RCCL Monarch or Carnival Paradise??

[vivalv66]

We are taking the 3 or 4 day trip in Feb or March. Have cruised on both lines. Just wondered what anyones opinion would be on which ship to pick.

Thanks! Sherry

[Happy ks]

I haven't been on Paradise, so I won't comment there. I was once on the old Ecstacy, which was the ship used for this itinerary before Paradise and we won't be booking Carnival again because of it. If you're doing the 4 day, Monarch wins hands down, with the stop in San Diego. The only real advantage Carnival has over RCI is that the cabins are larger. RCI ships are nicer looking, the food and entertainment are about the same.

 

Monarch ususally comes out a lot less $ for us, we book two cabins, one for ourselves, one for our 2 teens. It's been quite a bit less than one cabin on Carnival. I've been on Monarch 3 times and have another trip planned on her the end of this year.

[gkeep]

Just my 2-cents... I have not cruised Carnival's paradise yet, but I did do the Monarch last may. I had also just cruised the 7 day vision in December before that. I enjoyed my Monarch cruise, but I didn't pay very much, and I don't let little things get to me. It was my 10 th anniversary and we didn't bring the kids, so we were there to have fun!

That being said, I would not go on that one again unless I got an AWSOME deal and couldn't do a longer one. I really felt the ship was not that nice, our room was sooo tiny, and the shower really wasn't attractive. I also felt that the food quality ok, and the variety was much lower than our 7 day cruise on the vision. Same goes for the entertainment. We really loved the dueling piano's though! We has an incredible waiter, too! Overall - a fun getaway, but I am looking at booking the Carnival ship to see what it is like.

Maybe I wouldn't have noticed some of these things if I hadn't been on another RCCL ship so close to that sailing.

[vivalv66]

Thanks for the input. We decided on the Paradise. RCCL was sold out on a lot of dates and more expensive. We have sailed RCCL once and loved it. Sailed Carnival 4 times. 3 times great and 4th time was horrible. I have learned not to expect anything on the cruise if something does go wrong. It is a short inexpensive trip and will be as fun as we can make it. I will post and let you know my thoughts when we return. Thanks again and Happy Cruisin!