First, I'll start with the only downers that happened on the entire cruise:

-the ship was late leaving Jacksonville due to coming in late from the previous cruise. This was due to a storm which kept the ship from being able to hit low tide and clear the bridge between the dock and ocean. I see a few complaints on here from people that were on the previous cruise, but I fail to see how the weather is Carnival's fault. I understand it must have been miserable to be on that cruise, I was in the Navy and know how bad a storm at sea can be. A tropical storm in the Atlantic is too big and fast to outrun, and a cruise line has to do it's best to stay on schedule. A big thank you here to the Jax Hyatt hotel for letting us stay in our rooms at no extra charge until the ship was ready for us, and to Jax Park-n-Cruise for arraigning extra transport. Both establishments really came through.

-leaving the ship was a hassle for one main reason: passengers who believe they are special and have no obligation to follow instructions from the crew. We chose to carry our luggage off ourselves, as we had a 900 mile drive back home, and this option gets you off the ship more quickly. The crew announces which deck may leave (in order from bottom to top). This ensures that the elevators and stairs are not congested with the entire passenger complement trying to leave at the same time. HOWEVER, when it was our turn to go, the elevators were being hijacked with people from decks above us WHOSE TURN HADN'T COME YET. We would hit the 'down' button and watch as the elevator came from upper decks, stopped at ours, opened the doors, and showed us it was full of line jumpers who had packed it full with themselves and their luggage. The same was true with the stairwells that ground to a halt with people coming down from the upper decks. I estimate this cost us almost an hour of not being able to move off our deck. The crew did their best to reiterate that it was not their turn, and that they must wait, but these jack@#$%^s all of a sudden acted like they couldn't understand English. My suggestion to the crew: post people at the elevator and stair landings and do not let them on the stairs or elevators until their deck is called. Elitists have never been known to police themselves, so you must do it for them. Read more