I will try to be brief. This is my 3rd cruise on Carnival and if I hadn't already book one in the fall it might have been my last. My sister and niece joined my son and I for my sister's 50th birthday present trip.

The port of Tampa is wonderful! We have sailed out of many and have never enjoyed a port in the USA like Tampa. Arriving we parked valet which is absolutely perfect!! Checked in and was on the ship within 20-25 minutes. We are VIP travelers and it sure is nice when the lines are long. The food was pretty good in the diningroom and also the buffet. The pizza was a hit with the teens. Four of us stayed in one room and it was cramped. Two singles, one berth and one trundle which really had no room. We were only in the room to sleep so we made the best of things. I had told my sister and niece about the things that would take place like the animal towels, candy on the pillow etc. and we only saw that happen 2 nights out of 4. We had to ask for towels almost everyday, you would think that if 4 people were staying in one room they would provide towels and wash cloths for 4. That isn't what happened. My sister smokes and we couldn't get an ash tray even after asking 2 days for one. We needed to ask for ice. I was surprised we had no refrigerator. It was late when we went to bed the first night only to find my bed had no sheets. It took over 30 minutes to find someone ( once I called) to get sheets after midnight. Our safe was locked when we arrived in the room and that took an hour for someone to come. Our luggage never arrived until 8 P.M. the first day of sailing so needless to say we all went to dinner in our cloths we arrived in. Our diningroom service was terrible! Our server even said she was a terrible waitress and she wasn't lying. I caught her removing our unused silverware after we had eaten and returning them to the clean drawer at the station--- how unsanitary is that? I asked her about it and got a blank stare!!! We were promised a dining window seat because of being VIP with Carnival which we didn't get and couldn't get because the ship was full. Needless to say it seems the more we have traveled with Carnival the worse it has gotten.

My niece got sick and we needed to take her to the infirmary, of course we were billed which was expected and thank goodness I purchase the travel insurance but now it will only kick in once the regular insurance has paid. I need a physicians statement which I don't have ( the infirmary was made aware that I bought the insurance and you would of thought they might of offered this to us) all I received was a sales receipt showing I paid the bill on my charge account. Dealing with this travel insurance is sure not what I expected and we have always purchased it but never needed it. Read more