Just off first RCI cruise -- and the verdict is in....!

[terri910]

....for us, Carnival is better.

 

Don't get me wrong, we had a great time on this short 3-night cruise over the Memorial Day Holiday, on RCI's Monarch of the Seas. And we'd definitely go again.

 

But!

 

We still prefer Carnival. We prefer Carnival's larger rooms (most noticeable in the bathroom and closets).

 

While the staff (overall) were very good on the Monarch of the Seas, our Room Steward was not as attentive as we are accustomed to on every Carnival cruise we've experienced. It appears that it may have just been our Steward (maybe he was new), as the Room Steward for a couple traveling with us, whose stateroom was one deck above ours, sounded like what Carnival has made us come to expect!

 

We thought the quality of the food was every bit as good as on Carnival. I preferred the escargot on RCI, but the Caesar Salad on Carnival. My New York Strip steak was better on RCI, but the French Onion Soup and Strawberry Bisque is better on Carnival....and so it went! It was nice, though, to have some "new" selections (since we've had the Carnival menu items for quite a few cruises, now).

 

There were certain things about the layout of the ship that we thought could have been designed better....but then, that has happened to us on Carnival ships occasionally, too. But I can't remember there being a deck on a Carnival ship, that has public spaces that has no public restrooms on it. Usually, there are restroom located just outside or very near the entrances to clubs, theaters, dining rooms, casino, etc. On the Monarch, there was one entire deck (with almost all public spaces -- bars, clubs, etc.) where there were NO public bathrooms. You had to go to one end of the ship or the other and go up or down a flight to find one!

 

We thought the entertainment was good. Good bands, piano bar entertainer, comedians, etc. But the Karaoke Lounge was dismal. They had the worst playlist we have ever run across, and they're equipment was basically an MP3 player, so they could not adjust the pitch. Karaoke was hosted by a different Cruise Director Staff member each night, so some were better than others.

 

An odd difference that we didn't care about was the photographs. While there seem to be photographs up on the displays within hours of departure on Carnival, we only saw photos displayed a few times, and the first time we saw it was on Sunday (the cruise departed on Friday!)...Like I said, we didn't care; we seldom bother with the photographs.

 

I have no idea if it was just the weekend that we were cruising, but the average age of the passengers on this cruise seemed a bit younger than on most of the Carnival cruises we go on (I would say mid- to late-30's. Most of our Carnival cruises we see mostly 50-somethings). But they were not, on the whole, a rowdy bunch at all -- just really, really nice, and very friendly!

 

It was a great cruise! Our next cruise is another weekend break, over the 4th of July weekend on the Carnival Paradise, again. Then, we begin counting down to our Vancouver-Hawaiian Islands cruise on the Spirit in September.

[Travel Angel]

Not knowing what Carnival ships you have been on, but the ship you picked is an older vessel and that class of ship has some of the smallest rooms at sea !

 

Monarch is not one of my memorable cruises simply because I had similiar thoughts as you, but I knew it going in regarding stateroom size and its features compared to ther newer ships.

 

I would not rule out Royal Caribbean completely, as their newer ships do provide larger rooms than what you experienced, more inovative state of the art activities than Carnival offers as well, i.e. Rock Climbing Wall, Flow Rider, Ice Skating Rink, Self leveling Pool Tables.

 

Glad you had a good time and thanks for the comparisons, but since you were doing just a brief 3 nighter, you did not have many options on the ship you could travel on.... a 7 night experience on their newer ships I think would possibly make you rethink and possibly rotate cruiselines ! :D

[firefly333]

It's well known that RCL's very old ships have tiny cabins, you go knowing this. Of course larger is better. The older ships are still beautifull, but yep the cabins are small. Hope you knew this before you went.

 

We decided we wouldnt do SOV again for this very reason, even though we had a lot of fun.

[terri910]

It's well known that RCL's very old ships have tiny cabins, you go knowing this. Of course larger is better. The older ships are still beautifull, but yep the cabins are small. Hope you knew this before you went.

 

We decided we wouldnt do SOV again for this very reason, even though we had a lot of fun.

I don't know what "SOV" is (many acronyms are lost on me! :) )....

 

Yes, we knew that Royal Caribbean's staterooms were going to be smaller, so it wasn't a surprise, but still something to compare...and it seemed to me that most of that lost space was in bathroom and closet, as opposed to the rest of the room. I had, in fact, wondered if it would feel as though I could stand in the middle of the room and touch each wall, if I spread my arms apart -- but the main space of the stateroom did not feel too cramped. I definitely wouldn't want to be in such a small cabin on anything longer than a 3-night cruise, though.

 

We have made this same cruise on Carnival's Paradise a couple of times (and are booked for the 4th of July weekend). They were docked next to one another in Ensenada....hubby thought the Paradise looked larger, but I thought it was difficult to tell.

 

The Rock Climbing Wall was not something I would do, but it was interesting to watch the young people on it. I might try the Flow Rider on a body board (is that a boogie board?), if I was on a ship that had one, or even an ice skating rink.

 

We booked an ocean view guarantee and were on Deck 2 (lowest passenger stateroom deck)....On the Paradise, Riviera Deck ocean view will at least get you a large rectangular window. On the Monarch of the Seas, it was one porthole. If we were to book this same ship/itinerary again, I would just save the money and get an inside cabin, I think. We booked RCI instead of Carnival on this particular weekend because they were considerably less expensive, for some reason. 4th of July weekend, we booked with Carnival because there was no significant difference in price.

 

Oh, I almost forgot....we prefer Carnival's system when putting the gratuities on your credit card. On this cruise, we opted for that, and got printed vouchers to put in the envelopes. We're so used to having it taken care of without using envelopes we forgot to take the envelopes to our last dinner and I had to return to the room to get them, to give to our Head Waiter, Waiter, and Assistant Waiter....

 

I would not hesitate to cruise on RCI again, if we got a real price bargain...but there were enough "little" differences where we prefer Carnival, that whenever possible, we will stick with the Fun Ships!

[DEcruiser1]

I generally agree. I have liked my Carnival cruises most. However, I don't think you should judge RCI on this ship. As has been previously stated, the Monarch was a ship built for another time. The rooms are incredibly small. I really think that RCI may want to consider moving the ship from the Southern Cal/Mexico market because the demand for cruises here has really grown. The Monarch was my first impression of RCI and it took me a long time to give them another try.

[Julienatul]

I agree with you. We sailed Grandeur of the Seas a few yrs ago and really werent impressed. Our dining room service was worse than Carnival. Everyone kept telling us we must try RCCL because they are so far superior to Carnival but we really didnt think so. It was nice, the food was good about equivalent to Carnival but I just didnt feel there was a huge difference and actually prefer Carnival. I dont think its because Grandeur is an older ship either because I enjoy the smaller ships on Carnival also. For the price, I am sticking with Carnival.

 

Julie

[MrPete]

....for us, Carnival is better.

 

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

 

We already know this. They don't!