STILL trying to pick a replacement cruise. Carnival? NCL? Wait for RCCL?

[allesonwonderland]

Still trying to find a replacement for our chartered Voyager cruise. *sigh* Took a break to pout, and now I'm back to researching. :p Our spring break is the week of 3/19/2011, so that's the only week I can look at. Kind of debating between driving to New Orleans to cruise on NCL Spirit or keep my fingers crossed for cheap flights to FL where we could sail on any number of Carnival cruises. (I have 'wait for RCCL' in the title because my 2nd choice was Freedom and it's not sailing our spring break week. So, I'd probably have to wait til 2012 to go on Mariner or Voyager. Actually, it would more likely be 2013, because our spring break lines up with Texas' next year so the cruises out of Galveston and NOLA our spring break week are really high priced.)

 

Has anyone been on both NCL and Carnival who can give me some comparisions? Or anyone have a favorite Carnival cruise we should try? I have Valor, Glory, Legend, Liberty, Dream and even Victory all tagged as possibilities. I know many are Conquest class, and we've been on the Conquest so we'd know what to expect. Most go to Grand Caymen, Belize, Roatan, and Cozumel, which was our Voyager itinerary we were supposed to be on.

 

Kids will be 13 and 10 when we sail. Did I forget anything important? LOL Thanks for your insight!!

[Essiesmom]

Still trying to find a replacement for our chartered Voyager cruise. *sigh* Took a break to pout, and now I'm back to researching. :p Our spring break is the week of 3/19/2011, so that's the only week I can look at. Kind of debating between driving to New Orleans to cruise on NCL Spirit or keep my fingers crossed for cheap flights to FL where we could sail on any number of Carnival cruises. (I have 'wait for RCCL' in the title because my 2nd choice was Freedom and it's not sailing our spring break week. So, I'd probably have to wait til 2012 to go on Mariner or Voyager. Actually, it would more likely be 2013, because our spring break lines up with Texas' next year so the cruises out of Galveston and NOLA our spring break week are really high priced.)

 

Has anyone been on both NCL and Carnival who can give me some comparisions? Or anyone have a favorite Carnival cruise we should try? I have Valor, Glory, Legend, Liberty, Dream and even Victory all tagged as possibilities. I know many are Conquest class, and we've been on the Conquest so we'd know what to expect. Most go to Grand Caymen, Belize, Roatan, and Cozumel, which was our Voyager itinerary we were supposed to be on.

 

Kids will be 13 and 10 when we sail. Did I forget anything important? LOL Thanks for your insight!!

Carnival triumph sails 3/19 on a five day cruise. It is followed by a 4 day...you could do a B2B, 9 days, and visit Cozumel twice...and the kids would only miss one extra day of school...It's within your driving distance...EM

[allesonwonderland]

Carnival triumph sails 3/19 on a five day cruise. It is followed by a 4 day...you could do a B2B, 9 days, and visit Cozumel twice...and the kids would only miss one extra day of school...It's within your driving distance...EM

 

 

I hadn't thought of that, I'll go check it out! Thanks!

 

Anyone else?

[boulders]

What about the 7 night Carnival Conquest out of Galveston? It goes to Grand Cayman and Cozumel.

[allesonwonderland]

What about the 7 night Carnival Conquest out of Galveston? It goes to Grand Cayman and Cozumel.

 

 

We did that one a few years back. (Though we did miss our stop in Jamaica due to a medical evac...so we'd still see something new.)

 

I researched how many ships were in each port for Liberty, Glory, Valor and Legend. Some days there were 6 ships in port with 12-16 thousand people. Yikes! But, it might be a good tool to narrow things down. If I go that route, the 2 ships with the least amount of traffic on their port days are:

 

Carnival Liberty-Half Moon Cay, St. Thomas, San Juan and Grand Turk

Carnival Glory-Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, Grand Cayman

 

Liberty would be about $275 more...but I don't think that's a deal-breaker. Thoughts on itinerary or ship differences between those 2? I've read that Liberty's decor is a little more low-key, and that Glory was in drydock earlier this year. Plus I read Glory has a comedy club where Liberty doesn't.

 

We haven't been to any of the ports on Liberty's itinerary. Are there fun things to do there? We had already researched doing things like visiting ruins in Belize, taking a tour and maybe snorkeling in Roatan and doing a beach day in Cozumel for our original cruise. Cayman wasn't on that one, but we've been there before and did the stingray swimming and had a great time.

 

Thanks again everyone! Keep the advice coming! :D

[cruiseman40]

Both ships are in conquest class. Assuming that Glory was in drydock last meaning it's most likely been refurbished. $275.00 difference and not really a factor from what you say. Both are wonderul and I love Roatan, St. Thomas, San Juan(okay). Haven't been to G. Turk, or HMC, nor G. Cayman. Since you mentioned you like to try something new. Go with Liberty! Bon Voyage!

 

 

We did that one a few years back. (Though we did miss our stop in Jamaica due to a medical evac...so we'd still see something new.)

 

I researched how many ships were in each port for Liberty, Glory, Valor and Legend. Some days there were 6 ships in port with 12-16 thousand people. Yikes! But, it might be a good tool to narrow things down. If I go that route, the 2 ships with the least amount of traffic on their port days are:

 

Carnival Liberty-Half Moon Cay, St. Thomas, San Juan and Grand Turk

Carnival Glory-Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, Grand Cayman

 

Liberty would be about $275 more...but I don't think that's a deal-breaker. Thoughts on itinerary or ship differences between those 2? I've read that Liberty's decor is a little more low-key, and that Glory was in drydock earlier this year. Plus I read Glory has a comedy club where Liberty doesn't.

 

We haven't been to any of the ports on Liberty's itinerary. Are there fun things to do there? We had already researched doing things like visiting ruins in Belize, taking a tour and maybe snorkeling in Roatan and doing a beach day in Cozumel for our original cruise. Cayman wasn't on that one, but we've been there before and did the stingray swimming and had a great time.

 

Thanks again everyone! Keep the advice coming! :D

[kjunea]

We were on the Carnival Liberty last year and loved her! And the Eastern Itinerary is awesome! My DH loved it so much, that we are going on the same itinerary next summer, only on the Valor.

 

I liked the Conquest Class better than I thought I would even. It is huge, with lots of people and a few bottlenecks, but it was really a great cruise!

[allesonwonderland]

$275.00 difference and not really a factor from what you say.

Now it's up to a $475 difference. Grrr!!

 

We were on the Carnival Liberty last year and loved her! And the Eastern Itinerary is awesome!

 

Did you happen to get a cabana at Half Moon Cay? My DH thought that would be really neat...maybe worth picking that itinerary just for that, even though he wasn't 'wowed' by the other ports. But when I told him they could only be reserved onboard and the VIP's would get on before us he kind of lost enthusiasm.

 

We may have to 'tentatively' book one (or two--lol) cruises and wait and see what airfare looks like it will be. Plus since Liberty leaves on Saturday we'd want to fly in Friday night, but Glory leaves Sunday so we'd have all day Saturday to get there.

 

Trip planning shouldn't be so hard! ;)