We selected this cruise for price and ports. It was very reasonable for an eight night cruise and visited five ports. I just finished a major renovation of my condominium so I did not want to spend a lot of money on a vacation this year. I actually went on this cruise with no expectations and the idea to just have fun. Having grown up in Miami, I have been on many cruises in my life time and the last time I went on a Carnival cruise prior to this one was in 2005, and at that time I was not impressed with the Carnival product. Fast forward to 2016, and I decided to give Carnival another try. I have to say I was very impressed with this ship and the overall experience.
Embarkation was extremely fast and in less than 30 minutes we were on-board the ship, sitting at the bar and having a drink. Drink prices were reasonable, and I was impressed with the large number of bartenders on board, we rarely had to wait more than two minutes to get a drink. The food was adequate and to my surprise actually better than I expected. Dinners were good with the exception of only one night when I did not like the menu and there was nothing I wanted to order. Both the breakfast and lunch buffets were adequate with a large selection of all types of food choices. I would say the buffets were very similar to the buffets on Royal Caribbean and MSC. Breakfast buffet did not have any berries, but there is a large selection of other fruits including melons. etc. The omelette station was very good and I really enjoyed the choices provided to make an omelette. I also found the other dining venues to be good including the Indian restaurant (Tandor), as well as the deli. Overall food on this ship exceeded my expectations.
We booked a porthole on the main deck, cabin 2212. This cabin was adequate but the noise from the bow thrusters and the anchor chain was loud. The cabin was adequate and was a basic cabin.
This is a basic cabin, somewhat small but sufficient. The only thing I did not like was noise from the anchor chain as the cabin is near the bow (front) of the ship, and one night I could hear water splashing up on the ship and could not sleep.