I've said NCL 3 times and I'll admit, with all the bad press I was scared to go on Carnival, and I just want to share my verdict on the Carnival Dream: The carnival PARTIES are WAY BETTER than NCL parties ever thought about being. The Food was ok, but not as high quality as NCL. Our room steward was WAY better on CCL than on NCL. There were more hot tubs available all week on the Dream, as opposed to NCL. BUT the CROWDS everywhere and the LINES that you had to constantly wait in really put a damper on my mood. I HATED waiting in lines to get into the Dining Venues, on an elevator, into a show, or even to get a dang sandwich. This could be a "big ship" problem OR a CCL problem: I dont really know. I got lost all the time on this ship! Also, a drawback of being on a huge ship is that I didnt feel as "connected" to the sea. Like you are so far up from the ocean, and you almost forget it's there. Another thing I didnt like was one of the shows that claimed to be 'family friendly' featured quite a bit of sex-themed songs and scantily-clad chicks shaking their booties. The biggest problem was the "anytime" dining. My experience in the "anytime" dining room was a TOTAL disappointment! The waiters just did not care. They didnt take a personal interest, they took WAY too long getting our food out to us, when we needed WATER or COFFEE no one could be found to help us, but the bar staff came around CONSTANTLY pushing us to buy alcohol! On NCL the dining is ALWAYS "Freestyle" and the wait staff is AMAZING! Dining feels "luxurious". The ship did NOT feel like "luxury" at all. The comedy was AWESOME, but to get to the comedy venue, you had to walk through the smoke-filled casino! It really irritated my dry-eye. In fact, because of the Casino, the WHOLE 5th floor of the ship smelled like cigarettes and was very harmful to my health. The smoke, the lines and the lack of attention of wait staff, has made me decide never to sail Carnival Cruise Lines ever again. Despite all this, a vacation is what you make of it, and I HAD A BLAST WITH MY FRIENDS!! Loved my vacation, but will sail with NCL next time.