Poor attention to detali

Let me start by saying that the staff was generally very good.   The entertainment was also very good, musical productions as well as comedians.

Sadly, we invited 3 other couples to join us and told them, in great detail, all of the wonderful things to expect.   Boy, did we miss the mark with Carnival!   Carnival cruises never really compare to the other lines...the grandeur of rhe ship, etc., but it's still usually a nice experience.  

We were turned away at the dining rooms shortly before 9am for breakfast leaving the Ledo deck as the only remaining option.   Never on any of the dozen cruises we've taken has the dining room closed that early for breakfast.   

This is the first time that breakfast room service options didn't actually include breakfast items, eggs, bacon, omlets, hashbrwns, etc.   Cereal and rolls, coffee and juice was pretty much it.

This was the first cruise where the Ledo deck seemed to be closed more than it was open during the day.   There was a burger joint that had probably the best burgers I've ever had on or off of a cruise...kudos to that!   Our group celebrated a birthday in the Italian specialty restaurant that was both very good and a pleasant experience.

The "Any time Dining" option is a non-starter.   Purely chaos with ridiculous waiting times...worse than that, you rarely had the same dining staff twice, eliminating that common opportunity to build a first name relationship with your wait-staff.

Normally, there are towels near the deck chairs that you just pick up from a bin and lay on top of the chairs to relax on.   When you're done, you just toss them in a bin to be cleaned.   Well, Carnival came up with a way to mess with that, also.   On the Magic, you had to check out towels with your room key with the threat of a $22 fine  for each if you just tossed them in the bin without returning them to the attendant who, by the way, disappeared for almost an hour.   Really, being held hostage by a $44 fine for towels?   This was supposed to be a vacation.

When we were cleared to go to our stateroom upon embarking, we found food left in our refrigerator from the last occupant.   The shower was a small, corner shower with poor drainage that constantly flooded into the bathroom floor.   The shelves in the bathroom had a thick layer of dust as though it hadn't really been cleaned in months.

Also, on virtually every cruise we've ever taken, upon return from shore leave, there was always smiling staff waiting just outside the ship with a cold drink and a cold towel for returning passengers.   Not here.   It was pretty noticeable, too, at one port where we had to walk past a NCL ship with all of that for their guests only to arrive to our bare gangways.

This was not a last minute, discount cruise for our group, but it felt like a cut-rate experience with the full price tag. 

Obviously, this will be our final Carvnival cruise.