Carnival Celebration cruise ship review
Carnival Celebration is one of the line's newest and most impressive ships, with food at every price point and something happening around every corner. But it is not perfect.
TravelHost's Come Cruise With Me Editor in Chief Daniel Kline and his travel agent partner, Postcard Travel Planning's Dennis Post, dig into what they love about the Celebration and the one part of their day that did not go nearly as smoothly.
A full transcript follows below.
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There's plenty to like, but some things that don't quite work
Transcript:
Dan Kline: Hey there, cruisers. I am Dan Kline, Editor-in-Chief of TravelHost. Next to me, Dennis Post, my travel agent partner at Post Card Travel Planning. We are on the Carnival Celebration.
This is my first Carnival Cruise in eight years. I owe my career to Carnival in a weird way, as my first ever cruises were both on Carnival Conquest, and that sparked my love of cruising, but it also sparked me to try other cruise lines.
I wanna talk a little bit about what we like about Carnival Celebration and what we don't. I'm gonna start with something really positive, because I've been complaining a little. The food on the ship is plentiful in all price points. If you wanna do upscale, the steakhouse is one of the better ones I've ever eaten at.
Dennis Post: Yeah.
Kline: If you wanna do just a mid-priced sushi lunch like we had today, you could spend 12 bucks, you could spend 20, have a really good- We have more food than we could possibly eat.
Post: Exactly.
Kline: There is a ton of free food. I was very skeptical. There's a Guy Fieri barbecue, and it didn't look great, but it was absolutely delicious. And that's included. That's not an extra dime.
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There's a buffet in the morning in the Guy Fieri restaurant that's a typical breakfast buffet. It was good. It was fine. It was what you wanted. And I didn't have to go brave the regular buffet. Dennis, why don't you talk about, though, our experience on the pool deck today, which was maybe not as positive?
Post: Yeah, the pool deck, we were in the back on the aft deck 16. Back there, there's a bar, and that's where Big Chicken is, Shaq's restaurant. Usually a great place, very crowded today. And so we decided to go through and go to the main deck, and we go up to the solarium for the adult side.
Solarium was good, but the main pool deck was packed.
Kline: Everything was packed. The So- not the fault of the Solarium. It was very windy up there.
Post: Yeah.
Kline: And there were not enough chairs. Every cruise line, please listen to me: Cubbies. I don't want a chair. I'm not gonna sit. I'm gonna go in the pool.
Post: Right.
Kline: But I need to leave my glasses, my shoes, my whatever somewhere. Just give me a little place to put it. This was so windy, if you put a towel down, the towel blew away. I put a Red Bull down half full, and it shot across the pool deck. Just give me a place to leave my stuff.
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Dennis, another positive from you? I'm gonna say maybe the, just how beautiful the ship is and how there's always something happening.
Post: Yeah, it, we were on this ship about three months ago. It flows really good. At first when we came on, we're used to the Carnival big atrium with glass elevators. The new style ships, the Mardi Gras, this, the Jubilee, we love the flow of it.
There's always something going on. Food, we can always get, like, hand foods. We call it hand food. Chicken sandwich, burger, slice of pizza, some seafood. Whatever it is, you can get it all day long, and it makes it easy to get.
Kline: I'll close on this. You actually eat less because food is so plentiful. Because everything you walk by has something. You're like, "Well, maybe later. Maybe I'll try that. Maybe I want an ice cream. Maybe. Nope." I actually think you walk more and eat less.
I am Dan Kline. He is Dennis Post. We are on Carnival Celebration. Come cruise with us soon.
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Make a free appointment with Come Cruise With Me's Travel Agent Partner, Postcard Travel, or email Amy Post at amypost@postcardtravelplanning.com or call or text her at 386-383-2472.
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This story was originally published June 16, 2026 at 10:36 AM.