Carnival Cruiser back from NCL

[halos]

Now Now... play nice... we all have opinions like similar body parts..... please dont turn this thread into a nasty war and get it removed !

 

Take a breath.... think about all your great cruise experiences and vow not to sail with eachother ! :eek:

 

 

:eek:

 

Ok....watch and see what happens here...this is a new one. Give it time and it's gonna be just what I was talking about. Get your popcorn...a large one. You may need it. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=865833

[Kurbanfan]

For me, it just reaffirms that I should stick with Carnival.

 

Certainly everyone can do what they want, but that hit me as kinda sad.......

If I were to believe everything on this board regarding cruislines I would have never taken one of the best cruises of my life so far;) And no it was not on Carnival;)

I certainly would not let a bad review of one ship on a whole fleet stop me from cruising that particular line.........I personally will not sail on certain ships in the Carnival fleet again ........but I still continue to sail Carnival........

But hey that's just my opinion........and no my opinion is not better then yours.......just food for thought I guess........

[Kurbanfan]

:eek:

 

Ok....watch and see what happens here...this is a new one. Give it time and it's gonna be just what I was talking about. Get your popcorn...a large one. You may need it. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=865833

 

 

Darn I missed it:( :D

[game_chick123]

I couldn't agree more. We did the 9 day on NCL and there were 10 of us... we only had just a couple meals together. Freestyle is "FREE-FOR-ALL"! We didn't want to spend our cruise time waitin in reservation lines..... The great meals and not worrying about when/where the next meal is .... that is one of the GREAT things about cruising!!! We will stick with Carnival too!

[Stockjock]

I'm leaving in 5 days for my 4th Carnival cruise and I did my first NCL cruise back in Feb. To be completely honest, I'd say that overall, I preferred NCL. That's not to say that CCL is bad. In fact, there are terrific things about Carnival. However, I had a great experience on NCL.

 

I think that the bottom line is that NCL, CCL and others are quality cruiselines at the top of their game. There is much to like about all of them. There are some things that I felt NCL did better and other things that CCL clearly does better

 

One bad experience by one person is unfortunate, but it's probably more attributable to simple and random bad luck than anything else.

[cruzeluver]

Three NCL cruises under my belt in the past five years and no issues to speak of. Never had more than a five minute wait for a table and no broken equipment.

Not saying these issues did not occur, but they can, and do happen on all lines.

[LHP]

See, the sad thing about this whole thing was that we liked the ship per se. We knew it would be small and older, no problem. The staff was very nice and basically service was very good. Our cabin was quite nice and I like the configuration better than the Carnival cabins. We absolutely loved LeBistro. We chose to go two nights because the service was remarkable and the food excellent for the small payment. We are not difficult to please, but when you have a ship that has so many things breaking down....take it out of service, don't send it on a cruise knowing more things will break down. I don't care about a few rusty spots but I do care when a whole service area is out of order or when I ask for a drink that requires pineapple and you tell me you can't make it because you don't have any pineapple.

 

If it had been the storm experience only I would consider it just one of those things, but it was too many things for me.

 

Cathy....thanks for the kind words. Our Anniversary evening was spent with John too sick to get out of bed. I slept with two bottles of wine to keep them from breaking. We still had fun but NCL has scared me off.

 

I understand why people get "scared off" when you have a cruise like this....

 

an off cruise happens on Carnival, too....and if this is the person's only Carnival cruise...it can scare them off. I suggest to folks sailing on any cruise line...not to judge an entire cruise line by one cruise.

 

Currently, we have only cruised Carnival because of our special needs son...but soon he will not be eligible for Club O2 and then I plan to sail most of the cruise lines before my final debarkation!!

[cv322]

Sorry Bunkie that your cruise experience on the Majesty was less than super. There's frankly no excuse for many machines broken down, no coffee cups, or running out of pasta in the pasta cafe. And I applaud you for your stiff upper lip with regard to the weather (I was one of those commiserating with you on your "ALIVE" thread).

 

We gave NCL another chance, recently cruising on the Dawn, and it didn't disappoint. While I'll agree that making dinner reservations on the Majesty did involve long lines a few times, there was never a line even once while on the Dawn. As can be seen in my signature I'm an equal opportunity cruiser...I have no allegiance other than to my preferred itinerary & port of embarkation...and Carnival remains my favorite. Also, from reading threads on the NCL boards, the Majesty has been sold and will be leaving the fleet next year.

 

I hope your next cruise, on whatever line or ship you choose, is the best yet.

[peach2320]

We were on the same cruise as the OP. We did have some minor problems also, but not the same ones as Bunkie.

 

The only time we had a problem with the elevators was the first day. We never had a problem after that. It may have been because we were either very lucky, or we just happened to be near the best elevator location.

 

We were able to get ice cream when we wanted to, may have been lucky there too.

 

They did run out of coffee cups once when I needed one, but it was quickly re-stocked when pointed out.

 

I did notice they weren't supplying teaspoons and were just using stirring sticks when I prefer using a spoon for my tea. I adapted.

 

I thought the food on Carnival was a lot better, but that's just me and my tastes.

 

TV on Carnival is better in my opinion, since we did watch a lot of TV when it worked in the cabin, not by choice on this cruise.

 

I thought the NCL room service menus were better and we did enjoy Freestyle dining.

 

I won't go on, but just wanted to add another point of view to the same cruise.

 

I love Carnival and I always will! I will give NCL another try if the opportunity presents itself, but on a newer ship.

[travelntreats]

Excellent attitude and final decision regarding keeping an open mind on any cruiseline regardless of one bad sailing or not.

[halos]

We were on the same cruise as the OP. We did have some minor problems also, but not the same ones as Bunkie.

 

The only time we had a problem with the elevators was the first day. We never had a problem after that. It may have been because we were either very lucky, or we just happened to be near the best elevator location.

 

We were able to get ice cream when we wanted to, may have been lucky there too.

 

They did run out of coffee cups once when I needed one, but it was quickly re-stocked when pointed out.

 

I did notice they weren't supplying teaspoons and were just using stirring sticks when I prefer using a spoon for my tea. I adapted.

 

I thought the food on Carnival was a lot better, but that's just me and my tastes.

 

TV on Carnival is better in my opinion, since we did watch a lot of TV when it worked in the cabin, not by choice on this cruise.

 

I thought the NCL room service menus were better and we did enjoy Freestyle dining.

 

I won't go on, but just wanted to add another point of view to the same cruise.

 

I love Carnival and I always will! I will give NCL another try if the opportunity presents itself, but on a newer ship.

 

Thanks for the second opinion. :)

[gibsones175]

I have sailed on NCL Sun and on the Carnival Fantasy. Carnival wins hands down. NCL had a big problem with keeping their food hot, even in the main dining room. The specialty resturants were always booked, but everytime I would walk by the door there would be about half or more of the tables empty. Ask the person at the desk and they would say sorry, we are completely booked. I would just go back in about 60 Minutes and the same situation was evident. I could have gotten in ordered my food and have eaten it in that amount of time In the main dining room, they dwelled too much on trying to serve gourmet food.It was terrible. A shrimp cocktail had 2 shrimp in it. The main courses were either bland or over seasoned depending on the item, and always just above room temperature. Not only was this a disappointment,but about 2 weeks after we got back from the ship someone tried to use our credit card to buy some sporting equiptment in another part of the country. We just got the card and the only place we used it was for the sign and sail on the cruise. I reported it to the NCL folks and never heasrd another word about it.

I will never sail NCL again. Carnival all the way!

[Beej29]

I am with those of you that prefer Carnival. My NCL experience was pretty much the same as what I read above. Freestyle is really not freestyle in my opinion. They charged a whole lot more and quite honestly I felt the food was worse than Carnival--couldn't get into any of the restaurants other than main dining room, buffet (which had garbage on it) and the little coffee shop which had a limited menu. I was so disappointed--glad I tried but I glad to be back to Carnival.

[Everbladesfan]

Ihave been on 3 NCL cruises over the years and the first two were great, but the last one on the spirit out of new york was our worst cruise ever. The freestyle dining took us the first three days to get used to and ended up eating the buffet for dinner those nights ( was not feeling the freestyle more like too bad eat at the buffet ). The prices on the ship were also ridiculous photos twice the price of carnival and bingo was insanely priced you could win a game by yourself and just get your money back. We said NCL never again were carnival people with occasional royal carib and celebrity mixed in. Its nice to see that it was not just our cruise on the spirit.

[NaturalLove]

I do want to try NCL one day, but I wouldn't cruise on the Majesty. They cruise frequently out of Charleston, SC, which is driving distance from my home, but it just seems like an old, run down ship with no amenities. I was happy when I found out the Carnival Triumph was going to sail out of Charleston and immediately booked our family cruise.