Compare Carnival, Norwegian and Princess

[seanh]

Is there a comparison matrix comparing these three cruise lines? I'm able to find a bunch of opinions and general reviews but I'm not seeing any list of things you get when sailing with each one.

 

Is it all subjective, general feel of the ships or something more definitive?

[paul929207]

You don't want subjective, so that throws out any opinions. I don't think there is much in the way of hard numbers to compare those three lines. They all have their fans and their haters. All are great for some and poor for others.

[Gunner22aa]

Straight off the net so you can goggle it yourself if you want. This is what cruise lines spend per passenger per day on food

 

Seabourn, Silver Sea - $24 - 26 per day

Oceania, Regent - $18 - 20 per day

Celebrity, Princess - $12 - 15 per day

RCCL, HAL - $12 - 13 per day

Carnival - $8 - 10 per day

NCL - $7.50 - 8.50 per day

 

As you can see there is a big difference between Princess and the other two

[marco]

The biggest difference between Carnival/Princess and NCL is that NCL ONLY offers free-style dining. There are no set sittings. C & P offer set sittings as well as anytime dining. We took NCL last year and always got a beeper and had a table never quicker than a 1/2 hr wait. NCL had a lot less wait staff in the MDR and service is mediocre, at best. Many items you'd expect to see on a cruise ship menu were not on the menu on NCL in the MDR but only in the up-charge dining rooms (of which there are several as opposed to 1 or 2 on other lines). Shows/entertainment I'd say is pretty comparable. Beds are most comfortable IMO on "P". Cabins the roomiest on "C" and the smallest on NCL. At least that's been our experience having pretty much same category cabins on the 3 lines. "C" public rooms are the most "Las Vegas" of the 3. We've always had very, very good cabin attendants on all 3 lines. And I may be in the minority, but I think the hull art on NCL is the ticky-tackiest stuff I've ever seen on a cruise ship.

Edited March 3, 2014 by marco

[mizLORInj]

Is there a comparison matrix comparing these three cruise lines? I'm able to find a bunch of opinions and general reviews but I'm not seeing any list of things you get when sailing with each one.

 

Is it all subjective, general feel of the ships or something more definitive?

 

All cruiselines include accommodations (cabin) and various dining options as well as most entertainment. All charge a service charge per person per day, and for drinks, bingo, souvenirs, photos. Booking a suite on them gets you some additional perks too which vary by the cruiseline.

On here you are going to get opinions. When I started cruising I found it helpful to read various reviews, but then cruise to form my own opinions. My opinion is Princess is fancier than Carnival and Norwegian, but that wouldn't make me choose Princess exclusively. NCL Breakaway and Getaway are totally different than other NCL ships--much more elegant in decor, but larger too.

haven't had a bad cruise yet! :)

Edited March 3, 2014 by mizlorinj

[gerryl12]

"Compare Carnival, Norwegian and Princess"

 

NCL -- love the free style dining, Fantastic entertainment (best).

 

Princess -- great, but entertainment (ok) going downhill due to cost cutting/savings.

 

Carnival -- that's a whole different can of worms. But they do own most of the rest.

 

IMHO

[OCruisers]

Straight off the net so you can goggle it yourself if you want. This is what cruise lines spend per passenger per day on food

 

Seabourn, Silver Sea - $24 - 26 per day

Oceania, Regent - $18 - 20 per day

Celebrity, Princess - $12 - 15 per day

RCCL, HAL - $12 - 13 per day

Carnival - $8 - 10 per day

NCL - $7.50 - 8.50 per day

 

As you can see there is a big difference between Princess and the other two

 

This is quite a nice way of saying it!

LuLu

~~~

[Cruisin' Chick]

To quote the old ad tagline: Princess is where I belong.:)

[Cruzman]

Princess, wonderful in every way! Carnival, good food, upbeat entertainment, but limited. NCL, the pits unless you wanna pay extra for their alternative venues.

[bearwholovestotravel]

For freestyle dining, do you pay? What do u mean by freestyle dining.?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Warm Breezes]

Here is a review I just did after sailing Ruby Princess, Norwegian Jewel, Carnival Freedom during a 6 month time span. Remember food and entertainment is subjective. Hope it helps.

 

We just got off our 3rd cruise in 6 months on 3 ships similar in size and age, but 3 different cruise lines. I thought I would do a comparative review of all 3.

 

A little about us first: DH and I are both 47 and celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary on the NCL cruise reviewed here. We have DS(19) and DD(16) who along with DD’s BFF (16) went with us on the CCL cruise reviewed here only. These were our 10th-12th cruises.

 

Cruise facts: We sailed on CCL Freedom in August with the family and DD’s BFF. We had connecting balcony rooms. The itinerary was 6 nights from FLL to Key West, Grand Cayman, and Ochos Rios (new port for us). This was our 6th cruise on CCL and 2nd time on CCL Freedom. Net of OBC the 2 person balcony cost $1100 and the 3 person balcony cost $1400.

 

DH and I then sailed NCL Jewel in October for our 25th anniversary. This was our first cruise without kids. We had a balcony room. The itinerary was 7 nights from New Orleans (new embarkation port for us) to Cozumel, Costa Maya (new port for us), Belize (new port for us), and Roatan (new port for us). This was our 3rd cruise on NCL and our 2nd time on NCL Jewel. Net of OBC our 2 person balcony cost $1700.

 

Finally we just returned home from a March Cruise on Ruby Princess. We had room R746 which is a balcony room with a larger balcony that looks forward at a 45 degree angle in the aft of the ship. The itinerary was 5 nights from FLL to Cozumel and Grand Cayman. This was our 1st cruise on Princess. Net of OBC our 2 person balcony cost $1000.

 

Room Comparisons: I have to give CCL top notch for rooms. Not only are their balcony rooms larger but they had chairs that reclined on the balcony. One of my main reasons for choosing a balcony is to be able to avoid the Lido and relax in privacy. I had that on Carnival. I could sit out there for hours just letting the sight and sound of the ocean totally relax me. NCL and Princess both had much smaller rooms. NCL’s balcony chairs did not recline like CCL’s did and while I missed that I was able to get relatively comfortable arranging pillows on the chair. Princess balcony chairs were worthless. I couldn’t sit in them for longer than 10 minutes and couldn’t get comfortable in them at all even with pillows. It made having the larger balcony worthless because I couldn’t sit out there and relax on it…which is what I paid the premium for. There was also some pluses and negatives to our room on Ruby Princes. We were right next to the door leading out to the Aft Pool, Outrigger bar, and Caribe Café. This was great. The bad part was when we were docking in Cozumel, early in the morning, our room shook so bad from the thruster that it was bone jarring. This happened off and on during the day in Grand Cayman too where we were tendered. I also didn’t like the balcony set up where you look down on the open balconies of those below us. It just seemed like we were invading their privacy.

 

MDR: Now this one is subjective. We had anytime on all 3 ships. For selection and deserts the nod goes to Carnival for us. We ate in the MDR every night because there was always something on the menu that appealed to all of us. NCL we ate in the MDR 3 nights, Moderno 1 night, Mama’s 1 night, and the buffet 1 night. NCL’s deserts, IMHO, were tasteless. There were nights when nothing on the menu appealed to me. My fall back when that happened on Epic was the pasta….that did not work for me on the Jewel. I did not like the sauce on the pasta on Jewel. Princess, while having better desserts, still failed in the selection department for me. Having said this, my fall back the Fettucini Alfredo was excellent…but I didn’t want to eat it every night. Taste wise I give both CCL and NCL a tie. Most food was great with a few exceptional and a few not so good. Princess seemed to be a total hit or miss for us. As DH stated it was either exceptional or it was horrible….there didn’t seem to be a middle ground good for us like we had on CCL or NCL.

 

The overall atmosphere I have to give the nod to NCL. We are casual people and prefer to dine casually. Within the dress code...just not the higher end. NCL’s every night casual dress code is our style. CCL comes in second with just one elegant night to dress up a little more for. Princess was too stuffy for us, even on the casual nights it was just more refined than we like. There is nothing wrong with that…it’s just not our style. We didn’t like the fact that when we asked for a table for 2, which we always do, the hostess suggested a table with others and literally rolled her eyes at us when we said we wanted a table for 2. The table for 2 actually ended up being about 8 small tables along a bench with about a foot between them. Barely enough room to squeeze into. It was like we were sitting a table for 16 not a table for 2….not the experience we were looking for. The 2nd time we tried the MDR we asked for the table for 2 again. The hostess again tried to steer us to a larger table and rolled her eyes at us again when we stayed firm in our request for 2. They started taking us to the same table we had before and DH asked if we could have one of the empty tables for 2 that were not along the bench. They acted like they didn’t want to do it but ended up finding us a table (there were quite a few empty ones around the dining room). We never had this issue on NCL or CCL. Getting a separate table for 2 never felt like pulling teeth before. The experience was just not for us and that combined with the lack of selection kept us from coming back to the MDR. We had no wait time or service issues, besides the hostess on Princess, in any of the MDR’s on any of the ships.

 

Buffet: Again subjective. NCL wins this one for us. Overall I find they had the best selection and taste (besides the desserts, which were tasteless). Princess comes in 2nd here. They had a good selection and like the MDR the food was either excellent or horrible….but we did find more excellent here. I didn’t like that you had to get a waiter to get you juice in the morning. That was a hassle at times. Carnival comes in last. I always have trouble finding anything that looks good on their buffet and we I do find something I usually don’t like it that much.

 

Other included food venues: NCL and CCL are tied with their Blue Lagoon and Fish & Chips and Deli. Both were excellent. Princess comes in 3rd with the International Café. Like their MDR and Buffet the food here was hit or miss. It was either excellent or horrible. I preferred the Pizza on NCL. DH preferred the pizza on Princess.

 

Specialty food venues: We did not go to the specialty food venues on CCL or Princess. On NCL we went to Modernos for our 25th Anniversary dinner and thought it was excellent. We received a free dinner at Mama’s from the Latitudes Party drawing and were not impressed. I just didn’t like the sauce they used on the pasta….it had a bitter taste to me.

 

Entertainment: For production shows NCL wins. The singers, dancers and the choreography are great. Princess comes in 2nd with great singers and dancers but I found the choreography lacking technical difficulty. I may be more critical than most here being a Dance Mom….but they did 2 numbers that my DD did recently and while they were good, DD’s dance team would have put them to shame when it came to technique. I’m blaming this on the choreography as the dancers seemed to be underused talent wise. While the shows we saw on CCL Freedom were the best we have seen on a CCL ship, they were still lacking compared to NCL and Princess. The dancers were not the best and the choreography was poor. They could also take lessons from Princess on classy costuming.

 

NCL had the better magician. Princess was good. Carnival didn’t have one. Carnival had the better comedians. Again Princess was good. NCL didn’t have one. Princess showed some great 1st run movies that were shown throughout the ship. DH and I enjoyed this as we rarely get to the movies at home so this was a treat for us. We saw Philomena on the MUTS screen and were served popcorn, pizza, and cookies on comfy cushioned seats with blankets. We saw August: Osage County in the Explorers Lounge and Captain Phillips in the Princess Theater. We would have seen Gravity too but something else always seemed to be going on that we wanted to do when it was on.

 

Princess wins when it comes to live bands. They were everywhere and they were pretty good. We were getting a little bored with the same music being played towards the end. I have to say that NCL and CCL probably tied for 2nd. We were on Freedom while they still had the show band and live bands throughout the ship. Some are saying that is changing but we haven’t been on ship with those changes yet. CCL did have a DJ on the Lido while NCL had a band but that really did not make much of a difference to me.

 

Casino: Princess wins. They had one night that was smoke free which was great and even the nights where it was allowed it just didn’t seem that smoky. Carnival comes in 2nd. While it does get smoky in there we would normally go during the day when it wasn’t so bad. They usually had a band playing right next to it which was nice. NCL comes in last here. They place their casinos in walkways and it was always smoky no matter when we went. I have nothing against smokers but I just don’t like getting that smell in my clothes and it really irritates my contacts.

 

Service: We had no issues with service on any of our cruises. They were all great.

 

Itinerary: For us, out of the 3 cruises, NCL had the better itinerary. This was mainly because it was a new embarkation port and 3 new ports for us see. We had great excursions at every port except for Costa Maya which got rained out. We had a private tour in Roatan with Theris Dixon Tours which was excellent. In Belize we did Mayan Ruins through Island Marketing. I’m glad we did it but have no desire to do it again. In Cozumel we did a Jeep Tour through Island Marketing that we thoroughly enjoyed.

 

CCL had the 2nd best itinerary for us. Again the 1 new port was a bonus. We basically stayed on the ship Key West though. It was too hot to do anything there. In Grand Cayman we purchased a $20 pp tour that took us to the rum factory, the dolphin show, Hell, and a public beach on Seven Mile Beach. In Ochos Rios we did the Jamaican bobsled through Carnival. We loved Mystic Mountain.

 

On Princess we knew going in the itinerary wasn’t all that but we choose it try out a different ship and cruise line. We stayed on board in Grand Cayman and took a taxi to Paradise Beach in Cozumel. This was our 2nd time to Paradise Beach. The first time was 9 years ago. We were one of the first ships allowed back after Hurricane Wilma had gone through. Let me tell you the changes were dramatic. It was a very beautiful place to spend the day.

 

Demographics: We fit right in with the demographics on CCL. It seemed most were families around our age and younger. NCL was an older crowd mostly couples. This was much different than our previous NCL cruises so I think the embarkation port and time of year had something to do with this. We fit into the younger end of this group. It seemed to be mostly couple in their late 40’s-60’s. There were very few families or kids. On Princess we felt a little out of place. I was really surprised at this since we sailed during the Spring Break months out of FLL. The majority on this cruise were in their mid to late 50’s-80’s. There were a few more families and kids than we saw on Jewel but not many. It seemed most were either older snow bird couples or groups from retirement communities in Florida.

 

Each ship had its pluses and minuses. CCL was a better fit for us as a family and I’m glad we didn’t have our kids with us on the other 2 as I don’t think they would have enjoyed it as much. NCL was a better fit for us a couple….but I think that was a mostly due to timing and embarkation port. I wouldn’t say the same about our Epic cruise which was great for our family. I’m not sure we are ready for Princess yet. At this stage in our life we like to keep it more casual when we vacation. The atmosphere on Princess was not as casual as we enjoy. There were aspects that were great and some not so great…but we just didn’t feel like we fit in. I can see us sailing them again in the future…but it may be a few years when relaxation and reconnection aren’t our main goal while sailing as a couple.

__________________

[Hlitner]

There is no way not to be subjective, but you have asked us to compare 3 totally different lines which makes it somewhat easy. Norwegian is quite unique in that it often offers budget pricing but provides a product that allows a cruiser to upgrade their onboard experience by spending a little money. Their Freestyle Dining offers something for everyone since those on a budget can dine in the free venues (with so-so cuisine) or choose to dine in one of many alternative venues that provide differing quality and types of food.

 

Carnival works hard at living up to their image of Fun Ships. On their shorter cruises this is a great line for families who want a lot of activities for all ages. Their experience is a bit "louder" then most other lines with frequent announcements (promoting various activities) and an attempt to maintain somewhat of a party atmosphere that suits many, and annoys others. On their longer more expensive cruises (especially in Europe and elsewhere) the passenger demographics become a bit older and the party atmosphere wanes.

 

Princess is a product that works to please everyone. Sometimes they succeed, and other times they fail. We have a tough time putting them into a niche as they do vary according to ship and itinerary. A 7 day Caribbean cruise can be close to a Carnival-like experience with slightly better food in their Main Dining Room. Longer cruises become more sedate and are closer to the HAL experience then other lines. To be real honest, despite the fact that we have taken many Princess cruises all over the world, we never know what to expect on our next Princess cruise. It is usually a great experience, but the overall atmosphere seems to vary (from cruise to cruise and ship to ship) more then other lines. One needs to consider that Princess does operate a couple of smaller ships (less then 700 passengers) which offer an entirely different experience then their huge Grand-Class vessels.

 

Hank

Edited March 27, 2014 by Hlitner

[Warm Breezes]

For freestyle dining, do you pay? What do u mean by freestyle dining.?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Freestyle dining means you choose when, where, and with whom you dine. There are 2 MDR's, the buffet, O'Sheehans/Blue Lagoon, Grill, Pizza, various pool bars serving food included in cost. Then there are specialty restaurants with various charges. The dress codes are the same no matter what day....but they may be different based on the venue. 1 MDR and 1 Specialty Restaurant are not as casual as the rest. You may make reservations at the specialty restaurants but when you eat and with whom you eat is up to you.

Edited March 27, 2014 by Warm Breezes

[bearwholovestotravel]

Do you pay to go to illusionarium?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums