I am 56 and my wife is 55. We have been on about 20 cruises. We were a group of five couples-all around the same age. All of the couples had cruised before. Another couple and us had cruised the most. They were the only other ones that had sailed Carnival before. We chose Carnival this time because of their recommendation. They had been on Carnival a year ago and liked it very much. Was the cruise bad-no. It was mediocre.We had a good time because of the group that we were with, but would have had a better time on another ship. We tend to favor Princess. We will be going back to Princess next time. The embarkation procedure was smooth, and we were on the ship very quickly. We had a outside room on the Main deck (deck 2). The room was larger then most I have had. Would have rather picked an inside room on an upper deck, but that was our decision. The highest deck for an outside cabin is deck 2. Above deck 2 are balcony rooms. We first went to the buffet on the lido deck for lunch. With the constant problems of people getting sick from unsanitary conditions, I am surprised that Carnival have not changed to having servers. I saw on many occasions people touching food with their hands rather then a utensil. I saw very few places where sanitizer was on the ship. The only place I remember was outside of the dining room. One last point on the Lido buffet- at lunch we had to bus our own dishes. The bus personnel we few and far between. The plus for us was our dinners. Our waitress, Anita was excellent as well as her assistant. She made the dining experience wonderful. The Maitre 'd Ken was also wonderful. This was the first time a Maitre 'd spent as much time trying to make us feel welcome. He also had a great Frank Sinatra voice and sang at every meal. This was in the Posh dining room. The negative about the Posh dining room was it was over the engines and there was severe vibration at every meal while the ship was moving. We also ate in the Posh dining room for breakfast, and most of the waiters we had left a lot to be desired. They were slow, indifferent, and at some times had an attitude. The shows were at best-fair. They were much more amateurish then other ships we had been on. The one positive was the cruise director, John. He was very funny. This is the first cruise we have ever been on that there was no interaction with our cabin steward. He knocked on the door the first day and introduced himself. That is the last time I saw him except some fleeting moments. We are used to being greeted by the steward and asked if we need anything. Our rooms were always cleaned at the right time, but the "extras" were missing. We used the gym every day, and the gym as well as steam and sauna were very nice.

The final thing is the people that decorated this ship must have been blind. It was by far the ugliest decorating we ever saw.

I am not going to review the ports, since they are common ports that have been reviewed over and over. Read more