John Reid

I use a Marsona sound machine. It isn't cheap, but white white noise is steady. It runs batteries or A/C plug in adapter. No problems bringing it.

My wife has brought a 10" box fan and extension on every cruise we have taken (two on Carnival Pride). No problem yet, but we do hear of them being held until disembarkation for some.

• Main Dining Room - I think Carnival is slightly better but I didn't have a bad meal on RCI.
  
• Buffet - RCI has much better food and the layout on their ships is much more efficient at handling the crowds.
  
• Room Service - RCI was much better and I think they have better choices.
  

I agree here. I enjoyed Carnival MDR dinners more. However, Carnival's buffet dining (I sailed Pride twice) is nowhere near as good as RCI. And the comment about the layout is absolutely correct. Ate dinner once in the Pride buffet. Would not do it again. Have had dinner in Windjammer several times. Much better. I find that getting something to eat on off hours is easier on RCI/Explorer. RCI also has better dining room lunch access, though I did enjoy the Sea Day Brunch choices on Pride.

I won't get into a comparison of Carnival vs. Princess. I sail both; I enjoy both. But they are different. I have been on the Caribbean Princess.

Based on what you said you are hoping from this cruise, go ahead and try Princess. It's a great line and the CB is a great warm port ship with good outdoor decks and pool areas.

My first two cruises were on RCI. The next eight were on Princess, Carnival, HAL, and another RCI. I sail Thursday on RCI. What I can say without doubt is that my cruising experience has been enhanced by experiencing several lines.

We will be 7 days away from diamond plus following our Dec. cruise on RCL. We are currently looking at cruises for next year. Not even considering RCL. Our dollars are moving to HA. My husband likes to smoke a cigarette on the balcony before bed and after he gets up in the morning. The rest of the day when we are out and about, he sticks to the smoking areas. We will be enriching HA's bottom line. We are currently planning a family trip to Alaska in July -- four balcony cabins, eight passengers, only one smoker. RCL's policy cost their bottom line eight passengers and enriched HA's by eight. We are also looking at a fall cruise to Canada.

It only costs RCI's bottom line if the 4 cabins you would have booked sailed empty. That won't happen. Ending smoking on balconies and making further restrictions around ship lounges are not minor decisions. I can't believe that any cruise line would make such changes without believing that it will increase their bottom line. I'm not even arguing a personal preference; I'm just observing a societal preference change.

Does anyone know if you can pre-rent the clamshell chairs on Half Moon Cay before you set sail? Or is this something we need to do as soon as we get on board. Just planning ahead and dreading a line at guest services first thing.

As stated, on Carnival you rent once ashore. There is a water sports hut close to where you get off the tender and another near the pirate ship bar. $19.95 on your SeaPass card. They will give you a receipt and tell you to find an attendant down the beach where open clamshells are available. They wear a certain shirt and are fairly easy to find. They will walk you to one and set it up. You can ask to walk further down the beach if you wish. Find one of the many rocks behind the clamshells to prop up the back; it will keep things cooler. I have been to HMC three times but on smaller ships (2,200 to 2,400 passengers). They did not run out under those conditions.

OK, I think I "get it". . .the Carnival ships make for a "livelier" bunch! We can live with some of that!

 

Now, what about the "mechanics" of the ship? What's this about "stuff" on the tv screen? menue from the dining room? onboard acct info, etc?

 

Is check-in the same when you arrive? Room stewards' job the same--ice, cleaning, etc?

 

How are the beds?

 

Will the dining room when we arrive still ask what size of table we would prefer?

 

Thanks for the help!! again. . .

Check in process is the same. HAL has the policy of the stateroom being ready when you board. For both our Carnival sailings, we were able to get in the room as soon as it was ready (both times by 12:30). We were able to drop off our small carry-on bags before the room was ready. There was no need to wait for a general 1:00 announcement that rooms were ready like RCI. You might have to ask for ice to be supplied each day on Carnival. And it may not be in a silver bucket! Steward duties are the same. Our room stewards on Carnival have been great. In our opinion, HAL has the best mattresses at sea; Princess, the worst. I don't think it is possible to predict how comfortable they will be across the line. We thought they were fine; better than RCI. Unless you have selected Anytime Dining, your table will be preselected, same as HAL. You can make a request with Anytime. I do not know how high tech the TV screen systems are on the Legend; Pride did not have any special features.

My wife and I are "older" cruisers. We have cruised HAL and Carnival - also RCI and Princess. Though ship designs are different, we find most of the intangibles on Princess and RCI to be quite similar. We find HAL and Carnival to be at opposite ends of the cruising spectrum. That statement is not a criticism; we know what we are getting when we book a Carnival cruise and we enjoy it. On HAL we get a more sedate and relaxed cruise experience. On Carnival, it will be more, shall I say, dynamic! TAPI has pretty much nailed the differences. On HAL I will be dancing to big band tunes; on Carnival I'll be dancing to "Blurred Lines." I enjoy both because I am prepared for and fully expect the experience a particular line will give. Both are fun, but in different ways. The difference is most notable in the dining room for dinner. I go into HAL expecting formality; I go into Carnival expecting somewhat "come as you are." We both like the dinner choices on Carnival better.

For us, the biggest difference was in Lido breakfast and lunch dining. Far superior on HAL.

Don't expect it to be like HAL and go to YouTube to learn the Wobble; you should have a good cruise.

The original post seems only to have the intent of creating controversy. It has no relevant content. Don't bite.

YIKES....

 

This new website is nuts.

 

They should fire all their IT people....

 

You never, never change a website until the

bugs are worked out....offline...on a test site.

 

Bon Voyage.

 

:eek:

There were problems when they rolled out the current site, also. It still has inherent flaws that make it less than user friendly and annoying at times.

On the original concern of this thread... I just checked on my two rapidly approaching cruises. Both still show Paid in Full.

Thank you to those of you that told me what you did and didn't like about the different cruise lines, that is what I was looking for. Maybe I did word the question wrong in the first place, but I know a lot of people are loyal to one cruise line and I just wanted to know why you liked this one the best.

 

We usually go to the shows and we were blown away by the shows we saw on Princess, but usually disappointed by the entertainment on Carnival. Several people mentioned how much better the entertainment was on RC, so that may convince me to give it a try. I also appreciated the honesty about the food, we loved all the soufflés we had on Princess, and my husband loves his Chocolate Melting Cake.

By indicating some things that are important to you, it helps when giving feedback. We have cruised Princess, HAL, Carnival, and RCI. No matter which ship we were on in a particular fleet, across the board we found the most limited entertainment on Carnival and the best entertainment on RCI. For dining, we would give a nod to Princess over RCI, but the RCI dining rooms were nicer. Princess had a better Lido/buffet dining experience over RCI.

We found the Princess experience fairly standard from ship to ship. The three we sailed were quite similar. For you to make a comparison with RCI, you will need to consider the specific ship class you may sail.

The actual (fictional) name of the character also known as Hawkeye, the Deerslayer, and Pathfinder in the works of James Fenimore Cooper. When we read "The Last of the Mohicans" in junior high school, one friend made it my nickname.

We are three for three - once on Holland America (January) and twice on the Pride (October, September).

I hope you take this in the spirit in which it is intended. But I see these posts all the time . . . “Why should I sail XXX cruise line instead of YYY?”, “Convince me to try ZZZ cruise line,” etc. I have only sailed on three cruise lines (RCI, NCL and Carnival) and I could very easily never sail another cruise line, but I am considering a Princess cruise because they have an itinerary that no one else does that interests me. But I see absolutely no value in asking other people to convince me to try it in just general terms. What I’m going to do is read all the Princess reviews on CC (at least the ship I want to go on), start reading the Princess boards, etc. and I’m sure among all the thousands and thousands of posts I will get a general feel for whether it is for me or not. And no matter what I read, unless every review is absolutely horrible (which I doubt), I am going to try it anyway.

If you have a specific question or specific comparison in mind between Princess and RCI, or some aspect of cruising is important or even critical to you, then I’m sure you will get some specific answers.

Completely agree with your take. A person should not only read the reviews of a particular line, but read the reviews of the exact ship one intends to sail. If someone were to post the answer to "why sail RCI?" based on experiences on the Allure and one was going to sail on Majesty (a ship without the bells and whistles), the answer wouldn't be very valid.

Of Golden, Caribbean, and Ruby, I liked Ruby best. I found the layout subtly improved over the other two.

Be careful at breakfast in Windjammers. Sometimes you will be asked by staff if you want juice. They may return with the "upgraded" juice at about $3.95 a pop. Standard juice will be available at the self-serve machines.

Short ribs

Lido deck pizza

What about the one or two cruise ships arriving the next day and the next day and . . .?

I had experienced the Quest game other times on RCI ships. In October, 2012, we attended the Carnival Pride version of Quest. It was very similar to the RCI version, even using the same name. The assistant CD and his very young female assistant from the cruise staff (this was her first assignment) were doing a great job. For one of the quests, he asked for each team to bring up a "dirty picture." I was surprised how many groups were quickly able to find them on their Smart Phones. However, the person who got there first was more creative. He thrust his phone down the front of his pants and fired away. When the asst. CD saw the picture, he freaked with laughter. His assistant blushed. When he was able to contain himself, he asked for that contestant's wife to stand up. He told her she was a lucky woman!

Cheez, dudes, way to spread sunshine. I'm sure after reading your posts, the OP has already cancelled and fled back to whatever line s/he's been sailing on previously. You know, if y'all are so displeased with Princess, maybe it's time to consider other travel options. I'm not trying to squelch dissenting voices around here, but some of you can really suck the air out of this board.

The OP asked for the information. I find the responses to be mostly accurate. To sugar-coat and put feel good answers would do the OP a disservice. And the majority of people did not say they didn't enjoy their recent Princess cruises, they said that some things were not as good as they were.

There are times on this or any board when posters inject negativity that was not asked for and was not appropriate. Again, this OP asked for the opinions.

Received my call from RCI today about the "redeployment" as they phrased it. I really dislike the practice of a line booking rooms and then pulling the rug out on those who have made plans. I sincerely hope those getting the promotional cruise enjoy themselves, but I sincerely hope that the dealer and RCI take a financial bath on this one.

First - Congratulations!

Second - I have always enjoyed the reviews you have both done. They get me ready for my cruises. On the Pride again in September!

Third - Sweet Social Distortion T-shirt! Ball and Chain is going through my head right now.

On the day that Carnival rolled out the new categories of fares, fall fares on Pride to Grand Turk/Halfmoon Cay rose 9% to 20% above the original Early Saver obstructed balcony rate overnight. No fall fares from other lines I have been tracking out of Baltimore, Cape Liberty, and Fort Lauderdale have had any similar increases that I have noticed.

Thanks for the room pictures. We were able to secure that cabin for our Oct. 7 sailing on Pride. Looking forward to the cruise even more now.

I would have to guess that half the cruise your verandah will be on the sunny side of the ship and the other half it might not be. If you made the request for your cabanas to be next to each other, I am sure ship services would comply. You would always get one cabana. There are so many unused lounge chairs in the retreat area that there will be plenty of seating for everyone in your party. When we were on the E-dam last December there was a cabana shared by two couples. I am sure they on told HAL it was for one couple. If you tip the cabana attendees on embarkation day I am sure you will buy their silience. We had guests visit us everyday and they never said a thing.

Hardly seems ethical or fair to others who have rented cabanas and followed the expectations of the area. The guidelines are in place to ensure a peaceful area, one that is expected and deserved by those who reserve the cabanas. What if everyone followed your lead and brought whomever they pleased?