Carnival vs Celebrity: A comparison

I will end up posting this on both boards as well as continuing my review on the Celebrity board of my recent sailing.

Before I get any cheerleaders having a go I will say that as a whole we choose the best price for our cruises on lines that appeal to us as a young married couple. We are Carnival fans yet were into trying another line and the opportunity arose.Celebrity offered up a 13 day on the Equinox for less than our 12 day Vista cruise next year with different ports so we went for it as Celebrity was in our minds as being a foodies line and were do go a bit Gourmet/Gourmand on the seas so there we go.

Disclaimer: I do realise that with 2 Carnival cruises done (both sides of the pond on a mid sized ship) and 1 Celebrity done (on a big ship) this may affect our view but here it goes:

Cabins:

We have stayed in a 4k 'inside' with Carnival with an actual view and fresh air due to French doors we have always loved the spacious Carnival cabins with lots of storage and inoffensive decor. The stateroom television had a variety of channels and was interactive. Our cabin was always quiet and located near the atrium and its bathroom was the normal fare We stayed in a oceanview right next to the atrium and the cabin was even more spacious with a finer finish and better linen although its spacious feel was down to lack of storage possibly as I did not have enough. The stateroom television was even more interactive but had very wierd channels and the bathroom had better storage and a real shower. There was good soundproofing from the atrium next door but not from the slamming of doors next to us and kids running on decks surrounding us. As a random note the beds were firm on both lines which is great but Carnival had better fluffier robes.

Winner: Tie (Celebrity on decor and Carnival on storage/soundproofing)

Food

My husband remarked as we left last week that the food was comparable on both lines although I found bigger differences. We found that the buffet on Celebrity was very big and had added extra such as ice cream varieties, sushi, protein cooked to order etc and the quality was higher than Carnival although not as varied. On both our cruises on Carnival the buffet food was different every day in all the usual stations but with Celebrity 'Chef's daily special' was always Mexican and the asian station had the same dishes on rotate. Celebrity has some really good dessert choices but they were the same frozen stock as Carnival and I fell in love with Salt honey pies! The breakfast buffet was better on Celebrity but again, it was the same each day whereas Carnival had new items appearing. One thing I adored about the Celebrity breakfast was the curry station which was rarely visited except by me and a few other Brits.

The MDR was presented similarly for both lines with the usual 90's flair. Celebrity had a bigger choice of seafood and ingredients throughout the cruise and the Veggie menu was great too. Carnival's MDR had more of choice (old menus) but had the same base proteins each night. Quality wise Celebrity had the edge as our meals were excellent each time with no misses. On Carnival although it was good we had a few meals we didn't want to finish.

We haven't really done specialty restaurants on either lines.

Winner: Celebrity

Drinks

We found that the drinks on Celebrity were overpriced for what they were and aside from the special bars there was a limited selection too that could only be made it certain bars. We went to passport/molecular/Martini bars and sampled the drinks and they were very good with bartenders making us cocktails to our tastes. We also were looking forward to the Gastrobar with all its craft beers and although they had a decent selection (all we had drank beforehand though) they were overpriced for Brits like us who can get say a Delerium Beer for £4.50 ($6)at our local and would not pay $16 for it on a ship. Carnival does have a Alchemy bar which although we haven't been to we noted they used the same top end spirits so we will have to see next year. Carnival had a better range of normal cocktails available everywhere on the ship and as far as wines go they had similar offerings on both lines for similar prices so its a dead heat there. We were happy that Celebrity had a larger range of free soft drinks and gave us sparkling wine upon embarkation whereas Carnival did free cocktails on Captains night.

Winner: Carnival (Celebrity could have had it with better pricing)

Coming up!

Service, Ship decor, Customer care, entertainment, Public spaces, Staff, Port/excursion stuff, Fellow cruisers, Atmosphere....

Very interesting and balanced so far. I look forward to reading more.

Being on the xpedition, our celebrity experience was atypical. But their Baked Alaska kicked Carnival's butt. And all the fresh baked baguettes- so good.

The experiences were otherwise just not comparable but it did make me want to try Celebrity. Carnival always seems to win, by a ton, on price.

Service

I will start off by saying we have had amazing waiters on both lines that were always attentive, polite and at times wonderfully sarcastic. We have always praised the fact how waiters on ships seem to deal with high drama cruisers with a quiet smile. As far as room stewards go we had the most amazing steward on our first cruise on Carnival and an awful one on our second which involving a trip to guest services but our cruise friends had lovely stewards. On Celebrity our stewards were less visable which I liked but he introduced himself on the first day and always cleaned our wine glasses ready for use. He did forget to put things in our cabin like a tote bag,robes and paper menus. All of our stewards were friendly on our cruises. We found bar staff on both lines to be efficient but much friendlier on Carnival and around the ships the crew on both lines were great including a very friendly guest services guy on Celebrity and wonderful, knowledgeable sommeliers and Buffet staff on both lines.

Winner: tie (hardly a difference)

Ship Decor/layout

When we first sailed with Carnival we always fondly laughed about the gaudy interiors and the cute little whale tail on top...thinking about it now its a certain fondness even if its as subtle as neon lights. Although I will say the Spirit class ships particularly have a better space ratio than Solstice class as we could find loungers and the layout was great with the Pool at the back just for adults and the ship never felt crowded. The Equinox safe to say was more understated, elegant and a pleasure to look at although some parts looked a little dated or had weird carpets. I really liked the way there was lots of shade on the lido deck and the drinkings areas on the aft too but the ship felt very crowded at times. The best thing about the Equinox was the Lawn as we spent many sailaways and nights just sitting on it and not worrying about the chairhogs.

Winner: Celebrity

Customer Care

If you look at my post history you will see me having lots of problems with the Celebrity website, Celebrity phone reps promising things then going on holiday, the dining team putting J and I on different dining times as well as the website being useless. Everything was sorted by the time we boarded but we noticed guest services always have a long queue (our cabin was next to it) and general information when things like the gastro measures happened and other instances was not too great. Carnival on the other hand gave us 8 drink vouchers and such for a tiny wet patch on our carpet from the air con although maybe went down the wrong route for my lost item. Also Carnival's phone reps and website are much more organised and use friendly where you can pay your balance online and it actually tells you you have paid. Carnival do have quite a few announcements on board but it is worth noting some of these tell you about sanitation, beautiful sights you pass and so forth which is always welcome.

Winner: Carnival

Thank you for taking time to help us out there that have questions :) I want to go on a Celebrity cruise one day but the question is will we be bored or do they provide trivia and other entertainment to keep the cruise lively?

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Entertainment

We have always said that the main show entertainment on Carnival left a lot to be desired (both before and after the main band went) and the dancing/singing was a rushed job. But always enjoyed the countless trivia and audience participation shows as well as the large scale illusion shows we saw both times (Justin illusion). It always seemed there was a lot to do in the day although we hate the hairy chest contest et al as its just a bit cheesy. On Celebrity we were impressed they had more guest acts who happened to be from the UK. Most of these acts in the main theatre were average to good and worth going to although I think some folk did not enjoy the 'insult the audience for a bit' style of humour. The Dancing/singing shows were better (especially the main Equinox show which was excellent) thanks to the gymnast performers but the singers/dancers were often 'off'. We also found that there was nothing to do after 9.30 most nights and the theme parties seemed to die down after midnight. Celebrity had a lot of things to do in the day and we really enjoyed the Guest/officer element and the Top Chef cook off. Although I have to admit that growing up with so many theatrical/drama friends and family I am spoilt when I see small production shows and I am not the biggest fan of cruise ship shows.

Winner: Celebrity (although both lines often missed the mark)

Public spaces

We hate to gamble but noticed the no smoking rule on Celebrity made the casino a better place to be near. The shops on both lines had usual gimmick mementos and overpriced items with countless sales that still made items overpriced. Carnival had much better shop prices and better shops as a whole (I am not into brands). We found the Lido deck on the Legend a lot easier to get a lounger and less crowded with staff actually stickering chairhogged loungers which helped. The lido deck on the Equinox always felt crowded and no-one did anything about chair hogs or kids jumping into both pools on deck which was awful. I am a huge pool person and because of all the problems I only went in the pools twice which says something. On the Equinox we really loved the sky lounge for great forward views although generally felt that it had no atmosphere in the day for trivia and livened up for theme parties. Carnival's nightclub again was often empty until 11 but its small space helped keep the party going. We were very surprised to see the Qsar nightclub on the Equinox never used as a club but as a constant Karaoke spot so we hardly went in. On Celebrity we really loved how the open atrium was overlooked by the cafes and drinking spots and felt there was a nice open feel on all of them but the Legend had a more cosy continuous feel in its open bar spaces.

Winner: Carnival (Pool areas are so important to me)

Staff

We have found the Cruise directors comparable on both lines. We had Brent Mitchell (meh) and Eli Sharplin (OK) on Carnival and Eddy Jenkins (Meh to OK) on Celebrity. We are not too bothered about CDs but noted that all the ones we have had are relatively new to their respective lines. I have to give a big mention here to Asst CD Calvin on Carnival who was fantastically camp and gives the edge to Carnival for its host staff although Asst CD Laura on our other cruise belonged behind a Sainsbury's till with her manner. Eddy on Celebrity was amusingly awkward although at times he did seem overwhelmed with it all. Patrick and Ellie were in charge of entertainment on Celebrity and they were polished and friendly enough to remember me and my home city. We have found officers and the Captain friendly on both lines although Kudos to Celebrity for the officers vs Guest which helped this along.

Winner: Celebrity by a hair

Thank you for taking time to help us out there that have questions :) I want to go on a Celebrity cruise one day but the question is will we be bored or do they provide trivia and other entertainment to keep the cruise lively?

 

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Carnival had so much more trivia although the whole cruise was more 'sedate' when it came to entertainment.

Port information and care/Excursions

We don't do a lot of excursions (1 per 12 day cruise) but have booked 1 on each line. We booked online easily with Carnival and got our tickets on the first day for snorkelling and the excursion was well planned and easy. We also booked another snorkelling excursion on board with Carnival and unfortunately missed it due to wrong timing. Carnival immediately refunded us not problem. Carnival did not really provide port information on paper but Guest excursions would always give stuff if asked. We booked a volcano excursion with Celebrity on board for Etna and my husband did not realise the tickets said 8.15 meet point so we missed it...I will admit timekeeping is not our strong point. At the excursion desk Celebrity said that we could not have a refund or even change it to a tour for the next day (Mount Vesuvius) and it took us a drawn out conversation to get them to change the tour to the volcano for the next day. Unfortunately for us the Vesuvius tour got cancelled due to lack of interest and we got refunded anyway. We liked the Celebrity port information sheets and the cold towels when you boarded (they even provided hot big towels for a rainy Messina). However Celebrity often completely booked out private companies (like Kayaks in Kotor) the inflated the price so your only option was to pay a premium. They also charged 15 euros for the Toulon boat shuttle when they usual price was 10...this left a bit of bad taste.

Winner: Carnival

Fellow Cruisers

Oddly enough staff told us the ship was 2/3 Europeans (mainly Brits) which is different for us as we are used to sailing with a Majority of US folk. It seemed that overall the Celebrity cruisers had a bit more money than Carnival cruisers and spent more but as we did unusual, longer Carnival cruises this was not too noticeable. The Celebrity cruisers and Carnival cruisers were as friendly as each other and conversations flowed freely at dinner and other venues. Unfortunately both lines had a handful of cruisers that we saw being rude to others/staff and chair hogging was ridiculous on Celebrity as was parents keeping an eye on their unruly kids. As much as everyone seemed to get on on Celebrity we noticed that hardly any 'groups' seemed to form and there was less of a community feel. On Carnival people were forming close bonds and becoming firm cruise friends and hanging out all the time but it seemed everyone stuck to their own on Celebrity. Now this could be due to the ship size or my fellow countrymen being a little shy....who knows. I will say though that we met wonderful folk on all our cruises.

Winner: Carnival

Atmosphere

Following on from what I have said previously and in my review I felt Celebrity was more sedate as a whole. Things like sailaway parties and themed parties and the final dance show in the lobby always started with a grand hurrah but faded quite quickly. Dancefloors emptied quite quickly on Celebrity and they seemed to have trouble getting participants for some shows. I dont think the scheduling of activities helped as things seemed to end around 10pm apart from the late show and even though I am a night owl I felt it was easier to turn in some nights. I did like the feel when up on the lawn club with its special events and the pool atmosphere when something was put on too. On Carnival the ship often felt alive and bustling with Trivia going on as you walked past or a magician floating around the lounges. The night club seemed to have people dancing til 2 and the Lido deck had lots going on with QUIETER music than the Celebrity Equinox. After all the gentle stuff on Celebrity it was a surprise to have very loud music on lido a good amount of the time. Carnival had music but it always seemed quieter and it was easy to just go with the flow.

Winner: Carnival

Final scores: Carnival 8 points Celebrity 6 points

Carnival wins!

As you can see it was quite close but Carnival seems a better fit for us and we both agreed that even though we loved the ship and the food we would rather book Carnival than Celebrity especially with the overall atmosphere of the cruises. We are both young, like to stay up and cruise for ports so I guess we already knew before we sailed especially when you consider Carnival's great prices. However we are still very keen to sail RCL and NCL as they seem to fit our personality too. I think we would sail Celebrity again for the right price but would choose other lines before them. If only Carnival bought the Equinox with its chefs and food we would be laughing! We would love to see the Officers vs Guests on Carnival too. The main thing we learnt that there was so many similarities between the lines that good marketing doesn't want you to know. Now we have sailed the supposedly 'low end' and 'top end' of the major lines we can happily choose things in between with a possible view to even consider Princess one day.

So...there it is. Sorry for the off grammar/spelling mistakes I am dyslexic and when I speed type things happen. :)

I am happy to answer any questions.

Thank you answered my questions

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Thanks for the comparison. Great job! We started with celebrity and will be trying carnival next. ROyal Caribbean is next on our list

ROyal Caribbean is next on our list

Ours too but Carnival keeps having great prices. :)

Hi, I really like Carnival. I travel solo so have yet to be on Celbrity because they do not offer good single supplements. My favorite line is still Holland America line,but lately no good single deals. Kendra

Interesting! Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

Next cruise: Carnival Vista - July 2016

Readers of this thread should be aware that the OP's comments are based on his/her experience on Mediterranean cruises, as well as the contrast between Carnival and Celebrity.

Readers of this thread should be aware that the OP's comments are based on his/her experience on Mediterranean cruises, as well as the contrast between Carnival and Celebrity.

Where do you see the OP has a Carnival Mediterranean cruise? Based on their signature they have done Baltic and Panama Canal.

Where do you see the OP has a Carnival Mediterranean cruise? Based on their signature they have done Baltic and Panama Canal.

This is true...

My only Med cruise was on the Celebrity Equinox a few weeks ago...Vista Med coming up. :)

Thanks for the info... We have done both, have a Carnival cruise coming up. I think for us the Carnival cruise is because of convenience and price... 15 minutes from home and a great price. Next cruise most likely will be Celebrity.

Interesting comparison. Thanks for posting.

Thanks for the review. We recently sailed with celebrity and we won't again.

We have just booked with carnival and it made my day to see your review!

Thanks for the comparison! We have only sailed Celebrity previously, and have our first Carnival cruise coming up - all 7 day cruises. We chose Carnival for price, but the more I read, the more I am thinking we made a great decision. We liked Celebrity just fine, and I do think the food will be somewhat lower quality on Carnival, but otherwise I'm looking forward to a great vacation for much less money. Celebrity was dead most evenings. I'm hoping to do more dancing at night on Carnival. And the Carnival website and phone customer service is light years ahead of Celebrity.