This was our family's 6th cruise (8th for just my husband and me). This was our 2nd cruise with Carnival. We flew into LaGuardia and arrived by cab to the port at 1:00 pm with no problems. We checked right onto the ship with no problems but we did find the embarkation staff to be rather abrupt and not exactly welcoming.
We went straight to the Mediterranean Restaurant and found a nice buffet with adequate food but not what we had been expecting from our past experiences. The decor was very nice but the seat upholstery was very stained and just looked plain dirty. The cheese cake in the dessert area of the Mediterranean was very good, but all other desserts, (and there weren't that many to pick from), were not good at all. They were small portions and similar to what you see at a Chinese buffet. The deli had very good sandwiches. My sons seemed to like the Chinese station quite well. The ice cream/yogurt machine was good.
Our cabin steward, Melvin, was excellent. He made every effort to accommodate our requests and we always had a clean room, clean towels and a friendly hello from Melvin. Our room was just big enough for our family of four. I had to get creative on how to store our clothes since there was next to zero shelf space for storage. On the last morning before debarkation, out toilet stopped flushing and a strong smell of sewage was present on our floor.