This was my first (& last) cruise with Carnival. We have cruised many times with Royal Caribbean & Holland America.
We chose this cruise as we were travelling with our family which included 4 grandchildren and we thought Carnival would have more activities for the kids, but they have no more activities than RCL.
Embarkation was efficient and we were on board quite quickly (although we had an issue with Carnival not having our credit card details despite having provided the details previously).
Cabin was very dated. Plenty of storage space. Steward (Willie) was fantastic as nothing was too much trouble for him. Cabin was tidied twice a day. Kids loved the towel animals.