Carnival has been doing a crack down on chairs forever, more towels have got a suntan then people, on our first cruise in 1996 they were going to handle the chair hog problem. It was something people were up at 5: to put something on a chair and show up 0900 or later to use the chair, we are not in that rat race anymore
It always takes 1 to 1/1/2 hrs for diner its been that way since the 90 s sometimes it takes 20 min till they take or order depends on how many people at your table and around you. Lots of factors. We don't eat to much in the dining room anymore, we try the Lido so we don't need to change for the evening I can stay in shorts unless we go to the Steak house, we do that 2 times a cruise .
We have done 6 BtoB over the years, we have the Mardi Gras in Jan and the Celebration in June we figure if we have to fly to Fla do 2. The only thing is get the same cabin for both. The other is Carnival made us get off the ship and say hello to customs and they could care less , they told us if we are not done with the cruise they don't need to see us, but Carnival still plays the game. 14 days makes you feel like you were on a cruise. We have a 14 day Journey cruise in 15 days on the Legend.
2 weeks ago we got a taxi from the pier entrance to Atlantis, going $17 coming back $20, for 2 people or we could go with a few people and pay $15 . Gas prices are high I think around $8 a gal.