This was only our second cruise so we don't have a lot of comparison, but we did note a few things. Embarkation was extremely easy and fast.....much better than our last experience in Baltimore. Once on the boat it was chaotic, which I believe is common on most boats. Line ups for lunch were lengthy, but our room was ready as promised by 1:30, so we ate a bit later.

The muster exercise was VERY disturbing and unorganized. Many of us in muster stations F, G, and H were having difficulty finding our location (mainly because they announced that we were in the front of the boat when in fact we were in the aft). I stopped two separate crew members to help us find the right location -- both of who shrugged their shoulders and walked away. Eventually several of us found it on our own.....but then had to wait over half an hour for the rest of the cruisers to find it. The staff assigned to the muster drill seemed genuinely disinterested and bored with the whole thing. I was placed in the back row behind two gentlemen who were both over 6 feet tall (I am 5 ft 2 in)....I could not see the demonstration and genuinely left feeling a complete lack of confidence in the staff's ability to look out for my safety should something happen. This fact alone will discourage me from booking another Carnival cruise.

I found some of the staff to be wonderful - our room steward and some of the bar attendants for example - but overall, most seemed disengaged and uninterested. On one occasion, a maintenance person snorted at me like a pig as I got off the elevator. Had I not been so shocked, I would have asked his name and turned him in. Another staff member was clearly irritated when we asked how to get from one end of the boat to the other - she simply said "go to the fifth floor". Read more