This cruise was in celebration of my husband's 40th birthday. We repeated this cruise from 8 years ago and were quite excited to take our daughter back to the last frontier. The negative: We opted for a balcony room but were recommended an "obstructed view" by not only our travel agent but a Carnival representative as well to shave a few dollars off the total. Our first concern was the view for our 9 yr old. We're going to Alaska with the view being our main priority. No worries we were told, the lifeboat is "tucked" underneath your balcony. Uhhhh....not accurate at all. The lifeboat was flush with the bottom of our balcony and given her height, it was nearly impossible for her to see ANYTHING except UP. After many phone calls to our agent and Carnival, notes were found where the representative inaccurately described the view. We were told, "Oh, sorry. The ship is full, there is no where for us to move you." We were bumped to the top of the list if anyone had to leave ship. We were, in fact, moved to a different cabin mid-way through the cruise when a family had to leave. No one helped move our luggage from one floor to another and we were moved to a downgrade in category. There was little to no apology for such a disappointing and frustrating situation due to a CARNIVAL EMPLOYEE.
Next, we were given an onboard credit with our booking which no one seemed to find. While at the front desk I logged into my Carnival account and showed the associate our credit, email her a screenshot of my account and await a response from the Miami office. It was the end of the cruise when we received the credit.
Dinner was such a slooooowwwww affair. When you have a 9 year old, a 1.5 - 2 hr dining event is not ideal. There were nights we would order wine and either need to remind the waiter numerous times that we hadn't received our wine or never even get it. The food was average for a cruise ship.
It was a short excursion where you are basically guaranteed to find gold (if you pan correctly). Our 9 yr old LOVED it and we combined all of our gold flakes together & purchased a keepsake necklace for her to keep it in.