How will Carnival Compare- Loved Celebrity and Royal

[Travel luv]

Thanks for the feedback so far. As stated this cruise would be a quick getaway for my husband and I around Valentines day. It is such a dilemma because we already have a Med cruise booked for Aug of next year (Celebrity), so we probably need to save as much for that, however, sometimes paying extra is worth it to be happy. It sounds like the shorter cruises on Carnival might be less relaxing than we are used to, although I don't mind a little activity.

[bighairtexan]

I've cruised plenty of times on Carnival. I'd consider sailing with them again but as previously mentioned I'd NEVER EVER again do a short cruise with them.

Some of Carnival's food is very good, but the short cruises seem to get the "greener" newer crew, as if they're learning on the short cruises.

Lots of drinking (I've seen the exact same thing on short RCI cruises so it's the length/price as well as the cruise line). The nicer newer ships mostly do the 7+ day cruises.

I'd go on a 7+ day on Carnival in a heartbeat. I wouldn't do a FREE 4 day cruise on Carnival or RCI ever again.

[Cruising5650]

As stated this cruise would be a quick getaway for my husband and I around Valentines day.

 

I can solve this whole dilemma for you. The food, entertainment etc doesn't matter much as I will be on the Constellation on February 13, 2014.

 

See you there!!

[koolforkatz]

I booked a short 4 day cruise on Celebrity Constellation for Feb 2014 that included a beverage package, however I am realizing that we could travel with Carnival (Victory) for about $300 cheaper.

 

For what it's worth have you already factored in what you would end up spending on drinks on the Carnival cruise? It might not work out to be $300 cheaper in the end (don't know if that's per person or for the cabin) depending what you spend.

[steelergirlinfl]

I have sailed with Carnival about 15 times. I use them for girl's cruises (almost everyone can afford them) and for quick getaways (3 and 4 days cruises as I live in FL). I DO NOT expect them to be Celebrity. In comparison with the 3 and 4 day cruises offered out of Port Canaveral on RC and NCL, I find Carnival to be fairly comparable if they are offering the private island as part of their excursion. To the Bahamas, I will pay a little more to go RCL or NCL and get the private island. The food on Carnival is definitely a step or two below, but the Imagination and Sensation have good buffets in the a.m. for breakfast. I agree that the weekend cruises tend to be more party atmosphere. But you can get away from it all on one of these cruises. Book a balcony if you can just to have a private space to get away from it all.

[mafig]

Carnival will have a lot of kids. Don't know if that matters to you or not. And don't think you can time it by the time of the year. We thought we were safe last year by cruising the week before Christmas. Usually the kids are in school, right? There were 1200 kids on our cruise. The hallways were so noisy. Little kids running down the halls at 3:30 in the morning! I kid you not. :mad:

[rjrpar]

Been on Carnival 3 times, two 12 niters and one 8 niter. Also, Elite on Celebrity. We have always enjoyed Carnival. It may be a notch below X and RCI in a few areas but we find the overall experience very similar and often more fun.

[K.T.B.]

I started on Carnival and enjoyed it quite a bit. Then I sailed on Celebrity and realized this is the cruise line for me. However, if I found a fantastic deal on Carnival I would certainly sail the line again.

 

The food and service is not as bad as people are making it out to be. Celebrity IS better, but Carnival is also pretty darn good. The ONE thing I appreciate most about Carnival is there is a bit more to do while on board, more activities and things going on.

 

So if you're needing to save some money, go for it, it'll still be fun. If the money is not an issue, then enjoy your Celebrity cruise.

[bplazo]

Carnival will have a lot of kids. Don't know if that matters to you or not. And don't think you can time it by the time of the year. We thought we were safe last year by cruising the week before Christmas. Usually the kids are in school, right? There were 1200 kids on our cruise. The hallways were so noisy. Little kids running down the halls at 3:30 in the morning! I kid you not. :mad:

 

Why I love celebrity better than rccl and carnival.

[BubMunkeyBles]

I've cruised Carnival 9 times. I like the product for the money. I think the food is fine and I enjoy the warm chocolate melting cake. I've never had a bad cruise, but they haven't all been out of this world either. Three and four day cruises especially tend to be booze cruises.

 

That said I'd spend the extra $300 for a 4 day quieter cruise on Celebrity especially if it was just my husband and I. :)

[bplazo]

I had the warm melting chocolate Cake every night :).

[joetop2467]

The biggest difference is the mix of passengers on board. The food is great on both. Carnival has the best hot chocolate which is always available and the chocolate melting cake is a dessert that is so rich nothing else will ever compare. Be sure to get a scoop of vanilla ice cream to cut the chocolate and that is coming from a complete chocoholic. Carnival has other small things I like better than Celebrity or RCCL like boxes of cereal for breakfast and white and chocolate milk always available in the little boxes at the buffet. Other than those small things, we are getting to the stage in life where we would rather mix with the Celebrity or RCCL crowd. By the way we took our second Princess cruise a couple of months ago with our first being in 1997. It was quite lovely and both were to Alaska. It's hard to beat Princess in Alaska so consider them if you plan a trip there. The one thing we do miss, however, when we cruise any line other than Celebrity is the wonderful homemade ice cream that is available daily. Yum!

[nojoke]

We are faithful Celebrity cruisers. But we do occasionally “stray.” Last year we spent 7 days on the Carnival Legend. The staff were uniformly helpful and friendly. We used the anytime dining, but ended up with the same waiter most nights--he was charming and helpful. We are not foodies--we thought the food was good. The price was good.

Fellow passengers sported lots of “tats!” We really thought the public areas were ugly--definitely not Solstice style! Not nearly in Celebrity class--but not horrible.Money talks!

[BubMunkeyBles]

We are faithful Celebrity cruisers. But we do occasionally “stray.” Last year we spent 7 days on the Carnival Legend. The staff were uniformly helpful and friendly. We used the anytime dining, but ended up with the same waiter most nights--he was charming and helpful. We are not foodies--we thought the food was good. The price was good.

Fellow passengers sported lots of “tats!” We really thought the public areas were ugly--definitely not Solstice style! Not nearly in Celebrity class--but not horrible.Money talks!

 

I have lots of tats... I'll be sporting them on Celebrity in January! :)

[gail8]

We love cruising both but for the difference with the drink package stay with Celebrity. Our 4 day cruise on the Victory we just got off 3 weeks ago had the best food we have had on Carnival however and was a really fun group of passengers. :)

[wf083145]

A lot will depend on your expectations. After 22 cruises on X, HAL, Princess, RCCL and NCL we took our grand kids on Carnival Pride for a 7 day from Baltimore. We had pretty low expectations and were pleasantly surprised.

 

The Pride was very clean and comfortable with the friendliest crew we have experienced. Very good entertainment and great children's program that the GKs loved.

 

We really wondered about the food and were, again, surprised. We're not foodies but since my son is a Michelin star chef we do know good food from swill. We rated the food in the best 5 of our cruises.

 

Having said all of this, X is a much more elegant and refined product. And we have no way of knowing if our Pride experience was the norm for Carnival or an anomaly. For a mass market experience with lots of kids, younger demographics and a high energy level, Carnival was an excellent product and bargain. If you, like us, are looking for a more refined and laid-back experience then X would be a better choice.

 

Either way, if you have an open mind and realistic expectations Carnival can definitely give you a good product and experience for your money.

[skandls]

If there is Asian stir fry at lunch - that's good. For dinner I hope you like fried chicken. that's what we ended up eating in the MDR for dinner. We did the chef's table which was nice - but the venue was far from the kitchen so the food was not really 'hot'. The deli in the buffet is OK but not great (and we had long lines).

 

I would stay with Celebrity (maybe try Aqua class sometime).

[UFMOM]

We did a 5 day on the Ecstasy in June and a 7 day on the Liberty in August. We considered them "just to hold us over" cruises until our 14 day Southern Caribbean on the Eclipse in Nov. and always try to book the cheapest cabin at the cheapest price. And they were cheap! That said, we enjoyed them, but more so the 7 day Liberty. We had done the Liberty last summer before our HAL Hawaii & Tahiti cruise in the fall and really enjoyed the Guy's burgers and the Blue Iguana, Both are tasty, but definitely not fine dining. At least the Liberty has a specialty restaurant that we used twice during the cruise. While the Ecstasy was a nice ship and we had great service on both ships, I would go for the extra 2 days and just do 7 day cruises on Carnival from now on. The main reasons are no specialty restaurant to take a break from the mdr and very very long lines at the Mongolian grill, one of the better lunch venues, and the omelet station, the only venue if you didn't want the prepackaged scrambled eggs. Also the drink mixes for the frou frou frozen drinks seemed to be of low quality. These long lines were not as pronounced on the 7 day Liberty. Also the Liberty has the Alchemy Martini Bar and our bartender Edward was fantastic and definitely worthy of the Martini Bar on Celebrity which we love.

[Germancruiser]

Well I did a Costa cruise, ten years ago- well almost- I always think Costa as the European Carnvial- used to Royal and X- i was surprised how many more passenger they could cramp together in a ship the same size as X´s Milenium Class- AND ONE COULD FEEL; SEE AND HEAR IT!!! They carry the same number of passengers then their sister line Carnival- even the ships are of the same superstructure! 500 or 600 passengers more on the same size of ship would turn off alone.

[coldweathergirl]

We've sailed primarily with Celebrity but have done a few Carnival cruises over the last few years. We did the inaugural sailing of the Magic in Europe and absolutely loved it. After the Magic, we sailed on the Valor and didn't like it so much. The ship was much older and smelled of smoke in most areas. I absolutely hate cigarette smoke and I'm also quite sensitive to it so it really bothered me. We couldn't even use our balcony as we were downwind of our neighbors who were chain smoking on theirs. Unfortunately I didn't really think about the smoking issue because on the Magic we didn't notice it ESP since the ship was brand new.

 

We basically chose Carnival because they were really cheap and we considered them to be extra cruise holidays in addition to our regular vacations. I would maybe book again on one of their new ships but wouldn't on the older ones for the smoke issues.

 

We went on with really low expectations but surprisingly found the food to be quite good esp when we were on the Magic a couple of years ago. Service was very good. Overall our expectations were exceeded. If you don't like a real party atmosphere, I'd maybe stay away from a shorter duration cruise.

[Travel luv]

I can solve this whole dilemma for you. The food, entertainment etc doesn't matter much as I will be on the Constellation on February 13, 2014.

 

See you there!!

 

Lol. Sounds like a plan. I'm already booked.

 

Sent from my SGH-T699 using Forums mobile app

[kwagmyre]

We are somewhat in the opposite situation as you as we are Carnival cruisers about to try Celebrity soon. We are also foodies, and can tell you that, while we can't yet compare Carnival to Celebrity, the idea that Carnival food is bad just hasn't been our experience. I would agree if someone were to say it is hit-or-miss, but I tend to meticulously research things, so I already knew exactly what to order and what not to by the time we boarded.

 

One thing I appreciate about Carnival's approach to food is that, (with the exception of the Chef's Table), it isn't trying to be something that it is not. And quite often, is very good for what it is. Good food doesn't have to be complicated or stuffy, it just has to be good. And yeah, the Guy's Burgers get touted a lot, but after a day of sun, sand, sea, salt and swimming, I don't get back on the ship and say "Man, I could really go for an asparagus and sun-dried tomato crepe right now", no I want me a burger and a beer!! And I can attest that there are few things better than a big, fat obnoxious Guy's burger covered in sauces and toppings with a nice cold Thirsty Red Frog beer out on the Lido deck. And don't think it's all burgers either; many of their higher-end dishes stand out as well. Not to be missed are the lamb shanks, tom ka gai soup, chocolate amaretto cake, and the upcharge steakhouses are excellent. For a lot of detail on Carnival's food offerings, see the review in my sig.

 

Having said all that, I will also toss my hat into the "no short Carnival cruises" ring. Though both of our cruises were 7-day, I can tell you that the draw of a different crowd on the shorter cruises isn't a myth; it's even a frequent complaint over on the Carnival board itself. Also, I don't think Victory has done the "Funship 2.0" drydock yet, and I wouldn't sail on any Carnival ship without it. That would mean no Guy's Burgers, no burrito bar (outstanding huevos rancheros at breakfast!), no Alchemy Bar (think Molecular on Celebrity), no comedy club, etc etc.

 

If it were me, the consideration I would be facing wouldn't be so much two short cruises on Carnival or Celebrity, rather it would be a shorter trip on Celebrity or a longer trip on Carnival for what I am guessing would be around the same price. Much harder decision, but if I had to make it, I would probably take the longer Carnival cruise, so long as it were on one of their newer ships.

[rafinmd]

My suggestion: If you like Celebrity and have a cruise booked with them, stick with it. You will have many chances to try Carnival again, and one will probably happen at a time Celebrity is not an option. That would be a perfect time to try Carnival. I think also, when you do try Carnival, a 7-day or so cruise would be a better choice with less of a "party till you drop atmosphere".

 

Roy

[bozisgal]

I took my first 7-night Carnival Cruise in September aboard the Liberty to the Eastern Caribbean (San Juan/St. Thomas/Grand Turk) . I had previously sailed on the Carnival Sensation but wasn't expecting much because it was a 3-night to the Bahamas. I have also sailed Princess in the past and the old X-Mercury.

 

Carnival just attracts a different clientele. You get what you pay for. The ship itself was in great shape. Great service. The food? Meh. :cool: Just average. Upon embarkation, we headed to the Lido deck for lunch. The Guy Fieri burgers were great but, alas, when I unfolded the cloth napkin for my utensils, THANK GOODNESS I thought to inspect the fork before I dared to place it in my mouth. On the back, was dried/caked-on spinach and cheese, which about turned my stomach and really put a damper on the cruise. Not a good first impression. We called the dining manager over and showed him (without making a fuss) and he basically shrugged his shoulders and thanked us for pointing it out to him. WOW.

 

Everyone in the dining areas at every meal acted as if they had never seen a meal before. Judging from the girth of some, this was obviously not true. It was rather disgusting.

 

We had assigned seating in the MDR which we liked. The staff was very attentive. We did not appreciate, however, that most guests disregarded the attire rules and came dressed in shorts and flip-flops to dinner. Very disappointed that the rules are not inforced. Also because of the logistics of the ship, the MDR is open on both ends which allows unsupervised "pass through" during dinner. Also not appreciated were teenagers literally running through the dining room in their bare feet to get from one area of the ship to another. Again, a "different" kind of clientele. :mad:

 

Looking forward to sailing the Reflection with more refined guests.

[Cruising5650]

Lol. Sounds like a plan. I'm already booked.

 

Now join the roll call and we'll see you in February! I'm glad I could help.