Carnival Cruise

[jenny105]

Ok so I know this is a DCL forum but I figured somebody has to have sailed with Carnival before. I want to surprise my DBF for our anniversary next year (it'll be our 5th) and I was thinking of a cruise. I found a 6 day one, on the Carnival Freedom, that goes to Key West, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman that's less than $500/person! Good deal! But I've never sailed with Carnival and I've heard some mixed things. I'm not new to cruising; I've sailed with NCL and RCCL before. A lot of people hate NCL but I'm not picky which leads me to think I would like Carnival. But I'm just curious on other people's feedback...

 

[Mickeyhugger]

Ok so I know this is a DCL forum but I figured somebody has to have sailed with Carnival before. I want to surprise my DBF for our anniversary next year (it'll be our 5th) and I was thinking of a cruise. I found a 6 day one, on the Carnival Freedom, that goes to Key West, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman that's less than $500/person! Good deal! But I've never sailed with Carnival and I've heard some mixed things. I'm not new to cruising; I've sailed with NCL and RCCL before. A lot of people hate NCL but I'm not picky which leads me to think I would like Carnival. But I'm just curious on other people's feedback...

We have sailed twice with Carnival(7 day cruises) and had a great time,never saw any of the "booze cruise" or excessive party atmosphere that others complain of. We found their food to be as good and sometimes exceeding that of DCL's. Check out the the Glory out of PC

Rob

 

[unionville]

We had a fun time on our Carnival cruise as well. A cruise vacation is what you make of it. Yes there was more adult drinking and activity on our 6-night Carnival than Disney, but I wouldn't call it a "booze cruise". You should check out cruisecriticdotcom and look at their Carnvial board for more discussion about all things Carnival. You can also read reviews of the different ships.

 

[kcashner]

The longer the cruise, the better the crowd you'll see on that line. The 20 somethings who want to get drunk and gamble tend to do shorter cruises. THe longer ones get somewhat more families and a nicer atmosphere.

That said, my teen says that if it is on that line, she'd rather not cruise at all.

 

[dizmomof2]

We've cruised twice with Carnival. The food was okay, not great but not bad either. The entertainment on the first was pretty good. Not Disney but a heck of a lot chaeper too! The second cruise was not great. The food was boring and bland, the entertainment, almost non-exitent and the service poor. People who'd never cruised before thought it was pretty good but repeat cruisers were not impressed.

There was 20 of us in the group I went with and none of us have any desire to sail Carnival again. Complants were ignored, kids club activites were cancelled more then they were run and children were out of control. As for the party "booze cruise" that it is known for, that would be hard since they kept closing bars in the early evening and crowding everyone into one or two bars. We never saw anyone outragously drunk. (tipsy, yes, drunk, no)

If it's a good price and you want to try it out, why not. My DD's are with kcashner's DD though, if it's Carnival they'd rather not cruise.

 

[demeritts1229]

I cruised on Carnival once...and that was more than enough for me. My room was broken into and Carnival took no responsibility!! After a lengthy and extremely embarassing "investigation" of my room, they found we (and several other rooms in our hall) had a faulty deadbolt and the door opened with no problem.
Still, they took no responsibility.
PM me if you'd like more info. I've cruised on Norwegian several times since then and am waiting for a chance to do a Disney Cruise!!
GOOD LUCK with your decision.

 

[BubbaGrump]

Carnival Pride 7 day Mexican Riv. Cruise,Aug 08

Carnival Pride..........UGLY

Service..................TERRIBLE

Food......................POOR

Room......................SMELLED LIKE AN OUTHOUSE

Service...................Did I mention it was TERRIBLE!

Guy peeing in the hall, tried to get into our room because he had no clue where he was he was so drunk. Had to call security to help him find his room. No one ever cleaned up the puddle he left in the hall.
Saw food spilled in common areas that staff would just walk past, FOR DAYS! Not joking! One ice cream cone that was left out on deck had been there so long that even the cone part had melted and the whole "blob" was hardening in the sun. I honestly think it was from the cruise before ours because this was our first day and the blob was already hard. Officers and crew smoking out on deck when on duty, or at least still in uniform. Saw OFFICERS acting like college kids at a bar totally putting the make on some young ladies. It was kinda funny actually. But didnt say much for Carnival. The list goes on , but you get the picture. The bright spot was a couple of different comedians whose adult shows were halarious!!So I must say, never again thanks.

 

[Orlando Disney Guy]

I have done 2 7 night Carnival Cruises. Any crusie line has it's pros and cons. I feel it is all about who you are with that makes the cruise a fun experience. On any line the crew is there to keep your buisness and win you over for your next cruise. The look and feel of a Carnival Cruise is very much like a vegas hotel feel. They are flashy, a lot of neon lights and more adult oriented entertainent especially in the late night hours. (not stippers or anything)

I am a bit partial to DCL but if I had the choice of carnival or not sailing . . . .I would go, no questions about it.

If you want more detailed information about my trips, message me!

happy sailing!

 

[alldiz]

I've done Carnival once. Out of NY. It was a short cruise so I would imagine I would have had the party crowd.

Food.....I thought the food was excellent....much better than I expected and better than my NCL's 10 yrs back.

Crowd...OK...the worst was having to navigate around the matching orange family reunion shirts Seriously...I don't know if this is normal because it was out of NY and cheap...but there must have been 5 family reunions all with matching shirts...that kind of took up wherever they were.

Room....Couldn't have been happier....cotton comfy duvets, great room stewart....quiet room nice balcony.

Activities....I didn't notice any cancellations, there seemed to be plenty...I mostly just chilled with my crew

Kids Club....I didn't have DD with me...but my friend went on the same cruise 2 weeks later and said her triplets age 6 loved the clubs.

All in all.....I think any cruise/vacation is what YOU make of it most of the time.
If the price is right....try it. Although I will tell you that EVERYONE says RCCL is a better line.
Kerri

 

[stsomewhere]

Dh and I went on a Carnival cruise in 1996. It was ok.
We have taken cruises with our kids on HAL, RCCL, and NCL and they loved it.

Our friends wanted to go on a cruise last year, they wanted a good deal. So, we went on CArnival Truimph. It was horrible. Carnival ended up giving us a $500 OBC for our next trip.

DS-9 and DD-7 did not like the kids program.
Not alot of activities we were interested in.
The toliets went out daily in our cabin and half the ship.
The satelite went down and they were unable to reauthorize credit credits.
A lot of unhappy people. They were told that it was their credit card and to call them FROM THE SHIP . I ended up putting cash down.

Positives
Our servers were excellent and we looked forward to dinner every night. We were on a cruise and not at home in the cold. We were with good friends.

Our kids told us if sailed on Carnival again, they would stay home....

My kids told me that if we sail with

I will probably never go on another Carnival cruise again

 

[Sophie_2003]

We've cruised Carnival 8 times. About to go on a first DCL cruise so I cannot compare, however...

food: always loved the food; depends what you eat I guess but fish, seafood and vegetable entrees were outstanding in our opinion

entertainment: we're not into the Vegas style shows but DD is, so she enjoys them more than we do.

service: hit and miss, as I imagine anywhere else. We've had outstanding waiters/room stewards and average ones

kids club: dd loved it, it is very craft-intensive and she loves that stuff

ship: my faves are the Legend and Pride, so "diffrent strokes", as you see a poster above hated the Pride, I thought it was lovely.

Our family really likes Carnival and if we want to cruise often disney is just too much $$$, so I find it a good quality for what I pay. And anectodal evidence (people partying, throwing up, smelly rooms) don't hold much in my opinion, because that can happen anywhere...

JMHO

 

[Phyllisi]

My family enjoys the Carnival cruise line, last year we sailed on the Freedom and the year before that we were on the Glory. The rooms are about the same size as DCL. We had an aft balcony on the Freedom and will never sail a normal balcony room on Carnival again. The aft balconies are huge, bigger than the balconies than the “normal baloney” on both Carnival and DCL. We had 2 chairs, 1 drink table, and one lounger. Plus the panorama view was great. We think the food is better on the Carnival line, and the beds. Disney is better for entertainment. My 10-year-old daughter prefers the children’s program on Carnival and I agree. In fact, the primary reason we are sailing on the Magic this spring is because my daughter will be 11 at the time of the cruise and wanted to check out the new tween club and DCL opened up military discounts to retired military. I say go for it. My aunt was on the Freedom last March and is sailing her again this March. Then she will join is on the Magic cruise. I love cruising and I think any cruise is better than being at home.

 

[perpetualplanner]

I've cruised both Carnival and Disney with kids. The Carnival cruise was a New Years cruise and had lots of kids but few kids activities and all activities for kids in the tween group were "scavenger hunt" like activities with them roaming the ship unsupervised. My kids REFUSED to spend time in the clubs after the first day or so. On Disney my kids REFUSED to leave the clubs they had so much fun.

For adults the Carnival cruise didn't have much to do besides drink. The pools were super crowded or taken up with "adult" games. The weather was also terrible (I know not Carnival's fault) but we missed ports or had them cut short with no activities added on ship.

 

[stsomewhere]

I've cruised both Carnival and Disney with kids. The Carnival cruise was a New Years cruise and had lots of kids but few kids activities and all activities for kids in the tween group were "scavenger hunt" like activities with them roaming the ship unsupervised. My kids REFUSED to spend time in the clubs after the first day or so. On Disney my kids REFUSED to leave the clubs they had so much fun.

For adults the Carnival cruise didn't have much to do besides drink. The pools were super crowded or taken up with "adult" games. The weather was also terrible (I know not Carnival's fault) but we missed ports or had them cut short with no activities added on ship.

I totally agree with this. It is exatly how we felt. My kids would go to kids program after 10pm for video games and some freetime. It cost us $300 for "late night party fees".

We are going on our 1st DCl cruise in a few weeks and we excited about the kids programs.

My kids love RCCL and HAl programs.

 

[dizkids]

We did one of the newest ships last summer. The Carnival Liberty with group of 20 and it was excellent super clean great service. The food was very good to some excellent but no complaints. 7 day western carrib. Not a booze cruise but still mixed with families and singles of all ages.

 

[Mickeyhugger]

We did one of the newest ships last summer. The Carnival Liberty with group of 20 and it was excellent super clean great service. The food was very good to some excellent but no complaints. 7 day western carrib. Not a booze cruise but still mixed with families and singles of all ages.

We also did the Liberty summer 08...great ship no complaints at all. We loved the specialty restaurant well worth the money and our 14 yo Daughter was able to join us

Rob

 

[Vegaslover]

I did a six day cruise on the Liberty two years ago during spring break. We loved it! Food was excellent, service was good, room was more than adequate and we booked an inside room. You want to talk about a crew that likes to have fun! They know how to party! They are like the Southwest airlines of cruising. Another thing I liked was that I booked my cruise through carnival and then they had a sale. I called them and I got the sale - $100 off plus an upgrade to a higher deck. We were moved from bottom of the ship to the Ledo deck, which was great.

If I didn't have my daughter, I'd do another carnival cruise. I definitely can't do one after we do our first Disney cruise in March bcause my daughter will have high expectations from then on.

 

[1stime74]

My DW and I have done 8 Carnival Cruises, alternating between Western and Eastern Caribbean. We have enjoyed all of the cruises, (been on the Triumph, Victory and Valor). Carnival is definitely more like a Vegas Hotel and most of the entertainment revolves around the casino and the night clubs. Always enjoyed all of it, but not for people who want to sit around and read a book for excitement. Food has always been as good as any quality steak house, not 5 stars, but then you aren’t paying for 5 stars. For the price, you can’t beat what Carnival offers. But I would not recommend it if you want peace and quite.

 

[Grendalynn]

DH and I have been entertaining the idea of doing a 5 nighter sans kids this April. We did WDW last year for 8 days and had a blast. This year its our turn! We have done the DCL thing before and always find the DCL board very helpful! I have been doing my reserach for what to expect this time around. I understand its not DCL but it is affordable and will be some much needed and deserved time away! The ship is the Carnival Fascination... Anyone ever sailed it? I have done my research and planning (YAY! ) and think we will enjoy it! No, its not Disney but we also wont have our kids with us either! I think you will get mixed reviews no matter what cruiseline or hotel you are discussing. I am going into it open minded and excited to try a more affordable cruise. Love DCl but for 5 of us to go it would cost upward of $9,500! Thats just not reality! DH and I can sneak away for a 4 or 5 nighter to the Bahamas with air from Boston for under $1500. Not too shabby!

I am looking forward the crystal blue-green waters, sitting by the pool soaking up the rays, sipping umbrella drinks! It was -65' last night on Mount Washington and +4' night now! Tomorrow a high of 0.... I would sleep in a life boat if it meant sunny skies and a warm bahama-breeze!

 

[jenny105]

Thank you everyone for your input! I'll have to mull it over a little bit more. I think I would enjoy it because from what everyone says, it's a Vegas type atmosphere and I love Vegas! It's only me and my DBF, we don't have any kids, so there's no need to worry about the clubs. The only thing I was worried about was the service but on any line, it gets mixed reviews. I guess it's just what you make of it!