I have recently just got back from what might be one of the worst vacations i have ever been on!! June 26th was our first day on Carnival Ecstasy everything started out good we got to our room very nice and clean but our balcony was very small ! we could not sit together on it thats how small it was and for us nearly paying $3000 dollars for our trip i would expected alot more. We had the early dining room time at 6pm the food their was more about them wanting to show fancy presentation on our plates than taste (the food was horrible)and many of the guests around us were asking for seconds and thirds because their was not enough food on the plates to be full ! it also felt like we were getting rushed out at dinner service we would be finished our appetizer and not two seconds later our main course would be sitting right in front of us i did not like this dont get me wrong their was always buffets on board to keep you satisfied if you were hungry later on but to tell you the truth i have had better food at golden corral !! their was long lines and not enough seating to hold 2000 plus passengers and the ones that were vacant still had dirty dishes and cups on them their seemed to be dirty plates laying everywhere all over the ship and not a sole picking them up ! sodas were extremely expensive they were 2 bucks each we finally gave in and got a unlimited soda card for the each of us not which was 35 dollars a piece their seemed to be not enough entertainment on board just for adults only alot was also kid/teenager included most entertainment was finished by 11pm myself and my boyfriend just looked at each other most of the time and said what now ?? we had to go back to our room and watch the book of eli or alvin and the chipmunks for the 5th or 6th time ! to many teenagers running wild and security not doing a thing about it alot of the time we would be standing waiting for the glass elevators to take us down or up a floor coming to find out kids were sitting on the floors of the elevators giggling and texting on their cell phones with security on the bottom floor talking to guest services not doing nothing about it i was also told by my carnival booking agent that the adults had their own private pool and hot tub area kid free zone come to find out their is only one pool on board with a barrier down the middle not sure why maybe one side is suppose to be the adult side ??? if so this was never enforced their is a adult serenity area on the very back of the ship AGAIN never enforced by the staff that the hot tubs and lounging area is for adults 21 and over signs clearly posted in that area but i observed 17, 18 yr olds their night after night. we were also lied to by our booking agent that we had a steak restaurant on board our ship that we could pay extra for if the food on board wasnt good i was really excited for this after the first night i did not like the food i asked guest services about this and they just looked at me like i was stupid or something so AGAIN i got lied to it seems to me that carnival just likes to sugar coat alot of their ships. on your 3rd night aboard you get your billing statement slipped under your door just to see what your total is so far we were shocked when we seen a 400 dollar bill just on drinks alone but we looked closely and 100 of that was for our staff we went down to guest services to ask because it was very confusing we thought it was 50 dollars a day! come to find out it was 50 dollars per person for 5 nights i dont have a problem with tipping the staff on board most of them were wonderful to us but what i do have a problem with is this automatically been taken out of our credit card it should be the passengers decision to be tipping staff members (which we did at the end of the trip) but when we were at guest services trying to lower our tipping percentage the bitch behind the counter started to get a rude attitude with me and my boyfriend we are high paying customers on board and should not be talked to like we are nothing she totally disrespected both of us all because we wanted to lower our percentage and just give cash to the staff who helped us most at the end of our vacation some of what happended on the ship is out of carnivals control i get that one being out in a hurricane 5 days turned into 6 days which was fine we were just ready to get off like alot of passengers we talked to was also like us alot of passengers were also lied to by carnival in carnival restricted items list on their website no where does it say we cannot have wine i was told AGAIN by our booking agent one bottle of wine per person upon getting my luggage back my wine was gone ! they said because my suitcase did not qualify for check in they had to take it from me and thats why my wine was confiscated absolute bull if you ask me a lady somehow got 2 12 packs of soda on board "which is a prohibited item" this was a afful experience for me and my boyfriend we ended up spending about 5000 dollars and i do regret spending every penny with carnival the ports of call were we went to was cozumel mexico and progresso yucatan. cozumel was horrible no beaches just pure shopping progresso is very unsafe especially if you have children soldiers everywhere carrying m16"s seems to me that carnival booking agents cannot wait to make that commission everytime i would have a question he would not return my calls and now that i have complaints will not return my emails either imagine that if this doesnt say anything about carnivals reputation and the way they treat their guests then i dont know what will !

I was on the 4/27 sailing of the Carnival Ecstasy. I will NEVER sail Carnival again as the result of the poor experience I had. Please know that if you sail Carnival, you are taking a gamble on if you will have a good or bad experience. Our first experience was good, which is why we decided to take the second cruise.

First, let me say that I am not mad that our two port calls to Mexico were cancelled due to Swine Flu. I understand that sometimes things like this happen. What I don't understand is Carnival's lack of information and caring in response to this situation.

They insisted from the beginning that we would go to Mexico because there were no cases of Swine Flu where we going. Then, they made an announcement that there could be changes to our ports of call and we would be told the final decision by 5:00 pm. At 5:00 pm, there was no answer from Carnival...even though I later discovered they had already posted to their website that they had cancelled all trips to Mexico. We didn't find this out until 8:00 pm. We weren't told if were going to another port or that we wouldn't be making any stops at all-just that we wouldn't be going to Mexico.

We were given as little information as possible, the Captain never stepped foot in public to give any information-which made it seem like he was hiding from everyone, we were left to wonder each day if we would be going to another port or not and the activities that were planned were not enough to accomodate all of the people stuck on the ship for 6 days! The cruise after us was extended by two days and changed their port calls but Carnival has refused to do anything for us. They wouldn't even give us a discount at the spa while onboard or a discount on a future cruise. We have spoken to two Carnival representatives who could care less. This is what you are getting when you book a Carnival cruise!

P.S.-Compared to other cruise lines, the food on Carnival is not very good.