This has been our 8th cruise on Carnival ships and a pleasant one, but not on par with most of the cruises that we have had recently on this cruise line. The service has been excellent, the itinerary interesting, the weather just marvelous, everything met our expectation, with the exception of the cuisine which has been good, but not as good as the ones that we have recently savored on the Glory, the Liberty and the Triumph. The main reasons for this are for the pasta dishes and the bread rolls in the Truffles Dining Room: The pasta texture and sauces did not meet Vincent's palate expectations (not tasting "Italian") and the rolls were not sufficiently cooked. However, we did enjoy other items on the menu, especially the desserts.
We are addicted to cruising and we have enjoyed every cruise we have taken, including this one, but we are still looking for the "perfect cruise", thus we'll keep cruising until we find it. Here are a few suggestions to make some improvements to this cruise:
- We suggest putting some deck chairs or benches on Deck 3 outside Promenade. It is important for the older cruisers to leisurely walk or stroll for their daily exercise some place on the ship, away from the Jogging Track on the Sport Deck 11 where the more fit younger cruisers run at a faster pace than we can, and the best place is the Promenade on Deck 3. We periodically need to sit down and rest during our stroll.
- We spend a lot of time in our stateroom, thus we frequently watch movies, news and sport programs on TV. We were happy to see that CNN was available, but did not like to watch the ABC, CBS and NBC stations which transmit their local news from Colorado (very provincial) rather than having stations from a more cosmopolitan area (i.e., New York or Miami, which are on the same time zone as the ship). Moreover, we would have liked to watch the Masters Cup Tennis series and the Soccer Champions League and UEFA Cup matches on ESPN International, but it was not available in the cabin, so we went to the Dream Team Sport Bar; however, the loud noise from the slot machines in the nearby Casino irritated those who were watching TV in the Sport Bar.
We have two more cruises before the Holiday Season, on the Norwegian Jewel, Nov. 26th and on the Queen Mary II, Dec. 9th. Until then, Happy Cruising to all "Frequent Floaters".
