So overall I liked this cruise, but I must admit in some areas there could be improvement. For those interested here was our experience...

Traveling was Me (5th cruise, 4th Carnival) and my SO (1st time cruiser) both mid 20's.

SATURDAY-EMBARKATION -We arrived to Port Canaveral fairly late (around 3:00) due to my SO having a delayed flight, upon arrival as I was walking into the port I received a text message from my mother checking to see if we actually made it to the port, apparently in the process of being rushed into the building I failed to notice the sign (maybe a foot behind me at most) that said phones and other communication devices were not allowed in the upcoming area...a port security personnel immediately yelled at me to "put the phone away now!" (which I was already in the process of doing)...I found it quite rude that he pointed to me and yelled rather than politely asking or telling me that I needed to put my phone away. -After clearing security we went upstairs to get our sail and sign and fill out any paperwork. Apparently there was quite a bit of miss communication between the attendants working for many of them were bickering back and forth. We were told to go up to a lady who complained that she did not have a computer in which case her manager?? (i assume it was her manager) told her to do it manually. She first started to do the checking in process manually but as soon as the person beside her walked away to find her customer's keys she scooted over to the station beside her and began to process our info from the other lady's station. This of course created a lot of confusion between the two attendants working as well as both sets of customers.It was very unprofessional, snude remarks coming from both attendants and to beat it all our attendant was completely incompetent and could not understand that my SO and I were using two separate credit cards for our sail and sign....after spending 30 min getting checked in (usually takes 10 min or less) we were headed to the ship...Usually upon arrival they photograph you but I assume we arrived too late. -As we got on the ship we began to head up to our room and after getting up one flight of stairs the muster drill began....Apparently we missed the announcement about the muster drill and about the time we climbed up to the 7th floor we realized that all the traffic was due to the muster, so we turned around to head back down....There was a lot of confusion to say the least. I may be one of the few or only that prefers the old muster drill where you are placed in front of your lifeboat with your life vest on... After the muster we finally arrived to our room on the 8th floor midship. Typical inside cabin....not much to say on that. -Dinner in MDR, our waitress was subpar in comparison to past cruises. Assistant waiter was more personable than our waitress. We were seated at a 4 person table...many of the tables sat 2 or 4...in the past I was use to the large round and rectangle tables that sat 6-8+....I prefer the larger tables. I also preferred the older sing/dance by the waitstaff...the new sing/dance was unfamiliar to most and provided little guest interaction...I liked the macarena, hey baby, etc opposed to low and shake shake ?  ***DAY 1 - EMBARKATION---RUDE AND UNORGANIZED Read more