This was my first cruise. My DH and I loved it! We flew with Lufthansa and flew in the day before embarkation. There was a 4 hour air strike in Italy that caused a little delay, but we were able to get there the same day, so no complaints there. Lufthansa is a very nice airline and we were happy to fly with them. Upon arrival, it took a while to get our bags at FCO, but they were all there. We left and took the train to get to our hotel, Villa San Pio which is a wonderful hotel just south of the Forum/Colosseum area. We saw a good bit of Rome (Colosseum, Forum, Parthenon, Pza. Dei Fiori and Pza. Novana) before the cruise on the day of embarkation. We then took another train out to Civitavecchia and embarked around 4pm. There was no wait and we basically stepped right off the shuttle and onto the ship. Once aboard, we noticed the decor is not to our liking, but, since we're going to be there for 2 weeks we didn't focus on that. The rooms are decorated in 'Carnival Orange' as I understand many of their ships are. It wasn't bad and a nice break from the bright colors elsewhere. The room was a good size and had a fair amount of storage. We met our stateroom steward shortly after arrival and she was a very sweet woman and she took very good care of us while we were there. We needed to charge our cell phones and laptop and there is only one plug in the cabin and one in the bathroom, however the one in the bathroom only works when the light is on in the bathroom. Wish there was another plug or two but we made it work. When packing we read that an over the door organizer comes in very handy, so we set that up and unpacked quickly to rest and explore the ship.

Throughout the entire cruise, the only people who we had any complaints about concerning service were the gentlemen in the Victorianna Lounge. They rarely smiled and would almost avoid eye contact so they didn't have to get drinks, but they got better over the length of the cruise and started asking if you wanted anything toward the end. Everyone else we ran into that was employed by Carnival was fantastic! We learned that the staff was from 63 different countries and spoke many different languages to be able to assist anyone who may not speak perfect English. Our dining room staff was, well there are no words to explain how wonderful they were. It's really nice to have the same server for 2 weeks as they learn how you like your food and which wine you're more likely to enjoy and what coffee you like with which dessert. Many times after the first couple days we didn't have to ask for things such as coffee or tell them which bread we liked, they just got it for us with a smile and asked us about our day.

The cruise director for our sailing was John Heald. He is a funny guy which made our cruise enjoyable as well. The only complaint I have about him is that my DH and I did all the ports on our own with the exception of one and he didn't always give correct information about what the conditions were like in the visiting country. He gave a worst case scenario just to sell you on an excursion. Perhaps that is how all CD's work, but I didn't appreciate that. We did like John's morning show though and the times he provided entertainment. Read more