Noobie_cruiser

A little info first, we are a family of 4 with kids aged 4yo and 3yo. We have been in a total of 2 cruises. Both with Carnival. We were in the Victory this July, and just got of the Magic yesterday. And now we want to plan for our next cruise because we are addicted! :hearteyes: School will start soon so our next cruise will be for next year. :loudcry: Now i have a few questions.

1. What is the main difference between Carnival and Royal Caribbean? We are thinking of booking Vista Class ships if we do Carnival, and book Oasis Class ships if we do RCI.

2. When is the best time to book a cruise? Like is there a black Friday for cruises

3. What is the best deal you have gotten? I see deals like free drinks/internet/excursion package, 50% off 3rd and 4th guests, OBC, etc

4. I have heard that Carnival is the fun ship. Is it true that Carnival is more fun than Royal Caribbean? In what way is it more fun? Is it the shows, the activities, the CD, or just the atmosphere?

5. I saw that they have Johnny Rockets, so I was wondering what places are free to eat in Royal Caribbean? In Carnival they have mdr, buffet, blue iguana, guys burgers, pig&anchor, 24hr pizza and froyo.

6. Which would you choose just between the two, Carnival or Royal Caribbean and why?

Looking forward to your responses. Thanks! :halo:

A little info first, we are a family of 4 with kids aged 4yo and 3yo. We have been in a total of 2 cruises. Both with Carnival. We were in the Victory this July, and just got of the Magic yesterday. And now we want to plan for our next cruise because we are addicted! :hearteyes: School will start soon so our next cruise will be for next year. :loudcry: Now i have a few questions.

1. What is the main difference between Carnival and Royal Caribbean? We are thinking of booking Vista Class ships if we do Carnival, and book Oasis Class ships if we do RCI.

2. When is the best time to book a cruise? Like is there a black Friday for cruises

3. What is the best deal you have gotten? I see deals like free drinks/internet/excursion package, 50% off 3rd and 4th guests, OBC, etc

4. I have heard that Carnival is the fun ship. Is it true that Carnival is more fun than Royal Caribbean? In what way is it more fun? Is it the shows, the activities, the CD, or just the atmosphere?

5. I saw that they have Johnny Rockets, so I was wondering what places are free to eat in Royal Caribbean? In Carnival they have mdr, buffet, blue iguana, guys burgers, pig&anchor, 24hr pizza and froyo.

6. Which would you choose just between the two, Carnival or Royal Caribbean and why?

Looking forward to your responses. Thanks! :halo:

I was on the same sailing, Aug 18-25. This was our 2nd cruise so im no expert but my family had a great time!

Food that we enjoyed were the blue iguana, indian food near the tides, pig and anchor, and the omelette bar in the lido during breakfast. We also enjoyed the lobster night in the mdr. They have vegetarian options so you don’t have to worry.

As for the A/C, before our cruise we were reading a lot of FB posts that the Magic has an A/C problem so when we met our room steward the first day, we asked for an electric fan from him. Our room is in deck 9 forward. If you walk in the hallway of deck 9 in mid and aft, you will feel that its warm. Our room was ok, but we had to turn on the fan every night when we go to sleep.

Now for the entertainment, this was the highlight of our cruise. AlexJay our cruise director did a wonderful job. It was his first stint as CD but he still pulled it off. I think Cookie is in a CD conference that’s why AlexJay filled in for him. The performers in the showtime theater did amazing as well. Dj Dawkness, Landry the comedian, the Fun Squad, and the band in Spotlight Lounge were all awesome.

Lastly, I just want to mention Ms. Moana from Camp Ocean was fantastic. Our kids love her. You know that your kids are well taken care of if they mention and talk about what they did with her everytime we picked them up from camp.

Ok, thanks for the replies. We’re fine with lining up for our table. What’s really important for us is getting the YTD. With 2 kids, we’re not sure if our meal times at home will be the same on the ship so we want flexibility. And also i heard that with YTD, you can request a 4 person table. We dont want to bother other cruisers with noise or constant questions from our young ones if we go to the normal MDR that seats 8 people per table. :halo:

Just wanted to ask what perks do we get from FTTF in regards to dining. As of now, we have early dining confirmed for our cruise. But we are waitlisted on the YTD. Does having FTTF give me a better chance at getting YTD? What about lines during breakfast, lunch and dinner, does FTTF have separate queues? How about making meal reservations, we have 2 toddlers and are planning on going to the Dr. Suess breakfast, is it easy making a reservation with FTTF? TIA! :D

big water bottles that I fill with juice in the AM (I see y’all judging me 😂😂).

You should be posting this in the tips section! I will definitely be doing this on my first cruise in July! :'):evilsmile:

We cruise Carnival and it's 4 of us so we always take 48 sodas on with us. No way I'd pay ship prices for sodas.

So in Carnival, you can bring 12 cans for each passenger? Just curious as i have no experience, how do you bring 48 cans to the ship if you cant put it inside your luggage? Do you carry it around with you until you go to your room? How bout just bring a 2L onboard instead of cans?

Not picking and just curious, but what is the actual itinerary you are looking at? I'm not familiar with any cruise line offering 4-night Caribbean cruises as that location is too far away to reach with such a short cruise unless you would be departing out of San Juan, PR . And I'm not aware of any short cruises from there. But certainly not from any US departure port. Are you sure you don't mean the Bahamas ? (Which are definitely not in the Caribbean).

 

Again, just looking for clarification. But either way, enjoy your cruise.

It departs in miami, goes to key west and cozumel. We thought it would be perfect for us. Because its our first time, we didnt want too many destinations and dont know how to budget our time. :)

Hey everyone! Thanks for replying and looking at my post. They were all very helpful. And i guess we can save on luggage space by not bringing towels. :D So we decided on booking a 4 night Caribbean cruise with CCL. We got a balcony room on the sky deck. When we were searching, there were good deals for the month of September but July is the only time we all have off/vacation from work and school. Again, thanks to the awesome community. And please post first timer tips if you have some more. :)

Hello everyone! I’m new to the forum. Really excited to be part of the community and hopefully contribute here.

To start things of, here are some info. In July, my family and I are going to our very first cruise. We haven’t decided yet which cruise line to book but we have been eyeing MSC or CCL. Our party consists of 2 adults and 2 kids aged 4y/o and 3y/o. When we were first looking for cruises, we wanted to go on the disney cruise. Having been to disney world and disneyland, we always have fun and memorable experiences there. But we think that the disney cruise costs too much compared with other cruise lines. We have been reading forum posts too that says other cruise lines have better kids clubs. Now for destination, we decided the best for us would be the Caribbean area. Although my family travels a lot, we have never been to the Caribbean. We hear that its nice there. With beaches having clear water and excursions that are worth the trip. Now i have some noobie questions that I hope the community can help me with.

1. Which do you guys prefer more, MSC or CCL?

2. I’ve read that gratuities are settled at the end of your trip. How much does it usually costs?

3. Are gratuities the only other fee we have to pay at the end or are there other hidden fees we should be aware of? (Btw we would be getting the all you can drink package for our trip.)

4. As for meals, do you have to reserve a table? Like tell them what time you’ll eat. Or do i just go to the restaurants anytime we get hungry?

5. Do the kids club get crowded? Or we can go there anytime and let our kids play and enjoy themselves?

6. For the pools and even when we get off the ship, is it better to pack our own towels or are there an abundance of towels to use? Can we bring the ship’s towels for when we go to the beach?

7. Do people give cash tips to their waiters or bartenders? Or because of the gratuity charge at the end of the trip, you dont give anything to the employees there?

8. Can you give me some other tips and tricks you can think of for how to maximize our first cruise experience?

Thank you guys for reading my post and hope to have a lot of inputs! :D

P.S. i searched the web and they said this is the best forum for cruises. :champagne-toast: