OVERALL - This was our first cruise which just made things that much worse. We were excited but were sooooo ready to get off the ship after the second day. The ship came out of dry dock and what we thought was normal cruising thinking this sucks, we aren't doing this again, turned out we met a number of long time cruisers who said this cruise was terrible overall and one of the worse cruises they went on (food and entertainment). My daughter's high school has better entertainment. Some mediocre shows but not what you would expect at all. Food was nothing special. Specialty restaurants were good (free only). Boarding the ship was beyond horrible taking 1.5 hours to just get on the ship!!!!! It was very unorganized. I really don't understand why there is overall no guidance or help for first time cruisers (hint: Carnival put out a first time cruisers brochure by customer relations - I don't need my hand held but really this makes no sense to give some basic info).

SHIP - nice ship overall, very clean, large, gym was very nice but go early

DRINKING PROGRAM - We bought the drinking program and thank goodness since we needed alcohol to deal with the lame entertainment and so so food issues. The program is worth it since drink prices started around $8. You can get specialty coffees and some other special bottle drinks which I liked. We definitely think the program is worth it. I don't drink much & my husband does. I just make sure I had minimum 5 drinks a day (mix of alcohol & coffee and special bottle drinks). You could get away sharing the program with another couple if you aren't big drinkers, are on a busy ship and aren't obvious sitting at a bar the entire time. Read more