Carnival Corporation’s Ocean Village bills itself as ‘The cruise for people who don’t do cruising’.
The line’s two ships are certainly informal. I’m not sure whether the passengers on board have given much thought to whether they ‘do’ cruising or not, but on my recent week in the Mediterranean, they were clearly having a great time.
Ocean Village Two is the newer, bigger ship of the pair, designed with the mass-market British customer in mind: many, many bars, a relatively small casino and a casual lifestyle, relatively free of announcements and no hard sell, as we Brits are notoriously tight fisted with our money!
The whole ship is bright, contemporary, fun and tasteful, and very easy to navigate. The central theme is the fantastic Freedom 2 Move performers, an amazingly talented group of acrobats, singers and dancers who work incredibly hard and pop up around the ship throughout the week with breathtaking shows and stunts.
In the central Village Square atrium, location of the coffee bar, shore excursion desk and reception, there are regular bursts of acrobatic feats involving dangling gracefully from ropes and hoop trapezes.
The highlight of the week is without doubt the Planet Show, which takes place on a giant rig permanently situated on deck. The sound and light, billowing dry ice and pure talent of the performers on bungee ropes and trapezes in the moonlight are magical. The troupe also puts on fantastic, contemporary song and dance routines in The Marquee, the ship’s theatre.
In addition to this, there were tribute bands (Abba and Simply Red when I was on board), and late night stand-up, which is excellent - raunchy and very funny.
The ship has four restaurants. The Plantation and The Waterfront are buffet service and have different themes, favourites being the Chinese or curry nights in the Plantation. La Luna is an indoor/outdoor establishment with a bright, airy feel and a varied menu including anything from steaks and other grills to giant prawns and chicken satay sticks. There’s a £4.75 supplement for this (and some dishes are extra, too) but it’s worth every penny.
The ship’s culinary highlight is The Bistro, run by celebrity chef James Martin, with much more formal service and an eclectic menu of modern British cuisine. It’s excellent value at £15 a head and very romantic but as a single parent travelling with kids, I found the dining on deck at La Luna more relaxing.
There’s also a burger bar, a coffee shop selling Costa coffee, and Sunweaver, an ice cream shop which charges a supplement for sundaes and cones with various toppings.
One of the highlights of this new ship is supposed to be the gym and the Karma Spa, one of the biggest at sea. The spa is without doubt a fantastic space, and the day pass to use the saunas, steam and womb-like meditation room is very reasonable.
The gym, though, was a disappointment, mainly because of the number of unsupervised children running wild over the exercise machines. What’s wrong with the children’s clubs? My daughter loved The Attic, the lounge and club for nine year olds upwards, and Base Camp, for younger kids, was also very good, although my eight year old desperately wanted to be nine as The Attic was cooler and showed The Simpsons on a giant screen.
Onboard currency on this ship is Sterling, which is a shock if you’re used to cruising in dollars, due to the strength of the pound. Spa treatments were similar in price to those on American ships. Shore excursions were much cheaper and great value; five excursions each for three of us came to well under £400. Drinks on promotion were reasonable – around £4 for a cocktail – but I drank wine by the glass, which was expensive. Overall, though, this is a great informal cruise experience, refreshingly laid-back and at £569 for a week in the Mediterranean, most affordable.
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