RCCL - hopefully better than Carnival?

[goodml]

well this thread is not making me feel to good about my choice of RCI. I was hopeing for some good food this time. I was in the mood for food that would stay in my stomach more then 15 mins. maby next year I will go back to princess I did like the buffet there I could eat and be happy and hold it down. I had a good waiter on carnival and a good time at the point, I did not like carnival at all in much of anyway. I do not spend money to come back and talk trash about the trip I spent all this money on. If it sucked it sucked and this trip I wasted money on. I want some good food man, thats really what I think of when I think of cruising I dont care about the ship I dont care about the activities I want something to eat. Should I just go on land vacations:confused:?

 

If you're having that much trouble keeping your food down you might want to consider seeing a doctor.:eek: :rolleyes:

[trey420]

after that trip I defiantly considered it.

[Gonzo70]

well this thread is not making me feel to good about my choice of RCI. I was hopeing for some good food this time. I was in the mood for food that would stay in my stomach more then 15 mins. maby next year I will go back to princess I did like the buffet there I could eat and be happy and hold it down. I had a good waiter on carnival and a good time at the point, I did not like carnival at all in much of anyway. I do not spend money to come back and talk trash about the trip I spent all this money on. If it sucked it sucked and this trip I wasted money on. I want some good food man, thats really what I think of when I think of cruising I dont care about the ship I dont care about the activities I want something to eat. Should I just go on land vacations:confused:?

 

It sounds like land vacations would be better for you; most people cruise primarily for the ship rather than the food. You have to realize they are serving thousands of people multiple meals per day on a low budget. Most people find the food to be good on mass market cruise lines, but not great and certainly not gourmet. The specialty restaurants are generally significantly better, but you pay $20 to $30 extra for dinner there. If the number one point of your vacation is great food, do not do a cruise, especially on a mass market line.

[bakechef]

well this thread is not making me feel to good about my choice of RCI. I was hopeing for some good food this time. I was in the mood for food that would stay in my stomach more then 15 mins. maby next year I will go back to princess I did like the buffet there I could eat and be happy and hold it down. I had a good waiter on carnival and a good time at the point, I did not like carnival at all in much of anyway. I do not spend money to come back and talk trash about the trip I spent all this money on. If it sucked it sucked and this trip I wasted money on. I want some good food man, thats really what I think of when I think of cruising I dont care about the ship I dont care about the activities I want something to eat. Should I just go on land vacations:confused:?

 

Well with food being so subjective, it is really hard to know your tastes. I was very pleased with the food on my glory cruise, the dining room was quite good, our table of 9 really liked it except one, I don't think that she is used to eating this type of food, she seemed like a mom of modest means and ended up just ordering grilled chicken and a baked potato almost every night, her cruise mates really enjoyed the food, but they seemed to lead a little different lifestyle than her. The supper club was outstanding.

 

I think that maybe a land vacation would be better for you because if you didn't like your meal one night you could always go to a different restaurant and not be trapped with food that you don't care for.

 

Different strokes for different folks.

 

MAC

[e150club]

Dear KY Transplant: I've been on CCL and RCL. I won't say one is better or worse. The reason I'm posting is that I know a fellow that has long hair with a bald spot,a beard thats not well kept. He drives a three year old mommy van, and he always wears jeans. He is worth millions and don't care what people think. I also know people that take one cruise a year. she has gowns and and looks like a million bucks her husband has a tux. they brag about how much money they have. They do ok but they live with her mother.

[land lover]

Dear KY Transplant: I've been on CCL and RCL. I won't say one is better or worse. The reason I'm posting is that I know a fellow that has long hair with a bald spot,a beard thats not well kept. He drives a three year old mommy van, and he always wears jeans. He is worth millions and don't care what people think. I also know people that take one cruise a year. she has gowns and and looks like a million bucks her husband has a tux. they brag about how much money they have. They do ok but they live with her mother.

 

Stop talking about us...........LOL:) each to his own:rolleyes:

[JPEvans]

Hubby and I did our first cruise as a 7 nighter on the Carnival Valor (their largest ship) last August. There were quite a few things that we did not like very much, and we're hoping that RCCL is different, so I'd appreciate any answers you guys can give me - I'm trying to convince DH to give cruising another try with RCCL.

For one, (probably my biggest issue) I thought there would be a large selection of good food at almost any time. The choices for breakfast were the buffet or the dining room, and then at lunch time there was a grill with burgers and such, a pizza place, a fish-n-chips, an asian place, and the buffet. The food was mediocre at best and the buffet did not have much of a selection (and I am not very picky), and after 5pm the only thing that was left open was the buffet, the dining room, or the pizza, and the buffet was over around 8:30. Plus, the seating anywhere other than the dining room was not very nice, and crowded, we usually had to sit outside near the pool to eat.

Also, the only thing that I was really interested in doing on the pool deck (since the ONLY pool was about the size of my interior stateroom - not kidding, we thought it was the kiddie pool at first) was the slide, and it closed at 4pm! So, you got back on board after your shore excursions, or try to wait until it's not crazy crowded and no slide. Bummer. Does everything on RCCL's ships stay open late? (rock climbing, ice skating rink, etc.)

I'm trying to get a better picture of what RCCL will be like, so any info to help me decide would be much appreciated!!!

 

Did you read your own post? The choices you listed are alot. I remember when I first started cruising for dinner you ate in the dining room. that's it! no buffet, no extra charge premium restaurant. Maybe a sandwich from room service. I'm amazed at the choices that ships have today. Food is a subjective thing. Everyone has their own "things" about food. As far as crowds. the buffet on every mass market ship is what I call "A cattle corral" It's not that I'm against buffets, the crowds are massive. But the dining room seems to have less people in them these days. My last cruise a couple weeks ago, my friends said they only eat in the buffet for breakfast. We ended up in the dining room 5 mornings out of the 7. The dining room is just more civilized than the "cattle corral" Sometimes I wonder if their are two classes on ships that people don't know about. The passengers who are only allowed to eat in the "cattle corral" and not ever in the dining room, and the passengers who can eat anywhere? I think Carnival and RCCL are pretty much the same. The ships on RCCL are magnificent and architecturally a wonder and are perfect for people who are not "ship" people. I'm a ship person, I find the large RCCL ships, such as the Voyager of the seas, feel like I'm not on a ship. They say that the Radiance class ships have lots of glass, which would make you feel like a ship. But I have not been on any of them.

[cruisersunsetbrat]

Welcome to the good side, Cindy!

 

We will be delighted to have you aboard RCCL and after you have experienced the Royal Caribbean difference you will be back again and again. ;)

 

Carnival who? :confused:

 

Sorry Cindy, I don't want you or others to be sick of hearing what I got to say but as long as they masses will ask I will continue to tell the truth.

 

Once you stay at the Marriott, a Motel 6 will never do again....and so it is with cruising.:)

 

We have cruised RCCL. We have cruised NCL. We have cruised CCL - five times and our sixth cruise is booked for May, 2008. We PREFER CCL to the others - for many reasons. Some prefer Royal Caribbean, others Norwegian, Princess, Celebrity, etc., etc. Believe it or not, some of us actually LIKE/LOVE Carnival.

 

We are college educated. We shop at both Nordstrom and Wal-Mart; Louis Vuitton and the local dollar store. Your comments are insulting.

 

Perhaps you should use spell check prior to posting your one-side, obnoxious opinions. If your goal is to appear sophisticated and knowledgeable, you need to clean up your posts. Poor grammar and spelling make you sound like, well, a hillbilly.

[dirtgirl]

I wish the dining room was open longer for breakfast. By the time I have done at least an hour in the gym and cleaned up, the dining room is closed.:(

[360]

KY Jelly is nothing more than a troll. Ill mannered and not very well spoken at that.

 

 

I went on RCCL FotS in July of 07. I just got back from CCL Legend yesterday.

 

I have good memories of both. The passengers were the same. The food was the same. RCCL had more to do late at night than CCL, but the staff at CCL was much nicer than RCCL. Other than that, I had a good time on both.

 

It's all what you make of it.

[KY Transplant]

Dear KY Transplant: I've been on CCL and RCL. I won't say one is better or worse. The reason I'm posting is that I know a fellow that has long hair with a bald spot,a beard thats not well kept. He drives a three year old mommy van, and he always wears jeans. He is worth millions and don't care what people think. I also know people that take one cruise a year. she has gowns and and looks like a million bucks her husband has a tux. they brag about how much money they have. They do ok but they live with her mother.

I know what you mean. I have a friend that is in the waste hauling business. He's worth about $3mil but to look at him your first impulse is to give him a dollar for a cup of coffee.

I've never cruised with him so I don't know what he wears at sea, but I've been thinking.

Instead of slacks & a polo shirt which I usually wear at sea, maybe I will visit the Salvation Army store and get some stained jeans and T shirts, then book another Carnival cruise. Maybe I will fit in better.

Ya think? :confused:

[Dr_DNA]

I know what you mean. I have a friend that is in the waste hauling business. He's worth about $3mil but to look at him your first impulse is to give him a dollar for a cup of coffee.

 

I've never cruised with him so I don't know what he wears at sea, but I've been thinking.

 

Instead of slacks & a polo shirt which I usually wear at sea, maybe I will visit the Salvation Army store and get some stained jeans and T shirts, then book another Carnival cruise. Maybe I will fit in better.

 

Ya think? :confused:

 

Judgmental, aren’t we? If you are the model, I think I would rather continue to live at the bottom of the barrel.

[scopewest]

If KY is an example of the class of passengers on RCI, then I think I'll stick with Carnival.

[e150club]

Dear KY: We had three tables in the dinning room on the EOS to bermuda. both families I spoke of were present. Only one person wore jeans. I did feel a little uncomfortable, But I was not the one wearing jeans.

[TxStacey]

We have cruised RCCL. We have cruised NCL. We have cruised CCL - five times and our sixth cruise is booked for May, 2008. We PREFER CCL to the others - for many reasons. Some prefer Royal Caribbean, others Norwegian, Princess, Celebrity, etc., etc. Believe it or not, some of us actually LIKE/LOVE Carnival.

 

We are college educated. We shop at both Nordstrom and Wal-Mart; Louis Vuitton and the local dollar store. Your comments are insulting.

 

Perhaps you should use spell check prior to posting your one-side, obnoxious opinions. If your goal is to appear sophisticated and knowledgeable, you need to clean up your posts. Poor grammar and spelling make you sound like, well, a hillbilly.

Well Said! This is hilarious! I have only sailed CCL and will Sail RCI in July , simply to try something new after 5 CCL cruises..We have had wonderful experiences on CCL and I am sure will go back to them at some point. My Dh and I are also well educated (he is a doctor) and we can afford to sail any line we want to.. we also like to have fun..we are in our mid-forties and nowhere near ready to hang it up at 10:00. Carnival is a blast!! I just hope KY isn't on my RCI cruise as this could make or break my opinion of RCI:)

[cruisefeen2304]

To be honest this is my 4th cruise comming up and i have yet to have as much fun on a cruise as I did on Carnival. My first carnival cruise was my Grandmother's 9th and she said the quality went down a little and it's noticable to those who have been with the lline since the 80's. On my cruise i saw somethings that annoyed me like cups and plates on the stairwells and what not but other than that us kids had lots of fun! We never ran through the halls or whatever because we all knew better. Anyway, I'm excited to on Rccl to see if the fun level matches the fun i had on my first cruise with Carnival, because they don't call CCl the fun ships for nothing!

[ala-kat]

Sorry Cindy, I don't want you or others to be sick of hearing what I got to say but as long as they masses will ask I will continue to tell the truth..:)

 

The 'masses' aren't asking...and the truth? Opinion - just like that little centered spot where you bend to sit.

[wcdive]

I know that Carnival did have many options to choose from food wise during lunch hours, but around 5pm (right when 4000 hungry people are getting back on board from their shore excursions) almost everything is closed, so the line for pizza (or, when the ship departed before 5pm, the grill) was about 200 people long. That time, and dinner (where your only options were the buffet, pizza, or the dining room) were my main issue.

 

And, I know some of you mentioned room service - there was hardly anything to choose from - it was like one page with mostly drinks, no real food (I wish I could find a menu!).

Oh, and the 'ice cream stations' you guys reminded me of were just soft serve ice cream machines, and they were covered in melted ice cream and almost always out of bowls and/or spoons, and only one was open at any given time.

The Gala buffet (I think that was what it was called) looked beautiful, until they brought out the real food! That was hilarious! We were like, where did the yummy-looking food go? People were fighting, pushing and shoving each other to get close enough to take pictures. .

The midnight chocolate buffet that I so anticipated was a dissapointment (everything tasted sugar-free!), and we got locked down in the seating area after a fight broke out over the buffet.

After all of the info I got from you guys, it seems like maybe we just hit the Valor on a bad week!!

Oh, and I don't see all that much of a difference in price to warrant saying Carnival is that much cheaper than Royal Caribbean. We paid a good amount for our room on the Valor, and we were practically in the boiler room! We did sleep good, though, with nobody walking by our room, the sound of the engine to lull us to sleep, and the dropping of anchor to wake us.... LOL!!

[KY Transplant]

Well Said...Another typical Carnival experience!:D

[98Charlie]

Well Said...Another typical Carnival experience!:D

Actually not another. That post was from the OP who also said

Thanks for all the input guys. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my cruise (by the sound of my post you wouldn't think so!), but there were things that I was hoping to find better with another line.

Please try to keep up with the class.:rolleyes:

 

The original request actually was

I'm trying to get a better picture of what RCCL will be like, so any info to help me decide would be much appreciated!!!

 

I'm sure that the OP will find a lot to like on RCCL ships.

 

Charlie

[Dr_DNA]

If KY is an example of the class of passengers on RCI, then I think I'll stick with Carnival.

 

Please don't sterotype in the same fashion that KY Transplant does. If there were more like him onboard RCCL, I wouldn't sail with them either. However, I think that you will find, just like on Carnival, there are all types. That is what makes the world an interesting place, I guess. :cool:

[RWolver672]

We just returned from our Adventure of the Seas cruise. This was our first for RCI. Having four Carnival cruises under our belts, and wanting to go to Aruba, we decided to try RCI.

 

As for the food, we thought that the quality and quantity in the main dining rooms were equal. Presentation was much nicer on Carnival. The alternative dining was available more often on Carnival as was the choices. If you were by the pools on RCI and wanted coffee or ice tea, you had to go all the way to the back of the ship to get it. It's available right by the pools on Carnival along with a grill.

 

We were not impressed with the layout of the AOS. On Carnival, everything is laid out along the main deck. On AOS, it seemed scattered throughout the ship. One definate drawback was that the ship was much larger than the Conquest Class, yet had fewer elevators. There was always a wait, especially at meal times and show times. Coming back from excursions and trying to get an elevator was a nightmare.

 

For people wanting to eat by the pools, there aren't that many tables available. Instead of having men and women restrooms side by side, they are on different sides of the ship. The ones by the theatre on deck 4 have one commode in an open room. Them men's didn't even have a stall around it. Just out in the open. You had to lock the door for privacy.

 

Self serve ice cream is available in several places on Carnival 24/7. Frozen yogurt is all that's available on RCI from noon until six in one spot only.

 

Of the eight of us that went, we all decided that we had more fun on Carnival. It seemed like everything we wanted to do coincided with something else at the same time. The production numbers were a lot nicer on Carnival. We didn't see the ice show because it was scheduled for the same time we were getting ready for formal night dinner.

 

Don't take this wrong. We had fun on RCI. We've had great fun on Carnival. Some people like RCI. More power to them. Some like Carnival. More power to them too. Doesn't mean one is better than the other. Just different.

[Gregg20]

Judgmental, aren’t we? If you are the model, I think I would rather continue to live at the bottom of the barrel.

 

 

Well said! Although, I think KY is making his views about certain types of people known to us where most of us would just think it but not actually express it. When I was in various puplic areas on the Valor in '06 I noticed a lot of people that behaved different than I do. I would place these people in all the catagories in my mind as most of you do...they could even look a certain way, certain minorities that typically seem to have bad attitudes, certain groups of people from down south, on and on, etc. Having 3,000 passengers onboard really gives you a good crosssection of the general population. And unless I'm personally being bothered by any of these people I really don't care. It was nothing I really dwelled on and I had a great time. I took what the ship had to offer and enjoyed myself a great deal. Going on my first RCI cruise this May and I'm sure I'll have a similar experience.

[firefly333]

Princess seems to have more food available more hours than other cruiselines, maybe you should give them a try?

 

That being said my next cruise is on Voyager SUNDAY.

 

I like all the cruiselines, never had a bad cruise. You might not like this little thing or that little thing, but its a cruise right?

[cruise_pirate]

Is RCCL better than Carnival?

 

Oh gosh yes!

 

Carnival is like the KMart of Cruise lines. Except for the Carnival Holiday, they are more like Bill's Dollar Store.:p

 

As I do not condone KY's bashing on Carnival (as you can see I am sailing on the Holiday) I have to admit the Bill's Dollar Store comment was by far the funniest thing I have read in years!:D I laughed until I cried, laughed some more till my stomach hurt, then had to move down the page so I did not see this comment anymore, and still could not stop.

 

Whew! Excuse me I have to go pee!:)

 

Lonnie