First up, the safety briefing on deck. We were herded like cattle onto the sunny side of the deck in 100 degree heat where we waited for 30 minutes to have a recorded announcement played which we could not hear hear due to the complaining that everyone was doing so the whole charade was pointless. We had 2 people pass out on our part of the deck from the heat. We were told this briefing was necessary for our 'safety'. As there was no seating, I had to endure the whole experience standing up, which aggravated my back injury resulting in me spending the next 7 days on pain killers (thank you Carnival, a cruise to remember).

Whilst standing like sardines on the deck, some people were coughing in a not too healthy way. By day 2, our entire group were now experiencing the cough which lasted weeks beyond the cruise. Who would have thought that herding people into a confined area and having sick people cough over them could cause healthy people to get sick. (thank you Carnival, a cruise to remember).

As a non-smoker who is sensitive to smoke, I avoid smoking areas. This was very hard on this ship as there were no signs indicating where the smoking areas were. I was only aware of them after I had walked into the smoke. I had to then memorize which areas were for smoking to avoid them in future. Due to the lack of signage, smokers were also confused about where to smoke and some decided that anywhere on the open deck was acceptable, which meant that the chance of me getting a breath of 'fresh' air on the decks was minimal. (thank you Carnival, a cruise to remember). Read more