Sorry this is so long but I want this to be as helpful as possible. I have broken it into sections so hopefully its not too bad :)
Background Information:
I went on this cruise with my 18 year old younger brother, our parents in their mid 40s and our grandmother who is in her 60s. We have been on one carnival cruise a long time ago, and have cruised several other times on other lines including royal Caribbean, Norwegian, princess, disney, the big red boat (for those who remember it.) We got a good deal through an online travel agency for this particular cruise, which was our number one reason for choosing it. We had heard in recent years that carnival was the lowest class cruise line, but for the price we decided to take our chances.