Princess vs Carnival - opinions please

[ccreight]

Hi all,

 

Planning a BIG family vacay for December and looking for your opinions on cruising with Princess vs Carnival. I LOVE Carnival but I am a bit biased as all 3 of my cruises have been with Carnival ;)

 

Most of the fam is in the 20something age range with 2 seniors. The only reason that I am considering Princess is because they have a 10 day in the Caribbean vs max 8 days with Carnival.

 

We are all really laid back and easy going and we'll have fun regardless but looking mainly for company for those 20somethings.

 

Opinions on the 2 lines from those of you who have experienced both.

 

Thanks!!:)

[Greatescapes]

I would have to lean toward carnival for the younger crowd... Princess is great but its a little older crowd usually and relaxed ..... where as Carnival is always up beat and entertaining... Carnival caters to this younger crowd in my opinion. Which ever you choose good luck and have fun!

[jsmac3]

We are platinum on both Princess and Carnival, and we love them both. We have taken 5 Princess cruises during December and usually the Princess crowd during December is an older crowd.

 

If I had one last cruise I could take, my choice would be Carnival - I believe the MDR food is better and the cabins are larger. I also like their theaters better.

[GottaLuvCruising]

We've sailed Carnival 13 times and Princess 3 times.

 

I've always liked the relaxed atmosphere on Carnival. We used to really enjoy the food & entertainment, too, but was very disappointed in our most recent Carnival cruise.

 

We loved our Princess experiences. Entertainment was awesome. Food was very good to excellent. Service was definitely better than Carnival. Ships are very pretty.

 

We chose Carnival over Princess for our 2nd Hawaiian cruise only because we loathe Princess' tiered balconies. Since then, Princess has rolled out a new large ship without the tiers and made all of their balconies smoke-free. So Princess' new ship will be our 1st choice for next cruise.

 

We ARE in that older group which some have mentioned.

[golfb4cruzing]

Carnival has a couch. Princess has more storage. I like Princess food outside of MDR better. Non smoking balconies ++++ we had 2 non smoking nights in the casino+++++ you can take on as much wine, soda and water you want. Put in box, slap a cabin tag on it and it gets delivered. Better behaved kids on Princess. We've done 6 Carnival and 2nd Princess in April. I enjoy Princess.

[cruzmax]

We love both Carnival and Princess. My opinion - if most of the group is younger, I would choose Carnival for the fun, upbeat atmosphere. Carnival also has a lot of food choices; most of the newer ships have a deli, burgers, Mexican food, pizza, as well as buffet and dining room. We are a couple in our 50's, and sometimes Princess is a bit too quiet for us at night! Those who prefer a quiet area can find one on Carnival too.

Good luck and have a great time!

[OCruisers]

We like Princess the better of the two. Yes, we have also been on four Carnival cruises.

 

One reason we have cruised on Princess so often is because our younger daughter (before grown and still cruising with us) loved Princess. She was happy. We were happy. :)

 

No Carnival bashing here from us. Just, we enjoy Princess more.

Princess is good "All Round" and works well for various age groups.

 

LuLu

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[riclop]

If you are looking for a younger crowd than its definately Carnival.Its also much more fun.

[stlrboo]

If you are looking for a younger crowd than its definately Carnival.Its also much more fun.

If you are considering 'itinerary' the 10 day on the Emerald is on my bucket list and has got to be one of the best! :)

 

We are of the older crowd, so Princess is our current choice, but for the price; Carnival can't be beat especially for the 20 somethings...;):D

Nothing tops the 'late night' crowd on CCL.. (unless you are 60 something with a Cabin under/above the Disco..)..:eek:

[spunkyhungry]

I just want to add that there are still plenty of young adults on Princess, as well as plenty of fun activities geared towards young adults. I'm 27, and I love both Princess and Carnival! I sailed on Princess at ages 17, 19, and 25, and I had a great time every time! I think your group would like either cruise line.

[cellalot]

We have sailed both many times and enjoy both products. Princess is quieter at night and more towards the older crowd. i would recommend Princess if you are sailing Alaska... they are specialist there and do it the best but in the Caribbean definitely Carnival.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Hi all,

 

Planning a BIG family vacay for December and looking for your opinions on cruising with Princess vs Carnival. I LOVE Carnival but I am a bit biased as all 3 of my cruises have been with Carnival ;)

 

Most of the fam is in the 20something age range with 2 seniors. The only reason that I am considering Princess is because they have a 10 day in the Caribbean vs max 8 days with Carnival.

 

We are all really laid back and easy going and we'll have fun regardless but looking mainly for company for those 20somethings.

 

Opinions on the 2 lines from those of you who have experienced both.

 

Thanks!!:)

 

we cruised Princess this December. We are in our 50's and felt like teenagers on Princess.

 

Bill

[BettyCruiser]

I've cruised both Carnival and Princess many times, I prefer Princess to Carnival. A 10 day itinerary on any cruiseline will have a much older demographic. There's also much more going on later at night on Carnival. Carnival seems to appeal to a much broader demographic, so I think the older folks will enjoy. For what you describe I think Carnival is a better fit.

[GradUT]

we cruised Princess this December. We are in our 50's and felt like teenagers on Princess.

 

I love that sentiment--we felt exactly the same on our Princess cruise.

 

We've done both Princess and Carnival and felt that Princess had many more activities to choose from and much better evening entertainment. The food was equally good on both cruise lines, but the service was much better on Princess. Our Princess cruise did not have many children on it, but they must had been having fun in the Kids Clubs because we never saw them.

[bamelin]

Hi all,

 

Planning a BIG family vacay for December and looking for your opinions on cruising with Princess vs Carnival. I LOVE Carnival but I am a bit biased as all 3 of my cruises have been with Carnival ;)

 

Most of the fam is in the 20something age range with 2 seniors. The only reason that I am considering Princess is because they have a 10 day in the Caribbean vs max 8 days with Carnival.

 

We are all really laid back and easy going and we'll have fun regardless but looking mainly for company for those 20somethings.

 

Opinions on the 2 lines from those of you who have experienced both.

 

Thanks!!:)

 

My wife and I did the 10 day Southern itinerary in 2011 on the Star Princess. The Aruba, Bonaire, Grenada, Dominica, St Thomas, Princess Cays itinerary. Best cruise of my life and one day I want to do the alternate 10 day they also offer.

 

I won 25k in the casino on a slot machine the first night of the cruise so that helped lol. But honestly the itinerary can't be beat. Princess offers a relaxed laid back experience with amazing food options - both MDR and buffet.

 

BUT

 

At 30 something we were amoung the youngest on board. There were 0 kids, very few 20 and 30 something's and LOTS of 60 - 80. The entertainment reflected the demographics from the music, to the comedy, to the dead every night disco. By midnight the ship was basically asleep.

 

For me that trip was about amazing meals, lots of sleep and balcony time, the service, the heat, and most of all the massages in the spa and amazing excursions off the ship I could now afford thanks to my casino windfall.

 

As long as your kids aren't expecting to have anyone their age to "hang" with and are ok with a "dead" nightlife (to them it will feel dead maybe not to you) then go or it. Wife and I came back totally relaxed from getting to sleep at 10 every night and the lazy lay out on the balcony sea days. We loved it.

 

I will say though this cruise we hope to have a little more action in the evening so we booked carnival this time around (will be my first carnival cruise. Leaving on the 17th on Magic.)

[Socref124]

Hi all,

 

Planning a BIG family vacay for December and looking for your opinions on cruising with Princess vs Carnival. I LOVE Carnival but I am a bit biased as all 3 of my cruises have been with Carnival ;)

 

Most of the fam is in the 20something age range with 2 seniors. The only reason that I am considering Princess is because they have a 10 day in the Caribbean vs max 8 days with Carnival.

 

We are all really laid back and easy going and we'll have fun regardless but looking mainly for company for those 20somethings.

 

Opinions on the 2 lines from those of you who have experienced both.

 

Thanks!!:)

 

Obviously from my signature you can see we love Carnival. We also have had great cruises on Royal and Princess and an okay cruise on NCL.

It is my opinion that Princess is more elegant than Carnival and that the food and service is a little better. Carnival has much better late night entertainment though, so if this is what the 20 somethings are looking for you may want Carnival. The Piano Bar and disco are much more lively than on the Princess cruise we took. One of the reasons might have been that we were on Princess in January when kids are in school. Princess is usually a little more expnsive than Carnival so if you find a cruise for a good price, I would probably choose Princess because a December cruise will also be a time when kids are in school, unless you are cruising Christmas week.

[eclue]

We have done several Princess cruises ...only one Carnival on the Legend out of Tampa( it was awful....terrible food, dark atmosphere, poor service, etc, but we liked the casino), but we are going on the Sunshine Inaugural cruise because we choose cruises by their itineraries....you can make anything work if you have the correct attitude and look at it as being a positive thing. We are so looking forward to the Sunshine cruise out of Venice even though we have done most of those ports just a year or so ago.

I think you should make your selection by the itinerary...decide which ports you wish to visit and how many days and then just go and have a wonderful time.

eclue:rolleyes:

[dcrthatsme]

We have only cruised with Princess once vs. several times on Carnival. Princess was our fav because we enjoyed Movies Under the Stars. On Princess, the popcorn was free - they had a server with a shaker of salt bring the popcorn to a padded chair. Yes, it is the loungers from around the pool but they put pads on them with a blanket as well. We ate in the dining room only once, decided it wasn't for us and then took our favorite spot under the full moon to watch a good movie each nite. Since we didn't utilize all of the MDR dress code stuff, we wore t-shirts & shorts all week. It was the most relaxing cruise I have had. There were more people from other countries on board which is fine but one morning at breakfast, when we ate our bacon & toast with our fingers instead of with a fork & knife, we were really given the glare. Thus, why we will keep cruising with Carnival. More people such as myself and identifiable food. Some of the stuff on Princess I did not recognize. Just my own opinion.

[RuthlessBoss]

Hi all,

 

Planning a BIG family vacay for December and looking for your opinions on cruising with Princess vs Carnival. I LOVE Carnival but I am a bit biased as all 3 of my cruises have been with Carnival ;)

 

Most of the fam is in the 20something age range with 2 seniors. The only reason that I am considering Princess is because they have a 10 day in the Caribbean vs max 8 days with Carnival.

 

We are all really laid back and easy going and we'll have fun regardless but looking mainly for company for those 20somethings.

 

Opinions on the 2 lines from those of you who have experienced both.

 

Thanks!!:)

Big is what?

 

Some thought might be given to smoking issues. Princess has a few areas, but limited. Carnival will allow smoking on balconies.

[berryberry]

Have sailed both twice and prefer Princess for many of the reasons others stated - more laid back, better food and entertainment

 

That said, I would make your choice based on the itinerary. We have sailed on two different Princess 10 days cruises on the Emerald (Eastern and Southern) and really could not beat the two different itineraries

[Jenbo57]

Ask the same question on the Princess board and the answers will be much different.

 

Choose based on the itinerary; you'll be able to find your fun no matter which line you sail on...

[OCruisers]

Ask the same question on the Princess board and the answers will be much different.

 

Choose based on the itinerary; you'll be able to find your fun no matter which line you sail on...

 

This is true! The answers will be much different on the Princess board. :D

 

LuLu

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[ccreight]

Thank you Cruise Critics for coming through yet again! I appreciate all the comments!

 

I'll stick to Carnival this time and keep the 10 day Princess cruise just for myself and hubby - gives me another excuse to cruise again! :D