Our first cruise experience ever was the Carnival Fascination some 15+ years ago. We have a very nice time but with the caveat that the Carnival brand was a younger person's party cruise and we were ready for something a bit more sophisticated. Since then, we have done multiple trips on Disney, NCL and RC. After watching a promo video on the new Carnival Horizon ship, we decided to give Carnival another try. Three days into our eight day trip and I expressed to my wife how pleasantly surprised I was at the experience. I was actually borderline impressed and that says a lot from someone like me. The food onboard was outstanding. We noticed that in comparison to our last Disney cruise experience where Disney appeared to be ratcheting down their food quality and experience, Carnival has totally upped their game. Don't get me wrong - cruise ship food is just that, cruise ship food. But on a scale of 1 - 10, Carnival's Horizon experience was a solid 9+. From their fast food stops, to their buffets to their sit-down options - we were pleased through and through.

Like any company, Carnival has made choices on where to invest their dollars and where to throttle back their investment.

The positives areas where they made investment: Read more