I just returned from a very disappointing cruise experience on the Carnival Victory. The ship is extremely smoky which aggravated my wife's asthma. Even though we had a cabin with a private balcony, it didn't help. Our neighbors in the next cabin were both chain smokers, so when they were out on their balcony we could not use ours. The barrier between balconies is open at the top & bottom. The Victory is poorly laid out - you can't go directly from Point A to Point B. For example, when you finish dinner on Deck 3 Aft & want to go to the show on Deck 3 Forward, you have to go up to Deck 5, cross through a long passageway (passing the shops, casino, & several bars), & then back down to Deck 3.
Worst of all, the staff is poorly trained & virtually incompetent. In just 5 days, numerous things went wrong, all of which were preventable. A few examples - a room service meal was delivered without silverware, someone else's luggage was brought to our cabin, our door was propped wide open after the steward left.
Disembarkation was a joke. No one announced where to go to leave the ship, so we were all wandering around until we accidentally found the gangway. There was no staff directing traffic or controlling the lines.