Say What You Want About Carnival...

[pkrchkr]

Great post elgato2..very nice to see some positive posts on CC.. keep in mid for the negative posters.. we can kill them with kindness and maybe just maybe power in numbers and they will go away.. well I can always hope right!!!Love the posts anyway..keep them coming.. feeling the love for CCL:cool:

[Snorkel2Much]

Have only been on 3 cruises so far (hoping to improve that # in the near future), all Carnival. Least favorite was on Sensation, just did not care for that ship, but that did not ruin my cruise or my Carnival experience. Anyway, I read the reviews and for the most part it seems as tho RCCL cruisers are loyal and devoted and same for CCL. I do not see myself switching from CCL any time soon. I tried to book a cruise w/RCCL for my kids' graduation in 2010 (yes, TWO graduated at the same time and NO they are not twins) and didn't even get good customer service w/my inquiries over the phone. Was completely turned off. We went on the Dream, had a most excellent time and can't wait to go again. Kinda spoiled living so close to Port Canaveral. That limits my ship availability (Dream or Sensation and I've covered that already) so I will have to travel to a different port soon.

Love Carnival and will stay w/them, tho I do wish to experience other.

The Carnival Ecstasy is doing 4 & 5 day cruises out of Port Canaveral now.

[tdk]

Carnival certainly has the bigest selection of ports in the carribean....bigger selection than st thomas st martin cozemel and grand cayman. We are trying decide on an august cruise with the family and carnival has the most options so we are thinking Carnival Freedom. AND....several 8 night options...love that extra day!!

[elgato2]

Have to say one more thing...I did not start this thread with the intention of discouraging criticisms..esp where they are warranted.

Differences in opinion make the world go round..this would be a VERY boring planet if we all liked the same things and had nothing bad to say.

Have we had some ' not so pleasant' moments on CCL (as well as other lines)...YES! Do I dwell on them...NO!

Will I ALWAYS cruise CCL?..not necessarily..We can afford to cruise other lines but find CCL fits what we want right now with the itineraries we want.

Do I shop at Walmart..yes I DO..do I do ALL my shopping there? NO I don't..

My intention was just to say something nice about my experience today.

I can also assure you that if something needs criticism I will do so..CCL moniters these boards and hopefully is always looking to learn from mistakes and improve..that's just sound business practice.

[texasmelrose2]

I am glad to see this thread. We have been on 2 cruises, one on Princess (AK) and the other on the Disney Dream. Both were top notch. My friend took a cruise on Carnival that was HORRID and ever since then it has been hard to convince my hubby to give it a try. We have 2 little ones, 9 & 3 and I have read really good things about Camp Carnival. Happy busy kids = Happy relaxed Mom & Dad. :D

 

Long story short, we are booked on our first Carnival cruise (a short 4 night out of Galveston on Triumph) in October and are looking forward to it. We definitely don't have high expectations and by what I have read here in the Carnival area on CC I have a feeling our expectations will be exceeded.

 

Mainly hoping it is not a full time drunk fest like my hubby is convinced it is. I think he will be pleasantly surprised. (fingers, toes, etc crossed)

[Relayer]

Haven't seen a full blown drunk fest yet!

[rferr]

Been on four Carnival Cruises, but have not been on Carnival since 1999. We took our honeymoon on Carnival in 1994 and then three more cruises after that. We switched in 1999 to Princess, mostly because we did not want to have to sit at a table with other people three meals a day. I know that this is something many people like and I understand that but we would prefer not to. At the time that was all that Carnival offered. We then switched from Princess to Norwegian. We have probably done four cruises each on Princess and Norwegian as well. We are coming back to Carnival again this July on the Victory and are looking forward to it very much. As for the food I think that the food is pretty much the same on all three. Some of it is good and some not so good but its better than what I generally eat day in and day out that's for sure. I have now been on over a dozen cruises on three different lines and I don't think there is much difference between the three lines I have been on and I had a great time on every one of them.

[divingmedic]

I am glad to see this thread. We have been on 2 cruises, one on Princess (AK) and the other on the Disney Dream. Both were top notch. My friend took a cruise on Carnival that was HORRID and ever since then it has been hard to convince my hubby to give it a try. We have 2 little ones, 9 & 3 and I have read really good things about Camp Carnival. Happy busy kids = Happy relaxed Mom & Dad. :D

 

Long story short, we are booked on our first Carnival cruise (a short 4 night out of Galveston on Triumph) in October and are looking forward to it. We definitely don't have high expectations and by what I have read here in the Carnival area on CC I have a feeling our expectations will be exceeded.

 

Mainly hoping it is not a full time drunk fest like my hubby is convinced it is. I think he will be pleasantly surprised. (fingers, toes, etc crossed)

You will not see that, that time of the year. The drunk fests are mostly in Florida ports and the ones that sail mainly over the weekends.

[Sh1035]

Or a full blown snob fest! I mean if you are that well off why don't you have your own yacht and staff??

[Warm Breezes]

I have enjoyed each and every one of my Carnival Cruises. But I must admit my favorite cruises were on NCL Epic, Disney Wonder, and Disney Magic. But I paid a premium for each of them over my Carnival Cruises. Carnival gives a great value for the money. Of my 9 cruises 5 have been on Carnival. I'm sure many more of them will be on Carnival in the future. But every once in a while I'm willing to pay a little more to experience something different...variety is the spice of life:D.

[peanutzmom]

I completely agree with the OP! We are not "loyal" to a particular line, and every time we get ready to cruise, we look at several different lines to see what itineraries they offer at what price point. If RCCL or NCL or Disney or any other line had a better bang-for-the-buck, we'd definitely book it. But every time we look at what we're getting and what we're paying for it, Carnival wins out hands-down. And the customer service when booking has always been top-notch.

[going2cruz]

Okay..we've been on many cruises..and Just My Opinion:

Carnival has the BEST price points and is the BEST value for the $!

Maybe some are more luxurious..maybe some have a little better food or are more elegant... BUT...

I just made some calls regarding a cruise we recently booked.

I spoke to the most friendly, helpful people re: two different concerns..one was a price reduction..one was casino credit.

We have consistently had great experiences with CCL from the organization at embarkation through to debark and in between.

Customer service is still #1 in my book...

I will always choose CCL over other lines!

 

 

Not reading the whole thread I can only say I second that!!!

[nonna5]

Wal-mart also has the best price point and value for the money. Coincidence?

 

 

Always someone trying to turn a good thread into a negative thread.:rolleyes:

[DUCHESSRN]

Carnival is a good fit for us , retired and do not stay up late . We have been on other lines and always return to CCL , we can cruise twice for the price of one other cruise almost .

 

We appreciate Carnival has not pulled out of West Coast . LA is our closest port .

On the short 4 day cruises we took from Mobile ( when we lived there ) there was quite a bit of drinking but if we did not like it we went somewhere else on the ship.

 

Always fun in Cozumel to see people trying to stagger up the pier from Señor Frog as the ship leaves .

 

Have 4 more booked on Carnival .......

[TahoeBob]

I have been on 3 RCI cruises and 2 carnival cruises. I can honestly say That I have a great time on both lines. Very little difference and I loved both of them.

 

On a side note I hear all the time how Carnival is the party cruise line, well my last cruise was on the Carnival Legend a few years ago a week before Thanksgiving and the cruise was a little too quite, I guess it just the time of the year, but it did not stop me from having a great time.

[fireofficer5]

Carnival=walmart, is not referring to the cruise line.:D

Its refrencing the style (or lack of) of some of the passengers.

[Butterbean1000]

I have always sailed with Carnival and have always had a great vacation. I will continue to book with them until they give me GOOD reason to go elsewhere.

 

Enjoy cruise :cool:

[CruisersNC]

We're also happy and content Carnival customers! :)

[Lakeport2739]

Three cruises with Carnival on three different ships and they were all great!!! Good service, friendly staff, clean ships, good food, etc. Carnival just gets a bad name as a party ship and we have never seen anything bad happen.

[richstowe]

Wal-mart also has the best price point and value for the money. Coincidence?

 

This started out as such a nice thread. Why does someone always have to poop in the pool?:rolleyes: We also have never had a bad cruise on CCL. CCL is a great fit for us now, and we can afford to cruise any line we want to.

 

Always someone trying to turn a good thread into a negative thread.:rolleyes:

I'm not sure, pe4all & nonna5 that YubaSutter was insulting anyone. At least I'm not taking it that way.:)

 

Love cruising and have nothing but good things to say (overall) about Carnival .

Frankly I have nothing but good things to say (overall) about cruising in general.

My biggest hope is to cruise often enough to get bored with it.Won't happen anytime soon.

[arby70]

I will never remain loyal to one cruise line. Some of my cruises have been better than others, but all the crews we have experienced have been terrific. The ships have all been very clean, our cabin has been kept super nice, and everyone has been great! I really love cruising and Carnival will definitely be part of our future. We have booked a 15 day cruise on the Miracle and are really looking forward to it. Their price was just so much better than any of the other lines and that has to be part of our equation to travel.

 

We're not wealthy, just common working folk. We deserve to cruise too, and I do enjoy the laid back feeling I get from Carnival. I want to try a cove balcony in the future, so I plan to book another Carnival cruise sometime in the future.:D

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

What I like about Carnival MOST OF ALL is:

 

> The quality and selection of food in their Steakhouse (and the Prime Rib in the MDR)!

 

**I will refrain from saying anything negative about them - but rest assured that after 50+ sailings with them, we have had several challenging situations** Some of those were the impetus for our venturing forth to both NCL and Celebrity. Sailing on those lines helped us to see what we had been missing by sailing exclusively with Carnival, and also what we were HAPPY to be missing by not sailing on Carnival! :eek: Different strokes for different folks - I am pleased that there are many options out there!

 

The BEST thing about both NCL and Celebrity are their suite perks. Also, it's hard to beat the past guest perk we get with Celebrity: After 5 sailings with them, the two of us (combined) have THREE HOURS of free internet on each sailing!

 

Right up there also is the fact that Celebrity has a TOTALLY SMOKE FREE CASINO. Since that's where I spend a fair amount of time (and sometimes $ :eek:), being able to leave there after an hour or two and not smell like an ashtray or have a sore throat is a BIG PLUS!

 

If Carnival would come around and IMPROVE their past guest program, IMPROVE their suite perks (from virtually nothing that's currently offered, that would not be difficult), and ELIMINATE smoking in the casino - they would see more of me in the future. As it stands now, I will sail with them here and there, but most of my cruising dollars will go to NCL and Celebrity.

 

Not to worry, I know that we are not the bullseye of the demographic that Carnival seeks -- so I am not holding my breath waiting for them to adapt to my preferences/desires! They were doing quite well before we sailed with them, and they are doing quite well still (save a few blips on the radar thanks to high fuel costs and Costa)!

 

Tom

[mstrtchr247]

I have sailed HAL three times and have enjoyed all cruises. I just returned from a cruise aboard the Carnival Spirit last week and thoroughly enjoyed every moment. This cruise took fun and enjoyment to stratospheric levels. Guess I enjoyed Carnival so much that I decided to book another cruise with them in May. Thanks elgato2 for starting this thread. Smooth sailings to all.

So good to hear your good experience.:)...Looking forward to next month...weeeeeeeeeeee:cool:

[PunkyH]

Well, we love Carnival. It is our favorite cruise line. We tried NCL on a Med. cruise, the ports were great, didn't care for NCL. Princess is good, but we still think Canival is #1.

[gelo7]

It's good to know what your niche is....