This was my first cruise with Carnival, after only having two previous cruises both with her sister company Cunard. I did not have high expectations as the type of cruising experiencing they offer never really appealed to me but a few of us wanted to get away for a short break and this seemed the best option as it left from a port we could drive to and fit our schedule. One of the big positives is the staff as I found them to be very friendly despite some less than pleasant people they had to deal with on the ship. On several occasions I saw members of staff go out of their way to help guest. I also enjoyed the fact that they give an option of a set meal time or flexible one. We chose flexible and it worked well for this cruise although they did have some issues on occasion dealing with having anytime diners sharing a dining room with set time diners. The food in the dining room was not great with breakfast being the worst and so we chose to eat all further breakfast and lunches at the buffet. We found sitting outside and eating at these times of day very appealing. The food was plentiful and the buffet perfectly adequate regarding quality and selection. It could sometimes get busy during the normal meal times which we could avoid for the most part.

The rooms were a good size and comfortable. No complaints there. The decoration was a little to poor man's Vegas for my liking but seemed to fit the cruise experience being offered just fine.

So overall I was pleasantly surprised with the overall experience and believe it is truly value for money if you want a more relaxed cruise with no fuss of formal evenings as the dress codes seemed to never be forced. Carnaval appear to know their market well and provide the cruising experience to match and for that I think they should be applauded. My preference is more along the Cunard offer, which you pay more for, and so think I will be looking at other lines for my next cruise experience. There are different types of cruise lines for a reason so choose the one that suits your needs at the time. This one certainly fit our needs and I am glad we went.