Carnival after Celebrity?

[NCteacherlovescruising]

When we first started cruising we always sailed Carnival. Then we tried a few other lines and found we liked them a bit better. We haven’t sailed with Carnival for about 5 years now. We weren’t planning on cruising this year because we’re saving up for a big 30th anniversary cruise next summer with Celebrity in Spain, France and Italy. We are thinking about booking a last minute cruise for next month and considering price and itinerary we like the Carnival option the best. Celebrity pricing is crazy right now for the end of June!  I’ve heard they have stepped up their game. We’re looking at the Horizon. Have any of you went back to Carnival after sailing Celebrity and/or Royal and liked it?

[Essiesmom]

I mix my cruises up, opportunity…my last Celebrity was a 2 day in Jan 2019, got off the ship and went to Carnival for a further 8 days.  Did. 4 day Carnival last March and again this March.  I do have a Celebrity booked for June, and MSC for August.  Just accept that Carnival is busier than Celebrity.  Food is good, maybe not great.  It’s a bargain for me because I can drive 2 hours to the port.  Enjoy Carnival for what it is.  I don’t like the huge ships, so I haven’t sailed the Vista or Excel classes, nor do I plan to.  EM

[RichYak]

If you like the price and itinerary, I say do it for sure. I enjoyed Carnival in the Mediterranean last summer. You may even find some things that Carnival does better than Celebrity, particularly if you like to enjoy a good hamburger. 

[kwokpot]

2 hours ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

When we first started cruising we always sailed Carnival. Then we tried a few other lines and found we liked them a bit better. We haven’t sailed with Carnival for about 5 years now. We weren’t planning on cruising this year because we’re saving up for a big 30th anniversary cruise next summer with Celebrity in Spain, France and Italy. We are thinking about booking a last minute cruise for next month and considering price and itinerary we like the Carnival option the best. Celebrity pricing is crazy right now for the end of June!  I’ve heard they have stepped up their game. We’re looking at the Horizon. Have any of you went back to Carnival after sailing Celebrity and/or Royal and liked it?

Are you saying you've heard Carnival has recently stepped up their game as compared when you last sailed them five years ago? Where did you heard that? DEFINITELY NOT THE CASE. If anything,it's the opposite. It's gotten WORSE as compared to five years ago. Cutbacks galore. Food quality down. Food venue hours shorten. Carnival's buffet so below anything Celebrity offers. Cabin service only 1x/day. I enjoy both Celebrity and Carnival, but they are two totally different lines with totally different experiences. BTW, I'm Elite+ with 24 cruises and Diamond with 26 cruises so I cruise both lines. Just go in with an open mind. It's a BASIC cruise experience. Carnival excels in the variety of complementary lunchtime food venues and the casino experience and Comedy Club offerings. Celebrity is for everything else. 

[prmssk]

Go in with accurate expectations and you will have a great time. We really enjoyed our cruise on the Ecstasy last September just before she was scrapped. And we are considering the Mardi Gras for a family cruise.

[NCteacherlovescruising]

Now were also looking at MSC yacht club.  This is what I want, trying to convince the hubby.

[kwokpot]

1 minute ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

Now were also looking at MSC yacht club.  This is what I want, trying to convince the hubby.

You're looking on both ends of the spectrum. What types of cabins are you looking at on Carnival vs Yacht Club? MSC's ships are beautiful and are worlds above anything Carnival offers, even besting their Excel class ships (MardiGras, Celebration) I haven't done Yacht Club but that will give you the better dining experience and some more exclusive areas. MSC has great spas and gyms. 

[NCteacherlovescruising]

32 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

You're looking on both ends of the spectrum. What types of cabins are you looking at on Carnival vs Yacht Club? MSC's ships are beautiful and are worlds above anything Carnival offers, even besting their Excel class ships (MardiGras, Celebration) I haven't done Yacht Club but that will give you the better dining experience and some more exclusive areas. MSC has great spas and gyms. 

Yes, both ends of the spectrum but we are looking at a specific week next month so options are limited. Surprisingly, we are comparing a Carnival Havana interior verses MSC yacht club balcony.  Obviously, the MSC option is more but not as much as I would have guessed. We’ve never sailed MSC before.  

[RichYak]

1 hour ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

Now were also looking at MSC yacht club.  This is what I want, trying to convince the hubby.

Well this took an unexpected turn. When you inevitably choose MSC, please let us know how you enjoyed it. 

[Vagabond Knight]

I always say that with Carnival, it depends heavily upon the length of the cruise, the itinerary and the time of the year.  In addition to the food and service, the other guests on the ship will also set the mood and affect your satisfaction with the voyage.  This is probably the case more so with Carnival because they have so many short Caribbean cruises.  With the short cruises, you have many groups of people intent on doing nothing but drinking and partying... groups of friends looking to "let loose" for a few days, bachelor parties, bachelorette parties, and spring breakers. However, take Carnival for seven days or more, with a non-Caribbean itinerary, and especially when schools/colleges are back in session after a break or heading towards a break when students can't really take off due to exams, and you'll probably see a much different crowd.  This obviously won't affect food and service, but I'll bet the experience will be a whole lot better.  Of course, some would consider themselves "too cool" to ever admit that a Carnival Cruise might actually be good, but we've had great times both on Celebrity AND on Carnival.

[Ellaleah]

I cruised on the Carnival Celebration with my grandchildren over New Year’s Eve.  Nice, huge ship that offers lots of food variety.  It was great for what it was, but I can’t imagine going on a Carnival without taking kids.  They are not good at any special requests as they profess to be.  The service was lacking.  

[NCteacherlovescruising]

8 hours ago, RichYak said:

Well this took an unexpected turn. When you inevitably choose MSC, please let us know how you enjoyed it. 

I had never considered MSC until a friend of mine mentioned them. I just never think of them. I was super excited after watching videos of their yacht club, but my husband is being pretty strict about our budget. I understand why. We have a 30th anniversary Mediterranean cruise planned for next summer with Celebrity. It’s our first suite with them and we were planning on a couple days before in Barcelona and several days on land after to explore Italy. So a huge budget and we weren’t planning on any cruises this summer so we could apply the savings to that. Then I said, how about a cheap cruise this summer while we’re already in Florida visiting your brother and now here we are…lol Have you sailed MSC?  

8 hours ago, Vagabond Knight said:

I always say that with Carnival, it depends heavily upon the length of the cruise, the itinerary and the time of the year.  In addition to the food and service, the other guests on the ship will also set the mood and affect your satisfaction with the voyage.  This is probably the case more so with Carnival because they have so many short Caribbean cruises.  With the short cruises, you have many groups of people intent on doing nothing but drinking and partying... groups of friends looking to "let loose" for a few days, bachelor parties, bachelorette parties, and spring breakers. However, take Carnival for seven days or more, with a non-Caribbean itinerary, and especially when schools/colleges are back in session after a break or heading towards a break when students can't really take off due to exams, and you'll probably see a much different crowd.  This obviously won't affect food and service, but I'll bet the experience will be a whole lot better.  Of course, some would consider themselves "too cool" to ever admit that a Carnival Cruise might actually be good, but we've had great times both on Celebrity AND on Carnival.

It’s an 8 day cruise. We love the itinerary because it has 3 ports we’ve never been to.  I’m a teacher so cruising while school is out is my only option. I’m familiar with the rowdy groups on Carnival. We’re hoping to avoid them in the Havana area. I was on Celebrity in December and the food wasn’t as good as our previous cruise. I never had any issues with Carnivals food. I eat pretty simple and clean, protein and veggies so I’m easy to please.
 

5 hours ago, Ellaleah said:

I cruised on the Carnival Celebration with my grandchildren over New Year’s Eve.  Nice, huge ship that offers lots of food variety.  It was great for what it was, but I can’t imagine going on a Carnival without taking kids.  They are not good at any special requests as they profess to be.  The service was lacking.  

 

We enjoyed all our Carnival cruises, not knowing what we were missing until venturing out to other lines. With that said, I wouldn’t expect it to live up to our Celebrity or Royal experiences, but would we still enjoy ourselves?  Probably. 

[broadwaybaby123]

I find Carnival to be a bit uneven with their service.  I started off cruising with Celebrity....30 cruises ago.  After a few cruises with Celebrity and Royal, I tried Carnival Holiday.  I HATED it, even at 8 years old.  It was a floating Las Vegas.

 

After that, I went on a few more Celebrity and Royal cruises before trying Carnival Triumph.  I LOVED it!  They were making great strides in Customer Service and the crew was fantastic!

 

More years passed, along with more Celebrity and Royal cruises.  Finally, I decided to try Carnival Pride.  I HATED it with all the dark hallways, trash everywhere, unmarked ramps, etc.

 

Now I'm trying Carnival Venezia next year after having gone on Celebrity and Royal for 5 years.  Although I'm beyond excited to try a brand-new ship, I'm a bit apprehensive with it being a Carnival and Costa ship.  As you can tell. my record with Carnival isn't exactly stellar, and (with the exception of food), my experience on Costa was atrocious, to put it mildly.  Since this is a new venture for both lines, I'm hopeful that they've made strides on the areas they were lacking in the past (namely the language issue for Costa....each announcement was made in 7 languages with English....which MOST PEOPLE ON THE SHIP SPOKE, was always last!) have improved.

[kwokpot]

24 minutes ago, broadwaybaby123 said:

I find Carnival to be a bit uneven with their service.  I started off cruising with Celebrity....30 cruises ago.  After a few cruises with Celebrity and Royal, I tried Carnival Holiday.  I HATED it, even at 8 years old.  It was a floating Las Vegas.

 

After that, I went on a few more Celebrity and Royal cruises before trying Carnival Triumph.  I LOVED it!  They were making great strides in Customer Service and the crew was fantastic!

 

More years passed, along with more Celebrity and Royal cruises.  Finally, I decided to try Carnival Pride.  I HATED it with all the dark hallways, trash everywhere, unmarked ramps, etc.

 

Now I'm trying Carnival Venezia next year after having gone on Celebrity and Royal for 5 years.  Although I'm beyond excited to try a brand-new ship, I'm a bit apprehensive with it being a Carnival and Costa ship.  As you can tell. my record with Carnival isn't exactly stellar, and (with the exception of food), my experience on Costa was atrocious, to put it mildly.  Since this is a new venture for both lines, I'm hopeful that they've made strides on the areas they were lacking in the past (namely the language issue for Costa....each announcement was made in 7 languages with English....which MOST PEOPLE ON THE SHIP SPOKE, was always last!) have improved.

Besides being built for Costa for the Chinese market, Costa no longer has ANYTHING TO DO with the Venezia. It is now A CARNIVAL SHIP. Carnival cruiseline owns and operates the ship. Costa, isn't staffing it, catering it, programming it. What CARNIVAL is claiming to do is change up some of the programming and food offerings to pay homage and take  advantage of the ship's origins. But CARNIVAL will be creating the new restaurant concepts and entertainment concepts not COSTA. I've seen this misconception in various social media sites regarding the Venezia and I'm not quite sure where this misinformation came from. It's not and never was a joint venture with the Carnival and Costa brands. 

[broadwaybaby123]

2 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

Besides being built for Costa for the Chinese market, Costa no longer has ANYTHING TO DO with the Venezia. It is now A CARNIVAL SHIP. Carnival cruiseline owns and operates the ship. Costa, isn't staffing it, catering it, programming it. What CARNIVAL is claiming to do is change up some of the programming and food offerings to pay homage and take  advantage of the ship's origins. But CARNIVAL will be creating the new restaurant concepts and entertainment concepts not COSTA. I've seen this misconception in various social media sites regarding the Venezia and I'm not quite sure where this misinformation came from. It's not and never was a joint venture with the Carnival and Costa brands. 

Yes but Costa is a subsidy of Carnival. It's not a misconception.

Edited May 13, 2023 by broadwaybaby123

[PTC DAWG]

11 hours ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

Now were also looking at MSC yacht club.  This is what I want, trying to convince the hubby.

This I have done, highly recommended. Husband needs to step up. 🙂 I should know..I did it for my Wife. 

Edited May 13, 2023 by PTC DAWG

[kwokpot]

7 minutes ago, broadwaybaby123 said:

Yes but Costa is a subsidy of Carnival. It's not a misconception.

Subsidiary of Carnival Corporation. They are independent brands , just like Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, which are both owned by Royal Caribbean. Carnival Corporation also Cunard and Seaborn but obviously those brands have no influence on the Carnival brand. Same with Carnival and Costa. 

[LuckyStar]

I mix up my cruises too.  I cruise based on itinerary and price.  There are definitely more kids on Carnival, even in off season times, so I try to work around that if possible.  I personally love the Vista class of ships since we have enjoyed the Havana area.  The Venezia has a new Italian theme versus Cuban theme that I think might be fun but I think they are strictly out of NY.  

[NCteacherlovescruising]

16 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

This I have done, highly recommended. Husband needs to step up. 🙂 I should know..I did it for my Wife. 

I read him your response. He wants to know if you took her to Europe the following summer too. Lol Please say yes!!  

[Tyler414]

12 hours ago, kwokpot said:

 Carnival's buffet so below anything Celebrity offers. 

Never cruised Carnival, probably never will, but I was on Celebrity Beyond in January (current "flagship") and the buffet was an absolute joke. 2/3 of the stations were empty for evening dinning. 

[kwokpot]

4 minutes ago, Tyler414 said:

Never cruised Carnival, probably never will, but I was on Celebrity Beyond in January (current "flagship") and the buffet was an absolute joke. 2/3 of the stations were empty for evening dinning. 

The reduced offerings at Celebrity's buffet for dinner, which has since been reversed fleetwide, was STILL better than what Carnival offers at its buffet during dinner time. I Have been on both the Beyond and Celebration, the flagships of both cruiselines, so I speak from experience. 

[NCteacherlovescruising]

18 hours ago, RichYak said:

Well this took an unexpected turn. When you inevitably choose MSC, please let us know how you enjoyed it. 

Will do in a few weeks. 🙂

[NCteacherlovescruising]

8 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

This I have done, highly recommended. Husband needs to step up. 🙂 I should know..I did it for my Wife. 

He did!

[RichYak]

2 hours ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

Will do in a few weeks. 🙂

I knew it was inevitable. Enjoy!

[HWC_Mom]

We had only sailed with Celebrity and then decided Carnival was so cheap might as well give it a try.  While Carnival is fine Celebrity is more comfy for us. It's like the difference between a chain restaurant and fine dining. You know you'll have a fine meal but you won't leave thinking wow that was amazing.  Although I did enjoy the pint sized margarita and we do enjoy the Guy Fieri burgers on Carnival.  We will be cruise Celebrity in June for my 50th birthday.  For any special events Celebrity is the way to but for a cruise that is simply fine, gets you away Carnival ain't that bad, although there was a screaming match and fight in the main dining room the last night on our last Carnival cruise.   So there's dinner theatre 😂