Carnival Pride vs. RCI Granduer

[RSLeesburg]

Trying to decide on which ship to take for our first cruise. Will be my wife and I and our 4y/o son. TA and a lot of others have highly recommended RCI but wanted to explore both options. Would book GS on either ship, so I think both come with pretty good perks and are both good rooms. Has anyone sailed on both lines? Is one better than the other for small children?

 

Thanks

[Tapi]

Would book GS on either ship, so I think both come with pretty good perks

 

Grand Suites on Carnival and Royal are not the same. On Carnival, the only perk you receive is priority embarkation. On Royal you also get concierge service, reserved seating at the main theater, VIP seating on the pool deck, full breakfast, lunch, and dinner room service menus, Mattel games available to order for in-room entertainment for kids, complimentary luggage valet service, complimentary garment pressing, and priority departure with exclusive priority departure lounge serving continental breakfast.

 

As far as the ships go, they are both nice and fairly similar in size (although I'd give the edge to the Grandeur since it recently went through a pretty big revitalization). Decoration will be quite different, with Carnival's being a bit more neon "Vegas" and Royal being a bit more elegant and understated.

 

Since you are traveling with small children, keep in mind that the Carnival Pride has a "Renaissance" motif with nude statues and paintings throughout the ship, which seems to bother some parents.

 

Kids program for 4 year olds should be similar on this class of ship as well (if you were sailing on different classes of ships, the differences would be more pronounced).

 

Are you looking at identical itineraries? I would lean towards Carnival only if it was the Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay, Grand Bahama itinerary.

 

Check this out: http://youtu.be/cehNs5OfUvU

[RSLeesburg]

Thanks. I have done much more research for RCI, and that was a great side by side comparison. The itineraries are not the same - we were looking at 6 day Bermuda cruise for RCI, and 7 day exotic eastern Caribbean cruise for Carnival. We had not considered destinations that extensively because there is only so much you can do with a 4 y/o, at least ours. :).