This was our sixth cruise; 4 with RCL and 1 with Celebrity; and first with Carnival. We travelled from Scotland and spent two nights in Miami (all flights and accommodation booked independently from Carnival).

We arrived at the port earlier than planned (around 11 am) however this did not present a problem and after a very smooth embarkation we dropped our luggage off at our staterooms (which were still being cleaned) and headed for the lunch buffet. On all our previous cruises, we have always enjoyed the food, but I have to say my first dining experience with Carnival came as a bit of a shock.

There were six of us in our party and well before the end of the cruise, we all came to the conclusion that the buffet food on offer was of average quality, unappetizing and, at best, lukewarm. There are only 2 buffet stations on the ship and long queues formed at every food station. Finding a clean table was usually a problem as dirty plates lay around the tables everywhere taking forever to be cleared, and finding clean cutlery was a problem mainly due to the fact that the waiting staff only put out clean cutlery when a table is cleaned; which takes us back to the original problem of finding a clean table. We also noticed that the windows on the ship were so dirty that it was practically impossible to see outside; which is one of the most pleasurable experiences of cruising. Read more