This was my 8th cruise. 3 with Royal Caribbean (LOVE LOVE LOVE)....and 5 (including this one) with Carnival. Up until this cruise, I would have recommended Carnival to anyone..but that has changed drastically. This cruise - from the planning stages through the actual cruise itself was a series of disappointments and deep frustrations with a cruiseline who had no respect for their customers, who treated you as an inconvenience and rude beyond belief. There were 37 of us traveling and they screwed up one thing after another and NO apologies...just rude treatment. The customer service staff prior to our cruise was TOTALLY unaccommodating....I thought it would be different on board - but that same attitude carried through. The "Guest Services" people rarely had a smile, the staff up in the buffet; miserable. No smiles, no greetings...just miserable. No offers of help with anything. To start our cruise off, I ordered a bottle of champagne to be delivered to our room prior to our boarding. I also ordered Chocolate covered strawberries and a birthday cake. The champagne was there....WARM, sitting on the desk - not in ice. No strawberries....no cake.....NO APOLOGIES. I requested a cold bottle of champagne or a refund....they would give me neither!!! Finally on the second day - I had a meltdown at guest services (I was nice but VERY STERN) then FINALLY, the guest services representative sent us a new bottle of COLD champagne on them. The shops NEVER acknowledged nor apologized. Awful!!

OUr room was dirty - sticky handprints all over the mirrors. While the room stewards were super sweet....I think they were grossly over worked. We estimate that our room had the sweeper run maybe 2-3 times all week and the sheets changed maybe once. Our one roomie dropped a pizza on her bed and those sheets stayed stained for 3 days. Crazy. I NEVER saw my cabin steward except for early evening when I guess they were doing rooms. NO TURN DOWN SERVICE. First time ever on a cruise we did not get turn down service.

Our dining room waiter and assistants, WI & Denis were AMAZING....I will say they made a difference for me. On the other hand - David's....the steakhouse was HORRIBLE. I cannot stress that enough....HORRIBLE. The food was bad, the service was bad. There were 16 of us and they had us broke up into two tables FAR from each other.....I made those reservations one month ago so no reason they should have done that. Had to argue with them to get us moved closer together...and then the attitude was disgraceful. We always eat at the steakhouses onboard Carnival and have always had an amazing experience with amazing food. This place was kinda like a fast food steak place. Awful. Read more