Our embarkation was seemingly painless, terminal was outdated, but from the time we arrived and were processed onto the ship, it took less than one hour. We have cruised Carnival before and it was the reason we decided to go back. This ship was decorated in Las Vegas Style colors, not very appealing to the naked eye--a lot of gold and wild colors. We found the ship to be in poor shape, the stairs were weathered, the carpeting was worn and dirt spots everywhere. The cabin had cigarette burns on the vanity, drapes, blankets and bed spreads. The other Carnival ship we sailed two years ago was spotless and clean and they were always cleaning it.
This was not true on this ship. They seldom cleaned anything and the crew would walk by debris on the decks, like they were blind. We never saw anyone polishing anything. We originally thought that this ship was an older ship, only to find out it was several years newer than the previous ship we sailed on. The first day we registered our 9 year old in Camp Carnival and were told she could sign herself in and out. She went the next morning to a warm-up ice breaking event and one more time for a mini-sleepover from 10-1am and never went back. The counselors were over-run by rude and obnoxious children and my child didn't want any part of that fiasco. Carnival needs more counselors for the amount of children they supervise and some strict rules to make the children abide by. Luckily Carnival paired us up with another couple at our dinner table that had an 8 yr old daughter and the two of them hit it off and hung out together throughout the entire cruise.
The water slide was broke and had been on the cruise prior to ours. Apparently we were told that they were waiting for a part to fix it and picked up the part in San Diego, but the engineer said he could not possibly fix it in time for the entire cruise--this was upsetting to many who had kids--here this water slide sits and no one can use it--but as I read in the review prior to mine, it didn't really matter as the slide goes no where--just abruptly ends on the deck below-very strange.