Dissapointing - NOT Recommended

This was our 1st cruise as a family (all adults) centered on Bahama ports of call: Half Moon Cay island, and Nassau. Started out with simple annoyance, silly policy that confiscated (sealed 12pack) of soda. Trip seemed pretty routine, kind of windy. This prevented our 1st port of call on Half Moon Cay. This was most disappointing because we had so much invested in the activities of this day. We spent our day on the ship doing ship activities and waited till our next port of call, Nassau. The day in Nassau was enjoyable and sad to see the end. Next was another day on ship before saying good by the great staff who tried hard to make our stay as pleasant as possible. Activities we liked, workout room, deck, comedy club, music, trivia games, dining room.

Why we DON'T recommend this voyage:

The ports of call are hit and miss, you may end up spending most of your time on the ship, like us. We felt cramped much of the time. The ship was smaller than most, the pool was small and they had 3 hot tubs that were always full. Most of the ship activities were designed to separate you from you money. Its a nonstop home shopping network and gambling. You pay for all your drinks and sodas, I tried bringing soda on board but they confiscated it unless you had carry it They don't allow you to bring alcohol aboard ship. Your only free choices are coffee, milk, tea and lemonade. Juice was only available at breakfast.

The food was Okay, mostly cafeteria quality unless you were in the dining room. The crew is mostly foreign nationals who really don't understand the nuances of American cuisine. Communicating with them was difficult. I got bored with options especially since I can cook better. The best option was the desserts but not healthy unless you choose fruits. You end up eating far more than you should and don't feel so well afterward.

Overall, it was an experience, I don't care to repeat.

Next time I will do a destination vacation where I can spend a few days exploring and doing the things that I choose on my own schedule. We met a lot of interesting people but most had little in common with us.

We were told by seasoned cruisers that Carnival is just a basic cruise line, that larger ships were better and the food was better. You get what you pay for and evidently this wasn't enough. It will be a loooong while before I try this again.