This was the second cruise for me and my husband, both in our early 30s. We previously sailed on the Carnival Valor and really loved it. Embarkation, which in our previous cruise had been a total disaster, was EASY and QUICK. We were eating lunch on the Lido deck with an hour of arriving at the port. Were on the 6th floor in a balcony room - FANTASTIC! We had been on the 8th floor in the past but found this to be a great location for everything and had no noise issues at all. Our luggage arrived very soon after the muster drill. No problems at all. Our room steward John (from St. Vincent) was very nice. Opened the fridge for us and kept our ice bucket stocked. Really good job on the towel animals, too.

DINING We had a late seating in the Platinum dining room. The first night of the cruise we ate there, but only one more night afterwards. Seems like they tried to put too many tables in the space and as a result was very crowded and hard for the servers to navigate around. First night I had shrimp cocktail (good), lamb chops (excellent) and the absolutely fabulous Chocolate Melting Cake. Food was very good. Our wait staff was very nice, but no one ever asked what we wanted to drink - weird. Second night was the Captain's Dinner and really wasn't very impressive - I was kind of let down. The lobster was overcooked in many cases. I should also mention we were at a table for eight (we had family with us). Prime rib was also overcooked and a disappointment. We always seemed to be the last table served. many times meals would come out for a few of our party but others would have to wait several minutes more to receive theirs. So needless to say we had the rest of our meals in the Red Sail restaurant. Much better! The food was always good. Burgers, hot dogs, pizza and the deli were consistently good as well. The only problem was finding a clean table at times. No biggie!

Room Service was better than on the Valor. Better menu choices and faster service. We loved it! Read more