Yes, Carnival is awful. Please stay away so my fares drop.

I find it suspicious that Celebrity fares are similar to Carnival fares. That may be true on a few select sailings, but I doubt it is true on a fleet-wide basis. Further, a careful reading of Cruisecritic will show that the complaints on all of the big cruise lines are nearly identical.

Our experiences in 5 cruises on Carnival, at least one in each class of ship now, have been great fun, good food, excellent service, and clean ships. It's true that Carnival ships don't have as many onboard gimmicks amenities as some of the other lines, but for me I'm there to relax so I don't really care if there is a rock-climbing wall or an ice-skating rink. Carnival also has the consistently best-rated children's program at sea next to Disney (but there's no casino on DCL, so no thanks!), so that's another big stroke in their favor for us.