Bye Bye Disney and Hello Carnival

[quentina]

We have done RC, Carnival and Disney will be in 2010. I will say Carnival is great for families. Although the RC was "prettier", the entertainment didn't touch what Carnival offered.

 

[tazdeb]

OP here.

Glad you had a great time. This is exactly what ship/port/itenery we are going on! Sat - Thurs.
And I might take you up on your offer to pick your brain. I'm looking at a balcony stateroom mid ship on Empress deck - it'll be 5 rooms down from a bar, elevator and internet cafe - we should be set, lol
I want to see pictures of the rooms with the 'top' bunks down over the lower beds and the door to balcony.
-It won't be too cramped with the 4 of us (two boys aged 7 and 4), right?
-Which is best: port or starboard?
-Any execursions that simply go to a beach? How much?
-How much were the drink cards for soda? juice? per day? per adult/child?
- Did you use kids clubs? Were they well staffed and entertaining?
-Do you really have to dress up for formal nights (ie, gowns cocktail dresses, suits, or will polo shirts do?)
I have plenty of questions

If you want cruise info, checkout the forums at cruisecritic.com. They have forums like this that are cruiseline specific. You can talk carnival there like you talk disney here. have a great trip.

 

[webprinter]

I agree with what everyone says about joining cruisecritic.com. It is a wonderful site. We tried Carnival for the first time last year and now it is our favorite cruiseline and we don't like to drink or party!! We much prefer the Western Caribbean to the Eastern Caribbean. You will have a blast. My favorite vacation is still WDW but my second favorite is a Western Caribbean or Mexican Riviera Cruise.

 

[CaliforniaDreamin]

We are doing Carnival next year instead of Disney. I'm sad, but looking forward to trying something new. We are leaving Charleston and going to the Bahamas. I booked one night at Atlantis. I can't wait.

 

[MickeyManiac]

We have done RC, Carnival and Disney will be in 2010. I will say Carnival is great for families. Although the RC was "prettier", the entertainment didn't touch what Carnival offered.

I'm glad to hear that it's great for families. I've been a little nervous about it be a "party" ship.


Also... Carnival has their own message boards. I think it's called carnival connections. You can find it on their website. They can be pretty helpful if you can get past the constant bickering. Definately not as nice as the disboards

 

[travelgirl06]

If you are looking for a nice beach in Cozumel Chankanaab is delightful. I think its about $15/person, but they have hammocks, chairs, nice sand, pools, swim areas, snorkeling, bars, etc. My friend and I did the dolphin swim (amazing!) and our fiances enjoyed beers at the bar while they waited for us. We all enjoyed a nice break in the hammocks and the fact that we weren't hassled at all while we were there

 

[NCRedding]

We are doing Carnival next year instead of Disney. I'm sad, but looking forward to trying something new. We are leaving Charleston and going to the Bahamas. I booked one night at Atlantis. I can't wait.

I am so excited that Carnival is now cruising out of Charleston. We did a NCL cruise out of Charleston a few years ago, and love the convenience of driving to the port (only 4 hours from us)

On our last DCL cruise, we rented a room at the Atlantis (actually at the comfort suites next to it since it was cheaper but still included the amenities) and had an awesome day!

 

[darrengs]

I want to see pictures of the rooms with the 'top' bunks down over the lower beds and the door to balcony.

I am not sure about your room, but all of the rooms I have stayed in if you have a balcony room the couch folds out and there aren't any upper berths.

So for less than one trip to Disney you could take two cruises. sounds good to me.

 

[Leleluvsdis]

We did a western carribean out of miami for our honeymoon last year and absolutly love it!!! I am a disney nut, but disney isn't relaxing to me. When I get home I need a vacation from my vacation. I think if we went more often it would be more relaxing because we wouldn't feel like we had to cram everything in, but we only go every 2 years or so. You will LOVE your cruise. DH and I are not partiers wither, but we LOVED carnival!!! There is always something to do or not to do!!! ENJOY!!!

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

Just this morning and I was crunching the numbers for our planned October 2010 WDW trip and, while the amounts we paid in prior years never phased me, this time the amount is really bothering me. It's not that it's substantially more than prior years it just seems SO expensive to me now. I really don't want to go anymore! I could take 1/2 of what we'd spend at WDW and go on a nice trip somewhere else next summer and leave the other 1/2 in savings.

Maybe it's because DH & I have really watched our money this year and built our savings. I don't feel right spending thousands of dollars for WDW anymore. I must be nutso! Or a grown-up. How did THAT happen???

OP have fun on your cruise!!

 

[TXMouseChaser]

OP here.

Glad you had a great time. This is exactly what ship/port/itenery we are going on! Sat - Thurs.
And I might take you up on your offer to pick your brain. I'm looking at a balcony stateroom mid ship on Empress deck - it'll be 5 rooms down from a bar, elevator and internet cafe - we should be set, lol
I want to see pictures of the rooms with the 'top' bunks down over the lower beds and the door to balcony.


-It won't be too cramped with the 4 of us (two boys aged 7 and 4), right?
I saw lots of families of 4 and talked to the ones across the hall from us and they said they had plenty of room and really weren't in the room much more than to sleep and change. And that is all we were in our rooms for too. And we had an interior cabin.
-Which is best: port or starboard? Both sides really. We docked in Cozumel on the port side and in progresso on the starboard side.
-Any execursions that simply go to a beach? How much? Yes you can just grab a cab in Cozumel and go to Paradise beach. The cab ride will cost around $15 and then it is $10 for a wristband to play on all the inflatables. But the food there is good and the drinks aren't a bad price. No real beaches in Progresso.. we just shopped and then headed back the boat. Some people did go to the local beach by the shops and swam a little.
-How much were the drink cards for soda? juice? per day? per adult/child? You can get juice for free at any of the lido drink stations. The drink card for the soda was around $25 for the cruise... we didn't get one but I know they were around that price. We just drank the water, juice and ice tea on the drink stations.
- Did you use kids clubs? Were they well staffed and entertaining? We didn't use the kids clubs but our friends did. They were VERY well staffed.. lots of staff playing with kids all the time. I saw kids playing wii, doing crafts, dancing, games, and lots of other things with the kids club. Our friends had to drag their kids out of there every day!
-Do you really have to dress up for formal nights (ie, gowns cocktail dresses, suits, or will polo shirts do?) We saw EVERYTHING in the dining room on formal night. I just wore a nice dress that I would wear to church but you saw people in formals, cocktail dresses and all the way down to just slacks and a shirt. Most men had a polo shirt and jacket on or nice long sleeve shirt. (it was cold in the dining room most nights!)
I have plenty of questions

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO PM ME for my e-mail address. I have over 1000 pictures of our cruise and did lots of planning before hand.

-Angie

 

[TXMouseChaser]

-

You can order the excursions on your cabin tv after you leave the port, try to do them early as they sell out fast.
:

Can't do this on the Carnival Ecstasy. They don't have the interactive tv channels.

 

[Poohlovr]

OP-you will love a Carnival cruise! We just returned from our 5th cruise (3rd on Carnival) on Friday and are already planning our next one.

Most of your questions have been answered, but I will add that the soda card is about $6.00 per day + tax (unless you wait until the ship is in international waters to purchase-then no tax) + a 15% gratuity.

At breakfast, there's OrangePassoGuava (yummmm....) and plain orange juices in the Lido deck dispensers. In the afternoon there's tea and lemonade. Sometimes, after breakfast, the juices are still there, but the labels are removed. There were a few times, after breakfast, that the juices were not available, though. You can always get an assortment of juices from room service (no charge, but a tip of $1 or $2 per person is the norm for room service).

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I guess I'm the oddball here but we really will only cruise with DCL anymore. We've cruised on Carnival 3x, never wanting to spend the extra $ on DCL. At the time I figured if we want to see Disney characters, we'll go to WDW. Boy was I wrong. We fell in love.

The Magic is such a beautiful ship, very tastefully decorated, unlike the neon and so much fuschia we saw on Carnival; looked like a wh*r*house. Also everything from buffet trays to evening shows, are created with families in mind. I've never needed to ask if a show was appropriate for children, and yet my dad, in his 60s loved it so much, he even went to the last night's show alone while my mom and I packed. There is so much to do, we couldn't fit it all in on a 7 nt cruise and even after 3 7-nt DCL cruises now, we still haven't done it all.

After our 1st 2 DCL cruises we tried 2 RC cruises, first was adults only with friends, for dh's big birthday. We had a great time but more b/c of the friends we were traveling with. The whole cruise seemed to focus on drinking and gambling. Someone vomited in one pool so it had to be closed. Another young guy was literally falling down drunk poolside til his friends carried him off. Granted it was a short cruise, 4nts, during spring break so it tends to attract this type of crowd.

We gave RC another chance last June (and with kids) sailing to Bermuda, where DCL doesn't go anyway. People were not so drunk but boy they really push the drinks while sitting poolside. I must have told him no about 6 times. Also there is a lot more smoking overall compared to DCL. Sometimes to get from one part to another, you must cut throught the casino which is very smoky. We ended up going up another flight to avoid it.

Also annoying was how you have to sign out a pool towel and if it's not returned to the deck 11 desk, you are charged $20 per towel. I spent half the cruise nagging my kids about the location of their towels as I didn't want to be stuck with a $40 missing towel bill. Carnival was the same way but my kids were much younger then (4,7) so I had been carrying their towels anyway and there was no independence for them back then.
When returning from a beach with wet towels, you have to trek back up to deck 11 to return them; DCL has a huge towel bin at the gangway, so you dont' even have to carry them back onto the ship. Much more family friendly imo.

My kids enjoyed the ice skating and rock climbing wall, the rare times it was even open. We're not into the hairy chest contests, sexy leg contests, etc that we saw on RC and Carnival.

My kids were never into the kids clubs on any ship but once my older ds could go to Ocean Quest, he loved it and now is looking forward to going to the Stack as a teen.

We all agreed that DCL fits us like a glove.
We get our Disney fix and cruise all in one.
ymmv

Check out the cruise boards here on the Disboards; very friendly crowd.
http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=9

 

[jessica52877]

I just booked a Disney cruise this morning. DS will be 7 and has been 3x before but he doesn't remember them (he wasn't even 3 yet). I told DH this will probably be our last disney cruise for a while though since I think he'll love the other ships more, especially since he is getting older.

 

[Planogirl]

Eh, plenty of people seem to love the Carnival ships and I'm sure that it's just a matter of taste. There are also plenty of other cruise lines too if Carnival doesn't meet your needs.

I would like to try this sometime though! I keep forgetting how easy it is to cruise out of Galveston nowadays.

 

[JamesMom]

OP, here.

Looking forward to our first cruise. We have nothing to compare it to. I would have preferred a Disney Cruise [kids program, private island and of course, Mickey!] but it would be as expensive as a WDW vacation when you factor in airfare from Texas and the increase cost of the cruise itself.
Compare:
Carnival 5 nights from Galveston Balcony stateroom $1700 TOTAL for 2 adults/2 children.
Disney 5 nights from Port Canerval same week - $1700 PER PERSON for 1st/2nd per Vacations2go website.
Therefore, we are going to test the waters with the cheaper/closer cruise.

And thanks for answering all my questions. Can't wait!

Bon Voyage!

 

[LoraJ]

I have been on 8 Carnival cruises and really enjoyed them all. The Ecstasy has the water works park on it which I am sure your kids will love.

I'd love to try out the new Dream. The water park on there looks amazing. But my next cruise will be Princess since I have a credit with them.

We have never done Disney because they do not have a Casino. DH loves the casinos on cruises.

 

[LSchrow]

.........Someone vomited in one pool so it had to be closed. Another young guy was literally falling down drunk poolside til his friends carried him off.

eeks
is that what "other" cruses consist of? we were thinking of doing a non-dcl cruise, but that concerns me a bit (we've gone on 2 dcl cruises & found them incredibly booooooooring; castaway cay was amazing, the rest was a snooze-fest).

 

[crashbb]

eeks
is that what "other" cruses consist of? we were thinking of doing a non-dcl cruise, but that concerns me a bit (we've gone on 2 dcl cruises & found them incredibly booooooooring; castaway cay was amazing, the rest was a snooze-fest).

I've cruised on Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Princess. Not once was the pool closed due to someone throwing up in it (actually, not once was the pool closed full stop - unlike DCL where it was closed a few times owing to "biological contamination".

Nor did I see anyone falling down drunk on any cruise (with any cruise line).

Don't let comments like that keep you from cruising another line. I find cruise critic to be a good source for less biased reviews (frequent posters on a Disney board are often going to think that Disney are always best).