Voyager (RCCL) >Carnival Jubilee

[BecciBoo]

Just back from our Voyager of the Seas/Carnival Jubilee B2B...here is the score:

 

Embarkation/Terminal:  Nothing gets any better than the new RCCL terminal...Period.  Their phone APP blows RCCL's out of the water, you can do anything and everything on it...fantastic.

 

Ship condition:  This goes to Jubilee, she is quite breathtaking, no expense spared in deco and it's clear they are moving in the direction of RCCL esthetics.  Voyager is looking a little tired but she's been revamped and freshly painted and smells good.  However, the wayfinding and crowd handling with the design is pitiful.  The halls, corridors and public spaces are so cut up and narrow and constricted, we constantly felt crowded and on top of each other.  Decor exquisite, general design horrid.  Nod goes to RCCL for her direct line of movement from stem to stern and Promenade.  Also the food venues are all over the place, not in a central location, making you have go up/down/aft/and forward all the time.

 

Cabin:  Our ADA cabin on both ships is adequate, but the nod goes to the newer Jubilee, well designed, but lacking some stuff we have come to expect at RCCL, like no soap rests for bar soap and nowhere to hang your razor in the shower.  Frustrating.  Jubilee's cabin door opened automatically with the touch of a button...loved that.  Air conditioner worked well on both lines, but Jubilee's could hang meat!

 

Bedding:  Nod goes to RCCL.  On Jubilee, Beds when separated were almost as narrow as camp beds,  and mattresses were just not up to what we had on Voyager!  

 

Now for Food (I know this highly subjective):  RCCL wins hands down IOHO.  Everything we ate on Voyager was excellent, in fact, greatly improved. I'm sorry, but I cannot agree with many who claim Carnival Pizza and Chocolate Molten Cake are the berries.  Their newest Flag Ship's pizza was like eating burned crackers with cheese on top, couldn't even get past the tip bite!  We asked about ordering one, but they informed us they didn't have black olives at all and looked at us like we had sprouted horns when we mentioned Supreme and veggies. They have many more venues though, but we only found 3 that were tasty enough to make an impression, Guy's Burgers, his Pig and Anchor BBQ, and Emeril's.  Emeril's was the greatest...yum.  All the other new food venues were just meh and many were extra charges, they even wanted to charge for cakes and desserts in their version of Promenade Cafe;Java Blue.  So plenty of nickel and diming.  The most frustrating thing about their dining was the open/closed schedule.  We never could find places to get snacks, they didn't open until 3 or closed at 11:00  Their version of Mexican is Blue Iguana, which serves Burritos and tacos with the same exact fillings...the tacos the size of street tacos in Texas and the burritos larger, NO NACHOS!  Horrors, El Loco Fresh is way better.  Their version of our Windjammer was pathetic.  Design is awful with port and starboard corridors with tables and chairs on both sides...large windows on the water which was great, but because it was more congested and closed in the sound/noise bounced around quite disturbing!  They didn't have near the selection/variety that Windjammer has nor the openness/airiness of the large round or horseshoe shaped dining areas on our ships.   The quality at Windjammer really shown here.  Even in the MDR the Key Lime Pie was a powdered filling...yuk!  Voyager's was scrumptious as usual. 

 

Here I will include a anecdote.  First, you couldn't find a white tablecloth on Carnival if your life depended on it, even in the specialty venues.  Secondly, since the app works so well, you are introduced to your table but with no menu.  The waiter just left us, when he returned he said "What can I order for you?"  Todd said, A menu might be nice?  He did bring it but we thought that was just odd.  Service on the meal was slow too.  And we were not impressed with the presentation of anything hardly at all, they just put Broccoli branches down on your plate no sauce or anything.  We finally went to Guest Services to talk to them about all of these little things that was putting a damper on our second Carnival cruise in 15 yrs.  And she called the Maitre D and head of house keeping for a little meeting with us.  One night our steward came into our cabin unannounced, and we had a doorbell! Hence the Hotel Mgrs involvement. So our second night at the MDR was different, they seated us at the best table in the house, comp'd a glass of wine and (giggle snort)  NO MENU again!  We laughed at this though.  We also tipped them, we're not vengeful either.

 

Entertainment:  Carnival is no slouch here, their RIO CARNIVALE show was exceptional, feathers and all, and the Vegas Review The Residency was also very good.  Carnival cruisers love their games, so no end to trivia, singing and all kinds of Love&Marriage etc. all over the ship.  If you compared Jubilee with one of the sisters it would be very close, but with just Voyager slides and Flowrider, Jubilee wins this.  We did ride their Roller Coaster BOLT ($15 ea) and it was phenomenal.  I might add, Carni cruisers LOVE LOVE LOVE them some formal wear, I haven't seen that many slinky sequins in years on Elegant Night they call it!

 

Bars:  All about the same, great and Unique drinks at Dr.Inks and Golden Mermaid.

 

Crew:  All crew no matter which line were excellent, bless their hearts, I think most of our crew criticisms were training issues.  I'll try to include some pics as soon as we download them all.

 

Would we do Carnival again...so even though we enjoyed our cruises,(a cruise is always what you make of it)... we both agreed we could not invest more in their brand, so RCCL for us for good.

Edited April 9 by BecciBoo

[firefly333]

My nod for mattresses would be toward carnival. Though I guess one can be new and hard. But carnival mattresses to me are better and softer.

 

I dont mind food spread out, but like looking out seeing the ocean. Ship design i guess not my thing. Dont care, dont hardly notice or have a opinion. Are pool deck seats in the shade. Winner.

 

My next up is a week on mariner. 

[mikefromny]

Thanks for the nice review, but if Carnival isn't winning on the actual ship then they're in real trouble. You're comparing a 25 year old ship to a ship that's less than a year old.

[firefly333]

17 minutes ago, mikefromny said:

Thanks for the nice review, but if Carnival isn't winning on the actual ship then they're in real trouble. You're comparing a 25 year old ship to a ship that's less than a year old.

I think a lot is what we are used to. I did 14 day dream mid January and loved the food and more elevators, 3 elevators for a lot fewer people. We had close to 1500 no shows, so never a wait.

 

But I missed my 5 free drinks and free days of wifi. I admit it. And excursions on carnival never go on sale. I load up on royal on black friday. I preferred carnival food choices though. We might have had better food though because it was a journey cruise. Carnival upper their menus by added emeril selections, while royal cut and cut. 

 

And I dislike royal pizza and love the thin crispy crust pizza carnival has. I'm the opposite of op. I love carnival pizza. So most of what she disliked I prefer... though free wifi and free drinks on royal has a appeal. ..but not because of the cruise itself.

[PhillyFan33579]

14 hours ago, BecciBoo said:

Just back from our Voyager of the Seas/Carnival Jubilee B2B...here is the score:

 

Embarkation/Terminal:  Nothing gets any better than the new RCCL terminal...Period.  Their phone APP blows RCCL's out of the water, you can do anything and everything on it...fantastic.

 

Ship condition:  This goes to Jubilee, she is quite breathtaking, no expense spared in deco and it's clear they are moving in the direction of RCCL esthetics.  Voyager is looking a little tired but she's been revamped and freshly painted and smells good.  However, the wayfinding and crowd handling with the design is pitiful.  The halls, corridors and public spaces are so cut up and narrow and constricted, we constantly felt crowded and on top of each other.  Decor exquisite, general design horrid.  Nod goes to RCCL for her direct line of movement from stem to stern and Promenade.  Also the food venues are all over the place, not in a central location, making you have go up/down/aft/and forward all the time.

 

Cabin:  Our ADA cabin on both ships is adequate, but the nod goes to the newer Jubilee, well designed, but lacking some stuff we have come to expect at RCCL, like no soap rests for bar soap and nowhere to hang your razor in the shower.  Frustrating.  Jubilee's cabin door opened automatically with the touch of a button...loved that.  Air conditioner worked well on both lines, but Jubilee's could hang meat!

 

Bedding:  Nod goes to RCCL.  On Jubilee, Beds when separated were almost as narrow as camp beds,  and mattresses were just not up to what we had on Voyager!  

 

Now for Food (I know this highly subjective):  RCCL wins hands down IOHO.  Everything we ate on Voyager was excellent, in fact, greatly improved. I'm sorry, but I cannot agree with many who claim Carnival Pizza and Chocolate Molten Cake are the berries.  Their newest Flag Ship's pizza was like eating burned crackers with cheese on top, couldn't even get past the tip bite!  We asked about ordering one, but they informed us they didn't have black olives at all and looked at us like we had sprouted horns when we mentioned Supreme and veggies. They have many more venues though, but we only found 3 that were tasty enough to make an impression, Guy's Burgers, his Pig and Anchor BBQ, and Emeril's.  Emeril's was the greatest...yum.  All the other new food venues were just meh and many were extra charges, they even wanted to charge for cakes and desserts in their version of Promenade Cafe;Java Blue.  So plenty of nickel and diming.  The most frustrating thing about their dining was the open/closed schedule.  We never could find places to get snacks, they didn't open until 3 or closed at 11:00  Their version of Mexican is Blue Iguana, which serves Burritos and tacos with the same exact fillings...the tacos the size of street tacos in Texas and the burritos larger, NO NACHOS!  Horrors, El Loco Fresh is way better.  Their version of our Windjammer was pathetic.  Design is awful with port and starboard corridors with tables and chairs on both sides...large windows on the water which was great, but because it was more congested and closed in the sound/noise bounced around quite disturbing!  They didn't have near the selection/variety that Windjammer has nor the openness/airiness of the large round or horseshoe shaped dining areas on our ships.   The quality at Windjammer really shown here.  Even in the MDR the Key Lime Pie was a powdered filling...yuk!  Voyager's was scrumptious as usual. 

 

Here I will include a anecdote.  First, you couldn't find a white tablecloth on Carnival if your life depended on it, even in the specialty venues.  Secondly, since the app works so well, you are introduced to your table but with no menu.  The waiter just left us, when he returned he said "What can I order for you?"  Todd said, A menu might be nice?  He did bring it but we thought that was just odd.  Service on the meal was slow too.  And we were not impressed with the presentation of anything hardly at all, they just put Broccoli branches down on your plate no sauce or anything.  We finally went to Guest Services to talk to them about all of these little things that was putting a damper on our second Carnival cruise in 15 yrs.  And she called the Maitre D and head of house keeping for a little meeting with us.  One night our steward came into our cabin unannounced, and we had a doorbell! Hence the Hotel Mgrs involvement. So our second night at the MDR was different, they seated us at the best table in the house, comp'd a glass of wine and (giggle snort)  NO MENU again!  We laughed at this though.  We also tipped them, we're not vengeful either.

 

Entertainment:  Carnival is no slouch here, their RIO CARNIVALE show was exceptional, feathers and all, and the Vegas Review The Residency was also very good.  Carnival cruisers love their games, so no end to trivia, singing and all kinds of Love&Marriage etc. all over the ship.  If you compared Jubilee with one of the sisters it would be very close, but with just Voyager slides and Flowrider, Jubilee wins this.  We did ride their Roller Coaster BOLT ($15 ea) and it was phenomenal.  I might add, Carni cruisers LOVE LOVE LOVE them some formal wear, I haven't seen that many slinky sequins in years on Elegant Night they call it!

 

Bars:  All about the same, great and Unique drinks at Dr.Inks and Golden Mermaid.

 

Crew:  All crew no matter which line were excellent, bless their hearts, I think most of our crew criticisms were training issues.  I'll try to include some pics as soon as we download them all.

 

Would we do Carnival again...so even though we enjoyed our cruises,(a cruise is always what you make of it)... we both agreed we could not invest more in their brand, so RCCL for us for good.

Enjoyed reading your review/comments. Since you decided to stay with Royal for good, it’s probably time you learn the name of the cruise line…Royal Caribbean International (RCI). 🙂

[BecciBoo]

19 hours ago, firefly333 said:

3 elevators for a lot fewer people

Oh I forgot the elevators.  They are teeny weeny, barely held my chair and there were lots of them, they went pretty fast too.  But way too small.  Wish I had a pic   Everyone was making negative comments about them...and get this, there are 3 bays of them as opposed to Voyagers 2 bays. As a person in a chair, there were many times we had to wait on 4-5 elevators because people who are waiting would run to jump in them and then I had lost my chance and that was me and Todd who tried to grab one before others got in.  It was horrible, which speaks to the clientele mainly.  Lots of people were accommodating but many more were just "Its all about me".  There was no similar problem on Voyager, less peeps and bigger elevators though.

[BecciBoo]

6 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Enjoyed reading your review/comments. Since you decided to stay with Royal for good, it’s probably time you learn the name of the cruise line…Royal Caribbean International (RCI). 🙂

RCI is the parent corporation, RCCL is the cruise line. I have been learning for 25 years and find your comment exceedingly condescending.

[BecciBoo]

20 hours ago, firefly333 said:

But I missed my 5 free drinks and free days of wifi.

We missed it too but didn't consider them when comparing the two.  I like crispy crust also, but this was just terribly dry and unappealing.  And I like being able to order my own pie with all the stuff I want on it.  It just wasn't happening there although we saw many people carrying full pies away.

[PhillyFan33579]

2 minutes ago, BecciBoo said:

RCI is the parent corporation, RCCL is the cruise line. I have been learning for 25 years and find your comment exceedingly condescending.

I didn’t mean to be condescending, just trying to convey accurate information. The name of the parent corporation is Royal Caribbean Group. The name of the cruise line is Royal Caribbean International. If you don’t believe me, you can easily find this information online. 

[BecciBoo]

Don't need nor intend to, it is unimportant to me.  I already know the difference.

[BecciBoo]

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. changed its name to Royal Caribbean Group on July 10, 2020.   So I am referring to the cruise line I've been cruising for way before that.

 

But more importantly, I can call it whatever I want to.  I do not resent your clarification, I resent the way you went about it.

[firefly333]

2 hours ago, BecciBoo said:

We missed it too but didn't consider them when comparing the two.  I like crispy crust also, but this was just terribly dry and unappealing.  And I like being able to order my own pie with all the stuff I want on it.  It just wasn't happening there although we saw many people carrying full pies away.

I was on harmony for 3 weeks and one time tried their pizza. Luke warm and so bad I ate the topping off and never went back. Did carnival pizza 3 times and love my white pizza there, so rich and good without that awful crust royal uses. Not even c,use. I saw the points guy gave the nod to carnival for food. I agree. Carnivals food best royals for me. Big time. On royal I'm now doing more pay restaurants.  Food is sub par for me on royal but I love my free drinks and wifi.

 

I turned diamond my last carnival cruise so I have a few other cruises to compare. I had the choice of jubilee or 14 days on dream when carnival had their 50% off birthday sale and choose dream. But would have liked jubilee. Now I'm moving so will be mardi gras.

 

I like some on both lines.

[BecciBoo]

5 hours ago, firefly333 said:

I like some on both lines.

Good for you different strokes for different folks