This is our 5th cruise with Carnival and it will probably be our last. Sad to say because the Cruises to Nowhere fit our schedule as well as our budget. I'm not the type of person to complain if there weren't any chocolates left on my pillow or anything like that so take this as an honest review. We received an email that they are trying something new---staggered check-in and to arrive between 1pm and 3pm. We arrived at 12:55 and stood on-line (outside in the heat) for about 3 hours :-( No one came out to tell us what the delay was. At one point, my husband looked at me and asked if I was okay. I sat down in the shade in order to get out of the sun. I don't mind waiting but as least let the passengers know what's going on.
Once we arrived inside the port, we had a number stamped on our boarding passes and were told to wait (again) in a section. At least we were able to sit down but it felt like we were at the DMV. This was just terrible. Now, we finally got inside the ship and went to our rooms to use the restroom and put down our luggage. We took no more than 2 minutes and we rushed up to the Lido desk to have lunch. Once we arrived, the buffet was being shut down. I would have appreciated if they stayed open longer due to the looong wait to check-in. By this time it was almost 5:30 and our first day was pretty much gone. Normally, we check-in in about 90 minutes and this allows us time to enjoy our first day. Not this time, due to the standing in the sun for hours, everyone was pretty much pooped.
Now on to the fun part.....I am African-American, so please don't get the wrong idea when I say this. However, there were quite a few other African-American's on board who clearly had zero class. I am all about having fun and enjoying myself but there is a time and place for everything. There was a lot of cursing and talking extra loud and I really didn't appreciate it. Our party consisted of my husband, step-daughter, parents and brother. Each one of us was ready to go once we were back to the port on the last day.