We are in our mid 50s and this was our 9th cruise. Our first two were with Carnival; we have since cruised with Royal Caribbean (once) and Holland America (five times). We chose Carnival this time because of the timeframe and the embarkation port (Tampa). We arrived at the Tampa airport on departure day on a flight from a major Midwest city. Our flight arrived at 9:40 a.m. We had purchased pre and post transportation from Carnival. As we descended the escalator to baggage claims, we saw the Carnival rep. This lady was not pleasant at all and this experience was unlike any we have had with Carnival, Royal Caribbean or HAL. She was curt and dismissive. We followed her instructions, claimed our bags and then waited in the airport's transportation room. At about 10:45 a.m. the bus arrived and we got on it with many other Carnival guests for our ~ 20 minute ride to the terminal (it was a Sunday morning so traffic was light). At the terminal, there was, as expected, much activity with bags, porters, Carnival reps etc. (here the Carnival reps were welcoming and pleasant) As the bag collection site is off limits to passengers, we used the assistance of a porter to transport our bags to it. The porter was very forward, immediately telling my husband that a tip is expected (my husband was in the process of getting the $5 bill out of his pocket when the porter made this comment). Once inside the terminal, we found the boarding process very organized.

Our printed luggage tags identified us as "VIPS"- I guess because we had a Category 11 cabin. Although we did not "qualify" under any of the posted categories for VIP check-in, I thought I would see if we could. At first, there was some reluctance on a Carnival rep's part to accept us as VIPS; when I showed her an extra bag tag that had VIP she let us check in that way. We were escorted to the "VIP Lounge" which was a separate area and within 10 minutes we were checked in (we had completed our documentation online prior to arriving and had the "Fun Pass" printed out that listed our check-in as "complete"). Following this document and credit card verification, we were personally escorted to the next stations; however, as everything was so well marked and the "traffic flow" was well organized, I could see that all passengers were easily navigating the check in. We were on board by 12 Noon and directed to the Lido Deck to the Unicorn Cafe as we were told that our cabins would be ready after 1:30 p.m. From this first experience of the buffet and throughout the cruise, we felt that the food was just okay- nothing spectacular. Over the next 7 days, there was little variety for breakfast and lunch. We were accustomed to having fresh squeezed orange juice on HAL- on Carnival Legend, it was the bottled concentrated "stuff" that you see in Hampton Inn Breakfast Rooms for your "free" breakfasts.

Since I am on the topic of food, we dined every night in the main dining room at the late seating. We asked for a table of two and if that were not possible, for a table of six or eight- it is not that we don't enjoy meeting/dining with others; however, on our other Carnival cruises when we were assigned to tables of four it was not comfortable. The first time we were seated with lovely folks who spoke only German and we don't; the second time the booth with this particular couple was not a good idea for reasons that are not important. On this cruise, Carnival honored our request and we had a table for two. Here again, the food was okay, not great. The service was just okay, too. I think the servers and assistant servers have way too many tables to manage to be attentive. We did love the "chocolate melting cake" and had it for 5 of the 7 nights (the other two nights we had desserts that were disappointing- cheesecake and some type of chocolate cake).We were very happy with our cabin, having the suite gave us lots of room, we had more than enough closet/drawer space, the separate vanity area was great and the two sink bathroom was delightful. The balcony was somewhat disappointing, it was long and lacked depth; and, the furniture was plastic. As we do use our balcony a lot, we had hoped for something larger. And, speaking of the balcony, we returned from an excursion to find that our cabin was not locked- the dead bolt had been engaged while the door was opened so that on closing, it did not close completely. We learned that the maintenance staff had been in to clean our balcony windows and deck and that was good thing- but YIKES! Not locking our door???? We did have our valuables in the safe; but our laptop was out. Fortunately, nothing was missing. I did contact the Purser's Desk and received a verbal then a written apology. Read more