The food was tasty, beautifully presented with diverse choices, the waiter service excellent, but on this January cruise Carnival decided to have besides the regular early and late pre-assigned tables, a "choose your time" dining option (5:45 to 9:30) with Maitre D assigning the tables each night. Hundred wanted to eat early. What a madhouse it was to get seated in the 5:45 PM timeslot, which was promised when we booked thru Carnival back in July/August: a table for 2 at 5:45. Some folks were really angry. Grown adults can behave very rudely, pushing and shoving, cursing even, with several passengers discovering they could get in the back entrance and taking SELF-assigned tables, throwing the whole seating plan all askew. The Maitre D's was almost tearing his/her/their hair out, but always remaining polite, and eventually getting everyone seated though sometimes not until 7:45 PM defeating the whole purpose of "choosing your own time". None of us were happy cruisers. Carnival HAS to fix this problem.

We started out in cabin 1203 on deck 1. NEVER, EVER, Book a cabin in the further-most forward section on the lowest passenger deck, unless you are out of your cabin all night long and can sleep like a log. Besides the waves hitting the bow, there are fin-like stabilizers that move out from the bow to stabilize such a huge ship. They are not quiet. Fortunately after begging for another cabin, we got assigned to an inside cabin on deck 8. It was a joy to be in that cabin, and even though it was small, it was perfectly adequate.