Help decide which is better please

[Cruisegirl6]

We cruise on Carnival and Royal Caribbean, so you can help us decide a little about what we like about each cruise line and please help us make a decision.

 

* We find the food for breakfast and lunch on RC to be better, more choices, variety and selection

*We do enjoy going to the specialty restaurants although this past may on the Allure we finding the specialty restaurants to decline in service and quality with this being said we are not choosing a ship for its specialty dining

*We will be 7 adults, 3 generations, some of us like to sit out at the pool and RC offers larger pools

*Carnival treats my other half like gold in the casinos

*I don't care for shows and neither does my father in law and my other half

*We do enjoy the comedy shows

*We always get balcony cabins

*We enjoy listing to live bands

*We cruise for the ship not the ports but since this is a southern caribbean cruise, ports will be important

WE ARE 7 ADULTS THIS CRUISE WILL BE IN JULY

 

The two itineraries/cruises we considering are:

 

Carnival Liberty- San Juan r/t, St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Maarten with 1 sea day

Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas- San Juan r/t, St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Aruba until 11pm, Curacao and 7 sea days

 

Please give us your opinions and advice which ship we should take, we really can't decide and thank you.

Edited January 1, 2015 by lyndamr

[Kamloops50]

Have you every considered Mexico or Alaska in July ?

[cruisexlife]

I just went through the same argument with myself, I needed a cruise for March and the Liberty and Adventure were both available. I am obviously supporting the Liberty. Here's why:

 

a) Since the Carnival port is right in Old San Juan, you can fly in the day of, or whatever and still make embarkation day a day in San Juan. I think that's very good, because in this case the departure port is part of the destination.

 

b) Examine the ports. Both go to St.Thomas and St.Kitts, so cut those out. St.Maarten is on a lot of Florida cruises, so eliminate that too. Now it's a battle over Aruba;Curacao and Barbados;St.Lucia. there are lots of cruises from Florida to Aruba and Curacao, even on 7/8 day cruises. So itinerary wise, Liberty is the better choice. Also, on Liberty, there are a variety of things to do in Liberty's ports, the Adventure seems as though it is mainly a beach cruise.

 

You'll have a fun and memorable vacation either way, tell us what you choose!

[Cruisegirl6]

Kamloops50- Alaska is not option this year, I really need to stay out of the cold weather otherwise my fibromyalgia pains be severe....Mexico....don't know of a decent ship that goes there do you?

 

cruisesexlife- We will be arriving the day before the cruise so that won't be an issue to us.

Hummm Aruba (safe, can eat at a fine restaurant for dinner as the ship leaves at 11pm) and Curaco haven't been there in ages.

Then St. Lucia and Barbados haven't been there since I was very young on a cruise....its pretty much even lol...I still can't decide. Which ship would give me more options in touring, we are not beach people.

 

I guess it all comes down to the food....since this is the Carnival board can anybody tell me what they liked or not liked about the buffet and MDR food? We don't eat fast food type foods, no hamburgers, hot dogs, burgers, etc. we prefer vegetables, salads and hot meat entrees. then it also comes down to the beverage service in the MDR...Carnival was always horrible, if lucky you get the beverage person come by your table a second time after waiting so long the first time where RC they are excellent in beverage service.

 

Another thing, we stay up late what does the Liberty have to eat besides pizza after 11pm?

[cruiser fanatic]

We cruise on Carnival and Royal Caribbean, so you can help us decide a little about what we like about each cruise line and please help us make a decision.

 

* We find the food for breakfast and lunch on RC to be better, more choices, variety and selection

*We do enjoy going to the specialty restaurants although this past may on the Allure we finding the specialty restaurants to decline in service and quality with this being said we are not choosing a ship for its specialty dining

*We will be 7 adults, 3 generations, some of us like to sit out at the pool and RC offers larger pools

*Carnival treats my other half like gold in the casinos

*I don't care for shows and neither does my father in law and my other half

*We do enjoy the comedy shows

*We always get balcony cabins

*We enjoy listing to live bands

*We cruise for the ship not the ports but since this is a southern caribbean cruise, ports will be important

WE ARE 7 ADULTS THIS CRUISE WILL BE IN JULY

 

The two itineraries/cruises we considering are:

 

Carnival Liberty- San Juan r/t, St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Maarten with 1 sea day

Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas- San Juan r/t, St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Aruba until 11pm, Curacao and 7 sea days

 

Please give us your opinions and advice which ship we should take, we really can't decide and thank you.

 

What is the price for each?

[Cruisegirl6]

Carnival 8C balcony $2261.22 and ADS E3 $3039.00 but I should get 200 off RC because of our status in crown and anchor.

[cruiser fanatic]

Carnival 8C balcony $2261.22 and ADS E3 $3039.00 but I should get 200 off RC because of our status in crown and anchor.

 

 

I would not pay that much more to go on RC. Go with Carnival.

[meatloafsfan]

I would choose Carnival. They have the Blue Iguana cantina which means fresh made burritos with lots of veggies and a salsa bar.

 

The regular buffet has a salad bar as well.

 

I can't imagine being on RCL with 7 sea days. I do enjoy their pools more than Carnival (they have steps instead of ladders). However, if you end up with inclement weather, I find that RCL offers fewer inside activities.

 

I think you may also enjoy the new menus on the Liberty. If I recall, you like meat and veggies (no carbs - I think you used to post about the availability of carved meats at the buffet?). The new menus have a "off the grill" section and you can choose a variety of sides (including many veggies like ratatouille, kale salad, etc.)

[ILCruzr]

We cruise on Carnival and Royal Caribbean, so you can help us decide a little about what we like about each cruise line and please help us make a decision.

 

* We find the food for breakfast and lunch on RC to be better, more choices, variety and selection

*We do enjoy going to the specialty restaurants although this past may on the Allure we finding the specialty restaurants to decline in service and quality with this being said we are not choosing a ship for its specialty dining

*We will be 7 adults, 3 generations, some of us like to sit out at the pool and RC offers larger pools

*Carnival treats my other half like gold in the casinos

*I don't care for shows and neither does my father in law and my other half

*We do enjoy the comedy shows

*We always get balcony cabins

*We enjoy listing to live bands

*We cruise for the ship not the ports but since this is a southern caribbean cruise, ports will be important

WE ARE 7 ADULTS THIS CRUISE WILL BE IN JULY

 

The two itineraries/cruises we considering are:

 

Carnival Liberty- San Juan r/t, St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Maarten with 1 sea day

Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas- San Juan r/t, St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Aruba until 11pm, Curacao and 7 sea days

 

Please give us your opinions and advice which ship we should take, we really can't decide and thank you.

 

I am doing the Liberty itinerary on the Valor in a few weeks. Ive been to both Aruba and Curacao and loveeee Curacao. Its a hard choice, as I have never sailed RCI (have two booked)..but I think the Liberty itinerary is more hopping :)

[Cruisegirl6]

Thanks for the replies but let me answer and lets see what else everybody has to comment about:

 

My experiences with Carnivals lunch buffets are of lacking choices, carbohydrate choices along with poor quality meats and loads of fast food....they only have one veggie during lunch and sometimes one carving of a meat (which is fine) and the salad bar has gotten a lot smaller with a lot less choices where RC salad bar has many choices including greek salad too! I do like the idea of mexican for lunch once or twice....

You mention new menus are those the ones with fried chicken and meatloaf or did they come out with newer ones, if so, does anybody have copies of these new menu's? I would like to see them as it would help us decide.

 

So far after hearing what you all saying, its leaning Liberty, need more advice and if somebody can show me the new menu's.

 

We also like to listen to live band at night I wonder if Liberty offers this?

 

If the weather is bad we don't mind not having much activities on the ship because the casino will make us happy.

[semichigan]

I sailed RC in November and found the beverage service to be terrible throughout the ship. You literally have to go to a bar to get a drink, there were very few servers and even while waiting at one bar for our drinks, we witnessed the 4 bartenders arguing over who would go out to check on a table where some passengers had just sat down - none of them wanted to do it. My impression is that because of the drink packages offered by RC (several variations) that they aren't getting as much in tips...? Not sure but I had the lowest bar bill probably of any of my 13 or so cruises because we had to work so hard to get a drink...which I suppose is not all bad :) LOL

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[meatloafsfan]

Thanks for the replies but let me answer and lets see what else everybody has to comment about:

 

My experiences with Carnivals lunch buffets are of lacking choices, carbohydrate choices along with poor quality meats and loads of fast food....they only have one veggie during lunch and sometimes one carving of a meat (which is fine) and the salad bar has gotten a lot smaller with a lot less choices where RC salad bar has many choices including greek salad too! I do like the idea of mexican for lunch once or twice....

You mention new menus are those the ones with fried chicken and meatloaf or did they come out with newer ones, if so, does anybody have copies of these new menu's? I would like to see them as it would help us decide.

 

So far after hearing what you all saying, its leaning Liberty, need more advice and if somebody can show me the new menu's.

 

We also like to listen to live band at night I wonder if Liberty offers this?

 

If the weather is bad we don't mind not having much activities on the ship because the casino will make us happy.

 

the Liberty has the American table/American feast menus. Here is the link from the zydecocruiser website

 

http://www.zydecocruiser.net/menus/AT_AF/liberty/eastern/libertyEastern.htm

[Cruisegirl6]

Interesting so now RC has cutbacks on the beverage service....

 

meatloafan thank you so very much for those menus!!! Hug to you...don't care for the menu's at all actually but the feast menu's look great....maybe could do 4 days steakhouse and 3 nights MDR.....:rolleyes: