We are avid cruisers. We have taken many cruises on Carnival Cruise lines, but the food on this one as well as the overall dining experience was horrible. Every night there was at least a 40 minute wait to get into the dining room. Most nights our kids couldn't even eat with us because they wanted to take part in the kid's activities that start at 8pm (two hours after our dining was scheduled to start). Furthermore, there is nothing special about the dining room meals. Everything, and i mean EVERYTHING, served in the dining room is available on the lido deck buffet. One night we found hair in our food. The wait staff and Maitre D could have cared less. One night we ordered what was described as Tiger Shrimp Creole. You know those little salad shrimp you can find frozen in your local market? That is what was in the dish. Had it not been for the Burger and Taco bars by the pool, we would have had not really been able to eat. The ship is fine, but the dining experience ruined it for us. Dinner time is really the only time our family could get together and we were hoping to have some time together, but Carnival didn't really let that happen. We have been on 6 or 7 Carnival cruises in the past. Never a complaint until now. We are not easily irritated people, but this was pretty irritating. I give this cruise a failing grade. We asked for a credit to our account and they gave the credit to a family that was traveling with us and said that was appropriate. So 'IF' we were to ever return to a Carnival ship and 'IF' we can talk that family into going with us and 'IF' they will let us use their Cruise Cards we can take advantage of the credits.