The Good: The entertainment and shows were excellent and the best we have ever seen, and we've seen more than a few. The talented dancers could have lit up that ship with all their energy. The costumes were astonishing, and the last night, the whole audience gave them a standing ovation. And this from a crowd made up predominantly of folks from the Los Angeles area.

Our staterooms were in the Spa Category. Though a little on the small side as cabins go, we had a nice balcony, and enjoyed little amenities such as the plush bathrobes, spa products in the bath, and muted tones. Considering how tarted up the rest of the ship was (more later), we found this very soothing. Our attendants were excellent. We had Jonathen and I.K. (his real name is hard to spell) who took very good care of us and our adult children, who had an interior spa room across the hall. This category entitled us to unlimited use of the Spa, and a private stair or elevator to the Spa facilities. We liked the way they set this up, and look forward to seeing how the Holland Line's converting some of their staterooms to Spa staterooms on four of their older ships will work out.

Needs Improvement: The food quality was not as good as we had on the Carnival Spirit. However, they have to be commended for how good a job they did getting so many meals served so efficiently to this huge a crowd. Our cruise had over 3600 people on board, with loads of kids and teens. We were bumped from our confirmed Main seating table the first night. When we asked Guest Relations (see more of them in the bad) what could be done, they told us that we had booked our cruise "too late" and so we were bumped first! We booked months ago, so I found that excuse a little lame. However, the next day we received a card giving us a new table assignment at the Main Seating, which we were glad to accept. Our waiters were Wilfredo and Romeo, and were just great. By the way, the Officer in charge of the Gold Pearl Dining sang for us every night and has a really excellent voice! Must be the Irish in him. Read more