This was my seventh cruise--fifth with Carnival and it was once again wonderful. I was traveling with my "adult" children, 18, 21 and 23. My son & I shared a balcony cabin on the Lido Deck (once you've had a balcony, there's no going back) and my daughters shared an inside on the deck below. Board the ship early--they let you on as early as 11 or 11:30 most of the time, although the rooms aren't ready till 1:30. If you wear your bathing suit and a coverup, you can go on board, have lunch, and sit by the pool until the rooms are ready. Our luggage was there by 3, and some even by 2 p.m.
For dinner, we always take the late seating and are never disappointed. This way you can take your time shopping, doing excursions, or just sleeping in, eating late lunches and then have a snack to last you till dinner. Some nights the late seating has an early show at 7, so you need to be ready then, other nights you have till 8:15 to get dressed and the show will follow dinner. There's even time for a short afternoon nap if needed to refresh for dinner after a long day of shopping!
We always eat in the main dining room instead of at the buffet for dinners. My family likes to eat together and have waiter/waitress service. Our serving team of Maryna and Nelson(?) as well as the bar waiter, Jonathan were wonderful. Very informed about food choices and one night our steak was received well done instead of medium and they were taken back without a problem and new steaks arrived within 5 minutes, perfectly cooked. We had lunch one day in the formal dining room, which was nice, but most days were either at shore or we ate at the buffet, which always has a nice selection. Being from New York, I love the deli window where you can get pastrami, corned beef or reubens perfectly made. They have an "Asian" window as well as all the daily buffet items, and of course, there's always burgers, fries and pizza selections daily. Two days we ate breakfast at the formal dining room and the other days ate at the buffet where you can always get made to order omelettes, bacon, eggs and pancakes as well as all the other fruits, cereals and goodies.