I am writing this review to compare Carnival vs. NCL. This is our second cruise, first on Carnival. Our first cruise was on NCL from New Orleans to West Carribean. This cruise is Ft. Lauderdale to East Carribean. To start with, the embarkation. It went very well. Arrived at Ft. Lauderdale airport and had short $20 cab ride to port. The lines went very quickly and soon we were on board to eat at the buffet. The buffet expirence was TERRIBLE the entire time. Very over crowded. Long waits in line. Never got to eat with my wife because I had to hold table while she got her food then by the time I got mine she was done or heading back for more. NCL buffet was set up better and were able to move people through much quicker.
The ship itself is very outdated. It is clean but outdated. It is also very hard to navigate. You had to constantly go up or down a floor to get where you wanted. NCL ship was much easier to navigate.
The food in the "free" restaurants was very good. We got to try several different types of food that we normally would not pay to try. We also were able to order a " backup" meal in case we did not like the trial stuff. Over all the food was equal to NCL.
We had inside cabin. Very clean. Bathroom was larger than expected. Plenty of storage space. I prefer balcony rooms and will only book balcony rooms in the future.