My husband and I decided to cruise with 2 couples from church, no kids this May.  Based upon reviews here and other places, we decided to book Carnival as it cruised out of Galveston.  Our first choice was Princess, but at the time we booked, airfare was close to $600 per person round-trip, so we wanted to drive.  Our 2nd choice was Royal Caribbean, but they have their ship out of Galveston in Europe during May.  We settled on Carnival.  Saying that we settled is an understatement.  Live and learn, right?We have previously sailed with Disney Cruiselines, which was top notch.  That is the only cruiseline I have to compare Carnival against.  I really rated too high in many areas.  If I could have given a 0 for the following categories I would have:CabinRatesDiningEntertainmentValue for the MoneyHere are my overall comments on the cruise - in short:Embarkation & Debarkation:These were both very simple processes.  It was easy checking in, getting on the ship and getting off the ship.On embarkation, the reps at the desk did not look like they were happy to see any of us, but I was the one going on vacation, not them  - - so that is okay.Public Rooms:If you smoke and you like smelling smoke, you will love this cruise.  Everyroom was filled with smoke.  People smoking in the hallways to their cabin, people smoking in the elevators, people smoked everywhere without care or regard for the other guests.  As an ex-smoker, I feel guilty for all I subjected people to in my younger days.  Cabin:The cabins were small, the bathrooms were tiny, the beds were uncomfortable, the hallways were very noisy and the smell in the bathroom was pretty yuck at times.  There is A LOT of closet space, space under the bed and 4 drawers for storing your items.  The room also has a safe for your valuables.  We had an inside stateroom.  It was about half the size of an inside stateroom on Disney.Fitness:The fitness room was nice and clean.  There was not enough equipment for all the guests.Rates:We recieved a military disount and found that for 7 nights, this cruise was not worth the $1800 we paid for 2 adults, pre-paid mandatory tips and insurance.  I am not cheap in any way - my vacations are always over 4K for 6 nights, but this was not a good value.Dining:The food in the main dining rooms left a lot to be desired.  The servers were fantastic and the entertainment, while not really that great, was funny for sure.  The options and quality of the food was not that impressive.  The buffets were pretty good.  In most cases, they were better than the main dining rooms.  And they had a chocolate buffet - YUM!!!The pizzas were creative.  The burgers were all dried out and not good.  A hot dog is a hot dog.The Supper Club was phenominal and worth the $30 per person fee as well as the extra tip we gave them.  I recommend the supper club to every adult visiting a Carnival ship that offfers this.Entertainment:The entertainment was terrible.  The only thing good we saw was the blues singer.  That was a lot of fun.  The stage shows were very risque, especially for showing them at 8 PM.  The showgirls are nothing I would want my kids to see.  I would have been mortified had my daughter been in there and looked up to see so much booty and skin revealed.  There was no warning - I saw parents walking out with their kids.  Putting that aside, the shows were not that great in quality.  The vocals were so-so, the content was silly and the whole purpose in the show was for the showgirls to show their bottoms.  haha!The entertainment on the Lido was not that great either.  They had team competitions one night which were fun (lots of dancing) - - - aside from all of that the rest of the entertainment was lame.  The breakdancers were terrible, the lounge singers were okay, the onboard fun was not fun really and the pools were so tiny for as many cruisers as they hae aboard this ship.Room Steward & Dining Server:The room steward and dining waiters were wonderful.  They deserved the tip (good thing since it is mandatory).  We gave them something extra before we left as well.  We were very impressed with the service from them, as well as the Supper Club.  The rest of the service on the ship was middle ground.One other thing we really did not like is that everything and I do mean EVERYTHING, comes with a sales pitch.  You could not enjoy your vacation without somebody trying to sale you something extra.  Also a big push for tips.  In some cases, they are pushing for tips for people behind the scenes that you have no idea what they supposedly did for you.The Casino was small, but somewhat enjoyable.  It was so smoky it was ridiculous, but there are tons of slots as well as card tables.  We played blackjack.  The dealers were not very friendly in most cases, but some are.  Different than Vegas.I know Carnival calls their ships the "Fun Ship Cruise" but we realized it was the "Drunk Ship Cruise" in about 2 days.  Everybody is drunk around the clock.  People were sitting by the pool aleady drunk at 9 AM.  Ridiculous.  I know it is vacation, but after 7 days of this, we had enough.I am sorry to insult anybody, but my overall assessment was that they stopped by the trashiest K-Mart in Texas, picked up all of the people there named Bubba, Betty Sue and Gomer dressed in their stinky yard-work clothes, drove them down to Galveston and placed them all on the Carnival Cruise.  We met some really sweet people with morals on the cruise and some awesome elderly couples, but most of the people fit my description.  It is not what we expected for $1800.  Next time I will pay $4K to go on a Celebrity Cruise.The overall value for the money - it wasnot worth the money we spent and we will never sail Carnival again.  Next time we are going with Celebrity.