Pros & Cons - Carnival Pride vs. Norwegian Gem

[wallygator21015]

NCL Gem 10 nights January 22, 2016

CCL Pride 14 nights March 13, 2016

 

Pros:

Both Ships are very clean on the inside of the ship.

Air conditioning worked well on both ships.

Pride - Cabin 1105 Ocean View - Was able to keep cabin temperature between 68 - 70 degrees.

Pride 12 pack of water bottles delivered to your room $3.99

Carnival Pride - Food overall is very good, much better than on the Norwegian Gem.

Pride Main Dinning Room offers Shrimp Cocktail every night, and on different nights Serves Lobster, Oysters Rockefeller, Beef Wellington, FiLet Mignon, Prime Rib, etc.

If you want lobster on Norwegian, you have to pay to go to a specialty restaurant. Plus pay 18% service charge.

PRIDE - Note: on our (14 nights) cruise Lobster was offered 3 times on 3 different nights in the main dinning room, (very tasty)

PRIDE - Free pizza 24 /7 (very good)

PRIDE - Staterooms are much larger than NCL Gem

Recommended tipping on Carnival is $12.00 per day

Required Daily Service Charge on Norwegian is $13.50 per day.

Room serviced twice daily - No Problem - on both ships.

Pride - David's Steakhouse, Gem - Cagney's Steakhouse are equal in value. However, Norwegian adds on an additional 18% service charge.

Pride casino - complimentary drinks while gambling include premium brands.

Gem casino - complimentary drinks while gambling must be valued at $5. dollars or less. However you may pay for an upgrade to a premium brand.

 

Cons:

PRIDE- Purchased the Unlimited Internet Package for $120. for 14 days, extremely SLOW.

PRIDE - Two automatic doors opening to the promenade deck, used by the handicapped, on both sides of the ship forward, were out of service for the entire cruise?

I am handicapped and use a wheelchair and required assistance to reach the promenade deck.

PRIDE - clock on the wall in the spa hot tub broken the entire cruise.

PRIDE - White paint flakes and white paint spots all over the promenade deck. Some Outside doors on the promenade were missing paint?

Gem & Pride - Casinos constantly full of smoke and no way to avoid it if you are a player.

Carnival Pride - Guy's greasy burgers & fries are nauseating. Often while frying the burgers the indoor buffet would fill up with smoke from the grease. Employees would plug in large fans to dissipate the smoke and stench from the buffet area.

I would rather have a McDonald's Big Mac.

Nevertheless, everywhere you look, Norwegian has made cuts to their product and found new ways to charge more money and provide less products and services to their passengers.

The new CEO for Norwegian - Frank J. Del Rio, has declared his intention to gouge his already booked passengers for another $50. - $100. per cabin on every cruise.

 

Summation

I am a Diamond Guest on Carnival, and a Platinum Guest on Norwegian. Overall, I prefer to cruise on Carnival.

 

Wallygator

 

 

 

 

 

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[sparks1093]

Thanks for the comparision! I liked the Gem a little more than the Pride and would pick the Gem over the Pride if the fares were similar, but I wouldn't pay a lot more to sail on the Gem.

[Arzeena]

Thanks. It was very interesting to note your observations, since we have cruised on the Gem and will be cruising on the Pride.

Question: Can you please tell me how many bottles and what brand of bottled water was in the $3.99 package?

[mking8288]

Thank you for that comparison - DW had us looking too ... a bit of cost-benefit analysis on values, ROI for our dollars spent.

 

Ships in service for x number of years are going to have normal wear & tear, especially if you look hard enough for them - we're on the Splendor out of NY 3 years ago & were pleasantly surprised. We don't hangout or spend time in the pools or outdoors. Sailing out of the NE, the retractable glass roof is a nice one whether it's chilly and/or wet, not to mention that they can play movies on the giant screen regardless of weather - along with BBQ's and dance/parties.

 

As for second hand smoke in casinos, both on land & especially at sea - we have yet to find any exceptions to the problems over the years - regardless of which cruiselines, yet.

 

Are the crews on the Pride just as friendly as those on NCL ? With all the extra DSC & gratuities collected by NCL, the crew should be doing very nicely with being allocated income from extra amount collected - which, isn't my business ;) .

 

This brings up another point, it wasn't that long ago, folks with strong alliances sailing NCL would talk about how much OBC they've gotten, from NCL and/or from their own TA - nowadays, it's all just about the "Free At Seas" perks ... now, "Sail Away Fares" are the newest "spin". :rolleyes:

[swedish weave]

I want to comment on the OP's food comparison. I recently sailed on NCL Jewel, and Carnival Miracle.

 

I saw the same thing OP saw with the food on these two ships. Carnival presented many items in the buffet and MDR that you have to pay quite a bit extra if you want them on NCL.

Edited March 28, 2016 by swedish weave

[cruisebie]

Very interesting comparison, Wallygator. Thanks for posting your thoughts.

 

 

Thanks. It was very interesting to note your observations, since we have cruised on the Gem and will be cruising on the Pride.

Question: Can you please tell me how many bottles and what brand of bottled water was in the $3.99 package?

 

I was on the Dream last October and got the water package. There were 12 bottles and I don't remember the specific brand, but it was spring water. I've seen reports of a couple of different brands so they may mix things up a bit depending on who gives the the better price.

[mizLORInj]

I'd go on either BUT I am picky about cabin type. Yes Gem's cabins are tiny compared to Pride (or any Spirit class Carnival ship).

 

Of course food is subjective; we prefer NCL's food over Carnival's.

 

We prefer NCL's entertainment. Carnival has cut way too far back on their shows.

 

Can't say we've noticed a difference in crew friendliness.

 

Still, I'd be on a ship and enjoy it--whichever it would be!

Edited March 29, 2016 by mizLORInj

[wallygator21015]

On the Carnival Pride there is pizzeria making fresh hot pizza 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These fresh, hot out of the oven, pizzas are FREE. You can eat it there or take it with you!

 

On Norwegian, you have to call room service, and pay $7.95 for a pizza that tastes like a store bought frozen pizza. NCL no longer delivers a hot pizza to you anywhere on the ship for $5.00

 

Thanks to FDR's new policy of nickel and diming his passengers to increase profits. Folks really need to vote with their feet.

 

Wallygator

 

 

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[Arzeena]

Very interesting comparison, Wallygator. Thanks for posting your thoughts.

 

 

 

 

I was on the Dream last October and got the water package. There were 12 bottles and I don't remember the specific brand, but it was spring water. I've seen reports of a couple of different brands so they may mix things up a bit depending on who gives the the better price.

 

Thank you!

[luvtheships]

Once I use up my 2 certs on Ncl I'll be trying ccl again.

 

Fwiw we've only been sailing Ncl for convenience since 2011 out of NYC

 

 

Simply easy 30 minute ride to port and honestly I've only booked with excellent deals and only insides and we rarely drink and dont gamble and are totally done with specialties so that why we have stayed with them

 

Mdr and buffet food are meaningless to us as we spend the summers on cape cod so lobster and shrimp on a ship are non issues

 

We do it for ports on Ncl and have been lucky enough to snag 5 great long cruises to deep Carib ports out of NYC on Ncl

 

Now....if ccl came up with those itins out of NYC I would jump on it

 

As for flying to a cruise port yes we do that too.....and that's why our Med cruises were on ccl and princess and you can bet after the certificates are used up that a Carib cruise we need to fly to will more than likely be on a line other than Ncl.