Cabins
Our group had 4 balcony cabins on the Panorama deck. My parents were in 8227. Robert and I had 8231. Jean, Kari, and Amanda were in 8233. Jean's parents were in 8239. At the time we booked, we couldn't get 4 that were all adjacent, but this was pretty close.
Dining
We all had late-seating dinner together, and were assigned a table right in the center of the dining room. This is the first time in all my cruises that we were not stuck in a back corner somewhere. The only issue with this location is that we had 9 people seated at what was really a round table for 8. It was a little tight. The food was the usual fare for Carnival. It wasn't spectacular, but it wasn't bad either. They have done a little cost cutting, as the filet mignon is now combined with short ribs. You get a smaller piece of filet that way. On lobster night, a few of the lobsters were over-cooked, but they were replaced with better ones. One night, I was eating my Ceasar salad and bit into a slice of lime. Since that isn't supposed to be there, it kind of turned me off on eating anymore of it. I mentioned it to the waiter, and they said they would tell the kitchen staff. Later in the dinner they brought out a plate of chocolate covered strawberries as an apology.
Service at our table was slow. Most nights we were among the last to leave, and we are not really slow eaters. Half the time, the waiter "show" was started before we even got our entree. Beverage service was very good. We showed our soda cards the first night, and every night thereafter, sodas were brought for us without asking. The Matre'd is one of only two that I will remember from all my cruises. Dessi came to talk to nearly everyone every night. She got Amanda up to dance with the waiters and even gave her a "24K gold plastic ship on a stick" for dancing with them on one of their new dances. The other one I remember is Yusef. I remember him for his distinctive, "Hellllooo!" every night. Dessi is very similar that way. I asked her if she had worked with Yusef, and it turns out she had trained under him.
The Lido cafe is where we ate breakfasts and lunches, and snacks, and whatever else. The fare was typical of other Carnival cruises. Some very good, some not so good. Some mornings the scrambled eggs were very runny, other mornings they were almost overcooked. You could always get eggs cooked custom or have an omelet made to order. Those were always good. The pizza bar was 1 flight up from our cabin (almost directly above us). Almost too convenient! Pizza was up to Carnival's usual standards, which are pretty good. Unlike the Crown Princess we were on last year, Carnival still has 24-hour soft-serve ice cream and frozen yougart available. That is definitely a plus! The only difficulty with the Lido was finding a seat sometimes. This was a sold-out sailing, so it sometimes got very crowded in the Lido cafe.
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