Welcome to FT mharris. It's unfortunate the port was missed and that the ship arrived several hours late at its destination. From the cruise as you describe it though, cruising may not be for you. Carnival's food is not generally of Michelin-Star quality, despite the celebrity chef endorsement, the entertainment isn't up to Las Vegas or Broadway standards, and casinos and bars are a money-making fact of life on all of the large-ship lines we've sailed, Princess, HAL, Celebrity, Carnival, QM II.

Sometimes when people are upset about one aspect of, say, a cruise or a flight or a hotel or a tour, they tend to find fault with absolutely every aspect of the experience. While all of this may be true, it actually tends to weaken one's argument, as the previous experienced poster indicates.

For example, in this Cruise Critic thread, a poster writes:

engines are fine. the problem lies within the starboard side drive that runs the prop. Some parts were put in in Cozumel, but it did not fix the problem. We were on the January 31 cruise and the ship could only run at 1/2 speed. The starboard drive was run very briefly when we left Coz, but then shut down again.

We had fun anyway.......................... [my bold]

Skimming through the Cruise Critic review, as well as member reviews, reveals that Holiday is one of Carnival's oldest ships, and...

Many of these flaws and deficiencies are forgivable, however, taken in the context of Holiday's position in Carnival's marketing plan. Over recent years Carnival has aggressively developed the Gulf Coast by moving a Holiday-class ship to a city that had not previously homeported a major cruise line, offering short cruises to the Western Caribbean. This strategy yields a triple enticement to first-timers: short duration, affordable fares and a pier that can be reached by automobile. First-time cruisers, ipso facto, have no other ships to compare with Holiday, so it does not suffer so badly by comparison.

We've experienced late arrivals, missed ports, and mechanical problems on HAL, Oceania, and QM II but we're heading off on our third Transatlantic on Oceania's Regatta in March nonetheless. Again, do your own due diligence on FT, Cruise Critic, Trip Advisor, et al, to have a better chance of finding the holiday experience, cruise or otherwise, that will live up to your expectations.

Hope your next vacation is a better one for you!

Cheers,
Fredd