Carnival European cruises

[goobz]

Just want to see general opinions of carnival vs other cruise lines in Europe.

 

What are the fellow passengers like? Mostly American or European? Less of party atmosphere because of the port intensive iteneraries?

 

Any other general thoughts-

 

thx

[tiggerman101]

I have done three Med cruises now. Two on NCL and one on Carnival. The Carnival cruise had a larger percentage of Americans for sure. They just don't have the awareness in Europe like other brands. It is kind of like Costa or MSC over here. We were on the magic 12 day and did meet a lot of people from other countries, but it was still primarly US.

 

Now, I got off the NCL Jade the other week and it was very much an international crowd. I have been on the ship in Europe twice now and both were the same way. There was still a US population on there, but it was more of a minority then others.

 

The Magic was like a regular Carnival ship however, it is very port oriented. It was still my favorite cruise to date.

[stacycakes1]

Check out my review on our cruise to Europe with Carnival (see below in signature) for help with what a Carnival cruise is like.

 

I can't help you with a comparison though being I have not done this with another cruise line but can tell you that we loved our trip and it is so port intensive I don't think the line you go on will make too much of a difference in this case:)

[tncap]

As an example, on the most recent sailing of the Breeze in the Mediterranean, the nationality count was as follows:

 

TOTAL GUESTS: 4,648

 

Total of 2,791 non-U.S. Guests including these countries with the highest counts:

 

French Canadian: 284

Russian: 420

German: 82

Dutch: 167

Portuguese: 19

Spanish: 196

Australia: 51

Canada: 401

Israel: 261

United Kingdom: 1,180

USA: 1,890

 

Via John Heald of course. :)

[goobz]

Check out my review on our cruise to Europe with Carnival (see below in signature) for help with what a Carnival cruise is like.

 

I can't help you with a comparison though being I have not done this with another cruise line but can tell you that we loved our trip and it is so port intensive I don't think the line you go on will make too much of a difference in this case:)

Thanks, nice long review

[goobz]

As an example, on the most recent sailing of the Breeze in the Mediterranean, the nationality count was as follows:

 

TOTAL GUESTS: 4,648

 

Total of 2,791 non-U.S. Guests including these countries with the highest counts:

 

French Canadian: 284

Russian: 420

German: 82

Dutch: 167

Portuguese: 19

Spanish: 196

Australia: 51

Canada: 401

Israel: 261

United Kingdom: 1,180

USA: 1,890

 

Via John Heald of course. :)

Interesting Russian were the 3rd most common nationality (well unless French Canadians are not counted as a subgroup of Canada). I would have never guessed that. That is actually a pretty international mixture- which is fine with me.

[T. Advisor King]

I suggest you go to the Carnival Magic member reviews and sort by itinerary (select "western Mediterranean"). It seems like many posters comment on the overall "feel" of the cruise.

 

My review of the Magic from last July is at:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=87273

 

This excerpt speaks to your question:

 

Make no mistake about your European adventure on the Magic. This is an American vessel and you’re signing up for an American experience. The fact that it was a sailing on the Mediterranean makes no difference when you’re on board. All general announcements, as well as the safety briefing, are conducted in English only. Given that this is a sailing out of Spain that spends most of its time in Italy, I was very surprised that Carnival made no attempt to give the cruise any sort of international flavor. In fact, it wasn’t so much that Carnival didn’t give the cruise any European flavor; it’s more that they suppressed any such flavor it might otherwise have had.

It was hard to get a handle on the demographic breakdown of the passengers. Initially, it seemed that English speaking North Americans far outnumbered Europeans and others. At other times, it seemed that languages other than English prevailed. When we boarded the port shuttle bus in Civitavecchia to return to the Magic, the bus was packed full and everyone was talking, but there seemed to be only a handful of English voices among the 70-80 passengers. If I had to guess, I would estimate that about half the ship’s passengers were North American with the other half Europeans and a few others. Languages other than English seemed as prevalent as English. To a certain extent, Carnival’s approach was disappointing.

Last year when we sailed with Louis Cruises out of Athens, the ship had much more of a European/international feel to it. All announcements were done in multiple languages (Greek, English and either French or Spanish, I can’t remember – maybe both). There was no presumption that your fellow passengers spoke English, so if you started a conversation with a stranger, it always began by identifying your language. There was similarly not a presumption by the crew and staff that you were English speaking. The Magic had none of this and I imagine that local (i.e., European) passengers may have felt somewhat like second-class citizens.

And even though I appreciate that the Magic is, other than its flag, an American ship destined eventually for an American route that just happens to be currently sailing in Europe, I was still not expecting the laundry facilities to require American quarters (which required me to go to Guest Services, which sent me to the Casino, which would not accept my Euro coins and would only issue quarters charged to my account with a 3% service charge at a $20 minimum). I realize that Carnival isn’t going to get its washers, dryers and coin dispensers re-keyed to European currency for six months in the Mediterranean. But when you’re in the middle of three weeks in Europe, you’re not expecting to need U.S. quarters to be able to do your laundry.

 

So if it wasn't clear, I was somewhat disappointed by "feel" of Carnival's product in Europe. I much preferred my Louis cruise in the Greek Islands the summer before. I'd also add that there seemed to be somewhat more of a "travellers" atmosphere rather than a "party boat" atmosphere. I think the "party boat" reputation is overstated, but at the same time, there are a lot of people who cruise the Caribbean whose view of a great day is sitting next to the pool with a regular supply of buckets of beer. The vast majority of people on the Med are there to travel and see some historic sites. The ship is just the method of travel and the night time accommodation, which is refreshing.