This was my 12th Carnival cruise. We started this cruise with high expectations. However, I would rate this cruise as "fair" only. The renovations were nice and we enjoyed many of the public areas. The cabins were exceptionally small and our feet were in the shower while sitting on the toilet. Our balcony room seemed too hot most of the time and requested A/C service. The hallway had one water leak from the ceiling that maintenance had repaired and cleaned up withing a couple of hours. Staff was not overly friendly. We did anytime dining, and felt that most of the wait staff were inattentive and would frequently get our orders wrong, make us wait too long, or forget to give one of us a setting to eat (glass, napkin, silverware). The flow was also horrible and the dining room felt understaffed. We would have to check-in on deck 5 and wait for our pager to go off (10-20 minutes). Then, we would go to the dining room 2 floors down and have to wait in line again for another 10-20 minutes. There were always plenty of empty tables, but not enough staff to walk everyone to their tables. The tables felt crammed together with only 6 inches between our table and the next. The waiter had a hard time fitting between tables to deliver food. Our three children seemed to really enjoy the camp carnival, club O2, and circle C activities. Most of the staff was friendly, but we did feel that a couple of the ladies were borderline rude and did not make us feel welcome. The Punchliner comedy club was a disappointment. It was not big enough and we would have to get there almost an hour early to stand in a hot hallway and wait...not what I want to do on vacation. The Punchliner "bouncers" who allow people in were quite frankly rude. Food quality and entertainment was typical for all Carnival ships. Drinks were good.

I don't mean to sound overly-negative. Our family of 5 had a very nice vacation. We will cruise with Carnival again. I would just personally choose another ship. I found the older ships (like Sensation, for example), to be a lot friendlier and generally a "nicer" environment.