My husband and I have been on quite a few cruises. We have sailed on Royal Caribbean, Princess, Holland America. We took our 11 and 14 year old daughters on Princess last year and had a great time. This year we thought we would try the fun ship, Carnival. I didn't have high expectations. I just expected to eat, drink, and relax. Not much to expect, right? The embarkation process wasn't unusual. The ship was fairly clean. I had no complaints about that. My biggest complaint was the kids programs. I expected that my daughters would get involved in the activities, just like the last cruise. My 11 year old was upset because everything that was fun to do stated "fees apply". When we did let her participate in one of the "fees apply" activities, they sat them in front of the TV to watch Garfield. I was floored when I saw that one of the activities was to snatch a set of keys out of the kid cruise counselors hands. What the???????????? Every kid wanted to do the "build a bear" activity. $20 to stuff an animal, $30 for clothes. Holy Cow!!! Activities for my 14 year old daughter. What activities. I forced her to go to the meet and greet. No one was there. No kids, no activities. When I forced her to try it again, no kids, no activities. She ended up making friendship bracelets with one of the kid counselors. The rest of the cruise, she hung out with her mom and dad or stayed locked up in the cabin reading her book. Good thing we bought her a book before we left. The next thing, which surprised me- Everytime we went up to the sun deck on the atrium elevators- there was the statue of David. Front naked view. How do you explain that to the kids. How can you have a family oriented fun ship with naked statues and naked pictures around. I found a bunch of kids making hand gestures and taking pictures with the naked lady pictures. I am well educated and familiar with fine art, but why on a family oriented fun ship. Food- I never had a hot breakfast unless I ordered a made to order omelet. The bar service in the dining room sucked. They wouldn't even address you if you just wanted a soda. No booze order, no service. Our waiter never new our name, and we were there every night. My husband had steak one night- but it wasn't steak, it was grilled fat. Adult Activities- We went to the sun deck for the bon voyage party. We showed up about 30 minutes after the life boat drill and no one was there. We couldn't find the bon voyage party. If you wanted to play BINGO, you had to get to the theater and get a good seat, then you were stuck watching the show. I think that was how they got people to see their shows. If you wanted an adult beverage, you have to specify NO Souvenir CUP, otherwise you got it anyway. They sold raffle tickets when you played BINGO. This was the only place where conveniently they accepted cash. Our room- The balcony was smaller than the bathroom. The room was fairly spacious. It was clean. We had good service in our room. My only complaint was that they never put the beds together so we could utilize the couch. If we wanted to go back and relax, watch some TV, we had to lay in bed. TV- no good channels. The same movie- Fantastic 4 Rise of the Silver Surfer played 24/7. If I see that movie again, I will scream. One day, we had no running water. When it finally started again, it was brown sludge. Some areas smelled like toilets all the time. Overall, it was a total disappointment. I will stick to Princess or Royal Caribbean. I feel bad for 1st time cruisers who have never been on a true cruise.