Why Choose Royal?

[kelkel2]

Ok, so my husband and I have now cruised with Carnival and Princess. Both had their issues in our opinion. I will not go into great detail unless asked, but why do you love Royal? What do you do on the ship for fun? Have you ever been bored on the sea days or looked at the schedule and not found much you want to do?

 

My husband is 29 and I am 23 and although we are not super party-ers we do like to have fun.

 

Carnival was a bit too much of a booze cruise IMHO and there were a lot of really ill mannered people on the ship that really got on my nerves.

 

On Princess, we found ourselves with a lot of people much older than us, and daily activities included listening to the orchestra, listening to the piano in the piazza, LOTS of trivia, and even one day we found a and I direct quote "model train enthusiasts get together".

One of the other things we didn't like was the menu, which was VERY seafood intensive. Leaving me, a non seafood lover, only a few things to choose from. The food I had was great, but not much to choose from.

 

I believe we will probably cruise with Royal next, as we would really like to find our niche. You guys have any opinions?

[abhb]

You can do as much or as little as possible. I think RCCL is made for all ages. We are in our early 50's and we see every age group on our cruises. Our children are 26 and 23 and love to cruise and have been on many. The 26 year old is getting married in July and going on a cruise for her honeymoon. Our 23 year is very upset that we are not taking him on our cruise this Saturday:p

 

If you like activies there is so much to do. Sometimes you might have to decided between what activies you want to do most. The larger ships have more to offer. Hope this helps.

[Worn out mailman]

Ok, so my husband and I have now cruised with Carnival and Princess. Both had their issues in our opinion. I will not go into great detail unless asked, but why do you love Royal? What do you do on the ship for fun? Have you ever been bored on the sea days or looked at the schedule and not found much you want to do?

 

My husband is 29 and I am 23 and although we are not super party-ers we do like to have fun.

 

Carnival was a bit too much of a booze cruise IMHO and there were a lot of really ill mannered people on the ship that really got on my nerves.

 

On Princess, we found ourselves with a lot of people much older than us, and daily activities included listening to the orchestra, listening to the piano in the piazza, LOTS of trivia, and even one day we found a and I direct quote "model train enthusiasts get together".

One of the other things we didn't like was the menu, which was VERY seafood intensive. Leaving me, a non seafood lover, only a few things to choose from. The food I had was great, but not much to choose from.

 

I believe we will probably cruise with Royal next, as we would really like to find our niche. You guys have any opinions?

 

Hi there. We've never cruised on a Carnival ship, partly because of the hyper/partier reputation you testified to, and partly because of the garrish looking decor I see in photos.

 

We have cruised Princess a couple times though (on both Ruby and Emerald, Crown's sisters) , so I can make that comparison. It's kind of strange, on the western itinerary the Ruby crowd was much younger than the eastern itinerary crowd on Emerald. On RCCL you have a myriad of ages...I guess the sports stuff on board (rock walls, flo riders, ice skating or roller blading) may appeal to active younger people.

 

As far as activities, I think it may depend on the size of RCCL ship you book. If you want more choices, I wouldn't go any smaller than Radience class, which to me is like a smaller version of the Grand Class on Princess. There are a few bars with stages, so you're more likely to catch some live music here or there on the ship than you might on a smaller ship. We just cruised on Serenade and loved it...but at times it was low key. There's definitely more going on onboard the Voyager class and bigger.

 

I don't think anything can top the night time choices on Princess Grand Class though. One night I remember walking around with my video camera...There was the theater show, a jazz band in the Wheelhouse, a rock band in the Explorer lounge, a piano guy in the piano bar, some kind of keroke in the aft lounge, a Movie under the Stars, and a hoppin disco...all at the same time. No such activity on Serenade this year, but I do remember something like this on Adventure on my very first cruise in '05. Good luck choosing.

[skandls]

Royal Caribbean has the best ships. Make sure you do your first RCCL cruise on a ship with the Promenade (Oasis - Freedom and Voyager class ships) - it is very easy to get around on these ships and there is a variety of entertainments and eating places.

[Cupcrazy]

I have booked my first cruise on Royal. It's actually a B2B on the Oasis. Like you i've sailed on both Carnival & Princess. Again like you I'm young 28 and not a huge partier. I found Carnival to be a little "boozy" and on Princess the average age was 60. I chose RCI because of the options. There seems to be so much more to do on RCI. Whether it be on the sports deck, on board activities/attractions and dining. I am pretty sure I'm going to like RCI better than Carnival & Royal.

[hazeleyez3]

My husband and I are in our mid 30s and have cruised Carnival a few times and Princess once. We never saw that much of the party crowd you always hear about on Carnival; however, I do agree with you about Princess.

 

Now, as for Royal, we have done the Voyager and Freedom class and will soon do the Oasis. We have just found Royal to be a notch above the rest - ambiance, activities, shows. Service and food is about the same. We have definately found people around our age (married with kids, or just them). If it happens that we may not find anything we want to do...well we'll head down to the Promenade Cafe, get a coffee, talk, and just "people watch."

 

We did Carnival last year because of the itinerary, and it was a nice cruise...I would cruise on them again; however, given an option, it would be Royal.