This was our third cruise this year and seventh on Carnival and one of the best ships yet! The service was great in all areas, food was delicious - especially the sushi bar, Ji Ji, steakhouse, Guy's Burgers, pasta bar lunch, 24 hour pizza. The Anytime Dining setup was somewhat strange in that you check in at the Taste Bar, which is located on the Promenade, then wait until the pager goes off, then travel your party down two floors. One night, our party of 5 waited 45 minutes before even heading downstairs, where we waited an additional 5-10 minutes. They also set up tables of 5 at booths for 4 with a chair stuck on the end. Luckily, we were always seated at tables for six.

The Alchemy Bar was a hit! We first experienced it on the Liberty earlier in the year so we were excited to be able to enjoy the concoctions again. The one downfall was the VERY loud live music being played every night in the vicinity. Part of the enjoyment of the bar experience is chatting to the bartenders and other customers, which was thoroughly enjoyed on the Liberty, but we were unable to have any sort of conversation without shouting due to the music being blared constantly - which, if it was not being played in the promenade, was being played in the Red Frog Pub and loudly piped into the Promenade. Sportsquare is a very nice addition to the boat, as is the 3 story Serenity area.

The only other comment I have is to be sure you understand your stateroom: we were three people traveling in a balcony stateroom. The third person was to sleep on a sofa (about the size of a loveseat, maybe a bit larger) which made into a twin sized bed. If the third person is any taller than 5'3", their feet will hang off the hard as a rock sofa bed...I do not know what Carnival is assuming when they sell balcony rooms for three travelers: perhaps a child is the third, or the third traveler is shorter than 5'3", but it was rather uncomfortable. The real kicker is that they had a spa balcony room available for upgrade, which they indicated would only fit two travelers - as my parents upgraded to a spa balcony, I was able to visit and ironically, the sofa was normal length and had they put some bedding on it, it would have been more comfortable than what we had in our stateroom.