I have traveled on Crystal, Princess and now Carnival. I chose Carnival because of the 3 day schedule and the fact that I was bringing my 3 kids, ages 8, 6 and 4. First, let me say that we had a generally good time and I MIGHT take another Carnival Cruise if the timing and situation demanded it. I think Carnival has an identity crisis. They are trying to be too many things to too many people. They are called a "family friendly" cruise and yet; 1) As we left the Elation dining room on the first night, the piano player in the American Bar sang out something about being a "porn star." On the second night, as we left the same Elation, the same singer yelled the word F - - -! I'm not kidding. I had to quickly cover my kids ears are get out of the Atrium where the filth was echoing. 2) On a quiet walk around the ship with my 8 year old, we passed around a corner on the bow of the ship and as we walked down a stairway, a group was on a balcony of a state room with drunk adults feeling each other out. 3) They have a "hairy chest contest". 4) The jokes by the director made at earlier times where kids were present were off color. So it really wasn't kid friendly in many ways. Dinner was good. Lido deck was Okay. Lots of lines and waiting for food. One day all the utensils ran out completely. One day in the Elation for breakfast, we had to wait for 30 minutes for a simple omelette. Bread in the Elation for dinner was cold and hard. Sushi Bar is a nice idea but lines are long, only 3 choices and those varieties were no your typical Japanese sushi favorites. Stateroom was very fine. Upon arrival, I had to ask the steward to clean some sticky substance off the inside of one of the drawers. Other than that, they were clean and well tended to. Too bad Carnival can't isolate that type of entertainment to the far off bars at the later times of the night. I saw employees in line with passengers to eat, apparently allowed on Carnival because he was in uniform and talking about it with other passengers. I saw large industrial vacuums being moved in passenger elevators, something that would never happen on other cruises. Elevators were amazingly slow. There just aren't enough on the ship for the 2000 passengers. It was always faster to just get some exercise and walk. They also smelled like body odor because they never seemed to get a break and appeared to lack ventilation. I think Carnival, especially on these short Mexico trips, should downgrade to more simple and fun levels of entertainment. I called Carnival prior to the trip to check on my dinner time. Because I have 3 small children I was hoping to be able to eat at the 6pm time. When I called, a representative told me that I already was scheduled in the early seating. After arriving on board, we looked at our room key card and it said 8:15. I went to the information services where a representative looked at me like "sorry buddy, nothin you're gonna do, you are screwed". When we arrived the first night in the Elation, we were taken to a table of 10. I thought to myself "poor folks who might have to sit next to us with 3 young kids". Minutes after being seated they asked us to move to another table. By the time dinner started, our youngest was sleeping at the table. I have to say our waiter seemed to notice that the first night and went to extra efforts on the remaining nights to get us in and out quickly. I feel sorry for the employees. They really don't make eye contact and seem like that are at a "JOB" just waiting to get off of work. Unlike the other cruise lines where employees at least seem to actually enjoy their jobs to some extent.