We have been on Carnival twice before and both times I said never again. The first time because I felt like it was very low budget, the second time we went because friends begged us, and again, we didn't care for it, as the food was terrible and they pushed the drinks and video nonstop. I never thought I would come back to Carnival. We had to book this trip late and took what we could get, I was worried, but I was very surprised. Carnival has really gotten its act together.

We (me, my husband and two daughters 6 and 8) arrived on March 9, 2008 at the Long Beach terminal at 12:00 noon and were on board by 1:30. I felt very lucky as the weather was very warm in Long Beach that day. The lines were a little long and it was a little crazy getting the luggage checked in, but overall not too bad of a process. It was nice that our cabin was ready when we got on the boat as we dropped our things and went to check the place out. Very nice cabin, smaller than we have had on RCCL and Disney, but bigger than we have had on Princess. There was plenty of storage, the beds were very comfortable, the balcony was nice. The cabin was very well laid out. I was glad that I brought an extension cord as there were not enough plugs in the room, little metal magnet clips for the shower curtain worked great to keep the water in and the curtain off of me, and my little ice chest to keep drinks cold.

We found our way to Mermaids (the buffet) and had some lunch. I thought the food on the buffet was pretty good. I really liked the salad bar and selection of fruit. I did not think it was set up very well. It was a little too chopped up, sometimes requiring too many waits in lines for an item. Many times, we simply ate what there was the smallest line for. But all in all, it was fine with me, I was always able to get something to eat. The pizza and ice cream lines were never too bad, which was good because my kids ate a lot of that. The pizza was not quite as good as I remember carnival having, but the ice cream was great and the french fries were awesome. Breakfast was pretty much the same food every day, with a couple of changes, but everything we tried was very good. There was a lot more selection at lunch time, as well as burgers, hot dogs and fries out by the pool. Coffee was not too good. But they had coffee you could buy that was really good. Read more