This was our 2nd Carnival cruise. My husband and I do at least one cruise a year and decided to try Carnival one more time. We drove to Tampa and did a third party shuttle service to the port. Even though the port was crowded, the lines did run smoothly and we were only in line for about 10 mins total. We got on the ship and booked our spa appointment with no problem. When we booked the cruise, the early dining was booked, so we were scheduled the late dining. My husband wanted to be on the wait list fot early dining. We went to put in the request, but were told the next day that they could not grant the request, as early dining had no openings. Not a big deal.

We were able to get to our room at 130 pm and it was nice and clean. We had a nice balcony room in the aft part of the ship. Bathroom was more spacious than we thought it would be, with plenty of shelf space. Closet had plenty of room!!! TV was weird....there are no flat screens. These are old school box style tvs. The first two days, the picture was a bit distorted, but eventually worked itself out. The safe was odd at first....it can be opened and locked by a credit card...don't worry, they don't charge you for the use of the safe...it's just how it operates, instead of punching in a key code. Our steward, Mansandi Fnu, was OUTSTANDING!!!! He made sure all of our needs were met and greeted us everyday!!!!

The Serenity deck, which is the adult only deck, I was not impressed with. The hammocks, chairs, and loungers were constantly dirty and stained. The deck was always packed with people and the hot tub was like sitting in lukewarm bath water. If you want to use a hot tub or pool, I would suggest using the one on the Lido deck or the hot tub in the Gym. Gym was very nice! I would recommend taking the early morning stretch and abs classes. They do charge for yoga, pilates and spin classes. All of the other classes are free. Read more