Having taken a seven night cruise on Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines less than a year prior to this cruise, my wife and I were very excited to cruise again and experience another ship and cruise line. However, we were, overall, disappointed by the food, cleanliness, service, and atmosphere of this cruise. While our trip was not a bad trip, if what we experienced was typical of Carnival Cruise Lines, I would not recommend them to anyone. Undoubtedly, this trip could have been much improved by a lot more attention to detail and less worry by Carnival about the bottom line. My wife and I spent much of the trip discussing how much better our experience on RCCL had been. We chose a Carnival three night cruise from Long Beach, CA as it fit with both of our work schedules. We took the time to fly to LAX and spend the day before the cruise at Universal Studios Hollywood. We drove from Universal Studios and spent the night at the Long Beach Hilton. The morning of the cruise was spent at the Aquarium of the Pacific, a very wonderful exhibit of Pacific fish and wildlife and one that was well worth the $20 entry fee. We finished at the aquarium at about noon and turned our rental car in at the Long Beach Airport, which is about a 20 minute drive from the Carnival Cruise Terminal. Getting from the airport to the cruise terminal was very easy as shuttle service is available at the rental car lot.
We booked this cruise in part, because of Carnival's advertisement of free upgrades within the same cabin class. We booked a category 6 ocean view room expecting an upgrade. However, this never materialized and Carnival never mentioned why. I wonder does Carnival consistently make a habit of offering more than it intends to deliver?
Embarkation went smoothly, but I was a little surprised that the embarkation agent could not make any changes to dinner seating or bed arrangements. In fact, the whole Carnival web site is lacking in information after you book your cruise. I never received an acknowledgement from Carnival concerning my booking. However, RCCL sent us a greeting and tips immediately after notification from the internet travel agent on how to make our experience more enjoyable.