The first order of business was to change our dining assignment. We were not pleased that we had been assigned early seating when we had requested late seating 9 months before the cruise, a chronic problem on Carnival since you don't know your fate until you embark. We went to the table in the Society bar where changes were supposed to be made. He said there was nothing that could be done for the first night but they would try to get us changed for the rest of the cruise. Chuck went ballistic but the guy just sat there smirking. While not happy about this arrangement, we had no choice but to accept it.
We went on from there to explore the ship. I knew that the décor of this ship would not be my taste (and it wasn't) but basically it is well done and thought out. I think the design is done to look best at night and that is certainly the case. When walking around the common areas, bars and show lounges in the day time it is like you are seeing it during off hours and need to come back at night to see how it is really supposed to look. Regardless, the ship is huge and there are plenty of public spaces for the 2,300 passengers on our cruise. The passengers were basically an attractive group and I was pleased that there seemed to be very little rowdy behavior. There were almost no kids except a couple of groups of high school seniors (really not kids) who were well behaved for the most part. One thing that surprised me a little was how many young men seemed to think it was OK to not wear a shirt when inside the ship. When looking at the embarkation photos there were many men boarding the ship topless too! I just find it hard to believe that these people don't know better. Some men were sans shirts even in the food areas – gross.
We looked around the pools and upper deck and then went in to the Panorama Grill for the buffet lunch. mmediately did not like this room. Walls and molded plastic banquettes in a turquoise color, the room looked the most dated of any on the ship. It also had a rather unfortunate musty/sour sponge odor that was present throughout the cruise. We got a decent hamburger and were off to explore some more and get some sun before we sailed.
Since we had early seating for dinner this first night we missed some of the sail away events and view. We had a surprisingly good dinner, well presented and tasty. I had lamb chops and they were cooked perfectly. After dinner we went to the main show lounge (Blue Sapphire) and enjoyed two comedians. After that, a little gambling (no luck there) and off to bed.
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