This was a our annual mid year family vacation. We love cruising and have only ever cruised with Carnival. That has now changed. I will start with the general info. The ship itself didn't have the cheesy decor most of their ships have, actually it was different and somewhat pretty. It was clean but it was worn in a lot of places. The service wasn't very good. The employees, for the most part, were unhappy and it showed more often than not. It almost seemed like we were a burden to them. There were a few who were good at their job and seemed happy (dining room at dinner only), there were a couple who you could tell were only smiling because they had to to get tipped(bars and housekeeping), and there were many who showed obvious disdain for having to serve you (bars, guest service, pool area). The food quality has diminished over the years. The food options were nil around the ship, there was even one night about 9PM I was unable to find any food unless I wanted pizza or a sandwich from the grill (both with lines). The website said there was sushi on board, but we were told once we boarded they no longer have it on this ship. The entertainment options were minimal. There was only one 'show' and the rest were trivia, games and a couple of nights of comedy. This 'show' was the same one we saw last year while traveling on the Sunshine. Coming on and off the ship was a breeze so that was nice. The excursion we took in Cozumel was just OK. We took a similar one a few years ago and it was great, this one was uneventful, nothing to write home about. Forget trying to go to Progreso. The people will not allow you to walk by their tent/store without trying to sell you something 'for almost free' (their words). I know it is a poor area but it isn't worth the hassle so we immediately turned around and went back to the port area. They aren't so bad there and their drinks are a heck of a lot less expensive than any where else.

BUT, the biggest problem we had with this cruise was with the way security handled an incident which happened on the first day. My husband left cash, a special coin given to him by his children for father's day and a money clip (all together) laying on the dresser when we went to breakfast. My husband noticed it was gone when we got back later that morning but he thought I had put it in the safe when in fact I did not. We turned the room upside down looking for it before going to guest services to report the items missing from the room, hoping we had just thrown it in a drawer or something. They handled it reasonably well, without expression or apology, but methodical procedure for documenting the incident. We never accused anyone of taking the items from our room, only stated what was missing. They said they would have security contact us when we returned from our excursion. They did do as said and my husband met them in the atrium to discuss. The first person he met with was okay and told him they would have to have him fill out some paperwork and search our room, but he said someone else would come and do all of that. So, another man arrived and asked some questions, including if we had other rooms. We did have another room. He said they would have to search both rooms. He had no problem with that. They went to our kids' room first since it was on the same level as the atrium. The conversation spiraled out of control with the security officer practically accusing, but definitely implying, that my husband got drunk and lost the items, or our children took them from our room. He also wanted him to complete a form telling how much money he brought on board, how much he had spent, what he spent it on, etc. That did not set well with my husband and he told him he would not provide that information because it had nothing to do with the missing items. Let's just say it went from bad to worse as it moved back out to the atrium from our kids' room. Our intent was to really just let Carnival know items were missing from the room so they could keep an eye on personnel with access to our room. We never expected to get the money back but did hope to at least get the coin back since it had sentimental value. My husband did approach our steward and tell him the items were missing. He appeared to know nothing about it. We don't want to think he did it because he didn't seem to be the type, but one never knows these days. We are business owners and if a customer of ours has an issue we hope they would let us know so we can keep an eye on things, seek to improve, make amends, etc, in order to keep the customer. Carnival sent a letter to the stateroom the next day and said the matter was closed, probably because my husband told the security officer to forget it (in a few choice words). They totally handled the situation inappropriately. If we could have finished the cruise without spending another dime with them we would have, but it just wasn't feasible since it was only day two of the cruise.I am very disappointed in the way they handled this. My husband admits he also could have handled it better, but he felt like they were calling him a liar, thief and troublemaker. I am the more level headed of the two, but I don't know that I would have handled it any differently. The officer may have been doing the investigation per procedure, as he said, but his condescending attitude (and words) and body language showed and meant more than the procedural words coming out of his mouth.

On a good note, if you are already booked on this ship try and get Ram as your headwaiter, early seating Imagination dining room. He's a great guy. And, we had some great dinner guests at our table. I hope your future cruise will be better than ours. Sad to say we will never cruise with them again, for several reasons, but this was the straw that broke the camel's back. I'm told by many Celebrity is the way to go :) Happy Cruisin!