Carnival cruisers go on RCI - our Pros & Cons

I posted this in the Royal Caribbean page, but I thought I'd share it here as well. I know people go between lines, not everyone is brand loyal. I kept notes on my phone while we were on our 8-night RCI cruise on the Indy. We left from Southampton, cruised to Oslo, Bruges, Hamburg, and Le Havre. It was my husband, myself, and our 13 year old son in room 8536. We've been on several cruises, mostly Carnival. So cruising in general is nothing new to us. We're not necessarily loyal to Carnival, it's just been the cruises we've mostly chosen because we cruise with friends. So yes, we're used to them, and there are things we like about them, but we found things we liked about RCI as well. As always, this is subjective, just our opinion, and for our cruise.

RCI Pros -

* We had great interaction with several crew members, we did trivia several times, had some good laughs, etc.. (James, Jarrod)

* Our son loved having the flowrider and the rock climbing wall

* We enjoyed the speed of service in the MDR. We had YTD dining and had made 6:15 reservations for every night we'd be at sea. We happened to still be back on the ship to eat on board as well when we were in port. We liked that you could reserve your same table for every night as well, so we had Natalia & Yanyan every night except once - they were great!! But I felt that we weren't rushed, or that the waitstaff wasn't overworked either. It was paced just right.

* Good room service

* The room layout was a little nicer, because there's actual space between the bed and the balcony doors. Enough that we could move the small coffee table over there, instead of the middle of the room.

* I liked that the hair dryer wasn't bolted down inside the drawer

* I liked how the vanity mirror in the bathroom had one side that opened, with shelves inside. As well as small cabinets on each side of the desk mirror with shelves too. Nice for storing sunglasses, batteries, etc...

* I really liked that there wasn't any receipt signing when getting sodas. I ended up getting the soda package, since 1 soda was $3+!! That is a rip off, IMO, but I figured at the $10/day price, I would drink at least 3, which I did. They even seemed to think our son had it too, so a couple of times they brought him sodas at dinner and never charged us.

* It was nice to have the bar right by the Windjammer buffet

* My husband liked the variety of sauces available. Yes, some of those are very British, so it made sense they were offered.

* It was good that there were 2 outlets on the desk in the room. We fried our power cord thing before we left, so it was good to have 2 outlets.

* Embarkation was very smooth and easy. We walked over around 11 a.m. from our hotel, deck 8 was supposed to be on at noon, and we were actually walking on by 11:45.

* The gentlemen working at the front of the Windjammer was always happy & singing, and reminding people to use the hand sanitizer before using the buffet. Unfortunately, we both still got a cold while on board. Luckily, not too bad, or too long.

RCI Cons -

* It's nice that Carnival has bathrobes in the room without asking. And while I list it as a con, it's partially a pro as well since when we asked for them, our room steward brought us 3, so included one for our teenage son.

* No movie channel/limited channels. I know, we should be out on the ship doing things. But our port days were very long, so our sea days were needed to recover. And we're not really drinkers, we don't go to the bars/clubs, so late at night, we like to just watch some TV. Carnival has a movie channel (1 regular, 1 kids movie) that runs a new 2 hour movie for 24 hours, changing every night at midnight.

* Several shows we wanted to watch were in Spanish

*Not a fan of the nickle & dime concept. We actually spoke with our cruisers who also aren't a fan of this. Paying for Johnny Rockets, the ice cream shop, the cupcake thing, etc... We didn't do any of the specialty dining for this reason either, although I recognize that all the lines charge for that experience. We live in a city with a large amount of steakhouses, so not something I want to pay for on a cruise.

* Did NOT like the bunk bed/pull down bed being above our bed! Our son climbed up there the first night and said "no way!" It makes too much noise and is somewhat a claustrophobic feeling. And then I hit my head on it the first night. He ended up being way more comfortable on the sofa.

* We felt that the cleaning carts were always in the hallways, the vacuum cleaners, etc... And yet it didn't appear as though our floor was every vacuumed. I also recognize that the ship is due for drydock - it needs it. It has a definite old appearance in many ways.

* The elevators were very slow and odd! They would skip floors. I heard other people complain about it as well.

* The Windjammer always seemed much more crowded and smaller. We often had a hard time finding a seat for just the 2 of us.

* Miss the self serve ice cream. I know they have the one machine, but I don't like cones, so it would be nice to have the dishes at least.

* The muster drill felt much more disorganized and long. They had a lot of people crammed into the one lounge and there was a guy hand writing room numbers on a little scrap of paper. I did like our last cruise on the Magic where they scanned everyone's card upon entering the theater.

* Left dirty plates in the hallways.

I'll have some other things that I'll put into my full review about the cruise itself. These were just all the pros & cons I had on my list. I thought it might be helpful for those who haven't been on one, but the other, of these lines. We did enjoy our cruise, we had a mostly good time. The ship is in definite need of a scrub down and sprucing up. I didn't feel that we saw that many people out and about cleaning, I felt I saw more on the Carnival ships we were on. But, we also didn't spend as much time on the decks like we do on a Caribbean.

You drew some interesting comparisons. Thanks for posting.

Good comparison report, thanks.

Thanks we have always sailed n carnival but are thinking about an rci cruise. You gave us some things to think about.

Thank you for sharing! Our family has been on multiple Disney Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean cruises over the years, and we are trying out our first Carnival cruise in January. It was interesting to see your pros and cons. We have enjoyed all of our cruises and found things we like better on Disney and things we like better on Royal. I have a feeling Carnival will be the same and I'm excited to compare!

Good comments, thank you.

Thank you for the comparison.

I posted this in the Royal Caribbean page, but I thought I'd share it here as well. I know people go between lines, not everyone is brand loyal. I kept notes on my phone while we were on our 8-night RCI cruise on the Indy. We left from Southampton, cruised to Oslo, Bruges, Hamburg, and Le Havre. It was my husband, myself, and our 13 year old son in room 8536. We've been on several cruises, mostly Carnival. So cruising in general is nothing new to us. We're not necessarily loyal to Carnival, it's just been the cruises we've mostly chosen because we cruise with friends. So yes, we're used to them, and there are things we like about them, but we found things we liked about RCI as well. As always, this is subjective, just our opinion, and for our cruise.

 

RCI Pros -

* We had great interaction with several crew members, we did trivia several times, had some good laughs, etc.. (James, Jarrod)

* Our son loved having the flowrider and the rock climbing wall

* We enjoyed the speed of service in the MDR. We had YTD dining and had made 6:15 reservations for every night we'd be at sea. We happened to still be back on the ship to eat on board as well when we were in port. We liked that you could reserve your same table for every night as well, so we had Natalia & Yanyan every night except once - they were great!! But I felt that we weren't rushed, or that the waitstaff wasn't overworked either. It was paced just right.

* Good room service

* The room layout was a little nicer, because there's actual space between the bed and the balcony doors. Enough that we could move the small coffee table over there, instead of the middle of the room.

* I liked that the hair dryer wasn't bolted down inside the drawer

* I liked how the vanity mirror in the bathroom had one side that opened, with shelves inside. As well as small cabinets on each side of the desk mirror with shelves too. Nice for storing sunglasses, batteries, etc...

* I really liked that there wasn't any receipt signing when getting sodas. I ended up getting the soda package, since 1 soda was $3+!! That is a rip off, IMO, but I figured at the $10/day price, I would drink at least 3, which I did. They even seemed to think our son had it too, so a couple of times they brought him sodas at dinner and never charged us.

* It was nice to have the bar right by the Windjammer buffet

* My husband liked the variety of sauces available. Yes, some of those are very British, so it made sense they were offered.

* It was good that there were 2 outlets on the desk in the room. We fried our power cord thing before we left, so it was good to have 2 outlets.

* Embarkation was very smooth and easy. We walked over around 11 a.m. from our hotel, deck 8 was supposed to be on at noon, and we were actually walking on by 11:45.

* The gentlemen working at the front of the Windjammer was always happy & singing, and reminding people to use the hand sanitizer before using the buffet. Unfortunately, we both still got a cold while on board. Luckily, not too bad, or too long.

 

RCI Cons -

* It's nice that Carnival has bathrobes in the room without asking. And while I list it as a con, it's partially a pro as well since when we asked for them, our room steward brought us 3, so included one for our teenage son.

* No movie channel/limited channels. I know, we should be out on the ship doing things. But our port days were very long, so our sea days were needed to recover. And we're not really drinkers, we don't go to the bars/clubs, so late at night, we like to just watch some TV. Carnival has a movie channel (1 regular, 1 kids movie) that runs a new 2 hour movie for 24 hours, changing every night at midnight.

* Several shows we wanted to watch were in Spanish

*Not a fan of the nickle & dime concept. We actually spoke with our cruisers who also aren't a fan of this. Paying for Johnny Rockets, the ice cream shop, the cupcake thing, etc... We didn't do any of the specialty dining for this reason either, although I recognize that all the lines charge for that experience. We live in a city with a large amount of steakhouses, so not something I want to pay for on a cruise.

* Did NOT like the bunk bed/pull down bed being above our bed! Our son climbed up there the first night and said "no way!" It makes too much noise and is somewhat a claustrophobic feeling. And then I hit my head on it the first night. He ended up being way more comfortable on the sofa.

* We felt that the cleaning carts were always in the hallways, the vacuum cleaners, etc... And yet it didn't appear as though our floor was every vacuumed. I also recognize that the ship is due for drydock - it needs it. It has a definite old appearance in many ways.

* The elevators were very slow and odd! They would skip floors. I heard other people complain about it as well.

* The Windjammer always seemed much more crowded and smaller. We often had a hard time finding a seat for just the 2 of us.

* Miss the self serve ice cream. I know they have the one machine, but I don't like cones, so it would be nice to have the dishes at least.

* The muster drill felt much more disorganized and long. They had a lot of people crammed into the one lounge and there was a guy hand writing room numbers on a little scrap of paper. I did like our last cruise on the Magic where they scanned everyone's card upon entering the theater.

* Left dirty plates in the hallways.

 

I'll have some other things that I'll put into my full review about the cruise itself. These were just all the pros & cons I had on my list. I thought it might be helpful for those who haven't been on one, but the other, of these lines. We did enjoy our cruise, we had a mostly good time. The ship is in definite need of a scrub down and sprucing up. I didn't feel that we saw that many people out and about cleaning, I felt I saw more on the Carnival ships we were on. But, we also didn't spend as much time on the decks like we do on a Caribbean.

Thanks for posting. We have cruised Royal many times (20 plus) and are relatively new Carnival cruisers (2 plus one upcoming), so it is always very interesting to read comparisons.

I have spent more than 600 days on Carnival and have more than 300 points on RCCL and cannot disagree with anything you posted. OP, you are spot on.

I have spent more than 600 days on Carnival and have more than 300 points on RCCL and cannot disagree with anything you posted. OP, you are spot on.

Thank you! I tried to just talk about the things that we noticed were different, things that people may want to know if they're new to either line. We really enjoyed our cruise. We're the type of people who will pick a cruise because of it's itinerary though, not because of a specific ship/line. I didn't want to nitpick anyone personally, how we didn't like this person or that one, although we didn't really have that issue on this cruise that I can recall. I'm still writing a review of our actual cruise, so I'll have more thoughts in there too...

One thing I forgot to mention about the soda package though. I do prefer Carnival's package for sure. It's definitely cheaper and they include juices. My son gets the package on Carnival because we try to limit his soda intake, kids just don't need it. He prefers juice instead. But that was too expensive on RCI.

Completely agree with your points! Especially the dirty plates in the halls and even in the elevators on Carnival. It is such a minor thing and can be correctly easily.....but every year I still see it!

Thanks for the comparison. I can't disagree with anything you say.

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Completely agree with your points! Especially the dirty plates in the halls and even in the elevators on Carnival. It is such a minor thing and can be correctly easily.....but every year I still see it!

I think OP was saying that they noticed this to be much more of a problem on RCCI than Carnival... which would be bad because I agree with you Lisa- it's so messy to see the trays & dishes hanging out all over the ship!

Thanks Cindy that was very helpful.

FYI, bathrobes must now be requested from the cabin stewards on Carnival.

I think OP was saying that they noticed this to be much more of a problem on RCCI than Carnival... which would be bad because I agree with you Lisa- it's so messy to see the trays & dishes hanging out all over the ship!

Yes, the dirty plates was a problem on RCI. We had plates/glasses in our room that sometimes the room steward wouldn't take either. But we did leave dirty plates outside the room one time, as did others, but nobody picked them up for a long time. I don't see that on Carnival.

Thank you! I tried to just talk about the things that we noticed were different, things that people may want to know if they're new to either line. We really enjoyed our cruise. We're the type of people who will pick a cruise because of it's itinerary though, not because of a specific ship/line. I didn't want to nitpick anyone personally, how we didn't like this person or that one, although we didn't really have that issue on this cruise that I can recall. I'm still writing a review of our actual cruise, so I'll have more thoughts in there too...

 

 

One thing I forgot to mention about the soda package though. I do prefer Carnival's package for sure. It's definitely cheaper and they include juices. My son gets the package on Carnival because we try to limit his soda intake, kids just don't need it. He prefers juice instead. But that was too expensive on RCI.

I will add one thing. Although it was not the case on your cruise, Royal usually has efficient muster drills.. They have been taking attendance long before Carnival started checking S&S cards.

I will add one thing. Although it was not the case on your cruise, Royal usually has efficient muster drills.. They have been taking attendance long before Carnival started checking S&S cards.

Yeah, that one kind of surprised me. I wonder if something happened. They seemed somewhat confused. And like I said, he was writing down names, room numbers, and # in cabin on a small piece of scrap paper. That was odd to me. And yes, years ago on Carnival, they were long and drawn out. Our last one on Magic was super easy and smooth.

FYI, bathrobes must now be requested from the cabin stewards on Carnival.

While mostly true, not always the case.

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FYI, bathrobes must now be requested from the cabin stewards on Carnival.

Good to know...I don't use them. Last cruise (Sunshine) I had 3 of them in the closet and I was a solo cruiser....:D Cabin steward removed them for me.

I'll be on Sunshine in September...Hope they aren't there.

Thanks for the comparisons.

Good to know...I don't use them. Last cruise (Sunshine) I had 3 of them in the closet and I was a solo cruiser....:D Cabin steward removed them for me.

 

I'll be on Sunshine in September...Hope they aren't there.

I can't bring myself to use the robes in the cabins ever since I read a post on CC of someone who found a bloody Kleenex in the pocket of the robe hanging in her closet! EEEWWWWWW~! It then prompted all kinds of discussions about the disgusting things people had seen or experienced on cruises... I had to take a shower afterwards I felt so icky!

I really appreciated the review, Thank you!

I posted this in the Royal Caribbean page, but I thought I'd share it here as well. I know people go between lines, not everyone is brand loyal. I kept notes on my phone while we were on our 8-night RCI cruise on the Indy. We left from Southampton, cruised to Oslo, Bruges, Hamburg, and Le Havre. It was my husband, myself, and our 13 year old son in room 8536. We've been on several cruises, mostly Carnival. So cruising in general is nothing new to us. We're not necessarily loyal to Carnival, it's just been the cruises we've mostly chosen because we cruise with friends. So yes, we're used to them, and there are things we like about them, but we found things we liked about RCI as well. As always, this is subjective, just our opinion, and for our cruise.

 

RCI Pros -

* We had great interaction with several crew members, we did trivia several times, had some good laughs, etc.. (James, Jarrod)

* Our son loved having the flowrider and the rock climbing wall

* We enjoyed the speed of service in the MDR. We had YTD dining and had made 6:15 reservations for every night we'd be at sea. We happened to still be back on the ship to eat on board as well when we were in port. We liked that you could reserve your same table for every night as well, so we had Natalia & Yanyan every night except once - they were great!! But I felt that we weren't rushed, or that the waitstaff wasn't overworked either. It was paced just right.

* Good room service

* The room layout was a little nicer, because there's actual space between the bed and the balcony doors. Enough that we could move the small coffee table over there, instead of the middle of the room.

* I liked that the hair dryer wasn't bolted down inside the drawer

* I liked how the vanity mirror in the bathroom had one side that opened, with shelves inside. As well as small cabinets on each side of the desk mirror with shelves too. Nice for storing sunglasses, batteries, etc...

* I really liked that there wasn't any receipt signing when getting sodas. I ended up getting the soda package, since 1 soda was $3+!! That is a rip off, IMO, but I figured at the $10/day price, I would drink at least 3, which I did. They even seemed to think our son had it too, so a couple of times they brought him sodas at dinner and never charged us.

* It was nice to have the bar right by the Windjammer buffet

* My husband liked the variety of sauces available. Yes, some of those are very British, so it made sense they were offered.

* It was good that there were 2 outlets on the desk in the room. We fried our power cord thing before we left, so it was good to have 2 outlets.

* Embarkation was very smooth and easy. We walked over around 11 a.m. from our hotel, deck 8 was supposed to be on at noon, and we were actually walking on by 11:45.

* The gentlemen working at the front of the Windjammer was always happy & singing, and reminding people to use the hand sanitizer before using the buffet. Unfortunately, we both still got a cold while on board. Luckily, not too bad, or too long.

 

RCI Cons -

* It's nice that Carnival has bathrobes in the room without asking. And while I list it as a con, it's partially a pro as well since when we asked for them, our room steward brought us 3, so included one for our teenage son.

* No movie channel/limited channels. I know, we should be out on the ship doing things. But our port days were very long, so our sea days were needed to recover. And we're not really drinkers, we don't go to the bars/clubs, so late at night, we like to just watch some TV. Carnival has a movie channel (1 regular, 1 kids movie) that runs a new 2 hour movie for 24 hours, changing every night at midnight.

* Several shows we wanted to watch were in Spanish

*Not a fan of the nickle & dime concept. We actually spoke with our cruisers who also aren't a fan of this. Paying for Johnny Rockets, the ice cream shop, the cupcake thing, etc... We didn't do any of the specialty dining for this reason either, although I recognize that all the lines charge for that experience. We live in a city with a large amount of steakhouses, so not something I want to pay for on a cruise.

* Did NOT like the bunk bed/pull down bed being above our bed! Our son climbed up there the first night and said "no way!" It makes too much noise and is somewhat a claustrophobic feeling. And then I hit my head on it the first night. He ended up being way more comfortable on the sofa.

* We felt that the cleaning carts were always in the hallways, the vacuum cleaners, etc... And yet it didn't appear as though our floor was every vacuumed. I also recognize that the ship is due for drydock - it needs it. It has a definite old appearance in many ways.

* The elevators were very slow and odd! They would skip floors. I heard other people complain about it as well.

* The Windjammer always seemed much more crowded and smaller. We often had a hard time finding a seat for just the 2 of us.

* Miss the self serve ice cream. I know they have the one machine, but I don't like cones, so it would be nice to have the dishes at least.

* The muster drill felt much more disorganized and long. They had a lot of people crammed into the one lounge and there was a guy hand writing room numbers on a little scrap of paper. I did like our last cruise on the Magic where they scanned everyone's card upon entering the theater.

* Left dirty plates in the hallways.

 

I'll have some other things that I'll put into my full review about the cruise itself. These were just all the pros & cons I had on my list. I thought it might be helpful for those who haven't been on one, but the other, of these lines. We did enjoy our cruise, we had a mostly good time. The ship is in definite need of a scrub down and sprucing up. I didn't feel that we saw that many people out and about cleaning, I felt I saw more on the Carnival ships we were on. But, we also didn't spend as much time on the decks like we do on a Caribbean.

I also want to add in the cons that Royal doesn't have the beach towels in the staterooms for your convenience. You have to go check them out in our case, on deck 11 on LOS.

Thanks for the review so far. I guess I'm going to need to get pop package. $3 is to much and I love my pop.