DISAPPOINTED

Our family has taken about 15 cruises on 6 different cruise lines (including Carnival). We were very disappointed in several areas regarding this ship. First impressions matter and the atrium lacked the elegance we usually see. Starting here and THROUGHOUT the ship, the music was always very loud, even in the piano bar! I'm all for a loud, active, fun, ship, but sometimes we just wanted to have a nice glass of wine and enjoy quieter music. Forget it........even the piano bar had loud music and hollering! The ship really catered to the 25 to 45 group in every aspect.  BINGO WAS A JOKE!!  For the same amount of money as on other cruise ships, you got half as many cards..... Playing only 3 or 4 games. We met a man who was very disappointed in the lack of  hours his boys were allowed to play basketball because it was closed to them during the evenings. Cowboy Jim, one of the comedians, was hilarious! One of the 2 best I've ever seen on a cruise ship......don't miss him. Kelly Terranova, another comedian, was terrible....not funny at all! They probably spent quite a bit of money on the light/magician show and it was pretty good. The other shows were okay, but the dancers weren't in sync. The food was pretty good, but should have left some of the sauces off, like serving just a good grilled fish instead of with the tomato based sauces. No line when taking pictures because of the numerous backdrop selections. The attention to St. Jude was a nice touch. I think the one BIG MISTAKE Carnival made, and it's an easy fix, is to make the front Dining Room (Northern Lights) the scheduled seating, and the back Dining Room (Southern Lights) the anytime seating. The back Dining Room is VERY FAR for some of the older crowd to walk if they have a forward cabin. They are the passengers who usually like the scheduled dinner times. Active passengers and passengers with children are more apt to want the "Anytime Dining" because of the various activities and those are the young people who can walk the far distances. Last but not least, we missed the "island music"!!!!!!!  Other ships (and I think some Carnival) play Caribbean music at various times on deck. It is festive and makes you feel like you are on vacation! All they played was loud rock music and it just always felt like we were in a club we could go to at home!! Hope this helps.......