Embarkation: We chose this cruise because we were taking our whole family, kids and grandchildren and would be able to drive to Charleston in under 2 hours. Port of Charleston was very disappointing. It was unorganized. The AC was not functioning up to par inside and the lines were long. I have a bad knee and can’t stand for very long or walk far. My husband was unwilling for me to take a wheel chair or even a walker so I was hobbling about with a cane. The security was extremely slow. They said one of their scanners wasn’t working, but every other line was moving much faster than the one we were in. When we finally made it through the luggage scanning process, one of the port employees noticed that not only was I having difficulty standing and moving, but I was beet red from how hot it was inside. She took me to a place where I could sit and wait for the rest of my family to make it to the check-in counters. Not long afterward, she got my husband and son and brought them to me and let us check in. She offered me a wheelchair to board. I was so grateful. I could not have climbed stairs at that point nor walked all the way to my cabin.

Stateroom: The ship décor left a lot to be desired. We hadn’t been on such a small ship since our first cruise on the old Carnival Tropicale. Our room, an ocean view on deck 6, seemed even smaller than our room on the Tropicale. But we had all of our kids and grandchildren with us and staying in adjacent cabins. Our cabin steward, Geraldine, came and introduced herself right away and asked if we preferred morning or evening service. We chose morning. When I saw how many rooms she and her staff had to clean, at least 30, I wouldn’t have dreamed of asking for both morning and evening. Those crew members were in the hallway morning, afternoon and evening and working hard. I honestly wouldn’t mind paying more and having more crew members with fewer cabins to care for each day. But our room was kept clean and they brought me ice everyday so that I could ice my bad knee.

Food: We are not among those who are lucky enough to cruise every year, but we have had 5 previous cruises on Carnival. This was the first time I was disappointed in the food and my husband felt the same. The Lido food was only so-so. I tried to get pizza twice at lunchtime and there was never any ready. There were 2 crew members working the pizza station and they seemed to make primarily pepperoni. Any other kind you requested, they’d say it would be a 7 minute wait. Believe me, I waited much longer than that. The second time I tried to get margherita pizza. I had seen someone just get a slice. The guy said to me 7 minutes. I said forget it and that I’d take the pepperoni slice he had in his hand and just pick the pepperoni off of it. Buffet on first day was Italian. My pasta was under-cooked, cold and dry. Breakfast on the Lido wasn’t great. The eggs were much worse than I remembered from previous cruises. Waffles had no flavor. French toast was good. I wished we’d done breakfast in the MDR, but this was only a 5 day cruise. The first sea day my husband didn’t want to go there and the last sea day was the Dr. Seuss Breakfast, so we didn’t go. The soft serve ice cream was better than I remember from my last cruise. It definitely was creamy. The frozen yogurt was grainier, but still tasty. Read more