Why Do YOU Choose Carnival over RCL??

[PINEVIEW01]

Because RCI charges solos 200% for the most part.:mad:

Forgot that one. Yes, I have done all my solo cruises, five to date, on Carnival for that reason.

[firefly333]

2. Carnival costs less than other cruise lines with single supplement.

 

Have any of you saying no one but Carnival offers single supplements looked at promowave, the last minute specials? You can also look for specials and RCL sometimes offers 125% rates for singles.

 

http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/promowave/

 

Carnival now has started changing solo's, as of mid 2007, double port charges, so even though you pay 50% of the 2nd passenger rate, they add in the second port charge so that 50% is now higher than it used to be. Our friend is paying about $160 extra for 2009 booking over what she booked Conquest for 2008. There was a big to do about this. Go and check the 50% rate on Carnival, you will notice it is now MORE than 50% if you add it up yourself... now everyone is cheerfully accepting the more than 50% rate for 1As? Check out that 50% and you will see it is much closer to being 75% of the second fare now. Not the bargain it used to be.

 

Carnival is not always the cheapest for solos. Carnival is only the cheapest if you are booking far out.

[mumofsons]

Done them both - just seemed for us the customer service was much better on Carnival.

[DandS8407]

The military discount! My husband served a few years in the military and is no longer in it but Carnival still offers us a significant discount for the time he served and RC does not.

[djacobson]

Have any of you saying no one but Carnival offers single supplements looked at promowave, the last minute specials? You can also look for specials and RCL sometimes offers 125% rates for singles.

 

http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/promowave/

 

Carnival now has started changing solo's, as of mid 2007, double port charges, so even though you pay 50% of the 2nd passenger rate, they add in the second port charge so that 50% is now higher than it used to be. Our friend is paying about $160 extra for 2009 booking over what she booked Conquest for 2008. There was a big to do about this. Go and check the 50% rate on Carnival, you will notice it is now MORE than 50% if you add it up yourself... now everyone is cheerfully accepting the more than 50% rate for 1As? Check out that 50% and you will see it is much closer to being 75% of the second fare now. Not the bargain it used to be.

 

Carnival is not always the cheapest for solos. Carnival is only the cheapest if you are booking far out.

 

Thanks for the link on RCCL. I tend to book my cruises 6-8 months in advance and while I was aware of the rising costs, I was not aware if the increase was due to increased port charges or increases in the base cruise fare. I want to eventually sail on a RCCL ship (I was very impressed by the shows on the Travel Channel featuring RCCL ships).

 

When I weigh the cost of air travel, with increasing restrictions, as opposed to driving an hour to New Orleans, I know I am fortunate to live so close to a pier. I don't mind going back to the same places (especially Cozumel). And since Carnival is here year round, I will probably continue to sail with the Carnival brand, including HAL or Princess, if they were here. RCCL pulled out of New Orleans a few years ago and it would be great to have them back.

[AAAAmerican]

CCL :NYSE CUK :LSE vs RCL :NYSE

 

CCL (Carnival Cruise lines offers many more things is and was American.

Lacking IT.... Culinary and sanitation :eek: methods are very advanced in comparison. (More variety and better cost basis in all there Cruise lines!)

 

RCL (Royal Carribean Lines) has nice additional entertainment venues. They were from Norway. They are eons ahead in IT...

 

Shareholder Benefit gives almost always Twice the Amount of OBC RCL than CCL!

 

So in all CCL wins!:D

 

[DqALEX]

DH and I have sailed Conquest a couple years back - our first cruise and it was everything and more than we imagined. Carnival was GREAT!

 

We have booked another cruise with RCL because we wanted to try them out....just to see....but more and more "things" are concerning me with RCL and I am beginning to think we should rebook with Carnival, who is tried and true.

 

My question is: Why are YOU Loyal to Carnival? I really would like to know. Thanks.

PRICE I have to book for 5 of us. If it were just my wife and myself I would give RCCL a shot

[neatokimmo]

I chose Carnival for my first cruise because it was really cheap. We wanted to do a chick trip in Jan and cruise was perfect. Although the cruises wasn't perfect, the things that weren't good didn't have anything to do with Carnival (weather was off).

 

So a couple of years later I tried another Fantasy class ship because again, it was dirt cheap. That one hooked me!

 

When I surf around looking for cruises, it seems that the price difference between Carnival and RCI is significant enough to book with Carnival again. For next Oct, the price for 4 pieces of the Carnival trip (2 cruises, 2 people) would only buy 3 parts on RCI.

 

Plus I am a creature of habit and I like to have a good idea what is going to happen on my trip :)

[JerseyshoreBruce]

Why pay $200.00 to $500.00 more per person when there is not alot of difference between the cruise. Carnival seems to be the logical choice for that reason alone. Plus I hear from the majority food is better on Carnival and the crew takes better care of you. I know on my first cruise with Carnival the first day sitting by the adult pool the woman who took my drink order remembered my wife and I's name the whole cruise. She said hi by name anytime she saw me during the whole cruise. Even while eating breakfast on the lido deck she would walk by and say goodmorning. The savings alone from not using the other lines pays for my drinks alone plus that.....;)

[ManyMore]

I have cruised 13 Carnival, 2 Royal, 1 Disney and 1 Norweigen.... so I guess the numbers show that I prefer Carnival but willing to try others. I think Carnival is more fun and has bigger cabins.

[madaamt]

Savings & Service.

[terri910]

I dont know why we have to choose one over the other???

Because you can't be in two places at the same time! ;)

[firefly333]

Because you can't be in two places at the same time! ;)

 

With Galveston only having 3 ships, I can find time to do all three and fit them in. I am not making a choice other than to do every ship each year, plus one from New Orleans next year for a change of scenery.

[Georgiagolfer]

That's odd. My experience is just the opposite. I have yet to do a senior rate on Carnival, but 3 or 4 of my RCL cruises I got a terrific senior rate, much better than I could have gotten from Carnival. About $50 off pp off already discounted last minute rates.

 

We're looking at the Liberty or Triumph in November. Both have the Senior rate, as does NCL, but nothing on RCI. It is also offered on Valor and Glory the 1st 2 weeks in November. I always check Yahoo travel and other sites to see what is available. Carnival doesn't list the rate on their web site, although it is available. I guess you have to ask for it.

[shipty2]

In this order

 

1. Price

 

2. Bigger cabin for said price

 

3. Food

 

I have cruised Royal as well and loved it but for my money

[firefly333]

We're looking at the Liberty or Triumph in November. Both have the Senior rate, as does NCL, but nothing on RCI. It is also offered on Valor and Glory the 1st 2 weeks in November. I always check Yahoo travel and other sites to see what is available. Carnival doesn't list the rate on their web site, although it is available. I guess you have to ask for it.

 

I usually dont book the senior rate on RCL until more around final payment time. It is also early for Carnival to be having senior rates, but I did see those few in Nov too.

 

I had paid $259 for the SOV 4 day inside last Sept, and by the time we went the 4 day rate was down to $179, we upgraded to OV for $209. We booked the B2B senior rate on the 3 day for $169. We did both cruises for about $900, 4 days OV, 3 days inside, for both of us. If we hadnt upgraded to the OV we could have done it for about $800 for both of us, 7 days.

 

I did Rhapsoday for $349, when the regular rate was $399 earlier last year, $100 less than Conquest. This year several dates went down to $499 on Voyager, so I booked that, had to wait, but they upgraded us to OV for that price.

 

If I dont get as cheap as Carnival, then of course Id do Carnival. If I dont get around $500 plus taxes for Voyager next spring, then I wouldnt book, as simple as that.

 

Mostly senior rates pop up closer to the date of sailing to fill a ship that isnt booking up well. I see a lot of good last minute senior deals on both cruiselines. Only can do so many cruises. I want to do them all.

[Celtress]

My first 2 cruises were on RCI but since their new smoking policy went into place I'll not cruise on them again.

 

Carnival is tops in my opinion.

[Mikew0805]

We had cute towel animals on Voyager this spring almost every night.

 

I just dont see much differences between the two. I do both cruiselines for the variety, rather than do the same ship out of Galveston over and over. My plan is to rotate Estasy, Conquest, Voyager, over and over for a while.

 

That is a good idea, and Voyager does have an alternate itinerary.. which I want to do.

[cathyoo]

In this order

 

1. Price

 

2. Bigger cabin for said price

 

3. Food

 

I have cruised Royal as well and loved it but for my money

 

Shipty2 answered for me. I would sail RC again but the price would need to be lower to make up for the smaller room (especially the bathroom)

[Caribbreeze]

We originally booked Carnival because the pricing was important to the group we sailed with.

Since then, they treat us well, they feed us well, we have a great time, and the price is right. We book with a military discount more than a year out, and only once did not receive that because the cruise was already priced at rock bottom.

We did look at Royal before booking this last time, but found them not as easy to deal with over the phone when exploring different options. We have a great PVP at Carnival. We might look at them again some time, we have nothing against Royal, but right now Carnival is our comfort zone.

[Monkeythyme]

As you can see from our history, we are 50-50 between Carnival and RCI. However, we have decided that flying and vacations do not go together. There are ports within 460 [Mobile], 530 [NOLA], 565 [Charleston] and 610 [Jacksonville] miles of our home. RCI does not call on any of these anymore; the closest they come is over 700 miles [Tampa], and while we may eventually go there, Carnival and Norwegian have enough variety closer to home to keep us occupied for quite a while.

RCI seems to be trying to avoid people from our area, so we have just decided to oblige. Besides, even though I am 65, I find I am not too old for a "Fun Ship".

[simkoreb]

Price, great food, and great bedding! I swear the beds are better than mine at home!!!

 

We did try another cruise line, and wasn't as impressed with the staterooms, and the shows were just alright. I also find Carnival's itinerarys to be very diverse and appealing to me. I know what I'm getting with Carnival and love every minute of it.

[LorelaiG]

My first cruise was on RCL, and we loved it. We also want to try others, so for this cruise, we booked Carnival. I am hoping Carnival will be great, too. We were on the Vision of the Seas, and went to the Mexican Riviera. The ship and crew were awesome.

[daytonadan]

DH and I have sailed Conquest a couple years back - our first cruise and it was everything and more than we imagined. Carnival was GREAT!

 

We have booked another cruise with RCL because we wanted to try them out....just to see....but more and more "things" are concerning me with RCL and I am beginning to think we should rebook with Carnival, who is tried and true.

 

My question is: Why are YOU Loyal to Carnival? I really would like to know. Thanks.

 

I've sailed carnival, royal carrib, norweign.

 

Price all about the same when you look at it. on Carnival I'm way more relaxed. I feel at home when I'm at sea, staff are like friends and neighbors just feels right (yeah I even hugged the ship (MS Glory), saying "Honey I'm home"cracked up some crew members) I think Carnival moves about 50 thousand guests a day, and in all my experience I have only had one tiny problem and that was just a new crew member who came from one of the other lines....

 

daytona dan

[cloudydrms]

I just took my first RCCL cruise in March and really enjoyed it. I would say that there are good and bad things about both RCCL and CCL. CCL's food and price is generally much better than RCCL. I found the entertainment and decor to be much better on RCCL. While I did not have a child in the kids clubs on RCCL (and have had them in the past on CCL), I thought that I saw RCCL doing much more with the kids clubs than I've ever seen CCL do.

 

JMO,

 

Cindy