Convince me why I should go with Princess

[AZbeachboy]

While I was looking at the list of post the thought came to me, why should I convience you. Why would I want to convience you? I know what I like and follow that path. Why would I convience you when having one less group on my cruise would make it less crowded.

 

It seems to me that the question should have been, "what do you like about carnival given certain circumstances?" They I would be happy to tell you why I travel Princess over Carnival.

[rvmike]

We have Done both and Princess sucks. Our 3 day on Carnival had lobster, Princess said they don't lobster on short cruises (4day). On our stop in Ensenada we bought a plastic lobster and put it on table. I don't think they got the message or just did not care.

[rpcv77]

Here is a novel thought...maybe different people like different things. Princess doesn't "suck" any more than Carnival or any other cruise line. People have different preferences. I have cruised on three different lines and simply prefer one at this point in time. As my needs and interests change, I may prefer another.

Edited November 20, 2014 by rpcv77
Edit

[pablo222]

U.S. News and World Reports has an article that ranks cruise lines on best value, luxury and romance:

 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/best-cruise-lines-for-value-romance-luxury-2014-11-18

 

Carnival rates very highly. Hope this helps.

 

It calls disney affordable!

 

Disney might be the greatest thing ever for kids, but to call

it good for someone on a budget???

[Mississippian]

I might be a bit leery of taking a Carnival cruise to the Caribbean, but I wouldn't think a longer cruise out of LA would be as much of a party-hearty crowd. I think I would be tempted to go with the lower price.

 

I have a brother who is a smoker who loves Carnival. They are a little easier with their smoking policies. Some of their ships also have dueling piano bars, which I think would be really enjoyable.

 

I would expect the Carnival cruise to be more lively, and for this particular route it might be a lot more fun.

[DMRick]

It was def more of a party going on Carnival than Princess to Hi. I grew to dread dinner with all the dancing and singing. It made for a long, interrupted dinner. However most people who are on Carnival often appeared to like it.

You are correct about the smoking. They are definitely more lax than Princess.

If you are looking for games that have you putting a coin in your butt and walking some ways away and dropping it in a cup or cheap crafts and winning a ship on a stick or seeing who has the most chest hair by the pool, this might be a perfect ride to Hi.

I might be a bit leery of taking a Carnival cruise to the Caribbean, but I wouldn't think a longer cruise out of LA would be as much of a party-hearty crowd. I think I would be tempted to go with the lower price.

 

 

 

I have a brother who is a smoker who loves Carnival. They are a little easier with their smoking policies. Some of their ships also have dueling piano bars, which I think would be really enjoyable.

 

 

 

I would expect the Carnival cruise to be more lively, and for this particular route it might be a lot more fun.

 

 

 

 

 

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[LiveAloha1]

Aloha.....

 

We have sailed on both Princess and Carnival numerous times.

 

It looks like the itinerary you are on you will go both to Hilo and Kona on Hawaii Island. Princess usually does only Hilo which is usually rainy and not as often visited as the Kona side. We live on Hawaii so we prefer the Kona side. With that Carnival itinerary I am almost certain you will go by the volcano lava flow at night. Pretty amazing to see and it has been flowing since 1982 with no sign of slowing down.

 

Other things we have noticed about Carnival versus Princess:

 

1. Carnival balcony cabins are way more spacious and better laid out then

Princess balcony cabins.

 

2. Carnival does not charge a fee for use of it’s Sanctuary area where Princess

charges a daily fee of $30.00 or more.

 

3. Carnival ships are colorful and Princess ships tend to be beige.

 

4. We find the food to be very similar but Princess will not have singing and

dancing waiters at dinner every night.

 

5. Carnival will have a lot more fun activities to do on the ship and their

workout rooms are usually open way before Princess opens theirs.

 

6. Carnival’s theaters seem to be way better designed and hold more people.

We never had to get to a Carnival show 45 minutes before it begins just to

get a seat like you do on most Princess ships..

 

8. Princess will have string quartets playing throughout the ship and Carnival

will have more lively music.

 

9. Princess will have more Hawaiian cultural activities during the cruise.

 

10. We always find that Carnival cabin staff know our names the first time they

meet us and this has never really happened on Princess even though we

take fairly long cruises on Princess. In general we find Carnival staff to

be friendlier.

 

10. We tend to get more OBC’s on Princess cruises then Carnival.

 

11. Our experience is that passengers on Princess cruises tend to be an older

demographic then Carnival passengers and people stay up later on

Carnival cruises.

 

12. We have sailed 100+ days on each cruise line and even though they are

different we like them both and do not really think one is that much better

then another. We do more Princess cruises now because they have more

worldly itineraries then Carnival.

 

 

However, we did a 20 day Carnival repositioning cruise from Honolulu to Sydney and it was one of the best cruises we have ever been on.

 

If the price is significantly different I would go with Carnival. To me it would not be worth the extra money to do Princess. I think on a longer Carnival cruise you are not going to find the same atmosphere as you do on one of their shorter cruses.

 

This is a Princess CC board so there are not a lot of Carnival lovers here.

 

Good luck and you cannot go wrong either way because Hawaii is special. :)

 

Another thing I forgot to add to our list which is a biggie for us.

 

Princess allows no smoking on it's balconies and Carnival does. I cannot believe how many times we were on a Carnival ships and really could not enjoy our balcony because of the chain smokers around us. A plus for Princess. :D

[Mississippian]

Another thing I forgot to add to our list which is a biggie for us.

 

Princess allows no smoking on it's balconies and Carnival does. I cannot believe how many times we were on a Carnival ships and really could not enjoy our balcony because of the chain smokers around us. A plus for Princess. :D

Since we aren't arguing I think it is okay to mention smoking. My brother the smoker took a five-day Princess cruise in January that came with a 100 percent cruise credit on a seven-day cruise. He and his wife could have cruised almost for free again on Princess, but just decided not to because of the difficulty with smoking.

 

If we had had a full family gathering he would have come, but otherwise he just decided to let the $499 cruise credit go to waste. I guess if I smoked I might feel the same way.

[PenguinLife]

We did 4 Carnival cruises (kept coming back due to price) before switching to Princess and HAL, and I am now almost of the camp that I would not go on a Carnival cruise unless they paid me. I don't like drunk rowdy crowds (every Carnival Cruise we took there was at least one time that I thought a fist fight would break out in the line for dinner), don't like the constant upsell atmosphere on the cabin PA system (if it was not the must see shopping guide show, it was special can't miss sale on gold by the inch or this special discount or that), don't like the Cruise Director staff on stuck on a constant "lets get this party started theme" , ....

 

Having said all that I just can't see Princess being worth $1,500 more than Carnival

[jsfromsc]

If you can afford the Princess cruise without any hardship, I'd give it a try. The Spirit class ships on Carnival are my favorite, but when we were on the Miracle in the southern Caribbean, I saw the Ruby Princess and my jaw dropped open. It looked so big and beautiful, and I thought right then and there that I would love to sail on her someday. I have thoroughly enjoyed our Carnival cruises, but when we look at a new destination, we will consider other lines as well as Carnival. We considered going with RCL for our Baltic cruise last year, but Carnival gave us 2 extra days and was significantly less expensive. We had a great time and great service. We were not disappointed. But we will still weigh our options the next time we're able to cruise.

[shredie]

Princess allows no smoking on it's balconies and Carnival does. I cannot believe how many times we were on a Carnival ships and really could not enjoy our balcony because of the chain smokers around us. A plus for Princess. :D

The Carnival policy changed some time ago. There is no smoking on Carnival balconies.

[JohnHall1965]

Well thank you all for your input , we have cruised 1 time with Carnival (will be 2 in January) and 1 time on RC . We found both experiences to be more similar than different , I do plan to try Princess in the future, but I think for the 1500.00 difference I will get more Value from Carnival on a Hawaiian itinerary. For 1500.00 we could do the Chef's table dinner , a few nights in the extra pay dining venue's and still be way ahead cash wise . We are not cheap but we do try to be a bit frugal . We also don't fear a ton of kids are the Drunk fest on this itinerary (although we never experienced that before) So I think we can have a special experience for our anniversary . (just a 15 day cruise is special for us) but again thanks to all who posted I enjoyed all of the diffeent perspectives !

[Host Jazzbeau]

Sorry I'm late to this party. No experience with Carnival, so I can't help your exact question. But if you really want to see Hawaii, have you considered flying from LA and taking the NCL Pride of America? In all of my research, I haven't found a Hawaii cruise itinerary that is more comprehensive. NCL seems to have had a poor reputation in the past, but they have pulled themselves up to be the third mass market cruise line. And their Hawaii cruise fits vacation schedules from 1 week (fly in, 7 day cruise, fly out) and up (book time before/after at a hotel in Hawaii). To me, Princess for Alaska and NCL for Hawaii are the two no-brainers in the cruise industry!

[PrincessLuver]

The Carnival policy changed some time ago. There is no smoking on Carnival balconies.

 

Thanks for the heads-up.....I see it went into effect October 9,2014....great move...we will definitely be on some of their ships in the future too:)

[PrincessLuver]

Well thank you all for your input , we have cruised 1 time with Carnival (will be 2 in January) and 1 time on RC . We found both experiences to be more similar than different , I do plan to try Princess in the future, but I think for the 1500.00 difference I will get more Value from Carnival on a Hawaiian itinerary. For 1500.00 we could do the Chef's table dinner , a few nights in the extra pay dining venue's and still be way ahead cash wise . We are not cheap but we do try to be a bit frugal . We also don't fear a ton of kids are the Drunk fest on this itinerary (although we never experienced that before) So I think we can have a special experience for our anniversary . (just a 15 day cruise is special for us) but again thanks to all who posted I enjoyed all of the diffeent perspectives !

 

I think you made a great decision.....there is no way the price difference is worth it....like I said...both lines are way more similar then they are different....enjoy Hawaii and enjoy the Aloha!!!:cool:

[dickinson]

I too was faced with the same thing. For my upcoming Hawaii cruise I never checked Carnival but for my b2b cruises in Jan 2016 we went with Carnival. it was ALOT less expensive plus we live near the port so no flying etc. I think we may have saved about $2500 (total of 21 days). When we sailed Carnival years ago we loved it but things have changed so we were a bit fearful of not enjoying our 21 day b2b. However many people on CC convinced us which was great because I could not spend $2500 more for a cruise knowing I could get it that much less.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[blkspy]

One thing about cruise lines.....all the ships sail :) I tell people who are first time cruisers to try Royal Caribbean first.....they have by he bigger ships and youll disover what you like or dislike about cruising.

 

The thing is to find the cruise line that gives you what you like at the price you like.

 

im no longer interested in being on a ship that features a hairy chest belly flop contest. So unless its FREE, Carnival is out for me for ANY other price.

 

Princess gives me what I enjoy in cruiing....Great food, good shows......no fights.......not much crazy drinking........not to mention the industry's BEST cruise perks for Elite members.

 

Why sail Princess? Sail her after a Carnival cruise and you should be able to answer the question ourself.