This was my first Carnival cruise (5th cruise - all prior trips with other brands) and I will say I am impressed. We selected this cruise as it was my fiance's birthday, we liked the itinerary, it was a great value and he lives in New Orleans. We both work in hospitality and hotel management and travel quite a bit, together and separately.

I will confirm that our stateroom (8336) was dated but clean and our Room Attendant, Michael, was awesome. We asked for ice on the first day and Michael made sure it was replenished every day. We really liked the location of our room but between 3:00 & 4:00 a.m. a few nights I was woken up by banging from above. Since the Lido deck was directly above us I could only guess that it was the housekeeping team cleaning and setting pool furniture.

We both thought the common areas were very nice. Everything was well maintained and clean. We never had a problem finding a lounge chair on the pool deck but the pools were too small and very crowded. We were happy to lounge, people watch and read. I even tried to teach him Sudoku ;-) Read more