If you're thinking of leaving Carnival

[AmberTeka]

Try Princess. RC is way too expensive and crowded.

 

Princess has a new Caribbean menu that is meeting a lot of resistance. I would let that blow over. Let the menu be tweaked a little. then Yes. Princess. it is great.

[WetToes]

When I sailed RC, a bathing suit cover or just a t shirt were not acceptable.

 

I don't know when that was, but apparently things are different now. They only ask that you slip on a shirt or coverup.

No big deal.

[golfb4cruzing]

Princess has a new Caribbean menu that is meeting a lot of resistance. I would let that blow over. Let the menu be tweaked a little. then Yes. Princess. it is great.

 

I'll let you know when we get back. I could go for some real Jerk chicken or Conch Fritters. 18 days and a wake up.

[Kimnjimnkids]

We have sailed both CCL and RCCL. We like both (it's a cruise!), but prefer Carnival.

 

I have never experienced this "party" atmosphere that people refer to on Carnival.

 

As was stated earlier, short, and/or spring break cruises will probably be that. That's why (partly) we wouldn't book those cruises.

 

We seen individuals in "party" mode, ... on CCL, RCCL and even Celebrity! Can you believe it? ;)

 

 

I've never seen this 'party crowd' either! Granted, I'm not in the clubs or casinos so that could be the reason. But we spend a ton of time on the pool decks. Soaking up the sun for hours!! And there's the occasional 'drunk' but they keep to themselves...enjoying their vacation just like I'm enjoying mine. I have never felt overrun by some 'frat party' ( thank God bc I would not be thrilled with it lol)... But my husband tells me that the college groups and party groups tend to book the 3-days and 5-days. Who knows? I just know that I love Carnival!!!

[cruzeluver]

I have read a ton of reviews over the years, but until now I don't think I have ever seen someone complain about the lack of announcements! Guess it shows how different we all are. I cannot stand the constant reminders about the on board activities. I am a literate adult who can read the Funtimes. I don't need some hyper-spastic CD yelling throughout the day that its almost time for Bingo, the slot tournament begins shortly, ice carving on the lido deck etc.

 

Carnival puts out a decent product for what they charge, but everything about our Freedom of The Seas cruise was superior to any Carnival cruise we have been on: service, food, the ship itself, everything.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Well I have sailed lines other than Carnival and honestly, I don't understand why people rave about Royal Caribbean. Granted I took a short Bahamas cruise on the old Monarch of the seas so it wasn't their best or most updated product but I really missed the laid back atmosphere and the warm melting cake the most. I am very critical of what carnival is cutting back on lately but honestly based on how little they charge compared to other lines most of the time, you can't expect a luxurious experience. Princess on the other hand, blows Carnival away in quality. Can't even really compare the two. I am very excited to finally be trying Norwegian next month to Alaska, again I am sure they are better than Carnival in some categories and not better in others. But people just like to complain and have wild expectations that really will never be met for whatever reason. I wouldn't cruise on a line like Celebrity because I don't like the idea of being completely pampered or the atmosphere being too stuffy and that's also why I would avoid HAL. So yes, I do enjoy the odd cruise on someone other than Carnival but generally Carnival gets it done for me. Most people probably feel the same way.

[WetToes]

I wouldn't cruise on a line like Celebrity because I don't like the idea of being completely pampered or the atmosphere being too stuffy and that's also why I would avoid HAL. So yes, I do enjoy the odd cruise on someone other than Carnival but generally Carnival gets it done for me. Most people probably feel the same way.

 

 

I was very reluctant to cruise Celebrity. I thought too that they would be a bit "stuffy". Noses in the air and all that, but we bit the bullet and tried them.

I didn't feel any different on there than I did on CCL or RCCL.

Of course this was the Mercury, sailing out of Baltimore.

The only real pampering I felt was when we came back from spending time off the ship in the ports. They give you a nice cool cloth to pat your self with. Could have done without it, but it was nice.

[Warm Breezes]

I don't quite get this "loyalty" thinking. So what, I cruise on multiple lines. I enjoy them all. Last year, I sailed with Carnival, Princess and NCL. This year, I've already sailed with Carnival and Princess. Also have a NCL booked.

 

It is interesting reading with different points of view.

 

Same here. There are pros and cons on all the lines we have sailed. ie Carnival pros for us are balcony room size, casualness, comedy club, and cost. Carnivals main con is the production shows. Disney's pros for us are Room layout and size, food, and entertainment. Disney's main con for us is the cost. NCL's pros for us are the entertainment, casualness, and food. NCL's main con for us is room size and sometimes cost. Princess's pros for us was entertainment and MUTS. Princess's cons for us was the hit or miss food, grumpy MDR and Buffet workers, lack of balcony privacy and comfortable furniture, and cost.

 

I am willing to try any line if they have a ship that meets our wants for that particular vacation at a price we are willing to pay for it. We just don't expect all lines to be the same, that would be boring anyway, and we don't expect perfection. But we do our research ahead of time to know what we can expect.... And we don't get our panties in a wad when the unexpected happens. We know going in that there will be things we like and things we don't. That is life. The key is to enjoy what you like and don't let the little things you don't like bother you.

[guxu]

The last time I was on a Princess cruise, the (assistant?) chef at Buffet greeted us and proudly introduced some dishes. This was at buffet, not chef's table! I never saw that on any Carnival or RCCL cruises.

[Kimnjimnkids]

There are two more 'classes' of RCI ship fleets made since the Freedomoftheseas and they're much much larger. ....I truly believe a lot of my issues (of the lack of conveniences) were caused by the size of the ship. Too big!! And to imagine ships even larger than this one...how much walking should one need to do just to grab a soda pop or coffee when you're hanging by the pool!? I still can't get over how aggravating that was! And I've read other reviews written by other posters that complained of same thing. And the LONG lines EVERWHERE! If you're gonna gave these mega ships with mega amounts of passengers, you've just GOT to make the public areas more accommodating! Not rocket science! I LOVE the attention to detail on freedomoftheseas and I loved the pristine cleanliness...but we were unable to really relax and enjoy our vacation due to the things I've listed in my OP and these other things.

[Cinders411]

Sorry you didn't enjoy Freedom of the Seas. After 5 Carnival cruses we tried RC. We loved Freedom! To each his own. Everyone likes different things. :)

[Kristi Williamson]

We like different things about each line we've sailed and we're trying Princess in 2016, even though we have friends who did a 10 day on Princess and hated it. Everyone has different tastes.

 

We think Carnival has better food than RCCL or NCL. I lost weight on Mariner of the Seas. Worst food ever for me. I LOVE Carnival's bedding and actually miss it when we come home. I think Carnival's pricing is great for their product and I've yet to see the "party" crowd so many claim to experience. We enjoy the relaxed vibe of the other cruisers on Carnival and NCL and really find that we meet more people who are just looking to relax and experience the world on these two lines more than RCCL. No one is clamoring around trying to pretend like they're in the Hamptons on these two lines and we love that. We're just regular old people who work hard and that's OK with us.

 

RCCL has the most beautiful ships at sea. They just do. They are works of art and we enjoy just strolling on their ships more than any other. We also really love their amenities. The ice skating show is the best show at sea, hands down. We love the rock climbing and the Flowrider, too. We also love sitting in the Viking Lounge with those 360 degree views. It's fabulous.

 

NCL has the BEST suite perks of any line at sea. They are just off the charts and you feel like someone special when you book their suites. Their prices are great, too! We enjoyed their MDR and think their breakfast buffet is superior to RCCL and Carnival. We also enjoyed their entertainment and would probably say it's a tie between them and RCCL for shows and lounges.

 

Everybody is different and likes different things. That's a good thing. :)

Edited March 30, 2015 by Kristi Williamson

[janetz]

We like different things about each line we've sailed and we're trying Princess in 2016, even though we have friends who did a 10 day on Princess and hated it. Everyone has different tastes.

 

We think Carnival has better food than RCCL or NCL. I lost weight on Mariner of the Seas. Worst food ever for me. I LOVE Carnival's bedding and actually miss it when we come home. I think Carnival's pricing is great for their product and I've yet to see the "party" crowd so many claim to experience. We enjoy the relaxed vibe of the other cruisers on Carnival and NCL and really find that we meet more people who are just looking to relax and experience the world on these two lines more than RCCL. No one is clamoring around trying to pretend like they're in the Hamptons on these two lines and we love that. We're just regular old people who work hard and that's OK with us.

 

RCCL has the most beautiful ships at sea. They just do. They are works of art and we enjoy just strolling on their ships more than any other. We also really love their amenities. The ice skating show is the best show at sea, hands down. We love the rock climbing and the Flowrider, too. We also love sitting in the Viking Lounge with those 360 degree views. It's fabulous.

 

NCL has the BEST suite perks of any line at sea. They are just off the charts and you feel like someone special when you book their suites. Their prices are great, too! We enjoyed their MDR and think their breakfast buffet is superior to RCCL and Carnival. We also enjoyed their entertainment and would probably say it's a tie between them and RCCL for shows and lounges.

 

Everybody is different and likes different things. That's a good thing. :)

 

Wait until you sail Princess. I think you may decided they are prettier then RC :)

[Silverman]

As far as filling your own drinks at the buffet. The stations are there. All you do to is look around. But yes they will get them for you. I love those Coke machines. They also have them at the entrance to The pizza place. 24/7. You can get all kinds of different drinks there. Flavored water too. The ice cream thing? Not something to complain about. I have to admit I like RC adult section better. The Solarium is great for relaxing either in the Sun or Shade. Also those 2 hot tubs right next to the Solarium that hang over the edge is very very cool!! 20 stories up! Makes for some great views! FOS is still my favorite ship I have sailed on. Haven't been on her since the refurb but I'll bet it's still great! I'm going to miss her when she moves out PC. Perfect ship size too! Not to big and not to small.

[beshears]

Yes, we were on the FREEDOM for the first time last year. It was nice, BUT you pay a price for that.

 

Some people are very "nit picky," and others are not. We go with the flow. For the price and what you get, we are still happy with Carnival. I do like Princess and Holland America. As for NCL, there is NO way we would ever do it again.

[cingroomer]

We just got off the Carnival Liberty yesterday and I am still disappointed in it. We were on her in September and it was fabulous, so we went back with 11 people for her relocation cruise last week. Our cabin steward was horrible, they cut back on so much, no midnite buffet, no chocolate buffet, no sushi, no BBQ, no bathroom amentities, food on buffet not good and just so so in MDR and same old shows. We are looking at another cruise in November but I think we will try a different CL. We've been on RCL twice and not real impressed but it was pretty long ago.

[KansasK]

I think we sometimes get wrapped up in the things we find wrong and forget the things we liked. The OP later remembered things she liked, which is good.

 

Everyone has to decide what they like the best on a cruise and what they don't. The change to not make constant announcements on RCI is fairly recent, and I like it. The OP likes the announcements and that's OK.

 

The ice cream issue is a small one for me, the chocolates on the pillow is a small one, too, since I did not eat it and took it home as souvenirs, but I noticed the first time they were missing. The OP is not the first Carnival cruiser to be unhappy with the ice cream times on RCI.

 

I have never been in a buffet on a ship that I did not have to walk to find a table, either on RCI or on Carnival, if I was there on a sea day at prime time.

 

I loved the ice show, the Captain's gathering on the Promenade on a formal night with the free champagne, the Flowrider and often the entertainment on the Freedom of the Seas.

 

People seemed to love Guy's Burgers and the Mexican place on the pool deck on Carnival ships.

 

Each ship has something to offer. We each get to decide what is most important to us.

[arkansasflyer]

Where to start........First off my hats off to Carnival(you'll find out why soon). I sailed with Carnival back in 1999 on a small ship called the Celebration. Fast forward thru a divorce, and remarriage and it's finally time for another cruise and make it a habit.

 

My TA was pushing hard and heavy for RCI last summer. Anyway we booked and the wife picked a cruise out of San Juan as it was port intensive(5 stops) on RCI and she had never cruised before. Cruise was nice last week in January cruise....no complaints....cost was $2,800 for a balcony room for the two of us. Was it worth $1,000 more than a similar route and cabin on Carnival....not in my opinion. The cruise was an awaking for the wife. She realized that we spent little time in our room and balcony and came to the conclusion, that more cruises in an interior cabin are better than fewer cruises with a balcony.

 

I was fearful of line hopping as I now had points with RCI....we'll after looking at Carnival again.....they were able to did up my info from 15 years ago! So I am a red level VIFP with them. Score tied with 7 loyalty points on each line.

 

Wife is now 100% cruise enthusiastic. We booked for next year already spring break...(higher prices I know) and I booked two cabins....one for the in-laws and one for my family of 4(two small kids under 8). Price was still over $1,000 less than RCI and it's an 8 day cruise!! Couldn't be happier:D Advantage Carnival.

[CptSticky]

First let me say how pleasant it has been reading this thread. I don't think I've read a single incident of bashing, flaming etc. This might be a first for these threads especially considering the topic is basically against one cruise line and hosted on another cruise line's thread.

Now a few of my thoughts. First I should tell you that we are Pinnacle on Royal (that might color my judgment). I find most of the low end cruise lines to be very similar for those who rank low in the loyalty programs. A huge difference with Royal occurs when you reach the top ranks. They give you an incredible amount of stuff that no other cruise line seems to come even close to. So if you are only cruising a few times I don't think it makes much difference who you cruise with but if you intend to "climb the ladder" then it does. Now, I might as well throw in a major negative for Royal - price and their never ending "sale" that makes it impossible to apply certain discounts that we are used to.

As for announcements that the OP apparently missed, this is a new policy that Royal is trying out (cutting way down on announcements). Personally, I was very tired of running to open my door to hear the important announcement just to hear an invitation to bingo or some over priced "art". There is a thread currently running on this topic and while a few seem to miss them, the majority seem to like the new policy. Another major problem for me is that Royal left the left coast:mad:

Several mentions of the buffets. Although I see the food quality on Royal's constantly going down, I still find the layout far superior to Princess or Carnival (the grill on Princess and Carnival makes up for a lot of sins:p it also tends to make me fat).

Several have commented on having sailed one or two Royal ships and never going back. Interesting, almost like saying I cruised once and am never going back. The ships in Royal's fleet are all so different from the small to the huge that it's almost like several cruise lines rolled into one. Some people like the huge and some like the small.

OK, enough for now.

I have cruised Carnival (4) (first cruise ever Carnival Magic 1995), Celebrity (3), Princess (1 and 1 more next week) and Royal (I don't really remember but maybe 50?).

[Kimnjimnkids]

First let me say how pleasant it has been reading this thread. I don't think I've read a single incident of bashing, flaming etc. This might be a first for these threads especially considering the topic is basically against one cruise line and hosted on another cruise line's thread.

Now a few of my thoughts. First I should tell you that we are Pinnacle on Royal (that might color my judgment). I find most of the low end cruise lines to be very similar for those who rank low in the loyalty programs. A huge difference with Royal occurs when you reach the top ranks. They give you an incredible amount of stuff that no other cruise line seems to come even close to. So if you are only cruising a few times I don't think it makes much difference who you cruise with but if you intend to "climb the ladder" then it does. Now, I might as well throw in a major negative for Royal - price and their never ending "sale" that makes it impossible to apply certain discounts that we are used to.

As for announcements that the OP apparently missed, this is a new policy that Royal is trying out (cutting way down on announcements). Personally, I was very tired of running to open my door to hear the important announcement just to hear an invitation to bingo or some over priced "art". There is a thread currently running on this topic and while a few seem to miss them, the majority seem to like the new policy. Another major problem for me is that Royal left the left coast:mad:

Several mentions of the buffets. Although I see the food quality on Royal's constantly going down, I still find the layout far superior to Princess or Carnival (the grill on Princess and Carnival makes up for a lot of sins:p it also tends to make me fat).

Several have commented on having sailed one or two Royal ships and never going back. Interesting, almost like saying I cruised once and am never going back. The ships in Royal's fleet are all so different from the small to the huge that it's almost like several cruise lines rolled into one. Some people like the huge and some like the small.

OK, enough for now.

I have cruised Carnival (4) (first cruise ever Carnival Magic 1995), Celebrity (3), Princess (1 and 1 more next week) and Royal (I don't really remember but maybe 50?).

 

 

That's such an interesting point you've made ! I never even thought about 'loyalty statuses', and i can def see how that could make a huge impact on a passengers experience! Thanks for sharing!

Also...I truly had NO idea that RCI was purposefully cutting back on announcements...it all makes sense now haha! (I'm the OP, by the way [emoji6])

And something you said, which no one else mentioned to me before, is the vast differences between RCI's ships. With Carnival, each ship weve cruised on (we've been on varying sizes), they've all been almost identical no matter the size. I would gladly try RCI again, just a smaller ship. I honestly think FOS was just too large (and I'm kinda lazy haha), so the fact I had to go far for drinks wouldn't have been such a big deal if it wasn't as FAR of a walk. (I feel so silly complaining about such trivial little things. I've just been spoiled, I think lol)

Your points were great...thanks for shedding light on some things for me.

We are cruising on carnivals Splendor this October...I've heard it's the only one of its kind for carnival. Apparently Costa built the vessel but sold it to carnival. So the layout will be a surprise!!! Hoping a 'good' surprise ha!

[CptSticky]

That's such an interesting point you've made ! I never even thought about 'loyalty statuses', and i can def see how that could make a huge impact on a passengers experience! Thanks for sharing!

Also...I truly had NO idea that RCI was purposefully cutting back on announcements...it all makes sense now haha! (I'm the OP, by the way [emoji6])

And something you said, which no one else mentioned to me before, is the vast differences between RCI's ships. With Carnival, each ship weve cruised on (we've been on varying sizes), they've all been almost identical no matter the size. I would gladly try RCI again, just a smaller ship. I honestly think FOS was just too large (and I'm kinda lazy haha), so the fact I had to go far for drinks wouldn't have been such a big deal if it wasn't as FAR of a walk. (I feel so silly complaining about such trivial little things. I've just been spoiled, I think lol)

Your points were great...thanks for shedding light on some things for me.

We are cruising on carnivals Splendor this October...I've heard it's the only one of its kind for carnival. Apparently Costa built the vessel but sold it to carnival. So the layout will be a surprise!!! Hoping a 'good' surprise ha!

One thing that I've noticed about ships (Carnival, Princess and a few Royal) is that some of them are really hard to get around on. We were on Sapphire and to get to our dining room we had to go up, forward, down and back. What a crazy way to lay out a ship. On Royal ships that have an ice rink on deck 3 you can't get past it on 3 but have to go up to another deck. I guess next week I'll find out about the Golden. We got a really good price, but that will be offset by having to actually "pay" for our drinks. Not used to that:o.

[talliana]

We tried RCl two years ago and I prefer RCL but my husband likes Carnival, the kids did not care as long as we cruised somewhere. I liked the dinning room service on RCL, RCL-crew spoke English and I was able to understand them better than on Carnival, I liked watching movies in the afternoon in the theater, I liked the drink stations where we could just put our glass in and choose our drink and the kids made their own soda combos, we did a few family activities in the kids area--painting, scrapbooking which we have never interested in doing on Carnival, did not mind the buffet and we always found a seat, downsides were the shows were not funny, the magician was not good, we had a guy telling jokes that were obviously geared towards older passengers I kept having to ask my husband to explain them, and the desserts did not have any flavor.

 

My husband said Carnival felt more like a party, he found the crew on RCL to be snotty, he did not like the comedy shows, not funny to him, pools too small for the number of people. My husband is a drinker and likes the bar type atmosphere of Carnival but I do not consume alcohol and I don't like seeing obviously drunken people on the Lido deck especially around where my kids can see them. I liked the DJ on Carnival but wished the volume would have been low enough so we could be able to have a conversation without yelling at each other. Last year they had two guys playing guitars and singing by the pool. Other people liked this type of music but i found it boring. I'm thinking of trying Norwegian this year for something different.

[EMBFlyer]

We tried out RCI again last spring break as we liked the itinerary and got a pretty good deal. The Navigator has always been one of my favorite ships in their fleet and our cruise on her did not disappoint. The crew was great, the ship was beautiful and the service was outstanding. The food, while not spectacular, was pretty good.

 

Our last cruise a few weeks ago on the Allure was not so great. We came home extremely disappointed. The ship was amazing. It was truly an engineering marvel. Every time I turn around, I found something new. I loved Central Park and The Boardwalk was pretty cool, too. The food, however, was horrible unless you spent money and went to a specialty restaurant (which we did 3 of the nights). The service downright sucked. You could never find a bar waiter on this ship. If you did see one, they'd either ignore you or walk by so fast, you couldn't flag them down. I don't think I've ever heard the word "no" as many times I did by the crew on this ship. Some were even downright rude. The ones that weren't rude or just barely did their jobs seemed downright terrified of screwing up. It was the weirdest thing. Bottom line, it was not an enjoyable cruise. We loved the ship (although it was just a bit too much for us). We loved the people we were cruising with. We hated the service and did not like that you had to schedule everything months in advance. You couldn't really be flexible because if you missed the event/show you had scheduled, odds are it was booked up for the rest of the cruise. Also, it seemed to me that you never really got to know the Cruise Director or the Cruise Staff. There were so many things going on that they were all running in 20 different directions. I don't even know if I could pick the CD out of a line up.

 

We're back to Carnival for our upcoming cruise on the Magic. We have another RCI cruise booked on a smaller class of ship because the group we're traveling with has too much status to jump ship, so to speak. Royal is pricing a lot of people out of the game. These so called "sales" are anything but. They're jacking up the price and then making it look like there's a good deal. The prices are outrageous and to me, not worth it.

 

I don't like the changes RCI is making. They've jacked the drink prices way up and upped the gratuity to 18%. I think it's to entice people to purchase the drink packages. They seem to be nickel and dime-ing everyone. I also don't like the new announcement policy. There were no regular updates from the Captain or Cruise Director. They say they're changing the policy to make things more quiet, yet twice a day, every single day of our cruise, I heard announcements for Bingo and art auctions. Apparently, everyone didn't get that memo. I missed the updates from the Bridge and the Cruise Director's rundown. There were many activities going on that no one knew about.

 

I think we're really going to enjoy our cruise on the Magic. The price was fantastic and it seems as Carnival still takes care of their guests. Royal never gave me that "Wow" or "special" feeling on the Allure. I've always felt it in some way or another with Carnival.

[CptSticky]

We tried out RCI again last spring break as we liked the itinerary and got a pretty good deal. The Navigator has always been one of my favorite ships in their fleet and our cruise on her did not disappoint. The crew was great, the ship was beautiful and the service was outstanding. The food, while not spectacular, was pretty good.

 

Our last cruise a few weeks ago on the Allure was not so great. We came home extremely disappointed. The ship was amazing. It was truly an engineering marvel. Every time I turn around, I found something new. I loved Central Park and The Boardwalk was pretty cool, too. The food, however, was horrible unless you spent money and went to a specialty restaurant (which we did 3 of the nights). The service downright sucked. You could never find a bar waiter on this ship. If you did see one, they'd either ignore you or walk by so fast, you couldn't flag them down. I don't think I've ever heard the word "no" as many times I did by the crew on this ship. Some were even downright rude. The ones that weren't rude or just barely did their jobs seemed downright terrified of screwing up. It was the weirdest thing. Bottom line, it was not an enjoyable cruise. We loved the ship (although it was just a bit too much for us). We loved the people we were cruising with. We hated the service and did not like that you had to schedule everything months in advance. You couldn't really be flexible because if you missed the event/show you had scheduled, odds are it was booked up for the rest of the cruise. Also, it seemed to me that you never really got to know the Cruise Director or the Cruise Staff. There were so many things going on that they were all running in 20 different directions. I don't even know if I could pick the CD out of a line up.

 

We're back to Carnival for our upcoming cruise on the Magic. We have another RCI cruise booked on a smaller class of ship because the group we're traveling with has too much status to jump ship, so to speak. Royal is pricing a lot of people out of the game. These so called "sales" are anything but. They're jacking up the price and then making it look like there's a good deal. The prices are outrageous and to me, not worth it.

 

I don't like the changes RCI is making. They've jacked the drink prices way up and upped the gratuity to 18%. I think it's to entice people to purchase the drink packages. They seem to be nickel and dime-ing everyone. I also don't like the new announcement policy. There were no regular updates from the Captain or Cruise Director. They say they're changing the policy to make things more quiet, yet twice a day, every single day of our cruise, I heard announcements for Bingo and art auctions. Apparently, everyone didn't get that memo. I missed the updates from the Bridge and the Cruise Director's rundown. There were many activities going on that no one knew about.

 

I think we're really going to enjoy our cruise on the Magic. The price was fantastic and it seems as Carnival still takes care of their guests. Royal never gave me that "Wow" or "special" feeling on the Allure. I've always felt it in some way or another with Carnival.

I can't argue with much of what you've said. From what I read here on CC it seems all the cruise lines are really cutting back. No one seems happy these days. We obviously will continue to cruise primarily Royal because of all they give us at this level but I have a Princess booked for next week that I just booked this week and I'm pretty sure that we will throw in a Carnival before the summer is over (did that last year and it worked out great). The thing that scares me the most cruising other lines is the bar bill. On Royal (with all the free booze that they give us) my average bar bill is like $12 per week (it's not uncommon for us to give away bottles of wine at the end of a cruise). Next week on Princess I'm going to try and be really good, but still expect a big bill:o

[LeisaH3067]

I'm sorry you returned disappointed in your cruise. We experienced something similar on our Carnival Liberty cruise last year. I think I had built up all these expectations after reading the rave reviews, only to be disappointed. Although we had a nice time, it was our least favorite cruise. That being said..pretty much everything is relative. Ship crew can change, service can be different between sailings, food is subjective. We decided to sail on the Breeze for our next cruise because the price and itinerary was what we were looking for. We have no loyalty. The only area we have personally felt was different between RC & Carnival is the entertainment. We feel it's much better on RC but that's just our opinion. We so far have enjoyed both lines and are looking forward to trying some of the others.