This was our first Carnival Cruise. We have cruised on RCL and Princess. I'll Start off with the positive. Embarkation and Disembarkation were a breeze because we booked a suite and my 17 year old son is a platinum member with Carnival. We got right on and were first off the ship.
The suite was great. I missed the large closet area on our Princess ship, but we had a nice sized bathroom with a large shower/bath. When we first got to the room, I detected the stale odor of smoke. We notified our cabin attendant and when we returned to the suite after dinner, the odor had been neutralized.
Sometimes we detected a foul "septic tank" odor when we walked down the hall to our room. Had heard of this before from reading the reviews.
Great balcony, tiny closet. We could here the cabin next to us when they were on their balcony, which wasn't often. Beds were comfortable, but Princess beds are better. Loved the towel critters--Princess didn't do that.