We picked this cruise because we were taking our 13yo grand-daughter. It was her spring break and her first cruise. We are an 8 hour drive from Charleston (closest port to us). Disclaimer: my wife and I are not the beach people, but grand daughter is. So, we wanted a shorter cruise and one that had a private beach, and this one worked great. Although any cruise is better than staying home and working, this one was not up to the standards we are used to. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the ship. The layout works. Yes, you can't get through on deck 8, but not a big deal. Yes, it is a smaller ship so they don't have as much as one of the larger new ships, but that is only to be expected. We have sailed on the Fascination (same size ship) and loved it. So... why the negativity? I will get to all that. Service in the dining room. Breakfast, this morning our juice arrived just as we finished our meal. Great timing. The table next to us, they brought the parents plates out. When they were just about finished eating, they brought out the plates for their two daughters. Mind you, one of them ordered cereal. Wasn't like they were waiting to prepare it or anything. I ordered the cream of wheat, had to ask 3 times for the brown sugar, it came after about 10 minutes. Another morning during breakfast, asked for fresh ground pepper, they said sure, and then never showed up again. At dinner, service was not only slow, but would forget stuff all the time. Our waiters had some great attitudes, and I really liked the three on the team, but they just couldn't get it together. Constantly setting the wrong plate down in front of the wrong person, taking forever as they are trying to figure out what to take where. One evening they just plain forgot my wife and my soup. They came over right before dessert and said sorry. In the Blue Saphire (main theater) never saw more than 2 waiters.

I am guessing that Carnival is still making a profit. I believe they are reducing their labor costs by decreasing their staff. Therefore, you don't see as many staff. Also, if you are going to be selling all you can drink drink packages, and then you cut back on bar staff, you can make even more money because people can't get their drinks. If you cut cabin service to once a day and then give the cabin stewards extra cabins to work, you can save even more. One day the coffee shop was supposed to open at 3:00 PM. I went at 3:00, no one. Went back at 3:30 and he was just getting there and said it would be just a minute. He had to attend a training. He finally opened at almost 4. I realize there is training to be done, but I would also figure they knew about that before they printed the fun times.

We love the trivia type activities. There were plenty of those to keep our attention. However, there was one day was supposed to be baseball trivia. There were a few extra people than normal for it. The girl showed up and said it would be general sports trivia, that would be better. There were quite a few of us that weren't real happy. Then there were questions like "Name the Right Guard from the Denver Broncos that played every game in 2010" I am not kidding. You might have just as well asked name 3 right guards that have ever played in the NFL.. The next night was supposed to be sports movie trivia, yep, general sports again. Not that there is anything wrong with general sports, I would be at all of them, bute do what is in the Fun Times. Read more