This was my first experience on a Carnival ship and it will be my last. The cruise was booked with an inside cabin which would be assigned later,and initially we were to be on deck 2. My companion, a veteran cruiser, decided to check options for an upgrade since she had never been that low on any ship previously with more than 30 past cruises. She paid to upgrade us to deck 6. Little did we know that cabin 6404 was to be the "cabin from hell".Because of its location above the nightclub,we were subjected to constant loud music and could actually feel the walls vibrate till the entertainment ended at 12:30am .We were slightly aft of the center of the ship and many cabins on Deck 6 aft have this problem. All the music venues(casino,nightclub, Caliente disco,Latin Club,comedy club/karaoke, and piano bar) are on deck 5 and due to poor ship design/lack of insulation the comfort and privacy of many cabins are sacrificed .This cabin was to be my home for 9 nights where I would spend the Christmas holiday and New Years Eve, so I complained just after midnight on the 1st night,but ultimately there was nothing that could be done to change our cabin. In fairness, Carnival did issue a 20% credit ,but our cruise experience was ruined never-the-less.I also think that the design of the theater is flawed in that nearly all the seating on the main level is flat so it's difficult to see the show over the sea of heads in front of you.It's a shame that there are plans to build 2 more ships with this same flawed design. Clearly public space is sacrificed in favor of more cabins and with 4,500 passengers you really feel the crunch on the Lido deck and the pool deck. It was also among the more difficult ships to walk around on.

We chose Carnival's version of anytime dining,and overall there were some very good meals served although we had no choice of dining rooms . We managed to find a superb waiter after experiencing a few weak servers and asked to be seated in his section for each meal which worked out well. I felt that the food in the buffet was average with the best choices being the Tandoori and Sandwich shop in the back of the ship. The meals in the optional steakhouse were excellent as was the service there,so we visited it twice.

Another excellent feature on this ship were the major production shows which were among the best that I've seen. The comedy club was very good too, and I saw 4 comedians who each had a pg show and r-rated show and I saw them all. Read more