Carnival beats out NCL

[Hendricks Clan]

We have cruised on both as well. I preferred CCL over NCL until the Epic came out, had the joy of sailing on her last year and she is 2nd to none!

[luv cruising 007]

Im with you there Carnival wins big time! I cant stand the FEE-style oops freestyle dining! On the Epic! I was really nickel'd & dime'd way worse then I am on carnival! The rooms are also tiny on NCL!

[Warm Breezes]

Im with you there Carnival wins big time! I cant stand the FEE-style oops freestyle dining! On the Epic! I was really nickel'd & dime'd way worse then I am on carnival! The rooms are also tiny on NCL!

 

You only get nickle and dimed if choose to be. NCL has just as many included dining venues as Carnival...They do have more optional fee dining venues than Carnival....They are optional and you are not forced to go to them and pay a fee. Why do people complain about having more options to go choose from? This baffles me every time.

[luv cruising 007]

Yeah they have more places to choose but THE FREE OPTIONS ARE AWEFUL ON NCL! the Free options on Carnival wins handsdown, I personally dont cruise to pay extra for decent food! The MDR on carnival is excellent! thats only my opnion sorry!

[Hendricks Clan]

You only get nickle and dimed if choose to be. NCL has just as many included dining venues as Carnival...They do have more optional fee dining venues than Carnival....They are optional and you are not forced to go to them and pay a fee. Why do people complain about having more options to go choose from? This baffles me every time.

 

Exactly, and it appears that CCL is moving towards the freestyle way of cruising. For the the 3rd time in 2 weeks yesterday John Heald asked on FB about this particular type of dinning. I prefer the traditional dinning to freestyle, but if you look at the Magic it has 2 additional venues that cost with Red Frog and the Italian restaurant. I'm sure CCL will make the nickel and dime announcements about those 2, just as NCL does with theirs. I prefer traditional dinning but its becoming more of a thing of the past as cruise lines like CCL, RCCL, and NCL try to attract the beach goer vacationers.

[Warm Breezes]

Yeah they have more places to choose but THE FREE OPTIONS ARE AWEFUL ON NCL! the Free options on Carnival wins handsdown, I personally dont cruise to pay extra for decent food! The MDR on carnival is excellent! thats only my opnion sorry!

 

We all have our own opinions....food is one that is extremely subjective and you can't please everyone with. I loved the free options at the Blue Lagoon and the Buffet on NCL Jewel. I thought CCL's MDR food better (not excellant but better) than NCL (but I did not find anything awful on NCL - just prefered CCL's better). To me it was a wash since I prefer NCL's buffet over CCl and I prefer CCL's MDR to NCL. But that's just my opinion. I chose to go to 2 fee restaurants on NCL. No one twisted my arm and I enjoyed my meals at them. I will be going on the EPIC at the end of the year. I will probably choose to go to a couple of fee restaurants again. I also plan on eating in the MDR's, Buffet, and their Pub (all included). It will be my choice to pay extra if I so desire, but I'm sure I will find plenty in their included options that aren't awful to me....

[HappyHappy1]

You only get nickle and dimed if choose to be. NCL has just as many included dining venues as Carnival...They do have more optional fee dining venues than Carnival....They are optional and you are not forced to go to them and pay a fee. Why do people complain about having more options to go choose from? This baffles me every time.

 

I completely agree! We sailed on the NCL Pearl in November 2010 and were disappointed.

 

I'm comparing the NCL Pearl to the Carnival Legend and Valor. Pearl is the newest ship of the three of them.

 

 

 

Stateroom

• The NCL OV stateroom is so small! No room to turn around. Where NCL's stateroom ends, Carnivals has the sofa seating area, which doubles the space.
  
• Closests - More closet space on CCL Valor and Legend than on the NCL Pearl, however NCL had more hangers
  
• Beds - CCL were much more comfortable. But this is a personal choice issue. I prefer a softer bed.
  
• Bathroom - NCLs shower is much better since it has a glass door.
  
• Outlets - CCL has 1 per room. NCL has 3.
  
• Room stewart on NCL was more attentive.
  
• Luggage arrives right away with Carnival. Our luggage didn't arrive in our room on NCL until 7pm.
  
• TV - While we don't go on a cruise to watch tv, we do like to wind down at night and watch tv. CCL broadcasts the networks out of Denver. They also have a cartoon channel and some movies. NCL only had fox news, BBC, and MSNBC. And they showed the same two movies over and over.
  

Dining

• MDR Service - The staff on the Valor was my favorite, followed by the Legend. On the Pearl, our waiter took our complete order including desert at one time, reappeared with our food and never came back. No refills on water, no asking for anything else. Poor wait service on NCL MDR.
  
• We loved the waiters singing and dancing after dinner on CCL. It was funny and added to the energy of the ship.
  
• MDR food - CCL food is much more mainstream. Which is more to our liking. We were not impressed with the food on NCL MDR.
  
• Pay restaurants - NCL Pearl has soooo many. Since we didn't like the food in the MDR we ate at the specialty restaurants most nights. Mambos Tex/Mex/Latin restaurant is fantastic and worth the $10 pp. One of the friends in our party is from Texas and she enjoyed the food. Italian restaurant tasted more like Chef Boyardee. Not worth the $10 pp. Asian restaurant was very good. Not really a fan of french food so we didn't try the french restaurant. The Tepenyaki was AWESOME! but at $25 per person it only happened one night. CCL steakhouse has much better food than NCL. Better atmosphere as well.
  
• The 24/7 restaurant with the buffalo wings was very good...but how often can you eat buffalo wings?
  
• Buffet - Carnival wins hands down. The NCL buffet set up reminds me of a high school cafeteria lunch line. The Pizza on NCL is gross. Iced tea is much easier to get to on CCL. CCL also has lemonade. Beverage area is around the corner on NCL...out of place. Seating at the Buffet on NCL was limited. We always had a hard time finding a table.
  

Shows

• The comedy show on NCL was not as good as the comedy shows on the Legend and Valor.
  
• Two shows per night on NCL Pearl. Two shows per night on CCL Valor. One show per night on CCL Legend.
  
• End of cruise show was best on the Valor.
  
• Juggling show with sharkbait on the Pearl was my favorite show overall.
  
• Seating is awkward on NCL Pearl. The stairs are tricky and many people were losing their footing walking down. Stadium seating was uncomfortable.
  
• CCL lounge type seating with the sofa style benches and tables was much better.
  

Waterslide

• Valors slide was awesome - in the middle of the ship. Moved fast and the kids had a great time on it (so did I)
  
• Legends slide is the same as the one on the Valor, just in a bad location. It is in the back of the ship overlooking the adult pool area. It is higher up and is in a completly open area so the winds were terrible. Slide only opened two days due to winds.
  
• NCL Pearl Slide - moved so slow. the kids did this once. got stuck half way down.
  

Pool areas

• NCL crams both the adult and kids pool in one small area. CCL seperates them. I definately like having the areas seperated.
  
• Love the Seaside theater on the CCL Valor. I wish they had one on the Legend.
  
• NCL has a large screen in their "atrium" Most of the time they used the screen for jewlery sales and information about NCL excursions and where to shop for diamonds while in port.
  

Other Activities

• NCL Pearl had a bowling alley...which was totally fun. My son is a pretty good bowler (about a 160 average)...he struggled to get a hundred. As the ship sways, the ball curves. Kind of like "drunk bowling" but sober!
  
• CCL has mini golf which we enjoyed.
  
• Sports court. NCL Pearl has a full basketball court which they also use to play soccer. My sons liked this the best. They played in a soccer tournament with some semi-pro soccer players from England.
  
• CCL has a half of a basketball court.
  
• CCL arcades are bigger than on NCL
  

Towels

• CCLs towels are nice and fluffy.
  
• NCL's towels seem like they came from dollar general! Cheap and falling apart!
  

Cruise Directors

• Our favorite was Big Tex on the Valor - I've heard he is now on the Triumph. He was awesome. CCL Valor had a tv morning show put on by the CD (big tex) and the assistant CD. This was pretty cool. He was very approachable.
  
• Our CD on the NCL Pearl was Andy. He was extermly energetic and funny but he didn't seem organized. They had an adult water volleyball tournament in the kids pool for an hour and a half (around 1pm or so on a sea day). The adult pool was right next door with only one person sitting in it. The kids could not use the adult pool while the adults were in the kids pool. Many kids (id say 6-10 yrs) just running around complaining and wanting to swim, but couldn't. Poor planning.
  
• On the Legend...we had...Jen Baxter...uummmm...yeah...nails on a chalk board! Thank goodness Jen didn't have a morning show on tv. Listening to her gives me the chills. I'm glad she was out of site most of the time.
  

Carnival has more of a party and upbeat atmosphere than NCL. We really enjoyed this. Their bands were better as well. Most of the people on our NCL cruise were older and didn't seem as active. Alot of walkers.

 

Overall, we definately prefer Carnival to NCL. We felt like NCL nickled and dimed us to death. We felt like we needed to spend money to have a decent dinner. Lunches were fine to eat by the pool or in port. The staterooms were to small, and the food was not that good, unless we paid for it.

 

 

I hope I gave a fair comparison. These are my opinions...take them or leave them.

 

Happy Happy!