Carnival and RCCL - Differences?

[BNBR]

12 hours ago, handbellplayer said:

I am also very much a rule follower, but this girl could easily pass for 21 and she would be very quiet and calm.  It would just be very cool for her, her aunt (my DIL) and her Nana (me) to be able to spend a little girl time together.

 

Take her to serenity. You'll be fine. They aren't exactly standing around carding people. 

[KmomChicago]

I'm a little late to this party so mostly throwing in support votes . . .

 

1. Try to bring the 18 year old into Serenity with you, have her act like an adult, and if challenged, nicely try to claim you misunderstood "because 18 is an adult" and leave without a fuss if they kick you out.  The point of Serenity decks is really to be away from obnoxious littles and teens, not to avoid calm, mature human people of voting age. "Eeek! A beautiful quiet young lithe person rocking a bikini is next to me!"

 

2. For your 3 year old, echo all the pro-Seuss stuff and kids club stuff.  Carnival and kids go together.  Watch Fun Times for all the activities and do them. Book the character breakfast as soon as you board, and if there is another sea day besides that one, go to the regular brunch. Filet and eggs at the brunch is a favorite hack for me since filet is an upcharge in the MDR.

 

3. I suppose Carnival's clientele is very slightly downscale from RC, but as others have suggested, I think it's more that everyone on Carnival has more of a downscale attitude, not judging each other, super laid back.  There is a slightly superior attitude aboard RC.  You really have to be looking and paying attention to notice these differences though.  I wouldn't tune into it myself if I hadn't read so many posts about the "differences" between the lines, many disparaging Carnival in favor of its closest rival.

 

4. I LOVE the self service laundry on Carnival.  Pack less, wear things a couple of times, don't have to go home with suitcases full of filthy laundry, iron things yourself easily.

 

5. Service quality overall on both lines is excellent - my most recent cabin steward on RC was better than my last steward on Carnival but more or less identical to the previous Carnival.  Though they strive for consistency, these people are  individuals. 

 

We do prefer the "Fun Squad" and the Cruise Directors on Carnival.  They just seem more into the fun in our experience. On RC our CD was more of a suited up manager who occasionally appeared and made a couple of formal welcoming statements. On Carnival that person goes nuts with the passengers and shows up all over the place. 

 

On every cruise over the years, I have seen a couple of crew who look like they are ready to jump overboard if they ever have to deal with another passenger, and dozens or hundreds who are running around trying to do whatever possible to make us all happy.  Guess which ones I approach?

 

Last thoughts - have fun and enjoy the incredible convenience of driving straight to port without a flight.  My bet is you'll all want to come back and do it again.

 

 

[grandmarnnurse]

4 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

I'm a little late to this party so mostly throwing in support votes . . .

 

1. Try to bring the 18 year old into Serenity with you, have her act like an adult, and if challenged, nicely try to claim you misunderstood "because 18 is an adult" and leave without a fuss if they kick you out.  The point of Serenity decks is really to be away from obnoxious littles and teens, not to avoid calm, mature human people of voting age. "Eeek! A beautiful quiet young lithe person rocking a bikini is next to me!"

 

2. For your 3 year old, echo all the pro-Seuss stuff and kids club stuff.  Carnival and kids go together.  Watch Fun Times for all the activities and do them. Book the character breakfast as soon as you board, and if there is another sea day besides that one, go to the regular brunch. Filet and eggs at the brunch is a favorite hack for me since filet is an upcharge in the MDR.

 

3. I suppose Carnival's clientele is very slightly downscale from RC, but as others have suggested, I think it's more that everyone on Carnival has more of a downscale attitude, not judging each other, super laid back.  There is a slightly superior attitude aboard RC.  You really have to be looking and paying attention to notice these differences though.  I wouldn't tune into it myself if I hadn't read so many posts about the "differences" between the lines, many disparaging Carnival in favor of its closest rival.

 

4. I LOVE the self service laundry on Carnival.  Pack less, wear things a couple of times, don't have to go home with suitcases full of filthy laundry, iron things yourself easily.

 

5. Service quality overall on both lines is excellent - my most recent cabin steward on RC was better than my last steward on Carnival but more or less identical to the previous Carnival.  Though they strive for consistency, these people are  individuals. 

 

We do prefer the "Fun Squad" and the Cruise Directors on Carnival.  They just seem more into the fun in our experience. On RC our CD was more of a suited up manager who occasionally appeared and made a couple of formal welcoming statements. On Carnival that person goes nuts with the passengers and shows up all over the place. 

 

On every cruise over the years, I have seen a couple of crew who look like they are ready to jump overboard if they ever have to deal with another passenger, and dozens or hundreds who are running around trying to do whatever possible to make us all happy.  Guess which ones I approach?

 

Last thoughts - have fun and enjoy the incredible convenience of driving straight to port without a flight.  My bet is you'll all want to come back and do it again.

 

 

As I also said in my earlier comments, we agree that Carnival is just way more fun. I agree about the CDs out there drumming up the fun everywhere on Carnival. On our last NCL Cruise, we never even saw a CD, only the assistant CD. RCCL was slightly better with this, but Carnival is the best. We had so much fun, were pretty much convinced to stick with Carnival, and we are senior citizens! 

[A2Mich]

On 4/5/2019 at 4:15 PM, JaniceB said:

Don't have any dining plans to purchase, don't have to make reservations for shows, no sales on drink packages except per purchase has a discount, photo package on Carnival in nothing like RCCL and more free dining choices on Carnival.

 

We are booked on Harmony of the Seas, as we liked RCI, and wanted to see what the Oasis class ships are like, and have been reading recent Cruise Compasses, and there are so many options for things to do, that I’m not sure when we will have time to relax and enjoy our balcony. The major shows, and even the comedy shows require reservations, and it seems, as expected, these same shows overlap other things that I feel I would enjoy.  My issue with this is having to book reservations in advance of the cruise, and then missing many other things that interest me because I had to keep a reservation time.

[cruise_mojo]

when we sailed Oasis two years ago at Halloween we booked the comedy show and their lounge for that ony holds maybe 125 people, maybe a few more 

 

so we went to the show and had a fine time, BUT that was IT! they had that one comedian and I guess he could just repeat the same show if he wanted cause you coulndt make any more reservations for comedy A-tall! now you could go down to the venue lobby where coinkidinkily I think three other venues share the same lobby and people start lining up for shows before their times 

 

( if you are reserved you don't need to line up but if you are standing by you do )   So, it seemed hardly worth it to even try so see another comedy event not knowing if the guy would vary his routine much 

 

I'm not complaining, but just saying that the comedy thing would be one of Carnival's strongest points. Unless you don't like the comedians! 😉  And believe me, when they say adult comedy some are way more adult than others but to each his own. 

 

ken

[BNBR]

58 minutes ago, A2Mich said:

 

We are booked on Harmony of the Seas, as we liked RCI, and wanted to see what the Oasis class ships are like, and have been reading recent Cruise Compasses, and there are so many options for things to do, that I’m not sure when we will have time to relax and enjoy our balcony. The major shows, and even the comedy shows require reservations, and it seems, as expected, these same shows overlap other things that I feel I would enjoy.  My issue with this is having to book reservations in advance of the cruise, and then missing many other things that interest me because I had to keep a reservation time.

 

The shows overlap on purpose. Else everyone would be at the same show. It's part of the what makes the ship so great, how they spread crowds. But there are multiple shows. 

 

We find that when making reservations, it ends up being obvious based on dinner time and other shows.  I don't feel locked down because it's the only time that makes sense anyways, and great to have a reservation so you can walk in and get great seats. So you just reserve the ones that are almost certainly going to work with your schedule and enjoy. 

[BNBR]

31 minutes ago, cruise_mojo said:

when we sailed Oasis two years ago at Halloween we booked the comedy show and their lounge for that ony holds maybe 125 people, maybe a few more 

 

so we went to the show and had a fine time, BUT that was IT! they had that one comedian and I guess he could just repeat the same show if he wanted cause you coulndt make any more reservations for comedy A-tall! now you could go down to the venue lobby where coinkidinkily I think three other venues share the same lobby and people start lining up for shows before their times 

 

( if you are reserved you don't need to line up but if you are standing by you do )   So, it seemed hardly worth it to even try so see another comedy event not knowing if the guy would vary his routine much 

 

I'm not complaining, but just saying that the comedy thing would be one of Carnival's strongest points. Unless you don't like the comedians! 😉  And believe me, when they say adult comedy some are way more adult than others but to each his own. 

 

ken

 

Harmony and Symphony have a much larger comedy club and a lot of shows. We found on Harmony the club could often take all the walk-ins.  

 

They also do a family and adult show in the main theater on Oasis class last night of cruise.  Huge venue and easy to get seats. 

[cruise_mojo]

good to know thanks! we are on Harmony this Halloween! 

 

we like Oasis OK, we are not super mobile and when we got off we were so tired we didn't think we'd ever  book that big a ship again but you know how it goes.....

 

the longer the time you have to think about things and relax - the more you realize how much you enjoyed it!

 

still I think I like freedom of the seas a bit better but, Harmony is the ship in cape C at Halloween doing a 7 nighter and that's what we are sailing on! woo woo! 💀

 

and I'm telling you it was quite the show seeing the main street all decked out and the parade of halloweenies on the evening that day! 

[A2Mich]

1 hour ago, BNBR said:

 

The shows overlap on purpose. Else everyone would be at the same show. It's part of the what makes the ship so great, how they spread crowds. But there are multiple shows. 

 

We find that when making reservations, it ends up being obvious based on dinner time and other shows.  I don't feel locked down because it's the only time that makes sense anyways, and great to have a reservation so you can walk in and get great seats. So you just reserve the ones that are almost certainly going to work with your schedule and enjoy. 

 

 

I understand that, but some things appear to be offered only once, though the headliner shows and AquaTheater shows are shown multiple times throughout the week.  Point being that it would just be disappointing to miss something that won’t be offered again, because I was already committed to a reservation.  At any rate, we’ll see what we think.  We’ve been talking about booking another Carnival Cruise after Harmony, hence the reason I’m over here. Their Vista class ships look pretty nice, and it seems like what used to called Cove balcony cabins are now the Family Harbor Suites.

[JaniceB]

17 hours ago, A2Mich said:

 

We are booked on Harmony of the Seas, as we liked RCI, and wanted to see what the Oasis class ships are like, and have been reading recent Cruise Compasses, and there are so many options for things to do, that I’m not sure when we will have time to relax and enjoy our balcony. The major shows, and even the comedy shows require reservations, and it seems, as expected, these same shows overlap other things that I feel I would enjoy.  My issue with this is having to book reservations in advance of the cruise, and then missing many other things that interest me because I had to keep a reservation time.

I was not happy with these things when I booked the Oasis, but it all worked out in the end.  I did not book an ocean view but one of the last boardwalk balconies so we had a view of the water and the aqua show from our balcony on the Oasis of the Seas.  I am not sure how that works on the ships with slides.  I looked at prior cruise compasses and booked meals and shows around things I knew we would want to see.  We also booked early dining because we had kids with us and the kids club collects them at a certain time during dinner.  They really liked that. 

 

I forgot about having laundry and irons if needed on Carnival and the comedy clubs on Carnival are the best.

[A2Mich]

7 hours ago, JaniceB said:

I was not happy with these things when I booked the Oasis, but it all worked out in the end.  I did not book an ocean view but one of the last boardwalk balconies so we had a view of the water and the aqua show from our balcony on the Oasis of the Seas.  I am not sure how that works on the ships with slides.  I looked at prior cruise compasses and booked meals and shows around things I knew we would want to see.  We also booked early dining because we had kids with us and the kids club collects them at a certain time during dinner.  They really liked that. 

 

I forgot about having laundry and irons if needed on Carnival and the comedy clubs on Carnival are the best.

 

I downloaded a 7 day cruise worth of Cruise Compasses, and will have to make our a list of what interests us that we absolutely want to do.  I’m sure it will work out in the end, it just seems rather overwhelming, having never been on this size ship before.  Largest ship we have been on was Freedom of the Seas, and had a wonderful time.  The Vista class ships and the newer class (can’t recall the name of them off hand) look rather appealing, and we may very well look into booking one, or possibly NCL, depending on pricing.

[BNBR]

4 minutes ago, A2Mich said:

 

I downloaded a 7 day cruise worth of Cruise Compasses, and will have to make our a list of what interests us that we absolutely want to do.  I’m sure it will work out in the end, it just seems rather overwhelming, having never been on this size ship before.  Largest ship we have been on was Freedom of the Seas, and had a wonderful time.  The Vista class ships and the newer class (can’t recall the name of them off hand) look rather appealing, and we may very well look into booking one, or possibly NCL, depending on pricing.

 

You book reservations on your cruise planner. Give it a try. Just hop on and look up all the shows under entertainment.  You will quickly put it together... "this time overlaps with dinner"... "this time overlaps with other show", etc.  You end up with a pretty easy process of booking the shows that make the most sense. It's not as overwhelming as you think. We had no problem booking every show available and making it to everything with no stress at all.  Took us 10 minutes. 

[A2Mich]

55 minutes ago, BNBR said:

 

You book reservations on your cruise planner. Give it a try. Just hop on and look up all the shows under entertainment.  You will quickly put it together... "this time overlaps with dinner"... "this time overlaps with other show", etc.  You end up with a pretty easy process of booking the shows that make the most sense. It's not as overwhelming as you think. We had no problem booking every show available and making it to everything with no stress at all.  Took us 10 minutes. 

 

Thanks for the reassurance. We are still too far out yet for much to show up.  No entertainment reservations available yet—only a handful of options for dining packages and about a dozen shore excursions.  Will keep checking, though.

[SandiLynn]

On 4/6/2019 at 4:54 PM, 30scruiser said:

Also, I am generally a rule follower but I don’t think anyone would notice or care if an 18 year old is in Serenity as long as she’s not with a group of teenagers or acting obnoxiously. 

 I agree completely. I love the Serenity area because it does not let rowdy loud groups of children in the area. I would not notice an 18 year old lounging.

[krispi]

We took our 3 year old on the Sunshine last September, and she loved it! This was also my first cruise that wasn't on Royal Caribbean (and first cruise with a kid), but my previous cruises were on Majesty of the Seas in 2008 and Navigator of the Seas in 2011, so I know Royal has made big changes since then. Our daughter's favorite part of the ship was the Waterworks area. She loved the water slides for little kids. The main pool and Serenity pool did seem pretty crowded on sea days, but there was plenty of space for her to play at Waterworks. There's also a playground near the Waterworks area that the kids club uses sometimes, or you can use on your own when it's not in use by the club. We did take our daughter to the kids club a couple of evenings after dinner so we could try to enjoy some of the entertainment on board the ship. She loves being with mommy and daddy, so it was hit or miss whether she wanted to stay, but my niece and nephew spent a lot of time there, and they seemed to do great with the kids.

I enjoyed the variety of entertainment that Carnival has in the evenings. We could go to a comedy show, go to the piano bar, or sit in the Ocean Plaza and listen to live music. The main show times were hard to catch between dinner ending and the kids club hours, so we didn't really get to see much of those. The comedians that we saw were good, though.

I also enjoyed the variety of lunch options. Beside the buffet, there were Guy's burgers and Blue Iguana by the pool and the pasta and wok stations by the buffet. The wok line was always long, so I didn't get to try that. But it was very convenient to get a burger and a drink by the pool and get back to where my daughter was playing. We ate dinner as an extended family in the main dining room every night, so I didn't try any of the specialty options for dinner.

There were a few downsides compared to Royal. I thought the boat was harder to navigate, with not being able to walk through deck 3. It took a while to learn which elevators go where. We sailed right before dry dock, and I also noticed a lot of areas on the boat that needed maintenance. It also seemed like there was a lot more motion than I'd experienced before for the first day and a half, but it was smooth sailing after that. Overall, it was a great cruise and very family friendly. I would give Carnival another try in the future. In fact, my brother and my parents, who went with us, have already booked another trip on the Breeze for next year; the timing just didn't work for us.

[cwb348]

May want to do some research about the specific room you're in - not all of them have a refrigerator! The original rooms before the re-do do not. You can bring a cooler (up to 12x12) and the room steward will keep it filled with ice for you (as well as the ice bucket). We kept our sodas and water bottles in here. Hard sided cooler works best - the others always leak and should be stored in the shower

[grandmarnnurse]

39 minutes ago, cwb348 said:

May want to do some research about the specific room you're in - not all of them have a refrigerator! The original rooms before the re-do do not. You can bring a cooler (up to 12x12) and the room steward will keep it filled with ice for you (as well as the ice bucket). We kept our sodas and water bottles in here. Hard sided cooler works best - the others always leak and should be stored in the shower

I better have a refrigerator in my inside cabin on the Magic! I ordered beer and water, and will be bringing on soda and wine. I had one in my inside cabin on the Breeze, and just assumed there would be one in my cabin on the Magic.

[jimbo5544]

2 hours ago, grandmarnnurse said:

I better have a refrigerator in my inside cabin on the Magic! I ordered beer and water, and will be bringing on soda and wine. I had one in my inside cabin on the Breeze, and just assumed there would be one in my cabin on the Magic.

All cabins on Breeze and Magic (as well as the third in the class Dream) have the mini fridges.

[cwb348]

It's only the Sunshine that doesn't have refrigerators in some rooms. And you will love the two story Serenity deck! We would often watch the movie at night from a clamshell on the first floor of the Serenity.