My wife and I had not been on a vacation alone in 6 years since the birth of our oldest child. We decided to take a romantic cruise, and went with another couple who are close friends of ours. My wife had cruised once before on the Carnival Destiny out of Miami, and she enjoyed the experience thoroughly before. Only, that was 10 years ago... have times changed for Carnival?
First, we arrived at the New Orleans port at 11:00 am, and had no issues getting registered and getting our room cards/ship id's/fun cards (whatever). Security was swift and thorough, and found ourselves on the Lido deck with a few carry on items by about 12:30 or so. We were not allowed to go to our state rooms until 1:30, so we ate lunch on the Lido deck - I had the Mongolian grill/build your own meal (which was decent) and my wife had a standard hamburger and fries, of which the quality was less than Burger King or McDonalds. Nevertheless, we looked forward to the cruise, and what we thought would be better food going forward.
We went to our state rooms, and a few minutes after getting there, our luggage arrived. The room was clean, well maintained, and we had a cool looking octopus towel on our bed. It was clear that our room service man was top notch. He went out of his way to ensure our room was ALWAYS perfect. No complaints here.
Very comfortable bed, efficient use of space, quiet room.