This was our third cruise sailing previously with Princess and MSC. We are an older couple and were a little bit worried about Carnival because of the large numbers of children that had been reported by previous cruisers, we were very pleasantly surprised. We choose this cruise primarily because of the itinerary but also to avoid school holidays, friends had sailed with Carnival in the summer holidays to the Caribbean and reported a 'lively' cruise' with many of the activities being 'family' orientated.
We had five sea days which I thought might be scant on suitable activities, I couldn't have been more wrong, Carnival offered much more varied and numerous activities than we found on our previous cruises. A particular favourite of ours and others, judging by the number of people attending, were a serious of lectures given by professor emeritus from the University of Hawaii on settlers to the Islands.
The food in the dinning room was excellent, as was the service, we like a table for two, of which there were plenty and very rarely had to wait. The style of food was varied, beautifully cooked and well presented. I particularly liked the the healthy options on the menu, I don't have a large appetite so these dishes were ideal as they tended to be lighter, mostly fish. On sea days we also had lovely leisurely breakfasts in the dining room. We tried afternoon tea once but were not over impressed. The Unicorn Cafe was ok but tended to get very busy.
Good size, quite good condition, over the dining room but no noise.