Narrowed our next cruise to 3 - which do you prefer?

[Clarea]

ADVENTURE

 

Love sailing out of San Juan. Better ports. Less passengers.

 

Oasis would come in last for me as the ship has Cats. lol

Another point we agree on.:)

[Cruise a holic]

ADVENTURE

 

Love sailing out of San Juan. Better ports. Less passengers.

 

Oasis would come in last for me as the ship has Cats. lol

 

I agree about CATS as we saw Hairspray and it was great- but the Allure has Mama Mia and it was great!! So if you consider the Allure a wonderful option!

[QueenofKrakatoa]

#2. Adventure is a great way to introduce yourself to Royal and the ports are fantastic. Then do the Oasis. You'll be wowed either way no matter which one you pick, but the Oasis is kind of saving the best for last.

[Desert Cruizers]

I recently switched off our planned April 2018 Adventurer cruise for the Freedom out of Ft Lauderdale. The main reason it was giving us 8 new Ports and flying to FLL would be far easier for us then San Juan with two stops and lengthy layovers. We will still stop in San Juan for the day. We will be a doing a b2b, April 22nd (6 day) then April 28th ( 8 days ). Had we remained with the Adventurer, we only had two ports that we hadn't been to.

[Pandabear90]

This is the hard part, IMHO. You really need to search yourself to figure out if this cruise should be about the ship or the itinerary.

 

We've done both more than once, and love them both (can't comment about Carnival, so I wont).

 

Our first cruise on the Adventure- it was the MegaShip. At least for a little while longer. And it does maintain a lot of the features. But not all of the ones you see on Oasis.

 

Everyone has a preference whether it's the ship or the itinerary (as you can see in the replies). And we do make choices on our cruises to do both- so sometimes it's itinerary based, others- it's ship based.

 

Over our next 3 planned cruises, we have one Mega and one locations (Adventure, too). Hard to choose between them.

 

This is another great point, to decide whether your cruise is about the ship or the itinerary. While adventure was nice we did at times feel like there was no rest period since most of the cruise was on islands. But I guess it equals out cause adventure isn't as big as oasis class or quantum class. So there isn't as much on the ship that you would be missing out due to multiple islands.

[Artemus]

Tough choice. I've been on Oasis and Magic and going on Adventure soon. I would, at this point, choose Magic because of the fun factor. Oasis is a great ship, though. You won't go wrong with either.

[lovelife]

I've been on Oasis, Adventure, and tried three Carnival ships (kept thinking Carnival may get better, but it didn't:(). I'd select Oasis for sure, especially for the children. The check in at San Juan's pier is horrible and the airport can be the same.

[erby2283]

We've cruised 3 times - all Carnival, and we swore them off after last year (Sunshine), so we think we want to try RC (with one exception below). I realize everyone has their own preferences, but it would be enlightening to hear opinions from experienced RC cruisers and maybe even some that have done RC and Carnival who can share the contrast.

 

 

 

We are a family of 4 with an 8 and 10 year old, so we're looking forward to better kids camps than what we have experienced on Carnival. Value is part of the decision, but in the end we want a cruise we will enjoy. Prices shown below are basic balconies that I pulled within the last few days.

 

 

 

#1 - 7 day Oasis from Port Canaveral June 2017 to St Maarten, San Juan, and Haiti ($5600), never been to these ports so they are all attractive.

 

 

 

#2 - 7 day Adventure from San Juan June 2017 to St Maarten, St Kitts, Antigua, St Lucia, Barbados ($3900), like these ports better, negative aspect is giving up the mega ship.

 

 

 

#3 - 8 day Carnival Magic from Port Canaveral June 2017 to Grand Turk, San Juan, St Kitts, St Maarten ($4400)

 

 

 

I reluctantly put the Carnival cruise on the list because of the attractive ports, the value / extra day, and it's the Magic (sister ship of the Breeze - which we liked). I'm also reading more and more reviews from folks going back to Carnival from RC, which I wasn't expecting to read, but something to consider. I just really wanted to try a new cruise line.

 

 

 

The cruise out of San Juan is a good value, but with air fare and hotel we'll spend an equal amount as the Oasis cruise. But that sort of gives us an extra day of vacation and I much prefer a short flight from Charlotte to San Juan than an 8 hour drive from Charlotte to Port Canaveral and back. Plus the ports from San Juan are more attractive to me. However, we give up the mega ship which is one of the reasons for trying RC and I don't yet know what I'm giving up moving down to the Adventure (next on my list to research).

 

 

 

Thanks in advance for your insights and opinions.

 

 

I'm from Charlotte and also booked on Adventure for Dec '17. Airfare is typically around $450 plus baggage. Sometimes better if Southwest has times that work out (check RDU to SJU too, sometimes it pays to drive to RDU).

 

That being said, the Adventure itinerary is my favorite to date, although it was on Carnival. I waited years to book it again bc of airfare but finally bit the bullet and booked it for 2017. A smaller ship than Oasis but it's only 1 sea day. You'll be too tired from all your port days to care about the size. :)

Edited June 22, 2016 by erby2283

[luvkoko]

Oasis will be great for everyone in your party. Not much of a learning curve. Pre-book comedy and other shows and you can zip right in. Kids will love zip line, flow rider and kids club. I have more Carnival vs RCI trios and LOVED Oasis this past February. Bon Voyage.

 

 

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[AlPSUCruiser]

Thank you everyone for taking the time to reply, you've given me a lot of great input to consider. Now I just have to ask my wife what we are going to do... :rolleyes:

[ryano]

Magic because its a longer cruise. A great ship too as you know as youve been on Breeze which Magic is now almost her identical twin.

 

As far as the food and Carnival being "garbage" well thats subjective but I will say Carnival Magic blew all my Royal cruises out of the water when it comes to food quality, variety and included choices IMHO :rolleyes: Do you feel your Carnival cruises have been "garbage"?

 

You can see where my money went last and is going next.

Edited June 22, 2016 by ryano

[LMaxwell]

Magic because its a longer cruise. A great ship too as you know as youve been on Breeze which Magic is now almost her identical twin.

 

As far as the food and Carnival being "garbage" well thats subjective but I will say Carnival Magic blew all my Royal cruises out of the water when it comes to food quality, variety and included choices IMHO :rolleyes: Do you feel your Carnival cruises have been "garbage"?

 

You can see where my money went last and is going next.

 

Food is subjective, but I share the opinion that Carnival's food is better than Royals, and their included selections are more abundant and available more hours of the day. Of all mass market lines Royal's food, subjectively speaking, is the lowest quality to me and objectively speaking has the least choice and availability.

[weejasser]

I know this is the Royal Board however have you considered NCL Escape from Miami. Royal for us have got very expensive for peak summer holidays for a family of 4

[Cel_cruise]

I have a 6 and 10 year old on our next cruise. One reason we opted NOT to go on Oasis Class was because it was too big for our 10yo to roam alone and our 6yo was too short for some of the activities (zip line etc).

 

We opted for Liberty in April 2017. We find airfare during school vacation week to be too expensive to Florida so This was actually MUCH cheaper than the ones we looked at there..although had we known about the Adventure dry dock it would have won out.

 

As a result - I am recommending without a doubt Adventure for you! The water slides, flow rider, and kids clubs will keep you all busy! And the ship is manageable that if you get comfortable allowing your kids to walk somewhere - it's not too big for them to navigate.

 

We were on Navigator in 2015 with a 4/8 year olds and it was really the perfect size and very well equipped!

[AlPSUCruiser]

No, we don't consider Carnival food garbage (not sure where that came from), we have been pretty satisfied with only a few misses. We swore off Carnival partly because the Sunshine had such a terrible layout and mostly because all their cruises left our kids with limited options on board (disappointing camp Carnival and party atmosphere at the main pool).

 

I wasn't expecting to hear some opinions that RC food is worse than Carnival. I do agree we found an abundance of options and availability on the Breeze. The steakhouse and sushi are incredibly good (and not a lot more $), as are Guy's burgers and the tacos. The melting chocolate cake is as good as everyone says it is!

 

I was really hoping you all would help me not be so wishy-washy!

[Ashland]

[quote name='lovelife']I've been on Oasis, Adventure, and tried three Carnival ships (kept thinking Carnival may get better, but it didn't:(). I'd select Oasis for sure, especially for the children. The check in at San Juan's pier is horrible and the airport can be the same.[/QUOTE]

[B]Was just in San Juan and the pier and airport couldn't have been easier...Just timing I guess ...so it can vary ;)[/B]

[cpayne]

I'm a bit 'A' typed personality, but here's what I did to decide on our next cruise in March 2017. I too had it narrowed down to 3 finalists and made a spreadsheet. I included columns/categories that are important to us such as where does cruise originate from, is it a Sat-Sat or Sun-Sun sailing, ports of call, cost of cruise, cost of airfare, ports of call, etc. I even included a column for what Broadway show do they offer (all 3 cruises are Oasis class). I then circled which cruise was my top pick in each individual category. So for example, we prefer Sat-Sat sailings. 2 of the 3 sailings were Sun-Sun so the winner in this category was easy! The cruise with the most wins in the categories was our overall choice. Hope this helps bc it can be tough to choose with so many great cruises offered to pick from!


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[DkswartzFamily]

Oasis- great activities for the kids, still new ports for you, plus yummy sandwiches in Central park : )