Cabin Review

Our room #6-434 was right above the Rio bar and we heard the entertainment every night. Fortunately we brought a white noise machine. We even heard someone practicing their trumpet scales one afternoon.

The curtains did not cover the entire window or door.

A great alcove or private entrance isolated our stateroom and that of 6432 with a small hall and an extra door that could be locked. This helped with the noise and privacy.

Safe uses a card with a magnetic strip (safe would not take the magnetic strip from the current or a previous Carnival Sign & Sail card, nor from my debit card) It finally worked with my credit card. However, maintenance had to come twice to reset it. I used it very sparingly in fear that I would have to call again.

Room had great air conditioning, 2 vents.

Ice machines are available across from where the laundromats are indicated on the plans, at least on deck 6. The ice buckets are so small, I used my small ice chest extensively with a hard plastic insert to keep water, ginger ale and, champagne cold. So disappointed not to have a fridge!

No beach towels in room and no place to retrieve on deck despite sign in bathroom saying so.

I had requested twin beds from the "Manage my Cruise" feature on the Carnival website. The beds were together when we arrived. No problem to get this changed.

I requested hangars for pants since none were available; 2 were delivered for such along with 4 additional regular hangars.

Bathroom tile and caulking looked new in the bathroom. The sink was cracked. There was no hot water in the sink on the first day. The drug cabinet mirrors were stained. The shower was bigger than any other stateroom we have ever had. Shampoo and body wash were adequate. I don't know why Carnival doesn't opt for liquid soap for the sink instead of the messy soap bar. The samples included breathe rights (2) teeth whitening strips (2) a Suave body lotion and a Suave body wash.

Reaching guest services on our stateroom phone was impossible while in port and on several other occasions, we were placed on hold with a repetitive canned message until the line was finally disconnected. It was impossible to reach the stateroom attendant's pager from the same phone to get towels.

We looked for a towel station since there is a sign in the restroom indicating that these would be located at the pool but nope that is not the case.

No flat screen TV in our stateroom! TV was big, old and dusty (the pay per view feature showed an error and we had to call guest services to make sure we would not be charged. Our bill was not viewable on the TV either). Some rooms have flat screens. No account info or interactive information available definitely could have used some modernizing during the dry dock at the end of September 2011.

Our balcony was an aft wrap, at least 27 feet long and fabulous for privacy. The glass had several spots of wood stain from the recently repainted rail). There were several specs of paint in visible areas, namely on one of the 7 chairs. A razor blade was stuck to the ledge of the outer area below the glass. Cigarette butts and red fake flower petals littered the balcony floor, unfortunately.

The stateroom was the biggest one we have ever had, at least 230 square feet and a good thing since we spent a lot of time in it with the rough seas on the last couple of days.