Hold Your Nose

Immediately upon boarding this ship, I noticed an odor of raw sewage. Since we were in New Orleans, I assumed the odor was from there. Once we set sail, the odor did not dissipate. For 7 days, the stench was overwhelming at times. On the second formal night, when we walked into the dining hall, the stench was so bad we immediately left and went on deck and had pizza, in formal attire. A couple of times, we just skipped meals all together because the odor made us queasy. The air conditioning in our stateroom was nearly non-existant; throughout the trip, it was extremely uncomfortable. We mentioned it to the steward, he said he would "tell his supervisor". He never followed up with us again. The staff and the crew were wonderful. They were friendly, helpful and an absolute joy to interact with. The barrista Wassana addressed me by name by the second morning and made my coffee from memory, always with a delightful smile and attitude. The bartender Zusana was very pleasant, also addressing me by name and ready with my soda when she saw me. The first port was Montego Bay, a beautiful city. We met a tour guide Amanda who zipped us around for several hours, taking us to the nicest gift shop and a great place to eat. We did not leave the ship in Grand Cayman due to storms. Cozumel was absolutely breathtaking, we went to Passion Island and spent a wonderful afternoon on a beautiful beach, all inclusive, and the staff was wonderful, informative and very attentive. We spent an hour in the shops outside the port, all the merchants were pleasant. The last day at sea was choppy and gray skies, not that big of a deal. Finally, the weather was cool enough outside to open the door and allow the sewer odor out and cool comfort at night for sleeping. I thought the ship was actually beautiful and well maintained, it's such a shame I spent so much money on the trip to be uncomfortable and offended by the odor. I would be very reticent to book passage on this ship again or to recommend it to my friends and family. I'm sure the powers that be at Carnival will not read this or do anything about my experience; I can only hope other passengers don't have this experience in the future.