Royal Caribbean or Carnival

[rhy]

This may be the wrong place to ask, but: My family has decided that we are ready to take our first cruise and have narrowed it down to RCI Mariner of the Seas or Carnival Glory. Both are E. Caribbean with the same stops. We have 13 and 18 year old girls (doesn't like wine or beer). RCI seems to be about $1000 more. Any input about these two lines and ships is greatly appreciated. Some have told us RCI is great and would never sail anyone else (but they never have so there is no comparing). Is RCI really worth the extra money? Thanks in advance for your opinions.

[shorbr]

IMHO Royal Caribbean is a much nicer line, while I feel that Carnival is not as elegant. Your girls probably would like Carnival better because I feel there is much for to do, whereas RC is more relaxing.

[montekat]

Personally, we prefer Carnival (the newer ships) over RCI, unless we get a good price. The food is better, there is more entertainment and more shows on Carnival. We found the service to be the same, the people are just as friendly on both lines. RCI uses their promenade parade in place of some shows you would get on other lines, but not everyone can get in front to get a good view. The Krooz Komics (2 clowns) are great and freq. had skits in the promenade on RCI, as well as before the ice show and shows in the main showroom. Carnival generally has an evening show for each seating, as well as a midnight comic.

 

We just did the Mariner in Oct. so we can compare. We have done 7 Carnival cruises, 2 Celebrity and 2 RCI. Our kids (young adults) liked Carnival so much that our son was married on the Carnival Legend.

[KP2]

I have cruised both cruise lines. With the age of your children, I would definitely cruise Carnival.

[wrp96]

Carnival generally has an evening show for each seating, as well as a midnight comic.

 

 

RCI does as well. Plus the Mariner has the large teen area for the 13 year old.

[CoachTerry14]

Since I am a Diamond Member with RCI and a often Carnival Cruiser (10 so far), let's compare the my last two cruises: Mariner vs. Glory

 

1) RCL has a conceiges lounge

2) Carnival has a waterslide

3) RCL has mini golf, in-line skating, and a rock wall. (Cool if you use it!)

4) RCL had two speciality restaurants (or is it three with Johnny Rockets?), Carnival had one.

5) Glory had lots of places to eat outside, Marnier None.

6) Carnival had laundrettes, Marnier nothing.

7) Marniner had RANCH Steak, Carnival had Filet.

8) Mariner - Full size basketball, Carnival - Smaller than half court

9) Carnival - More self serve ice cream stations serving Ice Cream and Frozen Yogart. On the Mariner if you wanted Ice Cream you had to pay for it!

10) In my opinion, the food is a toss up. But Carnival has more free speciality stuff (Fish & Chips, Deli, etc.)

11) In my opinion, the activities and entertainment go to Carnival.

12) In price comparisons, CCL is generally less expensive. I guess this makes RCI more upscale.

13) Glory left on a Saturday and the Mariner left on a Sunday - Same embarkation port. Could make a difference to some people.

14) The Room service menu on RCI was much nicer than CCL - More Choices!

15) RCL treats repeat customers much better

16) Carnival has the Ocean Player Club, RCL had nothing like this at all!

 

Hope this helps.

[caviargal]

I was on GLory this past May and have cruised on Voyager and Adventure, both sisters to Mariner.

 

I find Voyager class too big for my taste but GLory had as many pax aboard and is nearly 25% smaller. It was extremely crowded, all the time and everywhere. The main pool is stadium style and was not at all enjoyable. Very small pools for a ship this size.

 

There were long lines at the lunch buffet; once I stood there 20 minutes before I gave up completely. And, for my taste, the food was greasy, overly salted and sauced. I went to the Lido for breakfast one day and my egg white omelette was made with so much oil it was inedible.

 

At dinner in the formal dining room, I could not get my fish served plain, I was consistently told that the sauce was already on it. Our table of four had to repeatedly request water, coffee and bread. I bought nice bottles of wine and consistently poured it myself. Service was uneven at best.

 

The Emerald Club specialty restaurant was much better but expensive at 30 per head. On Mariner, Portofino and Chops are 20pp and Portofinos is excellent, IMHO.

 

I really disliked the nightly announcements in the dining room about the status of the Red, White and Blue team contests, as well as the dancing on tables and loud music and conga lines.

 

The ship was smoky all the time and I found the entertainment to be lacking in the clubs. I love to go out at night and on GLory read five novels as I spent a lot of my time alone in my cabin. I was bored and I hate the crowds that were everywhere.

 

The wine on CCL was terribly overpirced and THREE nights in the so called wine bar I was served a bad glass. Now, when one is paying 9 bucks for a glass of Mondavi that I buy for 12.99 a bottle at home, it could at least be fresh. The servers at the wine bar did not know their wines. This has never been the case in the Champagne Bar on RCI ships.

 

For me, there will not be another sailing in my future. Just not my cup of tea.

[CoachTerry14]

I was on GLory this past May and have cruised on Voyager and Adventure, both sisters to Mariner.

 

They are more like step-sisters. The Mariner and Navigator have some improvements. The cabins and balconies are designed differently for starters. However, they are just as crowed.

[DEL67]

We like both and choose based on itinerary and price.

[almitra]

Our preference is Carnival over RCI, having sailed both. The ships are prettier on RCI, but the food and programming are better on Carnival...IMO. :)

[momofmeg]

while I did enjoy the comics on Mariner and the ice skating show-I found on my cruise 3600 people that it was much too crowded on seas days-forget the pools-even the solarium pool was wall to wall people-the lido buffet was super crowded. the lines much longer then the 20 minutes that was mentioned. Johnny Rockets was an hour line. Also the promande was crowded in the evening. I also found the food in the main dinningroom poor quality-although I did enjoy Chops.

 

What I could not understand with all the other choices for recreation-why was EVERYONE by the pools? why weren't they golfing, iceskating, inline skating and rock climbing-all the things that Mariner has that Glory doesn't? It sems to me people like the choices of recreation but still everyone prefers being by the pool.

To be honest with you-I think both the voyager class and conquest class ships are just too big. Why not look at Legend of the Seas or Carnival Miracle instead? Unless you like wall to wall people.

[momofmeg]

Well I looked at your post again and I see you want to go to St. thomas and St. Marten-so I guess my post won't help you as those ships I previously mentioned just do western carbibbean.

 

Perhaps if you went out of /Ft. Lauderdale instead you would have a better choice of ships and then you may like these mega ships-I did not.

 

I know I read several posts here all excited about that Freedom of the Seas-not me. Now on that ship you can surf too-but I can't help but wonder if anyone will surf or if surfing will be safe when the ship is out to sea.

 

I know on my cruise-even though they had inline skating and rock wall climbing-these were closed on sea days as the wind was too strong for them or something. I guess that was why everyone was at the pools instead. The sad part though is Mariner has 3 small pools-I guess they assume not many people will be by the pool with all the other choices but- that is not possible when the other choices are closed.

[lv2crooz2]

I'm afraid you'll never get the answer you are looking for. This is a long standing dispute. Having sailed both, my money is on RCL but the Glory is a beautiful ship. She is clean, has an awesome "WOW" factor and her shows were better than RCL. I think that there are too many children on Carnival which brings more noise in the hallways when the little darlings run up and down. I loved the table service in the Mariners buffet, and the staff was very attentative to my Mom in a wheelchair. Carnivals lido is also the way to the pizza bar/hamburger station at the aft of the ship so passengers are passing by while you eat. Carnival has always been known as the "FUN" ship and all that it entails. I think your kids would enjoy Carnival but either way you are going to have a FANTASTIC vacation no matter which of these Superliners you end up on. This is a win-win situation. Life (and cruising) is what you make it. GO-HAVE FUN-NO WORRIES ON THE SEA!:D

[Goldeneye]

This may be the wrong place to ask, but: My family has decided that we are ready to take our first cruise and have narrowed it down to RCI Mariner of the Seas or Carnival Glory. Both are E. Caribbean with the same stops. We have 13 and 18 year old girls (doesn't like wine or beer). RCI seems to be about $1000 more. Any input about these two lines and ships is greatly appreciated. Some have told us RCI is great and would never sail anyone else (but they never have so there is no comparing). Is RCI really worth the extra money? Thanks in advance for your opinions.

 

Hi Rhy, I'm booked on the Mariner over Christmas, when were you and your family planning on taking this trip ?

[Tmeister]

It has been a few years since my wife and I have been on an RC ship, and we haven't been on the Mariner or similar sized ships on RC, but we have always enjoyed the RC ships that we have sailed on. We were just on the Glory with our 18-year-old daughter and three of her friends. Three of the girls had cruised before, and none of them found Carnival to offer a "fun ship" experience. My wife and I had the same reaction. I felt that Carnival spent too much energy telling you what a good time you were having; RC (and other lines) provide good service, food and entertainment and let you make up your own mind how much fun you're having. Any cruise is better than staying at home and working, but we spent the week on the Glory wondering how much more fun we would have had on another ship. It wasn't a bad experience, just not as good as what we've experienced on RC, HAL, Princess and Celebrity.

[momofmeg]

It has been a few years since my wife and I have been on an RC ship, and we haven't been on the Mariner or similar sized ships on RC, but we have always enjoyed the RC ships that we have sailed on. We were just on the Glory with our 18-year-old daughter and three of her friends. Three of the girls had cruised before, and none of them found Carnival to offer a "fun ship" experience. My wife and I had the same reaction. I felt that Carnival spent too much energy telling you what a good time you were having; RC (and other lines) provide good service, food and entertainment and let you make up your own mind how much fun you're having. Any cruise is better than staying at home and working, but we spent the week on the Glory wondering how much more fun we would have had on another ship. It wasn't a bad experience, just not as good as what we've experienced on RC, HAL, Princess and Celebrity.

 

Until I cruised Mariner in Oct. it had been 4 years for me and that was a Sovereign cheap weekend cruise. I can tell you though the quality of food has gone DOWN. The food was MUCH better on sovereign in 2001. If you want good food you have to go either to Chops or Portofinos and pay an extra $20.

 

But to be fair- when I was on Carnival Inspiration back in DEC. 03 I found the food had gone down too-now we cruised Carnival Miracle 4 months later and the food was great there and we did not get to do Nick and Nora's as they were booked solid but I figure that was because Miracle was brand new- so Carnival pulled out all the stops-everything was great about that cruise, all kinds of choices of entertainemt in the differant clubs much better then the Inspiration had been-but we also paid more for that 3 day Miracle cruise then we did our previous 7 day on Inspiration.

 

I really do not feel either Carnival or RCCL are good lines anymore-but I am older now-my daughter is a grown woman now-so my choices and needs have changed.

 

We loved Disney and felt they did great on having adults only choices-of a pool and several of the lounges and people WERE told to leave in those spots if they brought their children. They have one of the best teen clubs and a teens only area on thier private beach. Now they will be the pricest-but they really do the "family thing" well.

[rhy]

Thanks for all your replys. I think we have decided to go on Carnival based on price alone (it is about $1500 cheaper). We will be going on Aug 5 out of Port Canaveral. Since this will be our first cruise, we won't miss anything from another line. Really we are going for the kids, and they are just happy to be finally going on a cruise. My oldest daughter is graduating from High School and this will be her grad present. I am sure I will have many more questions as time progresses, and look forward to getting great and useful info from everyone here.

[momofmeg]

Thanks for all your replys. I think we have decided to go on Carnival based on price alone (it is about $1500 cheaper). We will be going on Aug 5 out of Port Canaveral. Since this will be our first cruise, we won't miss anything from another line. Really we are going for the kids, and they are just happy to be finally going on a cruise. My oldest daughter is graduating from High School and this will be her grad present. I am sure I will have many more questions as time progresses, and look forward to getting great and useful info from everyone here.

 

I think you are wise. If you picked the best-you would always have those expectations for a cruise. If you don't pick the best you have a good time no matter what cruise you do.

 

My first cruise was a cheapo on Carnival Tropicale-their oldest ship at that time and not so great-but I did not know any better.

 

with the $1500 you save on this cruise-you and your SA could do a cruise the two of you minus the kids on a nicer line like princess or Celebrity.

 

That is what hubby and I would do-most of the time we would pick a "bargain cruise" and take the daughter-but about once every 2 years or so- we would go on a better cruise just the 2 of us.

[kiefaber455]

Word of advice--it's hurricane season--make sure you have really, really, good insurance coverage.

[kiefaber455]

Word of advice--it's hurricane season--make sure you have really, really, good insurance coverage.