CARNIVAL VS DCL: The discussion and comparison thread!

[mevelandry]

I was updating the first post yesterday and I was asking myself that question (and now I am gonna ask YOU):

IN YOUR OPINION... WHAT DOES DCL DO BETTER THAN CARNIVAL?

My response to that question would be...

-The cruise booklet. It's something I miss when sailing on other cruise lines, even though it's not giving me any informations that I don't know. It's so cute.

-The decor. I love a classic ship decor. I'm less into modern designs and I'm not a fan of the orange and purple and busy patterns of old carnival ships. The cabins on DCL look very nice too. (Side note: I'm obsessed with Mardi Gras' cabin design. I hope they reproduce it on all ships of the fleet.)

- I love having an adult only section on Castaway Cay.

-The Serenity Bay BBQ. It's not a big deal but the buffet on Half Moon Cay was not as good as Serenity Bay's and they did not have ice cream either.

-The banana self-serve. I believe I had blueberry too on DCL. Carnival has Vanilla/Chocolate/Strawberry but on my last cruise they were out of Strawberry and it made me sad. LOL I know they have more kind in the Lido but I prefer soft ice cream.

-The Chocolate/Grand Marnier soufflés & the grilled Brie, bacon and tomato sandwich.

That's about it.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Day 7: last sea day

The last day came very quickly as it always does and I was planning on fitting everything in. I woke up at about 5:30, not on purpose. I blame in on daylight savings, just messes me up. I was planning on 6:30 to see the sunrise, but oh well. I also had to do laundry, another cruise first for me. Everyone had been showering 2x per day and changing clothes 2x per day. I did consider whether we could just push through but decided not to be gross. We've never actually run out of clothes before. I know a lot of people like to do laundry on cruises and go home with clean clothes, definitely not me. I cannot wait to reach platinum for the free bag of laundry. Dcl should follow CCL here.
Laundry was crowded on deck 7, so I ran to deck 2 and got the last washer. I put the stuff in the machine with the free sample pods I'd gotten from costco a few months ago lol and went back to the cabin to get someone to come see the sunrise. No one would come! So I went up alone. There were a decent amount of people up there and most of them were alone too which leads me to believe that there is only one sunrise person per cabin.

I went back down and moved the clothes to the dryer and went to buy a latte. After walking around a bit I grabbed the laundry and went back to the sleeping cabin and hung out on the balcony until they woke up. When I left the laundry room btw it was now packed with people lining up bags of laundry to get a washer.
We got ready and went to the Dr. SUESS breakfast. I ordered the french toast again.


We've done this a few times, so I could skip it (especially since today was also sea day brunch!), but the kids LOVE it. It's funny, because it's not like they are huge Dr. Suess fans off the ship. Even our teen opts in, whereas he always opted out of the dcl character breakfast. The Suess event is really cute and the menu is so clever.

We rushed from the breakfast to a craft making session. This was a real let down and I have already let Carnival know on our survey. I think I have a direct line to Carnival and they are listening so I take those surveys seriously. More on that later. Last cruise we noticed that Carnival went from 2 crafts per cruise to 1 craft. We were hoping it was an aberration but it seems they have done away with the craft all together and now have 1 session, or free for all, "sponsored" by Michael's which consisted of a bunch of blank cards on a fold out table that you could design with limited amounts of glue, paper and markers. There were a couple of hundred people there so you can imagine how this went. The crafts used to be individually packaged, generally nautical themed and higher skill level. This was kindergarten level and underfunded. Dh said he was out of there. I wanted to try to get some blank cards for the kids to draw on at the cabin, but good luck getting anywhere near that table. So we left, went back to the cabin and got tennis shoes for the ropes course. When we got up there, the weather was great, the line small, and we went twice. Soft serve, then back to Camp Ocean. Dh and I hung out on loungers in the sun for a while, pretending to read but actually listening in to the conversation next to us. Lol. It was hard to ignore. Eventually we made our way to Pig and Anchor (1st and last time this trip) and then went back to check on Camp Ocean.
The rest of the day just flew by, mostly hanging around. We were lazy and went to the buffet that night, so we missed the baked Alaska. We had planned on watching wreck it Ralph 2 at dive in movies but the younger kids ditched us again for Camp Ocean. So we sat out there for a bit but left half way through to go pack.

They ran out of the popcorn boxes halfway through the cruise and switched to bags.
So sad packing up that last night!! But that's how it goes.

One more post on this. I hope tonight.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

I was updating the first post yesterday and I was asking myself that question (and now I am gonna ask YOU):

IN YOUR OPINION... WHAT DOES DCL DO BETTER THAN CARNIVAL?

My response to that question would be...

-The cruise booklet. It's something I miss when sailing on other cruise lines, even though it's not giving me any informations that I don't know. It's so cute.

-The decor. I love a classic ship decor. I'm less into modern designs and I'm not a fan of the orange and purple and busy patterns of old carnival ships. The cabins on DCL look very nice too. (Side note: I'm obsessed with Mardi Gras' cabin design. I hope they reproduce it on all ships of the fleet.)

- I love having an adult only section on Castaway Cay.

-The Serenity Bay BBQ. It's not a big deal but the buffet on Half Moon Cay was not as good as Serenity Bay's and they did not have ice cream either.

-The banana self-serve. I believe I had blueberry too on DCL. Carnival has Vanilla/Chocolate/Strawberry but on my last cruise they were out of Strawberry and it made me sad. LOL I know they have more kind in the Lido but I prefer soft ice cream.

-The Chocolate/Grand Marnier soufflés & the grilled Brie, bacon and tomato sandwich.

That's about it.

Funny but I think my favorite thing about dcl is the paperwork they send ahead of the cruise! I also love the ship design, the aquaduck and on the big ships pepe's door. Lol. I also love the TV stations but wish they would bring back the classic cartoons. The ships also smell good. Disney is the master of smell. And yes, hard to beat the decor.

 

[mevelandry]

Funny but I think my favorite thing about dcl is the paperwork they send ahead of the cruise! I also love the ship design, the aquaduck and on the big ships pepe's door. Lol. I also love the TV stations but wish they would bring back the classic cartoons. The ships also smell good. Disney is the master of smell. And yes, hard to beat the decor.

I like the smell of the ship... except in the cabins. I don't know what they put as perfume but my nose doesn't agree with it!

 

[mcd2745]

I was updating the first post yesterday and I was asking myself that question (and now I am gonna ask YOU):

IN YOUR OPINION... WHAT DOES DCL DO BETTER THAN CARNIVAL?

My response to that question would be...

-The cruise booklet. It's something I miss when sailing on other cruise lines, even though it's not giving me any informations that I don't know. It's so cute.

-The decor. I love a classic ship decor. I'm less into modern designs and I'm not a fan of the orange and purple and busy patterns of old carnival ships. The cabins on DCL look very nice too. (Side note: I'm obsessed with Mardi Gras' cabin design. I hope they reproduce it on all ships of the fleet.)

- I love having an adult only section on Castaway Cay.

-The Serenity Bay BBQ. It's not a big deal but the buffet on Half Moon Cay was not as good as Serenity Bay's and they did not have ice cream either.

-The banana self-serve. I believe I had blueberry too on DCL. Carnival has Vanilla/Chocolate/Strawberry but on my last cruise they were out of Strawberry and it made me sad. LOL I know they have more kind in the Lido but I prefer soft ice cream.

-The Chocolate/Grand Marnier soufflés & the grilled Brie, bacon and tomato sandwich.

That's about it.

I've yet to sail Carnival (just over 150 days to go!). However, going off RCCL & NCL...I believe the answers would be very similar.

No one else's ships - inside and out - look as nice as DCL's...and it's not even close. No one else's is as clean either.

I also like the cruise booklet - and let's not forget the provided luggage tags as opposed to printing your own.

Castaway beats everyone else's private island (though MSC's looks like it will be very interesting).

I would add the shows. Sure, they are all saccharine sweet and sappy (and of course, even the feature performers need to stay Disney-fied) . But the quality of the productions and the talent of the casts are better than anything I've seen on other ships.

And a big one (for me, at least) is that with DCL, I don't have to pay for excursions upfront. They are added to our shipboard account. I don't like having to pay for the excursions when reserving them on the other lines. Perhaps, some people may prefer that, so it's paid for and keeps their shipboard account from getting too out of control.

I haven't had a meal as good (combing quality of food & service) as Palo yet on either RCCL or NCL.

 

[lucyddr]

I'm sorry you had a bad second cruise... I hope you had better cruising experiences since then.

Will it be your first DCL cruise with the kids?

We had many fabulous cruising experiences since then, both with Carnival and one small Royal Caribbean ship! This is our first DCL cruise with our twins and their 4th cruise overall. I'm very interested to see how they feel about DCL as well. They have been to WDW 3 times for 7-8 night stays, so characters are nothing new for them. They literally beg to be in Camp Carnival every time the doors are open, so I'm anxious to see how they feel about the Disney kid areas, since they seem to be far less structured. We will know soon enough!

 

[mevelandry]

We had many fabulous cruising experiences since then, both with Carnival and one small Royal Caribbean ship! This is our first DCL cruise with our twins and their 4th cruise overall. I'm very interested to see how they feel about DCL as well. They have been to WDW 3 times for 7-8 night stays, so characters are nothing new for them. They literally beg to be in Camp Carnival every time the doors are open, so I'm anxious to see how they feel about the Disney kid areas, since they seem to be far less structured. We will know soon enough!

Which ship?

 

[BrookeMQ]

We have done both Carnival and Disney. (and one ncl and one celebrity and one costa). Most of our cruises have been on Carnival.

Things we liked better on Disney:

Free soda. And the fact that it was from a fountain. I hate the warm cans of soda poured over ice from carnival. It goes flat almost right away.

Buffet -- Disneys buffet food was better. But we like all of the other options for lunch on carnival better. Except disneys chicken fingers were yummy

Holidays -- i love that disney celebrates the holidays on board. The huge gingerbread house was so nice. We liked making our own house (which was actually very tasty). Fun holiday characters etc.

Shows -- the quality of the performers are better on Disney. I don't need Disney shows every night but the singers were definitely better than our carnival singers the last few times.

TV in room -- this doesn't really matter to us but Carnival has nothing for kids to watch (or adults even). it would be nice to have some decent channel when getting ready for dinner or before bed. I wasn't feeling well one night and went to room early and there is absolutely nothing to watch on that tv.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

So just a quick in sum, the Breeze is wonderful and we would love to sail her again. Everything makes sense on the Breeze. There is not one thing that is offensive or annoying or where you say to yourself, what were they thinking. The space flows, the venues are properly sized, we encountered practically 0 lines the entire trip (5 min sometimes at pizza
which by the way is made with Italian flour! and guys. But I do not consider 5 min a line.) and apparently the ship was full with around 4500 guests. This ship never, never felt crowded. The staff is stellar. The ship is CLEAN and in great physical shape. There were people steam cleaning the carpets regularly on the stairs and in heavily trafficked areas by the elevators. I never saw any plates on tables in the buffet unless people were eating off of them. The staff was picking up plates as you were finishing. They were polishing the glass on the staircases in the morning. I said that CCL pays attention to my surveys because cleaning was the biggie I put on our last survey and I went into detail about all the specific things in our cabin and in public areas that CCL needed to focus on. They were focusing on all of those things! Lol. I am kidding about them paying attention to my survey but it is interesting...
Dh said this was his favorite CCL ship, I still stick with the Conquest for the back pool, and our teen said Vista.



If you see any of these with kids on CCL ships, don't be surprised. These puppets are the it souvenir for the Camp Ocean set, or at least they were last week. One of our kids begged us for one and gave us directions in the Carnival gift shop to find it. When we were driving home at a gas station in Florida a woman walked over to our car and said really excitedly, "You have a bird! Can I see it?" At first I didn't know what she was talking about but then I was like, oh sorry, that's a puppet. She took it well, but as we were driving away, I couldn't help laughing and thinking, good lord lady, did you really think I had a live bird flying around my car?

We told junior to put the puppet away before the police pulled us over to check on the bird.

Ah, I am just so missing Florida and can't wait to get back to that magical state where anything is possible. And can't wait to get back on a ship. Any ship leaving from anywhere!!

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

We have done both Carnival and Disney. (and one ncl and one celebrity and one costa). Most of our cruises have been on Carnival.

Things we liked better on Disney:

Free soda. And the fact that it was from a fountain. I hate the warm cans of soda poured over ice from carnival. It goes flat almost right away.

Buffet -- Disneys buffet food was better. But we like all of the other options for lunch on carnival better. Except disneys chicken fingers were yummy

Holidays -- i love that disney celebrates the holidays on board. The huge gingerbread house was so nice. We liked making our own house (which was actually very tasty). Fun holiday characters etc.

Shows -- the quality of the performers are better on Disney. I don't need Disney shows every night but the singers were definitely better than our carnival singers the last few times.

TV in room -- this doesn't really matter to us but Carnival has nothing for kids to watch (or adults even). it would be nice to have some decent channel when getting ready for dinner or before bed. I wasn't feeling well one night and went to room early and there is absolutely nothing to watch on that tv.

Last week on the Breeze we watched the travel channel which apparently only shows these awful ghost tracking shows #$!!?? I kept telling the kids to turn it off but they were glued. Those funky Mickey cartoons better watch out... they've got competition. Lol

 

[belle032]

Last week on the Breeze we watched the travel channel which apparently only shows these awful ghost tracking shows #$!!?? I kept telling the kids to turn it off but they were glued. Those funky Mickey cartoons better watch out... they've got competition. Lol

Omg, I am addicted to those ghost shows! I love paranormal stuff in general and those shows are a definite guilty pleasure!

 

[mcd2745]

Forgot one other thing that DCL does better (hopefully Carnival's is better than NCL's or RCCL's) that probably most people don't care about, but is oddly enough a big thing for me....the Navigation channel on the TV. The information is better and more of it (such as sea depth). Plus...all the Disney songs.

 

[mevelandry]

Omg, I am addicted to those ghost shows! I love paranormal stuff in general and those shows are a definite guilty pleasure!

Paranormal. Do you like Tyler Henry? (I do!)

 

[mevelandry]

So just a quick in sum, the Breeze is wonderful and we would love to sail her again. Everything makes sense on the Breeze. There is not one thing that is offensive or annoying or where you say to yourself, what were they thinking. The space flows, the venues are properly sized, we encountered practically 0 lines the entire trip (5 min sometimes at pizza
View attachment 389352 which by the way is made with Italian flour! and guys. But I do not consider 5 min a line.) and apparently the ship was full with around 4500 guests. This ship never, never felt crowded. The staff is stellar. The ship is CLEAN and in great physical shape. There were people steam cleaning the carpets regularly on the stairs and in heavily trafficked areas by the elevators. I never saw any plates on tables in the buffet unless people were eating off of them. The staff was picking up plates as you were finishing. They were polishing the glass on the staircases in the morning. I said that CCL pays attention to my surveys because cleaning was the biggie I put on our last survey and I went into detail about all the specific things in our cabin and in public areas that CCL needed to focus on. They were focusing on all of those things! Lol. I am kidding about them paying attention to my survey but it is interesting...
Dh said this was his favorite CCL ship, I still stick with the Conquest for the back pool, and our teen said Vista.


View attachment 389350
If you see any of these with kids on CCL ships, don't be surprised. These puppets are the it souvenir for the Camp Ocean set, or at least they were last week. One of our kids begged us for one and gave us directions in the Carnival gift shop to find it. When we were driving home at a gas station in Florida a woman walked over to our car and said really excitedly, "You have a bird! Can I see it?" At first I didn't know what she was talking about but then I was like, oh sorry, that's a puppet. She took it well, but as we were driving away, I couldn't help laughing and thinking, good lord lady, did you really think I had a live bird flying around my car?

We told junior to put the puppet away before the police pulled us over to check on the bird.

Ah, I am just so missing Florida and can't wait to get back to that magical state where anything is possible. And can't wait to get back on a ship. Any ship leaving from anywhere!!

And ... another ship added to my "OMG I wanna try that ship" list.

Thank you so much for your review.

 

[mevelandry]

Forgot one other thing that DCL does better (hopefully Carnival's is better than NCL's or RCCL's) that probably most people don't care about, but is oddly enough a big thing for me....the Navigation channel on the TV. The information is better and more of it (such as sea depth). Plus...all the Disney songs.

Carnival has a similar channel and I've seen big screens showing maps in public places... Near the Café, I think?

I had a picture of that on my phone but I think I deleted it last week. I'll check.

EDIT: Found it!



I love this too!!! (And if I'm on a flight that has screens with maps with altitude, mileage, etc, I can spend almost the whole flight looking at it). I'm obsessed.

 

[mevelandry]

We have done both Carnival and Disney. (and one ncl and one celebrity and one costa). Most of our cruises have been on Carnival.

Things we liked better on Disney:

Free soda. And the fact that it was from a fountain. I hate the warm cans of soda poured over ice from carnival. It goes flat almost right away.

Buffet -- Disneys buffet food was better. But we like all of the other options for lunch on carnival better. Except disneys chicken fingers were yummy

Holidays -- i love that disney celebrates the holidays on board. The huge gingerbread house was so nice. We liked making our own house (which was actually very tasty). Fun holiday characters etc.

Shows -- the quality of the performers are better on Disney. I don't need Disney shows every night but the singers were definitely better than our carnival singers the last few times.

TV in room -- this doesn't really matter to us but Carnival has nothing for kids to watch (or adults even). it would be nice to have some decent channel when getting ready for dinner or before bed. I wasn't feeling well one night and went to room early and there is absolutely nothing to watch on that tv.

It's the main reason I never took the soda package. I keep telling John Heald on his FB page that I won't buy the soda package as long as they do not have machines (also, fountain soda is much more affordable than buying cans, I'm shocked that they don't do that).

While I'm not a fan of breakfast at Cabanas (I only eat Mickey waffles), I love DCL embarkation day lunch.

We got lucky on the Victory and Sensation, the performers were amazing but on the Vista, not so much (there was one that was always "flat" and I couldn't stand it). DCL shows' performers are usually excellent.

I would love a good movie channel. But I remember catching Die Hard on a tv channel on the vista because it happened to be on tv that night.

 

[mevelandry]

I've yet to sail Carnival (just over 150 days to go!). However, going off RCCL & NCL...I believe the answers would be very similar.

No one else's ships - inside and out - look as nice as DCL's...and it's not even close. No one else's is as clean either.

I also like the cruise booklet - and let's not forget the provided luggage tags as opposed to printing your own.

Castaway beats everyone else's private island (though MSC's looks like it will be very interesting).

I would add the shows. Sure, they are all saccharine sweet and sappy (and of course, even the feature performers need to stay Disney-fied) . But the quality of the productions and the talent of the casts are better than anything I've seen on other ships.

And a big one (for me, at least) is that with DCL, I don't have to pay for excursions upfront. They are added to our shipboard account. I don't like having to pay for the excursions when reserving them on the other lines. Perhaps, some people may prefer that, so it's paid for and keeps their shipboard account from getting too out of control.

I haven't had a meal as good (combing quality of food & service) as Palo yet on either RCCL or NCL.

(How did I miss your post?)

To me the only ship that came close to DCL when it comes to decor was the Vista... BUT, like I said, I will still prefer the classic look of DCL.

You are right. DCL does luggage tags too. That's another thing I prefer on DCL.

Is Half Moon Cay on your itinerary? If it is... Let me know what you tought about it when you come back. They are 50-50% in my heart. I can't chose between them. I want both. LOL

Palo is awesome. Have you tried Remy? Best meals of my life.

 

[mevelandry]

Good morning guys,

Following an exchange with another DISer last night, I have realized that it would make sense to open a new section in the first post to welcome "comparisons with DCL" for other lines of Carnival Corporation like Princess, Holland, Cunard, etc. in order to bring most "non-100% DCL reviews" here...

... it will also let the DCL forum "breathe".

So... The new section is open. Everybody is welcome to participate and/or make suggestions.

 

[Magical2017]

Good morning guys,

Following an exchange with another DISer last night, I have realized that it would make sense to open a new section in the first post to welcome "comparisons with DCL" for other lines of Carnival Corporation like Princess, Holland, Cunard, etc. in order to bring most "non-100% DCL reviews" here...

... it will also let the DCL forum "breathe".

So... The new section is open. Everybody is welcome to participate and/or make suggestions.

We are just now planning for 2020--I am looking forward to reviews on other lines so we can make the best choice for our family. Thank you!

 

[trvlgirlmq]

I will list things I think Carnival (and the other lines) do better than DCL.

1. Anytime Dining - the other lines all have the option to choose to have dinner in the MDR at your leisure, DCL is too regimented
2. Sitting alone in the MDR - See above, with anytime dining you will be seated as a family, you do not have to share a table and make small talk with people you may not like
3. Included food options - CCL has Blue Iguana, Guy's Burgers, Pig & Anchor, Cucina del Capitano, the other lines have things like O'Sheehans, Noodle Bar, etc, DCL only has the buffet and MDR for everyone (it looks like they have a small cafe for adults)
4. Split beds - All rooms have a bed that splits into twins so if you are 2 adults traveling together who are not married you can have your own sleeping place in a real bed (not a sofa)
5. Fun stuff - Waterworks, rope courses, Sky ride, roller coaster, climbing walls, ice skating, many things to do if you want an active vacation, DCL I believe has 1 slide on only 2 ships
6. PRICE - I can take 2 vacations a year for less than the cost of a 7 day cruise on DCL