Please Help. RC or Carnival over Christmas

[Want2Cruise 701]

Thanks to everyone's help, we decided that Celebrity wouldn't be a good fit over Christmas. With that out of the way, the next tough decision arises. What next? This is really tough. Hoping people can share some experiences.

 

Allure. 7 night Eastern. Nassau, St. Thomas, St. Maarten. $7K Ocean balcony 3ppl.

 

Intrigued and excited to see this ship. Think it has more to offer for kids and better enterainment over Carnival. Food and ship decor is better on RC from our experience. Getting tired of these repeated ports. This cruise will be our only vacation for the next school year.

 

Adventure. 7 night Southern. St. Kitts, St. Maarten, Aruba, Curacao. $3,900 plus airfare. Ocean balcony 3ppl.

 

Two new ports. Think it has more to offer for kids and better entertainment over Carnival although not as much as Allure. Food and ship decor is better on RC from our experience.

 

Carnival Breeze. 8 night Southern. Grand Turk, Dominican Republic, Curacao, Aruba. $4,500 Cove 3pp.

 

Love the itinerary. 3 new ports for us. We liked it's sister ship Dream for the cove balcony and relaxing by the aft pool watching the ships wake. Felt at sea. Pool, hot tubs, bar and food all within steps too.

[PalmTree55]

IMHO, Go with the Allure. Hands down the best ship out of the ones you have to chose from.

 

 

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[JasonV1]

My problem with the Carnival ships is that the pool area is almost unusable. Other than the waterslide the ship has limited entertainment for kids compared to Royal (in my opinion) and the pool is almost always crazy crowded.

 

The Solarium on Royal ships is wonderful, especially on Oasis class ships. On Oasis class ships it is absolutely huge and chairs were readily available even in early August, on the smaller ships it can be a little challenging to get chairs in the sun, but they do watch them and remove towels so a little patience will get you one eventually.

 

I've done 10 Carnival and 5 Royal cruises and it just seems that the pool decks in general are far less crazy on Royal. Holiday cruises will be kid heavy, and I don't think I would even try it on Carnival due to past experiences. I've done 2 Christmas cruises on Royal and had a great time.

 

I say go for Allure if you like the ports (key, because this is my only issue with the Oasis class although it hasn't stopped me from booking it) and can afford it. If you want an additional day look for the 8 day routes out of Florida; they are nice too and typically go to southern ports that are guaranteed to be warm that time of year. I loved the 8 day Indy Christmas cruise I just went on. Extra day, southern ports, yet sailed out of Port Everglades.

[GMoney]

I'd pick Adventure. Allure is a fantastic ship but not worth the very high premium price, especially with the ho hum itinerary. Adventure is a good ship with many amenities and the itinerary is very good. Airfare to SJU may be more though. My problem with the Carnival option is the itinerary - I just don't think GTurk and DR are great cruise ports.

[matj2000]

It's easy for everyone to say the Allure because they aren't the ones spending the $$$$$.

I would not do the Adventure, nor any cruise out of Puerto Rico.

Breeze is the best deal, if that's what you are looking for..

[onefishtwofish]

We LOVE RCCI - just off a 3rd time on Liberty, have done Oasis and Allure several times and the Carnival Breeze last spring break - and although not Carnival fans, really like the Breeze as another option out there. We were on the Breeze during spring break and although feel the Breeze has very small pools, kids were fine with them.

Entertainment - RCCL hands down - the Breeze's shows that we saw were pretty bad.......

 

Food - both good but actually liked the Breeze's a little better - we liked having options right there off the pool deck and a good variety

Itinerary - same ol' same ol' with Allure, but the SHIP IS the destination in our opinion. If the ports are important....

On board fun for kids - my kids love the flowrider, rock climbing and ice skating, etc on Allure, but they wish they were open longer hours. They really loved the water park/slides and enjoyed the ropes course and they were open all day.

All that being said and we obviously love RCCI, but I would say to look at the costs and whether the itinerary makes a difference. I have heard from people who have sailed both the Dream and Breeze how different the Breeze is.

You will have fun no matter what you choose!! :D

[krev]

It's easy for everyone to say the Allure because they aren't the ones spending the $$$$$.

I would not do the Adventure, nor any cruise out of Puerto Rico.

 

Curious why you say this? We've cruised out of PR twice and absolutely love it. We were on Adventure last Jan/Feb and enjoyed it so much we've booked the Med on her in Sept. I haven't been on the other ships that the OP has listed but we love Adventure and especially PR.

 

 

 

 

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Edited January 6, 2014 by krev

[matj2000]

Curious why you say this? We've cruised out of PR twice and absolutely love it. We were on Adventure last Jan/Feb and enjoyed it so much we've booked the Med on her in Sept. I haven't been on the other ships that the OP has listed but we love Adventure and especially PR.

 

 

Mainly because of the expensive flight just to get there.

You can do almost the same cruises out of Florida minus a few ports, but somewhat the same.

[krev]

Mainly because of the expensive flight just to get there.

You can do almost the same cruises out of Florida minus a few ports, but somewhat the same.

 

I see, well we are coming from the west coast of Canada so the price is pretty much the same!

 

 

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[yogimax]

Given the prices, I'd go with Adventure.

 

Avoid Carnival! Their product has gone drastically downhill in the last two years.

[notsomadhatter]

In that particular scenario I would choose Adventure.

 

We did that itinerary (almost, St Thomas instead of St Maarten) on Jewel and it was very enjoyable.

[Karma5]

Mainly because of the expensive flight just to get there.

You can do almost the same cruises out of Florida minus a few ports, but somewhat the same.

 

It all depends on where your coming from…………………….

[TheCalicoCat]

Are you cruising for the ship or the ports?

 

I cruise for the itinerary - the ship just gets me there...

 

"I" could care less about the decor. "I" find the food to be similar on both lines. In general, "I" prefer a smaller ship. In general, "I" would choose the longer itinerary (same effort to pack, etc. might as well make it last as long as possible).

 

What "YOU" want/need is probably different.

 

If you cruise for the entertainment factor of the ships then your reasoning would be different...