This was our third cruise, but our first Carnival cruise. We booked at the last minute but upgraded to the Spa deck (12) and it was worth it. We were able to enjoy upgraded shampoos and lotions, discounts on spa treatments and most importantly, free access to their wet and dry saunas, relaxation rooms and mineral whirlpool - all completely worth the upgrade.
The food was good but portions small except for the Italian restaurant where you got more food than any regular sized human could eat. The service was spotty - sometimes the servers were amazing and other times they couldn't care less. We had the "Eat any Time" option so our serving team varied, but we found a team we liked and just asked to sit with them every meal. Service at the steak house was very very good.
The only real negative were the other passengers. While most were friendly, we found many to be loud, opinionated, drunk, rude and without simple manners. "Yee Ha's" in the hallway at 3:00am, loud hooting from the balconies all hours of the day and night, the awkward drunken conversations in the lunch lines, the spilling of drinks onto bystanders and the general lack of common courtesy. The staff was always joking and commenting about it too. We understood that Carnival is more of a "party crowd", but we were surprised by the almost hourly demonstration of drunken, loud or inappropriate behavior.