We chose this cruise as we were taking along first time cruisers. A three day was chosen so that if cruising wasn't their ideal vacation, the newbies weren't out too much time or money. We are Florida locals, so we didn't do anything in the embarkation ports. Embarkation took longer than it was supposed to. Our check in time was 11-11:30. We didn't get onboard until almost 12:15. Not a huge deal, but frustrating nonetheless.

Once onboard, we hit Guy's Burger Joint for lunch. As usual, it was the best burger I've ever had. We managed to get in before the huge line formed too. After lunch we went to the Red Frog Bar for a drink. The bartenders were clearly overwhelmed with the crowd. He took my order and my friend's, but only brought my drink. After we waited patiently for 5 minutes while other orders were taken and served, I asked him when my friend would get his drink. The bartender seemed to get mad, and told me that he hadn't charged my friend for anything. Odd response, but my impression was that maybe he was new. The other negative bar experience was the casino bar on our sea day. The bartenders were ignoring half of the bar, and only providing service to the passengers on one side. This wasn't just my impression, as another passenger on my side got angry and demanded service to those of us who had been waiting for over 10 minutes while 3 bartenders served half the crowd. Once the bartender came over to us, she looked around and asked who was next. Well when you have 10 irritated and thirsty people, we started throwing orders over each other in an attempt to get a drink. Great way to get passengers angry with each other! I should think that a "booze cruise" would have an abundance of bartenders and servers. Not the case here, and my first timer friend even asked me if this kind of waiting was normal on cruises. The rest of our bar experiences were neutral. Bartenders were either quiet and somewhat evasive or simply didn't speak to us.

We all had lunches in the buffet and dinners in the MDR. All servings were on par with Carnival food quality. I'm not a picky eater, so I may not be the best for rating the food. Service in the MDR was outstanding! Our wait staff took the time to learn our names and were very engaging and funny. Not our typical experience on a short Carnival cruise. Read more