What would it take to pick Carnival over Royal??

[RCI Cruisers 004]

What would it take ?.......heavy drug use !

[Aquahound]

My, I didn't realize expressing ones reason for doing or not doing something would receive such responses. I am not here to argue my views, we all have our reasons why we enjoy differant cruise lines. They have been stated on these boards. Perhaps I was a bit harsh is saying they appeared to be a cheap curise lines, for that I appologize. Wet Toes, there are probably a lot of things we all have never tried, and don't care to, some will try once. I have never sailed Carnival and for my reasons, I don't wish to. I end it there and moving on.

 

No need to defend yourself. 156 people so far said Nada, Never. You're just one of the very few to step up and explain your vote. Its not your fault people are so thin skinned over a freakn' cruise line. Kudos. ;)

[Robinola]

I toggle and don't see much difference.

[CruiseGuy76]

I'd rather be dragged behind a RCI ship than sail on one of those Carnival floating drag queens.

 

Just my two cents. :p

[A2Mich]

Is there such a thing as a comparable ship?

 

Granted, I have been only on the older Carnival ships (for various reasons - not usually by choice), but I've not heard of any Carnival ship that can hold a candle to Oasis or Allure. Open to convincing arguments.

 

Kathy

 

I'm just stating my opinion here, but maybe not everyone wants the Oasis or Allure. While I think the ships are definitely ground-breaking, I could care less to have a carousel or a zip line on a ship. I cruise to see different ports and enjoy the quiet time (which by the sounds of Carnival's Jumbo Trons, won't be happening). I'm also not one for huge crowds, and being on a ship with 6,000 other people? I'd rather be in a less crowded environment, and I could care less to people watch - I go on vacation to try and get away from humans, not be overrun by more of them!

[A2Mich]

OK, so I don't have a dog in this fight (no offense to ASPCA or PETA or any other left wing group), just a figure of speech.

 

I've only sailed on Carnival and Princess, and had previously booked a RCI cruise a few years ago, but had to cancel. Anyway, we're looking to book another cruise and are strongly considering RCI on either FOS or IOS. Interesting to hear so many different opinions here, some based on experience, others on hearsay. While I've never had a bad cruise per se, I would have to agree that the short 3/4 day cruises do tend to be a bit more wild. The best Carnival cruise we had was an 8 day to Panama, Costa Rica, and Belize (well, they could have left out Belize for us). The overall least enjoyable cruise we have been on was a 10 day honeymoon cruise on Princess, which was mostly due to the length of cruise, and the older passengers on this cruise. We went for the ports and made the best of it, and I don't feel that Princess is a bad cruise experience, but we were nearly the youngest passengers on board (we were in our early 30's at the time), and with most of the activities geared towards the older crowd, it left us somewhat disappointed, but we expected that being a longer itinerary.

 

If we can make things work financially, we'll likely be booking RCI for our next cruise, but am having a tough time deciding for sure. We certainly want to try something "new and different," but Carnival has an itinerary that we prefer. We are/were considering for early 2015 a Carnival 8 day from Port Canaveral to Grand Turk, Aruba, and Curacao, and an IOS 8 day from Port Everglades to St Kitts, San Juan, St Maarten, and Labadee. We have never been to Aruba, Curacao, St Kitts, or Labadee. Sounds like Labadee is a beach day. We're also considering both FOS itineraries. We really enjoy Cozumel and St Thomas, and have never been to Grand Cayman. So we have some huge decisions to make here! Hoping that we enjoy RCI if that's the way we go!

[jwm51]

I'd rather be dragged behind a RCI ship than sail on one of those Carnival floating drag queens.

 

Just my two cents. :p

 

The best one yet!:p:D

[Gilgo Surfer]

I was looking for something to do with DW for our anniversary thinking maybe a weekend road trip somewhere until I came across this cruise on the Carnival Splendor. It was very inexpensive, fell on our anniversary, went to three ports we had not yet been to and set sail from NY so no airfare. Suddenly our weekend road trip became an eight night cruise!

 

We had a great time and I would not hesitate to cruise with Carnival again.

 

I think Carnivals food in the MDR was a notch above Royal's and their pizza tastes more like pizzeria pizza where Royal's tastes more like pizza from the frozen section.

 

I loved the back pool on the Carnival Splendor with 180 degree views of the water.

 

BTW. The volume of the big screen on the Carnival Splendor pales in comparison to the volume of the big screen on the Freedom of the Seas. They were showing the Ghost Buster movie one afternoon and that thing was really loud!!

 

There are things I think that Royal does better but again, I would have no problem booking another Carnival cruise.

[WetToes]

Never cruised Carnival and have no interest to do so. For us Royal or even Princess has provided a more elequant feel and service. Carnival gives us the feeling of a cheap way of cruising. This is just our opinion.

 

No need to defend yourself. 156 people so far said Nada, Never. You're just one of the very few to step up and explain your vote. Its not your fault people are so thin skinned over a freakn' cruise line. Kudos. ;)

 

Explain their vote? Okay.

" ... thin skinned". Not really. My response would have been the same no matter which cruise lines were being discussed. Jumble them around, whatever. ;)

FYI - Have cruised a few lines I don't like any more than the other. Some things, yes, but the whole line, no.

[cruzeluver]

Have sailed both as well as others, I am loyal to no one. Will not be back on a Carnival ship under their current business model, plus the décor burns my retinas!

[SamboniMan]

I have been on 3 Carnival Cruises and 2 Royal (with a 3rd coming up in March 2014). I have also been on 3 Princess...

 

If you take the Oasis out of the equation (which was really fantastic), I didn't see much difference between my Rhapsody experience and my Carnival experiences. In fact, the Carnival Freedom cruise we went on this past Memorial Day, was better than the Rhapsody in every way: food (even had food poisoning on the Rhapsody), service, and entertainment.

 

I would and will cruise any of the lines again with the right itinerary and the right price.

 

Just my 2 cents...

[Aurora2143]

If Carnival became the ONLY cruise line that allowed balcony smoking. :)

[aimathy]

We've always sailed with Royal Caribbean, but recently the prices for Carnival were far too good to pass up. We figured with all of their bad press lately, if there were ever a time they'd step up their game, it was now. We took a week long cruise to the Caribbean on Carnival (Liberty) and we actually had a really great time. The food was worse than RCCL, but overall, it was fantastic and the price couldn't be beat. It was almost exactly half of the same cruise through RCCL. The kids club was great, the ship was nice....overall, I wasn't as unimpressed as I thought we would be. I'm glad we took the risk. But our upcoming cruise is with RCCL. :)

[Cruising89143]

I look at both the Carnival & Royal boards a lot. Over at the C board there is a lot of I don't cruise on R because they are $100,$200,$300 etc. /pp more expensive. The same people sometimes say they would cruise r if they were the same price. SO: Here is my question to the Royal crowd. Assuming $1,000/pp for comparable balcony cabins on comparable ships with comparable 7 day East or West itinerary, what would it take to try Carnival. (Consider cruise price only, not travel costs, loyalty benefits etc., just cruise vs. cruise).

 

 

Hope this works as I have never posted a poll.

 

Gregg

 

Been there and done that. Not on Carnival again. IMHO EVERY other mainstream cruise line out there is better than Carnival. They are the bottom of the heap.

[avril4111]

all of the royal caribbean ships to sink.

 

love it!!!:D

[Cruising89143]

My, I didn't realize expressing ones reason for doing or not doing something would receive such responses. I am not here to argue my views, we all have our reasons why we enjoy differant cruise lines. They have been stated on these boards. Perhaps I was a bit harsh is saying they appeared to be a cheap curise lines, for that I appologize. Wet Toes, there are probably a lot of things we all have never tried, and don't care to, some will try once. I have never sailed Carnival and for my reasons, I don't wish to. I end it there and moving on.

 

Don't worry about it. You don't need to defend yourself for giving an opinion. I agree about the thin skinned and those that take these comments personal. We're talking about a cruise line.:rolleyes:

[Hozhoni]

All of the Royal Caribbean ships to sink.

 

LOL...not sure I would go even then there are so many other cruise lines to consider first...

[dplusd]

We have sailed Carnival once. It was an unplanned, last minute cruise at a great price from a port we could drive to. I would do it again.

 

We give RCL the edge on ship design and entertainment. Fellow passengers on Carnival were different than what we are used to, but that could have been due to the shorter 5-day itinerary and departure port of Galveston.

 

I did enjoy wearing shorts to the MDR and thought the food was actually a notch above RCL. Eating breakfast or watching a sunset on our balcony was just as nice on Carnival as it is on any other cruise line!

 

We don't have plans to cruise Carnival again, but if RCL ever prohibits smoking on balconies, Carnival would be a very acceptable alternative!