We're trying Carnival

Not to burst your bubble but. I have been on 8 cruises and the carnival cruise i went on was the only one I felt was not worth the money. I was very disappointed with the vacation and will probably never sail Carnival again.
 
dairyou said:
.......We've sailed RCCL and didn't like it at all..............

Could you please tell about your RCCL cruise and why you didn't like it. We were thinking of going on theirs.
 
This is an interesting discussion. My wife and I have been on seven cruises to date, with our next to be the Disney Magic on Saturday, May 6. Our first cruse was on Carnival's Tropicale back in the 1980s. It was the seven-day Mexican Riveria cruise out of Long Beach. We had a wonderful time, especially since it was our introduction to cruising and we were hooked. We next did a Big Red Boat cruise when that was how you did Disney. We have since sailed on RCCL twice, a five-day out of Long Beach and a seven-day Alaskan cruise on the Radience of the Seas. Wonderful! We have done a 15-day Holy Land cruise on Princess Lines on the original Love Boat, and a five night of the Greek Islands on the Greek Cruise Lines (can't remember the name of the line.) We also did a Disney Magic three-day about five years ago. My take on this discussion is that Carnival is for the younger crowd who like to dance, drink and gamble. The RCCL ships we have been on seem to fit our more sedate life style and Disney is when you want to take the kids. This is our 50th anniversary and we are taking the family.
 
It really all depends on what ship, what itinerary, and what time of year. I realize they will all vary from time to time. Some Carnival ships have a better rep than others. On our Carnival cruise we didn't dance, drink, or gamble (well maybe $20 in the slots) and most on the ship were 40-60 average. We are 45. I think we'd be happy on any cruise as long as we're out at sea and there is lots of food!
If you haven't seen cruisemates.com yet check out their section on ship description and size. It's a great website for this and ship excrusions!
 


jjones9774 said:
My take on this discussion is that Carnival is for the younger crowd who like to dance, drink and gamble. .


You're basing this by cruising on CCL's first ship back in the early 80's?
It's simply not true. It caters to families just as much as RCCI does. The cabins are even set up better for families. My kids loved the kid's clubs too.
My family had a great time on CCL and were well taken care of. We are not the drinking and gambling type. The casinos and dance floors were practically empty each night.
 
We just went on a 3 day Carnival cruise a couple of weeks ago for Easter weekend. It was on the Paradise and we had a fabulous time. While there is no comparison to DCL for the sheer beauty of their ships, their wonderful service and great shows, we were very pleasantly surprised. To be honest, after being on two DCL trips our expectations were low.

Everything about it exceeded our expectations. First of all, there were lots of kids and families. We found it very family friendly and my daughter loved Camp Carnival. They had fun activities for the family like an Amazing Race competition and Family Easter Egg hunt. The spa was very nice and the food was fabulous, easily as good if not better in some instances than the food on DCL. We also really enjoyed the miniature golf course and DH really did like having the Casino on board.

All in all it was a fun and affordable weekend trip for the family. We rebooked for the 4 night cruise over Thanksgiving on the same ship. I am sure you will enjoy your cruise!
 
I think all of Carnival's ships now have their new bedding also and it was wonderful! So many people like it that they sell it online!
 


We have been on two RCCL and two celebrity cruises and We loved them both.
I dont think you could go wrong with RCCL. Its a great cruise for all age groups.
 
I'm very excited about this thread!

We are Disney cruisers (twice) and I just booked Carnival in January 07 after comparing prices. We are getting two balcony staterooms for less than two interior staterooms on Disney.

So now it almost seems like a bargain to cruise. I have heard a lot of good things about Carnival and since my kids (ages 19, 18, 14, and 10) don't really care for the kid clubs anymore, Carnival seems like a nice option.

Kris
 
I think we'd be happy on any cruise as long as we're out at sea and there is lots of food!

A very loud amen to that.
Also, I am happy to hear that Carnival has become more of a family-style cruise. It wasn't very long ago, at least to me, they were running tv commercials of young couples dancing to dawn, etc.
 
After four Disney cruises, we're going to set sail on the Carnival Legend in September. Two reasons for the switch, 1) is it sails out of NYC and 2) we are going with friends of ours who are first time cruisers and weren't ready for the cost of a Disney Cruise. We're actually excited because our only experience with CCL is with a Fantasy cruise back in 1996 and I hear the Spirit class ships are a whole different level of cruising.
 
gometros said:
I hear the Spirit class ships are a whole different level of cruising.

I haven't tried Spirit Class yet either, but they are considered the favorite amongst CCL cruisers.
Our first Spirit Class will be on the Spirit next June to Alaska.
 
zeke11 said:
I'm very excited about this thread!

We are Disney cruisers (twice) and I just booked Carnival in January 07 after comparing prices. We are getting two balcony staterooms for less than two interior staterooms on Disney.

So now it almost seems like a bargain to cruise. I have heard a lot of good things about Carnival and since my kids (ages 19, 18, 14, and 10) don't really care for the kid clubs anymore, Carnival seems like a nice option.

Kris

Kris, if your kids are like mine they will love Carnival....we took our kids on 12 DCL cruises and they were ready for something different now that they are 22, 21 and 18.....we did a large extended family cruise last summer on Carnival out of NYC (great itinerary BTW) on the Legend....my kids had a fantastic time.....really enjoyed the cruise and there were many more kids (young adults) their age to bond with.

Here are some links to pics of our cruise on the Legend.

http://community.webshots.com/album/392088732kqsOep (part 1)

http://community.webshots.com/album/393162528ZUjTWh (part 2)

http://community.webshots.com/album/393168736KwiLGx (part 3)

Everyone from Grandma and Grandpa (both sides of the family) down to a toddler had a great time. The ship was beautiful (in a different way than DCL), food was great, service was great and the bed was so comfortable!!! Their breakfast buffet blew DCL out of the water and formal night was a lot of fun with people dressing up moe than DCL!!!
 
On the Carnival Pride (Spirit class) we had a balcony room deck 7 and on DCL we had a verandah room deck 7. Both were the exact same size rooms. Same stuff in them. DCL had the split bathroom, but Carnival's bathroom was bigger which I really liked! And then the bedding on Carnival was just exceptional!
 
pppiglet said:
Here's the link to my Carnival Pride pics.

http://s21.photobucket.com/albums/b293/debrouth/Carnival Pride/

If you go from there and click on the Debrouth at the top you can get to the Disney Magic pictures and my scrapbook pages.

Pppiglet:

Loved your pictures. The Pride was on our "to do" list and conveniently we can check out the ship through you photos... thanks! BELOW in my signature area is a link to our recent (Valentines week, 2006) sailing on the Carnival Spirit out of San Diego. Any who have interest are welcome to browse a few of our photos from that sailing.

And seperately, on another note... we have taken 15-17 cruise voyages with 3 being Disney, and 4 being Carnival. Our position is you generally get what you pay for - with a couple of notable exceptions. And we feel that Carnival is definately less costly compared to DCL. And there is less of interest to our family on Carnival compared to DCL. But we took the Spirit from San Diego because we got a nice veranda for 8 nites for less than 7 nites sailing on the Magic with a window cabin. Plus, we had no air fare expense for Carnival being that we live just north of Los Angeles.

Generally, our feelings after this past Spirit sailing were that it was worth our money to return to DCL - even with the travel and expense savings of not flying, a veranda and extra day on Carnival at lower cost. HOWEVER, the Carnival cruise remains a grand vacation - any way you slice it. We know many folks who have NEVER been on a cruise. Heck, they would probably sail on the 3 nite Paradise out of LA and think it was supreme! And we HAVE sailed once on the Paradise on the 3 nite trip - and we thought it was decent at the time.

As with anything - we feel you are going to do YOURSELF better service by being open minded and a little flexible in your expectations. You HAVE already paid for most of your trip by the time you step aboard. SO it's not as if you'll get a refund if you're less than 95% satisfied. As such - we always try to make the best of our travels.

So - take a glance at our Carnival Spirit photos if you like. There is a "watch show" link buried somewhere in there (at the top right edge of the screen click "albums",... then in the next window look to the left for the "eye" icon under "watch show"... this will bring on the show. Then if you like click "full screen".)- and if you click that it will bring up a slide show of enlarged images set to music. And in that mode you can advance to a full screen viewing mode - set to music with random fades. Otherwise it will be manual review of a field of thumbnails with one by one enlargement of photos of interest. Enjoy! :thumbsup2
 
We have been on DCL so many times, we too are considering a change of pace. Don't get me wrong -- we love cruising on the Magic. But, how many times can one sit through the same entertainment? (I'm glad they added Twice Charmed in May 2005, but how long has DCL been running some of the other shows and entertainers, like Gary Delena and Rich Pupura?)

I wish (upon a star) that DCL would rotate in some different stageshows and entertainers, so there would be something new to look forward to.
 
We just booked RCCL FOS for Sept. - 50th birthday. We have cruised Disney 3 times but could not pass up on a brand new ship and a lower price. I hope its not a mistake and me comparing it to disney the whole time.
 
I have absolutely no complaints about DCL and love both ships. But, its just nice to have something different to look forward to... just a little variety!

Kris
 
woody73 said:
I wish (upon a star) that DCL would rotate in some different stageshows and entertainers, so there would be something new to look forward to.

I so agree!! I cruised the Maiden Voyage of the Magic. Not much has changed since then. For a cruise line with so many repeat cruisers, you would think they would have a lot of new shows and entertainment. This is the first year I don't have a DCL cruise planned.


BTW, the CCL bedding is to die for!!
The only think I miss about DCL when I cruise CCL is the different restaurants. I like the way they rotate them.
 

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