I wanted to cruise to the Mediterranean and wanted to see several places and this seemed to be the best say to accomplish that . It has been awhile since we cruised with Carnival and for the most part the ship wasnt that much different than the others. What was different is they are only trying harder to get your last dollar. Half way thru the cruise they tacked on a 24 percent tax to everything you did or purchased on the cruise. They have a new IMAX well yes for extra $12.50 per person charge each movie. The food was the same thing over and over every night unless you paid extra to dine in the extra pay restaurants. I have always thought the drinks and pictures were over priced but they seems to just get worse about trying to get every dollar they can. We had a massage and facial while on the ship and instead of it being a relaxing experience they made you feel like you had to buy there products totaling over $500 for what they tried to sell me, that is not relaxing to me. The ports were awesome the experience with carnival, I will give it a 4.Our cabin was near the liquid lounge and our cabin rocked all night long to the beat of the music so that was not relaxing either. All in all not a very good experience.