Carnival Cruise Lines review: Entertainment

For the last couple of years, I have been cruising on theme cruises and haven’t had the opportunity to cruise on my favorite cruise line, Carnival Cruise. Being economically friendly; Party Cruise; Guy’s Burger Joint and Self-Service Laundromats/Ironing Stations made Carnival Cruise my favorite cruise line.

I have a concern regarding the diversity of entertainment on a recent cruise. On Thursday, December 7, 2023, we (myself & Myron Lowery) returned from a 5 days cruise on Carnival Sunrise and, as expected, we had an good time during our cruise. We noticed, however, that the population of the cruise was more than 50% African Americans while the cruise entertainment for African American was 5%, by my estimation. Somehow, Carnival missed the mark in providing cultural entertainment. We weren’t planning to spend almost $2,000 (cruise; port fees; taxes & insurance) that left us no other option to entertain ourselves by watching movies in our cabin.

The Black Traveler report shares that Black U.S. leisure travelers spent $109.4 billion, yes, $109.4 billion in 2019 - the most recent year reflecting normal travel spend prior to COVID-19.

So, with Carnival providing 5% cultural entertainment for an onboard population of 50%, Is Carnival saying you see our money and don’t see us to provide cultural entertainment during our cruise?

I expect I will continue to cruise on Carnival, but I think it would be beneficial to take my comments seriously.

Eunice R. Thomas, MS