I just sailed on a 7-night spring break cruise from Galveston, Texas onboard Carnival's newest and most innovative cruise ship, Carnival Jubilee. I’m a big fan of Carnival Cruise Line, so I was ecstatic to get onboard to experience the latest and greatest from the cruise line.
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Carnival Jubilee is one of the newest and most exciting cruise ships at sea. The brand-new mega-ship launched a few months ago in December 2023 as the latest vessel to join Carnival Cruise Line's fleet.
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Carnival is known for having the most fun ships at sea, and Carnival Jubilee is no exception. Measuring 182,800 gross tons, it's one of the largest cruise ships in the world.
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Carnival Jubilee is the third ship of the Excel Class from Carnival, which has been revolutionary for the cruise line. She is the sister-ship to Mardi Gras and Carnival Celebration, both of which debuted within the last few years.
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Towering 20 decks above sea level, Carnival Jubilee can hold up to 6,500 passengers at maximum capacity. During this spring break cruise, our ship was sailing at 90% capacity. Needless to say, it was lively onboard!
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Although we enjoyed so much of our onboard experience from the entertainment to the delicious food, one of our favorite parts of the cruise was our cove balcony cabin.
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For the 7-night itinerary, the cost for two people was $2,697.30, including prepaid gratuities. Considering this is a brand-new ship and we were sailing during spring break, this felt like a reasonable price.
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I typically book the cheapest interior cabin on a cruise, but the cost for the cheapest balcony was only an extra $300 per person. My sister and I both agreed that it was worth the cost to have our own balcony, along with a more spacious cabin.
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For this spring break cruise, we booked cabin 5381 on Deck 5. This is classified as a Cove Balcony Stateroom on Carnival Jubilee. While I’ve stayed in multiple kinds of balconies while cruising, I had never sailed in a cove-style balcony.
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These balconies are located directly under the lifeboats without an obstructed view. Additionally, cove balconies feature more privacy with an enclosure around the balcony. They're located closer to the water, too.
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Our cove balcony stateroom was 205 square feet, which is 50 square feet bigger than a standard interior cabin. Entering the cabin for the first time, we immediately appreciated having more space.
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However, we were surprised to see that our stateroom was located adjacent to the gangway. We could see everyone boarding the ship!
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Located on Deck 5, our balcony cabin was considered midship. Because of this, we hardly felt any motion during our cruise. In fact, most evenings it was hard to tell the ship was actually moving!
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That being said, Carnival Jubilee’s massive size meant that we were not conveniently located to the upper decks. Most of the restaurants, along with the pool deck and onboard thrills, are located on Deck 16 and up.
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While I typically prefer to take the stairs when cruising, it was quite the hike taking the stairs from our cabin on Deck 5 to the top decks. Luckily, we were closely located to the restaurants and bars on Decks 6, 7, and 8.
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One of the most exciting perks of our cabin’s location was the ease of watching pier runners during our stop in Cozumel! Our cove balcony was located directly above the pier, so we had a direct view of the late guests running down the pier. You should never be late for a departing cruise ship!
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We also witnessed a few passengers who had a little too much fun in Cozumel on this spring break cruise and needed wheelchairs to return to the ship safely. As I said, it was a lively crowd onboard!
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The highlight of our cabin was, of course, the balcony! Our cove balcony measured around 44 square feet and included two chairs and a small table.
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I actually loved the cove enclosure around the balcony, as it made the space feel more private. I was worried it would feel obstructed, but that was not the case.
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We did not have any balconies above ours, only the lifeboats. Additionally, we never heard or saw our neighbors during the cruise while on the balcony.
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Having your own balcony during a cruise is a total game-changer. We loved watching the sunsets in the evenings from our cabin, especially considering how far we had to venture if we wanted to go to the top deck.
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As for decor, our cabin was bright, modern, and tastefully colorful. Since Carnival Jubilee is all about celebrating the ocean, the fish wall art was right on theme!
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The cabin had touches of blue to accent the white walls, and I found the stateroom to look trendy.
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For this cruise, we opted to have the beds configured as two separate twin beds. I prefer keeping the beds combined as a king bed, but my sister refused to consider this option. Alas, our beds were separated by about five inches.
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Normally, separating the beds in a smaller cabin, such as an interior stateroom, creates more space. Unfortunately, separating the beds in our cove balcony stateroom made the sleeping area feel more cramped.
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With the beds being located right next to the balcony, this separation meant it was difficult to access the bed closest to the balcony (i.e. my bed). I had to walk sideways to get into bed each evening, or squeeze between the beds.
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Our nightstands were quite minimal with two small, metal shelves. These are the same fixtures that we had in our interior cabin on Carnival Celebration and suite on Mardi Gras.
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As someone who often has a busy nightstand with all my sleeping necessities, I prefer to have an actual nightstand while cruising.
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Each bed also had its own small light to use, which was a nice feature. In addition, each light had its own USB port for charging devices. I appreciated having this, as I prefer to have my phone at my bedside.
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Since this was a spring break cruise, I packed my portable sound machine to use each night for sleeping. I was surprised to find that the hallways were very noisy, as most newer ships seem to drown out noise better than older ships.
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I would recommend packing earplugs or utilizing white noise if you’re sailing on Carnival Jubilee, especially during spring break. We could hear hallway ruckus in the late night and early morning. Regardless of the configuration and noisy hallways, I found the beds to be very comfortable!
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Adjacent to the bed was our cabin’s vanity and a full-size couch. One of the benefits of booking a balcony stateroom is having more space for additional seating. We used this couch frequently while inside our stateroom instead of sitting on the beds.
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Although our cabin could only accommodate two guests technically, the couch appeared to be a sofa couch. We could pull the handle under the cushion and see how this would transform the sofa into a bed.
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Upon arrival, we found two beach towels to use during our cruise on Carnival Jubilee. I love how Carnival provides towels in each stateroom on embarkation day, so you don’t need to check out towels on the busy pool deck.
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Across from the sofa was the stateroom’s vanity, along with shelving, three drawers, and a cooling fridge. We also received complimentary water because of our Carnival VIFP status.
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Above the counter was a large mirror with a ring light that illuminated the border of the mirror. This was perfect for getting ready in the mornings and provided excellent light for doing makeup.
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I was shocked by the size of the vanity counter that spanned across half of the stateroom. The vanity was so massive that we had more counter space than we needed! In fact, the entire vanity area had so much storage; I was very impressed.
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One of the perks of sailing on a brand-new cruise ship is enjoying modern amenities in your stateroom. Carnival Jubilee staterooms feature this extensive charging strip with multiple outlets and USB plugs for guests to use.
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If you’ve ever sailed on an older cruise ship, you know that outlet availability can be an issue. Some older ships might only have one or two outlets for guests to use in the stateroom.
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Luckily, cruise lines have started to incorporate these charging strips in new cabins to accommodate guests' need for connectivity.
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I always pack my USB extender when cruising, even on new ships. Between my laptop, wireless headphones, phone, tablet, and smartwatch, I have many devices that need charging. I prefer to keep my cords neatly packed away in an electronics organizer while cruising for this reason.
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When it comes to storage, I was also pleasantly surprised by the amount of drawers, shelving, and closet space that we could use. Our cove balcony stateroom had not one, but two full-size closets for storage!
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My sister and I each used one closet for the cruise. Since I had only packed my carry-on suitcase for this cruise, I was able to unpack most of my packing cubes into the drawers under the vanity.
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This only left me with a few dresses to hang up in the closet. Overall, the closet was pretty empty since I had only traveled with a carry-on.
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The two closets were actually configured differently. The closet that I used for the cruise had more space for hanging clothes, such as longer dresses. There were also large shelves to use as well, which is where I stored my suitcase and backpack during the cruise.
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My sister used the second closet, which is also where the cabin’s safe was located. We didn’t end up using the safe, but it’s nice to have the option for security purposes.
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Her closet also featured two basket drawers below the safe and other shelving for storage. Needless to say, there was no shortage of storage in our cabin!
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Since we were unsure about how much storage we would have in our cabin, we packed magnetic hooks to hang on the wall. These small hooks are great since cruise cabin walls are magnetic. However, we really didn't need them on this cruise because we had so much storage in our stateroom.
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Across from the closet near the entrance of the stateroom was the bathroom. This is another aspect that has been improved over the years with cruise ship stateroom design. Cruise ship cabins once featured extremely small bathrooms with especially small showers.
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Now, modern cruise cabins have been designed to have more functional and spacious bathrooms. This was apparent on Carnival Jubilee, as the bathroom was both stylish and well-designed. The best aspect of the bathroom was the large walk-in shower!
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Although showering on a cruise is hardly a highlight of your vacation, having a more comfortable space to shower each night is much appreciated. The walk-in shower was rather large with a glass door that maneuvered inward.
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Carnival Cruise Line provides guests with shampoo and body wash included in their cruise fare. I prefer to travel with my own shampoo and conditioner, although I am grateful that the cruise line provides some showering products.
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The shower had a small shelf to use, along with a bar at the bottom of the shower. I wished the shower had better water pressure, although this did not take away from my giddiness of the shower’s size.
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Apart from the shower, the bathroom was fairly standard for a newer cruise ship. There were shelves above the vanity, along with storage below the sink as well.
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I always cruise with my hanging cosmetic organizer, which fits perfectly on the back of the bathroom door. Because of this, we didn’t need much of the storage space in the bathroom.
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One thing that I was concerned about was the cabin’s temperature control. Many people online complained about Carnival Jubilee’s cabins struggling with air conditioning. Because of this, people recommended bringing fans to use in the evening.
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Instead, we kept our cabin at the lowest temperature possible throughout the entire cruise. One of the newer features of our cabin was the card slot near the entrance of the cabin. This is where you must insert your cruise card to generate power in your cabin.
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If you were not in the cabin, your stateroom would not have any power running without a key inserted. This meant that air conditioning would be suspended until you returned to your cabin and inserted the card again.
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Although this is certainly an effort to conserve energy onboard, it likely contributes to temperature control problems in the staterooms.
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I would guess that our stateroom temperature was around 72 degrees for the entire cruise week with the air conditioning running the entire time.
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We prefer to have a cooler cabin when cruising, but the room never felt hot or stuffy. I would recommend guests bring a small fan if they prefer to sleep in cooler temperatures.
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Overall, we had a fantastic cruise in our cove balcony stateroom. I loved having our own personal veranda throughout the cruise; this was my favorite aspect of the cabin.
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I found the cove balcony itself to feel very private and secluded; in fact, I liked it more than a regular balcony. Because this unique balcony was so close to the ocean, it was unlike anything I had experienced before!
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I wouldn’t hesitate to book another cove balcony with Carnival Cruise Line, or any other cruise line for that matter. Although I love to cruise on a budget, this splurge was worth it.
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Allie Hubers
Allie Hubers has been cruising since she was a tiny toddler. What started as a yearly vacation with family quickly turned into a passion for travel, cruising and adventure. Allie's been on over 45 cruises all over the world. She even studied abroad on Semester at Sea, sailing the world on a ship while taking courses for college and visiting 4 continents.
