Cruise Summary

Overall, the cruise was a total bust. We knew we weren't on a Disney cruise when we entered the ship and the first thing you saw was a bar. On the public decks (Lido, Promenade and Atlantic), there were bars every 50-75 feet. One positive thing - the casino was tucked off to the side of the ship so you didn't have to walk through it to get anywhere. The food was nothing to write home about at all. Tables were not bused in a timely fashion and floors were not swept. If we had been in port, the ship would have been overrun with seagulls - nature's ultimate scavengers. Dining service was not at all customer oriented. The travel agent for our group had given each of us a bottle of wine. We asked our waiter if we could substitute a bottle of sparkling grape juice or apple juice for the wine. He said he would check and never got back to us. On the Disney line, we not only were served sparkling apple juice, we were given a bottle to take back to our cabin (it's still in the refrigerator - we haven't drunk it yet!). There was only one pool on board and it was maybe half again as big as ours for 2,000 passengers. Obviously, we did not go swimming at all. Smoking was pervasive - the only non-smoking areas were the staterooms and restaurants. Smoking was permitted anywhere on the outside decks. They had ashtrays stacked so that if you wanted to smoke, you simply picked up an ashtray and took it wherever you wanted to smoke. The ship was noisy and dirty. Considering it had just come out of drydock, my expectations were higher. It was very obvious to us that they wanted to attract and keep a totally different clientele than Disney.

There were only 2 stageshows the entire cruise. Both were definitely "R" rated and the PA announcement said if you were easily offended do not attend - the girls were going to have on g-strings. The other 2 nights, they had a stand-up comedian. Again, the announcement said the humor was "R" rated one night and "X" rated the other night. Needless to say, we didn't attend any of the "entertainment."

We will not sail Carnival again nor will we recommend it to anyone. The old adage you get what you pay for was certainly true in this case.