The boat is huge and makes it difficult to get around. The layout is confusing, even after using the Carnival HUB. We had difficulties with customer service. My husband had 8 trips to their counter and still they did not get the charges right. They still overcharged the wrong credit card we gave them. The initial start to our voyage was fraught with difficulties. We had 4 teenagers, one of them being autistic, we were to enter the ship via the assistance route as the loud building was too much for the one teen. At the gate, they wanted me to leave the other teens to enter the ship without me, one was 16 and the other two had never cruised before. It took two supervisors and a reading of an email to let us all get on together.

The dinner service in the MDR was fantastic. Our server, Alexandra, was up for Employee of the month type of deal and she really earned it. The food was the same as on any other ship, good but not WOW! worthy. We did not attend any shows as it was usually standing room only unless you grabbed a seat during the mealtime. The casino was not as big as on other ships. But the hostesses were full of energy and fun. The lines for Guys Burger and the Cantina were always long. We usually just went to the buffet for lunch, which served food equivalent to any land based buffet, nothing special but good enough to call a meal.

We had three porthole rooms on the second-floor front. The weather made it a bit wavy and choppy. We were still able to sleep without too much noise. Our room steward made sure we were comfortable and our room was tidied up twice a day. We ordered room service, which was very accommodating as my husband was on a low carb diet and they made sandwiches out of lettuce leaves. Read more