Help Carnival/Royal Carribean Cruisers

[louey]

I am organizing a trip for some high school friends for an All Girls Cruise for July 2011. I was looking at the Oasis of the Seas and it looks wonderful and also a Western Cruise on the Carnival Freedom. How do you get the good deals? Should we book way in advance? I need advice



http://www.carnival.com/cms/fun/ships/carnival_freedom/default.aspx?shipCode=FD

http://www.oasisoftheseas.com/

Has anyone done either of these cruises (7/8 Day Western Cruise out of Florida)
Thanks for any help, this was all inspired by the Blizzard of 2010 and Facebook

 

[DawnCt1]

I can't help you with Carnival; I am a Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruise Line fan. We have sailed with RCCL 4 times; The Western Carib twice, and the Eastern twice. Both are nice itineraries, but I prefer the west...at least this week. I find that it works out best to book as early as possible. If you really want to save money, book inside cabin, lowest category guarantee. We booked Inside Q guaranteed early one year for $650 including taxes. Pretty far down on the alphabet and towards the bottom of the ship. Many cruisers want to know exactly where they are staying on the ship and will book Q with a specific cabin to save money. By the time we were ready to sale, N,O,P,Q were all sold out. We were guaranteed no level lower than a Q so we were bumped up to M, midship. It was still an inside cabin but by then the price had dropped, we were reimbursed for the difference and paid $435 pp including taxes. Not bad! For me, I don't care where my cabin is. We aren't sailing on the Titanic thus eat in the same dining room with those in the suites.

 

[mrsmom]

check out vacationstogo.com and the cruiselines websites .
i just did cruisecompete.com you get different prices from different agencys.
check out cruisecritic for any kind of cruise question and advice but they can't give out any travel agency recommendations.

 

[louey]

I can't help you with Carnival; I am a Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruise Line fan. We have sailed with RCCL 4 times; The Western Carib twice, and the Eastern twice. Both are nice itineraries, but I prefer the west...at least this week. I find that it works out best to book as early as possible. If you really want to save money, book inside cabin, lowest category guarantee. We booked Inside Q guaranteed early one year for $650 including taxes. Pretty far down on the alphabet and towards the bottom of the ship. Many cruisers want to know exactly where they are staying on the ship and will book Q with a specific cabin to save money. By the time we were ready to sale, N,O,P,Q were all sold out. We were guaranteed no level lower than a Q so we were bumped up to M, midship. It was still an inside cabin but by then the price had dropped, we were reimbursed for the difference and paid $435 pp including taxes. Not bad! For me, I don't care where my cabin is. We aren't sailing on the Titanic thus eat in the same dining room with those in the suites.

Thanks for all the info, I don't care as long as we are in the middle somewhere. How low is too low on a ship to have a room? Do you just call Royal directly or go through a Travel Agent? Someone said that Royals food isn't as good as Carnival. I went on one cruise like 13 years ago so I have no clue

 

[DawnCt1]

Thanks for all the info, I don't care as long as we are in the middle somewhere. How low is too low on a ship to have a room? Do you just call Royal directly or go through a Travel Agent? Someone said that Royals food isn't as good as Carnival. I went on one cruise like 13 years ago so I have no clue

Low can be an inconvenience as far as getting to the upper decks, pool, etc is concerned but there are elevators. If you book early, it won't matter how low you book as long as you chose a guarantee because you will get bumped up higher. If the ship is going to rock, it is usually side to side, so the higher up you are, the more motion you feel. Being in the middle wasn't important to me. For food, I LOVE Celebrity. I think it is wonderful. I have heard the food on Carnival is good, its just that the glitzy party atmosphere never appealed to me. You may love it. Many people do. I would follow the suggestion that someone posted. I have booked from Cruise.com, cruise compete, etc. Book on line. Some times there are no cheaper rates from agency to agency but you may be offered something for free; ship credits, a tour, free trip insurance, etc. See what deal you can make. Get a feel for the prices on the usual cruise web sites like cruise.com, vacations to go, etc. and then post the cruise you want on cruise compete.

 

[kimber79]

I am the opposite of Dawn....I prefer Carnival!! I sailed Royal ~ and found the ship to be VERY dirty. I will give them that I was on an older ship (Sovereign of the Seas) BUT, none the less, I expect there to be NO dust balls in the bathroom and cabin (can you say GROSS ) , I didn't see people out and about cleaning like I am accustomed to on a cruise ship. I have sailed Disney, Royal and Carnival.....and Royal left a really bad taste for me. I would however like to go on the new Oasis ~ that ship look's amazing!!

I guess it is all just a matter of opinion though ~ but for me, Carnival is the way to go!! I don't see it as the "big party" many people say it is ~ I have had a blast the 7 times I have sailed and I am NOT a big party girl!

Hope this helps!

 

[louey]

I am the opposite of Dawn....I prefer Carnival!! I sailed Royal ~ and found the ship to be VERY dirty. I will give them that I was on an older ship (Sovereign of the Seas) BUT, none the less, I expect there to be NO dust balls in the bathroom and cabin (can you say GROSS ) , I didn't see people out and about cleaning like I am accustomed to on a cruise ship. I have sailed Disney, Royal and Carnival.....and Royal left a really bad taste for me. I would however like to go on the new Oasis ~ that ship look's amazing!!

I guess it is all just a matter of opinion though ~ but for me, Carnival is the way to go!! I don't see it as the "big party" many people say it is ~ I have had a blast the 7 times I have sailed and I am NOT a big party girl!

Hope this helps!

All this info is definately helping, its totally unknown to me and I want to get the best deal on a decent line.
What Carnival Cruise ship do you prefer? I was thinking the Freedom? Again clueless as to which ship to go on. Thanks so much to everyone for the help

 

[Starbrite]

I have no experience with RCCL, but I have cruised Carnival 5 times...(it'll be 6 next week ) Carnival offers some great rates when you book via their Early Savers rate. If the price drops any time before your sailing you can get credit, however, its a Non-Refundable deposit. If you have any specific questions - please ask.

The Western Cruises are more adventurous. Lots of excursions, ziplining, cave tubing, snorkeling, waterfall climbing, etc. We love it!

I don't know what you girls are into, but you might want to consider Eastern Caribbean. Its much better/easier/safer for shopping, finding local bars, finding a beach & hanging out....exploring on your own. Personally, I would love to take an all girls trip to St Thomas & San Juan more than Jamaica or Cozumel.

 

[Ilivetogo]

Sounds like you got great information there!

You can go to cruisecritic.com and probably find TONS of info on anything you want to know!

Good luck. Sounds like fun.

 

[DawnCt1]

I am the opposite of Dawn....I prefer Carnival!! I sailed Royal ~ and found the ship to be VERY dirty. I will give them that I was on an older ship (Sovereign of the Seas) BUT, none the less, I expect there to be NO dust balls in the bathroom and cabin (can you say GROSS ) , I didn't see people out and about cleaning like I am accustomed to on a cruise ship. I have sailed Disney, Royal and Carnival.....and Royal left a really bad taste for me. I would however like to go on the new Oasis ~ that ship look's amazing!!

I guess it is all just a matter of opinion though ~ but for me, Carnival is the way to go!! I don't see it as the "big party" many people say it is ~ I have had a blast the 7 times I have sailed and I am NOT a big party girl!

Hope this helps!

I am guessing that it was because it was an older ship. The best crew gets assigned to the newest and biggest, and I have never seen that on the Voyager nor the Explorer. That said, the Monarch of the Seas was getting a bit tired when we sailed on her. I had the same opinion of NCL when we sailed on a ship that was about to be moth balled, although others like the line. Celebrity Ships are always sparkling clean. Our first cruise with Celebrity was on the Galaxy. An older ship but in perfect condition. We later sailed the Infinity and the Millenium. Loved them both.

 

[MM27]

Thanks for all the info, I don't care as long as we are in the middle somewhere. How low is too low on a ship to have a room? Do you just call Royal directly or go through a Travel Agent? Someone said that Royals food isn't as good as Carnival. I went on one cruise like 13 years ago so I have no clue

I haven't cruised Carnival, only NCL and Royal Caribbean. I highly recommend Royal Caribbean . If your travel dates are flexible, you will see a huge price difference in the same itinerary. I've gone on cruises that were several hundred dollars cheaper the weeks before and after the one I was on. That's the downside of being a teacher. School breaks=higher prices.

I don't spend much time in my room, so that's not of high importance to me, but look at all the categories you have to choose from carefully. If you don't all mind being in the same room, you might be able to get a bigger stateroom for a lower price than you would if you got several rooms, but you need to decide if you want to be that close to the group the whole time.

As noted above, if you are looking for less rocking, stay lower and closer to mid ship. On the high decks you will feel a lot of movement if you go into rougher waters.

 

[onelilspark]

I just got back from a trip on the Carnival Legend. My first in about 15 years (first was on a Big Red Boat when I was around 10-11! I don't remember much of it!) I absolutely loved the ship and itinerary. I just posted a review over on Cruise Critic, I'll PM the link to you.

We're looking to book our next cruise and we've considered trying RCCL. My problem is that Carnival is so much cheaper (for most sailings, esp. compared to Oasis!) that I have a hard time justifying the cost of RCCL...kind of why we did Carnival instead of DCL. I mean, if I like Carnival and enjoy it, why spend more?

We booked our 1/31-2/7 cruise in late August. So about 5 months out. I continued to watch the fare and it didn't go down at all, only up. But in the month prior that I was watching it held fairly steady. So I would say 5-6 months out is pretty good. If you book Early Saver with Carnival, keep watching the price. If it goes down, you'll get on board credit.

 

[Chelley00]

Can I throw something into the mix? DH and I sailed Princess this last June and we LOVED it! Both Carnival and RCL are family oriented and there are a lot of kids around. On our Princess cruise out of NYC, there were a whole 200 kids on board for 3000 people. They had tons of activities, the food was really good, and the ship was newly remodeled.

we used cruisecompete.com You fill in your dates, travel agents send you replies, and you can shop for a good price. We just made sure to google reviews on the agency before we used the, (bestpricecruises.com) and we had great service through them

 

[onelilspark]

Oh, for more comparison, our Carnival cruise was $479/pp and we had the highest category "inside" (it was really an outside with a totally obstructed view, but priced lower than an oceanview.)

On our ship there were 500+ kids out of 2500+ people. I maybe saw 10 of them. I was shocked that there were that many kiddos on board!

 

[Poohlovr]

No recommendations here, but I usually sail Carnival and love it. I've never been on RCCL, so don't feel qualified to answer that question.

If you have at least 5 cabins to fill, I suggest that once you decide on your ship, you call the group dept at the cruise line for special pricing and group perks.

After you get the price, etc from the cruise line, submit your info to www.cruisecompete.com and get pricing from several different TAs. Even if you don't have 5 cabins, you should still submit your info to Cruise Compete. I've used them for both group bookings and a cruise just for my husband and me.

I've organized three groups and have yet to use the cruise line to book. We also have always gotten some nice perks (a cocktail party, photo coupons, chocolate dipped strawberries in our rooms, bottles of wine and always at least $100 in on-board credit to use).

Good luck with you planning!

 

[LoraJ]

One thing to note is that the Oasis of the Seas is gigantic. It is pretty much the destination and has about twice the passengers as the Carnival ship.

I have sailed on both cruise lines and enjoyed both. I liked Carnival more though. Most likely because I was sailing solo on RCCL and I was bored most nights. When I would sail solo on Carnival there was much better entertainment at night. My favorite cruise line is Princess.

Definitely check out cruisecritic.com.

 

[NCRedding]

I've sailed both RCCL and Carnival, and much prefer Carnival. We sailed Radiance of the Seas in 2003 which is a mid-sized ship by RCCL standards. I was disappointed in the service (we had five negative encounters with staff over the week). The food was mediocre and lacked any sort of presentation or style. I found the ship's entertainment to be somewhat "high schoolish" in talent and choreography. We did enjoy the talent they brought onboard (comedian, etc).

We sailed the Carnival's Liberty out of Miami in 2008. The Liberty is slightly smaller than the Freedom (I believe). I went in with fairly low expectations and was very surprised. The staff was very helpful and friendly. The food was excellent and presented well. I loved the Vegas style shows (I really thought I wouldn't). They also had some hilarious comedians, but be warned, if they say it is for adults, it really is...we had one comedian who made us laugh til we cried, but he was raunchy! I also liked how they had huge variety of bars, and live entertainment scattered throughout the ship. DH really enjoyed going into the atrium and listening to a duo who sang, played piano and guitar.

I've sailed DCL 6 times , Carnival 1 time, NCL twice and RCCL once. Out of those, the RCCL ranked lowest.

 

[louey]

I may be leaning towards Carnival, hearing good things about cost and quality of food and staff. I know they all have different ship names but they basically are the same ship right, one is not better than the other. Should I stalk a certain ship
Everyones input is really helping keep it coming. I was looking into possibly leaving out of NY, NJ or Baltimore in early Summer of 2011. Not sure if it will limit me to just going to Bermuda? I have been on some of the sights I just started and sometimes its easier just to ask all the helpful people on here

 

[Starbrite]

I may be leaning towards Carnival, hearing good things about cost and quality of food and staff. I know they all have different ship names but they basically are the same ship right, one is not better than the other. Should I stalk a certain ship
Everyones input is really helping keep it coming. I was looking into possibly leaving out of NY, NJ or Baltimore in early Summer of 2011. Not sure if it will limit me to just going to Bermuda? I have been on some of the sights I just started and sometimes its easier just to ask all the helpful people on here

Carnival has some that leave NYC & Baltimore. You will not be limited to Bermuda, but you would have to skip the Western Caribbean - they all go East. Also, that bumps most of them up to 8 days.

Some of the ships are clearly older & do show their age. But they usually do the 3 & 4 day runs out of Florida. The biggest & newest ships are also sailing out of Fl. NY gets the Miracle & Pride (middle of the line) .

 

[louey]

Carnival has some that leave NYC & Baltimore. You will not be limited to Bermuda, but you would have to skip the Western Caribbean - they all go East. Also, that bumps most of them up to 8 days.

Some of the ships are clearly older & do show their age. But they usually do the 3 & 4 day runs out of Florida. The biggest & newest ships are also sailing out of Fl. NY gets the Miracle & Pride (middle of the line) .

Wonder if it would be better to cruise out of South Carolina? My problem is I hate to fly and will drive to Florida if I have to, think we can do the Western leaving from SC?