I represent a party of (4) adults in our late 30's. My wife and I had cruised with Holland America before so this was our second cruise. The Holland America cruise was very enjoyable so we thought we would give cruising another try. The other couple in our party were first time cruisers. The great itinerary and the price were the main reasons we selected this particular cruise.
I have to be honest and say up front that I was skeptical about Carnival because they have been referred to as being a "Walmart" cruise line however, I was very pleased with the cleanliness of the ship, the quality of food and overall service we received. There was a definite difference in the type of passengers on board. The majority of passengers were middle age, over weight, loud and drunk. They largely preferred country music and left me with a hill billy impression. Based on our overall experience however, I would cruise with Carnival again. We do not have children and prefer to stay away from them because we find most kids to be irritating and rude. This was not an issue on this cruise as there were only 400 kids on our ship. I think a spring break cruise would be a totally different story. We booked an inside stateroom on the Riviera deck (lowest deck) about mid ship. I was initially concerned about noise etc. but it really was a great room. The entertainment on the Holland America cruise was suited for older folks so I thought the shows on the Carnival were better. We really enjoyed listing to Cassandra Swales sing. She really has an incredible voice....One other nice thing was that all the door handles on the ship had tissue boxes mounted near by so you could prevent germ spread to your hands. Great idea!
Embarkation throughout he terminal was efficient but boarding the Glory seemed strange because everyone entered the lobby deck which was congested. people lacked direction and seemed to get in each others way.