We are 4 time cruisers (38 yrs old, 40 yrs old & 9 yrs old): 1st was Disney Western Caribbean, 2nd Disney Eastern Caribbean, 3rd Royal Caribbean Western Caribbean (Legend). We wanted to try something else so after this or a few more we could really sink our teeth into a cruise line and stick with it. We were not thrilled with the cold staff on RC.
Upon embarkation we were immediately whisked to VIP check-in due to the fact that we finally got a suite instead of a balcony stateroom. Nervous that Carnival would be cheesy because of the "party boat" reputation it has, we were more than pleasantly surprised by our NICE,large room. There was nothing cheesy about it. I had read somewhere that the boat was dated and I have to disagree, it was appropriately neat and very clean (in fact too clean -- couldn't find a garbage can anywhere but inside the room).
We also had requested second seating (8 PM) and saw on our Sail and Sign cards they had us down for 5:45. We complained right away and were sent to see the Maitre d' (Manuel of Paris Dining Room) who immediately switched us to 8:00 seating. The whole incident was 2 minutes and didn't even phase us.