Disappointed

Best part was meeting new friends; however... There were several minor/major issues that made this particular sailing a disappointment. We understood that they were cancelling a port and we were fine with that. We were fine having nearly $400 of OBC and were happy that it would be on our Sail and Sign account when we boarded the ship (that is what we were told multiple times on the phone by several Carnival employees), but that isn't what happened we only had $75 ($50 from Carnival for our booking and $25 from ). We didn't get the rest of our money until until LATE the second sea day. However, they sold us by saying we would get more time on the ship on debarkation day (instead of early morning it would be later in the afternoon. They took the long way around to get to Cozumel for the first day so we arrived early evening leaving not much to do if you're not a drinker or a party goer. Our second day on our excursion we found out that Carnival will not allow them to serve shots (tequila, Fireball, mixed shots). We paid for all you can drink (not that we do lots of shots or drink a lot), a shot is still a drink. The description of the excursion did not provide a disclaimer of shots not being included or not allowed. We were celebrating our 12th anniversary and we were given a $50 spa credit. That is nice if there were something we could do at the spa. This is a terrible marketing scheme. If Carnival really wanted to do something special for people celebrating a special occasion (as long as mentioned at time of booking) a photo or a discount from from Pixels or something would be more appreciated. This tells me that Carnival didn't really want to do something nice for us, instead they wanted to gain from our very special occasion and that isn't acceptable. The hot tubs seemed to have problems throughout the cruise. There was a time when the hot tub was way too hot (I love a good hot tub), you could have poached eggs in it and many people were getting out because of the temperature. Then the hot tubs on Serenity deck just stopped working all together. We asked the crew to get someone to fix it and they didn't care (one even shrugged his shoulders and walked away). We called and still no sense of urgency to fix the problem (this is what I was looking forward to, getting away from the kids and talk with adults while relaxing). By the time it was fixed a heavy rain storm came through. Then there was the food... I've cruised on Carnival before and the food wasn't too bad, this time around food was sub-par most nights. I've had weight loss surgery and wanted to pre-plan my lunches (I knew I could find something at breakfast and dinner even if I had to eat the same thing everyday). I saw on the website that Fish & Chips was available and they had a steamed mix among a few other healthier things. I got on board to find out that had been replaced with a BBQ place that is the equivalent to eating at Luby's or Golden Corral (As a Texan, this is not good BBQ) and the seafood was now a place that required one to pay. Most days I didn't eat lunch because I can't have salad as it hurts my new stomach. Most everything is carbs and dishes covered in sauces. For the MDR we called to see if they could give me smaller portions so food didn't go to waste and I wasn't tempted to eat too much and they said "Yes, just tell your Head waiter and they will accommodate you." That is not what happened, they said no and gave me full size portions.  Lastly, this cruise seemed to have a lack of activities. On my last two cruises (7 day on Magic and 5 day on Triumph) there was always something to do and almost always had to pick one thing over the other, this was not the case this cruise. We really did love meeting new people and will likely plan a group cruise with some of them. Our room steward, Asep, was great and always greeted us with a smile. My husband and I believe that Carnival should do something to make up for our experience. We don't normally take time to complain because we rarely have complaints, this cruise just didn't make the cut and left us very disappointed to say the least.