My Carnival Victory cruise over the Easter Weekend was a mixture of good and bad. The good included a spacious cabin, generally tasty food at the buffet, a nice aft pool area, and the staff in general. The bad included the cramped and unfriendly main pool area, not enough Swirl ice cream stations, no free drink station in the aft pool area (there was a bar though), a very small section for and a long wait for pizza on the sea day, strange location for Serenity, and the lateness of the main show (10:15pm).

Unfortunately, too, the people with the cabin next to me smoked on the balcony which was not good as I enjoy sitting and relaxing in the fresh air on the balcony. This ship also didn't have a tv station showing the ship's position which I kind of missed and the mini-golf area was tiny (much smaller than on the Sensation). Actually, the ship had almost a dead feeling. It made me feel as if Carnival is on its last legs even though it was crowded. There was no feeling of the adventure of sailing on the seas (which I felt on the Carnival Sensation, a much older ship) or of the elegance/graciousness of old-fashioned cruising (which I kind of felt on the Carnival Dream).

For me, the fun was missing on the Carnival Victory and I couldn't wait to get off the ship at the end of the cruise. There was nothing terrible about it--I guess it was just mediocre. A big part of it also was the main pool area--lots of steps, and levels, and railings, and not much charm. The decor in the Mediterranean and the Siren's pool area was nice though. I had a cruise scheduled on a Carnival ship later this year but have cancelled that cruise mainly because that ship has the same layout as the Victory. And one last thing: some of the entertainment staff had an edge to them which was not funny--it seemed that underneath they meant what they said when they tried to joke around with volunteer participants (and I'm not talking about the comedians). And what happened to the little square chocolates? There were none on this cruise.