Our first cruise was in 2000 with Carnival Sensation. We were not impressed with the cruise line after our first sailing. We switched to Royal Caribbean and have traveled exclusively through them since then. At the recommendation of a friend, who said Carnival had made improvements fleet wide over the years and they were most likely much better that our first cruise through them we booked back-to-back cruises, a 4-night and a 3-night.
We found the service to be much worse than the first cruise we took. The food was horrid and lukewarm at best when served. The buffet meals were the same every day with absolutely no variety or flavor. The number of crew members who were pleasant and helpful during the voyage can be counted on one hand. We found most staff members to be rude, condescending, unprofessional and less than helpful.
We found the ship's overall cleanliness to be below what one would expect from a Motel 6. Quite often crew members would just stand around and talk to each other rather than assist passengers.