Carnival vs RC

Looking for a cruise in February. Traveling with 2-40 somethings, 2-20 year olds and an 18 year old. One of my children has severe asthma (can't be around cigarette smoke) and also severe food allergies. Anyone have info on the cruise lines and how they deal with this situation? Also cleanliness and entertainment and food quality? Many thanks!

Personally we prefer carnival, 2 30 year olds. All ships will have smoke, but it is only allowed in certain areas (casino on carnival is really bad, don't remember royal) so you should be able to avoid smoking areas and not have a problem.

I can only tell you about food allergies on carnival my one year old is allergic to dairy and our friends that will be going with us have a one year old allergic to nuts. As soon as you board the ship you talk to the MD at the dinning room and they will have you preorder meals for the dinning room the night before. They have a separate area where meals for allergies are prepared. They can't guarantee there will be no cross contamination up at the buffet but if you talk to the staff in white uniforms (not the servers or line cooks) they should be able to point out what foods to avoid based on your allergies. You can also preorder you meals for breakfast/brunch in the main dinning room the night before.

I found both cruise lines to be clean with good entertainment. Royal had some more elaborate shows then carnival. We thought the food on carnival was much better then royal.

You can contact the special needs department for either line and talk to them about your concerns with food allergies. Make sure you bring a lot of extra epi pens if your child has them for food allergies and extra inhalers just in case. You most likely won't be able to get them on ship or in port.

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We sail Carnival, Princess and HAL.

My standard allergy post....We travel with a group that combined has allergies to nuts, treenuts, shellfish, egg whites, chocolate, MSG and liquid dairy. Only had issues with 'user' error, no issues with Carnival. If you have a nut allergy, know that Carnival classifies seeds as nuts.

If you have an odd allergy contact Special Needs before your cruise. If you have a 'normal' allergy no need to do so.

https://www.carnival.com/about-carnival/special-needs/dietary-needs.aspx

See the Hostess when the Maitre 'd has hours. Hours will be in the FunTmes, usually starting around 1pm. The hostess will take that night's order. Each night the hostess or your waiter will bring you the next day's MDR menu-breakfast, brunch/lunch and dinner. If deciding between two entrees, order both. For brunch don't hesitate to order a breakfast and lunch if you want to eat both meals in the MDR.

For room service, they cannot make special for you but they can tell you the ingredients. No special area so there is always the possibility of contamination

Buffet is a minefield. Ask the Hostess or the Head Lido Chef or the Food and Beverage crew in the officer whites. DO NOT ask the line cooks. They mean well but do not know the full recipes. Cross contamination is always a possibility.

Onshore--- we bring allergy cards. I made our own but you can buy some at selectwisely.com.

You can only bring off commercially prepared food. We bring cereal bars, boxes of cereal, bottled water, hard candy etc.

Many ports will check. Some will do a physical search, others use dogs. You do not want the cute Labrador to sit next to you. I've had them alert on my Lemonheads.

Kids clubs have a form to fill out. There are some snacks served at times. The younger kids meet up at the dinner buffet certain nights. Ask the counselors what's on the menu.

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The Carnival crew is always busy cleaning something. Last cruise we encountered a steward cleaning the stair treads with a toothbrush. Another cruise we saw a housekeeping supervisor looking for dust in the emergency lighting (we asked)

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Food quality is extremely subjective. Overall we've liked Carnival's offerings.

We've cruised Carnival and Royal.

They're both mass market lines that basically do the same thing.

Some things Carnival does better, some things Royal does better.

If those are your 2 choices, determine when you want to sail, determine where you want to go, determine what port you want to fly or drive to, then pick a ship.

You'll have a great time on either cruise line

The only thing I can add is that you also need to compare ships on both lines. Both Carnival and Royal have newer and older ships. For the ages listed, you would want to look at larger and newer ships for both.

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Looking for a cruise in February. Traveling with 2-40 somethings, 2-20 year olds and an 18 year old. One of my children has severe asthma (can't be around cigarette smoke) and also severe food allergies. Anyone have info on the cruise lines and how they deal with this situation? Also cleanliness and entertainment and food quality? Many thanks!

Because of your child with asthma, I recommend RCI. I don't know how all CCL ships are set up, but I know that on the majority of their ships, the main passageway fore and aft goes right through the casino and at times, it can be extremely smoky. This was my number 1 complaint with Carnival. It is a significant detour to bypass this route.

Food quality, I'd rate exactly the same. Entertainment, I'd give the nod to RCI. If we're talking Quantum, Freedom and Oasis Class, I'd give a huge nod to RCI.

I don't like Carnival at all. It's more of a party scene cruise. I find that since it is the cheaper priced cruise line, more young adults (teens, college age, etc) go on it. Can they just go to Mexico and stay in a resort for Spring/Fall break?

I used to be loyal to Royal and had been turned off by Carnival prior to them re hauling their brand away from just booze cruises but now Carnival is my go to.

I am a Foodie and Carnival food takes the cake for me. Since I like cruising as often as possible, I am always trying to get the most bang for my buck and Carnival delivers every time. The exception would be the Oasis Class (and I do hope to experience the Quantum Class as well). But even on the Allure, the (nonpay) food is better on Carnival. I have a son with severe food issues and Carnival always notes the forbidden foods and addresses them perfectly even offering substitution suggestions. Never had an issue with smoke either.