice bathrobes at that. Life boat drill postponed until 11 a.m. Friday morning.

A little rough making our way to Cozumel. I warrant that in part to the speed trying to make up time and rough water. Not really bad, however, the little white bags were placed at elevators and other spots throughout the ship.

The ship overall is in great shape for being as old and worn as she is. Personnel were constantly cleaning, touching up paint etc. Cannot complain at all about the ships condition. All of the staff we encountered were friendly. Always smiling, always offering help.

Dining was great. Anyone that complains about the dining options and/or food are those that are not satisfied at home either. Our only complaint was the breakfast in the main dining room. It was in a word "bad." Waffles, toast, eggs were cold and the hash browns were, well I'm not sure they were even cooked, at any rate they too were cold and lousy. The Wharf and Grill on Deck 10 was great. Pizza 24/7 along with made to order calzones and caesar salads. There was such a diverse selection of foods available. Thumbs up! Late night buffets were so-so. Nothing great, but nothing bad.

Entertainment was not top of the line, but it was good and well performed. The comedian, well, in my opinion wasn't that great, but you know humor is funny that way!

XOP playing in the Tahiti lounge was good, but too loud for such a small lounge. They billed themselves as "music you grew up with."

Timmy the guitar player was good. And the piano player in Rick's lounge was absolutely great! Two nights they had Big Band dance music played by the ships band in the Americana Lounge. My only criticism here is that this is an adult function. A few kids were acting fools on the dance stage while we were trying to dance. I think someone from the activity staff should have escorted the kids off the stage. I personally asked two girls to leave the stage as they were a hazard to those trying to dance. They left, but not before they shot me a few dirty looks.

Not sure how many children there were aboard, but for the most part all were well behaved. A few runners through crowded decks, a few that did not understand "inside" voice, but other than that well behaved. Teens, hmmmm, I have to fault the ships staff. Several teens gambling, more drinking, however, still well behaved. My take, teen drinking and gambling is wrong, but not my kids and if the parents are okay with it thats fine.

Okay I think I have covered all bases. Now for disembarkation. We opted to participate in the self assist program. You carry all your luggage etc off the ship with you. We were told that we would begin to disembark around 8:30 a.m. So we set our alarm for 7, figured we'd have time for a leisurely cup of coffee and maybe a small bite of breakfast. Not so. By 7:15 they were announcing by deck for self assist participants to begin to make their way to deck 5. We were off the ship, in our car, driving out of the terminal at 7:53 a.m. The easiest, most organized disembark we've ever done.

Overall impression of the Holiday, outstanding. This being only my second Carnival cruise out of seventeen, with terrible impressions of Carnival after my first sailing on the Celebration. This ship and crew has changed my impression of Carnival and I am sure we will sail with Carnival in the future. We are looking forward to the Fantasy moving to Mobile.

I still maintain the worst day at sea is still better then the best day on land!!!!! Happy sailing!