Apples to Apples

[MommaOf3Princesses]

Good comparison. I was on the Monarch a while ago and the one comparisson I noticed (and pointed it out in my review) was I just felt that the upkeep & maintainence of the RCL ship was poor. I noticed very old paint peeling on the metal railings and the peeling wooden hand rails around the one deck. To the point of splinter hazzard. It just appeared a little neglected to me. I had heard that RCL was planning on selling the MONARCH & the MARINER so seemed like RCL was focussing more on their HUGE money-makers like OASIS etc..

 

I do want to sail on the OASIS or the FREEDOM of the seas and hopefully will get the full RCL experience. I felt a little shorted on the MONARCH, regardless of older ship or not it was still RCL and expected the same experience. Im sure it will be a totally different one.

 

I agree it def looked neglected, seemed as if it was forgotten about since they plan to sell. Carnival seems to value their older ships little more, it was fun and well maintained.

The Navigator was nice....pretty similar to other cruises i have been on expect for of course their 'mall' layout of the ship and the parades which are fun!

[sparks1093]

Thanks for the comparision!

[cruzsnooze]

The service in a grand suite will be different and the people who take shorter cruises will often be a different demographic. It's my opinion the comparison wasn't quite apples to apples. When you sail in a grand suite you automatically love the ship and it may scews your experience after all, who wouldn't love a grand suite they didn't pay for and upgraded too.

[JeffHatfield]

How did the costs compare?

 

One was 5 days in a suite and the other 3 day in oceanview.

[MommaOf3Princesses]

The service in a grand suite will be different and the people who take shorter cruises will often be a different demographic. It's my opinion the comparison wasn't quite apples to apples. When you sail in a grand suite you automatically love the ship and it may scews your experience after all, who wouldn't love a grand suite they didn't pay for and upgraded too.

 

We did pay for the upgraded, but a discounted rate. The cabin had nothing to do with the ship overall and the room stewards on both ships offered good service. We barely used the balcony and felt like it was a waste of money to be in the GS. Yes the extra room was nice but i would never get one again because we werent in our room enough.

This is my comparson and i am telling you in MY OPINION these two ships are MORE SIMILAR THAN DIFFERENT.

Any intinerary under a week is a short cruise. 3, 4 or 5 days are all short cruises!

Besides the fact that we slept in different sized rooms would you like to tell me how these two cruises are so different?? The only perk with GS on Carnival is VIP checking, whoch i also got on RCI due to # of past cruise days.

[MommaOf3Princesses]

One was 5 days in a suite and the other 3 day in oceanview.

 

Before we got the discounted upgrade to GS we had an OV and the per day per person price was within dollars of each other.

[trvlqueen]

How do you call it apples to apples comparing the grand suite on carnival to an oceanview on RCL? How can you compare a 3 night cruise to a 5 night cruise? It was definatly not a fair comparison.

 

She was comparing amenities of the SHIP - not the stateroom. I had the same initial thought, but she did a very good job. Thanks, OP, for an objective review. My experience has been the same (NCL too) and I'm now looking at a Holland America cruise - I love seeing what differences there are between ships/lines and agree that price/timing/itin should be the deciding factors - not necessarily brand loyalty unless you're within a hair's breadth of the next level on whatever line's loyalty program, lol.

[JeffHatfield]

Before we got the discounted upgrade to GS we had an OV and the per day per person price was within dollars of each other.

 

Just curious, roughly the same time of the year?

[CRUISE4JANE]

FIREFLY - I had a balcony on the Conquest and loved the room, but DH and I didn't use the balcony that much for the difference in price that we paid. So on RCI, I decided to try the Promenade, and have the extra cash for onboard spending. It is a totally new type of cabin to try, plus the fact we will be cruising in February which is another different experience as we always cruised in summer months. On the other hand, my sister had no choice but to get the Larger Ocean View/Balcony cabin as those are the only ones with a sleeper sofa and neither one of them wanted to sleep in a berth. We were told that in a regular Ocean View/Balcony cabin they don't have a sleeper sofa, just a sofa. Thanks for your reply. :)

[MommaOf3Princesses]

Just curious, roughly the same time of the year?

 

Royal in April and Carnival in July