This is my family's eighth spring break cruise. Three generations. We had a great set of cabins forward on the Lido deck. First the good: Splendor is spotless, the cabin stewards are diligent and friendly and we had a great team of waiters at the Black Pearl. Disembarkation was efficient and early for us. Loved the beach at Mahogany Bay. We had mechanical and electrical malfunctions in both cabins upon arrival that were fixed immediately. Construction work next door went on all week but the crew took great care to keep the noise down.

BUT: the food quality overall has deteriorated. Seafood particularly was not fresh and we stopped ordering it. Meatloaf was on the Black Pearl menu one night; really? Cabin stewards no longer service the cabins twice a day; we guessed that Carnival cut back on staffing this area and gave them twice as many cabins to cover. The entertainment budget has clearly been cut. We used to find a great rock and roll band nightly. This one was mediocre. The singer/dancer team no longer performs as much as usual. Instead low budget single acts or cruise-director produced audience participation have been substituted.

This cruise also had more problems than any before, with situations out of Carnival's control. The embarkation process was agonizing because the computers went down in the Miami cruise port and every passenger had to be processed manually. There was an electrical fire that had to be announced ship-wide at 4 am. Challenging weather made it impossible to dock in one port. And one passenger died en route. Carnival handled every one of these situations as well as they could.