This was our 8th cruise on Carnival. We know they are not the top of the industry but they usually deliver a good value for your money. Someone compared it to going to Outback...I like Outback. In this case Carnival fell below our expectations though. I'll preface this with the issues we had were around the specific things we like to do. There were other activities on board that might have been fine.

So - the basics - 8 day cruise to Half Moon, Grand Turk, Curacao and Aruba across new years eve. Embarkation kind of long but that seems to be a Ft. Lauderdale thing. Cabin was nice. Normally we do the aft cabins with the extended decks but we booked late and none were available so we did one towards the back with a longer balcony since the room wraps around a set of crew stairs. No couch but kind of nice with the longer balcony and unique L shape room layout. First time staying on deck 6 above the bars and all that. Definitely won't do that again as the noise carries up from the evening's activities. While we were doing stuff late most nights it was not a huge issue but when you want to get away from the crowd it makes it a little tough. Owen our steward was outstanding. Hardly saw him but the room was always taken care of...he must have been paying attention to when we were leaving and jumping right in.

Did dine at your time. Longest wait was 15 minutes with varying times each night but nothing major. If you do dine at your time, your best time to eat without a wait is right at 5:45 or 7-7:15. There were no waits when we were in those times. Erik Ryan was a great waiter - we requested him 4 of the nights because he was so good. Food was good as usual...like I said...Outback. Read more