Messy, chaotic, not very elegan

Out of the cruises that I have been on this is by far the worst experience that I have ever had.  Normally on a cruise it is exquisitely clean and that was not the case on this ship at all.  Also most the staff on a regular cruise tend to have a lot of energy and excitement again not the case here.  I do want to state that the cleanliness was not 100% on the staff of this ship and a lot of the mess was due to the insane amount of unruly teens and children running around the ship unsupervised creating mess everywhere. (it was so bad we took photos)  The mess that was on the staff was the fact that the tables in the Lido deck were constantly loaded with dirty dishes and staff would just walk by and ignore it leaving messy tables when we came in to dine.  In the room hallways there were dirty plates, bowls, left over food ect for long periods of time.  In the Ovation theatre there were lights out throughout the whole room.  

 
The wait staff walking around sometimes were friendly and sometimes seemed like we were a bother to even deal with. Again, I will state that the fact that there were SO MANY teens unaccompanied by adults running around, making messes, splashing around in the hot tubs all day and night, defacing property, hitting every button in the elevator, 5 year olds ordering sodas at the bar,etc. that this made the trip even less enjoyable.

Next the food at dinner.  While the presentation of certain dishes was beautiful many dishes lacked any real flavor and often were misrepresented on the menu.  I remember one dish said Tiger Prawn shrimp and they weren't tiger prawns but just regular small/medium sized shrimp.  When a dish said it was served with Garlic herbed fries what came out was what seemed liked bagged frozen dry french fries. Just major misrepresentations on the menu.  Then any items that seemed like they would be really good were *surprise, surprise* extra costs including other restaurants on the ship.  The 24 hour pizza place always had a line a mile long due to 2 staff people working making 1-2 pizzas at a time.

BINGO was a joke because "money,money,money Martin" was horrible at what he does. He has no ability to draw in his crowd but rather make you irritated.
Also, the shows in the evening left a lot to be desired. The dance moves and singing were lackluster at best and many singers were way off tune or flat, and the song selection wasn't the best. But the special effects were great. and stage design was phenomenal. The hypnotist was a joke I would know because I was on the stage and he had to ask half of the people up there to sit because none were really hypnotized.  The one's that remained faked it to be on stage.

Our room was horribly noisy.  We were in a balcony room in room 6337.  Right outside of the jacuzzi so I couldn't go out on my deck for privacy but instead felt like a creeper staring at the people in the jacuzzi.  In the evening We could hear everything happening in the casino below to the wee hours of the morning.  The weather the last 3 days was rainy (obviously not the fault of carnival) and the shipped was horribly rocky making us nauseated. Just adding to the bad experience

The end of the week party that cruise ships always have was also the worst.  They called it a fiesta!  A fiesta comprises of more than a DJ blaring music and a chips and salsa bar.  I've never seen a cruise ship go so cheap on a party the last evening at see.  This is where you're supposed to pull out all the stops.  and all we get is chips and salsa!??  Cruise ships from the past=whole roasted pigs, amazing ice and fruit sculptures, delicious desserts.

This is not to say that everything on the ship was awful it did have some redeeming qualities thus not a one star review.

First there needs to be a major shout out to Matt (the cruise director)  He is by far the absolute best cruise director I've ever experienced on a cruise.  He deserves every dime that he could ask for and you need to break your backs to keep him.

Next our servers at dinner (IMade and Eli were fantastic, they always looked out for a our table and were energetic and fun)

-Third, Kat from the UK was wonderful! She really had a bright and bubbly personality that was welcoming. Thank you Kat

-Fourth, Guy's Burger joint on the ship was great. Amazing Burgers and Handcut Fries

-And last, the strings trio was amazing! Every night we eagerly awaited the performance they put on for us. They sounded wonderful.

Overall, Carnival lost a lot of respect from both myself and the other 6 passengers traveling with me. Even though we cruise every year, it might be a long time before we even think to use carnival as our vacation destination. They will really have to prove to me that there is something better than the low quality they gave us for the last week before I change my mind.