2nd time cruising need some advice!

[lovablekendra]

Me and my husband cruised for the first time on our honeymoon on allure of the seas which was amazing!! But I want to surprise him with a cruise for our 1yr anniversary every since the cruise he has not stop talking about cruising lol but this time I'm looking at carnavale cruises I'm looking at the valor and sunshine because they cruise right around our anniversary and they have great destinations both destinations he always wanted to go to sunshine is going to Aruba and valor is going to Belize since this is a whole diffrent cruise line I'm stuck! It's only a $400 diffrence between the 2 so has anyone cruised both ship and what were the pros and cons and which one did you prefer?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited May 19, 2015 by lovablekendra

[bakersdozen12]

You should ask this in the Carnival section of this board; you'll get more responses.

[lovablekendra]

Ok new to tapatalk to lol

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Krazy Kruizers]

There is quite a difference between RCI and Carnival.

[cb at sea]

Naw....some differences, but not THAT many! Different decor and ship designs...but that actual EXPERIENCE...more similar than different! Carnival's standard cabins are larger than RCI's standard cabins...but if you are booking a suite, then RCI beats Carnival on suite perks.

[Nitemare]

Valor and Sunshine may be cruising at the right dates, but so is every other ship on every other cruiseline, unless they are in drydock.

 

Every ship cruises all the time.

[SuiteTraveler]

Carnival Valor - built 2004, refurbished 2011

Carnival Sunshine - built 1996 as the Carnival Destiny, significantly refurbished 2013

 

Of the two, the Valor is the nicer ship, BUT, it's not going to anything like Allure. If you want something more comparable to Allure but different, then I think you should look at NCL's ships: Getaway, Breakaway, Epic and Escape. In terms of being a comparable ship to Allure, these 4 ships are the closest you can get on any other cruise line. They have a ton of entertainment, full scale water parks onboard, ropes courses on several of these, Las Vegas style shows, great casino, and lots of specialty restaurants - even more than Allure. These are all very new ships - Escape doesn't even debut until November. I just got off Getaway and it is FANTASTIC! And take a look at the Spa Suites. They are fantastic as is the Spa - if you can't afford a spa suite, then do a spa cabin - there is everything from insides to mini-suites.

 

I'm not tied to any one cruise line. All of them have their pros and cons. To me, Allure and Oasis are kind of like an amusement park with various themed areas (Central Park, Boardwalk, etc.) NCL's newest ships are like a Las Vegas Resort - in fact they kind of remind me of Aria. And NCL does suites better than any other cruise line I've tried so far. Better than RCCL, better than Carnival, better than Celebrity, better than Princess, better than HAL. The age group on NCL tends to skew younger - lots of people in their 20's and 30's and very few elderly onboard. Anyway before you decide on these older Carnival ships, do check out NCL as these are some pretty awesome ships.

 

If you want to sail on Carnival, then I would suggest you consider Carnivals newer ships: Magic or Breeze or the newest one, Vista.

 

This is just my opinion, but I'm not a fan of sailing on the ships that are older than 2000. Even refurbished, they feel rather dull and uninspiring compared to the latest and greatest ships of today. However, there are many who like to sail on these older ships still. I think the real turning point in cruise ships came in about 2005. That's when the really amazing features began to appear on cruise ships. Then in 2009, Oasis of the Seas (Allure's sister ship) debuted and it set the bar so high, that other cruise lines have really been working hard to catch up and surpass these amazing ships or some lines have retreated into a different market for a more sedate type of cruise. The ONLY other line I believe has really accomplished this is NCL. However, Carnivals newest ships are getting closer and may surpass Allure with Vista. Hope this helps in terms of understanding what is out there. Each line is very different, but NCL is closer to RCCL and then Carnival is a close third place in this race, so far.