General Opinions of Carnival

[beachbrat]

I'm in my 40's and have been on close to 30 cruises. I've sailed with Carnival, RCCL, Holland America, Princess, NCL, Azamara, Cunard, & Quark Expeditions.

 

I LOVE NCL's variety of restaurants. I never eat in their "main" dining room as I find the food terrible.

 

I love RCCL's large ships but find them to have too many people and the food is terrible.

 

Princess has a good overall product with good food / service/ unique itineraries but they can get expensive.

 

Holland America is awesome with great food / great itineraries but can be kind of boring.

 

Azamara is EXCELLENT all the way around...food is beyond superb, well traveled cruisers...a bit boring but I would go again.

 

Cunard has decent food, older cruises, decent entertainment...excellent ballroom dance engagements.

 

Quark Expeditions has terrible food but awesome Antarctic experiences.

 

Carnival has good food in their main dining room, fun entertainment, & fun fellow cruisers.

 

I personally don't have a favorite per se ....it would depend on the itinerary. I would not sail Carnival to the Caribbean unless it was 10 days or more. I find the 7 day and less itineraries to have too much of a party atmosphere with loud passengers. IMO

 

I LOVED our 16 day Transatlantic on Carnival. The entertainment was super fun, cruisers were "active" without being annoying. John Heald was our CD.

[RiotAct]

We are definitely not Carnival's target market (Young late 20s couple from the UK) and we love Carnival and the passenger base has always been great for the most part.

 

Actually... I'd say you're pretty much in CCL's wheelhouse... I thought younger couples are one of their main targets as far as marketing?

[Velvetwater]

Actually... I'd say you're pretty much in CCL's wheelhouse... I thought younger couples are one of their main targets as far as marketing?

 

Mainly its the the UK part I guess.

 

Although I have always felt that Carnival is a family line more than a young couples line and as both our cruises have been unusual 12+ day ones the demographic has always felt a little older to us.

 

Its odd I visited this thread at this time as we have been very close to booking a Costa or a Med 7 day cruise with some land travel but then came across a Carnival cruise package this summer for 7 days on the CCL Dream and 3 nights in New Orleans for £1300 pp sale including UK flights.

 

Every time I searched another line I just wished it was Carnival...hmmm. I am also attracted to NCL/RCL as I group them with Carnival as 'fun lines' but worry about their extra pricing (especially the ATD prepay thing).

[Havingfun2010]

I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity of traveling via the cruise industry on several occasions. My cruise experience has been with:Royal, Holland, and my preferred line NCL. Everything from transatlantic repositioning, Alaska, Medaterriaan, and various Caribbean Islands, and both Bahamas, and Bermuda. This will be my eleventh cruise and my first adventure with Carnival. After I confirmed my reservation, I have been warned by several friends and family that since this line is less expensive than other lines it caters to the family and 20-30 crowd. Don't misunderstand my concern. I am only in my 50's so age and families are not a concern. My concern is the quality of service, food, entertainment, and stateroom accommodations. I ask those who have utilized other lines and has been on Carnival your thoughts please. I thank you in advance.

 

I have been on other lines. Although Carnival has the same basic service, food and a bed, it stops there. Carnival is cheaper, because they have learned how to save money but reducing staff, and entertainment. The quality has gone down hill over the years. It's also a cruise line, where rules are in place, but seldom enforced.

[Surfwench]

I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity of traveling via the cruise industry on several occasions. My cruise experience has been with:Royal, Holland, and my preferred line NCL. Everything from transatlantic repositioning, Alaska, Medaterriaan, and various Caribbean Islands, and both Bahamas, and Bermuda. This will be my eleventh cruise and my first adventure with Carnival. After I confirmed my reservation, I have been warned by several friends and family that since this line is less expensive than other lines it caters to the family and 20-30 crowd. Don't misunderstand my concern. I am only in my 50's so age and families are not a concern. My concern is the quality of service, food, entertainment, and stateroom accommodations. I ask those who have utilized other lines and has been on Carnival your thoughts please. I thank you in advance.

 

I've only sailed with one other line, Royal, but that was sufficient for me to understand the mass-market lines of Carnival, Royal, NCL are more similar than different.

 

Avoid the short cheapie cruises on the Fantasy class ships.... they do tend to have a higher percentage of 'woohoo people' and 'those people' than the other lines. Avoid Carnival during spring break and summer if you'd prefer to avoid a lot of children.

 

The demographic on the off season 7+ day cruises on Carnival will be indistinguishable from the same on Royal or NCL.

 

Here is my breakdown in a nutshell on Carnival vs Royal -- Royal has a prettier ship, Carnival has better food, Royal has better entertainment, Carnival has bigger cabins, (with robes).

 

My personal cruise bucket list is Azamara and Princess, (Panama Canal), maybe Celebrity because of the food reviews. I have zero interest in Royal or NCL because why pay more for a similar product? (Carnival).

[Lurkyloo]

I think that 50% of any good vacation, be it land or sea, is going to be based on your attitude. The cruise line provides the back drop and opportunity for a good time, but you make a choice as to whether you will actually have that good time. If you nit pick over every little detail, probably any cruise line is going to disappoint.

 

Me - I go in with the the attitude that I am going to have a blast, and oddly enough, I always do! My favorite cruises have been on Carnival, but the little things I didn't care for on the other lines did not affect my cruise because they are minor little details - mere specks on the big picture. I doubt that every cruise is going to be perfect on any line you choose. If you choose to focus on the negatives why bother? Hey! It's a cruise! Enjoy! ;)

[Cinders411]

We have only cruised Carnival and Royal Caribbean so far. We enjoyed all of our cruises. After several Carnival cruises we just wanted to try something new. You cannot beat Carnival prices in my opinion. For entertainment, RC wins hands down for us. Both lines are good and as others have posted, more similar than different. We had a lot of friends who commented, "I would NEVER go on a cruise with Carnival".:eek: Most of them had never been on any cruise........ :D

[riffatsea]

We have friends that only cruise on HAL. They book guarantees and take whatever they get.

That would be really convenient for us since they leave right here from San Diego. We looked into a great cruise and even put down a deposit. Then we started rethinking.

We only book balconies and the balcony cabin for this cruise was about $5,000 more than our last balcony on Carnival. We could afford the increase but we started asking ourselves what was HAL offering us that made the increase worthwhile??

In the end we couldn't justify the cost difference and canceled the cruise. It just didn't make sense.

Now if price was the same or close would we try HAL (or other cruise line) yes of course because for us convenience of leaving from San Diego is also worth something!

[hog88]

Only line we have sailed with is CCL and never a bad cruise. Out of the 5 we had one so so on the Breeze but that was due to catching a cold before departure. We will be doing our first NCL this month and looking forward to having something to compare.