The good, the bad and the ugly

This was my 30+ cruise, but first on Carnival. The Ship at 3 years old was in good shape and clean. Food was average. Dining service improved after 2 nights of it taking one and a half hours to be served. We missed half of the first show due to poor service. Had someone explained whatever the problem was or at least offered us coffee perhaps we could have been less upset. After the second night, I reported our tables concerns to the Management and things improved dramatically. We received excellent service for the rest of the cruise. I had never had this experience on any of my previous cruises on various cruise lines. Our room steward was very good, as was our waiter after our voiced concerns. Since I am sun sensitive, this was the first ship I was on that did not have at least one shaded deck for walking. There was one on the 4th Deck, but they wouldn't let us walk on it because it was for crew? The Cruise Director was excellent! The "Fun Times" publication was hard to understand. Since this was our first Carnival Cruise, we found it different from previous ship guides and it took lots of searching to find such things as library hours, etc. We missed some events. The night of the Super Bowl showing in the theater because we wasted time getting our dinner only to find out that food was being offered in the theater area and we could have gone there to watch the game and eat? I did not like the shows at all. Motown, Divas and British Invasion were not my cup of tea. While the graphics were amazing, they could not improve the poor selections in the shows. Most shows I have seen have had singers and dancers. These show had singers trying to dance and dancers trying to sing. Many of the fellow travelers were multiple Carnival Cruisers who got all sorts of rewards, as it should be. It would be nice to have something for first time cruisers even if it was a glass of wine or something to make you feel valued.