We, as a family, were looking forward to this cruise for months. it was my and my husband's first cruise. embarkation was easy. Our kids and grandkids have been on several cruises so they know the drill. we boarded and ate lunch on the lido deck, then on to our cabins to unpack. luggage was at our cabin by 3:30 and we unpacked and got ready for dinner. we had early dining in the elation dining room. christian and eduardo were our waiters and they were beyond great. any request we had was filled quickly and they made our under 18's really enjoy the dining experience....the over 18's, likewise. ( for some of you that have never cruised before, be aware, you can order as many appetizers, entree's or desserts that you want....and this family did just that! lobster night was outrageous....we kept ordering and ordering and ordering and they kept bringing....! there were 11 of us and we must have eaten 25-30 lobsters and shrimp!! needless to say we enjoyed dinner time and our waiters were part of the enjoyment! they became part of the family!!!! Entertainment on board was fun. punchliner comedians were great and my granddaughter was ready to go on stage with the singers and dancers. thoroughly enjoyed. Out cabin steward, francis, was amazing! everything we asked for was brought to us quickly with a smile on his face. he, as well, treated us as family. The reason i cannot give this trip an excellent review is because we, as a family, decided to have a batman adventure night.....we all dressed up as batman characters....batman, robin, batgirl, joker, riddler, poison ivy and alfred. we went to dinner on our last night at sea dressed this way...dining room applauded us and we were so enjoying ourselves. our waiters even called us by character name! looking forward to pictures, dancing and a fun family night. Security put a damper on that when we went to have pictures taken.....said my son could not be on the ship in the batman costume....(his mask only covered his eyes). with some help from other passengers who loved the idea and were enjoying seeing this crazy family having fun, the security person did allow us to have pictures taken but then had to remove our costumes. something we had looked forward to for months and worked so hard on, came crashing down around us.....did they think batman and his friens and villains were going to rob the ship of all the money they had on board?????? anyone that has been on a cruise knows that no money changes hands on a cruise....it's all on a card and charged to you at the end of the cruise!!!!! needless to say, this put a big question mark on a carnival cruise in the future!!!!! Oh yes, a second thing that hampered our vacation....our 6 year old who is small for her age but swims like a fish wasn't allowed to use the water slide because she wasn't tall enough!!!! Although twice she was allowed to use it when an adult family member intervened with the gentleman in charge of the gate.......go figure!!!! she was the only one of the 5 kids with us that was not allowed to join in the fun......very unsettling to her. wanted to know why the other kids were better than her...hard to justify when they did let her go down 2 times!!!!! Read Less