Carnival cruise lines or Royal Caribbean?

[booboo0530]

I just took a cruise with Royal Caribbean as my first cruise and was throughly satisfied but in making arrangements for our next cruise I have noticed Carnival being alot cheaper and with us being on a budget that it is a very big plus, but I have also heard that Royal Caribbean beats Carnival by a long shot in service and cleanliness and so forth and I wanted to get my fellow cruisers opinions! So if you could give me your experiences or your opinion on the matter it would be much appreciated!

[joyous337]

I have only sailed on Carnival, but I used to be a travel agent and sent many people on both. In my experience, Royal Caribbean is geared toward middle aged and up and more affluent people. More elegant if you will. Carnival is geared more toward people in their 20's and 30's. Not quite as upscale, but still very nice. I have been nothing but happy on the 2 cruises I've taken on Carnival and I'm quite excited to leave on our 3rd cruise with them this Sunday.

[Hlitner]

We have cruised on 12 different cruise lines (everything from Crystal to Carnival and much worse) and have found that a majority of "Carnival bashers" have either never cruised on Carnival or haven't cruised on Carnival in the past ten years. Carnival is comparable to RCI and lately we think its even better in some areas such as food. RCI has made many cut-backs to their line in the past 2 or 3 years and IMHO it shows! We are Diamond on RCI and it used to be our favorite line, but after are last two RCI cruises it is now way down our last of preferred lines. We book about 70 days of cruises a year and there is no longer any RCI on our agenda.

 

Hank

[boating girl]

I have also cruised Carnival and other lines. I would choose RC over Carnival if the price and itinerarly were similar. I am not a Carnival basher but just think RC is nicer in most everything.

[velvetred]

I have been on both - prefer Carnival overall (this is only comparing these two cruise lines - neither is my first choice when booking a cruise). I much prefer the food on Carnival compared to Royal Caribbean but my sister likes the food on Royal Caribbean just fine so it is all a matter of personal preference. If you are on a budget, why not give Carnival a try? You can often get a balcony for a reasonable price on Carnival, especially on the Spirit class. If you give Carnival a try and don't like it, you can always go back to Royal Caribbean on your next cruise. That being said, if you tell us your likes and dislikes in cruising you may get better responses fitting your preferences. For example, if you want rock climbing walls and ice skating shows you won't find those on Carnival.

[laurenpie]

I haven't yet sailed Carnival - I will be in October.

I've twice been on Royal Caribbean, and while I thought they were fantastic, they were WAY too fancy..

 

Carnival seemed more laid-back, chilled out & fun which is what i'm looking forward to. :)

 

To me, the price difference is huge.. costs a lot for us to get there... Carnival come out top in that one :)

[DonnaK]

The one time we switched from Royal Caribbean to Carnival, it was a huge disappointment especially in the area of service and in the design of the ship itself. We wouldn't cruise Carnival again no matter how cheap, as it isn't a good match for us. Although RCI is our prefered cruiseline, we enjoy Princess too, as they seem to provide a more equivalent cruising experience.

[silentbob007]

I think it kind of depends on the ship, as well. I'd be more likely to cruise on newer ships in Carnival's fleet as opposed to some of their older ones. I've always thought that Carnival offered a good vaule for the money, but they've been having so many safety problems lately that it is really making me hard about sailing with them again.

[RetireeWannabee]

My opinion is that it won't matter what anyone here says - go ahead and try another line and decide for yourself. Just keep in mind, you will be comparing ship experiences in most cases (staff performance, amenities...) and then a few cruiseline vs. cruiseline items.

 

Pricing is a big factor for us, too, and I would not hesitate to book the cheaper price if there were more than one option for the desired itinerary/time.

 

variety is the spice of life!

[Hlitner]

One must always consider how long ago they were on the various cruise lines. The industry has been changing (a lot) and what you remember from 4 or 5 years ago does not necessarily apply today. Carnival has vastly improved their "product" over the years while we think that RCI has one backwards. RCI has focused on building huge ships carefully designed to "maximize on-board revenue" which do appeal to a segment of the population looking more for a resort then a real cruise experience. When you are in the atrium of a Voyager Class or Freedom Class ship you do not even know you are on a ship! It feels more like being in the lobby of a Hyatt Regency. We do think they tried to correct this issue with the new Oasis where it provides an open look towards the stern. On a personal note, we prefer small ships that provide some intimacy and feel like a real ship. Our next cruise is on an 800 passenger vessel (42 day cruise) which we find very desirable...but we also know that many RCI fans would consider an 800 passenger ship similar to a large lifeboat :)

 

Hank

[Aquahound]

I just took a cruise with Royal Caribbean as my first cruise and was throughly satisfied but in making arrangements for our next cruise I have noticed Carnival being alot cheaper and with us being on a budget that it is a very big plus, but I have also heard that Royal Caribbean beats Carnival by a long shot in service and cleanliness and so forth and I wanted to get my fellow cruisers opinions! So if you could give me your experiences or your opinion on the matter it would be much appreciated!

 

I can not comment on Carnival because I have never sailed them. However, I do think it is good to try other cruise lines, just to break up the sameness. What ships are you considering? Since the ships are so different, I think that's makes for a better comparison than a general cruise line comparison.

[booboo0530]

I just took a cruise with Royal Caribbean as my first cruise and was throughly satisfied but in making arrangements for our next cruise I have noticed Carnival being alot cheaper and with us being on a budget that it is a very big plus, but I have also heard that Royal Caribbean beats Carnival by a long shot in service and cleanliness and so forth and I wanted to get my fellow cruisers opinions! So if you could give me your experiences or your opinion on the matter it would be much appreciated!

The Carnival cruise i'm looking into is a five night cruise to ochos rios jamaica and grand caymen island on carnival destiny. There aren't too many things i need on a cruise, no rock climbing is fine and other odds and ends like that, im 18 and just looking to have a good time.

[MarkSeattle]

... im 18 and just looking to have a good time.

 

Carnival, lol. A bit of a stereotype based on your age, but in my experience the disco, and other later in the evening activities on Carnival were more lively and not as dead as on RCI or Princess, close to the same demographic, depending on the itinerary, but probably slightly younger and better for the 18-21 crowd on Carnival.

[ATL2LAS]

Now that they have fixed the propultion problems on the Destiny, I think it would be a good first Carnival ship to try. She may be old, but she was one of the first mega-liners. I am going on her again in 7 weeks and I cannot wait. Great balcony deals. A shade over $500 per person. Give it a shot. Have fun.

[XOKimberXO]

OK - my hubby and I were just discussing this issue and let me tell you our thoughts. First of all I am in my late 30's and he is in his mid 40's. We have traveled on the Carnival Conquest 3 times in the past 2 yrs. We took the Western Caribbean cruise twice and the Eastern Caribbean once. All were 7 day cruises. We recently took the Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas Transatlantic from Galveston to Barcelona and just got home 2 days ago! We noticed a BIG difference between the two. Let me run it down for ya...

Conquest - Excellent. ALL food is free including ALL night room service. No matter what cabin you book you receive robes in your room and free bathroom amenities such as toothpast, razors, pepcid ac, etc. and if you need more just ask, it given to you with a smile! No matter what you paid or what room you are in you are treated like royalty! Ship was very clean. Waiter always called us by name and remembered what our likes and dislikes were. They put on an awesome dinner show a few times and your waiter performs by your table so you can see them. They were always high energy and smiling! Games like bean bag toss are frequently available to play wether in a competiton at pool side or just to play with friends and practice. Great options for excursions and tours. Had good drink specials but pricey $5.95 per drink, that is about the average on cruises I believe. Beer was $4.95 and hubby only drinks bud light and they had plenty! Great choices for food and variety. Very easy to navigate and find everything we needed. Wonderful pizza's and ceasar salads with chicken! The guest were mostly our age and were outgoing and fun and the disco (when we did go) was a great place to people watch! Karaoke was always fun and exciting! This one guy kept saying "vacation" over and over. It was funny the first day, annoying by the third then hillarious by the 5th!! Now we say it all the time and crack up! Open karaoke lasted for a good amount of time and little time spent on competitions, which was great, we wanted to relax and listen and sing and it not be all about who is the best but just in fun. The nightly shows were fair but we enjoyed sitting at the piano bar or watching live music. The piano guy was great, played a large variety and even had props. Kept us very entertained! Prices were less with Carnival and great deals if you book your next crusie while on board.

 

Voyager - Very good. Good choice of foods in Windjammer, but extra charges apply at Johnny Rockets. Room service charged $3.95 after midnight (written in VERY small print!) You only get robes if you are in a certain catagory (diamond?) or in suites, they are not for everyone. There is a disticnt difference in service for those in certain cabins. Games are available but for very sort time periods (30-45 mins) for competitions only. We asked if they could just leave out the bean bad toss set up along pool side for guest to play and we were told no. Waiter was very friendly, did not call us by name but did remember our likes and dislikes. Smiled sometimes but not every night, our table mates kept reminding him to smile and have fun. Drinks... now this was very different from Carnival. They also had drink specials, smae price 5.95... but they offered this book on the second day of the cruise for $25 and it had coupons in it for some of the ports of call. It also came with a little happy face sticker for your sail and sign card and whenever you got the drink special for the day it was buy one get one free! We saved so much money on this plus got the coupons for one of our ports. We met one particular bartender who was the best ever! Remember our names from the get go and looked forward to seeing us everyday, telling us when he would be working. If we came later than usual or missed a day he would tell us he was so sad to have missed us and looked forward to our coming to see him. He entertained us with conversation, wonderful "cruise stories" and bar games and often asked if our drinks were made to our liking or if we needed any changes. He would offer to bring us food and tell us what was good, etc. He made our trip... our other attendats were very polite and nice but he really had a personal touch. I cannot brag on him enough! We even exchanged emails to keep in touch! The crusie did run out of bud light after about the third day which we thought was weird but our fav bartender/friend went around to all the bars and gathered all he could and held a stash for my hubby that lasted a few days longer! Ship not so user friendly and hard to find help for directions, we would often see people wandering with maps and asking for help. We were on the ship over a week before we realized there was a place in the Promonade with free pizza and sandwiches. We thought you had to get it at Windjammer which closed at 9 or from room service with the exra charge after midnight. The crowd was an older but we knew it would be going in, most younger people do not get the longer travel time for a 14 day cruise that retired people do. Karaoke was for short amounts of time, we went twice. The first time it was run by 2 girls and they were dull but the second time we went it was run by 2 guys who were full of energy and having fun. The piano guy was good, but not much variety, mostly country. He was a great player but he advertised himself and was trying to sell his cd at the gift shop too much. we ALMOST thought about staying on ship and taking 7 more days to cruise before flying home. The sales person was not very helpful at all and would not give us any better deal than what anyone could get online and told us our flight was non transferrable and non refundable. It was booked through Royal Caribbean. Funny thing though when we went to the airport to fly out our flight was overbooked and they paid us to stay an extra day in Barcelona and paid to put us up in a hotel including all meals and drinks, then changed our flight to go out the following day. They could have made money had they just changed our flight and gave us a good rate to take the next cruise!

 

OK - that is our summary! We loved all the cruises and had a wonderful time on both Carnival and RC! But our vote does have to go to Carnival and we will travel again with them and probably not RC. I sure do wish our fav bartender/friend would go to work with Carnival... that would make it perfect!! These are only our personal opoins and we are not trying to persuade anyone one way or another just tell you our experience. Happy Cruising!

[UlvaZell]

I have only sailed on Carnival, but I used to be a travel agent and sent many people on both. In my experience, Royal Caribbean is geared toward middle aged and up and more affluent people. More elegant if you will. Carnival is geared more toward people in their 20's and 30's. Not quite as upscale, but still very nice. I have been nothing but happy on the 2 cruises I've taken on Carnival and I'm quite excited to leave on our 3rd cruise with them this Sunday.

 

You will have cheerleaders chime in about why their favorite line is the best, but at the end of the day the mass market lines are all about the same. And as for the Carnival bashers, you don't become the worlds largest cruise line by displeasing your customers. It reminds me of the Yogi Berra line, "That restuarant is so crowded, nodbody goes there anymore"...

[Hlitner]

The Carnival cruise i'm looking into is a five night cruise to ochos rios jamaica and grand caymen island on carnival destiny. There aren't too many things i need on a cruise, no rock climbing is fine and other odds and ends like that, im 18 and just looking to have a good time.

 

We hope you are cruising with your parents or another adult who is at least 25 because Carnival has this requirement. If you are under 21 and not married you will not be able to cruise without an "older" chaperone. Remember, I warned that many Carnival "bashers" have no clue about this line and they actually have some of the toughest rules designed to control the number of young adults.

 

Hank

[seashinesunshine]

We have done both, my opinion is that Carnival is way better on service, and RRCL has more to do on the ship. But we choose our cruise based on price and itinerary. Seems like Carnival tends to have more 4 port 7 day cruises while RCCL has more 3 port 7 day cruises. So really I think it is safe to say they are somewhat equal depending on what you want.

[booboo0530]

We hope you are cruising with your parents or another adult who is at least 25 because Carnival has this requirement. If you are under 21 and not married you will not be able to cruise without an "older" chaperone. Remember, I warned that many Carnival "bashers" have no clue about this line and they actually have some of the toughest rules designed to control the number of young adults.

 

Hank

 

 

Thats all taken care of.. remember I've already been on a cruise. I know the rules :)

[Jolimont]

If they had more ships in Europe I'd continue to sail Carnival. It's relaxed and a lot of fun. I'm trying RCI this summer because they have some great itineraries, I've heard a lot of good things too. I think overall they're probably more similar than different, we shall see.

[Aquahound]

And as for the Carnival bashers, you don't become the worlds largest cruise line by displeasing your customers.

 

Just fyi, Royal Caribbean International is a larger cruise line than Carnival Cruise Line (actual cruise lines, not parent companies).

[UlvaZell]

Just fyi, Royal Caribbean International is a larger cruise line than Carnival Cruise Line (actual cruise lines, not parent companies).

 

Lets see... Carnival owns Carnival, Carnival owns Cunard, Carnival owns Princess, Carnival owns Yachts of Seaborn, Carnival owns Holland America Lines, Carnival owns Costa, Carnival owns P&O, Carnival owns AIDA, Carnival owns Ocean Village.

 

Pretty big company. I wonder where Carnival got all that money?

[Aquahound]

Lets see... Carnival owns Carnival, Carnival owns Cunard, Carnival owns Princess, Carnival owns Yachts of Seaborn, Carnival owns Holland America Lines, Carnival owns Costa, Carnival owns P&O, Carnival owns AIDA, Carnival owns Ocean Village.

 

Pretty big company. I wonder where Carnival got all that money?

 

Please read my post again and pay closer attention to the part in parentheses.

[Cruzaholic41]

Lets see... Carnival owns Carnival, Carnival owns Cunard, Carnival owns Princess, Carnival owns Yachts of Seaborn, Carnival owns Holland America Lines, Carnival owns Costa, Carnival owns P&O, Carnival owns AIDA, Carnival owns Ocean Village.

 

Paul was referring to the two individual cruise lines, not the corporations that own them. Carnival currently has one more ship operating than RCI, but RCI has more gross tonnage and has more berths.

 

The only thing this has to do with which is a better cruise line, is that despite RCI carrying more passengers, their ships still have a better passenger to space ratio than Carnival. This is most evident on Carnival Dream, which was the most crowded ship I have ever been on.

[rigldbrg]

I've had excellent experiences on both. I was in the same situation before we booked our cruise with Carnival. Essentially we had cruised RCI Liberty of the Seas and were thrilled with our experience. In looking for a future cruise I noticed the huge price disparity between the RCI cruise that we were interested in and the Carnival. I went to the Carnival forum, posted the question "Is Carnival Right For Me?" and had a huge number of replies giving me positive feedback about their experiences on Carnival. We decided to try Carnival and we were not disappointed. In addition, we saved enough over the Royal itnierary that it more than paid for our airfare. Don't get me wrong, Carnival is'nt perfect, but Royal is'nt either. You'll have experiences on either cruise line that will leave you shaking your head, but we don't sweat the small stuff, and certainly don't let anyhting ruin our vacation. I enjoyed myself enough on Carnival to say that we will definately sail with them again in the future. We also enjoyed ourselves so much on Royal that I can say the same about them. In any case, I would suggest doing as I did, and visit the Carnival forum and try and get some perspective from that crowd. Good luck, and enjoy your cruise.