I've sailed Carnival 5 times and only experienced this....ON SPRING BREAK!
OP - As others have said, different lines, different feels. If you aren't into the Disney thing but want elegant ships and can't afford Seabourne, sail with Celebrity. Their ships are lovely and I found the food to be roughly similar to Disney.
Carnival differs by which ship you are on, what itinerary you are sailing, and how long the cruise is. I promise you that a 7 day on the Legend is WAY different than a 3 day on the Sensation.
Royal Caribbean (Monarch) was the only truly disgusting food I've had. And I'd still be willing to try them again if the timing/price was right. Carnival's MDR food has been consistently great and the buffets good, Celebrity's food good, Disney's MDR food mostly good to great but buffet food on Wonder was not so great.
As far as private islands go, Coco Cay was great and Half Moon Cay was truly outstanding!! We missed Castaway on our one
Disney cruise but will hopefully see it in May.
Disney was the only bad service I've had and I'm booked with them again on a 7 day Fantasy in a couple of months. Making a blanket statement that DCL's service is better than CCL's is just factually inaccurate. I'm sure that on some cruises, CCL is better and vice versa.
It is all truly a matter of opinion but the one thing you will probably get everyone on the DCL Cruise Board to agree on is that cruising is a fantastic vacation. If you want to try it out just to see, try the most inexpensive cruise you can find. You'll either be hooked on cruising or not. Then you can start building up cruising preferences!
