Carnival Freedom or RCI Brilliance for the Med?

[Sunny AZ Girl]

I apoligize if this has been asked and answered before, however there is a thread on the RCI forum that asks this very question. Of course, the answers are slanted there for the most part to RCI and I think it is only right to hear the same question asked on the Carnival Forum!:)

 

We are looking at doing group cruise in the Med in June or July of 2009. We are considering the Carnival Freedom or the RCI BOS. Here are our observations so far and priorities:

 

Itinerary: Both ships do the Greek Isles. However, the RCI ship also takes in Spain (Barcelona is the departure & arrival port) & one port in France. Carnival does an overnight in Rome at the end of the cruise.

 

Ship: I have been on the Jewel of the Seas (RCI's BOS's sister ship), but not on the equivilent of the Freedom, so I can't really compare them.

 

Price: The Carnival ship is less expensive, but it is cheaper to fly into and stay pre-cruise in Barcelona. Also the transfer to the ship in Barcelona is cheaper.

 

Convenience: Barcelona is closer to the port than Rome for Carnival.

 

Here is my quandry - Some of our group has been loyal to Royal while others are equally loyal to Carnival! However, we love to cruise together, so we need to take the cruise line preference out of the equation. So, for those of you who have been on one or either of these ships/itineraries can you give us any insight as to what you did or did not enjoy about your experience. I (we) really appreciate your help!:D

[okteach_61]

We are scheduled to take the Oct. 2007 Transatlantic out of Rome which includes a day in Spain. I would suggest going to the Carnival Freedom's Role calls and look at the posts. There's one called "Live from the Carnival Freedom". Also there are ship reviews from CC members that you can read on this site under member reviews. :D

[stlrboo]

I must admit to being one the the Carnival fans, tho' as you can see in my siggy, I've been on the RCI Jewel of the Seas and am 'Leading' a CC Group Cruise on the RCI Explorer of the Seas!:p

 

The RCI boards definitely lean to RCI ships, and actually has turned into a "free for all"! Thus, to my 'fellow' Carnival friends, we need your thoughts!:D

[ETHS1965]

We did the med with the Freedom in April. It was fantastic. The ports were great, however, I think that they have changed one since we went. I am not sure. (I will mention that we all agreed that there was not enough time in Florence).

 

It is really easy to get to and from the port from Rome. We shared a ride to the ship. On our last day, we took a shuttle from the ship and then walked to the train station. We met up with some friends we had made at our dinner table. We took the train and had a wonderful, leisurely day walking around Rome. Later in the day, we took the train back to Civitavecchia, walked back to the waiting shuttle and got back in plenty of time to enjoy our last dinner on board. We had an early morning shuttle set up to take us to the airport. No problem.

 

That said, I had dinner with some friends last night and two of them said that Barcelona is the one place that they really want to return to visit. Never having been to Barcelona, i can't comment.

 

I am sure that you will have a great time on whichever line that you took.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

I am sure that you will have a great time on whichever line that you took.

Thank you so much! That is exactly the kind of response we are looking for!:)

[LHP]

I love Carnival, but I am not a big fan of the Conquest class ship.

 

I would base my decision on price, convenience and ports. Just make a big ole chart with Carnival on one side and RCCL on the other and down the side put:

 

Price

Ports

Convenience

Flying costs

Food (good and bad)

Entertainment (good and bad)

 

And see which one wins out!!

[stlrboo]

I LOVE it when I see my Carnival 'friends' being reasonable, and not 'bashing' RCI 'just because'!:)

 

Many thank you's for you honest opinions... and thoughts! :D

 

See 'Mom'.. they are really nice on these boards...;) :p

[hdawson]

Out of my 19 cruises, Brilliance is the absolute prettiest of all. A really classy ship.

[RAVI360]

i guess it depends on u and what makes u happy....i have sail on RCCL and CCL.....I always travel with a group of a least 10+.....RCCL travel out of baltimore (my home state)......with the same interiary as CCL coming out of miami.......we chose CCL because of the atmoshpere we like.....try both see what u like

[BillnBobbi]

I apoligize if this has been asked and answered before, however there is a thread on the RCI forum that asks this very question. Of course, the answers are slanted there for the most part to RCI and I think it is only right to hear the same question asked on the Carnival Forum!:)

 

We are looking at doing group cruise in the Med in June or July of 2009. We are considering the Carnival Freedom or the RCI BOS. Here are our observations so far and priorities:

 

Itinerary: Both ships do the Greek Isles. However, the RCI ship also takes in Spain (Barcelona is the departure & arrival port) & one port in France. Carnival does an overnight in Rome at the end of the cruise.

 

Ship: I have been on the Jewel of the Seas (RCI's BOS's sister ship), but not on the equivilent of the Freedom, so I can't really compare them.

 

Price: The Carnival ship is less expensive, but it is cheaper to fly into and stay pre-cruise in Barcelona. Also the transfer to the ship in Barcelona is cheaper.

 

Convenience: Barcelona is closer to the port than Rome for Carnival.

 

Here is my quandry - Some of our group has been loyal to Royal while others are equally loyal to Carnival! However, we love to cruise together, so we need to take the cruise line preference out of the equation. So, for those of you who have been on one or either of these ships/itineraries can you give us any insight as to what you did or did not enjoy about your experience. I (we) really appreciate your help!:D

 

Haven't been on any RCI ship (yet) but have been on Freedom.

 

We tend to base our cruises on the itinerary. If you feel that the amenities on both cruise ships are comparable, then where your ports of call are would be the deciding factor.

 

The Eastern Med Itinerary for Freedom is Rome to Naples (from which you can visit Capri, The Amalfi Coast, Pompeii) to Rhodes, Gr. (which I have been told has been changed in favor of a third stop in Turkey), to Izmir Tk (from which you go to see the ruins at Ephesus and the final home of Mary, mother of Jesus) to Istanbul to Athens to Katakalon Gr. ( Olympia site of first ancient olympics) to Livorno ( go to either Pisa, Florence [Fiorenza] or the Tuscan countryside [ San Gimingnano, Siena ]) and then back to Rome for an extra tour day.

 

The Western Med Itinerary (which we did on Liberty but is the same for Freedom) was Rome to Naples to Dubrovnik,Croatia (old city) to Venice, back out the Adriatic to Sicily (Taormina and Mt. Etna) to Barcelona, Sp. to Cannes, Fr. to Livorno and back to Rome.

 

Both of those itineraries over 12 days are very port intensive, and we found we had to make an extra "day at sea" for ourselves, and chose not to go anywhere at the stop in Izmir.

 

Also consider that the temperatures during July and August this year in the Eastern Med hovered in the 90s and at some stops were well into the 100s .

 

We had a wonderful time on both cruises, and chose Carnival both times because we happen to enjoy the Conquest class ships.

 

We found the food in the dining room to be very good to excellent (the specialty restaurant is consistently excellent) and the buffet to be what you'd expect on a midpriced cruise buffet. There are also some very good "fast food" stops as well such as the deli, and the fish and chips .

 

We thought the entertainment ( the song and dance troupe, we didn't go to the comedians, magicians or other novelty acts) was top notch.

 

With either line you are sure to get a good "bang for your buck".

 

BnB

[hilltopfamily]

Something, I think, you might want to consider: The "RCI Fans" that are going with you.....how likely are they to continually bash the Carnival experience during the cruise and afterwards, ruining it for all involved?

 

We've been QUITE happy w/ Carnival and have an upcoming cruise w/extended family going with us....it will be their 1st time on Carnival. They have sailed w/RCI on Adventure OTS---a Voyager-class ship and they wanted to join us on this cruise. Since there are no RCI ships out of Galveston anymore (or Princess!) during the time we're going and we're limited to that embarkation port, RCI wasn't an option for us.

 

I'm fairly concerned about comparisons that will happen between the 2 cruiselines even though all involved know not to because it's like "apples & oranges". If we would have had an option to go w/RCI, we'd have done it in order to avoid this potential situation. And I hope nothing major goes wrong on this cruise since that could get pretty sticky..... Good luck to you and your group....hopefully, whatever the decision, your group can all go into it with an open mind.

[LHP]

Something, I think, you might want to consider: The "RCI Fans" that are going with you.....how likely are they to continually bash the Carnival experience during the cruise and afterwards, ruining it for all involved?

 

We've been QUITE happy w/ Carnival and have an upcoming cruise w/extended family going with us....it will be their 1st time on Carnival. They have sailed w/RCI on Adventure OTS---a Voyager-class ship and they wanted to join us on this cruise. Since there are no RCI ships out of Galveston anymore (or Princess!) during the time we're going and we're limited to that embarkation port, RCI wasn't an option for us.

 

I'm fairly concerned about comparisons that will happen between the 2 cruiselines even though all involved know not to because it's like "apples & oranges". If we would have had an option to go w/RCI, we'd have done it in order to avoid this potential situation. And I hope nothing major goes wrong on this cruise since that could get pretty sticky..... Good luck to you and your group....hopefully, whatever the decision, your group can all go into it with an open mind.

 

If your RCCL fans even start that on your cruise, I would tell them real quick...hey it isn't our fault that RCCL doesn't care about their cruisers enough to keep a ship here. RCCL is already letting Galveston and New Orleans down by not being available IMHO!

 

Seriously, I would make it clear before you go that these are different ships. There will be no ice rinks, climbing walls etc...but there will be 24 hour pizza and ice cream!

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Something, I think, you might want to consider: The "RCI Fans" that are going with you.....how likely are they to continually bash the Carnival experience during the cruise and afterwards, ruining it for all involved?

 

I don't see that as being a problem. Once we get all the facts and the final itineraries, pricing, etc. we are having a vote. If anyone is really unhappy with the outcome they will probably go ahead and do it without the 'group' on their own. We are a group of CC members who have sailed together and enjoy each other's company. No one is 'locked in' this cruise, so to speak. Once we have decided on which sailing that we will take we hope to make this a group cruise open to the entire cruise critic family!:D

 

BTW - regarding the Galveston cruises, I just read on the RCI board that there will be a ship year round out of Galveston. I'm not sure which one yet. Someday I will be sailing out of that port, on either Carnival or RCI I hope. I loved our Wesern Caribbean itinerary & being from the Phoenix area it would be closer than Florida. My DH's main office is in Houston so we could combine it with a business trip.;)

 

I really appreciate the insight that I have received on this thread so far as far as the itinerary and the ship are concerned. My DH would love the idea of the 24 hour ice cream!:D

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Out of my 19 cruises, Brilliance is the absolute prettiest of all. A really classy ship.

We have sailed on the Jewel, the sister ship to the Brilliance and it is my favorite ship so far. However, since this cruise is so port intensive I don't want to base our decision entirely on the the ship.

 

Which brings me to my number one concern about the Freedom. Maybe someone here can help with this. Since the Freedom is so large, how well do the ports handle the crowds? Do you think the size of the ship has affected the choice of ports - large metropolitan areas vs the smaller islands in Greece, for example?

[CruiseGem]

I apoligize if this has been asked and answered before, however there is a thread on the RCI forum that asks this very question. Of course, the answers are slanted there for the most part to RCI and I think it is only right to hear the same question asked on the Carnival Forum!:)

 

We are looking at doing group cruise in the Med in June or July of 2009. We are considering the Carnival Freedom or the RCI BOS. Here are our observations so far and priorities:

 

Itinerary: Both ships do the Greek Isles. However, the RCI ship also takes in Spain (Barcelona is the departure & arrival port) & one port in France. Carnival does an overnight in Rome at the end of the cruise.

 

Ship: I have been on the Jewel of the Seas (RCI's BOS's sister ship), but not on the equivilent of the Freedom, so I can't really compare them.

 

Price: The Carnival ship is less expensive, but it is cheaper to fly into and stay pre-cruise in Barcelona. Also the transfer to the ship in Barcelona is cheaper.

Barcelona is closer to the port than Rome for Carnival.

 

Here is my quandry - Some of our group has been loyal to Royal while others are equally loyal to Carnival! However, we love to cruise together, so we need to take the cruise line preference out of the equation. So, for those of you who have been on one or either of these ships/itineraries can you give us any insight as to what you did or did not enjoy about your experience. I (we) really appreciate your help!:D

:) I have been on radience a sister ship one of the most beatiful ships I have ever been on , but I have only been on one canival the valor so I would ask how many kids are with you since carnival has the best kids programs;)

[Longin2cruise]

Never have sailed on RCI so I don't have an opinion on it. We did sail on Carnival Freedom in April this year & can't say enough good things about the itinerary. We sailed the eastern Med. with stops in Naples, Rhodes, Istanbul, Izmir, Athens, & Florence. We thoroughly enjoyed all the ports with the exception of Athens which was just one big traffic jam. Physical limitations prevented us from climbing up to the Acropolis so I'm sure we missed the best part of Athens. The Sorrento/Amalfi Coast drive was spectacular, Istanbul is a fascinating city, Ephesus is a must if you are into Biblical history, Rhodes is a great place just to wander on your own, & we took a "Beautiful Tuscany" tour to a couple of little medieval towns that was great. Even though Rome is an expensive city, you could spend a lifetime there & never see all the beautiful & wonderful things. I've only been to Barcelona once, but it just didn't do much for me & I don't care to return. The Freedom has very good food in the dining room, ok food in the buffet, & great deli & Chinese food. They also have Fish & Chips restaurant that I understand is delicious although I've never eaten there. I suggest you look at the cruisers reviews here on Cruise Critic. The harshest reviews have come from people who say that they are normally RCL cruisers. So, if any of your group happens to go with a closed mind in favor of RCL, it could be bad for all of you. I don't envy your group having to make a choice that pleaseS everyone. Whatever you decide, I hope you enjoy your cruise.