How good are RCI compared to other cruise liners?

[Coco85]

My Husband asked me the question "how good is our cruise company compared to other cruise liners"?

 

Having never cruised before we are unsure but we are really looking forward to cruising with RCI.......

looking forward to your replies :D

[cb at sea]

The mass-market lines are more alike than different. Of course, the "luxury" lines will be an entirely different feel!

[oceanviewcruise]

My Husband asked me the question "how good is our cruise company compared to other cruise liners"?

 

Having never cruised before we are unsure but we are really looking forward to cruising with RCI.......

looking forward to your replies :D

 

Hi,

 

We have been cruising (at sea as apposed to the kind that cruises by car!!) for over 30 years and are not loyal to any particular cruise line. During that time we have sailed with RCI, Celebrity, Princess, Cunard, P&O, Costa, MSC, NCL, Orient Lines (Marco Polo) + lots of other independant ones.

 

Out of all those we prefer RCI as they have some unique factors that other lines lack these days and also they are always first with new inovations.

 

The nearest to RCI I would say are Princess, but even they, being part of the huge Carnival Corporation are having to toe the line and make more money - thus the passengers are suffering and every year things that used to be free are now either a chargable item or not available.

 

To give a reality comparison related to on-shore facilities:...

 

Food/restaurants

RCI = good London or New York restaurant

Celebrity = Good to VG London or NY restaurant

Princess, as RCI

NCL, as RCI

Costa & MSC = Average to Good Italian Restaurant

Cunard = to Excellent London or NY restaurant

P&O = Very Good London or NY restaurant

Small cruise lines = Average London or NY restaurant

 

Accomodation - depends on the ship but...

RCI = 4* hotel

Celebrity = 4*+ hotel

Princess, as RCI

NCL, as RCI

Costa & MSC = 3*+ hotel

Cunard = 4 to 5*+ hotel

P&O = 4* hotel

Small cruise lines = 2 to 4* hotel

 

Evening Entertainment - marks out of 10

RCI = 9

Celebrity = 8

Princess = 8

NCL = 8

Costa = 6

MSC = 5 (always multi lingual and therefore annoying)

Cunard = sometimes 8, sometimes 9

P&O = 8 or 9

Small cruise lines = 5

 

Ship purchased Shore Excursions prices

10 being good value - 1 being not good value

RCI = 7

Celebrity = 6

Princess = 6

NCL = 6

Costa = 6

MSC = 7

Cunard = 4

P&O = 4

Small cruise lines = 9

 

Overall Cruise Experience

10 being good value - 1 being not good value

 

RCI = 9

Celebrity = 7

Princess = 8 (because they offer good itineraries

NCL = 6

Costa = 6

MSC = 8

Cunard = 7

P&O = 7

Small cruise lines = 2 (Most are overpriced)

[Cruising89143]

My Husband asked me the question "how good is our cruise company compared to other cruise liners"?

 

Having never cruised before we are unsure but we are really looking forward to cruising with RCI.......

looking forward to your replies :D

 

For me the biggest difference between RCI and other lines are their ships. More innovative, more of a WOW factor and better maintained. IMHO "the line" that separates cruise lines today is becoming thinner by the year. Each cruise line continues to make cuts here and there to keep prices down. Cruising has changed over the years. Some for the good and not so good. Depending on what your needs may be will determine what is good and what you determine to be not so good.

 

Since you're a first time cruiser, you really have nothing to base your experience on. Just go, have a great time and relax. :)

[Coco85]

Wow thank you :)

It's just nice to know what others think of RCI compared to other cruise lines too.

We originally looked at a Princess cruise and Thomson but my Hubby did not like the look of them.

We are really pleased we got a good deal with RCI though :D

[negc]

My Husband asked me the question "how good is our cruise company compared to other cruise liners"?

 

Having never cruised before we are unsure but we are really looking forward to cruising with RCI.......

looking forward to your replies :D

 

For the most part you are going to get very subjective and biased answers to this type of question. Certainly there is a great similarity among the various mass market cruiselines and personal preferences will lead people to rank them differently. Unless you have experienced each line several times, it will be difficult to arrive at an answer to this question and then that answer will be specific to you and may not be agreed to by others.

Our personal preference is Royal Caribbean. After that we would rank Celebrity and Princess ahead of NCL and Carnival. We have sailed on all four lines multiple times and find that RCI best suits our needs and tastes. Since you will have nothing to compare your Royal Caribbean with, just relax and enjoy your first cruise. It should be wonderful and will likely exceed your expectations. Nothing will ever match your first cruise so, if you cruise again, keep that in mind and try to treat each cruise as an individual experience and don't spend much or any time comparing one cruise with another.

[Lizcourt]

I'm really not sure you can compare line by line --- especially on larger lines that have many ships and classes of ships. If you compared, for example, the Monarch to the Carnival Dream, you would come up with a very different rating than if you compared Oasis or Allure to the Carnival Fascination. While overall, I suppose there definitely are company-wide characteristics (RCCL's almost fanatical effort to keep liquor from being brought on board, and its equally fervant devotion to being the most innovative cutting edge line around are a few that come to mind) but really, I think you can only really compare individual ships, not cruise lines.

 

On that basis, I have to say that of the ships I've been on, Oasis would top the list as my favorite, followed by Caribbean Princess and Carnival Spirit and Pride, with QMII coming in a distant fifth. At the bottom of my list would be the Norwegian Dawn (the only truly bad cruise I've ever been on -- I was actually astounded at an earlier post that ranked NCL close to RCCL in many categories; in my experience NCL is a cut-rate, cut-corners operation that really doesn't deserve to rank anywhere near Carnival, let alone RCCL). Others -- Monarch, Voyager, Zenith -- hover somewhere in the middle. But as with everything else, its totally subjective.

[Coco85]

Thank you for your replies.

I am so looking forward to our cruise, I have no idea what to expect but feel excited for the experience too :cool:

[trolleydolly]

We have cruised 4 times with Royal (have 2 more booked) and recently tried a mini cruise with P&O. We were not impressed by P&O at all and am glad that we are and will continue to be loyal to Royal.

 

In all fairness to P&O though, it was only a 2 nighter so some would say that is not enough to judge, but from that experience we are definitely going to continue to book with RCI.

 

Enjoy your cruise:)

[Coco85]

Thank you :)

x