Just Cheated on Royal

[RoyalFan2011]

My favorite place is on a cruise ship and it has always been on Royal Caribbean.  Last Sunday I stepped on the Carnival Celebration and really felt like I was cheating on Royal.  I wasn’t sure what differences I would fine, but was surprised by some and thought I would share them.

 

* Carnival doesn’t require anyone to wash their hands before eating.  They only had 2 sinks in the front entrance of their buffet area.  My immediate reaction was, this is nice since there wasn’t a line to wash my hands.  I do wish more people would have used the sinks or Carnival would have offered hand sanitizers. 

 

* I enjoyed the variety of free food options that Carnival options.  But the Windjammer on Royal has many more food options/stations.  The main dinning options were very similar, but Royal has much better dessert options.

 

* Carnival has at least 3 self serve ice cream machines that are option until at least midnight.  This was awesome!

 

* No fresh squeezed orange juice on Carnival (was told the machine was broken at the Havana Bar).  The had pressed juice options, but I missed this so much.

 

* I love that Royal offers the Royal Replenish beverage options that includes juices and non alcoholic frozen drinks.  Carnival has the soda or alcohol package, they really need a 3rd middle option.

 

* I have never seen bartenders (not sure what to call them) in the main dining room going around every night on Royal selling shots.  I was not impressed by this.

 

* Carnival does not require reservations for onboard entertainment, you might have to get to the venue earlier than Royal, but you can plan your day that day, not months in advance.  I also loved that they had a new Comedian on board every night, we never had issues getting seats.

 

* I liked how Carnival had pools on multiple floors both in the front and back of the ship.

 

* I don’t ever remember seeing armed (could have been tazers, I never asked) secruity guards on Royal but they were everywhere on Carnival.  This did not make me feel safe, but once I saw how hard they sold shots it made more sense, 

 

* Employees on Royal care more about the guests and the guest experience.   I saw multiple Carnival employees argue in front of guests, ignore quests, and be rude to each other and guests.  That was the most surprising thing of the week.  

 

Being on a cruise is always going to be my favorite place and I’m happy we tried a different line.  It was good to see the differences.

 

My next cruise will be in January and I’m looking forward being back on Royal!

[Jasukkie]

I was one and probably done on Carnival myself. I do think they do a great job with quick eats so I will give them that over Royal, actually by a lot. Just not my vibe on the whole. 

[ajtaylor29]

We are definitely loyal to Royal, but we started years ago on Carnival and still have no problem booking with them if the right itinerary comes up! Maybe once a year, we book Carnival to go to Alaska, or Europe, and are fine with them. For longer cruises, and not during spring break or summer months, we enjoy Carnival.

We're also going to try Celebrity next year, and are considering MSC (hopefully in the yacht club!).

Every cruise is different, and every cruise is great in my book! So, i do enjoy occasionally trying a different cruiseline.....but always come back to Royal the majority of our cruises!

[orville99]

Compared to what we are seeing booking on Royal lately, Carnival may be upscale in comparison. Royal should name their next ship Trailer Park of the Seas.😱

[rakaia]

11 minutes ago, ajtaylor29 said:

We are definitely loyal to Royal, but we started years ago on Carnival and still have no problem booking with them if the right itinerary comes up! Maybe once a year, we book Carnival to go to Alaska, or Europe, and are fine with them. For longer cruises, and not during spring break or summer months, we enjoy Carnival.

We're also going to try Celebrity next year, and are considering MSC (hopefully in the yacht club!).

Every cruise is different, and every cruise is great in my book! So, i do enjoy occasionally trying a different cruiseline.....but always come back to Royal the majority of our cruises!

 

 

We cheated on Royal with MSC and honestly loved it. I hear great things about the Yacht Club; we didn't do that but I must say we still really enjoyed our cruise (we did book the Aurea experience for a few more perks...totally worth it!). I'd highly recommend giving them a shot. We liked them so much we booked a few more! 

We still love Royal (next sailing on Liberty in Aug!) but found MSC to be a great alternative. 

[Anton]

1 hour ago, RoyalFan2011 said:

 

* I have never seen bartenders (not sure what to call them) in the main dining room going around every night on Royal selling shots.  I was not impressed by this.

 

 

Royal Caribbean used to do this with souvenir shot glasses you kept.

 

[time4u2go]

1 hour ago, RoyalFan2011 said:

Carnival doesn’t require anyone to wash their hands before eating.

To be fair, neither does RC.

[RobInMN]

19 minutes ago, Anton said:

Royal Caribbean used to do this with souvenir shot glasses you kept.

 

You can request them, but I haven't seen them do it automatically since pre-COVID. They still use souvenir glasses. The bar staff person made it sound like you had the option of paying more to keep the glass. We used a D+ voucher so got to kept it.

 

[soremekun]

I'm probably done with Carnival after my next Carnival cruise.  I only booked my next Carnival cruise because I wanted to compare CocoCay with Celebration Key.

 

Not being able to use wifi-calling and VPNs are near dealbreakers for me.

[bucfan2]

'Bout time!

[firefly333]

I accidentally missed my last cruise, so my 14 day Carnival journey cruise is still my last cruise. 

 

I too loved their free fast food options. Guys burgers, mexican, stir fry, their pizza to me is so much better. I hardly eat royals. I didnt have a bad meal in the Mdr, and enjoyed the emerils additional. I rate carnivals Mdr over royal by a lot. They do have limited buffet but they have a deli in the buffet and I enjoyed a BLT 3 times. 

 

Elevator waits so much better on caenival. 3 banks and we have people not show for this cruise. There was a weather event might be why, idk but it was nice not having just 2 elevator banks and always a wait. 

 

Odd I've always though the crew on carnival like stewards was more friendly not less. Never saw the arguing you mention. Vs last harmony I had a lazy bones steward, skipped me totally 3 or 4 days. I dont need that much attention but it was clear my royal steward played up to the suites and never learned peoples names. She called everyone sunshine. I let it go as I was on another week and chea GED cabins, but royals steward was lazy. I was going to say something in my email review but i filled out week 3 review and week 2 said too late, cant fill outnreview so never said anything on my review.

 

I am pushing for pinnacle so booking royal plus royal is just cheaper for me as a solo. Royal is cheaper than carnival so i book royal for the cheaper price. I wish carnival had group rates like royal does. I'd booked the journey cruise on a 50% off birthday sale, 1 cruise allowed to be chosen. No deals since then on carnival. Royal has better prices. Once I'm pinnacle I might look around some more but I was quite pleased with my carnival cruise. It was a expensive cruise though to unusual ports. Not their norm. Higher prices older crowd. 11 kids total on board.

 

I also like mardi gras class how they offer 3 pay restaurants FREE if you book anytime dining. Chibang and the italian and a 3rd free one time. Used to offer every night but now a tiny upcharge. I ate in pay restaurants for 6 nights on carnival the time before for about $100. 

 

Royals loyalty perks are better. I like fresh squeezed oj but as you said its hit or miss. One time it was like made from oranges gone bad, sept out of season on royal. 

 

Carnival does anytime so much better. Push a button when you want to eat. Truly its anytime.

[cruiseboy89130]

2 hours ago, RoyalFan2011 said:

Carnival doesn’t require anyone to wash their hands before eating.

Royal does not either - they just ask for it!

[Tatka]

Thank you for a very interesting insight.

We were never loyal to Royal till after pandemic. Cruised with 8 lines for about 17 years. We dropped Carnival after 3 honest tries as we felt some mismatch in ambiance. Just wasn’t our thing at all. But I’m always interested to see what other people think. I think Carnival came along way in better designing their ships so it’s not 1000+ kids gathered to watch Hairy chest or gross foods contests. 

[doghog]

We sleep around alot and never feel guilty. 

[Another_Critic]

5 minutes ago, doghog said:

We sleep around alot and never feel guilty. 

[doghog]

7 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

Sorry. Thanks for the invatation, but  I don't want to join your group. 🤣

Edited July 7 by doghog

[smokeybandit]

30 minutes ago, doghog said:

We sleep around alot and never feel guilty. 

Name checks out then.

[doghog]

6 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Name checks out then.

 Your assumption is wrong. 🙃

Edited July 7 by doghog

[BecciBoo]

Yeah, we cheated in April on Jubilee...........not impressed at all, never again and this time we mean it.

[firefly333]

I think it's also what you are used to. I rotated a lot between carnival and royal because of texas for a while that's all there was.

 

When I do carnival i go and try a guys burger and do the things I miss when I'm on royal. I have favorite things i like on both. I get it carnival folks hate royal and royal folks feel the same. I seem to be the only one on both boards that has things i enjoy on both.

[Husky1987]

We were probably one and done with Carnival as well.

 

What Carnival does better:

 

Burgers/Pizza

Alchemy Bar is head and shoulders above anything on Royal

Casino program...we went on one cruise in 2019 and my wife STILL gets free cruise offers (some really nice, free balcony with free drinks and $500 or more in free play) in the mail every month.

[Scottdalfonso]

14 hours ago, rakaia said:

 

 

We cheated on Royal with MSC and honestly loved it. I hear great things about the Yacht Club; we didn't do that but I must say we still really enjoyed our cruise (we did book the Aurea experience for a few more perks...totally worth it!). I'd highly recommend giving them a shot. We liked them so much we booked a few more! 

We still love Royal (next sailing on Liberty in Aug!) but found MSC to be a great alternative. 

We are doing this in December. We sail Liberty in 9 days, then we are trying MSC in December. We have a balcony Fantastica room (we aren't interested in the thermal spa, so didn't bother with Aurea) and are really excited. When we booked it over a year ago, the reviews were not great, but in the past few months, especially for this ship, Seascape, the reviews seemed to have really taken a swing upward. So now we are definitely looking forward to it. And the fact that the 7 day balcony WITH drinks\wifi for 3 of us cost almost half of what  our 5 day, interior, no packages on Liberty did, we couldn't pass it up. 

[mandyleighflies]

I grew up sailing Carnival in the 90's when they were the real "Fun Ships" and it was a different experience overall. To be fair, the 90's were a different time overall also. I have been tempted to try Carnival again, but so far we are pretty Loyal to Royal with 3 booked right now. I did sail Margaritaville At Sea and was not disappointed to be honest. Yes the crowd was different but it was also a 2 night sailing. Three night Royal sailings typically have a different crowd from 14 night sailings too I would imagine. 

Edited July 8 by mandyleighflies

[TeeRick]

Hi @RoyalFan2011 and thanks for the comparison.  When all is said and done, how much did you save (if anything) on Carnival over Royal?

[firefly333]

13 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

Hi @RoyalFan2011 and thanks for the comparison.  When all is said and done, how much did you save (if anything) on Carnival over Royal?

I'd be curious how you would decide this. OP took celebration out of calif which runs cheaper than mardi gras or jubilee same class of ship. Its generally cheaper to go out of calif. So would you compare to older navigator or a newer ship out of another port like Galveston or Florida?