Is Royal Caribbean really that much better?

[JaniceB]

I am going to see for myself. I have my first Royal cruise booked. I will have Carnival, Disney and Holland America to compare it too. From what I have read I will see a difference in the size of the pool compared to Carnival and a price difference in the beverage packages.

[DebJ14]

I'm Diamond on both Carnival and Royal Caribbean and Platinum on Princess. Of the 3, we prefer Princess as we get older. It is just an older crowd and less noisy. RCCL has gotten more "Carnivalized" over the years as they have done an outreach to families with children. We deliberately book our cruises for times when school is in session to limit the number of kids. We generally cruise every January, early May and again in the fall. On RCCL we take a Grand Suite or Royal Family suite if traveling with family, and on Princess we always get a Vista Suite. We sometimes take an OS on Carnival, but any perks we get for being in a Suite on Carnival come from being Diamond. We like that RCCL takes $225.00 of the price of a balcony or suite for Diamonds. Our Princess past guest rates are usually at least $100 less than the regular rate, but on Carnival the Past Guest rate is usually $20.00 more per person than their early saver rate. We also like the complimentary evening cocktails and appetizers for suite guests on RCCL. Breakfast at Sabatini's on Princess was the highlight of our Princess cruises and we always enjoy Breakfast at Chops and lunch on sea days in Chops on our RCCL cruises. Carnival could easily open the steak house for breakfast for suite guests, but they have not been willing to consider that. Another great perk on RCCL and Princess is the ability of the suites to order off the MDR menu for breakfast and dinner every day and also from the MDR lunch menu on sea days when the MDR is open.

 

We have found that the entertainment on Royal Caribbean is far superior to Carnival and a bit better than Princess. The ice show on RCCL is great. But, we appreciate that Princess still has live musicians in the main shows unlike so many of the Carnival shows which are canned music and flashing videos. The Carnival singers seem to be the weakest. The Piano bar entertainers on Princess and RCCL have been superior to any experienced on Carnival. The comedians we have seen on Princess have been great unlike the foul mouthed comedians on Carnival. The RCCL fly in entertainment has been great. We have seen singers from the Lettermen, Four Tops, The Platters, Lenny Welch and others on RCCL. My personal favorite was the Texas Tenors.

 

We think the Princess and Royal Caribbean ships are much prettier than the Carnival ships. Nothing beats the beautiful MDR on RCCL ships! But, Princess wins for the club like atmosphere in many of the lounges. They provide such a nice atmosphere to have a drink and carry on quiet conversations. As for the food, we preferred Carnival until they ruined it by switching to the American table menu and took off the table cloths making the dining room way too noisy. Now, we would rate the Princess MDR food #1 followed by RCCL.

 

We like the Steakhouse food on Carnival better than Chops on RCCL. The Shrimp Cocktail appetizer wins hand down. We have had great meals and service in Crown Grill on Princess. Of the Italian restaurants onboard ships we preferred Sabatini's on Princess, but many of them are being replaced by Share by Curtis Stone, which we did not care for at all. That being said, Giovanni's Table would be elevated to our favorite Italian restaurant at sea over the Cucina Capitano on Carnival. But, the best of all for us is Sabor on RCCL. Great Mexican food! My DH likes Guys Burgers on Carnival for lunch.

 

I know dress code is a hot topic, but Carnival is a total fail in enforcing the minimal dress code that they have. We have seen more enforcement on Princess than RCCL. Our last Princess cruise still had lots of men in tuxes and ladies in gowns on formal nights and they enforced the no shorts rule.

 

We still sail CCL for cheap getaways in hurricane season, but basically stick to our cabin and balcony to avoid the noisy pool area. We have found it impossible to snag a chair on Serenity unless you get up really early to put out a towel and hat or book. Chair hogs are out in force on Carnival. Never had a problem finding space at the Solarium on Carnival and we also never had an issue finding seating at the adult pool on Princess. We have 3 future cruise booked - one on each line.

Edited July 14, 2016 by DebJ14

[ryano]

Answering the specific question "Is Royal really that much better?"

 

IMO, no. They are more alike than different.

 

Royal has better pools, a better loyalty program (if thats your thing), overall better entertainment and very nice ships. Thats about where it ends with me. I like Carnivals included food options and food in general much better and specialty dining much better. Carnivals drinks are cheaper and I found the service to be as good or better than RC. Food, drink and service is what is most important to me though. I could not care less about Flowriders, waterslides, skating rinks and all those amusement/water park gimmicks as I cant use them anyway.

 

Dont buy all the "Royal guests are nothing but a bunch of snobs"comments though. Thats a generalization at best and I have never once heard someone brag on their "status" on a RC ship.

Edited July 14, 2016 by ryano

[ryano]

I have my first Royal cruise booked. .

 

Freedom class ships are awesome. Enjoy your cruise! :)

[idil]

I just had my very first cruise on Carnival and posted the review here somewhere ... I have nothing to compare it but, my review is very honest & sincere (especially about when I was told by many that it was going to be terrible and noisy because of the parties!)

 

https://imaginairie.wordpress.com/2016/06/30/on-board-the-carnival-funship-fascination-is-like-living-with-aladdins-lamp/

[Foxinspace]

I am booked for my 4th Carnival cruise next year. We travel as a large group (over 20) every time, and Carnival has always been the best value and we are comfortable with how things operate, so that is what we have chosen. We have always enjoyed our cruises (with the exception of the second one on the Elation, which was fine, but not great), but whenever I am asked what cruise line I am going on and I mention Carnival, I am then usually given the rundown about how Royal Caribbean is so much better...from the ships, to the entertainment, to the food. Basically, Carnival = Trashy, and Royal Caribbean = Classy. It makes me feel 1. lame for booking with Carnival, and 2. that I'm missing out. So am I?

 

I get the same reaction!! I've only ever sailed Carnival, the price talks, and while I check RCL every time I have considered booking I have never found anything comparable about their price.

 

I have mentioned paying more for a "better" experience to my family and they laughed. We have never had a bad cruise. All of the staff have been fantastic, the food ranges from good to excellent, the ships are good. What's missing for the money??

 

Sure we don't get rock walls, or on board zip lines, but we feel like we miss so much on our ships now that it would just be more for us to NOT do!!

 

We are happy Carnival cruisers, maybe one day we will get fancy and go with another line, but for now, we like what we are doing. Let the haters hate!!

[Tapi]

...Dont buy all the "Royal guests are nothing but a bunch of snobs"comments though. Thats a generalization at best and I have never once heard someone brag on their "status" on a RC ship.

 

 

Interestingly, there was a poll not to long ago about Carnival cruisers who wear their S&S cards on a lanyard, and a large percentage admitted that they do so to flaunt their "status". It made me realize that indeed I notice more "braggers" on Carnival than on Royal. Don't know if it's because Royal's tiers are harder to identify at a quick card glance, or because less Royal cruisers wear lanyards, or because in general they don't care about letting others know what their status is. But whatever the reason is, it's definitely noticeable.

 

We found similar "card flaunting behavior" when we sailed on MSC a few months ago. It seemed like their gold and black card cruisers (equivalent to Platinum or Diamond on Carnival) made sure that everyone knew who they were, some literally holding the cards up in the air when ordering or paying for something .

 

The more modest behavior that I've found was on Princess. Every stateroom has the guest's names on a color coded tag based on their loyalty status, so just walking down hallways I could tell that there were a lot of higher tiered past guests onboard. But I didn't see any person actually showing off their status, flashing their cards, or making sure that everyone around knew who they were. It seems like everyone onboard keeps their status to themselves and nobody feels the need to show off to others.

Edited July 14, 2016 by Tapi

[jimbo5544]

Interestingly, there was a poll not to long ago about Carnival cruisers who wear their S&S cards on a lanyard, and a large percentage admitted that they do so to flaunt their "status". It made me realize that indeed I notice more "braggers" on Carnival than on Royal. Don't know if it's because Royal's tiers are harder to identify at a quick card glance, or because less Royal cruisers wear lanyards, or because in general they don't care about letting others know what their status is. But whatever the reason is, it's definitely noticeable.

 

We found similar "card flaunting behavior" when we sailed on MSC a few months ago. It seemed like their gold and black card cruisers (equivalent to Platinum or Diamond on Carnival) made sure that everyone knew who they were, some literally holding the cards up in the air when ordering or paying for something .

 

The more modest behavior that I've found was on Princess. Every stateroom has the guest's names on a color coded tag based on their loyalty status, so just walking down hallways I could tell that there were a lot of higher tiered past guests onboard. But I didn't see any person actually showing off their status, flashing their cards, or making sure that everyone around knew who they were. It seems like everyone onboard keeps their status to themselves and nobody feels the need to show off to others.

Me thinks you are reading a bit to much into the lanyards..... On our Vista cruise, the predominate color was red. It could be they do it to keep track of the card.;)

[leedm]

OP, is it all clear now........ LOL :eek::eek::eek:

[Tapi]

Me thinks you are reading a bit to much into the lanyards.....

 

 

 

You know that I wrote that post just to get a reaction from you! [emoji6]

[KPfromCT]

I have to agree with the poster who said that the two lines are more ALIKE than they are different.

 

We just took our first RCCL cruise in June, on Oasis.

Gorgeous, HUGE ship.....

Almost TOO big....:o

 

We found things that we thought Royal did better:

-Beds (size and comfort)

-Pools (more of them, less crowded)

-Entertainment (hands down, even though we don't bother on Carnival)

-Drink package (cheaper and no limit)

 

And..........we found things Carnival did better:

 

-Pizza (hands down....Sorrentos was just gross)

-24 hour ice cream (no need for further explanation:D)

-Size of the stateroom

-Size of the bathroom

-Caeser Salads ( This was from DD....lol....addicted to Carnivals )

 

At the end of the day, after our Oasis cruise, we all agreed that we missed Carnival.

 

With that being said, I have started looking at cruises for next year, and I keep coming back to Royal, after looking at Carnival.

 

IMO, there is no such thing as a bad cruise.......

 

Go and enjoy!!!!!

[conwakr]

i agree with everything DebJ has said. I haven't reached her status, but have pretty much sailed equally on Carnival, Royal and Princess. I like them for for different reasons. My choice if the itineraries were identical would be Princess, then Royal and then Carnival, but sometimes you just pick by itinerary and then you know. I, too, am getting older and I'm not a fan of the Carnival pool scene in general but I know what to expect. I also tend to spend the cost difference (when the itinerary I want is Carnival) on cabin choice, so cost is not generally a number one factor for me. Also clearly Carnival has tossed out the dressing up aspect of dinner so it's much lighter packing for a Carnival cruise for both my husband and I which can be a benefit when you just want a getaway. To me Carnival is like Las Vegas...it's fun to go to Las Vegas once in a while but I wouldn't choose it for every single vacation location. Never really noticed the lanyard thing or the different colors of cards on Carnival except on the kiddos so they don't lose their cards, but I'll look now!

[Bookbug53]

I am booked for my 4th Carnival cruise next year. We travel as a large group (over 20) every time, and Carnival has always been the best value and we are comfortable with how things operate, so that is what we have chosen. We have always enjoyed our cruises (with the exception of the second one on the Elation, which was fine, but not great), but whenever I am asked what cruise line I am going on and I mention Carnival, I am then usually given the rundown about how Royal Caribbean is so much better...from the ships, to the entertainment, to the food. Basically, Carnival = Trashy, and Royal Caribbean = Classy. It makes me feel 1. lame for booking with Carnival, and 2. that I'm missing out. So am I?

 

 

Let me see if I understand correctly.

 

You have been on 3 Carnival cruises and had enough fun and enjoyed yourself to book a 4th. Right?

 

Do you not trust your own judgment? Are you really going to change because others somehow make you feel 'lame'? Really?

 

I went on RCCL once. Princess once. Leaving October 1st on my 15th trip with Carnival. Number 16 booked for January.

 

That's my opinion. If you want to try something different then try it. But not because others pushed you into it.

 

And for the others: Yes, I wear a lanyard. For convenience. Yes, my card is in it. Can't think of another reason for the lanyard. I really never put it on and thought once, "Wow, look at me flaunt my card". :rolleyes:

[jimbo5544]

You know that I wrote that post just to get a reaction from you! [emoji6]

 

 

LOL, I guess it works....

[CruiseHealing]

If you going to sail RCL bring a lot of nickels and dimes, because you will need them.

 

Example: Mexican Cantina: Chips and Salsa $2.95 one serving. You got to be kidding me?

[dd likes to cruise]

Fairly new to CC and this is at least 2nd post mentioning Lanyards. Been on 3 cruises since Dec 2015. 1 Royal, 1 Carnival, 1 MSC - i think the majority of all people on all those cruises had their lanyards on. Now I don't do suites and fancy things so maybe I wasn't running with the right folks! :rolleyes:

[Musicguy]

I wear the lanyard to keep up with my s&s card. I wear one everyday at work. Why should vacation days be any different? :D

 

As others have said, I like the entertainment on the larger RC ships, but I like the food best on Carnival and find it a better value overall for the money.

[mairinmaureen]

My cruise lines in order of preference:

 

Disney

 

Carnival

 

Royal Caribbean

 

Norwegian

[nealstuber]

I'm Diamond on both Carnival and Royal Caribbean and Platinum on Princess. Of the 3, we prefer Princess as we get older. It is just an older crowd and less noisy. RCCL has gotten more "Carnivalized" over the years as they have done an outreach to families with children. We deliberately book our cruises for times when school is in session to limit the number of kids. We generally cruise every January, early May and again in the fall. On RCCL we take a Grand Suite or Royal Family suite if traveling with family, and on Princess we always get a Vista Suite. We sometimes take an OS on Carnival, but any perks we get for being in a Suite on Carnival come from being Diamond. We like that RCCL takes $225.00 of the price of a balcony or suite for Diamonds. Our Princess past guest rates are usually at least $100 less than the regular rate, but on Carnival the Past Guest rate is usually $20.00 more per person than their early saver rate. We also like the complimentary evening cocktails and appetizers for suite guests on RCCL. Breakfast at Sabatini's on Princess was the highlight of our Princess cruises and we always enjoy Breakfast at Chops and lunch on sea days in Chops on our RCCL cruises. Carnival could easily open the steak house for breakfast for suite guests, but they have not been willing to consider that. Another great perk on RCCL and Princess is the ability of the suites to order off the MDR menu for breakfast and dinner every day and also from the MDR lunch menu on sea days when the MDR is open.

 

We have found that the entertainment on Royal Caribbean is far superior to Carnival and a bit better than Princess. The ice show on RCCL is great. But, we appreciate that Princess still has live musicians in the main shows unlike so many of the Carnival shows which are canned music and flashing videos. The Carnival singers seem to be the weakest. The Piano bar entertainers on Princess and RCCL have been superior to any experienced on Carnival. The comedians we have seen on Princess have been great unlike the foul mouthed comedians on Carnival. The RCCL fly in entertainment has been great. We have seen singers from the Lettermen, Four Tops, The Platters, Lenny Welch and others on RCCL. My personal favorite was the Texas Tenors.

 

We think the Princess and Royal Caribbean ships are much prettier than the Carnival ships. Nothing beats the beautiful MDR on RCCL ships! But, Princess wins for the club like atmosphere in many of the lounges. They provide such a nice atmosphere to have a drink and carry on quiet conversations. As for the food, we preferred Carnival until they ruined it by switching to the American table menu and took off the table cloths making the dining room way too noisy. Now, we would rate the Princess MDR food #1 followed by RCCL.

 

We like the Steakhouse food on Carnival better than Chops on RCCL. The Shrimp Cocktail appetizer wins hand down. We have had great meals and service in Crown Grill on Princess. Of the Italian restaurants onboard ships we preferred Sabatini's on Princess, but many of them are being replaced by Share by Curtis Stone, which we did not care for at all. That being said, Giovanni's Table would be elevated to our favorite Italian restaurant at sea over the Cucina Capitano on Carnival. But, the best of all for us is Sabor on RCCL. Great Mexican food! My DH likes Guys Burgers on Carnival for lunch.

 

I know dress code is a hot topic, but Carnival is a total fail in enforcing the minimal dress code that they have. We have seen more enforcement on Princess than RCCL. Our last Princess cruise still had lots of men in tuxes and ladies in gowns on formal nights and they enforced the no shorts rule.

 

We still sail CCL for cheap getaways in hurricane season, but basically stick to our cabin and balcony to avoid the noisy pool area. We have found it impossible to snag a chair on Serenity unless you get up really early to put out a towel and hat or book. Chair hogs are out in force on Carnival. Never had a problem finding space at the Solarium on Carnival and we also never had an issue finding seating at the adult pool on Princess. We have 3 future cruise booked - one on each line.

 

 

Great Post. Can't remember the last time I read so many opinions and agreed with all of them!

[AmberTeka]

Interestingly, there was a poll not to long ago about Carnival cruisers who wear their S&S cards on a lanyard, and a large percentage admitted that they do so to flaunt their "status". It made me realize that indeed I notice more "braggers" on Carnival than on Royal. Don't know if it's because Royal's tiers are harder to identify at a quick card glance, or because less Royal cruisers wear lanyards, or because in general they don't care about letting others know what their status is. But whatever the reason is, it's definitely noticeable.

 

We found similar "card flaunting behavior" when we sailed on MSC a few months ago. It seemed like their gold and black card cruisers (equivalent to Platinum or Diamond on Carnival) made sure that everyone knew who they were, some literally holding the cards up in the air when ordering or paying for something .

 

The more modest behavior that I've found was on Princess. Every stateroom has the guest's names on a color coded tag based on their loyalty status, so just walking down hallways I could tell that there were a lot of higher tiered past guests onboard. But I didn't see any person actually showing off their status, flashing their cards, or making sure that everyone around knew who they were. It seems like everyone onboard keeps their status to themselves and nobody feels the need to show off to others.

 

 

I love reading your posts and getting your outlook on things. But on the Lanyards, You are wrong. I have a hole punched in my card and wear it around my neck every day after that. I have done it for years. My husband says we have more sea days on Carnival than most Sailors. I don't even know the colors anymore. We are Platinum and the only perk we use and totally appreciate is getting on board easily and getting off first. I could give a flip what status people are. I wear one to get into my cabin. We do go to the Casino. Hard to leave your card in a slot machine if it is clipped to your shirt by lanyard. Never have to worry about getting into cabin.

 

INTERESTING POST. We are sailing our first cruise on RCI...Freedom of the Seas. Mixed feelings. Hate being ignorant again. Familiar with HAL. Carnival. Princess. Hate not knowing where things are. Thrilled that we got a nice balcony at a super price. Just read the Compass Posting for April West. Caribbean Cruise on FOS. Did not look like a lot to do. Not much Trivia. But shows looked good.

LOVED reading all of your opinions.

 

AND the snooty folks are on HAL. All from NYC I think. Irritating to the Max. And then also the most interesting and memorable. On HAL. Also from NYC. they give HAL a vibe and energy that was not expected by us on ships famed for having the oldest passengers in the world. AND The food on HAL? No ship has ever even come close in my opinion.

NEVER had a bad cruise. Will always feel that Carnival is my "home" line.

Edited July 15, 2016 by AmberTeka

[Tapi]

I love reading your posts and getting your outlook on things. But on the Lanyards, You are wrong.

 

 

I'm just piggybacking on what the poll about lanyards said. Don't shoot the messenger [emoji5]! Seriously, I'm sure that most people out there genuinely wear the lanyard for convenience (I wear one at work too, although on a cruise, the last thing that I want to do is wear one!), but I'm sure that there's some truth to the poll and that some people do get a kick out of displaying their status like a badge of honor. [emoji954]

 

Don't worry too much about feeling like a newbie again. In my opinion it's a great feeling! Have an awesome time on the Freedom! [emoji3]

[trogmd]

I'm not sure if either one is more expensive! Carnival is a fun ship. Very relaxing and good food and very casual! RCI is more activities, bigger in some cases, food also very

good and many choices. RCI better and cheaper beverage packages, but smaller cabins than Carnival. I prefer RCI because they have more destinations and cruises on the Med!

 

 

RC is a lot more expensive for both cruise and drink prices and even speciality restaurants.

[trogmd]

Answering the specific question "Is Royal really that much better?"

 

IMO, no. They are more alike than different.

 

Royal has better pools, a better loyalty program (if thats your thing), overall better entertainment and very nice ships. Thats about where it ends with me. I like Carnivals included food options and food in general much better and specialty dining much better. Carnivals drinks are cheaper and I found the service to be as good or better than RC. Food, drink and service is what is most important to me though. I could not care less about Flowriders, waterslides, skating rinks and all those amusement/water park gimmicks as I cant use them anyway.

 

Dont buy all the "Royal guests are nothing but a bunch of snobs"comments though. Thats a generalization at best and I have never once heard someone brag on their "status" on a RC ship.

 

 

Have to agree with all of your comments here Ryano. :)

[LMaxwell]

RC is a lot more expensive for both cruise and drink prices and even speciality restaurants.

 

On a per diem basis I don't find RC to always be more expensive. Short cruises yes, longer cruises no. Sometimes even less. Yes, onboard extras are more than CCL

[dacsmom]

I go back and forth between both lines and to me each has its pluses and minuses. I do like the Oasis class and cannot wait to try the Carnival Vista. Last October was the first time I had a less than wonderful time on any cruise ship and it was on RCI's Adventure of the Seas, so I am back to Carnival for a while. Go with what you like but do not be afraid of trying something new. I am looking forward to trying out NCL in March, because I sometimes sail solo and am tired of the single supplement.