Staff are wonderful

This is our10th cruise and 6th time on Carnival.  I took my daughters who are 9 and 10

my daughters hardly went into the camp only once and when I mentioned hoping back my 9 year old said "mommy please don't shove us off at that place" needless to say they weren't interested in any of the activities they had planned and didn't go back.  The staff were wonderful as always.  The are revamping the dining room service and style and there are some pros and cons to that.  First if I order the same appitizer or dessert as someone else at my table, it could come out family style, not sure id like that if I were sitting Atari table with strangers. Secondly, you have to order the sides seperately now and our waiter often forgot things, perhaps this will get better as they get more practice with the new style.  We didn't pay for any excursions this time.  Bahamas, we were there last year and paid for the Atlantis your and aquariums, what a rip off, they need to use some of the ridiculious money they are charging people to revamp the place, your better off keeping your money and getting a massage on the ship during that port!!  San Juan we had an awesome time, no need to pay for a tour, take the free tram around the island and explore to your hearts delight, we really had fun here.   St Thomas, book an excursion or tour here, we went to the beach it was beautiful and we got to tour the island on our way to the beach.   Grand Turk, we had a blast here, it's a big beach, right when u get off the ship the beach is right there, plenty of chairs for everyone, we spent a couple hours there and then went to margaritaville for lunch, it would have been easy to hop back on the ship for lunch, we even discussed my husband going on board and grabbing sandwiches, that's how close you are. But since we wanted something different we went to margaritaville and I'm so glad we did.  leave time to go enjoy here, they have a beautiful huge pool with a bar in the water, you could relax in a beach chair here for hours!  

All in all I'd choose carnival again if I were trying to keep costs down, because there were 12 of us we needed to keep in mind costs.  If money weren't an issue I'd go with a cruise line that had more activities the kids would enjoy, zip lines, water slides, ice skating etc. and multiple evening show options, rather than just the one or a comedy offered by carnival. but for the price or for first time cruisers Carnival is a great choice for sure!!