My wife and I have cruised twice on the Celebration, and it is by far our favorite ship. When we had the opportunity to do a b-2-b on the Holiday, we felt like it would be heavenly experience, but instead it proved to be the cruise to Hell (and I don't mean the Hell in the Caymans..)

 This was our sixth and seventh Carnival Cruises, with two on the Celebration, one on the Fantasy, while Conquest and Glory finished out our earlier cruises. We knew the Holiday was the twin to the Celebration, so we had no grand expectations and looked forward to being on a small ship where we always have found personal service and better service on the smaller ships so actually enjoyed them better.

Like others have said, Carnival can not control the weather or people getting sick on board (although it appears Carnival might have some fault for one of the illnesses on the first trip.)

Still, I appreciate the concern that a ship would turn around to return a sick passenger to shore where they can get the medical help they need, so  I will be the last to complain that the ship had to return to port twice for ill passengers.

My major complaint (and this is true for conditions on both trips) is the failure of the staff to alert passengers to the conditions. It was only at the Captains welcome aboard reception that we were told of the sick passengers. We were giving very little information and only told we would be late arriving in Cozumel. In fact, we were left with the impression we would still arrive around noon and have plenty of time for fun. Instead, suddenly when we making preparations for Cozumel, that suddenly we were infomred we were running even later then expected, and hoped to arrive around 2:00. At 3:00 (no further announcements weree made) we saw Cozumel appear and finally were at the pier and ready to disembark at 4:00.

I hold the Cruise Diector Steve Cassell responsible. I also feel the Captain was negligent in this matter also. Information is key, and not informitng the guests of conditions, times or arrival and other information that might assist them in preparing for the day was totally improper.

Also, no extra activiities were planned and the day became a sea day were the entertainment staff did nothing. BTW, to the poster who complained about all the Beatles music, we still have Christmas music on the Lido on the first trip (since we left of Dec. 27) and I think they only had about two CD's of Christmas music.

The one thing I enjoyed that was unexpected was getting to shop in Cozumel in the evening when the other ships weree preparing to pull out. We had the stores to ourselves and the full interest of the shop owners. Also, Cozumel was still decorated for Christmas, so we got to see some wonderful decorations in town.

I really felt sorry for people who had travelled expecting a fun day at the beach in Cozumel, and instead had to settle for shopping because the sun would have been setting by the time they arrived at the beach. Kids missed swimming with the dolphins and almost all shore excursions were cancelled.

I can not hold Carnival completely responsibile but still feel if we had been advised what was going in people could have prepared better. Also, to the folks who compained about only receiving $25 for missing Cozumel the next trip, we got NOTHING for a trip where you could not swim, sun, or do anything except shop. We never even got an apology.

We were told we would arrive in Mobile about 8:00, so we could sleep in. For us it was no problem because were just going to go off the ship, through customs and then right back on (and be escorted by someone from the Pursors office.) The night before I checked in and asked about the weather in Mobile. No one could answer and said they had not gotten a weather report from the Bridge. I heard this several times when I asked about the weather over the two weeks.

I went to bed and woke up at 7:30 and laid in bed thinking the ship sure was still moving a lot for being close to shore. Then we were told the fog was neavy, and the pilot had not been able to get to the ship because of the fog. He had just arrived, and now we would arrive at the pier around 10:00 instead. Again, trying to make the best of it, I went to the lido, had a nice casual breakfast, and enjoyed watching as we came into the harbor. Normally you would not see this because normally it is early in the morning.It was very cold and we needed our jackets. I had a feeling it would be cold because I had watched the weather channell on TV and seen it was cold in the south, but they did not have accuate information on Mobile.

I grew interested in the people waiting for the next cruise, because I knew there is only enough parking for one cruise at a time. Normally people are off the ship by 10:00 and our ot the parking lot in time for the next cruisers to start arriving. As we passed the Terminal (and I wondered why we did not dock directly instead of taking over 40 minutes to go upstream and come back sine many had planes to catch) we saw a train stopped in front of the terminal. We later found out it had broken down that morning, which kept many workers from getting into the terrmial, but helped keep the next cruisers out of the way. They were shuttled to a parking area under the I-10 Bridge and kept their until we started disembarking. It was about noon when the first passengers finally got off. Some of the very irate guests had parked out in the Pursors lobby, and had to be removed so customs could set up in there. It was pretty bad, but finally people were able to get off.

 Again, I feel part of the problem was no communication from the Bridge. Please keep us up to date. Instead, the Cruise Director seemed to take the day off and the only communication was from the assistant.The only thing they did was pipe in a movie to the theater so people could sit with their luggage and wait. The movie ended long before we made port.

Finally, everyone was off, and we did our trip to shore and got back on along with two wedding parties who married at 2:00 and 2:30. We enjoyed our lunch and watched the activiity on shore. I will say for being so late getting in, the crew did a great job getting ready for the next trip. While being four hours late getting to port, we were only two hours late leaving, as we pullled out at 6:00.

Later we would learn that part of the reason Mobile was so cold, was because a huge Arctic front had come through, and it was causing havoc in the Gulf. Unfortnatley, again no information was provided by the Bridge. The infamous "Barf Bags" suddenly appeared, and we realized that meant bad travel ahead. Again, it was at the Captains Welcome aboard reception we got any information and were sailing into a cold front and we would see some rough weather ahead. We learned we were seeing high waves (later I would learn up to 12 foot waves, but not from ship crew, but from passengers on other Carnival ships who did have crews who gave out information.)

the night before I again asked the Pursors deck for weather information, because I knew we were scheduled to tender in. I was told, sorry, no infom from the bridge. I checked out the weather channel again, and found a world wide forecast, and saw it did not look good for Cozumel.

The next morning, we watched as we cruised up to the port, and suddenly stopped. I thought this was a good sign, and then message said we would not be able to tender in as the port was closed to small ships. I had checked in advance, and knew there were nine ships scheduld for Cozumel, and the Holiday was to tender in, so I knew that meant Cozumel was gone. The the ship cranked up and started down the shore. I knew that with Costa Maya gone, there was no hope of getting in there and we saw a ship docked in Calica so we could not reverse ports. Progresso and Belize were too far to go, so I knew it meant an "Fun Day at Sea."

I wondered what the Cruise director would have up his sleeve.I found out he must be an honest poker player because he had nothing. A special Art Aution was held, and some games of Bingo. The Casino staff was wakened and sent to work. A movie was played in the theater. In other words, again nothing was done.

The situation was made worse because it was pretty cold with no sun, the pool was shut down, lounge chairs were stowed away and there was nothing to do for most people. They could have opened the disco and bars, they could have had the Dancers pull out their Christmas show, they could have found some type of entertainment.

We cruiised up and down the coast, with the ship making a 45-75 degree evry so often as we did our U-turn. We were in the art auction and received a warning from the bridge one time about the list, but did not other times. This was the most miseralbe day I havew ever spent cruising. I try to remind myself it would have been worse to be in the open sea, but I also notice that none of the other five ships who were turned away from Cozumel were doing this.

To make matters worse, the Comic who had entertained for two nights was supposed to get off at Cozumel and another entertainer join the ship. Steve Cassell in his ultimate wisdom then decided to hold the "Talent Show" a day early. This might be the best decision he made in the nine days I was on board. For one thing, we had one of the best talent shows I have ever seen (BTW, I was Frank Sinatra) and we had some amazing talent including a real Belly Dancer, a woman who could set up shop in Las Vegas, a country singer who has recorded, and some other incredibe talent. I was humbled to be in that bunch and it was great. Amazingly enought, Steve Cassell did not even come to meet the cast and was down right rude to sevarl who performed.

The next day was arrived at Calica. No, it is not an amazing port and yes it is a rock port. But, yes, when you leave the ship there are some very exciting places to visit. I agre with another poster, however, where is X-Carret? Why does Carnival not go there any more?

The reeal good thing is the weather cleared up a bit for Calica, and we actually even saw the sun shine!

We left Calica but the next day again it was wet can cold. The only thing that made it feel good was hearing it had dropped to 25 in Mobile while we were gone. Maybe 50 degrees was not so bad after all.

Again, activities would have been nice there was not much to do.Thank goodness I love my art auctions.

I am glad I am an experienced Carnival Cruiser. I tried another Cruise line one time, and could not wait to get back to my Carnival (yes, I bought the stock to get the onboard credit so I can refer to it as MY Carnival.)

Was I disappointed in the cruise. Yes.

Will I be back...YES, and  I know it will be better.

thanks...

Jimmy.