RCCL Mariner of the Sea vs Carnival Glory

[Guest hockeychic]

Hi everyone,

 

My family will be cruising for the first time this October and can't decide between the above 2. I have read good and bad about both.....help please.

 

Carnival is cheaper by almost $500.00 and has the dates we prefer.

 

Mariner of the Sea looks like it has a better program for the kids and dates we can work with.

 

Help please....

 

Oh btw the kids are 16 and 13.

 

Thank you for your opinions and experiences.

[Cruising89143]

I have been on the Glory and the sister to the Mariner and if you can swing the extra bucks go with the Mariner. Head and shoulders better than the Glory. This ship will offer more for the whole family. The Voyager class ships have a major WOW effect. The Glory has a crowded feel especially around the pool areas and the promenade deck. Both ships hold about the same amount of passengers but the Mariner is larger. You can tell the difference. Just MHO on the above.

 

Take a look at the link below and you can do a virtual tour of the Voyager class ships.

http://experience.royalcaribbean.com/

[PVDCruiser]

I've only been on the Mariner, and she rocks!

 

However, I do have a friend who has been on one of the larger Carnival ships and the Explorer, and she liked the Explorer better.

[spbflseas]

If you were my client, then I certainly would be encouraging you to take the Mariner. As I have said on this board a number of times, can you have a good cruise with Carnival...cartainly. However, I am far more comfortable that my client will be satisfied on Royal Caribbean than I am that they will be satisfied on Carnival. My wife and I just had a similar debate whether we should give the Glory or the Miracle the nod over a Voyager class ship. We are on the Navigator this Saturday.

[Cruising89143]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=196317

 

Take a look at the thread above. The OP's closing remarks are the reason that Carnival is not my first choice in cruising plus the fact that they refuse to implement a past guest program.

[hdawson]

For my enjoyment, I would choose Glory. I've been on one Voyager class vessel and later felt I had spent the week at Mall of America because of so many activities and facilities were deep inside the ship. Actually, I much, much prefer the Radiance class ships with all those walls of glass giving an everpresent feel for the sea. Further, Glory holds about 350 fewer passengers and Carnival's DR food is better than Royal Caribbean's.

Just my personal opinion. BTW. I don't climb rock climbing walls or need an inline skating track.

[piercetc4]

We have done the Conquest ( sister to Glory) and we have done Adventure of the Seas ( sister to Mariner) Dh and I liked the Adventure of the Seas better on a whole - larger ship, more space, more to do, nicely decorated, sold out sailing did not feel crowded- Conquest was a great ship and we had a blast- like the casino on Conquest the best of the 2 but everything else we voted Adventure - on the other hand- one of our group had done Glory - she favored the Glory over the Adventure- forget why though- either way, you will have a wonderful time- can't go wrong either way basically!

[skyking]

Mariner ALL THE WAY!

[Richro]

The programs with the kids IMO are equal. Good luck with your choice.

[Cruising89143]

For my enjoyment, I would choose Glory. I've been on one Voyager class vessel and later felt I had spent the week at Mall of America because of so many activities and facilities were deep inside the ship. Actually, I much, much prefer the Radiance class ships with all those walls of glass giving an everpresent feel for the sea. Further, Glory holds about 350 fewer passengers and Carnival's DR food is better than Royal Caribbean's.

Just my personal opinion. BTW. I don't climb rock climbing walls or need an inline skating track.

 

Actually here are the stats on both ships which I obtained from Cruise Travel magazine.

 

Glory - 110,000 tons - 2974 passengers and a passenger space ratio of 37.0

 

Mariner - 138,000 tons - 3114 passengers and a passenger space ratio of 45.6

 

140 less passengers on the Glory but the Mariner has a higher passenger space ratio and and is 28,000 tons larger and believe me you can tell it.

[goingtocruise]

We have been on Navigator and Glory (one year apart). Glory was ok, but your family will have a lot more activities on the Mariner. This year we booked Glory again because of prices on RCCL. Just didn't have that great feeling. Every day I checked and one day I checked and RCCL prices were down. Switched to Voyager and all of us are much more excited. Only 6 more months to go. Kids will be 13 and 15. Older one will not use the clubs much. The weeks we go, few kids and very few teenagers that use the club. The 13 year old likes the RCCL clubs more, because they have a designated place for the teens to meet and do activities. The Glory had preteens and teens meet for different activities in different areas of the ship. Not that bad except you had to remember where to go from one time to the next and if the counselor didn't show up, we had to call and ask them to come. With teenagers, I would say that Mariner is definitely better. Full court basketball, putt putt golf, in-line and ice skating and rock wall. In our opinion, much better food also. Glory had a lot of booths to sit in for 4 people. Would like to have sat at a larger table to get to know others. If you have any specific questions about the kids clubs, let me know and I will ask the kids as they will know more about it. One more thing to note, a lot of the shows on Carnival were late in the evening, with only one show instead of two. It was very hard to stay awake and see these. On RCCl it seems they had two of the same show each night and we loved being awake enough to see the first one. Shows on either ship were fantastic. Don't get me wrong, both ships are nice and each have good features, it's just that RCCL had more activities that we liked.

[hdawson]

I stand corrected. I was thinking that Mariner capacity was 3300. You are correct.

[MEGADAN]

We did the Navigator in 2003 and the Glory in 2004. Liked the Navigator much better than the Glory. I felt cramped in most places on the Glory. The layout for food buffets were awful, especially breakfast. Everything was a huge line. We have been on 6 Carnival Cruises and after the much awaited Glory, my husband does not want to go back to Carnival. That should tell you something.

We are booked on the Mariner for August!

[pd9845]

We are on the Navigator this Saturday.

 

Marty - I look forward to your review.

[winncove]

Just our opinion of course but after being on the Mariner last fall and the Glory this Feb...We were disappointed in so many things. From the first day w/no cabin service [no turn down bed..no biggie, no ice, no schedule for next day. Found this out @ 12:45 when we returned to our rm. Called..35 min later still nothing..so cancelled & went to sleep.] I can still see the orange walls & retro blonde furniture! [Rm pics show everything w/orange tint!] Food was not as good as Mariner to us. Waiters never knew names or cared. Never offered any beverage until we finally asked for tea & coffee 3rd nite and still had to ask each nite after that! Crumbling dead fern in silk flower vases stayed whole cruise on tables. Lots of little things like this. Husband did like getting a hotdog late nite but we both missed the 24/7 Promenade cafe on Mariner. Debarking..last called. Sent to one station. After 15 min got hanging bag. After another 10 min, sent to 2nd carousel. Nothing so I went across to another one and after 15-20 min with mostly empty spaces on the belt one of our bags showed. Now we are about the only people in the area & I'm past anger, beginning to panic. Porter ignored me but got pax to tell my husband across the way that I had #2 of 3 but not able to drag it w/all my other stuff over there. Finally bag #3 arrived on the 2nd carousel where my husband had been waiting. We are talking way after noon before we could get out of there!

 

Kids of all ages will have more to do on the Mariner. The few teens I saw looked bored after dark!

 

In it's favor we did not find it to be a wild party boat @ all. Lots of active seniors like us. The casino is much larger than the Mariner & I did enjoy being able to play tables whenever I wanted to.

 

If you don't have the Mariner as a comparison, there'll be no problem. Any first cruise has to be great! It's too bad RCCL cost so much more but we'll just have to tuck away a few more $$. Going on it again this Oct.! :D

[pinkrosesdeb]

This is always so confusing! We love the Mariner, she is our favorite ship so far but living in fla. we have the options of cruising more often and have thought of trying Carnival or Princess etc. We did try HAL and hated it! I hear such conflicting reports on Carnival that every time I think we might try them I change my mind. We have friends who sailed them 2x and loved them. Go figure! Anyway, really appreciate all the feedback.

[pd9845]

I'm a fan of the Mariner and we had the same issue -- try Carnival Glory or stick with RCI (Mariner or Navigator). We found the same thing - prices were higher with RCI. We are a young couple and wanted the "party" atmosphere. So, we were just about to book with Carnival until we posed the same question on these boards. (my recommendation - ask this question on the CCL boards as well to get a more balanced response).

 

Overall the comments were the same - CCL didn't offer more "partying" (that was pretty comperable). CCL seems to have better & more Food options than RCI Mariner. Pools & hot tubs on CCL are NOT available 24 hours. And, the biggest difference is that CCL Glory feels crowded on the pool deck and passengers always seem to be waiting in line...

 

Needless to say we chose the Navigator for this year. We considered the Mariner, but wanted to go to Miami since we have been to Orlando so many times already. We shopped around ALOT and were able to find a great price for RCI.

 

Good luck.

[Cruiser-T]

While I personally have not sailed CCL and do not plan to, several family members have sailed CCL & Disney, we all just returned from RCI Navigator and everyone gave RCI a big thumbs-up! Those who have sailed other lines, like RCI better after sailing with them. We all just booked our '07 cruise on RCI.