One of the best thing we liked about this cruise was sailing for approximately 8 hours on the Mississippi River. It was certainly a change of pace from most ships that head straight out to sea. The food was good - service was a bit iffy. The Carnival Dancers performed three shows and they were all very good - high energy and great special effects.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
The wait staff in the main dining room was nice but they seemed very new at their positions. They worked hard at trying to remember our names. The first night, they got us all mixed up but did better as the week went on. They reached across us and across the table constantly to serve us our food; forgot some of the silverware for appetizers and dessert; got a couple of orders wrong and always took my husband's order first – and served him first as well. This was the first time we experienced this unique type of service. We ate breakfast at the buffet and it was laid out very well and the food was good and there was a nice variety. I was extremely impressed with the number of employees coming by to offer you orange juice, coffee refills or a pastry. They also had employees just checking to make sure everything was ok. Prudence was super friendly and we enjoyed our morning chats with her. The self serve ice cream and 24 hour pizza was also a big plus on the Lido deck.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
Carnival has the best process for handling Bingo. There aren’t any lines to stand in to get your cards and the fact that you get a bonus card as being a repeater, it a nice plus. I would have liked more line dancing classes (they only had one) but they made up for it with plenty of trivia.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
We enjoyed the entertainment. The shows put on by the Carnival dancers were varied and energetic. The special effects were good and as were the costumes. The only negative was that our cabin was near the theater and the afternoons they rehearsed, we heard it all in our room. One night we made it to the early show and heard the second show in our room. It was loud enough to discern the songs and sing along as well worry if the bass vibrations were going to cause our glassware to fall off of the desk.
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
The cruise director, Jase, was great. He was quick witted and great with improvisations. Simon aka “Lord Bingo” was also fun to interact with. Overall the staff was very friendly. They always spoke, but several times we had workers cut us off as we were getting on or off an elevator as they were in a hurry to get to their job. In particular, there were two cameramen that did this to us and they had a look on their face like we know we shouldn’t do this, but we’re late. They never apologized, they just kept going.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
The ship was well maintained and the décor really pops. More trash cans would have been nice as we had to really look to find one.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
One of our biggest disappointments was finding out that we only had room steward service once a day. This is the first ship we’ve ever been on to do this. Not sure if this is a new policy or not, but really didn’t like it. It was a major adjustment. Our steward informed us of this as soon as we got to our cabin. I asked him about our robes and he said he would get them. I had to remind him the next day and he got them right away. After one day of single service, I decided we needed an additional bath towel. He brought one for the next three days and somehow forgot about the last two days.
We stayed in Slidell the night before the cruise and ventured into New Orleans that night. We went down Bourbon Street and that was definitely an experience that everyone should try at least one.
The area is pristine and the beach is very nice. Ride the horizontal ski lift over to the beach to get a nice view of the water and overall beach area - plus a nice breeze blew to help cool us off. My husband rode the zip line there and wasn't very impressed.
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