So, after almost 20 cruises with RCCL, we decided for schedules sake, to try Carnival Cruise Lines. Wow...what a mistake. Shortly after we arrived, Tori's billfold was stolen and when we discovered it was gone, we immediately went to Guest Services to contact security. Our thought, with camera's all over the ship, it would make sense that a camera somewhere would pick up something somewhere. We were told however, that there probably wasn't anything security could do, but they would allow us a "Free call home to have someone cancel the cards" and would notate our account and to check back with them to see if it was turned in. Not happy with this response, I then found a "white uniformed" officer and told him our plight, asking to speak to ship security. His response was that we had to go to Guest Services. VERY disappointing. As we were still going through the city of Tampa, we had signal on the cell phone and was able to cancel the debit and credit card. But the response from Carnival personnel aggravated a difficult situation.

While we didn't want this to spoil the entire vacation, we decided forget about it as much as we could and move on. But, there is a huge difference in the service we received onboard. For example, one night as we were leaving Elations Dining Room, two crew members crossed in front of us, making us stop in our tracks. While both understood completely what they did, they didn't say excuse me, apologize or anything, they just kept going. This would NEVER happen on RCCL. Another example...at the omelet buffet, I was next in line and there was a lady behind me from another country. The omelet maker (who happens to be from the same country) saw her and said hello, which is fine, but when it got time to make the next omelet, he totally ignored me and asked her what she wanted. I then said something to him and he looked at me with a scowl and said "what would you want". The lady behind me was very embarrassed and turned to me and apologized, saying she didn't realize I hadn't ordered mine yet. But, I was totally ignored by the omelet guy in favor of someone from his own country. Once again, this would never happen on RCCL. This is only two examples of the challenges we faced on board.

On the bright side, there was a bartender in the bar outside of Queen Mary Lounge that was phenomenal. Here name is Evelyn and she made sure she remembered our name and what we usually ordered. When we came into the bar, she would look up say hello to us by name and then ask if we wanted the drink we normally ordered. She is only on Paradise until 3/22, has two months off and then gets on Breeze for a six month cotract out of Miami. Look her up if you are on these ships. Read more