I'm an idiot!!! I gave Carnival another chance.

[kruzerci]

Funny how these threads pop up with regularity.....CCL loyalists dismissing RCCL.....RCCL loyalists dismissing CCL.

 

The conclusion is usually the same.....there are many more similarities than differences between the two.

 

You can say the cruise lines themselves are more similar than different, but the ships are not, and I cruise for the ships. I dont like the floating dark, neon, 80's Vegas feel.

[will773]

Thanks for sharing. I haven't heard many good things about the Magic, even on the Carnival boards.

[PINEVIEW01]

Funny how these threads pop up with regularity.....CCL loyalists dismissing RCCL.....RCCL loyalists dismissing CCL.

 

The conclusion is usually the same.....there are many more similarities than differences between the two.

Absolutely. Even from one week on the same ship can be so different. I did a b2b2b on the Liberty of the seas. If I had only done the first I would say RCCL is wonderful. Had I only done the third I would have said RCCL is horrible. They are over run with horribly behavied childern and drunk adult. People where throwing up all over including in front of the elevator. And on and on. If this had been my only RCCL cruise I could go back to the CCL boards and told them how awful it was going to the dark side with the drunken RCCL snobs and they unbehaved kids.

 

I can give the same senario for Carnival.

 

I have been on Carnival ships that I hate the layout and also on RCCL.

 

I have found on both that if I go on a longer cruise, during school. I will find and older calmer cruise. If I go on either durning school vacations I will be over run by children. If I go on a short cruise over the weekend I WILL confront loads of drunks.

 

I will adapt to any of them if they will give me a good price on a cruise.:D

[cruisn4bruisn]

Ok just had this thought come to me while reading this thread. Sorry if it has been said before but I will think of myself as a genius until someone knocks me off of my high horse.

 

Anyways, what if, like shore excursions, you could take a tour through another ship while at a port. For instance, I just came back from the Mariner this week and while in Falmouth (port looks great by the way) we could take a tour through the Carnival Destiny while it was in the same port. I'd pay some $$ to take a look through. It might get people on board with trying another line or it may help people decide on whether or not to stick with what they know.

 

Just a thought. We've been on 2 RC cruises and are reluctant to try anything else for fear of being disappointed.

 

your thoughts?

[time4u2go]

Ok just had this thought come to me while reading this thread. Sorry if it has been said before but I will think of myself as a genius until someone knocks me off of my high horse.

 

Anyways, what if, like shore excursions, you could take a tour through another ship while at a port. For instance, I just came back from the Mariner this week and while in Falmouth (port looks great by the way) we could take a tour through the Carnival Destiny while it was in the same port. I'd pay some $$ to take a look through. It might get people on board with trying another line or it may help people decide on whether or not to stick with what they know.

 

Just a thought. We've been on 2 RC cruises and are reluctant to try anything else for fear of being disappointed.

 

your thoughts?

I'd love to be able to do that, but I don't think I'd be willing to pay for it.

[Cruising89143]

Good point....a cruise is what you make of it.

 

I do not like that line. A cruise is not what a person makes of it. True, attitude can go a long way but when I am paying for a service and it falls short, then when did it become my job to suck it up and make the best of it? What about the cruise line holding up their end of the bargain? The "cruise is what you make of it? seems to be a norm with the Carnival gang. If that's what it takes to get through a cruise on Carnival then I will stick with other brands and before asking, yes I have cruised with Carnival before. Many times and they are no longer my cup of tea.

[Cruising89143]

I have to ditto what the OP said. They couldn't pay me (or my family) to ever sail on Carnival again. Once we found RC, we've never looked back. Our first 3 cruises were on Carnival because at that time, we hadn't broadened our horizons. Carnival 'zero', RC was a 10 out of 10 (all of them!). :D

 

We aren't done with sailing different lines. We would also like to try Celebrity one day as well.

 

I never say never but with all of the other options out there, Carnival is at the bottom of our list. The only class ship that we would even be tempted to try again is the Spirit class. Their best IMHO.

 

It's nice to step out and try other lines from time to time. It's really the only way one knows if a cruise line is a good fit. With that said, we always come back to RCI. Right now they fit our needs the best. I don't think that there is anything wrong with Carnival but they just don't measure up to the other cruise lines that we have tried but to each their own.:)

[gilboman]

These threads are funny

 

Generally, old people will like RCI more, young people will like CCL more.

 

It's like old people driving Buick's and Crown Vic's and young people in sportscars.

 

They are suited to different people with different wants. I'll be horrified to have to drive a buick, but my grandpa would be horrified to have to drive my 2door sportscar because it's low/small and "noisy" :D

[MERIDIAN]

Thanks for sharing. I haven't heard many good things about the Magic, even on the Carnival boards.

 

 

It's true, the Dream class on Carnival is horrible, we've been on Dream. The ships are not well recieved, I heard long time Carnival designer Joe Farcus was let go. Also heard great thing about Oasis and believe them but Carnival's smaller Spirit class has RCCL's Voyager's beat seven ways to Sunday. Just off Explorer and comparing to Miracle- no contest. I'm a cruiser out of NY, so up here the Carnival ships are better- Florida- RCCL wins MHO

[dplusd]

You know, sitting on my balcony watching the ocean go by was just as enjoyable on my one Carnival cruise as was on other cruise lines. We tried Carnival because of a great rate on a 5-night cruise of $339pp for a guarantee balcony. I'm glad we did and we did have a pretty good time.

 

I actually found the food on Carnival better than Royal Caribbean! MDR was all very good and their Warm Chocolate Melting Cake is to die for (I will miss that). In their buffet, they have fresh deli sandwiches and a fresh stir fry station that were both excellent. And their fresh pizza, burgers and hotdog grill on the aft of Lido deck are MUCH better than what RCI offers.

 

But, IMHO she ship design (Carnival Triumph) is dark and tacky. The layout is terrible with not all floors running through the ship. And the music was too loud EVERYWHERE. We never did find a quite place to enjoy a drink before dinner. The pools look cheap, plain and not very enticing.

 

Would I sail Carnival again, yes...but not for one of my planned vacations. But, if a great rate opens up on a short 4 or 5 night cruise...you bet. After all, it is still a cruise and my cell phone is on airplane mode!

[GJM]

We did Oasis about 2 years ago - want to go on Allure, but DH is trying to convince me to try Carnival Dream, since it is so much cheaper. I really have no desire to go on Carnival, would rather wait another year and go on Allure.

[sas80]

OMG!!! Did I make a BIG mistake. Having cruised on the Oasis last year, we decided to try the new Carnival ship, the Magic since we live 60 miles from her home port. Somebody please slap me upside the head.

 

Of course, there is no comparison. That being said, the Magic lacks in many, many areas. I had a better cruise experience on the Carnival Conquest in 2009 and I disliked that cruise too. The Magic was not a well run ship. The food, the service, the shows, the pools, the hot tubs were all lacking in one way or another. Kids ran amuck all week, completely taking over all pools & hot tubs. No adult pool, adult area was a joke, so were most of the shows. Seems like Carnival just wants to get you on board and hold you captive for the week.

 

Don't even get me started on the horrible buffet or so/so MDR food.:eek:

 

If Royal Caribbean had a Red Frog Pub and serves its own brand of good beer I'd be in heaven. I'll give Carnival credit for that. but that's all.

 

You'd have to tie me up and take me kicking & screaming back on ANY Carnival ship. I'm not going, EVER.

 

I'm sorry Royal Caribbean, I should have known better. Please forgive me.

 

Question - did you happen to go and relax on the Carnival magic Adults only serenity area? Of course we had the kids so we did not but it looked SOOO nice. You can see the area from the tops of the waterslides and it was tranquil, peaceful, no kids, people were reading, relaxing and sleeping. So, in as much as CCL encourages families to board, they also recognize the value of giving the adults their own space.

 

As you can see by my sig, I am diamond on Royal.

 

We LOVE the Magic and are going to choose it out of any other ship that docks in Galveston. The food was very good, in my opinion (seemed better than RCCL), and the ship provided lots of activities for all ages, it seemed. On Carnival we were able to book 2 connecting oceanview rooms for the same price as 4 in a D1 balcony on RCCL. And these connecting oceanview rooms had 1.5 bathrroms each. 1 bathroom was shower, sink, kimmode, the other was jr tub and sink. Came in very handy.

 

Our priorities have shifted since we have 2 toddlers. The waterpark, kids club and pricing has sold us on the Magic. RCCL just doesnt offer these types of amenities so close to home. Because of all of this, at this point we prefer to sail on the Carnival Magic. Someday we will probably try the Allure or Oasis but SHEESH you sure do pay thru the nose for thos ships!

 

We're sailing on the Mariner in a month simply to use up our visa points and then we are switching to using the costco Amex to accumulate rewards over the RCCL visa. I am loyal to Royal no more.

[Cruising89143]

These threads are funny

 

Generally, old people will like RCI more, young people will like CCL more.

 

It's like old people driving Buick's and Crown Vic's and young people in sportscars.

 

They are suited to different people with different wants. I'll be horrified to have to drive a buick, but my grandpa would be horrified to have to drive my 2door sportscar because it's low/small and "noisy" :D

 

LOL..............If driving a Buick is RCI then I will drive that Buick but after having cruised Carnival many times, I doubt that a sports car would describe the average passenger aboard their ships. ;)

[lrn2cruise]

We did Oasis about 2 years ago - want to go on Allure, but DH is trying to convince me to try Carnival Dream, since it is so much cheaper. I really have no desire to go on Carnival, would rather wait another year and go on Allure.

 

 

I went through this with my DH. Carnival is close-Galveston. I told DH I would rather stay home and save the money. It is tough, because we have to go to Florida to do RC. RC does not sail in the summer when we can go

[notladjr]

My first modern day cruise was RCCL in 2002 on Brilliance when she was just about six weeks old and making her first T/A crossing. Wonderful experience that I did not think could be beat.

 

Then four years later in 2006 we did a T/A on the Celebrity Constellation and it was even better than RCCL if only a little.

 

Two years later we took our last cruise which was the last cruise of the NCL Pride of Hawaii out of Honolulu before it changed names and locations. It was a beautiful ship only a couple of years old but it just didn't click with me like the RCL and Celebrity ships did.

 

More than that I felt there was a huge difference in the service staff. Now keep in mind this was an American flagged vessel at the time so that might have had something to do with it. We NEVER saw our cabin steward and when I would ask a crew member a question they never seemed to know the answer and were not interested in finding out. Nobody was rude but it just wasn't the positive experience RCL And Celebrity were.

 

Said all that to say I understand full well how different cruise lines and ships can appeal to different people just as different makes of cars do. Sometimes a lot of subtle differences can add up to something meaningful.

 

I want to try Princess and HAL as I think I would like them but am really afraid to try Carnival. They have some great prices on some very new ships but the party ship reputation along with the gaudy interior decor has kept me from taking the plunge.

[kruzerci]

LOL..............If driving a Buick is RCI then I will drive that Buick but after having cruised Carnival many times, I doubt that a sports car would describe the average passenger aboard their ships. ;)

 

Agree! That was one odd comparison ha ha

[SNJCruisers]

No matter how many times CCL and RCCl are compared on cruise critic, the differences that are always highlighted are really not very significant. Both are mass market lines operating within the same general price range and both attracting tens of thousands of passengers each week.

 

With the exception of the price gouging that RCCL has with regards to the up charge for the privilege of sailing on either the Oasis or the Allure.

[SNJCruisers]

We did Oasis about 2 years ago - want to go on Allure, but DH is trying to convince me to try Carnival Dream, since it is so much cheaper. I really have no desire to go on Carnival, would rather wait another year and go on Allure.

 

Why don't you go on the Breeze next year when it comes to the Caribbean while you're waiting for RCCL to drop the up charge for the privilege of sailing on the Oasis or the Allure. Look at the Carnival website and you'll get a fantastic look at what the Breeze will be offering. It's substantially more subdued and less glitzy than the Farcus designed ships and it will have the new 2.0 upgrade all included, unlike other lines that will remain nameless that charge for gourmet burgers.

[autoandy]

when me and my husband went on a carnival in 2008, we were abashed at how decor the external components were when starboard was incompatibility. I guess rci won this bar fight again. Carnival will always settle for gold.

-hope this helped, happy sailing :-)

 

ftw!

[time4u2go]

[quote name='RofCalltheway']When me and my husband went on a Carnival in 2008, we were abashed at how decor the external components were when starboard was incompatibility. I guess RCI won this bar fight again. carnival will always settle for gold.
-hope this helped, happy sailing :-)[/QUOTE]

Huh?

[bus man]

[quote name='cruisn4bruisn']Ok just had this thought come to me while reading this thread. Sorry if it has been said before but I will think of myself as a genius until someone knocks me off of my high horse.

Anyways, what if, like shore excursions, you could take a tour through another ship while at a port. For instance, I just came back from the Mariner this week and while in Falmouth (port looks great by the way) we could take a tour through the Carnival Destiny while it was in the same port. I'd pay some $$ to take a look through. It might get people on board with trying another line or it may help people decide on whether or not to stick with what they know.

Just a thought. We've been on 2 RC cruises and are reluctant to try anything else for fear of being disappointed.

your thoughts?[/quote]


I think this is a great idea. Not only would it be a money-maker in the short-term (through a modest fee to take a tour), but it might encourage people to give another cruise line a try.

But then again, it might not. I was able to wrangle a tour of the Carnival Pride with a travel agent group while she was doing a turnaround in Baltimore (friend of a friend of a friend kind of thing), and I came away seriously unimpressed. I felt that the ship was too dark, and gloomy; the atrium reminded me of the inside of a funnel, in stark contrast to the light, airy, elegant Centrum on Pride's pier-mate, the Enchantment of the Seas. The buffet seemed poorly laid out. The lounges seemed depressing. She just wasn't an appealing ship to me.

And the pictures of the nude women were everywhere! Yes, some people might find this to be a good thing; but it turned me off -- especially the one of the lady who was, shall we say, pleasuring herself. (This particular painting is in the lounge near the entrance to the MDR on the starboard side, so there's no missing her.) I guess in the interests of equal time, they also have the statue of David, in all his glory. To access the specialty restaurant, you go past the statue and then climb these vertigo-inducing glass-bottom stairs suspended over the top of the gloomy atrium.

(I will say this, though: the lunch that they served us in the MDR was excellent. I also thought that the layout of the pool deck was very nice.)

I cruise for the ship more than anything else, and I came away from this tour thinking that there's just no way I could be happy on the Pride. Give me the Enchantment any day! This tour saved me hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars by allowing me to form an opinion of the ship without having to sail on her first.

[Movieguy214]

Went on the Conquest in 07 because of the convenience of the Galveston port (I'm up in Big D). I almost stopped cruising because of how bad it was. Poor service, awful decor and atmosphere, rude passengers (people bumping in to you left and right), mediocre but not terrible food. My gf and I were just horribly depressed almost the entire vacation. Luckily, I tried cruising again on the Serenade out of San Juan. It's impossible to explain the difference in lines without trying both. Night and day. Just my two cents.

[beachseeker]

As you can see from my signature, we are not loyal to any one cruise line. We spent Christmas in Dallas and the New Year's Eve cruise on the Magic fit our time schedule. The reviews for the Magic had been horrible so we went expecting the worse. We were pleasantly surprised. Our aft corner balcony was awesome, MDR food was good but not many choices, entertainers were decent but there were several technical malfunctions in the theater. Loved the Red Frog pub! Worst part of the cruise was embarking and disembarking at Galveston. Terribly disorganized. And didn't like sail away in 45 degree drizzle. Back to sailing from San Juan for our next Caribbean cruise. Reviews for AOS right now are as negative as the Magic's reviews, but that won't keep us from having a good cruise.

[BecciBoo]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3]I'm one of the ones who finally tried Carnival "to be fair".[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3]The only reasons why we'll never haunt their line again are: Cleanliness, horrid decor and the pool decks. Their pools are just pathetic, unappealing, smaller than RCI and cheap looking...give me the large colorful double pools and jacuzzis plus Solarium adult area that is lightyears better than the Serenity area...and no dirty mop/bucket in the restroom for 7 days!, nor unwashed cocktail tables. There was melted ice cream on the table in front of me that never got wiped down and we were there for 30 minutes while a crewmember wasted her time dusting a podium nearby! Another dirty table with sticky dried drink mix on it in the Neon piano bar on Ecstacy(these incidents were all on her) and when I complained, a crewmember came out with a dry paper towel, proceeded to try to wipe it up and when of course when it wouldn't, she pronounced it was permanent...funny I demonstrated it was indeed doable with my wet finger...ich...and she finally came back with a clorox wet rag and cleaned it properly. And this was all on turnaround day. It only took one try to see that we would never cruise CCL again. And don't say, we went on the wrong ship....will never risk our $$ again. We do cruise for the ship, if we just wanted to see the world, we'd fly to a location and spend time there. Cruises are cruises because you cruise on a ship.[/SIZE][/FONT]

[winkshouse]

[quote name='gilboman']These threads are funny

Generally, old people will like RCI more, young people will like CCL more.

It's like old people driving Buick's and Crown Vic's and young people in sportscars.

They are suited to different people with different wants. I'll be horrified to have to drive a buick, but my grandpa would be horrified to have to drive my 2door sportscar because it's low/small and "noisy" :D[/quote]


lol... Too Funny!!! I was wondering in which I fall??? I drive a Chrysler 300(have been for the past 5 years) and love Carnival! ;)