We chose this cruise two years ago when we were on the Breeze. We always book onboard for the perks and were only on the Breeze because Carnival had cancelled our cruise on the Dream! Only once we spoke with the future cruise booking agent on the Dream we were told that our former booking should have never been cancelled! As a consolation gift they gave us a $25 bar credit (we don't drink) and we didn't figure out until the last day of this cruise that we could have used it all week for specialty coffees!

We checked in online as soon as final payment was done and neglected to realize that we needed to select a boarding time! As a result, we ended up having to arrive at the pier 2-2:30 and felt like we missed out on half a day. Our fault I suppose but we still felt like we missed out unnecessarily. We walked on with our luggage (no porters in sight) and went straight to our cabin since it was so late, and yet, no sign of our cabin steward and the room was cleaned but had no card with his name, no rubber cloth to protect the bed from the suitcase, no bottles of water (past guest), no tickets for purchased shore excursions, in fact, there was no card in the phone to show which button would reach which party! My husband pushed a button and got 911 and they got really angry that we didn't have an emergency! When we reached the services desk, we told them our room wasn't ready and within minutes we had a knock on the door. It was our room steward who wanted me to write a note stating that he had made up the room!!! I wrote it and managed to ask for an ice bucket - but in the process he decided what I meant was that I only needed a clean up in the morning and no evening turn down. By now I was not having fun, we had not gotten to eat anything or even hear any music, some cruise!! and it was already time for the muster drill!

After 27 cruises, we know how to enjoy a cruise, any cruise, there is no such thing as a bad one, but this one truly tested this belief. I didn't mind him not refilling toilet paper or tissues or leaving the brown box out instead of replacing it in the dispenser, replacing towels even when we left them on the towel bar, etc. Read more