I want to start by saying that I love carnival,but I didn't love this cruise. But we still had fun, still had some amazing cruise moments, and I'm sure we will sail carnival again. Just not for a while, and never at spring break. The first day there were many drunk people by the time of the life boat drill. We saw college kids and a few older people stumbling around at dinner. I do not blame carnival for this but I do think there were too many passengers on board, and not enough staff. This was most noticeable in the dining room for Anytime dining. The wait was generally 45 minutes to an hour, and dinner took 2 hours each night. The staff was stressed and rushed, and we were in different sections each night. One poor waiter was actually wiping the sweat from his brow while he was talking to us. Twice we asked very nicely when we sat down if there was any way we could go quickly as we had a baby with us with limited "happy time" and both times the waiter acted as though he didn't hear us or didn't understand us. We figured out that everyone was on the same schedule and there was no "speeding things up" so we avoided the dining room a few times after particularly bad nights. Our adult son came with us, mostly for the food in the dining room which he loved when he was on the pride a few years ago and was very disappointed. I'm not sure if we will get him back on a carnival cruise. We frequently apologized to our guests saying "it's not usually like this." We have had Anytime dining on the Breeze and it was perfect so I know it can be done, but will think twice about getting it again. I promise I am really not picky but really didn't like the new menu. I never paid that much attention to the food before but always found things I really liked and not so this time. Seems like there is less pasta and chicken, and I don't eat pork or red meat so my choices seemed very limited. Also didn't like the desserts. The popcorn thing was not good. The best thing we ate all cruise was the room service chocolate cake and anything from the cantina. The meat eaters loved guys burgers.

On a positive note the room stewards were amazing as usual.We had Youdha and Antonio who were fantastic and stealthily swooped into our rooms whenever we were gone. Dr. E. Was a lively cruise director. We were not fans of the singing but I will say that we laughed about it a lot and the good morning song will be a family joke for years to come, which in retrospect was probably his goal. Mission accomplished, Dr. E! The ship is showing it's age, especially by the aft pool where little tiles are falling off (we were picking them up off the floor) and is missing some metal moldings. The music at the main pool was way too loud and at times we couldn't walk through there. It is the only pool that allows children, so they need to turn it down.

Overall not our favorite cruise but still a cruise, and I believe that you must be a miserable person not to enjoy a cruise. The staff worked very hard and I don't blame them for anything.