If you have sailed on both Carnival & NCL, can you give a comparison please?

[BearClaw28]

I'm on the Jewel right now. Did Carnival last year. I'll write a review this weekend when I get back. Right now I can tell you that we've been very disappointed in the food.

[romrai]

I've done both. 3 NCL, 1 Carnival. I will give the lion/s share of the vote to NCL. The cabins are bigger on Carnival, but not too noticeable.... and I think the food quality/variety is better on Carnival. The set dining time is the biggest draw back. More snacks available, to cover that aspect though. We also had the worse dining service we have ever had in any restaurant nightly, landi or sea. Then to stop service to do a musical, regardless of what is happening at the tables is awful. I felt that generally the regular staff was slightly better as well, definately more push for selling drinks on Carnival. More NCL staff learned our names to make a more personal touch. Entertainment is far superior on NCL. The longer cruises and the destinations offered by NCL are the best. The cost was also better. Would I cruise Carnival again? Of course, if the price was right. A bad day cruising is better than a good day at work.

[disneysteve]

When you book a Carnival cruise, you select whether you want traditional (and choose between main and late seatings) or "My Time" dining. Both types are available... as they now are also on Princess and Royal Caribbean.

We would like that - having the option. We didn't like the NCL system of no option.

[CT Cruiser10]

We would like that - having the option. We didn't like the NCL system of no option.

 

I believe that you must choose anytime dining when booking your cruise. Once you are on board, you don't really have an option anymore.

[CT Cruiser10]

I don't understand the criticism of NCL when it comes to the pay restaurants. Sure, you have to pay for 8 of the 10 restaurants but at least you have the option. If you don't want to pay extra then you have 2 restaurants to choose from, which is twice as many as you would have most other lines.

[CT Cruiser10]

Pros of NCL - Freestyle dining. This works best when you are in port. I enjoy having the earlier dinner time (6:00 PM on my NCL cruise) but I don't want to rush back to the ship if we are in port until 7:00. I enjoy the flexibility the NCL offers.

 

Pros of CCL - I found that my CCL cruise was more of a celebration atmosphere. This was likely due to it being my first cruise, and leaving out of Miami in March. My NCL cruise left out of NYC in September so it was much more laid back.

 

Common Pros - I'm not at work. I'm on vacation.

 

Common Cons - Eventually I have to get off of the ship.

[newmexicoNita]

I am booked on a NCL cruise in Feb. 2011 and have never sailed with them before. I have previously sailed on Carnival and Disney. My husband and I decided to go with NCL for our 3 year old daughter because of the Nick at Sea cruises. I would love to know how the cruise line compares to Carnival. How is the kid's club? How is the food? More specific for anyone who has sailed on the Jewel, how is the ship? Pretty much anything you can tell me would be greatly appreciated.

 

We have cruised both Carnival and the Jewel, but I have to be honest, Carnival was quite a few years ago. Like all of us, we can only cruise so often and can't cruise all the lines we would like, all the time. NCL happens to be our line of choice, followed by HAL and Princess. The plus for Carnival, the cabins are bigger, otherwise we prefer NCL. Carnival also has good casinos, so does NCL on some of the their ships, the Jewel being one of those.

 

The thing we like about NCL is the freedom to eat where and when we want and all the dining choices they offer. Even if you choose not to go to the sur charge dining rooms you have more dining options on NCL. Though I can only from what my clients have told me, it appears the flex dining on NCL works better than on Carnival. It should, they have perfected it, Carnival just started offering it. As for food quality, this is just to subjective. We cruised the Pearl about 3 months ago and had no complaints about the food. I did have dry meat one night in the MDR, but the rest of the food, though not gourmet, was very good. i don't expect ships that hold 2000 and more passengers to offer anything much different than banquet quality and they don't. NCLs most expensive dining room is cheaper than Carnivals.

 

 

both lines offer very good kids programs and decent entertainment.

 

We like not having to dress up at all, not one night. Yes, at first this was strange, but we soon decided we loved going casual.

 

Service on any line is hit or miss. We have had great service and some that really lacked. I do think dining room service is better with traditional dining, but that is the price we pay for the flexibility and not having to share the same table every night with people we have nothing in common with.

 

If you have liked the rest of your cruises and you go with a positive attitude there is rarely a bad cruise.

 

Nita

[disneysteve]

I believe that you must choose anytime dining when booking your cruise. Once you are on board, you don't really have an option anymore.

By option, I meant that we'd have a guaranteed seating time in the MDR but if we chose not to use it one night for whatever reason, then we could eat elsewhere like the buffet or grill or pizzeria. On NCL, we had no guaranteed spot. One night we wanted to eat in the MDR and couldn't get in (unless we wanted to wait 45 minutes). That wouldn't happen on Carnival.

[CT Cruiser10]

By option, I meant that we'd have a guaranteed seating time in the MDR but if we chose not to use it one night for whatever reason, then we could eat elsewhere like the buffet or grill or pizzeria. On NCL, we had no guaranteed spot. One night we wanted to eat in the MDR and couldn't get in (unless we wanted to wait 45 minutes). That wouldn't happen on Carnival.

 

That didn't really come across on your post. In fact, this seems like quite the back pedal.

 

On my 7 day cruise on NCL, I never had to wait more than 30 seconds for a table. I loved having the option of what time to eat.

[disneysteve]

On my 7 day cruise on NCL, I never had to wait more than 30 seconds for a table. I loved having the option of what time to eat.

I know a lot of people like the freestyle thing. We just didn't care for it. We would rather have a set dining time. We liked that on Carnival. We also liked having the same server each night who got to know us after 2 days and knew our preferences and how we liked things. The waiter used to bring our daughter what she wanted without her even asking for it. That personal touch and level of service was missing with freestyle since we never had the same server twice.

 

That doesn't mean we would always eat at that assigned time. If we were in port late one night, we might skip the MDR and hit the buffet or get pizza or eat in port but at least we'd know the set time was there if we wanted it. We tried to make a reservation for the MDR on NCL because I thought I had read that you could do that, but we were told they only took reservations for parties of 8 or more and there were only 6 of us. That was my fault for not confirming that in advance.

 

Both ways work. Different strokes. We'll stick to scheduled dining on future cruises. Works better for the way we like to plan our days.

[CT Cruiser10]

I know a lot of people like the freestyle thing. We just didn't care for it. We would rather have a set dining time. We liked that on Carnival. We also liked having the same server each night who got to know us after 2 days and knew our preferences and how we liked things. The waiter used to bring our daughter what she wanted without her even asking for it. That personal touch and level of service was missing with freestyle since we never had the same server twice.

 

That doesn't mean we would always eat at that assigned time. If we were in port late one night, we might skip the MDR and hit the buffet or get pizza or eat in port but at least we'd know the set time was there if we wanted it. We tried to make a reservation for the MDR on NCL because I thought I had read that you could do that, but we were told they only took reservations for parties of 8 or more and there were only 6 of us. That was my fault for not confirming that in advance.

 

Both ways work. Different strokes. We'll stick to scheduled dining on future cruises. Works better for the way we like to plan our days.

 

I did enjoy the personal service provided on my Carnival cruise. It was fun to get to know our servers, and by the third night they would know what we were going to ask for in terms of drinks and have them ready when we arrived. What I didn't like was having to eat dinner with some other family. There were 5 of us on our cruise and we were assigned a table with a family of 3 who were not very social (perhaps it was my family that wasn't social but the story is the same). Dinners were very awkward.

 

I'm surprised to hear that NCL doesn't take reservations for parties less than 8.

[jeannep]

We have been on both NCL and CCL. We are going on CCL Miracle in Sept. and NCL Epic in Feb.

 

We have chosen "anytime dining". We love freestyle on NCL. I still don't think "anytime dining" will be as good as "freestyle" With "anytime dining" you can go when you want to go but you only have 1 MDR to choose from. With "freestyle" you have 2 MDRs and a sitdown and be served leisure spot(Blue Lagoon).

 

The last time we were on CCL the food was great. NCL has wonderful food also.

 

Just my opinion: NCL wins in the dining catagory.

 

Jeanne

[halos]

I don't understand the criticism of NCL when it comes to the pay restaurants. .

That makes two of us.

 

Different strokes. We'll stick to scheduled dining on future cruises. Works better for the way we like to plan our days.

Absolutely!

I would hate if everyone prefered NCL....cost would go up dramatically.

[JohnStevenGordon]

I am booked on a NCL cruise in Feb. 2011 and have never sailed with them before. I have previously sailed on Carnival and Disney. My husband and I decided to go with NCL for our 3 year old daughter because of the Nick at Sea cruises. I would love to know how the cruise line compares to Carnival. How is the kid's club? How is the food? More specific for anyone who has sailed on the Jewel, how is the ship? Pretty much anything you can tell me would be greatly appreciated.

 

Carnival is much nicer. NWCL you pay extra for dinner many nights and that would be an issue with a (3) year old. Since I dought you will want her in daycare during dinner you will have to eat in the main dining room. Since they now have about 10 pay restaurtants on the ship they limited teh menu and they seem to have alot of stuff with sausage (weird actully). Those 10 places even if you can avoid them take away from other rooms. I bet you walk off that ship with a bill double the price it would be on Carnival.

 

I hate Freestyle! If you like characters walking around the ship try RCCL. YOu pay extra for the ships that have Sponge Bob (and Friends)walking around too. Most ships have entertainment for kids that they would enjoy more then a character walking around the ship anyways. RCCL had Shrek for the trip we booked. My youngest said why would I want to take a picture with a fake shrek, we all know he isn't that tall Dad.

[JohnStevenGordon]

How does that work on CCL? Do they still offer a set time option for traditional dining or are you stuck with the "anytime" deal like on NCL. We didn't care for that at all.

 

They sure do or I wouldn't sail on them. The anytime dining you can get wait listed for too. Thats the other thing I hate about NWCL even if you can take their main dining room your eating with different people each day unless and no introductions. So travel with friends if you go NWCL

[disneysteve]

NWCL you pay extra for dinner many nights

 

Thats the other thing I hate about NWCL even if you can take their main dining room your eating with different people each day

Even though I've been somewhat critical of NCL myself, I will step in to defend them here. You don't pay extra for dinner on NCL unless you choose to. You can eat in the MDR or buffet at no added cost. And I don't believe they will seat you with strangers in the MDR. You can get a table for 2 or 4 or 5 or however many are in your party.

[jeannep]

They sure do or I wouldn't sail on them. The anytime dining you can get wait listed for too. Thats the other thing I hate about NWCL even if you can take their main dining room your eating with different people each day unless and no introductions. So travel with friends if you go NWCL

 

This is definately not true. On NCL you eat by yourselves unless you ask for others at the table. The maitre'd might ask if you want to share a table but you can definately say no.

 

As I said before, you have more free choices on NCL than on CCL. You can also go to the pay restaurants if you want. They are also terrific. I have always gotten great service in the restaurants on NCL and the most we ever waited for a free restaurant is 10 minutes.

 

Jeanne