Decent cruise for the holidays

I have been on a total of 7 cruises and most have been with Carnival. For the most part we enjoyed this cruise and the ports we stopped at. However, this is mainly because I booked our excursions outside of Carnival which I had found on Trip Advisory. These places were typically less expensive and highly rated. The only port we did not enjoy was Belize as there is not a whole lot to do there except scuba diving and snorkeling. The port shopping was pretty lame and the restaurant we grabbed a drink at was still pricey. The few shows we did attend were good and enjoyable. I felt that the New Years Eve celebration could have been better but overall the activities on board were pretty good.

A few things that I was surprised about this Carnival cruise was that we never met our room steward which had happened in the past cruises on the first day. However, any time we needed something it was always brought to us in a timely manner but by a different person each time so we didn't really know who was our steward was. In addition, the restaurant staff was not as friendly and as outgoing as they had been on past cruises. I also felt that the food quality had gone down quite a bit at the seated dinners. I realize they are serving thousands of people but it was still pretty bland and I had requested an appetizer that I saw other people eating beside me that had been on the menu the previous night and was told I couldn't order it. The breakfast and lunch buffets were the same typical food items you would find at most buffets and was nothing special but adequate. I found that the bar drinks were expensive as Carnival just recently increased the prices. They do offer a bar drink plan but all of the people in your cabin must purchase it regardless if they drink or not and for all of the days of the cruise. If we had gotten that plan it would have been $700-800 for both of us to drink for the week. I feel this is an insane amount of money. However, at $10 a drink it would be worth it if you are a big drinker. You are allowed to bring a bottle of wine per person onto the ship the first day and I took full advantage of this. The ship itself was clean but could use some minor repairs and maybe update the look. One thing that I noticed was that the ship air was extremely dry and I ended up with a sinus infection. I'm sure this is to combat the humidity but other people noticed it too.Our cabin was 6400 and had a balcony which was nice to have however below us was the night club which was pretty loud at times and would go on through to the early morning hours. This didn't really bother us to much as we had brought ear plugs in preparation. The cabin was a pretty good size and had a good amount of storage. The only complaint I have was that the toilet seemed to omit waste fumes from time to time. The embarkation and debarkation went pretty smoothly except for a few minor things such as which side of the theater we needed to wait on to leave. Overall the cruise was good but not the best I've been on.