I chose this cruise as we canceled one out of Spain. MSC allowed us to move it once for free. We played it safe leaving out of the U.S. not knowing if some Covid strain would pop up again. I may move back and forth on topics so stay with me. I will type as things come to mind. Overall, we had a pretty good cruise. I was a little worried reading some other reviews and wanted to leave one myself so that others may know what to expect.

Embarkation was pretty smooth. Very few people had masks on. Went on Carnival cruise 3 months before and that was their requirement. What I didn't like is that the previous passengers are exiting at the same exact spot as you are making your way to enter the area where it all starts. Getting through check in was pretty fast. They have many employees working to allow a smoother process. Once in the main area, you wait in line to do the main check in where they take your picture, hand you cards, etc. We were not allowed to board for a while, maybe an hour. I recommend going into the smaller adjacent room like we did. When they called the first group to start boarding, those who I believe are their repeat customers, they also allowed that entire small room to go as well. A worker there wanted that room free of people and told everyone to just start going to get on the ship. We got lucky bc of that and we were some of the first on the ship. Get ready for every employee who has nothing to do to come ask you to buy a beverage package or the specialty dining. They were like mosquitoes, all over you constantly! That did not make me happy.

The app they tell you to use during your cruise is horrible. About 50% of the time we could not get it to load. How were we to get in contact with our 2 teenage sons if we could not chat with them on the app! Never had 1 issue with Carnival's app. The ship is beautiful. It may look HUGE, but it didn't seem so big when we were inside. I was completely impressed with how their crews work on that ship. They are non-stop making sure you never see any mess anywhere. My 12th cruise and first time I see that. About 5000 passengers on that ship, and no one that I know of got Covid. Three of 8 got Covid on that Carnival cruise with about 2400 passengers. Read more