pppiglet said:
Mmouse37....how was the Carnival cruise and where did you go? Did you like it?
Our Carnival cruise was really great....after cruising
DCL 13 times I did not want to compare, but of course I did. It was an 8 night cruise out of NYC and we had 3 ports...San Juan, St. Thomas, Tortola. The ship was the Legend and it was very nice.
Our course they are two different ships completely, but Carnival did do a great job....the food was wonderful, the public spaces beautiful, though a bit over the top in decor, the breakfast buffet area on Deck 9 was huge with plenty of seating and multiple buffet lines. There were 3 pools with an adult only pool that was strictly enforced...many loungers available all over. A huge twisty slide that anyone could go on. The things I found lacking were the shows....we only enjoyed one of the production shows in the show theatre. Plenty of nighlife...our kids (17, 20, 21 loved this part of the cruise.) On DCL everything pretty much shuts down at midnight....on Carnival all the clubs/lounges (and there are many) were hopping into the wee hours. They did lots of dancing on this cruise and there many their own ages. My sister has younger kids and her kid enjoyed the kids clubs.
We had two formal nights, one with a Captains cocktail party and 95% of the ship was very dressed up on both nights. We never saw any drunken fools as many associate with the older Carnival product. There was a huge span of ages....from infants to Grand Parents. We travelled with a group of 37 and had a ball. There were many large family groups onboard.
The cabins were very spacious with lots of storage space...3 tall side by side closets, two for hanging things, one with shelves. The bathrooms were very functional and they provide a goody basket of razors, toothpaste, floss and some other things. We had a balcony cabin and paid just under $1,400 per person for two in the cabin and were upgraded to a higher deck balcony cabin (Deck 7). The kids had inside rooms and were upgraded to obstructed ocean view. My son and his cousin wound up with a handicapped room that was huge!!
Of course no one can compare to DCL's superior level of service but we did not have any issues that would keep us from cruising Carnival again....except one crew member was rude and I promptly took his name down and listed it on the comment card....besides that it was a great vacation.
It was so very convenient leaving from NYC.....we live only 30 minutes from the ship and hired a charter bus to take us all to and from the terminal. I do have to say that the embarkation and debarktion process on all other lines but DCL are very chaotic....DCL has it down to a science!!!
I will post pics later today.....
MJ
). Number 5 will be Magic's 7-night Western Caribbean cruise on 31 December (I booked it on-line and hope to rebook it during the Sept cruise to get the price break and on-board credit).
)
Now that the DSs count as 'adults' we are happy to be able to go that often. 
