Was on the Journey’s cruise 14 days from Tampa ending in Baltimore. This is my 8th cruise with Carnival and have been on NCL and RCCL. I have done a 15 day to Hawaii with Carnival so we kind of knew what to expected. Wife and I are late 20’s, early 30’s. I think we only had a handful of people in our age group and almost no kids on this cruise. Most passengers 50+ or even 60+. Having some issues on past Carnival Cruises (missing Maui Twice) I do go into these longer ones with less expectation. I am happy to report most of my expectations were met or exceeded.

Ship - The ship itself is 15 years old but in most cases it does not appear that old. The interior upkeep from both the common spaces to the cabins was above what I was expecting. Staff are always cleaning and they must be doing a good job upkeep the ship, it at least appeared so. We did have an extended balcony and I could comment the balcony could use a little refurb. The wood flooring was showing its wear. Also paint splatter everywhere…. But for the age, she is in good shape.

Crew - Our Cabin steward Jessica was the best we ever had. Kept our cabin clean, towels fresh, etc. Thanks for taking care of us Jessica. Dining Room Staff, our Asst Waiters were excellent, our head waiter, blah, I found him disorganized and slow. If the head waiter let the asst waiters do more, I think we would have had better service. Saying that, the service was not bad, just slow. Overall all, all common area staff were friendly, including bars, lido buffet and elsewhere. Steve the cruise director was everywhere, not being my top pick CD, he did a good job. I should also say the Maitre’d Ken was excellent too, first time in 8 Carnival Cruises the Maitre’d talked to us younger cruises (and he did 3-4 times) Read more