We had never sailed on Carnival and with a good price and being able to drive to New Orleans we decided to give them a try. We kept in mind this is an older ship so we didn't expect a new mega ship. We arrived at the pier at 10:00am and were told the ship was running late. We were finally able to board at 12:30pm and headed up to the Windows on the Sea buffet. The food was lacking in presentation as well as quality. We did like the deserts. The buffet was the same for breakfast as well. We would up eating an omelet and pastries for breakfast and pizza,salad, and a deli sandwich for lunch.The ice cream machines were great. I feel one of the problem at the buffet is the steam table which doesn't keep the food very warm. We had supper in the Jubilee dining room and the first night was just awful.Formal night was very good and the rest of the nights it was a hit or miss. With that said we never went hungry.It just wasn't what we were used to on other cruises. Now in all fairness there were some things we liked. We liked our cabin which was very new with a flat screen TV. We liked our waiter Bartholomew (Bart). He was the best we ever had. We also liked our cabin attendant Agus who was very nice and efficient. We liked the cruise director Kevin Noonan and his staff the fun patrol. They were very good and especially Henny who did an awesome Austin powers imitation. We liked the singers and dancers and the 2 comedians that were on stage. The entertainment exceeded our expectations. The entire staff was friendly and the ship was clean. Getting off of the ship was so easy. We did the walk off with luggage and were in our car by 8:20. To sum it up the food for the most part was lacking but we still had fun and enjoyed meeting new friends aboard. Would we ever cruise with Carnival again? Probably I just think Carnival needs to improve on the presentation and quality of the food, especially at the buffet.