I chose this cruise because of the ship. I sailed on the Sunshine in 2014 and loved the Cloud 9 Spa balcony cabin I had (same room I had this time) the amazing Serenity area (best of any Carnival ship) and crazy water park. I liked the itinerary and the 8 days. This cruise was fairly expensive compared to all others we booked in previous years but we had several first time cruisers that we convinced to come and felt this ship and itinerary would put Carnivals (and cruisings) best foot forward.

I always purchase Faster to the Fun so embarkation was a smooth as butter. I was on the ship within 30 minutes of getting dropped off at the port. I can't say it exceeded my expectations but thats only because of the high standard that Carnival has set in this regard. Faster to the Fun is still worth the price, even though the price had gone up this year.

I had heard rumours about certain levels of service declining due to staff cuts and that was immediately clear. My cabin wasn't ready when I arrived (12:00 PM), even though thats part of the Faster to The Fun. I did have access to it so I was able to leave my bags and go get lunch. I didn't actually meet my room steward until the following day. When I did meet Junior he was very pleasant. Read more