5 days.....2 days off the ship were great....the people of Canada were very welcoming, friendly, and the ports were safe and had a variety of things to do. We did the hike, bike, and paddle excursion in St. John and it was great. We went to the maritime museum in Halifax, the Citadel, and walked the perimeter of the gardens and that was nice. Shopping in both ports was nice as well...good variety of price points, food choices, and easy to get around.

The three days on the ship were not what even a first time cruiser would accept as "normal" for paying for a vacation. This was our 12th cruise and it was awful. LINES LINES LINES for the food! My guess is that Carnival cut back on staff because at each food station there was ONE or sometimes two people working. A 20 minute wait in line for breakfast or lunch in the buffet was an average wait. Finding a clean table was difficult. One of our table mates waited AN HOUR for a burrito!! There wasn't a selection of food once you got to it after such a long wait and many people took a lot if they could because coming back for seconds was so ridiculous they just opted to take more. The dining room staff for dinner was GREAT. No problems at dinner, we were the early seating and the food and service was fine for dinner. We ate breakfast in the seated dining room once, the food was average as was the service. Activities were OK....had a spoof of "Minute to Win It" which was funny and family friendly. The dancing classes were popular and there was no room on the stage to dance and I couldn't see the instructor, we tried this three times and gave up on the third class. Our room....was beautiful, we upgraded to a suite for my husbands birthday, but they neglected to tell us when we booked (directly with Carnival) that it was BY AN ELEVATOR. BING, BING, BING,.....we could hear screams and cheers at night from the people at the bar 7 floors below us.....we complained on night #1 and asked that the hallway doors be closed (it was not the main bank of elevators) it took them 3 nights to get it right. It was so bad that they deducted $400 from our cruise. CHECK TO SEE WHERE YOUR CABIN IS LOCATED BEFORE YOU GO. If you are in a lower level, check to see the proximity to the anchor because you will feel it vibrating and grinding as it lowers in the early morning when you enter a port (met a woman behind us in line at the guest services who had this problem). The ship is not conducive for older people or people who can not walk long distances. At two different points if you need to get to another side of the ship you need to walk almost the length of the ship to cut across. If you go on this cruise try to get the cheapest deal possible and then you won't be disappointed...again Canada was beautiful and an enjoyable change from the poverty and expensive shopping on Caribbean islands..the Canadians are friendly and genuinely happy that the cruise vacationers have come but they are not pushy and the ports are safe, clean, and beautiful. I want to try this itinerary again, but on a different cruise line. I've been on Carnival for four other cruises, this IS NOT NEARLY as good as their other ships.