We've been on more than 15 cruises, but hadn't been on Carnival in about 20 years. If you have been to Nassau once, that is probably enough to last you a lifetime. It is a dirty city where you have to navigate your way through all of the folks trying to braid your hair, give you a carriage or a taxi ride or sell you a tee shirt and straw hat. That being said, if you do decide to stay on the ship when in port, there is virtually nothing to do during the day. You can only sit in a lounge chair for so long, and daytime shipboard activities are virtually non-existent. They clearly cater to the first time cruiser and not to repeat customers.

Years ago, the service used to be exemplary and you were treated like royalty from the moment you stepped on the ship. It is clear that Carnival has now cut down on their staff considerably. If you go to the buffet, they only set up one side, even though there were two built in the dining room. That means long lines and waiting. If you just want a burger at lunch, they serve it at a poolside buffet (again, one side only) and the wait on line at lunch is almost 30 minutes. In the dining room, the staff does the best they can, but are clearly short-handed. They don't have time to refill your drink, give you another roll, or even notice that your baked potato is completely rotten inside. They never used to forget to bring coffee and would always come back to make sure you had everything you needed. Not anymore, though.. I'm not blaming the hardworking wait staff, because cutting back was probably a decision made by a bean-counter in a nice high rise building with a spreadsheet and a pie chart in front of them. I wonder, though, if they failed to factor in that repeat business could be a huge windfall, and catering to repeat customers (no pun intended) would ultimately bring in more profit.

Years ago, they had live musicians playing on the pool deck, but now just pipe in music. In the past, part of the experience was tapping your toes to a steel band singing a chorus of Hot, Hot, Hot! , while strolling the deck with an umbrella drink in hand. They had real musicians back in the day at the evening shows too, and something is lost in the experience when entertainers are singing to a track. It's the difference between going to hear the Boston Pops and going to your local bar for karaoke. Read more