Carnival Valor vs. Caribbean Princess?

[Tatka]

My kids who are 20 & 22 so closer to your age group than mine, felt it was a tough toss up between the two lines. Felt each had it attributes. My guess is if they went on one of the Carnival ships that has the big screen similiar to Movies Under The Stars they'd give the deciding vote to Carnival.

 

 

I went on both Carnival Liberty and Caribbean Princess.

 

MUTS experiences on these ships are not even comparable .. From all points. Quality of programming, cozyness (those blankets!!!), free popcorn. Simply wonderful on Car. Princess, not so on Liberty.

 

Also on Caribbean Princess we saw the largest number of couples early 20-ies to late thirties, while on Carnival it was mostly families with tons of kids.

 

We sailed on both during school vacation, but on Carnival there were about 1000 kids, while on Princess around 400 - 500, and believe me with an absence of adult only pools on Liberty you could really feel you're sailing with all these kids!:mad:

[jkeller527]

One thing that I have found and this may change as they seem to follow each other, but the lead in prices on Princess are lower but they nickle and dime you on a lot of things that Carnival is not yet doing. They charge for cappacino in the dining room, charge for the santuary charge for some of the ice cream and some other odd charges that Carnival has not yet started, I am booke on Princess in a couple of weeks because of the itinery but did Carnival earlier this year and loved it.

[Tatka]

One thing that I have found and this may change as they seem to follow each other, but the lead in prices on Princess are lower but they nickle and dime you on a lot of things that Carnival is not yet doing. They charge for cappacino in the dining room, charge for the santuary charge for some of the ice cream and some other odd charges that Carnival has not yet started, I am booke on Princess in a couple of weeks because of the itinery but did Carnival earlier this year and loved it.

 

Sanctuary is pool area #4 (I think) , so aside from it you have another adult only pool.. and to be frank I'd pay to get from all crowds on Carnival. Carnival is also charging for popcorn while on Princess it's free. ;)

[Umbarger]

MUTS experiences on these ships are not even comparable .. From all points. Quality of programming, cozyness (those blankets!!!), free popcorn.

 

On our Princess cruise the TM tried to really talk up the MUTS. He told us about the ushers, the popcorn and candy. We went that night. There were no Ushers, no popcorn and if you wanted candy you had to purchase it.

 

As for 'those blankets'.....you can have them. Do you know they are never washed. :eek: I do not want to use a blanket that has been used by a thousand people before me. Yuck.

 

I agree about Princess charging for everything. Cappuccino, espresso, brewed coffee, 24 hour ice cream, hot chocolate, lemonade and fruit punch are all free on Carnival. Not so on Princess. They charge for all of the above. You can't even get a fresh brewed cup of coffee on Princess without paying for it. And before anyone jumps on me. Princess does offer free ice cream in the dining room and for one hour in the buffet each day. Oh but, I forgot..... Princess gives you free popcorn. Oh wow. :rolleyes: