Royal Caribeean or Carnival?

[Cruising89143]

I think they may have meant to reference the fire on Grandeur earlier this year.

 

Yes I knew that but this person basically called out another poster due to their one cruise on Carnival but can't seem to get his information correct. :rolleyes:

Edited November 10, 2013 by cruisingator2

[gnocchi_mommy]

I say go for something new. My last 4 or 5 cruises have been Carnival, and we loved them, but we had a great time on our one RCCL cruise and finally found one where the itinerary and price was right we are going for it. The best part for the price comparisons, we are paying less for a cabin- PR to be fair compared to OV, for 9 nights than we were going to pay for the 7 night Carnival Conquest cruise the same week we had originally booked (and cancelled in lieu of the EOS) Also, if you normally do the Cheers package, Royals booze package is much better imo, in that it is unlimited compared to the 15 drink cut off on Carnival. Again, we have never had a bad cruise- and I have nothing negative to say about Carnival (except bring back the deck live music for heavens sake!!!!) but I'm totally stoked about our upcoming RC cruise, I expect to enjoy it as much as the last!

[gnocchi_mommy]

As I sit here I am trying to come up with an area where I feel Carnival exceeds Royal, and the best I can do is that Carnival seemed to have better desserts overall. Other than that Royal is better in every facet: service (by miles and miles), overall food quality (sorry, no "didja" section on the menu :rolleyes: ), entertainment, passenger-to-space ratios (Carnival feels like a cattle call with lines for everything), décor (no over-the-top, Liberace-threw-up-in-here design like on most Carnival ships) and on and on.

 

Interesting on the passenger vs space issue, this was actually my one complaint with the Indy. Our preferred class of ship on Carnival is the Spirit class, and it is just so much less crowded in general, they seem to have nailed the best possible passenger to space ratio on that class. I actually have avoided the newest in the fleet because I have heard its much more sardine packed. The class of ship seems to make a big difference.

[Upandadam]

I think the ships can make as much or more of a difference than which line you're on. We did a back to back on the Carnival Splendor and the Mariner of the seas, finding The Mariner a bit disappointing after being on The Splendor a week.

 

We did another back to back on The Allure and Carnival Freedom and found the Freedom to be far inferior and almost shocking in comparison, yet our next cruise was on The Carnival Dream and it was great.

[gnocchi_mommy]

We had a lot of those issues on Indy, the worst was the piano bar which is our favorite evening venue- getting seats was impossible if you happened to arrive 5 minutes late. On the flip side, that meant when you did get a seat it was a really lively bunch with lots of singer alongers. The buffet was stiflingly crowded, much more so than any carnival cruise we ever had- but the food was really good. It was just hard to find a table for 5 sometimes! I have been told the class I just booked, Explorer of the seas, has a less crowded windjammer, so I am thinking it was maybe a fluke. Again, we really loved our cruise, but the crowding issue was the one shadow on it

 

 

I guess we had really bad luck on our recent Adventure of the Seas cruise! We had:

 

- a line to get into the Windjammer on the first day (10 mins)

 

- a line for my son's first day at kids' club (20 mins), after which we were turned away as it was full :(

 

- a line for bingo (30 minutes, awful)

 

- no seating for ANY of the quizzes (nothing else to do so 100 people showed up in a tiny bar)

 

- shows at the theater were full unless you arrived 30 mins early

 

- I heard many people asking about the ice show on day 3 and being told there was no availability - what a shame they missed out

 

- long lines for Johnny Rockets

 

Compared to very insignificant/no lines or crowds on the Carnival Triumph and Legend, this was quite a disappointment

[Aquahound]

Has RCI ever ever announced what the cause of the fire was on Sovereign?

 

The fire on Sovereign of the Seas occurred in 1861 in England. Sorry, but that was long before RCI's days.

Edited November 10, 2013 by Aquahound

[johnstoc13]

Have take 6 cruises all but one on carnival. Looking at next summer for cruise and see several good options on royal Caribbean and would like some input on what I should expect. I have come to know what to expect on carnival so would like some feedback if will be the same or better or worse. Looking at vision of the seas sailing from ft Lauderdale.

 

Royal Caribbean all the way!! Done the Carnival thing twice and have honestly found myself bored on those ships. As many have said, Allure/Oasis are a whole new world and non comparable. Go for Voyager Class or newer and you will likely cruise RCCL again and again.

[time4u2go]

By the way, did Carnival ever release an official cause for the Star Princess fire?

Not sure if Carnival was the organization that actually released it, but here is the report:

 

http://www.maib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/star%20princess.pdf

 

The cause was never established with 100% certainty, but the general concensus is that it was started by a cigarette.