So, I booked this cruise as a Christmas present for my mom. She is in her 60s and has cruised before, but not on Carnival. I am 38 and this was my 6th cruise...5th one on Carnival. It was my first time cruising out of my homeport of Baltimore.
It was very nice to drive just 25 minutes to get to port. The port of Baltimore was decent enough, though there were many delays. We got to port around 11:20 and did not get on the ship until 1:15 (boarding didn't even begin until 12:30 or so and we didn't leave port until about 5:45 or so). There was also a delay in getting off the ship (we put our bags out the night before and were #10...we got off around 11 am and there were still many folks on the ship). The delays were irritating but nothing that would ruin a trip.
The ship was great. It was very clean and upkept and the staff were very friendly and helpful. The buffet area seemed understaffed the last couple (2) days and tables were not cleaned up as quickly as they had been the first several days (5). But, it still wasn't all that difficult to find a clean table to sit at. We loved the layout of the ship, it was very easy to navigate. We liked all the many venues. There was always plenty to do. We liked to watch karaoke and see the shows and comedians. We also spent some time in the casino and piano bar. I didn't feel like the ship was too crowded, except for the sea days out on the Lido/Serenity deck. We could NEVER get a chair in the sun near any of the pools. We wanted to be on the Serenity as we were not with kids. We even got out there at 7:30 am one day and all the chairs were being used or saved. We had to get our own chairs from a stack and squeeze them in up on deck 10. That worked fine, but not as easy as I'd have liked.