How does Carnival compare to DCL?

[templed]

What I don't like:
entertainment is really cheesy (accept the comedians, they were good).

The pool deck is crowded with people drinking and hanging out all day (but I think it is that way on most cruiselines) and for some reason, there seem to be a disproportionate number of people with tatoos on CCL; , they have hairy chest contests by the pool...very tacky. Overall I don't think poolside on a Carnival cruise is relaxing or family friendly. But the pool is so small that I don't spend anytime there anyway (unless there is a waterslide for the kids), and I don't like to "lay out" in the sun - I prefer exploring the ship.

I've sailed RCCL, NCL, Celebrity and Carnival.

Re: Carnival... you're right ... the entertainment was kinda dicey in my opinion. We took my kids out on deck one night for the "Mardi Gras Gala"... and it consisted of the Entertainment staff standing on the side of the pool and they threw beads at everyone... Ya... that's fun.

But the comedians were good... that's for sure.

The pools were ridiculous. Too many people for too small space.

 

[templed]

... One "Highly anticipated" thing that Carnival has been promoting is their "Funville" concept.

Even on the ship... they launched some pseudo-social network that honestly fell flat on its face. Nobody used it.

So it doesn't surprise me that they might have 860,000 posts... (Probably most are started by Carnival...)

 

[Rogillio]

According to this, you can do worse than Carnival...but not much worse.


http://www.cruisedirectonline.com/cruiseshipratings.htm


Cruise Line Rankings

The score shown below reflects the average overall satisfaction ratings submitted by our readers. Some cruise lines have received fewer ratings which may make the score less meaningful. Individual cruise ships may have higher or lower ratings that the cruise line overall.

Carnival (100+)
71.6

Celebrity (100+)
85.4

Costa (36)
65.0

CruiseWest (2)
80.0

Crystal (9)
93.3

Cunard (9)
73.3

Disney (26)
90.0

Holland Am. (83)
75.9

Majestic America (4)
95.0

NCL (100+)
63.1

Oceania (3)
100.0

Orient (6)
90.0

Princess (100+)
74.2

Regent (18)
85.6

Royal Caribbean (100+)
83.4

Sea Dream (4)
95.0

Silversea (4)
95.0

Star Clippers (2)
100.0

Viking (11)
83.6

Windjammer (3)
100.0

Windstar (4)
95.0

The number of reviews submitted is indicated in parenthesis (). These scores do not reflect the opinions or ratings of Cruise Reviews Online the world's leading website for informative cruise reviews, cruise ship ratings, cruise line ratings, port information, deck plans, itinerary maps, cruise ship information. Our powerful search engine allows you to quickly find any cruise from over 8,500 current sailings. Over 50,000 people just like you view these cruise reviews every month.

 

[PrincessTrisha]

According to this, you can do worse than Carnival...but not much worse.


http://www.cruisedirectonline.com/cruiseshipratings.htm

That same website rates Carnival, Cunard, HAL and Princess all as 3 stars. I guess Carnival is in very good company then

 

[bonjoe07]

I just returned from a Carnival cruise yesterday (without the kids) and it does not compare....I went a couple times on DCL and loved it...I hated the food on Carnival (breakfast and lunch were always the same) however my sister loved the food..my husband had no comment regarding the food. I would definitely not bring my kids on Carnival or myself and husband at all again. The shows were dreadful had absolutely no theme! However I only seen four really drunk people....they say its a "booze cruise" but i didnt notice that at all. As far as the kids clubs, I didnt pay attention to them....

 

[BigDisneyOE]

Thank you all for your thoughts & reviews. I'm keen to use up the miles I have to get a cruise before the cruises are priced out of my range you see.

So far this 7 night cruise in the only one coming up that I like the ports, I can 'afford on miles' and is in the Pacific Region. It's a gamble taking the family as it's 4 pax to pay for to LAX and then three days at sea with kids if the kids club isn't any good (the kids are already obsessed with images and pics of the Wonder Club and it's next year until they get there). If I take my Mum I only have one ticket to pay for, she gets a cruise and she's always wanted to be on one and I don't have to worry about her not liking the kids club (only making sure she gets back on the ship on time ). It's hard to know what to do, that is why I sought feedback.

I do value peoples opinions on here, as I said previously, it was the people on the Disboards that sold the idea of DCL finally. I used Cruise Critic and found it 'stiffer' than the Disboards and I could ask plenty of numpty questions here and people always helped with a smile - this sealed the deal, the people were people I wanted to be on a boat with. I'm grateful for everyone's thoughts, thank you so much.

 

[Edd]

I have been on three DCL cruises and many other cruises. If I had a young grandkid with me I would choose the DCL for about two or three cruises with the grandkid. For me personally with a girlfriend or alone the Carnival agenda is much better than the DCL. Don't get me wrong the DCL cruises are nice, but many times to many kids aboard for my consideration and not enough activities or good shows I could enjoy in the evenings or during the day. There is liquor aboard the DCL and also gambling (bingo), but no casinos. I do like to donate to the ship a little bit and the other lines usually give me quite a bit of extra money to use over the DCL.

The ships I go on are all really nice including the DCL, but I don't think the DCL has an edge on anything except taking care of kids.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

I will never again take carnival....2 cruises and on both we had drunks , yelling and bouncing off the bulkheads of the passageways at 0200!.....and this was most nights.


I found the ships ok but the crww othern not that good.The entertainment was poor, but I have to agree the food was ok!


DCL is heads above carnival......so it's only DCL!!! and when I want another itinerary, RCl for me!

AKK

 

[justmestace]

4. We've cruise NCL and HAL in addition to DCL but have never had a desire to find out if they had a forum and post about our cruise on HAL or NCL.

But you've never cruised with Carnival?? Then why even try to answer the question in the first place??

 

[Bullseyebaby]

Oh my.... thank you everyone for your thoughts & opinions. We took a Carnival cruise 10 years ago... and I thought I'd never, ever get my husband to take another cruise (we didn't like it at all). Since then, we've taken 11 DCL cruises. Guess what.... we won a Carnival cruise in a raffle (woo hoo, lucky!)... and are going in September, but without kids. It will be interesting to see the differences. I think it does come down to personal preference, but we're giving it another shot. I feel so guilty..... please don't take our Platinum status away DCL!

 

[lovethedream]

Oh my.... thank you everyone for your thoughts & opinions. We took a Carnival cruise 10 years ago... and I thought I'd never, ever get my husband to take another cruise (we didn't like it at all). Since then, we've taken 11 DCL cruises. Guess what.... we won a Carnival cruise in a raffle (woo hoo, lucky!)... and are going in September, but without kids. It will be interesting to see the differences. I think it does come down to personal preference, but we're giving it another shot. I feel so guilty..... please don't take our Platinum status away DCL!

I think you said it all right there!

 

[Rogillio]

But you've never cruised with Carnival?? Then why even try to answer the question in the first place??

I shared data from another website that refects the opinions of hundreds of people who did sail on Carnival and they rated Carnival 72 and rated DCL 90. I also posted my interpration of internet forum posting volume as an idication of how excited people are about their upcoming or previous cruise. People are free to accept or reject what what I believe the data indicates but cannot disput the data.

Also, there are lots of things I haven't done in this world but that does not mean I don't have an opinion on them. Opinions are seldom based purely on personal experience. My opinion are based on facts and data (as noted above) as well as things I've read and heard about CCL over the years. I have opinions on bungee jumping too but I've never jumped off a bridge with a rubber band attached to my foot.

I don't question anyone's right to opine on any subject here and certainly don't try to determine if they are 'qualified' to post about any topic posted on an open forum.

 

[PrincessTrisha]

People are free to accept or reject what what I believe the data indicates but cannot disput the data.

You can absolutely dispute the "data" you posted - when you pick and choose where you pull certain numbers from or make assumptions based on flawed hypothesis.

For instance:

It's interesting that on Cruise Critic which hosts forums for each and every cruise line, here are some numbers:

Threads active in the past week:


Carnival: 831
DCL: 52


So with that "data" who's more popular and has more fans?

As well, I could very well say that Carnival has a greater care about about the opinions of their customers because:

Carnival Corp. moderated forums: 37 (one for each ship, cruising for families, adults, etc)
Disney Cruise Line operated forums: 0

Carnival allows it's customers to post questions and receive answers from Carnival Corporation employees; Disney does not offer this service - you can call 10 times and get 10 different answers; with Carnival they care about customer service and consistency because they are willing to put what they say in writing and have people who are dedicated to answering questions about their cruise line and policy.

 

[Rogillio]

You can absolutely dispute the "data" you posted - when you pick and choose where you pull certain numbers from or make assumptions based on flawed hypothesis.
.

Sorry Princess but you can not disput the data. I cited the sources and the data is 100% accurate. I formed observations based on this data and you are free to challange my obsevations as not valid but the number are what they are.

You can also cite other data that may contradict the data I used but I also cited other cuise websites with survey data that also supports my opinion of CCL but you are free to 'pick and choose' the parts of my post that support your opinion.

I'm sorry I seem to have offended you.

 

[Fsued123]

We recently returned from a 4 day CCL without our young children and had an okay time. Food was pretty good, as DCL tends to be more "fancy" with their food, while CCL tends to have normal food choices...

We've been on DCL 3x, with our most recent being the Dream and we would choose DCL for a family cruise.

Pools: hands down to DCL, fresh water v. salt, no comparison. Pools on CCL were way packed with smoke filling up the area. No enforcement here. Was not kid friendly IMO. Hairy chest contest, while entertaining, not really fun for kids....

Staff: both had great stateroom hosts, but big drop off to the rest of the staff on CCL. DCL staff as a whole, much better.

Stateroom: no issues with CCL, but the new beds on the Dream are awesome.....

Kids Club: while we checked out the CCL club and I'm pretty sure our kids would have fun, I know they'd prefer DCL. Again IMO, no comparison to DCL.

We have a RCCL family vacation next year and have an awesome 300sf family ocean view room... Kids clubs seem to be nice, so we'll have something else for comparison too.... Waiting on the 2013 itinerary to be released for a DCL Fantasy cruise....

Overall CCL caters to a different group/demographic. It's like motel 6 on CCL. DCL to a different crowd too... Both have loyal followers, to each his own

 

[justmestace]

I don't know what to do and would love to hear if anyone else has cruised with Carnival and could compare to DCL.

Thanks for your time.

I shared data from another website that refects the opinions of hundreds of people who did sail on Carnival and they rated Carnival 72 and rated DCL 90. I also posted my interpration of internet forum posting volume as an idication of how excited people are about their upcoming or previous cruise. People are free to accept or reject what what I believe the data indicates but cannot disput the data.

Also, there are lots of things I haven't done in this world but that does not mean I don't have an opinion on them. Opinions are seldom based purely on personal experience. My opinion are based on facts and data (as noted above) as well as things I've read and heard about CCL over the years. I have opinions on bungee jumping too but I've never jumped off a bridge with a rubber band attached to my foot.

I don't question anyone's right to opine on any subject here and certainly don't try to determine if they are 'qualified' to post about any topic posted on an open forum.

OP didn't ask for data....they asked for people who have actually experienced BOTH.

 

[jfahome]

How does Carnival compare to DCL?---IT DOESN'T!!!!

 

[aan1701]

Guess what.... we won a Carnival cruise in a raffle (woo hoo, lucky!)... and are going in September,

See this is what I am saying, I hate them so much, I would refuse the prize.

 

[Bullseyebaby]

See this is what I am saying, I hate them so much, I would refuse the prize.

Oh no.... I can't let my DH read that. I think he'd agree that we should have donated back (refused)!! We'll make the best of it and I'm curious to compare now that I have a lot of DCL experience

 

[Edd]

You can usually tell the popularity of a certain product by the number of units that are bought each week. I would guess the Carnival probably loads about 50 passengers to DCL's 1 every week, month or year. Because of the passenger counts I think that one of the most popular cruise lines is the Carnival fleet of ships. Numbers talk and opinions walk.