We chose this cruise because we have traveled with Carnival before and they were offering a new ship with inaugural sailing in the Mediterranean. This was one area of the world we have always wanted to visit and so, this was the opportunity. The ship was beautiful, well decorated and we never felt like there were 4000 passengers on board. We enjoyed the dining options and found most of the food excellent. The shows were good, however the standup was not always the best. We loved the Sky Ride and the inner tube water slide in the water park. The Serenity Lounge was beautiful, l and we enjoyed taking advantage of all variety of seating options along both sides of the 5th floor of the ship. Our favorite pool areas was the Havana Pool, but it was only available to most of us after 5pm. That did work out well for us, as we were often returning from a shore excursion about that time and could cool off there. The staff was friendly and helpful. The one difficulty we encountered was being seating during the "your own dining" times if we did not go before 7pm. There were always crowds and it took up to an hour to be seated on some evenings. Other than that, we thoroughly enjoyed our 10 day cruise on this beautiful new ship, as we visited several ports of call that were beautiful and so interesting.