NCL vs. Carnival how do they compare?

Needing a little advice. I live near the Galveston/Houston cruise ports. Since NCL is coming to Houston cruise port I was wanting to perhaps try them. I have sailed on Carnival so much I would like to see what else is out there just to compare. So... how does NCL compare to Carnival for those of you who have sailed both? What makes them different? Thanks in advance.

I'm sure you'll get some answers but while you are waiting do a search on "NCL vs Carnival" or "NCL vs CCL" and you will get a million responses. It's been asked and answered many times over .

It depends on many things. If you're going to compare the NCL Jewel to Carnival Magic, the ship's not as new as the Magic, obviously. The Jewel won't have the waterslides like the Magic (though they do have one - just won't really compare to the ones on Magic). Though comparing the Jewel to the Conquest, I would definitely put the Jewel ahead on that match up.

Personally, I think NCL does a much better job at the freestyle/flexible dining than Carnival does but if you like traditional seatings, NCL doesn't do that. NCL has more dining options I've found the crews on NCL much friendlier than on CCL. And if you join a roll call and go to the meet & greet, NCL officers show up in full force and are ready to chat. They love CCers and want to hear what your views are.

We are driving to NOLA at the end of the week to board the NCL Star and are looking forward to sailing out of Houston on NCL. Half of our cruises have been out of Galveston, but the last time made us not want to do that again (it wasn't the cruise, it was Galveston that was the issue), so we are very excited about sailing out of Bayport in the future.

really will end up personal preference. we have sailed both. i won't do carnival again due to a bad experience. so i am biased. i also will be a platinum level when i get back from my next cruise in january. i know others feel the same in reverse.

this is imho

for average size cabins carnival wins

for price ncl wins

for food quality in main dining area, carnival wins

for specialty restaurants ncl wins.

for service ncl

for floor show in dining room carnival

if you want set dining times carnival

if you want to eat when you are hungry ncl

dealing with problems.....neither!!

If you exit back out of this thread and use the search function on the right side you will get dozens of threads on this exact topic. Just click on search and type "CCL" in the search box (no quotes)

This thread in particular (from the first search results page) includes links to many other threads answering this question

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1748572

Carnival's cabins are larger. Food and service is very similar.

I like to sail both (and others) because I like variety!

Have fun!

NCL vs Carnival is not a great way to get an accurate opinion. You really need to askk ship vs. ship. For example - we just returned from back to back NCL Epic and Carnival Breeze. We definately preferred the EPIC. We've also cruised on many other NCL and Carnival ships. We'd say we prefer the Carnival Valor to the NCL Dawn. Many specific reasons could be listed but only if comparing specific ships.