We had not been on a Carnival cruise for almost 50 years! We were VERY pleased with our 5 day cruise and as far as VALUE for your money it really was pretty awesome. My husband and I are "Seniors" and do a lot of traveling. We have been on numerous other Cruises on different cruise lines and we just did not have very high expectations for this trip. However... it met some of our "needs" - a trip to Charleston, getting to see family, as well as celebrating my husbands 78th birthday.
The food was way better than we ever expected. Especially lunch. LOTS of choices and I never (my husband did ) even get to try the pizza. Breakfast and dinners were fine but nothing to rave about. We found the dining service in the main dining room to be "hit or miss" - sometimes almost perfect and other times (a lost order), not so. We also ate (for my husband's birthday) at Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse. The food was definitely worth the extra charge.
Our cabin was better than what we expected and especially the shower area.
Better than expected. Nice size and we had no "issues" . Shower was surprisingly VERY large. The only thing about the cabin (I won't mark it down for this but -My husband did think the bed mattress needed to be a better quality.
We stayed "on our own" an extra night in Charleston and wish we would have added at least another day also. A fun and lovely place to visit.
Unfortunately the area is still trying to recover from hurricane damage. We had planned to visit the Hotel/Casino but it was still closed.
We are South Florida natives so the beach really is not something we go to that often. This was a very nice beach area and the BBQ was very good.