Let me start by being fair and let you know we have only been on two other cruises. We recently went to Alaska on Holland America and 15 years ago on a carnival to Mexico. I chose carnival this time because they were the only ship going out of Charleston. It was a family Birthday trip with my husband and our 20 yr old daughter. I truly felt that the ship was completely understaffed. I realize that there are cruises going out back to back, however the ship just seemed dirty. I used wipes to wipe down our sink and toilet because it seemed to have only been sprayed down, it was not clean. There are people cleaning all the time but they just don’t seem to be able to keep up with the flow of people. Yes it’s a party ship ( really not our thing, because it never stops). The food was mediocre at best. Back to staffing issues there is a long line for everything. Spent an hour and a half trying to get a soda the first morning. Starting on deck 2 at the coffee shop ending on 9 (by then the Havana bar was open ) every bar stop in between and they were either closed or didn’t have soda. We really enjoyed the movies on deck probably the best thing about our trip. Some other cruisers I spoke with said they cruise with carnival all the time and this one was the worst they had been on, that if we went out of another port we would have a totally different experience. I really do want to be fair saying that others said carnival was not usually like this cruise was. I personally wouldn’t want to cruise carnival again.