Carnival Jubilee Cove Balcony 5284 with some Cruise Deets in the Description

Jubilee is now my favorite cruise ship! This was our 2nd time aboard, & we still did not get to experience all the ship has to offer. GALVESTON has traffic still going the opposite way (driver to curb rather than passenger to curb) for this pier. I imagine they are trying to improve the traffic flow, but it actually makes it worse IMO. We struggled to drop our bags then get to the Express Lot. Every street was at a standstill. I had to detour many streets away to get to the other street for that lot. EMBARKATION/DEBARKATION are much improved. Do not forget to book your debarkation in the APP ASAP to get the time you want. Wait too long & you could be forced to carry off your bags yourself. CABIN: This is a cove balcony toward the front of the ship on the port side. Any cruise cabin is great, IMO, but, if you want my honest review, avoid this cabin because of noise issues. It is directly above the Piano Bar, so you will hear music every night. There are two cabins directly across the hall, so there will be a lot of hallway noise (family w/ 5 kids across the hall + zero courtesy = OBTRUSIVE). When we boarded & were able to get into our cabin (1:30 PM), the balcony was locked and unable to use. It was available several hours later. We discovered on debarkation that this is their new procedure. They locked the balcony around 4AM to prepare for arrival in Galveston. Rumor has it that careless smokers are creating a safety issue by smoking on their balconies, so those Cove balconies are locked down during refueling. (Oh, and it is obvious there was a smoker in our cabin since there is an obvious cig stain in the sink!) Our cabin steward, Indro, was amazing. We discovered the stewards are responsible for 35 cabins each (they work so hard). We alerted him to a plug not working & although maintenance took a look, they did not repair it. It's no big deal, though, because the desk area has three 120 plugs and 4 USB. The bottom drawer was also broken but was repaired by day 3. Something worth mentioning is that when the water is a bit rough, there was a constant knocking in the wall between the balcony door and window which could disrupt your sleeping. It actually sounds like there are loose cables or wires in that wall banging around, but staff said it was just noises at the joints on rougher waters. We were told it affected the whole ship & were offered ear plugs for the disruption. We experienced the disruption on nights 3-5. I was still able to sleep with ear plugs. FOOD: With so many food options, we still have not experienced all of them. We loved Big Chicken, ChiBang, Cucino del Capitano, Windjammer, Bonsai Sushi, JavaBlue Cafe and Emeril's Bistro. Rudi's Seagrill was just okay, & the Pacific dining room was another disappointment. It doesn't feel good to be ignored after you're seated, so we just walked out (after alerting the main desk we had been waiting, & were still just left waiting) and found another option for breakfast. We had a similar experience on the inaugural cruise, so Carnival has some work to do to get their main dining functioning properly. BAR SERVICE was amazing. The casino had plenty of servers this time around & drinks arrived quickly. The other bars and restaurants also provided great bar service! CASINO: We had a great experience in the casino. There were LOTS of jackpot winners on this cruise! I loved that they had coffee & pastries set up on the nonsmoking side on sea days. The nonsmoking casino is much larger than the smoking section, but now that the ship has been in service for 5 months, we found the section of the nonsmoking side that shares air with the smoking side on the opposite side to be too smoky. I do appreciate that Carnival is preventing smokers from lighting up, even in the bar area, if not actually playing. They could do a better job at keeping vapers out of the nonsmoking area, though. The casino was popular. It was difficult to get on a slot or find a table spot during prime evening hours. If you tip bar servers cash, they get to keep it. Otherwise, all tips are equally split with bartenders/servers across the ship. COFFEE was so easy to find. JavaBlue is conveniently just one floor up in addition to coffee in or near every casual dining option. I truly enjoyed the caramel cappuccino at JavaBlue and while the line was always long, it moved really fast. I also enjoyed their spiked milkshakes. YUM! ENTERTAINMENT: LOL! We still have not seen any shows. The casino keeps us entertained! ROATAN was awesome, but it was so hot and humid the day we visited that being in the water was essential. COSTA MAYA was a port we skipped due to rough waters preventing us from being able to dock, but we got an additional 1/2 day in Cozumel, instead, by docking from 1-7 then returning the next day. COZUMEL is a favorite for us, and we spent the 2nd day at Del Mar Latino Beach Club which is just a 20 minute walk from the time we stepped off the ship. *If you have any questions, just ask!