I will begin by writing that our family did have a fun time and have lots of wonderful pictures to prove it. However, our fun time was a result of the fact that we chose to have fun despite the carvival staff. This was the first time we had ever cruised and i did lots of research, so I was surprised about how unprofessional the staff members were. The apearance of the ship did not bother us at all. A lot of people say that it is old and looks it, but we were on a cruise so we didn't care :) Annoying passengers did not bother us too much either. Yes there was a group of very drunk college boys sitting right behind us everytime we were at the kids waterpark area, but you have to expect young drunk idiots on a cruise as well. My husband was going to tell them to leave, but I told him to rememer that we were probably the same about 8 years ago :) (We have a 3 year old and an 11 year old who were playing in the waterpark area). I thought it was funny to watch them hit on everyone and then keep "striking out." hahaWe had an awesome time at Atlantis. We did the "Discover Atlantis" tour and it was really good. We were not supposed to use the pools or beach at Atlantis, but we did and no one questioned us and we had an amazing time! Our tour guide was really good and we enjoyed all the info. he gave us. I wish we had not done the UNEXSO dolphin close encounter in Freeport. This was the worst part of the whole trip. It was supposed to be 3 and a half hours. A huge thunderstorm arrived just as we did, so we sat around for an entire hour with NO info. as to what we were going to do. Finally over an hour later they came out and told us that we would still go and were just waiting for the storm to pass. We all assumed that we would just get back later than we should have. Well, we finally got started about 2 hours late and on the way to the dolphin area they tell us that we are going to do a rushed version so that we can still get back on time. They also told us, "Sorry, we are out of the t-shirst you were supposed to get." We wanted to go back to the ship and get a refund since our time was cut so short but they told us that wasn't an option. We ended up getting about 40 minutes instead of 3 and a half hours. I complained to shore excursions as soon as we got back and they said they would get back to us. Their answer was that we would have our t-shirts mailed to us. On the last day of the cruise I tried to deal with guest services and shore excursions again about the issue and they said that no one else complained so i was going to have to accept the fact that I would not recieve the partial refund i had requested. Well, that was a lie, b/c when I had complained the first time, I was standing right next to someone else who was also complaining to them about the same excursion! Simply asked for a 50% refund since we ended up losing OVER 50% of our time. Our room steward was nice and did a great job. We were in a grand suite and I noticed that our balcony would get covered with random gross things and he did not take care of the balcony. But the room did get cleaned well. The dining room staff seemed tired, tired, tired. Our waiters forgot at least one thing each night. They were nice and I liked them, but I was very surprised that they would forget so much. The food in the dining room was also very dissapointing to me. This was interesting b/c I am NOT picky about food at all. I'm sure it's hard to make great quality food for that many people however. The rest of the staff was a nightmare. For the most part they were rude and acted like you were bothering them if you asked a question. In fact, twice I was saved by the "superiors in the white uniform" when I was being completely ignored. Once was in the mongolian bbq. The staff was sitting around talking and even though it was 11 said they weren't open yet. The captain saw this and came over and yelled at them. The cook glared at me while he was cooking by noodles as a result. The second time this happened was at the deli. Another guy in one of the white uniforms had to tell them to do their job. The piano bar was AWESOME!!! I loved the piano man and that was really the biggest highlight of the ship! I spent a few hours there 3 nights. Camp carnival staff seemed really tired and annoyed. I only used them after dinner and not during the day at all. The kids did have fun, but the staff did not seem friendly or happy that people were dropping the kids of. They must have been nice to the kids however, b/c the kids had tons of fun there. Finally, a funny, but unprofessional story. We took with us our friend who had just been dumped by his fiance. He met a girl onboard and they were having a great time! Well, the 3rd night they were at the disco. They were in a group of about 5 girls and a few guys. The Captain of the ship and his buddies came in and physically used their shoulders to block our friend and the other couple of guys out of the group an basically hi-jacked the group of girls. Of course the girls all went for it and left with the captain and his buddies!! It's funny, but when you think about it, that is not very professional. I guess the captain thinks it's ok to steal the fun from paying passengers. Last but not least, if you are a V.I.P. passenger, don't expect ANY perks. You get on board quicker and that's it. Debarkation was a MESS and I really would rather have had VIP debark than embark. We shared stories back and forth with a lot of other people we met onboard an have come up with a decision. We enjoyed cruising, but we will not ever go with Carnival again. We are already looking into cruising with RCI. Perhaps I am being hasty and it was just this ship that suffered, but it was bad enough that I will change cruise lines.