We have cruised about 20 times on Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Disney and Princess. This was our first time on Carnival. We chose it due to time constraints and because we thought the destinations were interesting. We found the contrast between our experiences on the other cruise lines and Carnival was dramatic - much worse than we had expected.

Things began badly during embarkation. We had some sealed water bottles and a couple bottles of diet coke that were not allowed through security - they made us toss them out. Reading the contract more carefully, they do have that right - they allow cans and cartons, but not bottles. What annoyed me was the number of people in the checkin line (after security) who had water bottles, soda bottles and other beverages that had been passed through the security. There was no consistency among the screening crews. We just happen to get a tough one?

Our stateroom - a balcony stateroom on deck 6 was of a pleasant size. We had three guests and it was listed as having a sofabed for the third passenger. What we found was that there was no sofa - just an extra bed. While it was comfy for sleeping, it left nowhere to sit in the room. Also, because it didn't quite fit in the space, the main bed was moved farther toward the wall - so it didn't line up with the headboard that was mounted on the wall and left one nightstand squished up against the curtain and almost no room to walk around the bed on that side. The door to the balcony did not latch and the glass panel was filthy with streaks of something running down it. I think these were in between the two panels of glass. We stepped out onto the balcony and found it to be sticky, covered in sand or salt or something. The walls were streaked with rust and the glass panel of the balcony was also filthy. Read more