I read many reviews about the ship before sailing. I was a bit concerned about some things, however overall I was very pleased with the ship. The quality of food is poor and the prices of drinks are too high. Not happy that they have so many 'pay' restaurants...I just think that is wrong. And, I remember Carnival employees being very happy, jovial and friendly, but that was about 20 years ago. The last few cruises I have been on the morale seems to have dropped, with the exception of the housekeeping staff. We have yet to have one who wasn't happy all the time and they always remember our name. A lot of factors contributed to this being an overall great vacation; the ship itself-I never felt rushed or crowded, even though it sailed at capacity; the # of days-perfect, even though I had never been on a cruise for this many nights; the ports-Nassau is my least favorite, but the other three are great ports; Port Canaveral has a much better clientele going out of it than some of the other ports we have gone out of; numerous activities and shows-there was always plenty to do and most of it was very enjoyable, I was a bit disappointed in the last show, the rock-n-roll show, but it may have been because they were missing two of their entertainers. The guitarist on the Swamp Thang band was amazing-he should be famous, he's just that good and entertaining, but the whole band was good and were able to perform a large variety of music very well. Like I said, this was a great cruise/ship/ports of call and I would recommend it to anyone. My family had issues with the way you had to go to one level, walk back and then down to get to the restaurant, but in the grand scheme it was no big deal. As with anything in life it's whatever you make it. A combination of a good attitude, relaxing and being surrounded by people you love always contributes to a better overall experience-but Carnival definitely played a big part in this great vacation.