Since I’ve had skin cancer, I can’t lay out in the sun any longer. So, your comments about the shade on the back deck is something that I think would really appeal to me. Thank you for such a detailed review.
Yay! Happy to hear there is a decent amount of shade on deck 10! I hate that there are so many spaces in direct sunlight. I am not one that will ever sit in direct sunlight up on deck.
I just came off the Firenze about a week ago with my family and friends. It was the first time I have ever been on a Carnival Cruise. Back in April I did go on a 10 day Princess Cruise that left out of Rome, Italy. So my comments right now will be comparing Princess Cruise to the Carnival Firenze. First of all, there are two main dining rooms that serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the Michelangelo and the Medici Restaurant. We were lucky to get assigned the Michelangelo restaurant. It was gorgeous!!! They have a beautiful very tall statue of the David in the middle of two gorgeous cascading staircases and large crystal chandeliers. This dining room was at the back of the ship so we had beautiful views of the water and the sunset. We only walked through the Medici and there was no comparison. in regards to the food it was a hit and miss. We were not very excited about it. Every night there was a steak option which we all ate the first night and then never again which is surprising because we love our steak. One night as an appetizer they had frog legs and my friends daughter and my son ordered it and they loved it. some soups were good and the salads were good as well but overall, we were not impressed. A few times we did have breakfast in the Michelangelo restaurant and we really loved the parfait and the avocado toast. They had very nice selections for breakfast options so I recommend going there for breakfast. The name of the buffet area is called Lido marketplace buffet. We also ate there and the food was OK not great. You had your typical eggs, bacon, sausage, yogurt, oatmeal, hashbrowns, etc. They also had grits which I heard that the grits were one of the best. They had also fruits and array of croissants and pastries. I thought that area was very tight and the buffet was small. When you have over 4000 people on the ship, there should be more space. The isles between the buffet and that tables was very narrow. We were constantly bumping into the employees busing tables. When I compare it to the Princess cruise I took back in April that buffet was huge. They had international food as well as American. It was pretty impressive and the isles were wide. I never felt it was tight and there were hardly any lines because it was huge. On the Firenze, there was lines everywhere, even to get coffee or juice. Princess cruises had multiple crafts of coffee and juice and water throughout the dining room area so you could serve yourself or waiters come and serve it for you. Here your only option was to stand in line at the coffee machine. Tomodoro on the Lido deck made breakfast burritos, breakfast tacos and huevos rancheros. I would say definitely try that for breakfast. Other times of the day Guy’s burger Joint was the best. You have to try it at least once, but I’m sure you’ll try it more than once because it is very good. Il Mercato has really good sandwiches, hot and cold plus they have spaghetti and meatballs and other stuff. That’s where we ate when we first arrived on the ship. My 15 year old daughter liked the margarita pizza at pizzeria Capitano. La Estrada is on the side of the ship, they have a nice selection of salads. Another great place that has salads is in the area called Serenity adult-only retreat. we never ate at any of that specialty restaurant so I cannot comment on that. In regards to entertainment. I like the ship because they had live music throughout the ship. They also had multiple DJs that played fabulous music all day on the Lido deck. Mostly Motown, 70s 80s and 90s music. In the evening, they had a live band playing salsa music, another one playing American music and of course in the limelight lounge they turned it into a nightclub. overall, the music and the lounges were way better than the princess cruise I took. If you work out in the morning,, you need to get there at least by 6am because it is packed. The carnival hub is the app that you download on your cell phone to keep in touch of what’s going on throughout the day. There is a chat box where you can communicate with your party. what it doesn’t have that princess Cruise has is a GPS which I loved. With a GPS, you could find your friends easily throughout the ship. If you just have the chat box it takes longer, especially your kids, to communicate where they are. I recommend that carnival invest in a GPS on their app. I also recommend bringing a lanyard to hold your key card. Princess has a key card that looks like an AirTag. I purchased on Amazon an AirTag holder that I could wear on my wrist like a watch. So convenient. this ship holds around 4100 passengers and has about 1300 employees. Princess cruises holds about 4100 passengers as well with 1800 employees, yet Carnival Firenze was way smaller. it felt tight. One more thing, when we arrived in Cabo, it was a nightmare. They say you have to pick up your group number between 8 and 9 in the morning on the day you disembark in Cabo. First come first serve. I met a couple that got there at 8:15am and they were group 47 and was called at 12:00 PM. We got off at 1:30pm. Overall, it was a beautiful small ship for the amount of people with great entertainment and activities. Would I go again? Yes I would, but not for the food.
Love being in the aft of the ship and I was happy having the shade. Shade on some ships is hard to find. No longer can sit in the sun. Also, a nice place to play cards or games and have a bar close.
The ship was so good I thought Dear Future Husband was so cute! It's nice to get Matthews feedback on the club! This was a favorite ship for me! I like it better than the Panorama! Great video!
That. Boat is so generous and so beautiful it do even look like a boat it look like someone house like that ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤😊😊😊😊😊😊thank you. Carnival for sharing your ships with us we really do appreciate your kindness and support your crewmembers are really respective. They do a very good job of working for their passengers thank you thank you thank you
So nice to hear Matthew's thoughts around the kids club. My life will revolve around kids club for a few years and its so nice to get reviews about them :D
Hey Jaime and Matthew, great review on the Carnival Firenze! Wow, Mathew has really come into his own. I always take extra toothbrushes just incase something happens like you described. Also, I keep my toothbrush(s), in the plastic container they come in and away from the bathroom completely. The Cabin Steward comes in to clean and can easily knock over your toothbrush onto the bathroom floor and you would never know. Also, they spray the bathroom mirror and can easily spray your toothbrush. I keep as much as possible out of the way of the Cabin Steward's general cleaning area. Hope Sharon's Mom is doing much better. Keep up the great work!! 😎⛹️♀️🤸♂️🚴♂️
Great review as always and loved that you got your son involved. He did a great job! We'll be on the Firenze in December and looking forward to checking it out for ourselves. 😊
I have to disagree about the shade. I can’t be in the sun so I’m rarely outside on deck during the day. With the umbrellas and additional shade I could actually spend some time outside!
Yeah I don’t know about the lido layout. But the larger the Java Blue the better. The long lines at Carnival’s caffe places are kinda annoying. Make them huge! Lol gotta have my coffee in the morning ASAP. 😅
Great review guys. All the things you didn’t like are things I embrace! 😂 bc they seem like it fits my style better. One exception would be the placement of JavaBlue. To each their own! Can’t wait to sail Firenze in October 🎉
We were on the ship from August 4 to August 8. Everything was good. Food was excellent. Only thing that I had an issue with was the bathroom within the ship that was only one stall and 99% of the time they were occupied they should be multiple.
Well, you got a peek at Asian (mostly Chinese culture) since both Venezia and Firenze were specifically designed for the Asian market. FIRST - urban Chinese don't do outdoors and sun. Have you seen the air pollution in their cities. If I had to live there, I wouldn't go outside either. So while there isn't a ton of sunny spots on the ship around the pools, just go up one deck and there are plenty. SECOND - the Chinese LOVE to gamble so the ship has both a huge regular casino, as well as a smaller non-smoking casino. Really - the only thing I can't rationalize out is the sunken basketball/sports court. The Vista Class ships have the additional 2 restaurants on that deck (Ji Ji's and Cucina del Capitano) and the basketball court is above them. Also a little surprised you didn't try the Italian Restaurant, Il Viaggio. Every Carnival ship that I'm aware of has a steakhouse, but only 2 (Venezia and Firenze) have Il Viaggio. We are sailing Firenze in August and will be trying Il Viaggio on embarkation day. Found out we also have a shared experience. We were also on that ill fated Carnival Pride Baltic Sea cruise last year. We too were dining when the rumble occurred but probably only midway in the dining room and not all the way aft like you. It was challenging to get home, but we had Fly2Fun with Carnival so we knew we would be taken care of. The flight from Hamburg to London was probably the worst of it. I'm 6'3" tall and it was like flying on Spirit or Frontier with a minuscule seat pitch. But we loved the cruise, the port visits, and the way Carnival took care of us when the unfortunate happened. The crew was just fantastic.
Thanks for the information for the youth. Going with a 14, 12, and 10 year old. It’s going to be a less fun location for them but a great one for me. I never liked how the kids spaces were soo isolated and away lol hahaha.
Since I’ve had skin cancer, I can’t lay out in the sun any longer. So, your comments about the shade on the back deck is something that I think would really appeal to me. Thank you for such a detailed review.
Yay! Happy to hear there is a decent amount of shade on deck 10! I hate that there are so many spaces in direct sunlight. I am not one that will ever sit in direct sunlight up on deck.
I just came off the Firenze about a week ago with my family and friends. It was the first time I have ever been on a Carnival Cruise. Back in April I did go on a 10 day Princess Cruise that left out of Rome, Italy. So my comments right now will be comparing Princess Cruise to the Carnival Firenze. First of all, there are two main dining rooms that serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the Michelangelo and the Medici Restaurant. We were lucky to get assigned the Michelangelo restaurant. It was gorgeous!!! They have a beautiful very tall statue of the David in the middle of two gorgeous cascading staircases and large crystal chandeliers. This dining room was at the back of the ship so we had beautiful views of the water and the sunset. We only walked through the Medici and there was no comparison. in regards to the food it was a hit and miss. We were not very excited about it. Every night there was a steak option which we all ate the first night and then never again which is surprising because we love our steak. One night as an appetizer they had frog legs and my friends daughter and my son ordered it and they loved it. some soups were good and the salads were good as well but overall, we were not impressed. A few times we did have breakfast in the Michelangelo restaurant and we really loved the parfait and the avocado toast. They had very nice selections for breakfast options so I recommend going there for breakfast. The name of the buffet area is called Lido marketplace buffet. We also ate there and the food was OK not great. You had your typical eggs, bacon, sausage, yogurt, oatmeal, hashbrowns, etc. They also had grits which I heard that the grits were one of the best. They had also fruits and array of croissants and pastries. I thought that area was very tight and the buffet was small. When you have over 4000 people on the ship, there should be more space. The isles between the buffet and that tables was very narrow. We were constantly bumping into the employees busing tables. When I compare it to the Princess cruise I took back in April that buffet was huge. They had international food as well as American. It was pretty impressive and the isles were wide. I never felt it was tight and there were hardly any lines because it was huge. On the Firenze, there was lines everywhere, even to get coffee or juice. Princess cruises had multiple crafts of coffee and juice and water throughout the dining room area so you could serve yourself or waiters come and serve it for you. Here your only option was to stand in line at the coffee machine. Tomodoro on the Lido deck made breakfast burritos, breakfast tacos and huevos rancheros. I would say definitely try that for breakfast. Other times of the day Guy’s burger Joint was the best. You have to try it at least once, but I’m sure you’ll try it more than once because it is very good. Il Mercato has really good sandwiches, hot and cold plus they have spaghetti and meatballs and other stuff. That’s where we ate when we first arrived on the ship. My 15 year old daughter liked the margarita pizza at pizzeria Capitano. La Estrada is on the side of the ship, they have a nice selection of salads. Another great place that has salads is in the area called Serenity adult-only retreat. we never ate at any of that specialty restaurant so I cannot comment on that. In regards to entertainment. I like the ship because they had live music throughout the ship. They also had multiple DJs that played fabulous music all day on the Lido deck. Mostly Motown, 70s 80s and 90s music. In the evening, they had a live band playing salsa music, another one playing American music and of course in the limelight lounge they turned it into a nightclub. overall, the music and the lounges were way better than the princess cruise I took. If you work out in the morning,, you need to get there at least by 6am because it is packed. The carnival hub is the app that you download on your cell phone to keep in touch of what’s going on throughout the day. There is a chat box where you can communicate with your party. what it doesn’t have that princess Cruise has is a GPS which I loved. With a GPS, you could find your friends easily throughout the ship. If you just have the chat box it takes longer, especially your kids, to communicate where they are. I recommend that carnival invest in a GPS on their app. I also recommend bringing a lanyard to hold your key card. Princess has a key card that looks like an AirTag. I purchased on Amazon an AirTag holder that I could wear on my wrist like a watch. So convenient. this ship holds around 4100 passengers and has about 1300 employees. Princess cruises holds about 4100 passengers as well with 1800 employees, yet Carnival Firenze was way smaller. it felt tight. One more thing, when we arrived in Cabo, it was a nightmare. They say you have to pick up your group number between 8 and 9 in the morning on the day you disembark in Cabo. First come first serve. I met a couple that got there at 8:15am and they were group 47 and was called at 12:00 PM. We got off at 1:30pm.
Overall, it was a beautiful small ship for the amount of people with great entertainment and activities. Would I go again? Yes I would, but not for the food.
Matthew is so mature and well spoken. I loved hearing a young person's view. He takes after his dad, and sounds like him. Loved this video!
Love seeing Mathew on here!
Love being in the aft of the ship and I was happy having the shade. Shade on some ships is hard to find. No longer can sit in the sun. Also, a nice place to play cards or games and have a bar close.
We can't wait to enjoy The AFT section of deck 10. There is not enough shade on most Carnival ships.
The ship was so good I thought Dear Future Husband was so cute! It's nice to get Matthews feedback on the club! This was a favorite ship for me! I like it better than the Panorama! Great video!
That. Boat is so generous and so beautiful it do even look like a boat it look like someone house like that ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤😊😊😊😊😊😊thank you. Carnival for sharing your ships with us we really do appreciate your kindness and support your crewmembers are really respective. They do a very good job of working for their passengers thank you thank you thank you
Excellent job Mathew and Jamie! 👌🏻👍🏻
I’ll be going on my first cruise ever this fall on the Carnival Breeze. Thanks so much for the review. 👍🏻👍🏻
So nice to hear Matthew's thoughts around the kids club. My life will revolve around kids club for a few years and its so nice to get reviews about them :D
I am unusual in that I prefer a shady spot. That sounds amazing!
Appreciate the fair review. Will be sailing her Jan 2025. Can't wait!!
Let’s face it cruising out of Long Beach, we get what Carnival gives us. We started cruising on the Holiday. Might try Princess next.
Hey Jaime and Matthew, great review on the Carnival Firenze! Wow, Mathew has really come into his own. I always take extra toothbrushes just incase something happens like you described. Also, I keep my toothbrush(s), in the plastic container they come in and away from the bathroom completely. The Cabin Steward comes in to clean and can easily knock over your toothbrush onto the bathroom floor and you would never know. Also, they spray the bathroom mirror and can easily spray your toothbrush. I keep as much as possible out of the way of the Cabin Steward's general cleaning area. Hope Sharon's Mom is doing much better. Keep up the great work!! 😎⛹️♀️🤸♂️🚴♂️
Thanks for Sharing, going to cruise soon.
You two have done a wonderful job on this series of videos!
Thanks so much, Bob!!!
Great job Matthew!
Nice video thank you :)!! Glad it was fun ! 🚢🥰
Thanks for the video great information. Like the idea of a DJ on the aft deck.
Great review as always and loved that you got your son involved. He did a great job! We'll be on the Firenze in December and looking forward to checking it out for ourselves. 😊
Love the viewpoints from two generations. That was way cool! 😎
Glad you liked it!
Going to be sailing on her in August. Thank you for the review guys
Stalling on August 13
Sailing Aug. 18
I agree about the bathroom. Definitely made for the Asian market.
The hole in the shower door is standard in all cabins
I have to disagree about the shade. I can’t be in the sun so I’m rarely outside on deck during the day. With the umbrellas and additional shade I could actually spend some time outside!
Yeah I don’t know about the lido layout. But the larger the Java Blue the better. The long lines at Carnival’s caffe places are kinda annoying. Make them huge! Lol gotta have my coffee in the morning ASAP. 😅
Great review guys. All the things you didn’t like are things I embrace! 😂 bc they seem like it fits my style better. One exception would be the placement of JavaBlue. To each their own! Can’t wait to sail Firenze in October 🎉
We were on the ship from August 4 to August 8. Everything was good. Food was excellent. Only thing that I had an issue with was the bathroom within the ship that was only one stall and 99% of the time they were occupied they should be multiple.
Gorgeous ship 🛳️!
great video! I agree Joey is a great cruise director!
Great video....thank you🚢
I like the idea that every ship doesn’t have the same exact restaurants
Well, you got a peek at Asian (mostly Chinese culture) since both Venezia and Firenze were specifically designed for the Asian market. FIRST - urban Chinese don't do outdoors and sun. Have you seen the air pollution in their cities. If I had to live there, I wouldn't go outside either. So while there isn't a ton of sunny spots on the ship around the pools, just go up one deck and there are plenty. SECOND - the Chinese LOVE to gamble so the ship has both a huge regular casino, as well as a smaller non-smoking casino. Really - the only thing I can't rationalize out is the sunken basketball/sports court. The Vista Class ships have the additional 2 restaurants on that deck (Ji Ji's and Cucina del Capitano) and the basketball court is above them. Also a little surprised you didn't try the Italian Restaurant, Il Viaggio. Every Carnival ship that I'm aware of has a steakhouse, but only 2 (Venezia and Firenze) have Il Viaggio. We are sailing Firenze in August and will be trying Il Viaggio on embarkation day.
Found out we also have a shared experience. We were also on that ill fated Carnival Pride Baltic Sea cruise last year. We too were dining when the rumble occurred but probably only midway in the dining room and not all the way aft like you. It was challenging to get home, but we had Fly2Fun with Carnival so we knew we would be taken care of. The flight from Hamburg to London was probably the worst of it. I'm 6'3" tall and it was like flying on Spirit or Frontier with a minuscule seat pitch. But we loved the cruise, the port visits, and the way Carnival took care of us when the unfortunate happened. The crew was just fantastic.
Thanks for the information for the youth. Going with a 14, 12, and 10 year old. It’s going to be a less fun location for them but a great one for me. I never liked how the kids spaces were soo isolated and away lol hahaha.
Well done boys
If you think the cabin bathroom on the Firenze was small, you should check out Jubilee! Tinier!
The Serenity deck has no shade plus no kids!! It actually could use more shaded areas.
how did you do at the craps table?
What a great summary! Well done summary of a few likes and dislikes on this ship, boys!
Is there a Matthew at Sea in the future? He did a great job.
It wad the kids clubs was the same as Costa according to rhe original costa deck plans.
For an Italian themed interior design, why are there a lot of Fleur-de-Lis emblems plastered all over the ship? #WhoDat
It’s the Florentine lily, the official emblem of the city of Florence.
That’s where I was mainly at while spending my cruise on the Horizon.. The Aft pool deck.. Nice touch with having a DJ back there on the Firenze.. 😎🤘
Ummm, note to self, pack a couple extra toothbrushes! 🤣
I loved Dear Future Husband!
It looks a lot like the vinenzia.almost identical.
Yes! They are sister ships built like the Carnival Vista class ships, but the Italian theme is such a nice touch.
I saw the Captain and said Hello, he just kept on walking like I wasn’t even there. Ps, the food made me sick.
too much shade? :D Save your skin! :D