Cruise Line: Carnival Cruise Lines
Sailing Date: May 19th, 2002

This was our first cruise and what a big disappointment!! We saved a long time for this and we got married while in port in St. Thomas on the ship. This was a wedding and honeymoon. I would rather have gone camping. First, we arrived on the ship at 1:30 p.m. We didn't get our luggage until midnight. The picture of the wedding room wasn't at all correct. We were to get married in the cigar bar, which obviously stunk of cigars and was very dark and gloomy. We argued about this for a day and had our ceremony moved to a library. Not what we paid for!! Our room was inside on the Riviera deck #1195. Guys, don't take this room. You'll be awake all night! It is over the crew kitchen. The information desk was not at all helpful and they resolved the problem by sending security up to "listen" to the noise every time. Needless to say, they did not move us to another cabin. The food was terrible. Could have had a better meal at Ponderosa. Always the same dried out stuff in the buffet. The breakfast was the same every day. The dining room food was terrible. We were given early seating but requested late seating when we booked this trip 13 months ago. We were also placed in the back of the dining room in a booth by the kitchen. We were constantly rushed through our meal to get out before the next group came in. The staff were okay in the dining room. The beds in the cabin were very uncomfortable and the mattresses worn out. The carpets on board the ship were stained in many places, chairs were dirty, table clothes were dirty and stained, light bulbs were out all over the place and never replaced. Forget the shiny brass railings. Finger prints and dirt everywhere. Floor tiles cracked and severely scratched. The entertainment was a 5 on a scale of 1-10. Too many comedy acts and after awhile they weren't even funny. The magician was definitely not happy to be doing his job. No smiles, just looked extremely bored with his job. There weren't enough activities on the ship either. They played the same music over and over for 7 days. Got tired of that too. The towels they have on the lido deck were worn out and left you looking like a piece of swiss cheese with holes all over your body. The bartenders in the lobby bar were extremely rude and need to find another job. The ship constantly rocked back and forth. The weather was great the whole time and the seas were not rough. They need to get better stabilizers or something. We never made it to Aruba because on Thursday, the ship experienced engine failure and a complete black out. We drifted at sea for 8 hours. You can imagine how that went. No power, no running water or flushing toilets. No frozen drinks, no air conditioners. Not a pretty site. No warm food either. They made announcements throughout the day that the system was being worked on and that everything was okay. They came on at 3:30 p.m. and told us we would be arriving in St. Lucia at 7:00 a.m. on Friday. That wasn't a planned stop. We were supposed to be going to Aruba. They treated us and 3,070 other passengers like it was no big deal and the cruise director Jorge even told people that if they didn't like the change in itinerary that they could jump overboard and swim to Aruba and then tried to apologize later. Too late for that pal, especially since we got you on video tape!!! Sure, they compensated us for this change by giving each person a $50.00 credit on our sail and sign cards. Wow, what a treat!!! Not really. The ports of call were okay. They can keep Martinique. Those people are very rude and they don't like tourists anyway. The town was dirty and unpleasant. St. Thomas was the best one we made it too. Great shopping. We didn't really have time to see much because that was our wedding day. Barbados was fun. Went on a catamaran snorkeling trip. Great crew on board the catamaran. Snorkeling was good too. Didn't get to go anywhere else though because everything closes in Barbados at 6:00 p.m. St. Lucia was okay. The 4-wheel adventure to the sugar mill was fun. Our jeep broke down in the middle of the jungle 7 times, but we made it back. Saw some nice scenery. Again, didn't get to do anything else because the town closes at 6:00 p.m. Although they had Camp Carnival on board, the children on board took over the pools and water slide and there were no crew members controlling this. The pools were dirty and so were the hot tubs. We booked this cruise because it was going to Aruba and we always wanted to go there and to cruise. Being our first experience and having nothing else to compare it too, we don't know if we will go on another one. Our wedding day and honeymoon is supposed to be on the of the best times in your life and carnival certainly didn't make it that way for us. Really consider other options before sailing with this ship.