This was our first time sailing on Carnival, although it was our 14th cruise. I enjoyed the cruise because I love cruising, the weather and ports were great and we always have fun cruising. The positive aspects were that our cabin was huge, larger than I can ever remember on any ship with lots of storage to keep things organized, a large shower and shelves at the bathroom vanity. Another great feature was good lighting at the vanity in the bedroom. You could actually see to do your makeup and I have found this to be a problem on other ships.

The food was good.....great burgers and fries at Guys, fabulous fresh tacos at the Blue Iguana and the dining room food was great, too. My biggest complaint was the service in the dining room. It was just atrocious!! I have never experienced anything as bad on a cruise. It took forever.....We usually sat for 20 minutes before anyone even brought us a menu and water. Once you ordered there was an extremely long wait before appetizers and entrees came. Honestly, the wait staff didn't seem to have a clue what they were doing. The waiter in charge had to tell his assistants what to do and he was often shouting instructions to them, otherwise they were just wandering aimlessly doing nothing. Then they brought huge trays of entrees with food for three different tables to the station and had to sort through them to find out which table items belonged to whom and then often they were wrong or no longer warm when they finally were served. It was really unbelievable and I am a patient person. If you got seated for dinner at 6PM you could not get served and finish your dinner in time to get a decent seat in the theater for an 8:15 show.

We found the ship layout to be compartmentalized and not very open and even though there was an atrium with a lounge.....it just didn't seem to be a hangout area and the entertainment they did have was not good, except for one duo that was pleasant. The casino was incredibly smoky.....if you are a non smoker you could barely stand to walk through there. The production shows were well done and entertaining and we love watching the movies on the outdoor screen, however show up very early because there were only few seats in front of the screen. If you had to sit up in the tiered seats there were hot tubs between you and the screen with young people in them laughing and screaming so loudly you couldn't hear the movie. Read more