CARNIVAL VS DCL: The discussion and comparison thread!

[mevelandry]

*RANT*

What the hell is this?

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/loc...ruise-ship-sparks-emergency-response/3752985/

These guests are giving Carnival a bad name.

I hope those directly involved will be banned from the cruise line forever.

 

[AquaDame]

*RANT*

What the hell is this?

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/loc...ruise-ship-sparks-emergency-response/3752985/

These guests are giving Carnival a bad name.

I hope those directly involved will be banned from the cruise line forever.

Agreed... fights easily become brawls and ships don't have the security to hold 60 people back!

Folks are acting crazy all over, its not just the cruise ships and I hope everyone knows that. My brother lives in huge tourist area (just outside Amsterdam) and he said the level of insanity from visiting folks is at an all time low. Barriers are being ignored, fights are breaking out, folks are falling into canals, its nuts.

 

[belle032]

Ugh that is terrible. I 100% agree it just gives CCL a bad name and reinforces the stereotype! It could happen anywhere, let alone any cruise line.

Bad behavior is at an all time high. Take a look at WDW, at airlines, and just look at Hawai'i asking tourists to stop coming. Be better people!

 

[lklgoodman]

I feel bad for the employees who had to deal with that. I can't imagine how scary and horrible that was to see happening and trying to stop it. Really bad that so many people would get involved. If I'm ever in a place and a fight starts, I'll be running in the opposite direction!

 

[DCLMP]

Meh. These days every brawl or fight goes viral. The only thing that's changed is cameras everywhere.

 

[Intr3pid]

Well, this is in line with Carnival's reputation.

Cheap prices have to show somewhere. Almost zero security. Bars open into the wee hours of the morning on debarkation day so they can keep selling drinks. Crowd that's treating the cruise like another nighclub down the street. Not exactly rocket science.

 

[jeffporfirio]

Lines up with Carnival's reputation of a "party cruise line", but as mentioned, the behavior is everywhere in the US ; planes, airports, malls, etc.

 

[trvlgirlmq]

Methinks some people have never been on a Carnival cruise. Just troll yourselves out of here.

 

[DCLMP]

Lines up with Carnival's reputation of a "party cruise line", but as mentioned, the behavior is everywhere in the US ; planes, airports, malls, etc.

Anybody that’s ever spent time in bars or night clubs after midnight has seen a few fights or brawls break out. That why they have the 300 pound bouncers at the door. This isn’t some Carnival or “2022“phenomenon. Why in the world Carnival keeps their bars open so late is beyond me….we’ll money of course, but they. are just asking for trouble.

 

[belle032]

I think "so late" has very different meanings to different people? The majority of bars close between 6PM and midnight.

The exception is probably the casino bar and of course, the one nightclub on board. I've cruised CCL many times and never really bothered with it. It's not my scene and we much prefer the adult comedy and late night music.

Frustrating how a few people can ruin a good time. Hope the security and crew were OK during all of it! Oh well, still happy to sail CCL in the future.

 

[mevelandry]

Ugh that is terrible. I 100% agree it just gives CCL a bad name and reinforces the stereotype! It could happen anywhere, let alone any cruise line.

Bad behavior is at an all time high. Take a look at WDW, at airlines, and just look at Hawai'i asking tourists to stop coming. Be better people!

I haven’t heard about Hawaii… but I agree. People are going nuts these days… Everywhere.

 

[mevelandry]

Ok, I’ve started seeing pictures and videos of the brawl and based on what I have seen, it was only… maybe… 10-12 people involved and about half of them were security guards or people trying to stop people from fighting?

Nothing I haven’t witnessed on land before.

 

[mevelandry]

Lines up with Carnival's reputation of a "party cruise line", but as mentioned, the behavior is everywhere in the US ; planes, airports, malls, etc.

I have found a lot of videos of fights on NCL ships, so it’s definitely not just Carnival.

 

[NoodlesMom]

We just got off the Carnival Breeze Saturday and will be boarding the Disney Dream Monday. I plan on doing a trip report with both sailings but I will tell you that the Carnival Cruise was a hot mess! This was our 4th Carnival cruise and the Dream will be our 10th Disney Cruise (yay!). This last Carnival Cruise was the worst. There were multiple fights in the teen club and one in the nightclub. Lines were ridiculously long for everything. One day I had chocolate cake for lunch to avoid standing in line for an hour. My grown kids enjoyed the party atmosphere and my MIL enjoyed the casino but it will be a long time before we try that again. There was absolutely nothing for my almost 3 year old and the build a bear workshop was trash. I could have just bought the bear in a shop.

 

[belle032]

We just got off the Carnival Breeze Saturday and will be boarding the Disney Dream Monday. I plan on doing a trip report with both sailings but I will tell you that the Carnival Cruise was a hot mess! This was our 4th Carnival cruise and the Dream will be our 10th Disney Cruise (yay!). This last Carnival Cruise was the worst. There were multiple fights in the teen club and one in the nightclub. Lines were ridiculously long for everything. One day I had chocolate cake for lunch to avoid standing in line for an hour. My grown kids enjoyed the party atmosphere and my MIL enjoyed the casino but it will be a long time before we try that again. There was absolutely nothing for my almost 3 year old and the build a bear workshop was trash. I could have just bought the bear in a shop.

So sorry you didn't have a good time - I've always heard positive things about the Breeze. Does that go out of Galveston? Not that it matters, I've just never sailed out of that port! Seems like "lines" are just about everywhere at this point. It's been made very public that staffing is a huge issue. I wish they would have kept ship capacities lower until the staff levels were more under control.

Unfortunately, they are only offering youth programs to kids ages 5 and over due to vax requirements, so hopefully that will change in the future. I imagine it's a little tough to be cruising with young kids right now.

Looking at other threads on this forum, it seems like all cruise lines aren't back to pre-pandemic levels of service and YMMV. We've had wonderful times on both of our previous CCL cruises in the last year, but understand that even during a "normal" time, people experience different things. Hope your DCL is great!

 

[belle032]

I've been reading through the threads on the Wish and am more and more solidified in my feelings that we won't be missing much by not booking that ship anytime soon ( or ever). And that we are absolutely not the target audience here. I feel that this ship is especially geared towards families with young children - and maybe just children in general.

Some of the lounges definitely look cool, no complaints with those. I would love to check out that Hyperspace Lounge! I'm still pretty "meh" on the atrium. There's just something that's not doing it for me. The other 4 ships are lovely, don't know what I'm missing with this one.

But huge deal breaker for us - take a look at the Quiet Cove on the Disney Wish and the Serenity Deck on the CCL Mardi Gras. Which one would you rather spend time on? I cannot believe they didn't allow for more space for adults to get away.

 

[lklgoodman]

I've been reading through the threads on the Wish and am more and more solidified in my feelings that we won't be missing much by not booking that ship anytime soon ( or ever). And that we are absolutely not the target audience here. I feel that this ship is especially geared towards families with young children - and maybe just children in general.

Some of the lounges definitely look cool, no complaints with those. I would love to check out that Hyperspace Lounge! I'm still pretty "meh" on the atrium. There's just something that's not doing it for me. The other 4 ships are lovely, don't know what I'm missing with this one.

But huge deal breaker for us - take a look at the Quiet Cove on the Disney Wish and the Serenity Deck on the CCL Mardi Gras. Which one would you rather spend time on? I cannot believe they didn't allow for more space for adults to get away.

There's something about all the princess themes in the cabins that I don't care for. Not sure what it is because I've always loved all the different princess movies. I like the colors in the cabins, but I don't know, something about it is just a turn off to me. I've always felt the cabins in the other 4 ships need to be refreshed or something. The sofas and curtains look so worn and just so yuck. I would like the Frozen restaurant, but don't care for Marvel or Star Wars, so having anything related to either is a big turn off. Makes me more excited for our NCL cruise.

 

[mlayton14]

Well, this is in line with Carnival's reputation.

Cheap prices have to show somewhere. Almost zero security. Bars open into the wee hours of the morning on debarkation day so they can keep selling drinks. Crowd that's treating the cruise like another nighclub down the street. Not exactly rocket science.

I agree. Even if you say 10% more riff-raff on a Carnival cruise (the twenty something let’s go get wasted and stick our chest out crowd) vs More expensive lines , that’s a way better chance of things going south. And the fact that they are keeping bars open to serve these fools , it’s easy to see the booze cruise reputation that exists for Carnival.

 

[IAMOZBY]

I would never go on a Carnival cruise even if it was free. This behavior is not everywhere, Wailea had no such behavior.

 

[trvlgirlmq]

What is up with the Carnival trashing lately? This thread is for people who WANT to try Carnival and those of us who ENJOY it to give pointers. You could never pay me enough to go on an overpriced Disney cruise with a bunch of snooty jerks.