I've previously been on a Carnival cruise, and had a decent experience- good, friendly service, overall good food, a clean room with no issues in it. The cheaper Carnival cruises all seem to be budget cruises- small rooms, lack of amenities in comparison to other cruise lines, less food options, and small/few pools. But this trip was particularly bad. Though budget, what I got for the cost was not even worth it.
The food in the sit-down dining and buffet were both bad. Sit-down downing, we waited an hour and a half at our table for our entrees. Bread came after our appetizers, which took about 30 minutes. Bar service did not make it to us, so we never got drinks at dinner. In the buffet, the wait time was shorter in the lines but the food was often cold and lacked flavor even more than the sit-down dining did. Lines were long, tables were often dirty.
Our room was small, as expected. We slept 4 in a room, and they did not put the upper bunks away during the day on some occasions, leaving us with no seating below. Our belongings were moved that did not need to be, yet we weren't given clean drinking glasses. Items in the bathroom were never refilled. Our AC also made a lot of noise.