I was a little apprehensive about this Carnival cruise due to : 1) previous reviews, 2) Baltimore news, 3) Carnival itself, & 4) parking our cars for 8 days.
Well, I will say "no worries". This cruise was pretty darn nice. I was impressed with/by everything that had me nervous at the beginning. (and the ships "art" was not offensive -- it was fine)
We drove in from Kentucky and parked at the port ($15 per cruise day). Only about a 7 hour total drive -- not bad at all. We arrived 1 day early and stayed in Frederick for the night. It was less than 1 hour to get to the port from our hotel (Hampton Inn Frederick -- worth it! It was about $200 less per night, per room than Inner Harbor Baltimore hotels with "no minimum stay").
Nice room. Quiet with no rooms across the hallway. It was a convenient choice, I think, because I liked the location - very close to the stairs, 3 floors up directly into the buffet, 3 floors down directly into the dinning room.