This was the shortest cruise out of the four that we sailed with Carnival. We had done Elation for a week-long sailing in the Caribbean, an 8-day pre-augural cruise out of Genoa to Dover on the Splendor, and a 12-day Baltic cruise on the Splendor. Our experience were always positive and we enjoyed our cruises each time so we were excited to be back on a Carniavl ship again. For some reasons this cruise did not meet our expectation in several areas.

We live in the L.A. area, but decided to spend the night before at the Hotel Maya near the port which provided free parking for the duration of the cruise (with the Carnival code). The hotel shuttle dropped us off at the terminal at around 10:30 per our request. The check-in counters were pretty empty, no lines, no hassle. Then, it was the long wait to get on board. At 12pm passengers were still disembarking and the lines waiting to board got longer and longer. Having the "zone 1" pass, we finally boarded at around 1pm. Our cabin was ready, so we dropped off our carry-ons and went up to the buffet for lunch. Food was OK, the line for the Mongolian Wok and the grill were both very long. I must say that the burgers were very good and the roastisserie chicken was excellent. We had most of our breakfast and lunches at the buffet and the food seemed to be decent. It was just the lines that can be irratating. We loved the goat cheese and mushroom pizza and willingly waited 10 minutes for a freshly baked one.

We had an oceanview cabin on the upper deck in the back of port side. Room was fine for the three of us with a pullman on one side. I had to duck when I needed to go to my side of the bed when the pullman was down. Our cabin steward cleaned the cabin nicely and brought us bathrobes and bucket of ice when requested on the first day. Towel animals were done every evening. The safe didn't work and not sure what the problem was but we figured no big deal for just a few days. Read more