IS Carnival a good cruise line?

[fair-winds39]

We have been on every Norwegan cruise ship. Thinking of trying Carnival next time. We have heard that Carnival is a party ship. Like to cruise every january. We are in our 50"s Is carnival the cruise line for us?

We've been on many cruises and are around your age. We tried the Norwegian Spirit back whenever it did cruises out of NY in the winter months; might have been around 2007/2008. Anyway, we thought it was a beautiful ship, staff were very nice, but I think they had just returned from doing cruises in the Orient, and also the "Free Style" cruising was still ramping up. We were less than happy with NCL, and the cruise was just "so so."

 

Now up to present day.. we just had to cancel our Carnival Pride cruise which departed Baltimore on Feb. 10 due to a family member illness. Ten years ago we would have never booked a Carnival cruise for the same reason you mention. Someone told us to try the Carnival Legend a year or two after our NCL cruise, so with much skepticism, we booked it. We had a blast!! and went on to book a few more Carnival cruises.

 

Now, believe it or not, we are looking at the NCL Breakaway for a Bermuda cruise.

 

We were accustomed to the way cruising used to be, and we kept comparing, and that's where we made our mistake. Now we know that it's not like it used to be. Cruising is what you make of it. Now we go with the flow. If we see a good price and a decent itinerary, we'll go with it.

 

We never saw any drunks or rowdy crowds on any of the Carnival ships we've been on. Maybe a group or two who might have been a little "over the top," but that's about it.

 

Happy Sailing.

[TabFox]

I'm wondering how carnival will stack up versus princess.

 

 

I sailed on Star Princess to Alaska, Carnival Conquest, and Carnival Glory 3 times with 4th booked for May. Food was comparable, although I feel Carnival's buffet was a bit better. The crowd was a bit older, but that may be due to the fact that it was an Alaskan cruise versus Caribbean. "Night life" and entertainment was definitely better and more lively on Carnival. Princess did have an on board environmentalist who gave very good info about the terrain. Neither cruise line was bad. Service was great on all cruises, crew were friendly.

I think the only difference was Princess was a little more toned down than Carnival, everything else was very similar.

[RMcoolX]

Carnival and NCL have a lot in common, and the atmosphere on a Carnival cruise taken during school months will seem very NCL'ish anyways. Try it, you'll like it.

[kybluecruiser]

Carnival can be lively and fun but not a big drunk party. My parents took there first cruise on carnival in April and loved it. Don't listen to all the current negative comments about carnival right now. Keep an open mind.

[kaseykahnefan]

My mom is her 50s. She likes Carnival. Been on three cruises.

[mibarron]

If you're determined to have a good time, then you will. :) I've been on other cruise line and went on my first CCL last August. We had a good time. In fact, we're going on Splendor in November. For the price, I'm willing to compromise on certain things, if necessary. Fortunately, I haven't had to yet. :)

[gfh77665]

Just posted a link in another thread that gives a good synopsis of the relative differences between the major lines. Check it out.