Loyal Princess Cruiser Tries Out Carnival

[SadieN]

Sounds like you had an interesting cruise! The Inspiration is Farcus at his finest. Each ship is decorated according to a theme. He's now 'terrorizing' another CCL line. Lol

 

FYI the Fantasy class bathrooms are a shanda. The other Carnival classes have a much better layout, with actual shelves.

 

We've had downright boring 3/4 day Carnival cruises out of Long Beach and wilder 3day Princess out of San Pedro. All in the low season. We avoid high season cruises.

 

Each line has its pluses and minuses. Carnival's biggest plus is the policing of Assigned diners in the ATD.

Edited May 30, 2016 by SadieN

[ceilidh1]

Carnival's biggest plus is the policing of Assigned diners in the ATD.

 

100% agree - ATD was handled really well by Carnival! Princess should take note - no reservations, card checked every time to ensure you didn't have assigned dining. I avoid ATD on Princess like the plague, but went every night on Carnival!

[dmdiver]

I enjoyed your review. I will be cruising Princess for the first time this fall. I am expecting a relaxing trip. I'm a bit concerned because we chose ATD, since we've come to love it on Carnival. What is wrong with ATD on Princess?

 

I also have to echo others that say take a longer trip - I've always heard that the short ones tend to be booze cruises. For me, I prefer 7-8 nights - at least by that time I've gotten the ship layout down. Oh, and the decor on the newer Carnival ships is much more toned down. Unfortunately, the Lido deck music is still a bit loud for anyone to carry on a conversation.

 

But really, what do I need to know about Princess' ATD? Do we need to switch? I just have come to prefer not having to rush to set time dining.

[suzieb25]

Thank you for your fair and balanced review and for taking the time to share it with us. From your review, I didn't get a sense of confidence with the Muster drill. To me, our safety is the most important aspect and I have that confidence with Princess.

[ceilidh1]

I enjoyed your review. I will be cruising Princess for the first time this fall. I am expecting a relaxing trip. I'm a bit concerned because we chose ATD, since we've come to love it on Carnival. What is wrong with ATD on Princess?

 

I also have to echo others that say take a longer trip - I've always heard that the short ones tend to be booze cruises. For me, I prefer 7-8 nights - at least by that time I've gotten the ship layout down. Oh, and the decor on the newer Carnival ships is much more toned down. Unfortunately, the Lido deck music is still a bit loud for anyone to carry on a conversation.

 

But really, what do I need to know about Princess' ATD? Do we need to switch? I just have come to prefer not having to rush to set time dining.

 

I have found ATD on Princess to be a bit of a gong show - mainly because they allow reservations (kind of defeats the purpose of "anytime"). I like to eat early with the kids and try to get there when the dining room opens, but there is always a huge line up and I have rarely been seated right away. I don't believe Princess enforces the rule that Carnival does - if you have assigned dining you don't get to come to the anytime dining room, which also adds to the problem! Maybe it is better now - I haven't done ATD on Princess for about 2 years as I just couldn't handle the chaos!

[SadieN]

Princess allows reservations only for certain windows of time. At least those with ATD reservations are AT diners. On Princess we found going to the MDR that's half assigned/half ATD has the least amount of wait time.

 

 

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[mjmalino]

I liked your review. We have also done 1 Carnival cruise, which was just last year. I am not sure I would do another one. I totally Agree on the muster drill, it was odd, to say the least.

 

Two of my biggest complaints (other than the ship layout, on which I was very forgiving since it was an older ship) were what I considered the over the top pushing of alcohol and the teen center. I felt that with over a third of the pax being under 18, too many things, including pool games revolved around alcohol. As for the teen center, unlike Princess, on our Carnival cruise the teen center was open 24 hours a day, but was only staffed about 4-6 hours a day. I just think that can lead to potential issues.

[SadieN]

The muster on the Fantasy class is two parts-lounge then actually at the lifeboats. The other classes are outside at the lifeboats.

 

 

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[Woobstr112G]

Gret review. Thanks for taking the time to post it.....:):):)

 

Bob

[ejatczak]

Very open minded review! Loved reading this! Each cruise line does things better or worse than other lines. We love every cruise we go on. In fact our Carnival Baltic cruise is our favorite cruise to date! Length of cruise is a huge factor in demographics and party animals. Some of the loudest, drunkest cruisers we have seen where on short cruises. And they were parents on a cruise with their friends having left the kids home. I think some find comfort in predictably and some find it fun to cruise different lines! Thankfully there is something for each of us!

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[rickays]

Thank you for writing the review of Carnival after being a loyal Princess cruiser. I also have only cruised with Princess and I have booked my first Carnival cruise for September. Your review gave me faith that I had not made a mistake in trying Carnival. We are from Australia and are flying to Canada for a visit to the Rockies before a Princess Alaska cruise (where we are elite) then flying to Hawaii to pick up the Carnival cruise (as newbies) back to Australia. I dont think we will have to contend with the amount of drinking you had because it is a longer cruise and there is no 'drinks package' available - Carnival must think that a ship mainly filled with Aussies using drink packages would leave them no profit (lol). I was happy to read you enjoyed the production shows on Carnival as it is our favourite entertainment on Princess, even if we have seen the shows many time before. This may be our first of many cruises away from Princess although it will be hard not getting our elite benefits. Destination is the important thing and if Princess wont take me, I will find someone else who will.

[ceilidh1]

We are from Australia and are flying to Canada for a visit to the Rockies before a Princess Alaska cruise (where we are elite) then flying to Hawaii to pick up the Carnival cruise (as newbies) back to Australia.

 

Wow - I would be happy to take that trip on ANY line! Enjoy - it sounds amazing! :cool: