Royal Caribbean or Carnival for Bahamas??

[beebee1]

Thinking about going to the Bahamas but don't know which cruise line is better? What's the main difference?

[momofmeg]

very little for the 3 and 4 day cruises both are old ships-Carnival has "liberace" decor-RCI has the dinky rooms.

 

I would go with the best price-which depends on which week you are looking to book. One week RCI has the better price-the next week Carnival has the best price.

 

One thing I am almost positive. you will love your first cruise experience and my guess within 2 years you will be booking a 7 day cruise.

[silentbob007]

You'll probably be OK with either ... just know that the short itineraries are a little more "wild" for either line. You might make your decision on cost, as well as how much time the ship spends at the ports.

[MsWitty1]

My opinion is it depends on who you are traveling with and what you like. Ships are similar, but the overall vibes seem to be different. Carnival, to me, feels more like a bigger party. We found a lot of "younger" adults and tons of kids. There were some crazy antics, but if that is what you are looking for it may be worth it. RCCL had lots of families too, but a tiny bit more sedate in my opinion.

 

I prefer Royal due to the staff, the food, and the overall feel, but that is for me. Try one and see what you like.

[FloridaLaura]

I did a bahama cruise on Royal Caribbean Sovereign of the seas and saw no one really partying. It was a fun cruise but very subdued. I liked it!

[silentbob007]

I did a bahama cruise on Royal Caribbean Sovereign of the seas and saw no one really partying. It was a fun cruise but very subdued. I liked it!

 

... and as always ... it is dependent on the passengers that happen to book your cruise. :)

[alphakitty]

For a short Bahamas cruise, I prefer Royal Caribbean because they have a stop at Coco Cay. The private island is THE day for me. It is a beautiful and relaxing place to spend a beach day. :) For that reason alone, I prefer Royal. I know they often miss this port, but I'm 3 for 3 here.

[momofmeg]

My opinion is it depends on who you are traveling with and what you like. Ships are similar, but the overall vibes seem to be different. Carnival, to me, feels more like a bigger party. We found a lot of "younger" adults and tons of kids. There were some crazy antics, but if that is what you are looking for it may be worth it. RCCL had lots of families too, but a tiny bit more sedate in my opinion.

 

I prefer Royal due to the staff, the food, and the overall feel, but that is for me. Try one and see what you like.

 

You just described my 3 day Sovereign of the Seas cruise in 01- lot sof wild crazy college students doing silly pranks like thrwoing one another fully clothed in the pool.

 

I have not seen that on Carnival-although I did see one lone drunk best man go down the slide in his tux. The rest of the wedding party behaved very well and although he was foolish- (I am guessing he bought that tux)everyone just laughed-as he did not take over the pool the way the college students did-I just found it a little funny myself and not irritating as I did those kids on SOS.

 

to the OP-if you do a 3 dayer-you have a good chance of seeing this behavior on either ship-but if you do the 4 dayer which falls over weekdays-this is not as apt to happen.

[NCTribeFan]

And Half Moon Cay, which is HAL/Carnival's private island is my favorite port. It is beautiful. I wish they'd substitute Nassau with HMC!

 

None of our short Carnival cruises have been overly rowdy. There were more drunks on our 2nd Fantasy cruise (5 day, Port C, Nassau, HMC, Grand Turk) in May, 2006, than there were on our 1st Fantasy (4 day, Port C, Freeport, Nassau with 2 18-year-old girls) in June, 2004.

 

So shorter doesn't always mean rowdier. It really depends on the week. And even people on the same sailing can give very different reviews of that sailing.

 

Best food ever was on our Elation cruise (same itinerary as 5-day Fantasy).

 

I chose by itinerary first, price 2nd, ship 3rd. But that's me. Other people have other priorities. They're all good!

[momofmeg]

And Half Moon Cay, which is HAL/Carnival's private island is my favorite port. It is beautiful. I wish they'd substitute Nassau with HMC!

 

None of our short Carnival cruises have been overly rowdy. There were more drunks on our 2nd Fantasy cruise (5 day, Port C, Nassau, HMC, Grand Turk) in May, 2006, than there were on our 1st Fantasy (4 day, Port C, Freeport, Nassau with 2 18-year-old girls) in June, 2004.

 

So shorter doesn't always mean rowdier. It really depends on the week. And even people on the same sailing can give very different reviews of that sailing.

 

Best food ever was on our Elation cruise (same itinerary as 5-day Fantasy).

 

I chose by itinerary first, price 2nd, ship 3rd. But that's me. Other people have other priorities. They're all good!

 

 

I understand Half Moon Cay has won more awards then any of the other islands and I thought nothing could beat Disneys' Castaway Key. I have also been to Coco Cay and Princess Key. My fav was Disney, then Princess and last Coco Cay.

 

We go to Half Moon Cay with HAL Westerdam in April- I am looking forward to it-as I have heard it is the best of the bunch.

[GeckoGirl]

I did a bahama cruise on Royal Caribbean Sovereign of the seas and saw no one really partying. It was a fun cruise but very subdued. I liked it!

 

We did the Bahama cruise on the Sovereign in December and we had a great time. The ship was very nice, course it was all decked out for Christmas too which was awesome.

 

I like that it goes to CoCo Cay also, that was fun. Not a lot of partiers on our cruise either, more subdued which was how I liked it.