We had a good time. Our last cruise was 9 nights in a suite, so 5 nights in an inside cabin was a bit of a shock. We were in the middle of a two week vacation and we wanted a break from our son. WE LOVE CAMP CARNIVAL! And so does he. (But we love it more.) He spent 4-5 hours at camp most days, including eating dinner with them. That enabled my husband and I to enjoy an adults only dinner in the dining room every night - what a treat. We thought the options were more limited than in the past. We certainly don't go on a cruise so we can eat "comfort food". Give me a break. I did try the Didja ever option every night which was fun. The food for the most part was better than what I would cook at home but I wouldn't say exceptional. About what I expect from Carnival. They don't claim to be the best but they strive to give good value for your money and I believe they deliver on that.

We played mini-golf every day even though it was so windy the ball kept moving. The pools are too deep for our son to stand so he played in the hot tub (which was luke warm and kind of gross). Note to Carnival - if the pools weren't so deep, the kids might stay out of the hot tubs. The decks were completely packed on sea days, not enough chairs to go around. Many people claimed a chair for the day early in the morning but I never felt right doing that. Guess I need to man up. There seemed to be fewer entertainment options also. We had "your time dining" and like to eat around 7 or 7:30. There is NOTHING going on at 6pm anywhere on the ship. I wondered if that is when they serve dinner to the employees? We just wandered the ship, looked around, took pictures and relaxed, so we didn't really mind. We did enjoy the 2 big song and dance shows they had during our trip. We had to put our son to bed by 10 every night so we didn't see any late night stuff. They do offer late night child care for about $7.50/hr which I think is a great deal but only in camp not in your stateroom. I saw enough melt downs going on all over to know that most of those poor kids were not getting enough sleep. We opted to put our son to bed and not deal with an over-tired child.

All in all, it was a good time. Not quite as good as past cruises, but this was our first 5 nighter, so maybe things are different on shorter cruises.