South Pacific - Ovation of the Seas:2 Islands or Carnival Legend: 3 Islands?

We are looking to book an 8 day South Pacific cruise in January and struggling to decide between RC's Ovation of the Seas and Carnival Legend. We are 4 adults and 2 teens. There seems to be pros and cons to both! Can anyone add anything that might help me decide? I have never sailed on either.

RC's Ovation of the seas looks like an amazing, huge ship with around 4,500 people on board but there seems to be heaps of things to do and lots of dining options. However, we will only be visiting 2 ports in the 8 day cruise, Noumea and Mystery Island. And...it is a bit more expensive than Carnival for the same length of cruise.

Carnival Legend is smaller and less to do but you only have 2,200 people to get on and off at the ports and less crowded on board? It also visits 3 ports during the 8 day cruise; Noumea, Isle of Pines and Mare.

So..one looks amazing on board but only 2 port and more expensive. The other is smaller so less to do but visits 3 ports!

I guess we have to decide if we want the amazing onboard experience at the expense of another a day at a Pacific Island. Help!!! I cannot make up my mind!!!

I just realised that I posted this in the Royal Caribbean International forum which was the wrong place. Sorry, I'm new to cruise critic!

Where did you mean to post?

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I actually have no idea where I was meant to post this question!! But I just thought the RC forum might not have been the right place because my question was split RC / Carnival. I don't suppose it matters too much...

I guess we have to decide if we want the amazing onboard experience at the expense of another a day at a Pacific Island. Help!!! I cannot make up my mind!!!

I think this is the key, which is only something you can decide.

Legend is more a traditional ship experience so if where you wanted to go on the holidays was a beach holiday and south pacific islands with a cruise experience, then go for this.

Whereas if seeing the ship itself is the primary thing, and you don't really mind where you go, then Ovation is worth a try.

It sounds like your first cruise, so I'd go with Legend so you can both see the islands which I think is the main thing, and still have a good time. And get a better price. If you enjoy it enough to do it again, but want something different, you can then look at Ovation or something else next time when you've seen the islands so can focus more on the ship. Whereas if you do Ovation first you'll have only seen some of the islands and seen an onboard focused ship, so it will probably make the next trip harder, since other ships won't be as 'wow' and you've already seen half the destinations as well...

I'm on that cruise! I've been on Ovation and it's off the chats fantastic and so much to do that you won't notice the one less stop.

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more to occupy your teens on royal yes more expensive and many additional expenses for specialty restaurants if your teens are not hard to please and it’s your first cruise carnival should be fine and they offer a great vacation guarantee Legend is a nice ship

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Thank you so much to everyone who replied. As you say, only we can decide as we know what we are really looking for. Pit I am soooo indecisive and everyone else in the family says, "they are happy with whatever I decide".. They are so accommodating but not so helpful! Sounds like both cruises are great, so I will make a decision or else we will sail nowhere as everything will be booked up.

Do you want to cruise for the ports or for the ship?

I would love to go on ovation of the seas. I've done the islands a couple of times but the main attraction of these cruises seems to be the sea days and people enjoying the ships and the beautiful weather..

My vote is for ovation of the seas but think if you can save your pennies you might be able to get a cheap deal on the carnival legend at another time.

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Thanks everyone. I have cruised before to a couple of the pacific islands on the Explorer of the seas but my aunty and uncle haven't but they have said the main point of this trip is to spend time with the family and not go racing around everywhere like we normally do. So..I might fo for Ovation. We still get to see a few islands and we still get to spend plenty of time together. Done. Tomorrow I'll change my mind again, so going to get booked asap!