rci mariner or carnival valor

[rere30]

need help love the look of mariner but the rest of my family likes the price of the valor is rci woth the extra money?We are family of 7 (2,2,12,15,30,31,60)

[aggieastrosfan]

What kind of price difference are we talking here?

[rere30]

1500.00

[aggieastrosfan]

Wow. Let me preface this by saying this is JMHO, but with that price difference, I'd go Carnival. We're looking at trying the Voyager in 2008 out of Galveston, but it's only a couple hundred more per person. I can't justify paying that much more for one cruise line over another, but maybe someone else can.

[IrishDolphin]

imo, 1500 buys happy excursion memories, family photos, and more wine at dinner :p

 

seriously, camp carnival, from experience, is top notch (not saying rci is not) and that was just important enough to keep my 3 girls extremely happy

 

have a wonderful cruise :)

[mrBit]

Both lines have a lot to offer and the Valor is the Conquest Class (currently Carnival’s largest class) and the Mariner is a Voyager class (2nd largest in RCL but larger than the Conquest Class)

I have only sailed on Conquest and can tell you that it is a very fun class ship with lots to do. I also noticed that you have two 2 year olds, I also have a two year old and RCL’s kids program starts at 3 years where Carnivals at 2 years. It came in handy for the formal nights. My son loved Camp Carnival with the slides and toys. Carnival also has teens only clubs as well.

RCL is a great line, but I have no experience. I do plan in the future to try the Freedom Class when the prices come down a bit.

1500 is a lot of money IMO, but to others not.

Just my 2 cents.

[IrishDolphin]

I probably should have also told you about why we chose NCL over CCL for our Hawaii cruise next year (celebrating 15th years of marital bliss, haha)

 

Ncl was significantly cheaper (got a super deal) and I would have preferred to go on Carnival again - we have heard such horrible things about ncl and their freestyle dining (some of my cc friends on here with tons of experience rate it as miserable and that is good enough for me cuz I trust them)

 

the price difference is enough for extra excursions and we all know how expensive Hawaii can be - so sadly, Carnival didn't win this battle