Background- my boyfriend and I saw a great deal on this cruise, less than two hundred a person and decided to go for it. Unfortunately, this cruise is cheap for a good reason! We had both taken previous cruises and personally, I had high expectations based on my wonderful trips on Royal Caribbean and Disney. Carnival does not have high standards of excellence and I wish we had just saved our money and put it towards a better vacation. Don't be swayed by the low cost, it's not worth it!

Staterooms- We stayed in stateroom U16. It was a bit worn, but basically ok. The two portholes were nice and on future cruises, this is a feature that I would want. The room was bigger than we expected it to be and had plenty of storage. One weird thing is the news is tuned to a Colorado station. I can't remember the name of our stateroom attendant, but he did a decent job. The towel animals were a big hit. The room was very noisy when we docked, loud in early morning hours. Also, no hot water on the final day of the cruise.

Main Dining Room- We had our dinners in the Destiny dining room and our server was William. The food was almost inedible. Every night, several dishes, including desserts had to be sent back or sat uneaten. Our table mates also complained several times. The crab cakes had shells in them. One of our table mates had pumpkin pie that was the consistency of jello. I actually think my boyfriend figured out the problem, he said it was as if the chefs were given a recipe, but they had never actually tried the dishes that they were preparing or had a good example of what it is supposed to taste like. Most of the food was just plain weird. They also had strange combinations...like steak with a mushy pea/potato combo. I had salmon that was accompanied with Mac and Cheese. Everything was a bit off. The only thing that was consistent, was the melting chocolate cake. Our server was nice enough, but seemed like he was under a lot of pressure from his boss. He did not seem comfortable or happy doing his job. He also made several mistakes and seemed crest fallen when we didn't like our meals. We felt sorry for him. It was also very uncomfortable watching the servers sing and dance every night. Most of them seemed very reluctant to participate. Also, it was a disorganized mess, as most of them did not know the choreographed dance moves or lyrics. Why bother if it's going to be a half hearted effort? Read more