I had decided to take my family on a cruise for the holidays. My wife and I had always traveled on Holland America but there was nothing available in the window we had for travel. My travel agent was able to find us a suite on the Carnival Legend so we agreed to take a chance on Carnival. My agent warned me this would not be the same as Holland America, but we decided to take the chance. This was my son's, (22 yrs.), first cruise experience and we were building up how wonderful it would be. Let me first say that I am a retired Chef and culinary educator as well as a Certified Sanitarian. We talked about how wonderful the food would be. Our mistake, the food in the Lido buffet was inedible, both I and my wife got ill on two separate occasions. The food in truffles restaurant was OK but nothing special, and the night we ate in the Golden Fleece my Filet was 30% Gristle. But my biggest complaint was that none of the food was hot, at best it was lukewarm. Food served under 140 degrees is capable of allowing bacteria to form and is dangerous to eat. When I am on a Cruise I expect to be wowed each night, it happens on Holland America but not on Carnival. I was actually served moldy grapes on a "Fresh" fruit plate. My son was appalled and took them to guest services to complain as it was served by Room Service. We were told some one would contact us about the grapes and no one ever did. The ship itself was dirty. My balcony furniture was spotted and dirty and anytime you put your hand on the deck railing they were dirty, gritty and sticky. I often found food residue on the chairs and tables and at least two of the chairs we sat in had broken arms. I saw several cleaning crews, but they were usually standing around talking. I don't want to demean all the employees, our cabin steward and waiter were very good and were very helpful. The rest of the staff we encountered left much to be desired. A letter was delivered to my room by mistake, I was taking it to Guest Services to make sure it got to the proper passenger. I saw a young lady with a guest services badge in the hallway, I stopped her and explained what had happened and gave her the envelope, she looked at me and said "What do you expect me to do with this?" I was shocked and said I was hoping she could make sure it got to the right passenger. She then sighed and said "I guess so" and walked away in a huff. We were also treated rudely buy Yusef the Maitre"d. On the last day we went to Truffles for breakfast, when we arrive at our assigned table it was a booth, I am a large person and walk with a cane, I asked the waiter if there was another table he could give us because I could not sit there and he told me "No, this is the table you were assigned.' I had to ask three times before he finally gave us a table, Then after we placed our order it was wrong when it got to our table and never fixed. Because we purchased one of the 6 suites on board ship we were told we were VIP'S but other than a speedy check in we received no VIP treatment for the rest of the trip. I have never been so disappointed in a cruise in my life and I have been cruising since 1976. I will never cruise with Carnival again, and I cannot understand why others are willing to put up with such treatment or claim poorly prepared and lukewarm food was good. I have had a NUF of the FUN ship line.