Carnival Victory
Sail date: July 31, 2008
The overall service was good, but this could be hit or miss. We originally had late seating for dinner, and the waiters at our table kept getting the orders wrong. When we moved to early seating (had waitlisted), the waiters were much better.
The ship layout was a problem because we kept running into the dining rooms or areas where we could only go up or down and couldn't get from one end of the ship to the other. If you are familiar with the ship (which we became after a couple days), it is not so bad, but for newcomers on a short (4-night) cruise, it was a bit annoying.
There was food available as soon as we got onboard the ship, and we went early to avoid the lines, but the lines weren't too bad anyway. They were a bit pushy with the drinks the first day especially, but we politely declined and they took the hint.
They did have a problem with one line where they have either omelette/eggs-to-order (morning) or hamburger-to-order (lunch/dinner) at the end of the line. This held up the whole line because the people in the front wouldn't move, or everyone was waiting to place their order.
The food was pretty good -- comparable to other cruises we've been on, maybe a little less than expected. Some dining areas had problems with dirty silverware or plates, though, but dinner was fine (the waiters took special care).
The room steward was very good. They managed to get into our room twice everyday -- even when we slept in. We didn't ever see them in our room; they were very discrete and did a good job.
The shows were very entertaining. There were 2 comedians and 2 other shows that we attended, and they were fabulous.
The pools were largely crowded, but we were able to find space in the hot tub, so not a problem. The pool temperatures were nice (not too cold), and I know that they cleaned at least one of the pools every night.
The cruise stopped at St. John, NB, Canada, which was largely uninteresting. It was fine for our cruise b/c we mainly wanted the sea time anyway, but there wasn't much to do on shore other than a boat ride (!) or shopping in the market, etc. (they had bike rentals though).