Ages 43 and 51. Like traveling independently in port. 13th cruise, 2nd Carnival.We have sailed a number of different lines. Embarkation was terrible. 2.5 hours. Not sure if this has more to do with the port or Carnival. Probably a little of both. This was our first balcony cabin and we really took advantage of it. We had a pot of coffee delivered every morning. This is a good ship to score a balcony cabin for a very fair price. The room was nice size but tacky. but that could describe the whole ship. We had the best steward (Tri) that we could remember. He never disturbed us, and our room was always perfect. We did not use any of the amenities except the gym-which we loved. Probably my favorite if all cruises. They said it was recently remodeled. Oh that and the slide. We went down the huge green slide which was terrifying, but mercifully over quickly. We did not go to any shows-too corny. The few times we listened to the musicians play, they sounded like a high school band. The show band and a good singer came out for the return guest party. The singer was great! I heard the comedian railed on all the obese people on board. WOW. I am surprised he did not get tossed overboard given the majority of the guests had not missed a meal any time lately- or ever.

Food really WELL below average. The last time we sailed Carnival in 2001, the food was pretty decent. This was as bad as our MSC Mediterranean cruise, and possibly worse than our second Norwegian...which is bad. However the sandwich grill station pretty good-particularly corned beef and pastrami. I don't eat gluten, so I did not have the bread but these 2 meats were pretty decent quality. A couple meals were pretty decent on formal night (Lobster and prime rib). Not a good choice of sugar free desserts so we opted for cheese plates for several desserts. At one point in the daily cruise letter, they had to say robes are not permitted in the main dining room. Yes, the main dining room. I AM NOT KIDDING. Don't bother dressing up for this one. People came to dinner in the MDR in shorts, vulgar tshirts, holey sweats, flip flops, baseball hats. On the two "cruise elegant nights most people actually decided to bathe and put on clean clothes for dinner, which was a welcome sight and smell. For the most part as you wish dining was slow and disorganized.

We dined at the steakhouse on the first night ($30 each, free bottle of wine if you are there the first night). The starters were very ordinary. My tuna tartar was still frozen, the lobster bisque underwhelming. The steaks-Cowboy and Ribeye were excellent and definitely high end in quality. I regret that I was almost full when I got mine , because they were far better than the rest of the meal. Read more