I chose this ship because it is Carnivals newest in 4 years. I have not been on Carnival since our trip on the BREEZE when she was new, ( which we loved). We thought that this would be an enhancement of the Breeze, judging by the promos. We booked spa balcony cabins, as we did on Breeze, but we were very disappointed in the Spa on this ship. They advertised a Thallosotherapy pool...and what was there was just a large hot tub, not nearly large enough for this size ship and could only fit around 5 people in at a time. Also, even though we paid extra for Spa access, with our category booked, 8S, there always seemed to be day passes taking up all of the small space. The spa/thermal suites area was very small and was always crowded. We hardly had a chance to use it. Please limit the day passes....

The ship was nice, LARGE and decorated nicely for the holidays. Many Carnival fans will be disappointed that there is no central atrium or main lobby areas, but rather a small lobby bar area that was very crowed when Matt the cruise director (the best thing about the ship!) was there "performing" . Matt was the most entertaining cruise director I have seen in a long time. He is great at ad libbing and is quite hilarious....however, that is about all I can say for the cruise directors staff, because I really did not see or hear of any others...?! There were the typical activities throughout the day...lots of trivia, art auctions, kids things and of course the hairy chest contest....but Twice in one week? .. really? The announcements and information was also incorrect at times ,... and confusing. For example; the second "elegant night" was announced as white night AND elegant night Also NO shopping or PORT maps in Fun times the night before port and NONE on gangway...unless you left ship in the first hour! They do NOT leave any on the gangway. The tv had a lot of Carnival channels but we could not find any events re playing on the tv, like we usually see...... Love and marriage show, Hasbro game show, pool games, except debarkation talk.

The elevators are small HOT and slow. Only one goes to deck 15, serenity deck....horrible. The pool has a great large screen tv and only showed the '\"aquarium loop" the entire trip in the day time. NOT one concert or documentary, as we usually like with these large screens. Dive in movies were ok. Weather was not too great for them....We did not use the IMAX/ Thrill theater, although it is a nice feature. Read more