I went on the 8 day Southern Caribbean cruise (Grand Turk, La Romana DR, Curacao and Aruba) with my husband and 2 teenage children (ages 14 & 15).

We had a port side, deck 8 balcony cabin #8354 which was nicely decorated BUT seemed smaller then other balcony cabins we had in the past on other large Carnival ships... not sure if they are or if its just due to layout. Cabin was in a great location to access the entire ship, and was quiet. Our balcony did overlook the smoking deck (down on deck 5) but we did not have any smoke smell at all. Others had complained there rooms were too warm, our AC was working great and was comfortable the entire trip. We did however have a nasty STRONG sewer smell, that would come and go, in our bathroom..... GROSS!

When we boarded our cabin was ready for us and our luggage was waiting outside our door (thanks to FTTF) expect our bathroom was not clean. We found our cabin steward and he came in to clean it (he was NOT happy to see it had been missed) and we also asked for our mini fridge to be emptied (he said he would have that done within the hour)..... needless to say it took him 2 days of us reminding him to get it done. This was par for course for our service we received from our stewards, they even skipped our room for turn down a couple of nights which meant no animal friends waiting for us, which is a highlight we always look forward to each evening. We had NEVER had a bad experience with our stewards on past cruises, and was taken aback from the lack of detail and personable attention we have enjoyed before. Read more