15 year veteran cruiser couple who have always enjoyed Carnival and have never had a reason to try another cruise line will be trying out the competition after this cruise. Carnival has changed in several ways, and none of them for the better.
I booked the cruise on the Carnival website only to immedately thereafter be pelted with ads from an agency for the same cruise at the same price with a free shore excursion. Carnival's price guarantee only applies to an actual cheaper price on the cruise so it did not apply here. So things did not start well even before departure.
Check out the new soda and bottled water policy before you go - no bottles of any kind. You can bring 12 cans of soda each. Hope you like canned soda and either drinking the ship's water/iced tea/lemonade or buying bottled water onboard. As repeat cruisers, they did give us each one complimentary bottled water.