Carnival vs. Royal

[NotTheBatesMotel]

I haven't been on Magic, but I've sailed both of her sister ships (Dream and Breeze). I've sailed on Allure, and was prepared to never want to go back to smaller ships. I was so surprised to find the opposite. The Oasis class entertainment was excellent, but the food was gross unless you paid for specialty dining. It was also weird to me how I had to keep reminding myself I was on a cruise ship because there were so many places I just didn't see the water. 

The entertainment will not be as good on the Magic-so prepare yourself for that. It's the one thing that bugged me when going back to smaller ships. Everything else about other ships, though? Excellent. Less crowds, better food, better ocean views. Go into it with realistic expectations and you should still have a great time. 

[NavarreCruiser]

I am Diamond on Carnival 94 cruises 669 days and Diamond plus on Royal 37 cruises 344 points.  I have cruised on about 40 different ships.  Two or 3 years ago I would have said they are very similar and you will be fine on either.  But Carnival's cutbacks are more obvious and are negatively affecting the cruise experience to a great degree.  After averaging 7+ Carnival cruises per year since my first in 2005 I currently have none booked with Carnival. 

[chill6x6]

I like 'em both...or them ALL!.  Of course I cut my cruising teeth on Carnival.  I've done Carnival, Princess, NCL, HAL, Celebrity, and Royal.  All have their little niche and things they each may do better or not as good as the others.  Anyone with an open mind should be able to enjoy a cruise on any of them.  I went to other cruise lines to try something different and because I wanted a particular itinerary.  If I cruised in a balcony cabin there is really not much reason to not pick Carnival.  But if an itinerary or you want to try something different...absolutely ZERO reason to not try Royal Caribbean....or Celebrity....or NCL....etc.  Personally I think it is quite silly for someone to just limit themselves to just one cruise line.  

 

I have started cruising in a suite and Carnival offers the least suite perks of any cruise line.  So I gravitated more towards HAL, Royal, and Celebrity.  All have perks way superior to Carnival so it is what it is.  I DO have the 8-day southern caribbean booked about the Horizon in a GS so we are gonna give that a go!  

 

I try something new and enjoy!   

[Palmetto Pilot]

On 2/14/2019 at 11:35 AM, mom2oneXY said:

  I agree as well.  I have cruised on three different lines (Carnival, Royal, and Celebrity).  I have seen lack of class on all three...in fact on board each the Independence of the Seas and Celebrity Constellation I saw physical fights between two older gentlemen.  Those men are probably the same people that complain about the clientele on Carnival.  

 

On 2/14/2019 at 11:03 PM, horsegal said:

We felt the same way,  I've heard it from others to do I don't think it was just one bad experience. We have done 7 carnival and one royal (our second cruise ever).

 

I also can't stand the bad rep the "clientele" on carnival gets.  The passengers on carnival were way  more friendly and it was far from a drunken party ship. Royal was more of a drunken party ship. One night there were 3 couples in the hot tub and the girls were at least topless on the guys laps, I think you get the idea.. . Crew members were walking by and watching,  even turning around to get a better look but did absolutely nothing about it. 

I think that's a bit unfair too. with the large cross-sections of life on all these ships, incidents are going to happen. Just because they happen on one line doesn't mean it doesn't happen else where or Carnival is immune to that behavior. In my experience older clientele have been the more aggressive, sort of me, me me mentality but again I'm generalizing     I have personally never seen any of the behavior described above. but I'm sure it happens across all lines. I think the hardest thing here is all these companies are so similar it's hard to have a favorite. I'd be easy if one really sucked bad and it was an easy choice on who to cruise on. I'm always torn between Carnival and Royal......maybe it's time to try Celebrity, Holland or Princess. 

[jbethel11]

I have 2 major complaints with RCCL:

 

Trundle Bed:

 

Whoever's idea this was, clearly must have not been thinking of space. Or maybe, they wanted to save money. Either way, the trundle bed offers no space to walk beside, to either go out onto the balcony or into the bathroom. At least Carnival, NCL and MSC have bunk beds, which is cool.

 

Curfew:

 

I know cruisers over 18 will swoon to this idea, however, I hate it. Maybe, that is because I am a younger cruiser, however, I feel as if this limits us to only having fun for 19 hours out of the day. I thought a cruise was geared towards having a 24/7 fun-time? I am a night owl, and love hanging out with certain teens from the Teen Clubs, so, Royal, which is the only cruise line that does this, restricts us, which is incredibly disappointing. 

Edited February 17, 2019 by jbethel11
Couple of typographical mistakes

[horsegal]

2 hours ago, Palmetto Pilot said:

 

I think that's a bit unfair too. with the large cross-sections of life on all these ships, incidents are going to happen. Just because they happen on one line doesn't mean it doesn't happen else where or Carnival is immune to that behavior. In my experience older clientele have been the more aggressive, sort of me, me me mentality but again I'm generalizing     I have personally never seen any of the behavior described above. but I'm sure it happens across all lines. I think the hardest thing here is all these companies are so similar it's hard to have a favorite. I'd be easy if one really sucked bad and it was an easy choice on who to cruise on. I'm always torn between Carnival and Royal......maybe it's time to try Celebrity, Holland or Princess. 

That was my point, so many people bash carnival for the "low class clientele" and drunken party atmosphere.  I was pointing out that I came across some pretty bad behavior on royal which many people claim has a better class of clientele on it. The hot tub was just one drunken incident we saw. There are many other reasons why we prefer carnival. Service is much friendlier,  food is better, and the price is much lower for a better experience then on royal.  Yes the entertainment on royal was really good and I feel like carnival could step up their game with the main shows. However for us carnival is a much better vacation especially for the price. 

[nhraformula00]

We enjoy both lines. Oasis class ships are amazing. Drinks on Royal are expensive compared with Carnival. 

[lcpagejr]

Just now, nhraformula00 said:

We enjoy both lines. Oasis class ships are amazing. Drinks on Royal are expensive compared with Carnival. 

 

Agree.. Thats why we always purchase beverage package.... Can't beat $44/day pp

[lcpagejr]

I've been a loyal Carnival cruiser since 2000....with only a few non carnival cruises in past 20 years. I have noticed continued cutbacks in staff and service ...especially in the past 5 years. Many of the "little things" have disappeared. I have not cruised on RCL since 2001. Will be taking a cruise on Adventure of Seas in April and will be doing a visual comparison....I am curious if RCL has cut back in similar areas as well.....

[KmomChicago]

Apparently I am the only person on Cruise Critic who cares, because I almost never see this in these debates, but one thing I really appreciate about Carnival is the self-service laundry onboard. No, I don't vacation just so I can do all of my normal at home chores.  I do exactly one load of laundry around the middle of the cruise, and this allows us to pack half as many casual clothes.  Which makes packing a lot easier in the first place, particularly if we are flying to port. 

 

As with others, I agree that once you have done Oasis class, if you loved it, you have to wonder if anything else will ever be good enough.  One thing that helps me is, I am not really a travel repeater, and I don't put my many vacations in competition with each other.  I think doing so sets me up for disappointment.  We are going on Adventure of the Seas in August after our last cruise being on Oasis and the two before being on aged Carnival ships.  AdOS really gets pretty good reviews overall, and I can't see any reason we won't enjoy it.  Because we are just simply inclined to enjoy vacation regardless. We are not limited to cruises and some vacations are better than others but we like them all.

 

I don't care how sloppy anyone looks on the ship; this is their vacation, but they have looked about the same on both lines.  There are some pretties and some not-so-pretties, some dressed-ups and some dressed-downs. People work hard, let them relax. I don't think we look all that great ourselves (sorry fellow cruisers).  However we do put on a clean shirt for dinner and we don't run around yelling at anyone or starting riots, and that's about all I ask of the other passengers.  I don't like chair hogs but I have given up that fight and it's the same issue on both lines.  If I want to go sit in a deck chair I just do it early in the morning.

 

As for crew, they were very good on both lines, but the fact is they are human and on every cruise I always see a few burnouts who clearly have had ENOUGH of this gig and would prefer never to speak to another passenger as long as they live.  But mostly they do their jobs courteously and cheerfully and are helpful and I have never been unable to get whatever we need from them.  Food for us was similar, we like it just fine on both lines.  As far as what's included and what add-ons are available, again similar for us and we try to minimize that sort of thing anyway.  We like the entertainment on both lines, and the kids/teen clubs.  The adult solarium is better on RC than the Serenity Deck on Carnival.

 

[rukkian]

8 hours ago, jbethel11 said:

I have 2 major complaints with RCCL:

 

Trundle Bed:

 

Whoever's idea this was, clearly must have not been thinking of space. Or maybe, they wanted to save money. Either way, the trundle bed offers no space to walk beside, to either go out onto the balcony or into the bathroom. At least Carnival, NCL and MSC have bunk beds, which is cool.

 

Curfew:

 

I know cruisers over 18 will swoon to this idea, however, I hate it. Maybe, that is because I am a younger cruiser, however, I feel as if this limits us to only having fun for 19 hours out of the day. I thought a cruise was geared towards having a 24/7 fun-time? I am a night owl, and love hanging out with certain teens from the Teen Clubs, so, Royal, which is the only cruise line that does this, restricts us, which is incredibly disappointing. 

Maybe it is the parent in me, but why would anybody under 18 need to be running around the ship unaccompanied after 1am?  You have to sleep at some point, why not do it while everybody else your age is supposed to be as well?

[kdawg954]

14 hours ago, NotTheBatesMotel said:

I haven't been on Magic, but I've sailed both of her sister ships (Dream and Breeze). I've sailed on Allure, and was prepared to never want to go back to smaller ships. I was so surprised to find the opposite. The Oasis class entertainment was excellent, but the food was gross unless you paid for specialty dining. It was also weird to me how I had to keep reminding myself I was on a cruise ship because there were so many places I just didn't see the water. 

The entertainment will not be as good on the Magic-so prepare yourself for that. It's the one thing that bugged me when going back to smaller ships. Everything else about other ships, though? Excellent. Less crowds, better food, better ocean views. Go into it with realistic expectations and you should still have a great time. 

 

Yep.  Allure entertainment was really good.  But my goodness was the “free food” disappointing.  There was not one memorable meal the entire week on the free side.  The two best things I ate during the week were the Dinner at Chops (very good) and the table side Guacamole at the Mexican paid venue.

 

The reason why people big up the roast beef sandwiches in central park is because the buffet and main dining is just not very good.

 

Every Carnival ship has been solid on the “free side” when it comes to food.

 

If you go on the Allure with the beverage package and the dining package . . . .you will find it tough to beat.  But the extra cost would likely pay for 3 Carnival cruises.

[Palmetto Pilot]

8 hours ago, lcpagejr said:

 

Agree.. Thats why we always purchase beverage package.... Can't beat $44/day pp

 

8 hours ago, lcpagejr said:

I've been a loyal Carnival cruiser since 2000....with only a few non carnival cruises in past 20 years. I have noticed continued cutbacks in staff and service ...especially in the past 5 years. Many of the "little things" have disappeared. I have not cruised on RCL since 2001. Will be taking a cruise on Adventure of Seas in April and will be doing a visual comparison....I am curious if RCL has cut back in similar areas as well.....

I love RCCLs ultimate drink and dining package can't be beat. I like the variety and selection of cocktails on Royal better as well. You'll notice cutbacks on Royal as well. That's the reason we made the switch to primarily sailing carnival.....better bang for the buck. 

[lcpagejr]

52 minutes ago, Palmetto Pilot said:

 

I love RCCLs ultimate drink and dining package can't be beat. I like the variety and selection of cocktails on Royal better as well. You'll notice cutbacks on Royal as well. That's the reason we made the switch to primarily sailing carnival.....better bang for the buck. 

I agree Carnivals pricing is cheaper... I may just be getting fatigued with sailing them constantly. Last year we cruised on MSc Seaside in their Yacht Club... Which blew us away.... A few months prior we cruised  on the Vista in a Havana cabin... Fantastic. Wife and I said we don't think we can cruise again on Carnival without Havana. However was not a big fan of Vista outside of Havana area.

 

Change of scenery is sometimes good... Looking forward to reacquaibtibg ourselves with RCL.... Been almost 20 years.

[klfrodo]

3 hours ago, rukkian said:

Maybe it is the parent in me, but why would anybody under 18 need to be running around the ship unaccompanied after 1am?  You have to sleep at some point, why not do it while everybody else your age is supposed to be as well?

 

I applaud the young person coming on here and feeling free to express their opinion in a nice and polite manner.

I'm not sure why you felt the obligation to try to chastise this individual for sharing their thoughts.

 

Maybe they might come back and express their amazement at your old drunk butt still up at 1AM making a fool of yourself trying to do the Bump.. Now that's bad and nobody wants to see that :0

[jbethel11]

4 hours ago, rukkian said:

Maybe it is the parent in me, but why would anybody under 18 need to be running around the ship unaccompanied after 1am?  You have to sleep at some point, why not do it while everybody else your age is supposed to be as well?

I see your point, however from my perspective, it feels like we are forced to not have fun. And after a while parents will make you come sleep, so I guess we go to sleep anyway.

[jbethel11]

15 minutes ago, klfrodo said:

 

I applaud the young person coming on here and feeling free to express their opinion in a nice and polite manner.

I'm not sure why you felt the obligation to try to chastise this individual for sharing their thoughts.

 

Maybe they might come back and express their amazement at your old drunk butt still up at 1AM making a fool of yourself trying to do the Bump.. Now that's bad and nobody wants to see that :0

Thanks for defending me! Actually, that reminds me of a story that I saw a drunk person that had wanted to take a picture with my group of friends around 2 AM. So, I see how that can be a safety issue, but there is a lot of security, so I guess we are technically safe.

[klfrodo]

3 minutes ago, jbethel11 said:

Thanks for defending me! Actually, that reminds me of a story that I saw a drunk person that had wanted to take a picture with my group of friends around 2 AM. So, I see how that can be a safety issue, but there is a lot of security, so I guess we are technically safe.

No problem. I just think kids get a bad rap these days.

Everybody over 40 thanks their lucky stars every day that social media and camera phones weren't around when we were kids.

[rukkian]

25 minutes ago, klfrodo said:

 

I applaud the young person coming on here and feeling free to express their opinion in a nice and polite manner.

I'm not sure why you felt the obligation to try to chastise this individual for sharing their thoughts.

 

Maybe they might come back and express their amazement at your old drunk butt still up at 1AM making a fool of yourself trying to do the Bump.. Now that's bad and nobody wants to see that :0

Where did I chastise him at all?  I simply stated my opinion that kids under 18 have no reason to be it after 1am.  The only person chastising is you, assuming I am a drunk.  Last cruise, I had one total alcoholic beverage in seven days and was never out past 11.  

 

Why does my opinion have any less value than anybody else?  I never said his opinion didn't matter, just that I don't agree.  That is not the same as chastising anybody.  

 

 

[wytygr8]

We’ve only been on one Royal Cruise, but the food was way worse in the MDR and the buffet. It was an older and smaller shop though, so we may try one of Royal’s bigger ships in the future, but not anytime soon.

 

Of course, since you’ve been on so many Royal, I’m sure you’re fine with their food. 😀

[jbethel11]

49 minutes ago, rukkian said:

Why does my opinion have any less value than anybody else?  I never said his opinion didn't matter, just that I don't agree.  That is not the same as chastising anybody.  

 

 

Okay, my apologies I did not realize your intentions. I agree with your opinion, and value it, since I’m sure when I become a parent, having a minor out past a certain time would concern me.

[schazzy]

5 hours ago, rukkian said:

Maybe it is the parent in me, but why would anybody under 18 need to be running around the ship unaccompanied after 1am?  You have to sleep at some point, why not do it while everybody else your age is supposed to be as well?

 

I see your point and my old "Get off my lawn!" self somewhat feels the same way now, but also I remember a hundred years ago when I was a teenager and what it was like. Did I NEED to be out running around after 1am? No. Did I do it anyways and had some very interesting experiences? Yes. If I could go back and do it again, I would in a heartbeat, weeeellllll, I might not do somethings again, but ya know...You're only young once. 

 

45 minutes ago, jbethel11 said:

Okay, my apologies I did not realize your intentions. I agree with your opinion, and value it, since I’m sure when I become a parent, having a minor out past a certain time would concern me.

 

And I'm glad you can see where we old folks are coming from, we only have your best interests at heart, but like Will Smith said "Parents just don't understand" 

 

[Palmetto Pilot]

3 hours ago, lcpagejr said:

I agree Carnivals pricing is cheaper... I may just be getting fatigued with sailing them constantly. Last year we cruised on MSc Seaside in their Yacht Club... Which blew us away.... A few months prior we cruised  on the Vista in a Havana cabin... Fantastic. Wife and I said we don't think we can cruise again on Carnival without Havana. However was not a big fan of Vista outside of Havana area.

 

Change of scenery is sometimes good... Looking forward to reacquaibtibg ourselves with RCL.... Been almost 20 years.

I agree, changing it up is necessary. I think our next trip will be NCL, Holland America or Celebrity....maybe even Virgin.  

[rukkian]

3 minutes ago, schazzy said:

 

I see your point and my old "Get off my lawn!" self somewhat feels the same way now, but also I remember a hundred years ago when I was a teenager and what it was like. Did I NEED to be out running around after 1am? No. Did I do it anyways and had some very interesting experiences? Yes. If I could go back and do it again, I would in a heartbeat, weeeellllll, I might not do somethings again, but ya know...You're only young once. 

 

 

And I'm glad you can see where we old folks are coming from, we only have your best interests at heart, but like Will Smith said "Parents just don't understand" 

 

I know it kind of had the get off my lawn feel, I am well aware I am getting old 😀.

[jbethel11]

5 minutes ago, Palmetto Pilot said:

I agree, changing it up is necessary. I think our next trip will be NCL, Holland America or Celebrity....maybe even Virgin.  

The only problem with NCL is that it is too expensive! 4200 for 4 people in a Balcony with Free 3rd and 4th Guests to Bermuda in the beginning of June? Really NCL?