Carnival Pride or Norwegian star?

[lasnev]

For a quick last minute getaway, need help trying to decide between the two. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[lbfluffy]

Never been on NCL, but have been on Pride. We love the ship. In fact we are going again in November. it is easy to get around and a beautiful ship.

[doofus]

Our family are going with NCL Star in October and been on NCL cuise once. We like it and especially with kids, the "anytime dinning" was nice. My friend just came back from the Pride and she like it too.

 

Ling

[Wrk4Vacation]

Can't beat anytime dining, great fitness center, beautiful ship and great staff.

[lasnev]

I was kind of leaning that way, is the fitness center included in the price?

Thanks

[HLP]

I have been on the carnival pride twice to the Mexican Riv.

Its a beautiful ship with good service and a great upper deck.

I have been on NCL star once and will be going again this Christmas

to the Mexican Riv. Its a beautiful ship as well. Here would

be my pluses for both.

 

Carnival Pride

 

Very good buffet layout

Better top deck layout (not as important for Mex. Riv)

Longer stay In Cabo

Three pools with one that can be enclosed

 

NCL Star

 

More dining choices

Freestyle dining

Better kids pool

Nicer decor(opinion)

 

Both would be great choices. If I hadden down it twice already

on the Pride I would take the best deal. I wanted to try the star

this time.

 

HLP

[AZ Karaoke Girl]

Been on sister ships to both. I gotta say Carnival Pride wins in my opinion. I know cuz I had the same choice when Carnival cancelled my Elation cruise in February. NCL was going to be $200 more than I paid for the 5 day cruise and Pride was going to be $500 more. Here is why I booked with Carnival & paying the extra even though I was mad at them for cancelling my cruise.

 

1. Rooms are way bigger than NCL. 25 sft might not seem like much it is. I guess the layout. A quad on NCL would have been wall to wall beds and you'd have to scoot to the bottom of the bed to get out cuz no room in between the 3 lower beds. CCL has a king bed with lots of room around it and the sofa is a sleeper plus the pull down (upper). Lots of room.

 

2. Dining room food was awesome on CCL- NCL had a better buffet in my opinon.

 

3. The ship layout is better than NCL. NCL has elevators that don't go all the way so you have to take one elevator, then go across to another elevator to continue up etc. Carnival ship was much easier to navigate from bow to stern or top to bottom. Most of the activities we liked were on deck 2 & easy to find our way. Really only had to memorize deck 2 & Lido deck so I didn't get lost like I did on NCL.

[Toothfairy754]

I have been on both the Star and the Pride. I had a much better time on the Pride. IMHO.. Food was better, cabins were larger and I just enjoyed the atmosphere of the Pride more.

It could have had something to do with the Star having a terrible outbreak of Noro and how poorly they handled it.

On the other hand I did enjoy the ports on the Star better... although I was not impressed by Acalpulco I was very impressed with Z/Ixtapa. I did miss Matazlan on the Star sailing.

So part of it might be where you want to sail.

I was not impressed with NCL's freestyle, things I had fun doing on the Pride I did not get to do on the Star (going through the Galley etc)

I also like the experience of dining with the same people every night,we made friends and did excursions together, you do not get that with Freestyle.

[pppiglet]

I've only been on the Pride, but it was great!

[lasnev]

Thanks to all for your help. From what I understand I can't go wrong, it's mostly a matter of organized schedule versus relaxed spur of the moment decisions which I think I'm opting for this time.

[AZ Karaoke Girl]

Size of the rooms makes a difference to me.

 

CCL is larger. Left is CCL Spirit, right is NCL Pride of Hawaii that has since become the Jade.

[lasnev]

This time we are going with ncl, even though i see your point. Got a good deal and I'll be spending quality time with my daughter and we don't plan to spend much time in the cabin.

Bye the way our first family cruise was Pride of hawaii in august 2007, we had a mini suite and it was the best time ever! Kind of liked the Freestyle concept.

[HLP]

Yukon,

 

You were not quite fare with those pictures.

One was a pride balcony cabin, the other a POH

inside cabin.

 

Your point is well taken though, yes carnival cabins

are larger and I should have added that to my comparisons.

It may be important to some people.

I didnt notice push difference between ncl star and ccl

pride balcony cabins. I know by spec they are 166 vs 185

but it didnt seem all that different to me.

I will say the ccl balcony cabins have much better storage.

 

All and all I still perferred the star cruise.

 

HLP

[melika091900]

weve been on NCL star 2 times and carnival pride 1 time,

 

carnival pride was our favorite ship ,, great layout, great buffet layout like someone else mentioned and good pool areas...

 

and the service was better,

on NCL we hated the freestyle dining, and the food wasnt all that great,, just my thoughts,,

[AZ Karaoke Girl]

Yukon,

 

You were not quite fare with those pictures.

One was a pride balcony cabin, the other a POH

inside cabin.

 

Your point is well taken though, yes carnival cabins

are larger and I should have added that to my comparisons.

It may be important to some people.

I didnt notice push difference between ncl star and ccl

pride balcony cabins. I know by spec they are 166 vs 185

but it didnt seem all that different to me.

I will say the ccl balcony cabins have much better storage.

 

All and all I still perferred the star cruise.

 

HLP

 

I think it is still a fair asessment because all Carnival cabins including insides are 185sq ft so the layout is identical - just don't get the balcony extra (solid wall instead of door to outside) so it is still a fair assessment. I was comparing an obstructed view OV on carnival to the obstructed view OV on NCL & there was a significant difference in square footage for the 2 cabins. CCL was 185sf and NCL was 159sf. It isn't 166 on NCL cuz I confirmed that with the NCL PVP I spoke to. She said the Star was 159 sf. 26 sf might not seem like much but it makes a huge difference. I looked up pictures of actual quad rooms for each ship so I could see the difference. A quad on NCL would have had a queen bed, 1 upper and 1 trundle and that would have been wall to wall beds literally. A quad on CCL would have been a king, 1 upper and 1 sofa sleeper and that would allow plenty of room to walk around all the beds. I chose CCL for that reason. Trust me, I was pretty upset with CCL for cancelling my itinerary but I had to suck up my anger and deal with it. Space ruled. However, I have to say the bathroom on NCL wins hands down. I love their showers so much better than CCL. Actual glass enclosures with room to shave my legs:) vs CCL that has a shower the size of a motorhome:(

[bcruisin25]

I have only been on the Pride but absolutely loved it!! The food was great, the service was fantastic, the excursions were amazing, the rooms were spacious, the layout is easy to get around and I hear the kids programs are pretty good to if your traveling with children!!!

 

 

I vote Pride but that is just my opinion!!!

 

Best of luck!:) :)

[HLP]

Yukon,

 

Yes, I understand your point about the cabin sizes. Carnival\has 185 sf

cabins in all catagories except suites which are larger. But the pictures

you displayed for carnival sure looks like a balcony cabin to me. NCL starts with very small cabins and works it way up to mega large suites. That seems to be their style.I always choose balcony cabins so I didnt notice the difference as much as someone in an inside cabin. Your NCL

picture is not a balcony picture because the tvs are not located there

for balcony cabins. The star balcony cabins ARE 166 sf cabins.

The angle of your pictures also was more favorable to the carnival cabin.

The entrance way is not the most glamorous shot of a cabin.

 

Anyway,the OP seems very fimilar with NCL and their cabins and seems to have made up his mind. I hope he has a good cruise.

 

HLP

[lasnev]

I'm sure we will have a great time, just hoping for good weather even though last year in Hawaii we survived the first hurricane in 10 years, an earthquake in Hilo and a tsunami warning in Maui all in the same week aboard the Pride of Hawaii and still managed to have the best time EVER!

[AZ Karaoke Girl]

Even though my pictures I attached are not the same category, I was actually comparing apples to apples. Obstructed OV for both CCL 5A & NCL G. Square footage for the category G on NCL was 159 sf according to the NCL rep I spoke to. CruiseStateroom dot com website says the average OV size is 161 sf. Either way, much smaller. Yes my picture of the NCL cabin was an inside cabin on the Jade which at the time was Pride of Hawaii and it was a sideways turned cabin so the entry was on the side vs the end. I think it was a little smaller than the OV but still not comfy for 4 people. My picture of the Carnival cabin did have a balcony but the only difference is where the door is to the outside is just a solid wall. It is still the exact same size & layout. Below is what I was considering when booking on CCL.

[thecatsmeow]

I'm sure we will have a great time, just hoping for good weather even though last year in Hawaii we survived the first hurricane in 10 years, an earthquake in Hilo and a tsunami warning in Maui all in the same week aboard the Pride of Hawaii and still managed to have the best time EVER!

When will you be going?

[lasnev]

Does September 27 sound familiar?

[thecatsmeow]

Does September 27 sound familiar?

:D Come on over and join our roll call.

[afcj1]

I realize that the OP already made up his/her mind, but I thought I'd give my $.02, because my neighbers (upper 40's and 2 kids 10 & 13), just got back from the Star on an Alaskan cruise. This was a last minute deal, so they didn't do any homework first.

I take all opinions with a grain of salt and these folks are pretty easy to please...that said, they felt that the Star was not in very good shape. Hot tubs broken (2 out of 4), water was just trickling down the water slide, so they were getting stuck, large chess pieces were so rotted that you could pull the heads off, most of the arcade games were broken, to include fooseball and air hockey tables. The movies were good, but there weren't a lot of indoor places to sit and read.

There were always lines for the dining room, the food was below standard, i.e., the buffet food was always the same, they ate @ both specialty restaurants and said that they were nowhere near worthwhile.

They had 2 balcony rooms that they said were small, the beds hard and the balcony was a joke. They've been on RCI, Princess and CCL and said that they'd NEVER go NCL again.

They enjoyed Alaska, they've been before.

So to anyone else that might want to choose between the Pride and the Star, here's a 3rd party opinion of someone's cruise who came home today.

[daisymae253]

We have sailed both cruise lines...i know everyone is entitled in their opinion...my personal preference is Carnival...the service, food and customer service was far better than NCL....I have no plans on sailing with NCL again

[Duncarob]

Just off the Star, and while it is a beautiful ship, the food and service were horrible. I think it has something to do with the "freestyle" concept. The staff just didn't seem to care. And the cabins are small. And the ship was very, very crowded.....not good traffic flow apparently. Service on my prior Carnival cruise was excellent, that's why I'm really looking forward to the Pride in Feb!