Why should I try a Royal Caribbean cruise?

[Xystence]

My question here is, what will I get differently?

Recently I have been on the Carnival Legend, and the Carnival Dream. Me and my girlfriend do not really care for Carnival's Vegas style shows and tend to kind of do our own thing most of the time. We are not large party people, but love meeting new people.

Thanks for anyone's opinion! I am very excited to see not only peoples thoughts, but my experience on board![/

 

 

 

Cruise on the Liberty 4 nights and you will see the difference.

 

I love how simple you said this, you honestly believe it will be that big of a wow?

[MrFunInTheSun]

Like you, we'd only cruised Carnival and were generally happy. But there is no reason NOT to try another line, and many reasons to do so. We did and enjoyed our cruise, but we did learn some things that I'll share with you:

 

Beware of taking a 4 or 5 day RC cruise (on an older, smaller boat) and comparing that to your 7+ day Carnival cruises on newer, larger ships. If you have our luck, RC may not come out looking good, but that's not a fair comparison -- apples to oranges I suspect. I don't think it's because it was RC, but rather that ship on that particular trip (crew). If we were on a newer ship, for a week or more, I suspect we'd have liked it just as much (maybe more??). Our ship showed her age and our crew was tired out. Not likely representative of RC line generally ...

 

I think some of us (me?) can also get used to a certain level of service/way of doing things, so that when we find it different, we're disappointed. E.g., on Carnival, my "normal" was soft serve ice cream 24 hours a day, so when I found they didn't have that on RC, even though it wasn't at all a priority, I was a little disappointed. That was true for other little things like pizza, etc.

 

My takeaway lesson from the RC experience? I'll try RC (and other cruise lines!) again, but when I do so, I'll try a 7 day cruise on a newer ship to make a fair, apples to apples, comparison.

 

Regardless, you'll have fun. I mean, this kind of experimenting is a "task" I'll gladly assume responsibility for! LOL Enjoy!!!

 

I agree with this 100%!! My experience on the Monarch of the Seas wasn't anything what I was expecting. Was not a bad cruise by any means (No such thing as a bad cruise) but I know if we were on one of RC's larger ships and longer than a 3 day cruise our experience would have been better. Freedom of the Seas is on my list one of these years.

[KathyPet]

I do agree that sailing a 4-5 day cruise on any cruise line and then trying to use it to compare with a 7 day cruise is not really comparing apples to apples.

[Xystence]

I agree with this 100%!! My experience on the Monarch of the Seas wasn't anything what I was expecting. Was not a bad cruise by any means (No such thing as a bad cruise) but I know if we were on one of RC's larger ships and longer than a 3 day cruise our experience would have been better. Freedom of the Seas is on my list one of these years.

 

Many of your past cruises are on CCL and all of your future bookings are CCL, whats your thoughts on differences?

[Desert Cruizers]

When I book our cruises, it is right after the bookings open up. On our LOS TA Oct 29th, I booked it 3 days after the dates opened up and the price was unbelieveable. Because it is practically sold out, the prices are staying up there since they began raising them. We got our 8th deck hump cabin + Air cheaper then what an OV is going for without the air figured in or Insurance.

[MrFunInTheSun]

Many of your past cruises are on CCL and all of your future bookings are CCL, whats your thoughts on differences?

 

When I went on my first cruise on RC Enhancement of the Sea's, I love the ship, crew was nice. Overall the ship experience itself wasn't much different than Carnival. One thing I did notice was the food wasn't quite as good on RC. Was just an overall experience but still a great time and cruise.

 

When I cruised on the Monarch my experience was similar with the food not as good as Carnival, but something else was missing. The rooms seemed smaller than Carnival on both cruises.

 

Staff and operations of the ships are very similar. Why have I remained with Carnival so far...well up until this upcoming cruise was principal to reach goal of making Platinum. Ha! Have all my Carnival experiences been 100%, most likely not, but I've never had an experience that would make me not want to continue to cruise Carnival. Will I cruise more with Royal in the future? Yes, absolutely. In the end a cruise is what you make of it, no matter what ship or cruise line. Both these lines are a lot alike, just different ships, crew, etc.

[Sunkissed Mommy]

The Liberty should wow you- even for a 4/5 day.

 

There is the FlowRider, Promenade, Ice Shows, etc. All of which you can't find on any other cruise line.

 

On the Promenade you will find Sorrento's Pizza and Promenade Cafe for "other" dining options that don't cost extra.

 

The design of the ships is very different than any other fleet in the industry. I took my mom on her first "promenade" ship back in April. She kept wanting to walk "downtown." It gives a whole different feel.

 

Try it- you'll probably like it :)

 

PS: The Jewel is fabulous too. Spent 11 nights on it for my honeymoon in 2009. SeaView Cafe is extra dining that has no extra cost. Great views and yummy food.

 

PPS: We've stepped out and tried other cruise lines. We've never been disappointed by any cruise, however I still prefer Royal for the simple fact of it was my first and what I'm comfortable with :)

[Xystence]

Technically Royal is my first but that was over 14 years ago and I was a teenager then lol. I honestly do not recall much from them. Although of the two ships I went on is still in service it would be neat to return to it sometime.