This was my first cruise, which started on the 17th of Feb. 2008, and it was great and has truly turned me onto cruises. Before leaving on this cruise, I read over some reviews on this site of the same ship with the same itinerary. For the most part, I read the negative reviews, or those of an overall review of 3 ships or less. Among these reviews, the recurring complaints were on food, service, line-ups, and ship layout. I'd just like to address these first.
Food- Quality depends on where you go. True, the Lido deck left something to be desired, but was far from terrible. I'm sure a lot of people ignored the piles of fresh fruit, which was good and plentiful. The buffet was adequate, as my expectations were never too high. There were days when there was some really good dishes in the buffet though. The pizzeria was good, as was the grille which served burgers and hotdogs. I never tried the chinese food. I ate my supper at the Monet room, and it was fairly good, with some exceptional dishes. My best description of the Monet room food, is "the poor mans version of fine dining". This is in no way meant to be a insult, as the food was good, only that it was an attempt at fine dining that didn't quite make it. I never got a chance to eat the "The Point", though I heard only excellent things about it. Overall, the food was between good and great. The only reason I could see someone complain that much about the food is that their expectations were set WAY to high. Given that Carnival is cheaper than the other cruise lines, I expected average to great food. Those who complain were hoping for fine dining on a budget. I say to them, "If you're paying for Denny's, don't expect fine cuisine".
Line-ups- The line-ups were a little annoying, but nothing overly frustrating. The buffet tended to be the only place were this was a problem, which is a given since it was a buffet. Everywhere had short lines at the most. There were people waiting outside the Monet before their seating, but I just opted to come either right at 8(my seating time), or a little later. It didn't make a difference to me as I got my food pretty close to those who got there earlier. Disembarking was irritating at times, but that's to be expected, everyone wants to get off as soon as they can to enjoy the islands. So, it was really nothing to get angry about.