Diamond on Royal- Why did I try Carnival My review if a Carnival Cruise

[happy traveler69]

I wasn't going to respond, but I have to... I have my own issues with carnival, but none that will say that either of my two cruises with them were not great! to the OP- the worst issue is that there wasn't any salmon for your bagle? really? that's a deal breaker for you? they didn't personally cater to your every need? wow!!

20% gangbangers and 20% trailer trash- wow! I missed the fine print that said that cruising is only for UMCWP!! sorry, I can't read! you must have been the one who asked me if I had a job at the dinner table.

I am a RCCL fan, a WDW fan and a DCL fan! the worst day on vacation is waaaay better than your best day at work!

[Cruising89143]

I wasn't going to respond, but I have to... I have my own issues with carnival, but none that will say that either of my two cruises with them were not great! to the OP- the worst issue is that there wasn't any salmon for your bagle? really? that's a deal breaker for you? they didn't personally cater to your every need? wow!!

20% gangbangers and 20% trailer trash- wow! I missed the fine print that said that cruising is only for UMCWP!! sorry, I can't read! you must have been the one who asked me if I had a job at the dinner table.

I am a RCCL fan, a WDW fan and a DCL fan! the worst day on vacation is waaaay better than your best day at work!

 

Lol.... Having a bad day? The OP gave a very fair review and just prefers one line over the other. So do I. Get over yourself.

[Venusleo1]

I wasn't going to respond, but I have to... I have my own issues with carnival, but none that will say that either of my two cruises with them were not great! to the OP- the worst issue is that there wasn't any salmon for your bagle? really? that's a deal breaker for you? they didn't personally cater to your every need? wow!!

20% gangbangers and 20% trailer trash- wow! I missed the fine print that said that cruising is only for UMCWP!! sorry, I can't read! you must have been the one who asked me if I had a job at the dinner table.

I am a RCCL fan, a WDW fan and a DCL fan! the worst day on vacation is waaaay better than your best day at work!

 

Ummm...why don't you try to read my review again because I never said my worst issue was no salmon for my bagel. Was it an issue yes and it just added to the long list of little things that I wasn't happy about.

Also, I think your confusing my review with another posters comments.

[Big Feet]

I wasn't going to respond, but I have to... I have my own issues with carnival, but none that will say that either of my two cruises with them were not great! to the OP- the worst issue is that there wasn't any salmon for your bagle? really? that's a deal breaker for you? they didn't personally cater to your every need? wow!!

20% gangbangers and 20% trailer trash- wow! I missed the fine print that said that cruising is only for UMCWP!! sorry, I can't read! you must have been the one who asked me if I had a job at the dinner table.

I am a RCCL fan, a WDW fan and a DCL fan! the worst day on vacation is waaaay better than your best day at work!

yea 2 cruises give's you much insight. look i didn't say my cruise wasn't great-- I've never had a BAD cruise. I think everyone has rights to cruise or do what ever--- but the uncouth manners of these people is discusting. Did you see my mention of manners-- just some manners when you have 3000 people together for a week in a confined area would be nice-- 60% of the passengers and 99.9% of the employees of the ship had manners.

Yes that was me who asked you if you "worked for a living" I know you said you had a job. (FYI those are 2 different things) just kidding it wasn't me-- but that was a rude person who asked you that-- your not taking it out of context?

[nbsjcruiser]

My impressions of Carnival are not unlike yours. Entertainment is not quality entertainment, food is minimally acceptable in the buffet but god the eggs at breakfast are awful. MDR, no good, sorry. When the best steak you can get on a 7 day cruise is a flat iron steak, you turned me off right there. Carnival's dining options pale in comparison to NCL and RCI and they are simply not in the same league as Princess, not even close.

 

I wouldn't pay to go on a Carnival cruise again until they improve. I do have to defend them a bit though. To blame them for people getting sick seems to be a stretch. Not sure how hand sanitizers could be the cause of someone getting pneumonia, seems like a stretch there and I have to say that many men are slobs when it comes to personal hygiene. Trust me, I've seen guys come into the washroom on ships and in other places, use the facilities and walk out the door without even a thought to washing their hands. I'm not sure if its like that for women but many guys are slobs. Not saying your travelling mates were, just saying others are and they are ideal breeding grounds for germs. They spread it to the rest of the travelling public. We always carry our own sanitizers when we travel and take ownership of our own health and hygiene.

[Big_G]

Still trying to figure out how I ended up on the Carnival Boards. It says Royal Caribbean International at the top of the page.:confused::D:D

[Aquahound]

Hey Stephanie, welcome back! :D

[Venusleo1]

Thanks Paul~ :D

[sdouglas]

Simple English--------------buy cheap, get cheap.

 

Was in the travel industry for 27 years and never, never, never sold Carnival or sailed the "Trash of the Seas" cruise line. Biggest thrill was to watch the runners racing back to the ship, vomitting on the pier coming back from whatever bar they were at. Did they ever realize what ship they where on? And am still trying to figure out why you are complaining about -C- on the Royal threads.

[time4u2go]

Simple English--------------buy cheap, get cheap.

 

Was in the travel industry for 27 years and never, never, never sold Carnival or sailed the "Trash of the Seas" cruise line. Biggest thrill was to watch the runners racing back to the ship, vomitting on the pier coming back from whatever bar they were at. Did they ever realize what ship they where on? And am still trying to figure out why you are complaining about -C- on the Royal threads.

 

Believe me, this is not unique to Carnival! We've seen this on RCI as well.

[BecciBoo]

Well, I guess everyone knows how I feel, I've posted MHO many times but they all say I went on the crummiest ship in the fleet Ecstacy.....so was gratified to see your experience was similar on one of their larger ships.

But did you notice the level of cleanliness? That was my biggest beef about our cruise. That ship was never cleaned properly.

Second beef was the food. I thought there was no comparison either. The steak was like leather even though I always order mine medium rare, the bread is a big deal with us on RCCL...love the bread service in MDR. Carni only had 3 types and placed it in a basket on our table while RCCL serves you several times and have at least 4 to 5 types of bread. This may seem trivial to some, but we don't ever eat the stuff so when we have it, its nice like RCCL does it. I did not like all the stuff that goes on during dinner.

I had no problem with the steward's service, but others in the public areas not so much and of course on RCCL there are people shining, polishing and cleaning CONSTANTLY....on Carni NEVER did I see anyone cleaning anything.

I also thought the buffet was really low quality. And did like the Mongolian buffet outside on the pool deck

I think Carni has the worst, most unappealing pools and deck I've ever seen. TOO small, too crowded and just butt ugly.

That's the way I see it, sorry:cool:

[jst]

Read your review, we are D+ on Royal and have sailed HAL & Princess with 35+ cruises to our credit, so are also seasoned cruisers. We sailed on Carnival 12 years ago Mexican Riviera, had a bad cruise (part of a large wedding group) consequently didn't sail with them for 12 years. June of this year we sailed on Valor (8 day) from Miami, booked a suite like we do on RCCL had a fantastic time :) yes it's different but so is HAL, each line is different. We had such a good time we sailed on Triumph (5 day) this month and will be going again in October. I guess everyones experiences are different and some of your negatives we did not have, did miss not having a Steak House on Triumph, but the passengers and crew were extremely friendly. We are in our 70's so do not have small children, but there were almost 1,000 under the age of 18 on Valor. We do not frequent the pools on deck, which yes, were always busy, so this was not a problem, and we laughed about "You know you are on Carnival when you approach the Jumbotron", but that will soon also be on RCCL.

If RCL would cruise year round from TEXAS we probably would not have even tried Carnival after the previous experience we had, and the negatives we had read on the boards, but we wanted to go to Aruba and Curacoa so tried Valor.

We would have gladly cruised RCL and have cruises booked for 2013 and 2014 when they have ships in Galveston, but also have cruises booked on Carnival to fill the empty months.

Do we love RCL you bet, but sometimes you have to look outside the box.:)

[Venusleo1]

Simple English--------------buy cheap, get cheap.

 

Was in the travel industry for 27 years and never, never, never sold Carnival or sailed the "Trash of the Seas" cruise line. Biggest thrill was to watch the runners racing back to the ship, vomitting on the pier coming back from whatever bar they were at. Did they ever realize what ship they where on? And am still trying to figure out why you are complaining about -C- on the Royal threads.

 

I am not here to complain about CLL. I just thought some people who have never sailed CLL would be interested to see it from the perspective of a RCI cruiser. If it didnt interest you, (and I mean "you" in general) then don't read it. I know that when I was strictly sailing RCI I was very curious about other cruise lines, but tended to stay within the RCI boards. This was just to give those interested a fair perspective, instead of reading reviews from Carnival cheerleaders.

I also, posted this review on the Carnival and the NCL boards.

[time4u2go]

Simple English--------------buy cheap, get cheap.

 

Was in the travel industry for 27 years and never, never, never sold Carnival or sailed the "Trash of the Seas" cruise line. Biggest thrill was to watch the runners racing back to the ship, vomitting on the pier coming back from whatever bar they were at. Did they ever realize what ship they where on? And am still trying to figure out why you are complaining about -C- on the Royal threads.

 

If you never sailed on it, then how do you know what it's like? I'm always amused by people that judge something without ever having experienced it.

[rutgersgirl27]

Honestly, it seems like this is a case of YMMV. I think you have to go in to each cruise with managed expectations. I don't sail Carnival expecting to get the highest quality. I sail CCL because what i get will be more than reasonable, and I'm not looking to spend that much. An extra hundred here or there really does add up, so it's good that there is alternative that offers a product for those times when Royal isn't in my vacation budget.

 

I always crack up when reading reviews of the buffets and MDR because I eat vegetarian on ships, and I'm always able to find more than enough to eat. Food is so subjective!

[mpcaruth]

I prefer Carnival, but still cruise others. I really believe that the ship, departure port, AND the time of travel is key to a great cruise. I have found that other guest do heavily influence my cruise, and leaving from certain ports and at certain times of the year attract different passengers.

 

My 2 least favorite cruises:

-Grandeur of the seas, 9-night Southern Caribbean from Norfolk, early May. We are in our 30s and this cruise was BORING onboard. Lots of older folks, leaving the ship dead after 10:00 pm. The food was the worst of any cruise we have taken.

-Carnival Dream, 7-night, January. Leaving from Port Canaveral tends to attract large families. The ship was not large enough for the number of passengers. One had to wait in line for everything: elevators, shows, Lido food, slides, etc.

 

My favorite cruises:

-Carnival Freedom, 8-day Panama & Costa Rica from Ft. Lauderdale, January. Awesome itinerary, medium size ship with plenty of pool and deck space. We love the Punchliners Comedy Club option over the main theater's singing/dancing shows. The food was very good.

-Carnival Legend, 7-night from Tamp, Western Caribbean, March. Again, a great itinerary, smaller ship, with most the amenities of the larger ships. Wonderful crew and service.

 

 

We are sailing next month on the Explorer of the Seas to Bermuda and I am hoping this will be my new favorite cruise.

 

I always gauge the Carnival bashing by which RCI ships the basher is comparing to Carnival. There is no way that a Carnival ship can compare to the Allure or Oasis. But then again, Carnival costs about 1/2 the cost of the Allure/Oasis for a family of four.

[bplazo]

Simple English--------------buy cheap, get cheap.

 

Was in the travel industry for 27 years and never, never, never sold Carnival or sailed the "Trash of the Seas" cruise line. Biggest thrill was to watch the runners racing back to the ship, vomitting on the pier coming back from whatever bar they were at. Did they ever realize what ship they where on? And am still trying to figure out why you are complaining about -C- on the Royal threads.

 

I am really surprised that you can trash a cruise lined that you have never sailed on. Not going to comment on you being in the travel buisness if you never did recommend a carnival cruise.

 

I thought that the buffet on carnial was much better than on royal. I never did see anyone falling down drunk or any rude behavior anywhere. You can find bad behavior on any line and our cruise was a good one on the elation.

[time4u2go]

I am really surprised that you can trash a cruise lined that you have never sailed on. Not going to comment on you being in the travel buisness if you never did recommend a carnival cruise.

 

I thought that the buffet on carnial was much better than on royal. I never did see anyone falling down drunk or any rude behavior anywhere. You can find bad behavior on any line and our cruise was a good one on the elation.

 

Well said. I can't imagine a travel agent forming an opinion of a cruise line THAT THEY'VE NEVER BEEN ON!

 

I feel bad for their customers.

[MMOMOM]

:(Well this is discouraging! We will be on the Carnival Freedom next Sunday for a 6 night Western Caribbean. We are Diamond on RCCI and have cruised HAL (loved it) and for our very 1st cruise did a 3/4 night Bahamas thing years ago, just to see if we liked it. We did, but thought we'd like another line better and have been pretty much with Royal since. The only reason we are doing this is because the trip we usually take to celebrate our anniversary this time of year couldn't happen. We usually do an exchange and go to Hawaii for 2 weeks (we are Hilton and Marriott Vacation Club) ... but we had alot going on in January and by the time I got to call there was no availability. I got a great exchange at Hutchinson's Island in FL thru the Vacation Club and then saw the 6 night cruise that coincided so figured why not?! I've done alot of research and visited the boards (will say the Carnival Board doesn't have the same 'nice feel' as RCCI, HAL and Celebrity ... sorta 'scary'!! lol!) ... but we are remaining open minded. Have heard the food isn't all that bad and we figure, we've got a suite, we usually make our own good time, it's only 6 nights and the price was definitely right. This isn't the first time I've heard about the bad breakfast experience at the buffet tho and that will dissappoint both of us as we really enjoy that! But, as I said, we are being optimistic and hoping for the best!! Will let you know in a few weeks!! Sunday to Saturday on the Freedom and then Saturday to Saturday at the Condo .... looking forward to trip anyway!!:)

[roscoegirl]

Most of my cruises (short list) have been on Royal. I first sailed on the Carnival Pride the week between Christmas and New Year's in 2010. I wasn't 100% comfortable because I kept looking for RCI attributes on the PRIDE. I just sailed the Pride again a few weeks ago and had an absolute BLAST! I agree with the other poster--sometimes it's just timing, itinerary, crowd mix, etc. I'll continue sailing both until I decide on another line. RCI and Carnival both have a good product. (BTW: you can get a 'bad mix' on RCI also!):)

[mpcaruth]

:(Well this is discouraging! We will be on the Carnival Freedom next Sunday for a 6 night Western Caribbean. We are Diamond on RCCI and have cruised HAL (loved it) and for our very 1st cruise did a 3/4 night Bahamas thing years ago, just to see if we liked it. We did, but thought we'd like another line better and have been pretty much with Royal since. The only reason we are doing this is because the trip we usually take to celebrate our anniversary this time of year couldn't happen. We usually do an exchange and go to Hawaii for 2 weeks (we are Hilton and Marriott Vacation Club) ... but we had alot going on in January and by the time I got to call there was no availability. I got a great exchange at Hutchinson's Island in FL thru the Vacation Club and then saw the 6 night cruise that coincided so figured why not?! I've done alot of research and visited the boards (will say the Carnival Board doesn't have the same 'nice feel' as RCCI, HAL and Celebrity ... sorta 'scary'!! lol!) ... but we are remaining open minded. Have heard the food isn't all that bad and we figure, we've got a suite, we usually make our own good time, it's only 6 nights and the price was definitely right. This isn't the first time I've heard about the bad breakfast experience at the buffet tho and that will dissappoint both of us as we really enjoy that! But, as I said, we are being optimistic and hoping for the best!! Will let you know in a few weeks!! Sunday to Saturday on the Freedom and then Saturday to Saturday at the Condo .... looking forward to trip anyway!!:)

 

 

 

You will have a nice time on the Freedom. As far as breakfast, I recommend you get an omelette or fried eggs at the omelette station. There is also the option to get these, as well as eggs Benedict and Belgium waffles at the dining room for breakfast. I have been on Carnival Freedom once, and have another cruise booked on her in January. Go with an open mind and enjoy!

[bplazo]

I have read bad reviews on every ship that I have been on and I have never been a bad cruise. I am just thankfull that I can cruise and not have to work for the week.

[rutgersgirl27]

:(Well this is discouraging! We will be on the Carnival Freedom next Sunday for a 6 night Western Caribbean. We are Diamond on RCCI and have cruised HAL (loved it) and for our very 1st cruise did a 3/4 night Bahamas thing years ago, just to see if we liked it. We did, but thought we'd like another line better and have been pretty much with Royal since. The only reason we are doing this is because the trip we usually take to celebrate our anniversary this time of year couldn't happen. We usually do an exchange and go to Hawaii for 2 weeks (we are Hilton and Marriott Vacation Club) ... but we had alot going on in January and by the time I got to call there was no availability. I got a great exchange at Hutchinson's Island in FL thru the Vacation Club and then saw the 6 night cruise that coincided so figured why not?! I've done alot of research and visited the boards (will say the Carnival Board doesn't have the same 'nice feel' as RCCI, HAL and Celebrity ... sorta 'scary'!! lol!) ... but we are remaining open minded. Have heard the food isn't all that bad and we figure, we've got a suite, we usually make our own good time, it's only 6 nights and the price was definitely right. This isn't the first time I've heard about the bad breakfast experience at the buffet tho and that will dissappoint both of us as we really enjoy that! But, as I said, we are being optimistic and hoping for the best!! Will let you know in a few weeks!! Sunday to Saturday on the Freedom and then Saturday to Saturday at the Condo .... looking forward to trip anyway!!:)

 

Don't be discouraged! On my last cruise (and on all my CCL cruises) our room steward was perfectly respectful, and kept our suite in good order (something not easy to do with 3 girls who brought plenty of luggage).

 

I'm not one for breakfast, but they always had omlets ready made that were better than the scrambled eggs, plus several other offerings. I was heavy into weight watchers at that point, so I mostly had a hard-boiled egg, various fruits, and a slice of cheese. But there was always some sort of danish that called out to me, and hot chocolate/coffee machines that made a delicious cup of hot chocolate.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[MMOMOM]

Carnival has changed a lot over the last year or so. They have made it clear that their market IS NOT to repeat cruisers by cutting the benefits of their loyalty program.

 

I have to say that RCCL has treated us quite well in the past and they (and Celebrity) have gained our loyalty!

 

We love RCCI and have always been treated very well since day one .... loved HAL's Eurodam too tho .... but being Diamond on RCCI is nice and looking at Celebrity since Diamond transfers over to Elite and some of those perks look pretty good too! Nice to keep it in the 'family'!! :)

[MMOMOM]

I am not here to complain about CLL. I just thought some people who have never sailed CLL would be interested to see it from the perspective of a RCI cruiser. If it didnt interest you, (and I mean "you" in general) then don't read it. I know that when I was strictly sailing RCI I was very curious about other cruise lines, but tended to stay within the RCI boards. This was just to give those interested a fair perspective, instead of reading reviews from Carnival cheerleaders.

I also, posted this review on the Carnival and the NCL boards.

 

I appreciated your review .... since we pretty much do RCCI and because of circumstances, are leaving on the Freedom in a week .... we are going with an open mind and plan to have a good time regardless!:) But, you are correct, I AM curious about other lines and also since we travel alot, I am always reading and researching and trying to find out about places/things we haven't done .... it's just nice to get reviews and other opinions and experiences. We figure when you travel you 'never know' ... so find out what you can and just let the rest happen and most importantly have a good time with what is available!! :)