Shonuf... Would You Compare for Us?

[sail7seas]

I read your comment on another thread about just returning from two Carnival cruises.

 

Would you be willing to compare your experiences on Carnival vs. HAL?

 

Certainly understand if you don't wish to.

 

(I think it was the comment in your signature "What were we thinking" that prompted me to post this. :) )

 

Welcome back..... Hope you had fun!

[shonuf]

As you can see by my sig, most of our cruises have been on HAL and most in deluxe suites. Three of our 4 Carnival cruises have been out of Galveston, a 5 1/2 hour drive from our home to the port. The Conquest cruise was to replace a Feb cruise on the Voyager OTS (also out of Galveston) which we had to cancel at the last minute due to complications of surgery. The Miracle cruise was a Doo-Wop cruise (oldies music), out of NYC, and went to Tortola, all things DH had recently stated that he wanted to do. We only booked it about a month out.

 

We had a 9A (aft balcony) on the Conquest and while the balcony wasn't as large as the aft suites, it was very nice. The room was an odd shape with no sofa, but plenty of storage and room to move around in. The shower was very small and the shower curtain would billow out allowing water to get on the floor. The decor of the ship was gaudy but I grew to think that it worked by the end of the cruise. DH was concerned about going on a ship that large as he felt the HAL Vista class was too large for his comfort. As we were all the way aft, the hallway seemed to stretch on forever if you were walking forward. We discovered that if we went to one of the public decks, it didn't seem like as long a walk.

 

The food on Carnival was very good and we didn't get a bad meal. Our table steward(ess) was very good and got extra tips from everyone at our table. She noticed I wasn't eating much and asked if she should get me something else. I explained that part of my stomach had been removed so I couldn't eat as much. We ate at the Point, the supper club, and while the food was good, the service was not what we expected. I'd have just as soon eaten in the dining room. Our tablemates were wonderful and we enjoyed our evenings with them.

 

We only went to one or two of the production shows and left before they were over. Disembarkation was fairly smooth, we stayed in our cabin as long as possible and then went to the Lido restaurant to wait for our number to be called.

 

DH didn't like the fact that the promenade deck doesn't completely wrap the ship. We much prefer walking the deck on HAL to Carnival.

 

On the whole, this cruise compared very favorably to those we've had on HAL. The worst part was not having preferred embarkation, either as a suite holder or having "Platinum" status (10 cruises on Carnival). There were only about 6 agents checking in over 3000 passengers so we stood in the queue for over 1 1/2 hours.

 

The Miracle doesn't even bear comparison to our HAL cruises. The decor is as ugly as anything I've ever seen. Even though the passenger load was only around 2100, the ship seemed more crowded than any we've been on.

The food was not as good as the Conquest and our table steward(ess) wasn't very good, forgetting to bring some courses. We were at two different tables during the cruise (one a 6 top, one an 8) and by the end of the cruise were resigned to eating in the Lido. We were in a standard balcony cabin (8D) and the room was adequate, the shower slightly larger than the Conquest and the best shower head pressure I've ever seen on a ship. People laugh about wanting to bring their room steward home, I wanted to bring the shower!:D

 

We only went to a couple of the production shows and only really enjoyed one, a comedian named Happy Cole. He's been working aboard cruise ships for a long time and he knew his audience. Another night, the jugglers kept dropping things.........but we were docked!

 

I have always thought the shows on HAL were a little "cheesy", JMHO but I didn't see anything on Carnival that was that much better.

 

Now for that much loved/hated topic "The Dress Code". DH and I have always enjoyed "formal" night and he usually wears his tux. He took his dark suit on the Conquest and one of our tablemates was in a tux, the other men in dark suits. No effort was made to enforce the dress code, I saw quite a few exceptions. On the Miracle, he took his tux and was the only man in one at our table. The new dress code that only requires a coat and slacks, no tie had gone into effect and many took advantage of that. Again, I saw no attempt to enforce the dress code. It seemed that more people tried to comply at late seating rather than early. I saw people in the dining room on "elegant" night in shorts and tank tops. We had early seating on both cruises.

 

In summation, HAL gets the nod for decor and service (don't you love it when the staff remembers you, even on a different ship). Food, very close between HAL and the Conquest. Beds, not as comfortable on Carnival as we'd been led to believe. Actually, of all our cruises, the single best dining room meal and single best crew show were on the Rhapsody OTS.

 

Would we do Carnival again? Probably, especially out of Galveston. If we have to fly to get to the port, then HAL would probably get the nod.

[FlorenceItaly]

Susan,

 

thank you so much for taking the time to post this. We live in OKC and have cruised out of Galveston quite a few times, but not since 2006. I just got tired of the Western Caribbean. With airfare and the economy, we are thinking we may have to rethink Galveston. We love Key West, and at least the Voyager is now offering this stop on one of their itineraries. Dh has never been on the Voyager class, so we will probably sail the Voyager before the Conquest. My favorite cruise lines are HAL and Princess.

 

 

 

Marie

[sail7seas]

Thank you so much, Susan. I really enjoyed your comparison and truly appreciate your accomodating my request.

 

Sorry you had surgical complications and hope you are feeling well now. I'm happy you were recovered enough to go on a substitute cruise.

 

Your comments sound so fair and honest and very helpful to those, like me, who wonder about an 'honest' comparison between HAL and Carnival.

 

Thank you again and happy cruising on whatever ship you happen to find yourself! :)

 

[traveler1980]

Susan,

 

Can you give a little comparison about activities on board or the crowd on board? We are 28 and 30, but really enjoyed our HAL cruise last year. We are taking our second on HAL this summer. We have heard so many bad stories about Carnival being the party ship. Loud people all hours of the night, etc. We really enjoy a more refined experience as we felt HAL provided. As we don't have children yet we really enjoy just relaxing and enjoying each others company. We like a classy looking ship, good food, good service, we partake in a few onboard activities, mostly interested in spa time, having a cocktail here and there and a random game of bingo every once in a while. I am very interested in hearing about other cruise experiences as I would like to try out other products at some points. Any comments or suggestions?

[hammybee]

So, how was the doo wop?:)

[seadrifter]

Thank you Susan for your interesting and fair comparison. We have considered taking a Carnival cruise but worry about the overall "feel" of Carnival as compared to HAL. Your comments on the decor were important to me. I love the quiet elegance on HAL and a week or so with Carnival's color scheme might be too much for me to handle:eek:.

 

Virginia

[GmaPajama]

I enjoy reading a good comparison, and thank you shonuf for being so thorough. I keep thinking back to our very first cruise and know how much easier (and wiser) our choice would have been if we'd known about CC and all the great information we could find here. Thanks for adding to this great storehouse of knowledge.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you - I really appreciated you taking the time to make the comparisons.

[sail-a-bration]

Unless they have changed the decor after Conquest was used for Katrina relief, it is Mardi-Gra like, lots of yellow and purple patterns,Ugly. Conquest was originally out of New Orleans thus the Mardi-gra theme. It is a huge ship, and when full seems over crowded. But that said, they have the best kids program, Camp Carnival was a hit with all of the children. I loved the spa area, the indoor whirlpool that has a waterfall flowing into it,the steamroom with eucaliptus, the suana with a beautiful view of the ocean. A great place to unwind after an excursion and FREE unlike HAL which charges 40.00 a day or 150.00per week for their Hydotherapy pool and aroma-therapy steamroom and heated ceramic loungers (no loungers on Conquest). So for me that is a $150.00 bonus when on the Conquest. There are a lot of activites on sea days, and all of the crew were helpful and friendly. I had tears in my eyes when I had to say goodbye to our table stewards, it felt like saying goodbye to family you knew you would not see again. I would sail the Conquest anytime, I loved it. On August 24th, I am taking my first HAL to Alaska, The Westerdam and am so looking forward to it, from what I have read I will become a HAL devotee.

[shonuf]

Traveler1980, we found the activities to be similar to those we've found on other ships including HAL. We don't hang out by the pool so don't know about hairy chest contests or belly flop contests (didn't see them in the Capers). They had ship building, horse racing, trivia of different kinds, karaoke, scrapbooking, build a bear and of course, bingo. One thing that really surprised us was that both Carnival ships had a classical trio that played during the afternoon and evening in different spots. We really enjoyed that and sometimes sat to listen instead of going to the shows. DH and I are pretty good at entertaining ourselves so we pretty much have fun no matter where we go or what we do. There was definitely a crowd by the pool in the afternoons and saw lots of buckets of beer but were we adversely affected by any of it, no. Our next door cabin mates on both cruises never learned how to close their balcony doors without slamming them but that was a minor irritation. We have found something good about every cruise we've taken, even if it was just the knowledge that we wouldn't want to do that again. As I said, the Conquest rated very favorably with HAL and we'd definitely do it again. From ship to ship, from departure port to departure port, the passenger load will vary and that is something that is not possible to figure in. We weren't as comfortable on the Miracle as we have been on other cruises. So as the old commercial went (before your time)...."try it, you'll like it".

 

Hammybee, to make a long story short, the doo-wop was a huge disappointment. We had only heard of a couple of the groups (Del Vikings and Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon. The others were at best "one hit wonders". The back up band was better than most of the groups. We had a "private" show each evening in one of the lounges. The TA who was the organizer was nice enough but terribly disorganized. Most of the passengers in the group were "groupies" who follow these groups on the East Coast.

 

Sail-a-bration, until you've seen the Miracle, "You aint seen ugly".

 

ExaltHim-The Conquest has a new Eastern itinerary for next year, one week a month. Key West and two stops in the Bahamas. (My TA says he's getting much better feedback from the Conquest than from the Voyager.)

 

Everyone else-You're welcome, it was my pleasure.

[Cruzman]

Unless they have changed the decor after Conquest was used for Katrina relief, it is Mardi-Gra like, lots of yellow and purple patterns,Ugly. Conquest was originally out of New Orleans thus the Mardi-gra theme. It is a huge ship, and when full seems over crowded. But that said, they have the best kids program, Camp Carnival was a hit with all of the children. I loved the spa area, the indoor whirlpool that has a waterfall flowing into it,the steamroom with eucaliptus, the suana with a beautiful view of the ocean. A great place to unwind after an excursion and FREE unlike HAL which charges 40.00 a day or 150.00per week for their Hydotherapy pool and aroma-therapy steamroom and heated ceramic loungers (no loungers on Conquest). So for me that is a $150.00 bonus when on the Conquest. There are a lot of activites on sea days, and all of the crew were helpful and friendly. I had tears in my eyes when I had to say goodbye to our table stewards, it felt like saying goodbye to family you knew you would not see again. I would sail the Conquest anytime, I loved it. On August 24th, I am taking my first HAL to Alaska, The Westerdam and am so looking forward to it, from what I have read I will become a HAL devotee.

 

I think that you may be confusing the Conquest with possibly the Inspiration in some respects, as the Conquest was not used for post Katrina relief. As a matter of fact, neither was the Inspiration, but your description of the interior decor pretty much matches that of the Inspiration. As I recall, the Katrina relief vessels were the Sensation, Ecstasy and the Holiday.

[innlady1]

As you can see by my sig, most of our cruises have been on HAL and most in deluxe suites. Three of our 4 Carnival cruises have been out of Galveston, a 5 1/2 hour drive from our home to the port. The Conquest cruise was to replace a Feb cruise on the Voyager OTS (also out of Galveston) which we had to cancel at the last minute due to complications of surgery. The Miracle cruise was a Doo-Wop cruise (oldies music), out of NYC, and went to Tortola, all things DH had recently stated that he wanted to do. We only booked it about a month out.

<snip>

Was it hosted by Harvey Robbins from Boston, by any chance? We've been to two or three of his doo-wop concerts here!

[shonuf]

[/font]

Was it hosted by Harvey Robbins from Boston, by any chance? We've been to two or three of his doo-wop concerts here!

 

No, it was (I think) some guy named Norm from New Jersey and his company was something like Friends entertainment. The only person I had contact with prior to the cruise was the TA out of NY.

[numbersix]

I read your comment on another thread about just returning from two Carnival cruises.

 

Would you be willing to compare your experiences on Carnival vs. HAL?

 

Certainly understand if you don't wish to.

 

(I think it was the comment in your signature "What were we thinking" that prompted me to post this. :) )

 

Welcome back..... Hope you had fun!

 

I'll throw in a couple of cents...

 

We'e cruised a dozen or so times...2 HAL, then 2 or 3 Princess, then NCl ( the old Norway, RIP), then 3 more Princess, then 2 Celebrity, then a Carnival, then back to HAL...the Rotterdam, this past May 26th, Athens -Harwich (great cruise, BTW).

 

We had never considered Carnival, always thinking that I'd rather not cruise at all than cruise Carnival. We ended up looking for a Holiday (Christmas) cruise (2006) with our 3 kids (we normally cruise just the 2 of us....our 3 kids were then 19, 9, and 7), and, being rather short notice, the Carnival Legend suited, time-wise, itinerary-wise ("exotic Caribbean"), and easy-air wise ( we're out of Toronto/Buffalo....cruise departed Fort Lauderdale).

 

I was expecting the worst. But you know, I was really pleasantly surprised. It wasn't bad at all. But, it is a different deal. Big ship, lots of people (lines, but not THAT bad), good food (two AWESOME midnight buffets with all the ice/vegetable sculptures...they really went all out), lots of great entertainment, but higher passenger-space ratio, lower staff/passenger ratio ( but great, pleasant, smiley staff). Different crowd than HAL. Not as dressed-up (in general), but not terribly dressed-down, either. Livelier crowd (that wouldn't be hard!) than HAL. More action, later into the night....but, keep in mind that it was a Caribbean, holiday cruise. Fewer (if any) of the little (and, sometimes, not so little) touches, and differences that HAL fans know and love. Fewer freebies. No cool towels returning from shore. Flimsy chairs by the pool. No Yum-Yum man. You know what I mean. But...good cruise...good value. Kids loved it, but, (surprisingly), they (and we agree) thought Princess was better for kid's activities (apart from the "awesome" water slide on the Carnival Legend). Now, I know what a lot of you are thinking....that you want to cruise where there are no kids....and we generally agree (we quite like our "adult' cruises we do on our own...and then, the fewer kids, the better), but I point that out as a help to those for whom the kid's facilities and programs may be a factor.

 

And of course, it really comes down to a bad day cruising is still better than a good day at ....just about anything else!

 

 

 

Our found that, yes, Carnival is a different cruise experience than HAL, but we had a great time, and wouldn't hesitate to cruise Carnival again.

 

Kevin

[sail7seas]

We tired to cruise Carnival once many years ago. We booked Destiny when she was brand new and doing a four day cruise out of Boston. Friends begged us to go with them. We actually got so far as boarding and then everything went downhill......the ship never sailed. I once posted the whole long story but suffice to say, we never gave them another chance. :(

 

We never believed we could have enjoyed a Carnival cruise but were willing to try. We never got the chance.