Conquest or RCL Freedom

[smallfry74]

Hi

I am considering these cruises for Feb. 2018. Conquest goes to St. Maarten, St. Kitts, San Juan and Grand Turk. Royal goes to St. Kitts, St. Maarten, San Juan and Labadee. I have sailed Carnival but not for 15 years and never sailed on RCL. These are all new ports for me except San Juan. I will be travelling with 2 teen boys whom like to try different things, maybe they will use the teen clubs maybe not. They like to play basketball, video games and use pools/slides. Anyone who has done both of these ships with kids, which one is better? The price is about $600 difference. This will be the boys first cruise.

[BNBR]

The Freedom is a far superior ship. However, I've been on Glory (Conquest class) and it's a great layout as well. But this isn't much of a comparison unless saving $600 is a big deal for you. Both will be excellent cruises and the itineraries are so similar it's trivial in that regard.

[Aquahound]

I've cruised Freedom of the Seas and recently on a CCL ship very similar to Conquest. To me, the choice is crystal clear. I recommend Freedom of the Seas by a long shot.

[ryano]

Freedom of the Seas is an awesome ship. In my honest opinion, Carnival has NOTHING that Ive seen that compares with the Freedom class, much less Oasis class. Your jaw will drop the second you board. If you can swing the extra $$$. I would pick Freedom. With that said, I liked the food, service and atmosphere a lot better on Magic.

[MNelson486]

I just got off the Freedom of the Seas. It was a very good trip I have also been on the Liberty, Glory and Valor which are similar to the Conquest.

 

Freedom is much bigger and has some interesting features. The pros of the ship:

1. We loved our cabins (Interior Promenade). It is an interior with a window over the promenade -- which is like an interior main street that houses a pub, wine bar, shops, pizza place, Ben and Jerry's, Cupcake shop etc. We had adjoining cabins with our 2 kids -- so much better to have more space!

 

2. Entertainment -- the shows were great -- I especially enjoyed the ice skating show and the Broadway themed show. The theater always had seats available.

 

3. There are more things for kids to do -- flow rider, Rock wall, ice skating. the arcade was bigger also. My younger son loved the kids club -- there was more space for them then on Carnival.

 

Cons:

I honestly think the food on carnival is better in main dining room -- I especially miss warm chocolate melting cake and butter pecan ice cream. The pizza is WAY better on Carnival, and the food on the lido was better on carnival.

 

I will say that there are more specialty restaurants on the Freedom. We LOVED Sabor the mexican restaurant. The best thing my husband and I did was take the guacamole class. It was more of a demonstration, but you got all the food you wanted and drinks. I had several wonderful margaritas and the food was amazing. This was only $20 per person -- I think all the Margaritas my husband drank would have equalled that!.

 

The employees on Freedom were great -- I chose this cruise because I wanted the ports and the timing was right -- I would cruise on RCCL again if it met my needs. I think it was also fun to try a bigger ship.

 

The bigness was fine -- there were over 4000 people sailing with us, and it did not ever feel crowded -- which was great!

 

Good luck on whatever you decide. Both good choices!

[MisterOJ2]

Overall, I've done eight cruises - four on Carnival, two on Royal and two on Disney. I've cruised on both the Freedom of the Seas and the Conquest before and I can say that my cruise on the Conquest was one of my favorite cruises and my cruise on the Freedom of the Seas was probably my least favorite of all. The Freedom was a very nice ship, but it also felt like it was the most crowded ship I've ever been on. It had some very nice features, but some of them were always so crowded (like the Flowrider) that my family never got to use them once. Compared to the Conquest, the options for food around the ship (at least for breakfast and lunch) are not nearly as good either. There's much more variety on the Conquest with Guy's Burgers, Blue Iguana Cantina, etc.

[sk8rmomof3]

I haven't been on the Conquest YET (17 days), but we sailed RC last year (Independence of the Seas).....all I can say is that Labadee Haiti was the highlight of my trip! I loved that port!

[ryano]

I

 

Cons:

I honestly think the food on carnival is better in main dining room -- I especially miss warm chocolate melting cake and butter pecan ice cream. The pizza is WAY better on Carnival, and the food on the lido was better on carnival.

 

I totally agree and generally anyone that cruises both lines with a open mind, says Carnival has better food. Sorrentos pizza is horrid! Seriously, Id rather have a Red Baron from the frozen section of my grocery store.

[BNBR]

I totally agree and generally anyone that cruises both lines with a open mind, says Carnival has better food. Sorrentos pizza is horrid! Seriously, Id rather have a Red Baron from the frozen section of my grocery store.

 

I have mixed feelings on the pizza. Carnival had much better pizza, yes, but often the wait was so long it was ridiculous. Carnival makes the pizza fresh when you order, and even if you are the only one there, it takes time. Sorrento's on Royal has a lesser quality pizza, but you can usually walk right up and grab a slice immediately, no wait.

 

While we enjoyed the Carnival pizza more, it's a surprisingly great pizza for a cruise ship... we would prefer Royal because it was fun to just walk up and grab a slice randomly when you walk by.

 

That said, I wouldn't personally pick a cruise ship over a few food options as they both have more than enough. The food on Carnival was hit or miss, I thought the buffet was disgusting, but the specialty spots like pizza, Guys, and Blue Iguana were pretty solid and better than the royal counterparts (as far as tasete). The main dining room was about the same on either.

[ryano]

I have mixed feelings on the pizza. Carnival had much better pizza, yes, but often the wait was so long it was ridiculous. Carnival makes the pizza fresh when you order, and even if you are the only one there, it takes time. Sorrento's on Royal has a lesser quality pizza, but you can usually walk right up and grab a slice immediately, no wait.

 

While we enjoyed the Carnival pizza more, it's a surprisingly great pizza for a cruise ship... we would prefer Royal because it was fun to just walk up and grab a slice randomly when you walk by.

 

That said, I wouldn't personally pick a cruise ship over a few food options as they both have more than enough. The food on Carnival was hit or miss, I thought the buffet was disgusting, but the specialty spots like pizza, Guys, and Blue Iguana were pretty solid and better than the royal counterparts (as far as tasete). The main dining room was about the same on either.

 

I can agree with all that. The longest lines for pizza on Magic were around midnight believe it or not lol. It was a good 30 minute wait. It wasnt that bad any other time.

[MisterOJ2]

I've always believed that, in general, the food in the MDR and quick service locations is much better on Carnival than it is on Royal, but the Royal buffet is superior to the one on Carnival. When I am on a Carnival ship, most of the time I will have dinner in the MDR. But on Royal, I prefer having dinner from the buffet.

[BNBR]

I can agree with all that. The longest lines for pizza on Magic were around midnight believe it or not lol. It was a good 30 minute wait. It wasnt that bad any other time.

 

On Glory, there were times when it was much more than 30 minutes wait. Long line, one pizza cook, etc.

 

I don't know, I just loved walking through the promenade and popping and grabbing a slice of pizza as fast as you can put your hand out. It wasn't a destination, it was a random indulgence that I liked. Same with Cafe Promenade, maybe grab a slice then a shrimp sandwich.... because... why not? I didn't get that type of experience on Carnival though the food quality of the quick service spots was certainly better. Pizza Pirate is more like "I'm going to get pizza, and then sit down and eat the whole pizza"... very different.

 

I ended up at Blue Iguana many breakfasts because the buffet was so terrible, but the burritos were great!

[mulan1123]

I do prefer the food on RCI a little more than Carnival (I have been o Oasis and Freedom with RCI and Glory with Carnival) because they do have the Promenade cafe 24 hours so you can grab a small sandwich or dessert when you walk by. And Windjammer I found better because the layout and the wide variety of foods (they actually served congee, an Asian breakfast food on Freedom and it was delicious and usually half gone by the time I get there for breakfast). But Freedom does have rock climbing, mini golf, parades for kids, ice skating, surf rider.

[mrpayroll]

We have been on both and would pick Freedom of the Seas over Conquest. Having teens, i think they would have more fun things to do on Freedom.