We like to cruise out of Baltimore for the easy access for us We leave a day early and stay at the Best western O'Donnell st great transfers and easy boarding food was very good great service as always only real complaint was the flys at Princess cay at the food area HORRIBLE need to do something about it people just tossing there food out Having platinum status sure makes life easy Carnival really takes care of you from perks to early boarding to first off the ship nice job Carnival The entertainment in the main showroom needs help need to get some jugglers or magicians some thing other then the dancers couple shows were good first two of the week stunk you could tell by how empty the venue was Comedy shows were good around the ship entertainment was good nice job from the cruise director. The band Beast from the east was very good and so was will terri guitar slolist The late night deck party's had major cut backs pretty lame and the chocolate Buffett has gone down hill Ship was supper clean Crewe was great all around a great time going back next year Read Less

The room was nice and clean, but the view described as "partially obstructed," was a huge ugly machine and a life boat, no ocean. The food was mediocre. The quality of the food seemed to decline each night. The buffet was like school food. The ice cream machine was popular. Fresh fruit was a good touch. The taco bar and the burger bar and breakfast were the best food on the ship. Dinner service was very slow. There were no live shows on board. There were two good comedians and two guitarists playing in the lobby and a band in a smoke-filled bar. The pool is tiny and overcrowded. There are not enough activities. No dance classes, movies, cooking demonstrations, or crafts, etc. The shore excursion was rushed and crowded and the snorkeling had no fish. They let us stay at the beach only one hour. The crew was nice. Read Less

I cruise on this ship twice a year out of Tampa. This was our first once since the dry dock. All of the cabins I saw were completely redone. Same size, just everything replaced. (Expect for the windows, which look even worse in comparison to the sparkling new interiors...cloudy, scratched up and with a decade's worth of caulk.) We were in Empress 121, exterior w/ a window. Other than rooms, the updated areas included some new bar stool covers and redecorated Destiny dining room. The two pool deck bars have been replaced with a rum bar and a tequila bar, both with extended shade awnings and both are now non-smoking. In fact, it seemed the only places you could smoke were the casino, part of the casino bar and a small area on the upper deck around the pool. A big improvement for us non-smokers. The Mongolian grill is now a Mexican place and the grill is now a Guy Fieri burger place. Both are very good but unfortunately close at 6pm. The other food areas were the same and still not that great. There seemed to be a whole new crew too and overall they were great. Same fun trivia nights, live music, etc. And the casino has been reconfigured to include more new slots. We did the Chef's Dinner which was excellent, well worth the money. However, the wine served with the dinner was terrible. Overall really enjoyed the updates and glad to see a cruise line cutting money into their smaller, shorter run cruises. Read Less

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Terrible!! Will never even consider carnival again. 1- Not enough seating areas for number of guest. My example is, if you're sailing and don't have a stop that day, what will the 2000 + people on board do? They will go to the ONE pool, that might have enough chairs to support a few hundred of those people. So then people get up first thing in the morning to put their towels (that cost $20 if you lose) on a chair that they only use for a few minutes throughout the day because they're all in the pool. 2- When it's time to eat, the food is awful. What makes it worse is having to move dirty dishes out of the way on tables so you can sit down to eat. There is no shortage of staff though, they're all over, but they are not real quick to move dirty dishes off of tables. 3- Maybe it was just a bad time of year, but it seemed to be a party barge and not at all family friendly. College aged girls pulling their tops down in the pool with young children in there with them (right next to them), pot smoking regularly occurring not only in the designated smoking area, but throughout the entire ship (in the cabin, playing putt-putt, at the water slides, etc...) 4- Did I mention the food was terrible? 5- Cost- the initial cost of the cruise seems reasonable. Then an $11 drink (PLUS automatic gratuity) for you and your wife here and there over the course of the cruise, a few souvenirs for the kids, (none of the $12 pictures they took everytime you turn around though), a couple bucks for the casino, a fee for gambling your own money in their casino all added up to almost $1000 extra dollars!!! Oh.... some of that was the almost $4 per bottle of water. 6- I just remembered, I always saw the crew washing windows and wiping down hand rails. That must be priority over taking away dirty dishes and wiping down tables. 7- I'm 100% convinced they don't change the bedding after each float. 8- Our last two nights, we decided to order room service and eat in our tiny little room rather than going through the chow line and finding a spot to eat. The food was that bad. 9- We've been on other cruises. My wife and I are not cruise experts but any means though. But this entire experience has almost been a joke to us. If my son hadn't learned some new words from some of the crowd that was around, it would have been a joke. Read Less

Myself and a buddy wanted to do a 3 day getaway. We had a blast! The Alchemy Bar and it’s staff are amazing. Drazen and Bojana are so good! The piano bar was a lot of fun too! Thank you Rebecca from Ireland! I’ve had great experience previously with Carnival and this was no different. The on board staff do everything they can to provide an awesome and fun experience. I had 2 issues which we’re remedied nearly as soon as reported. Great service! What helps to make these short cruises are the great people that you meet! Lots of fun people! I thought the food was mostly good. I could have done without the lamb on the buffet. I guess I should have gone to the dining room every nite. Another surprise to me was the guy who did show tunes trivia. Not that I am into that kind of thing but he was really good! All in all a great experience! Read Less

Pros: *Employees across the board were excellent! Service was great and everyone was wonderfully pleasant and helpful. *Cabin was roomy enough and very clean upon arrival. * Cabin stewards kept rooms clean and stocked with towels and such as needed. * Comedy Club was excellent * Half moon cay was beautiful and there was plenty to do there. * Nassau was a cool experience. We just walked around the city for awhile and it was worth doing. (Food Was very expensive just FYI) Cons: * Although the employees they had were great they did not have enough help and I felt as if they were completely overworked. We had to wait in line for absolutely everything. There was one employee at each bar, the coffee shop, food areas, etc.. I'm talking 30 minutes or longer each time. * Soda Package was a total waste of money for us as we barely used it because you could only get sodas at the bar so therefore you had to wait forever to get a soda. * Evening Dining was a 2-3 hour process. We went two nights only. Food wasn't very good and you only got like two bites of each food item on your plate. I had prime rib and it was dry and bland. Kids got shrimp and they got 3 pieces with 2 bites of some sort of potato salad * Only food available 24 hours was pizza. * Room service menu was a joke and 95% of it was extra money. * The pool and hot tub area might as well have been deemed the kiddie pool area as at all times it was completely slam packed full of kids. * Kids were running wild through the ship without supervision all the time. Msessing with the elevators and trying to break things on purpose. This was kids from 7-12 just left completely alone with no parental supervision. (I traveled with my 2 kids aged 13 and 17 and I checked in on them frequently. * Lots of rules that no one followed and weren't enforced which made things difficult for people who were following the rules. *Getting to and from half moon cay was such a hassle and took so long. * Nothing to do during the sea days, you can only play so much mini golf and we paid to play bingo one time. $40 for 9 cards and 3 rounds. It only took about 20 minutes of our time. Overall we did enjoy some things but I don't think I would cruise with this ship again. Read Less

6th carnival cruise and unfortunately will be our last. room smelt like cigarettes. staff is soso at best. some have been rude at times. value for the money but trashy travelers. carnival has changed for sure. getting off the ship on the tenders wasa joke waited 2 hrs then told had 3 before had to.come back thats nit a full day on half moom cay. wait wait lines everywhere. Jacksonville port was nice and fairly easy process. food has taken a step back compared to previous cruises on carnival. some upgrsdes burger bsr and taco bars. water slides fair and pool area super over crowded. Guedt services threatened to call security on me and others if complained or as they stated raised your voice. also writing a letter to Carnival regarding our experience and dissatisfsction. save your money and be wise where you soend it for sure. cheapest def not close to average. Read Less

This was my third cruise. The previous two were also with Carnival. This time, I realized that the cruise director is an integral part of the experience. The first two cruise directors were amazing. They were visible and had loads of activities. This guy, Kevin, sucked. I felt like we were attending a conference or something. There were mostly zero fun activties during the day for adults. Most of them were either various seminars or shopping events. Me and my crew meandered that ship every day in search of something to do only to end up sitting aroun or napping in our rooms. Anything worth attending happened at night during dinner, but the show were all the same and not even exciting. The last day at sea was the most exciting and most reminiscent of past Carnival cruises. There was trivia and karaoke going on all day just how I was expecting. Why couldn’t all the other days be like that? Anyway, what I really wanted to say was that any and all complaints most people had on this ship was of no fault of the employees at all. This ship was severely understaffed, and the services were extremely slow—especially dinner service. The wait staff worked hard to to give us the five star service we’re all used to, but they simply couldn’t. There weren’t enough of them. We even saw this in housekeeeping. One person in our party had a balcony room. She noticed that her room steward was the one who cleaned the balcony instead of someone from the team of people who used to take care of that. All of these cutbacks are being mad to the staff, yet Carnival is making bank right now. They are having a banner year at their employees’ expense, and it isn’t right! The cabin was typical: clean and tidy. Our bathroom often smelled like pee, but I think its because of the toilet brush. It probably has never been replaced. Our head server was Senvil, and he and his helpers were amazing. We had a baby in our party, and they had his high chair and an appetizer ready for him even before the dining room opened so he could eat as soon as we sat down. They treated us like royalty, but he told us about the shortage as well and urged us to complain so perhaps changes could be made. I wouldn’t mind taking this ship again to a different destination as long as Kevin is not the cruise director. I don’t want to pay hundreds of dollars again just to be bored. I don’t want this whole thing to be negative, so I will say this. Despite the fact that Carnival doesn’t take the best care of their employees, they certainly train them well! Everyone remembers your name which is so impressive to me. They all act like they really care (and not the fake I’m-just-getting-paid-to-do-this type care). I love that about Carnival cruises, and from what I hear, not every cruise line is like this. Read Less

This was our 8th cruise and we were celebrating our 25th anniversary. People ask, “which cruise is your favorite?” I always answer the one I’m on. We had a wonderful time. The crew made us feel special. We received a free bottle of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries at the Heart and Soul show. The cruise director was fantastic. Kevin kept the crowd entertained while keeping the show moving. He was also easy to understand. The shows were phenomenal, if you can get past the animal towel video. The entertainers were some of the best we have seen. Dinner was great. The desserts were a little dry. If you can, make a point to order the filet or Lobster tail. It’s worth it. Take earplugs. It was the first ship the guests were so inconsiderate they ran and yelled at allll hours of the night. The music around the ship was fantastic as well. Here is the bad - Getting off of the boat at ports and disembarkment was horrible. There has got to be a better way to organize things. If you have to tender, put on a patient attitude or it may kill you. We didn’t enjoy the smoking at the bar near the casino. It was in a main walkway and there was no way to avoid it. No track for running. Overall, it was a wonderful trip. Read Less