Mixture of Good and Bad

Let me start by saying we love Carnival cruises overall. We know what it takes

to put on a 15 day cruise for over 2,000 people. The captain probably saved our lives by not going to Kawai & Hilo due to the 100 mph winds/rain.

Having said all that it was disappointing to get only $39 pp back for missing 2 ports. Kawai was the jewel of this trip and Hilo had the volcano excursion. VERY SAD we missed both. $78 does not compensate for the loss.

Also, we noticed some shocking "cut backs" from our other 9 Carnival cruises.

No dedicated alcohol server at dinner. We had to tell our main server who simply was overrun as it was.Drinks came after dinner was served and almost finished. Drink prices rose.The daily "paper" has shrunk to a pamphlet and you can no longer request "unsupervised" activities as before. At night the TV would "scratch out", understandably DirecTV's distance from shore, but how does that explain the closed circuit channels on board? The blue menu channels had lines running through them. No food menu on the TV until day 10...(?) You order a movie, a "snow" channel comes on, and it doesn't charge you!...like it's completely broken. Other guests experienced the same so it wasn't just us. Told the front desk, they were almost rude and denied there was any problem at all. Kept saying  "just call us and we'll refund you" instead of sending a tech out to see or fix the problem. The food was overall good but some of the deserts like the cheesecake were horrid. I asked the waiter "Why did you kill Gumby"?...the cheesecake would bounce a foot if you dropped it.

Good things:

The steaks and seafood were incredible!...so perfect every time.

The crew was great, so friendly and hard working. The room was terrific.The

3 ports we got to see were great. The comedy club was tremendous.

The ship was very clean.The Cruise Director was wild and funny. The Captain and his crew, again got us there safely, we didn't do a "Titanic". The ship itself

was very good, not as good as the Dream, but better than many.

Very decorative. The big chess set's pawns were too tall, looked like bishops, and was right in the smoking section-- poor, poor choice, as kids love to play on it. ..disgusting cigar smoke filled the air in that area...also in the casino. (They're called "Smoke Eaters" Carnival...buy some!)

Overall a 6.3 out of 10. Not responsible for the weather, but some more compensation should have been given.