The Standoff: RCI Vs. Carnival.

[blessedwith12]

Although I've only sailed on Carnival, it seems to me it's hard to compare whole cruise lines. It seems like the comparison should be made between individual ships.

For example, one previous poster did not like the layout of their Carnival ship - no way to walk the whole length on certain decks. This was true of the Inspiration, but not on the Legend.

Like you mentioned - I wondered about the "party" atmosphere on Carnival. I took my two daughters on a Spring Break cruise and was worried about that. I consider myself an ultraconservative. I did not find the crowd to be out of control, drunken partiers. If we had wanted to find that atmosphere, I'm sure there were places on board we could have found it but the overall atmosphere on board was very family friendly.

I also think the length of your cruise is going to effect the crowd also. A shorter 3 day cruise may have more partyers than a 7 day cruise. Our 7 day cruise was a much older crowd than our 5 day cruise.

Also, what is most important to you about a cruise?

For me, it is itinerary and food. That's one reason I am hesitant to try something other than Carnival. Carnival's food consistently is rated as one of the best and it would really irritate me to spend more for another cruise line and then have inferior food.

Good luck making your decision.

[ottawapuppy]

As far as we are concerned, the two lines are more alike than different. I only cruise RCCL when the price is right and the itinerary is good. RCCL is prettier, otherwise no real difference. We have encountered just as many drunks and partiers on RCCL as CCL. We have met the same mix of people on both lines.

 

I second this.

 

Mike

[dan40]

SHIPS: RCL wins 99 to 92

FOOD: CCL wins 96 to 90

Corp. Mgmt. CCL wins 99.9 to 75

EVERYTHING else is all but identical. Differences could be greater from one Carnival ship to another Carnival ship than from one line to the other. Same on RCCL.

[Drew B]

One thing to remember is that a lot of these comparisons is not only line to line or ship to ship, but also week to week or cabin to cabin or table to table. I did a B2B on Valor in 2008, and the difference in fellow passengers was PRONOUNCED. Week 1 was much younger with a huge family presence. Week 2 was MUCH older (probably at least a 20 year age gap in average age) and consequently, more sedate. I've had great waiters and subpar waiters on the same ship. I've had great cabin stewards and mediocre ones on the same ship. A whole lot of the experience is just going to be the luck of the draw, no matter how much you try to plan...

 

You could have a cruise on RCCL where everything is awesome - the service and the fellow passengers - and one on Carnival where everything is worse. If you took the very same cruises a week later, the situation could be reversed.

 

There are some differences between lines that are simply factual (e.g. Princess has freshwater pools rather than saltwater), and those might be important enough to sway your decision. Other considerations such as service or fellow passengers are fluid ON ANY LINE OR ANY SHIP, so it is very difficult to make the "right" choice based on those factors...

[Kristi Williamson]

We've done both, and for years thought we were Royal Loyals. However, after taking Carnival's nicer ships, we decided that there really isn't THAT much difference.

 

Let's be honest, RCI's ships are works of art. Carnival just can't compare there. But, do you REALLY sail to look at the ship? We've been on the Mariner, and she's beautiful. BUT...the food was BAD!! and frankly, we got very bored at night when we were on her. I enjoy the beauty of the ship for about 2 days and then it's about the overall experience. What we've found is that Carnival's food FAR outshines RCI's and we really enjoy all the nighttime activities that RCI just doesn't have.

 

Carnival's rooms are also bigger, and that's a good thing, as well. (this is the most obvious in the inside and OV rooms)

 

Carnival has also now implemented their comedy clubs at night (on the Dream and Glory) and that makes it even harder to decide what to do in the evening. Not a bad problem to have! ;)

 

When you boil it all down, there's hardly any noticable difference in the mass marketed lines. It comes down to price for me at this point. If I'm sailing for the experience, relaxation, fun AND price...Carnival wins. If you're truly looking for a luxury line where you're the "star", then no mass marketed line is going to fit that bill. Celebrity (X), likes to say they do, but we've been there, done that....they're just like the other two, with neutral colors and a little less neon. :D

[tess18]

I have also been very loyal to Royal but our last few cruises have been on Carnival. We just booked a cruise on the Valor - the price for the same kind of cabin and the same departure port and the same ports of call was almost double on a RC ship. The Carnival ships have bigger cabins, more comfortable mattresses and I think the food is better. I think RC seems to keep cutting back on imenities (sp?) while building bigger ships and Carnival keeps plugging along. I see myself continuing to cruise with Carnival.

[dan40]

One thing to remember is that a lot of these comparisons is not only line to line or ship to ship, but also week to week or cabin to cabin or table to table. I did a B2B on Valor in 2008, and the difference in fellow passengers was PRONOUNCED. Week 1 was much younger with a huge family presence. Week 2 was MUCH older (probably at least a 20 year age gap in average age) and consequently, more sedate. I've had great waiters and subpar waiters on the same ship. I've had great cabin stewards and mediocre ones on the same ship. A whole lot of the experience is just going to be the luck of the draw, no matter how much you try to plan...

 

You could have a cruise on RCCL where everything is awesome - the service and the fellow passengers - and one on Carnival where everything is worse. If you took the very same cruises a week later, the situation could be reversed.

 

There are some differences between lines that are simply factual (e.g. Princess has freshwater pools rather than saltwater), and those might be important enough to sway your decision. Other considerations such as service or fellow passengers are fluid ON ANY LINE OR ANY SHIP, so it is very difficult to make the "right" choice based on those factors...

 

TOTALLY agree with you. Have done a B2B and it was 2 completely different cruises. Did the same ship, same itinerary twice in 2 months. NOT the same cruise. EACH group of cruise pax has its own collective personality. As far as I'm concerned, I've had 50 first cruises. [but that might be long term memory loss]:confused::p

[KatieGator]

My feelings exactly, only I have sailed CCL about 8 times and RCCL only once.

Royal ships are gorgeous...Carnival food is better. Everything else is about equal.

 

I enjoyed my Royal cruise but when I'm shopping for cruises, they are usually significantly higher in price so I stay away. Why would I pay more when I can have just as nice a cruise on another line?

 

This is pretty much how I feel too. I've been on RCI 3 times and Carnival once. Our next cruise is booked with Carnival. I will freely admit, I like the looks and the flow of RCI ships better. The food was great with both lines, but DH and I liked the pizza and deli options on CCL (he still talks about the reuben he got on Imagination). I think the activities and entertainment are about equal. We often felt like Carinval had a stronger feeling of fun in the air---but trust me, if there were a strong party-all-day/all-night, drunken frat party vibe, I'd tell you. I would have hated that, and I didn't feel it at all.

 

To be honest, I was 'one of those' who was hesitant to try Carnival because of what I'd heard. I'd been "loyal to royal" and was fine with sticking with them. Of all people, my mother in law convinced me to give Carnival a try, and I'm glad we did. For the iteneraries we are interested in, Carnival is routinely cheaper. Couple that with the fact that RCI has changed their loyalty policy, I feel no reason to stick with Royal. I'll cruise with them if the price is right, but Carnival is definitely a top pick for me now.

[Cindy]

This is what I posted on this same thread on the RCCL board earlier today. One thing I didn't mention is price, and that definitely factors into my decision making. We have to cruise during peak times because I'm in education. We also tend to choose expensive cabins because of when we cruise...if things are too wild and crazy for us around the ship, we can just retreat to our private balcony and get away from it all! When I was choosing between the Voyager and the Conquest for this March, there was a $1,500 price difference ($750 each) between a JS on the Voyager and a Cat. 11 on the Conquest. That's a LOT of DOD's!:D

We've cruised on both lines...5 on RCCL and only one Carnival so far, with another one coming up in a couple months. We went in with an open mind, and were very pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed our experience on Carnival.

 

 

Things that stood out to us...

 

In our opinion, the food on Carnival Splendor was much, much better than on any of our RCCL cruises. It seemed like the quality of the beef and seafood was superior to what we're used to.

 

We liked our cabin (a Category 11) the best of any we've had, including balconies/mini-suites on Princess and balconies/junior suites on Royal Caribbean. It probably wasn't the biggest cabin we've had, but it was the most nicely appointed, with a whirlpool tub, double sinks, granite countertops, a full set of wine & bar glasses, and a separate vanity/dressing area with additional electrical outlets. However, we thought the balcony was quite a bit smaller than the one we had on the Voyager last March. Our balcony on Carnival Splendor was long but shallow.

 

We have had good to great service on most of our cruises. I think this is sometimes attributed too much to the cruise line and not enough to the individuals. We've only had bad service twice...once on Grand Princess and once on Explorer of the Seas. The service on Splendor was fine...I didn't think it was better or worse than what I'm accustomed to.

 

I didn't care for the layout of the ship...it was "choppy" in that there are decks where you have to change levels to get from one end of the ship to the other. It reminded me a lot of the Grand Princess in that respect. I much prefer the layout of the large RCCL ships. I find them easy to get around. My husband and I also prefer the decor on Royal Caribbean, but the decor on Carnival didn't impact my enjoyment of the cruise.

 

I thought the activities were very similar. Same pool games, trivia, wine tasting, etc. We don't use the skating rink or the rock-climbing wall, so we didn't miss them!:) We also didn't use the slide on Carnival, but I can tell you my nieces and nephews wore a rut in it they were on it so much! The entertainment on Carnival was good...very similar to RCCL with a couple production shows, comedians, etc. I did find the sight lines in the theater on Splendor to be not very good...there were lots more obstructed views than there are on a Voyager class ship.

 

I thought I was a "Loyal Royal" once I reached platinum, but what I found this summer is that I have another option. I certainly plan to sail RCCL again, but I'm also excited about my second Carnival cruise, & I hope it's as enjoyable as my first!

[smile1234]

This is great ....keep it coming. Thank u everyone for your feedback.

 

I agree with those who mentioned the perks have not been very good lately on RCCI, nevermind they changed the requirements for the conceirge (sp) lounge. The biggest perk for me was to not wait in line going on or off the boat. I hope to have bypassed that on carnival by booking the suite. However i dont know if we will get priority debarking? Anyhow the free drinks twice and the coupon book was nice but not a dealbreaker.

 

Thanks Again

[jcm996]

From my exp RCI is much better, my first carnival cruise was just that a carnival. I sat down on the bed and 2 of the legs broke ( I am only 200lbs.), there was no air con or ventilation, I was tempted to sleep in the hall where it was much cooler than my cabin. But with the loud drunks or children in the hall all the time it wouldn't have made a difference. (They also thrashed my luggage between the last night when I left it in the hall and getting it back before customs) I would gladly pay an extra $400 on RCI to not go through that again. Which explains why my next cruise is on RCI again. To me the food is about the same, but the service is better on RCI or at least the crew actually smiles and acts friendly.

[Cindy]

This is great ....keep it coming. Thank u everyone for your feedback.

 

I agree with those who mentioned the perks have not been very good lately on RCCI, nevermind they changed the requirements for the conceirge (sp) lounge. The biggest perk for me was to not wait in line going on or off the boat. I hope to have bypassed that on carnival by booking the suite. However i dont know if we will get priority debarking? Anyhow the free drinks twice and the coupon book was nice but not a dealbreaker.

 

Thanks Again

 

You'll get priority embarkation on Carnival if you booked a suite. We used it last summer, and it was a nice perk.

As for the free drinks, I haven't been on Royal Caribbean since they changed the coupon books so I don't know for certain, but I've read most of the "freebies" have been cut.