In the interest of full disclosure the only reason I booked this cruise was because it dove tailed with a cruise I was taking prior, and I wanted to be away over Christmas.
I was fully prepared to be met with a sea of blue hair and was pleasantly surprised that there were more children on this sailing (over Christmas week) than I’ve seen on Carnival. This gave a youthful feel to the cruise, but didn’t work well at dinner hour.
Sadly the main dining room had more challenges than just large groups of boisterous children. The most glaring problem ‘literally’ the glaring overhead lighting. There is a band of fluorescent lighting that runs the length of the main dining room that is so bright you feel like you’re dining at McDonalds. After the first night of this sensory overload lighting I decided to seek out alternative dining venues. One of the more reasonable alternate dining was the Italian themed Canaletto. Unfortunately, after three visits and many menu disappointments I would not recommend this venue. My biggest complaint was not from lack of service, it was spot on, but rather that the food was really bland. The menu in the main dining room offered much better options, if it wasn’t for the ‘fast food venue’ type lighting.
The cabin is modified for disabled passengers. The plus is that it is oversized. The minus is that the wheelchair accessible shower drain is defective and flooded the carpet outside the washroom door. The carpet was soggy when I arrived and became soggier daily after each shower. Subi, the cabin attendant didn’t seem to either notice and/or (more likely) care, so it was never addressed. It took me a few days to realize that it wasn’t from the shower water escaping outside the bathroom, and was actually a drain defect.