I have been cruising for many years now, with both Royal Caribbean and Carnival. This was my most disappointing cruise so far.

Embarkation (not a Carnival problem): The port of Gavlveston has changed their operations since our last cruise and it is definitely for the worst. It was very disorganized and frustrating. Processing of priority members was halted, but non-priority were continued to be screened and enter though security. We arrived hours before boarding was supposed to begin, but general boarding was already called before we even had a chance to get our boarding cards.

The ship itself is old for a cruise liner (built in 1999) and is in dire need for being dry-docked and refitted. It has no pub, no steak restaurant, no italian restaurant, no adults only area and the water-slide etc is old. We were in port next to her sister ship the Sunshine which looked amazing, and we spoke with some of her guests in a taxi and they raved about the ship. This made our ship seem even more run down. There were constant problems with the elevators. Some were OOS the entire cruise, others would give the wrong floor AND wrong floor name many times. Lido deck-mid automatic doors had constant problems and stayed open most of the time. Many of the hallways were not air-conditioned, and always felt hot, humid, stuffy and uncomfortable. We tried many times to watch the evening movie on the lido deck, but every one I went to had repeated problems until I gave up and went back to my room. We also had many problems with dinner. Our waiter did not seem to be suited for the work, and we often had incorrect meals, or didn't receive some items. Refills of water and tea were almost non-existent. I really felt that the wait-staff was being stretched far too thin to adequately service the guests. It took a very long time most nights to get our food, and we were often leaving past the late-diners waiting to come in. The overall appearance of trim and furnishings is worn, scratched and showing it's age. Read more