Carnival or Princess? Save your moeny and stay with Carinval!

[StarWarsGal]

I just got back off an Alaskan cruise on the Golden Princess. Boy was I dissappointed with Princess compared to Carnival. We thought the extra money would be worth it to have a more "mature" themed ship and supposedly better quality food. Were we wrong? You betcha! The food on Carnival Legend & Glory were soooooooooooo much better than the food on Princess. Princess Dining room food was barely as good as Carnival's buffet.

 

Don't get me wrong, some things were good,but nothing was fabulous! For the price difference I got a smaller room, anytime seating (which we hated because the service was slow), NO 24 pizza, NO 24-hour burgers, NO 24-hour ice cream, and very dissappointing food in general.

 

This ship was dull, the store merchandise was over priced, and Carnival really entertains its passenger with lots of choices. Princess only has a fraction:mad: . So do yourself a favor, if you are wondering if Princess is better, STOP and save your money. It is not.

 

I still had a great cruise, Alaska is beautiful! Better food would have just put it over the top!

[hubofhockey]

I hope my Crown Princess cruise is a better experience for me than your your Golden Princess cruise. I originally booked a balcony cabin on the Crown Princess. But after seeing pictures and reading about how cramped it would be for the four of us, I switched to a mini suite.

[StarWarsGal]

Go Celtics!

 

I am sure it wil still be a good cruise, we just expected more and got different. Truth be told we didn't sail Carnival because they did not offer a sailing for the dates we could go, so I wound up with Princess.

 

The cruise was still nice, it just would have been better if the food would have been a little nicer. For the difference in price I could not justify going with Princess.

 

Have a great time!

[loveJake]

We were on the Emerald Princess, sister to the Crown and we totally enjoyed it. We cruise both Carnival and Princess and enjoy each as different experiences. There are things we like better about both lines. What is better on Princess are the 24 hr buffets which are always changing, great for late night snacks when you don't want hamburgers or pizza. We found the food quality the same for both lines. We spend a lot of time on the balcony so we book a corner aft wrap and don't mind the smaller cabin, plus we love the large storage area outside the bathroom. The price is what draws us to Carnival.

[Djptcp]

DH and I are sailing on the Island Princess in Nov. 2009 on a 10-day Panama Canal cruise and it will be our first Princess cruise. We also switched to a mini-suite balcony cabin from a regular balcony cabin, but there's just the two of us so we didn't do it for space reasons. We have loved our Carnival cruises and have the Fascination booked for next May, but didn't see any Panama Canal cruises on Carnival that worked for us. I'm sure we'll have a good time on Princess. I'm reading the Princess message boards on CC now and there are alot of Carnival slammers there and I bet most have probably never cruised on Carnival before:cool: We are sailing on the HAL Noordam this Nov. on a 10-day S. Caribbean cruise, so I read the HAL boards, too.....same thing, alot of people slamming Carnival. Oh well, we know the truth about how much we enjoy Carnival:D

[Kurbanfan]

NO 24 pizza, NO 24-hour burgers, NO 24-hour ice cream, and very dissappointing food in general.

 

This ship was dull, the store merchandise was over priced, and Carnival really entertains its passenger with lots of choices. Princess only has a fraction:mad: . So do yourself a favor, if you are wondering if Princess is better, STOP and save your money. It is not.

 

I still had a great cruise, Alaska is beautiful! Better food would have just put it over the top!

 

That's odd they had a 24 hour buffet on the Crown Princess. Sorry you were a little disappointed......could it have been the ships itinerary. But I hear ya I have sailed on Carnival Holiday and was disappointed and will never sail that ship again. But I will still sail Carnival. No reason for me to hold it against the cruiseline for one bad duck (or ship lol)

 

I hope my Crown Princess cruise is a better experience for me than your your Golden Princess cruise. I originally booked a balcony cabin on the Crown Princess. But after seeing pictures and reading about how cramped it would be for the four of us, I switched to a mini suite.

 

We had a regular balcony on the Baja deck on the Crown and found it to be not that much smaller. Space layout was much better on the Crown and it also has bigger balconies. It had more storage and a little dressing area outside the tiny bathroom. I don't believe you would have been disapointed. But then again we just had 2 of us in the cabin. I wouldn't sail Carnival with 4 in a cabin lol!!

 

We were on the Emerald Princess, sister to the Crown and we totally enjoyed it. We cruise both Carnival and Princess and enjoy each as different experiences. There are things we like better about both lines. What is better on Princess are the 24 hr buffets which are always changing, great for late night snacks when you don't want hamburgers or pizza. We found the food quality the same for both lines. We spend a lot of time on the balcony so we book a corner aft wrap and don't mind the smaller cabin, plus we love the large storage area outside the bathroom. The price is what draws us to Carnival.

 

 

I agree! They different but in a good way!

[janetz]

I just got back off an Alaskan cruise on the Golden Princess. Boy was I dissappointed with Princess compared to Carnival. We thought the extra money would be worth it to have a more "mature" themed ship and supposedly better quality food. Were we wrong? You betcha! The food on Carnival Legend & Glory were soooooooooooo much better than the food on Princess. Princess Dining room food was barely as good as Carnival's buffet.

 

Don't get me wrong, some things were good,but nothing was fabulous! For the price difference I got a smaller room, anytime seating (which we hated because the service was slow), NO 24 pizza, NO 24-hour burgers, NO 24-hour ice cream, and very dissappointing food in general.

 

This ship was dull, the store merchandise was over priced, and Carnival really entertains its passenger with lots of choices. Princess only has a fraction:mad: . So do yourself a favor, if you are wondering if Princess is better, STOP and save your money. It is not.

 

I still had a great cruise, Alaska is beautiful! Better food would have just put it over the top!

 

 

Wow so sorry you found so many things you did not like. We love anytime, never waited. Found the Carribean Princess to have sooo much more entertainment than our Legend cruise...(boring). There are 3 different shows going on at once compared to the one we found on Carnival. 24 burgers and ice cream are not biggies for us. Everyone has their own likes and dislikes. We feel the food on Princess was much better than on our Carnival sailing. No ship is the same so don't judge the whole fleet by your one experience. :D

[corkpopr]

Now that i stirred the pot, we have done 4 princess including twice on the golden and 3 carnival. Carnival has excellent service, very clean, great casino, good dining room food and the private restaurants excellent. Horrible lido food and service. On princess great service excellent dining room food, love anytime dining, and just like the overall princess vibe. When carnival has a good trip that meets our time availability you cannot beat it.

 

overall, i prefer holland or celebrity, then princess, carnival, RCCL, and last NCL.

[happy cruzer]

Just a little note. The Golden seems to be having issues right now. I read quite a few folks reviews over on the Princess board. So I am sure it is not quite the usual Princess experience. Our experience on Princess was that the food was very good but the dining rooms are very quiet and formal. We are totally looking forward to Carnival.

[firefly333]

The Golden Princess is the one Princess ship my friend who ONLY does princess said she would never cruise on again. She just wasnt happy with the ship overall, service etc.

 

Iv been on the Grand princess and wasnt all the impressed, but then I loved the Caribbean princess. Dont rule out Princess completely over this one ship

[BND]

We were on Dawn Princess this past Oct for a Mex. Riviera cruise. DH and I looked at each other the second day and said "Carnival is much better". The food on Carnival is better, the beds are more comfortable, the overall atmosphere was different. The only things that Princess did better was the entertainment. We had a mini suite and have always had cat 11's on Carnival, so comparable. Now, we did appreciate less announcements on Princess. Another thing was the age difference. On Princess it was much older. In the first show they asked how long people had been married, 1 yr, 5 yrs, 25 yrs, etc. They got to 50 and there were several couples that had been married that long and 35+ years was the norm. We were 47 and 50 on that trip and I'd say we were below average in age. Also, on Princess the buffet was nowhere near as large, diverse or as good as Carnival, but it was open almost 24 hours. We did miss the ice cream, as we usually eat an afternoon snack, mainly because I'm prone to motion sickness and I try not to go too long between eating. So, as you can see we're going back on Glory this year. The funny thing is we had canceled Carnival out of Long Beach the same week (we were in San Diego for a few days for business) because we had friends going on Dawn Princess. It actually worked out in terms of scheduling because we might not have gotten to Long Beach on that Sunday morning (21Oct) because the wildfires were just getting going strong and the interstate was closed heading north. As it was, there was lots of smoke in San Diego when we left.

[CWcruisers]

You're not kidding about the Carnival slammers, but that's OK, what they don't know is beneficial to us. What most of the "others" do not realize is that Carnival has the biggest cabins in the cruise industry. They do not know that Carnival has free 24 hour ice cream. They do not know that when you purchase any kind of suite on Carnival, you get treated like a VIP with a special line for embarkation and debarkation. What they do not know is that when you book a Carnival cruise during the school season, it is mostly adults, so you are getting the great service for a lessor price.

 

I have been on 34 cruises and could take a little from this and a little from that and make the perfect cruise ship, in my eyes anyways. But variety is the spice of life, and the one thing I know about the Princess and HAL passengers are that they are loyal to their line and never sail on anything else. And those are the same people who slam Carnival. Go figure?

 

I have not been on HAL, doing my first in December. I have been on Princess 4 times, I did the Island in March through the Canal. My experience with Princess is that the food quality has improved quite a bit since my first time sailing with them, but they have nothing on Carnival when it comes to the best part of the meal, dessert! I have not had anything to compare to the Warm Melting Chocolate Cake. I do like the fact that the buffet is truly open 24 hours on Princess and they seemlessly go from breakfast to lunch to dinner. Some of the items from the dining room are on the dinner buffet. I found myself eating there alot because Anytime Dining is anything but. It is 5:30 or 8:00. This is because it is an older crowd and they like to go to the early show and then go to bed. The Princess ships are a little more elegant than Carnival, but who cares. As long as the ship is going where I want to go and the price is right, I could care less what it looks like. In fact, most times I cannot tell you what the decor was, with the exception of the Carnival Miracle, and for those of you who have been on it, you know what I'm talking about.

 

Princess also does not have a live rock and roll, 50's, 60's & 70's band like you can find on the Carnival ships. If you are into ballroom, you'll be happy, but otherwise, the disco is your only hope and that does not start until 9:00. They do have bands in the Explorer's lounge, but they only play 1 hour sets at most, and they are interupted for a trivia contest or some other lame thing the ACD has planned. If I am going to keep up my current cruise calander, I need to be in the club dancing off that Warm Melting Chocolate Cake!

[pungo3]

I cruise both Carnival and Princess. I have found Carnival's food consistently better than Princess. I agree with you, there's nothing like a Carnival cruise ship. I've sailed Princess when I couldn't find a Carnival ship that went where I wanted to go, but I still prefer Carnival.

[hubofhockey]

 

We had a regular balcony on the Baja deck on the Crown and found it to be not that much smaller. Space layout was much better on the Crown and it also has bigger balconies. It had more storage and a little dressing area outside the tiny bathroom. I don't believe you would have been disapointed. But then again we just had 2 of us in the cabin. I wouldn't sail Carnival with 4 in a cabin lol!!

 

 

We have no choice but 4 in a cabin. Our kids are 10 & 8 and need to be in the room with us. The Liberty balcony rooms have more space than what I saw on the Crown Princess. Princess doesn't have sofas in their balcony rooms and with four people, you have to have two upper berths. When the two are utilized, you can't even watch tv. From the photos I saw, the Princess quads are just too tight and have no sofas and that's why I'm spending $530 for more space in a mini suite(I actually got a great cabin E731 bumped out balcony). But I won't mind the expense for an upgraded or different vacation. I just hope that's what I'll get.

[Kurbanfan]

You're not kidding about the Carnival slammers, but that's OK, what they don't know is beneficial to us. What most of the "others" do not realize is that Carnival has the biggest cabins in the cruise industry. They do not know that Carnival has free 24 hour ice cream. They do not know that when you purchase any kind of suite on Carnival, you get treated like a VIP with a special line for embarkation and debarkation. What they do not know is that when you book a Carnival cruise during the school season, it is mostly adults, so you are getting the great service for a lessor price.

 

I have been on 34 cruises and could take a little from this and a little from that and make the perfect cruise ship, in my eyes anyways. But variety is the spice of life, and the one thing I know about the Princess and HAL passengers are that they are loyal to their line and never sail on anything else. And those are the same people who slam Carnival. Go figure?

 

I have not been on HAL, doing my first in December. I have been on Princess 4 times, I did the Island in March through the Canal. My experience with Princess is that the food quality has improved quite a bit since my first time sailing with them, but they have nothing on Carnival when it comes to the best part of the meal, dessert! I have not had anything to compare to the Warm Melting Chocolate Cake. I do like the fact that the buffet is truly open 24 hours on Princess and they seemlessly go from breakfast to lunch to dinner. Some of the items from the dining room are on the dinner buffet. I found myself eating there alot because Anytime Dining is anything but. It is 5:30 or 8:00. This is because it is an older crowd and they like to go to the early show and then go to bed. The Princess ships are a little more elegant than Carnival, but who cares. As long as the ship is going where I want to go and the price is right, I could care less what it looks like. In fact, most times I cannot tell you what the decor was, with the exception of the Carnival Miracle, and for those of you who have been on it, you know what I'm talking about.

 

Princess also does not have a live rock and roll, 50's, 60's & 70's band like you can find on the Carnival ships. If you are into ballroom, you'll be happy, but otherwise, the disco is your only hope and that does not start until 9:00. They do have bands in the Explorer's lounge, but they only play 1 hour sets at most, and they are interupted for a trivia contest or some other lame thing the ACD has planned. If I am going to keep up my current cruise calander, I need to be in the club dancing off that Warm Melting Chocolate Cake!

 

Who is slamming Carnival:confused: The OP is basically slamming Princess...

Your post just proves that not all ships in a certain fleet are created equal. You mentioned that the Princess ships you were on do not have any live rock and roll like Carnival? Well they did on the Crown Princess last December. Just like another myth I have heard that Princess has a older crowd. Not on the Crown last Dec.

I love Carnival, but I also will not limit myself from all the other great cruislines available. But you know I am starting to believe that some people cruise for the chocolate melting cake and 24 soft serve ice milk period:D

[hubofhockey]

Who is slamming Carnival:confused: The OP is basically slamming Princess...

Your post just proves that not all ships in a certain fleet are created equal. You mentioned that the Princess ships you were on do not have any live rock and roll like Carnival? Well they did on the Crown Princess last December. Just like another myth I have heard that Princess has a older crowd. Not on the Crown last Dec.

I love Carnival, but I also will not limit myself from all the other great cruislines available. But you know I am starting to believe that some people cruise for the chocolate melting cake and 24 soft serve ice milk period:D

 

You forgot the 24 hour pizza. ;)

 

The problem with going on one cruiseline for every vacation is that, with the exception of different itineraries, you get the same vacation on each cruise. Even the shows are the same and that can get boring. If some like that (and the melting cake, ice cream, and pizza), then that's fine. I have really enjoyed my cruises on Carnival but I'm a bit "Carnivaled out" and I'm looking forward to going on a different line and don't mind paying a little extra. It's hard for me to believe that a Princess cruise is as boring as some here would lead you to believe.

[Kurbanfan]

You forgot the 24 hour pizza. ;)

 

The problem with going on one cruiseline for every vacation is that, with the exception of different itineraries, you get the same vacation on each cruise. Even the shows are the same and that can get boring. If some like that (and the melting cake, ice cream, and pizza), then that's fine. I have really enjoyed my cruises on Carnival but I'm a bit "Carnivaled out" and I'm looking forward to going on a different line and don't mind paying a little extra. It's hard for me to believe that a Princess cruise is as boring as some here would lead you to believe.

 

 

LOL!

I totally agree! Change is nice:)

Make sure you check out the International cafe. Great sandwiches and paninis and salads. To die for chicken salad and mushrooms. It was never crowded.....I believe because people thought it was a extra charge.

I'm sure you guys will have a great time!

[123traveller123]

Who is slamming Carnival:confused: The OP is basically slamming Princess...

Your post just proves that not all ships in a certain fleet are created equal. You mentioned that the Princess ships you were on do not have any live rock and roll like Carnival? Well they did on the Crown Princess last December. Just like another myth I have heard that Princess has a older crowd. Not on the Crown last Dec.

I love Carnival, but I also will not limit myself from all the other great cruislines available. But you know I am starting to believe that some people cruise for the chocolate melting cake and 24 soft serve ice milk period:D

 

 

and that sure is a hefty price to pay for cake and ice cream:D

[Jennii]

Who is slamming Carnival:confused: The OP is basically slamming Princess...

Your post just proves that not all ships in a certain fleet are created equal. You mentioned that the Princess ships you were on do not have any live rock and roll like Carnival? Well they did on the Crown Princess last December. Just like another myth I have heard that Princess has a older crowd. Not on the Crown last Dec.

I love Carnival, but I also will not limit myself from all the other great cruislines available. But you know I am starting to believe that some people cruise for the chocolate melting cake and 24 soft serve ice milk period:D

 

I have noticed in most threads that people slam Carnival for being "walmart-like". I'm taking my first cruise in about 3 weeks with Carnival and we booked with them just cause of their party reputation. I dunno I guess depending on the person it could be a good or bad thing.

[Kurbanfan]

I have noticed in most threads that people slam Carnival for being "walmart-like". I'm taking my first cruise in about 3 weeks with Carnival and we booked with them just cause of their party reputation. I dunno I guess depending on the person it could be a good or bad thing.

 

I'm really not sure how Carnival got the walmart reputation .......maybe from reading these boards:p Because truthfully that's where I first heard of it. As far as party reputation that just depends on the crowd you get. It can be a crap shoot. Our most party atmospheres were on the 3 day cruises during the summer. You never know. We did a 7 day cruise on the Spirit during spring break and it was a snooze cruise:p

[Schill38]

We have done 4 cruises, 3 with Princess and 1 with Carnival. I did not find Carnival to be "Wal-Mart" at all. To me the 2 lines are pretty much the same. We sailed the Freedom and it was by far our favorite ship that we have sailed on.

 

We felt that the entertainment was better on Princess as well as the dining room food, which was actually MUCH better in our opinion. The desserts on Carnival were bland and boring and the dining room food was boring. Toward the end of our 12 night cruise we actually just at up in the buffet because we found the food to be better there. And the ship we were on closed down the burger station at 6:00? It made no sense.

 

We felt that breakfast and lunch on the Lido deck were much better on Carnival. We loved all the different choices that we had for lunch. We also loved the free 24 hour ice cream and free fruit punch and lemonade, big plus there. My wife and I don't drink ice tea or coffee so on Princess it's water unless you pay for the soda card.

 

The funny thing is on 2 of our 3 Princess cruises the fares were actually cheaper than the Carnival ships that were doing the same iteneries the same week, so Princess was cheaper! Ha, how about that!

[CWcruisers]

Kurbanfan-just so you know, I was not slamming Princess, in fact I am booked on the Caribbean Princess for a B2B in March. I always look at itinery first, then price, then cruise line. I, like the OP, just have a preference for Carnival.

 

Good to hear that the Crown has a live rock band. I just have not run into it on the Regal, Grand, Golden or Island. As for the older crowd, my TA sits on the advisory board for Princess and RCI, so I get my stats from him as confirmation of what I have observed myself. Plus, it really depends on the length of the cruise. He has a formula something like for every day after 7 add five years to reach the average age, and most Princess cruises do tend to be longer.

 

But because I cruise on various lines and participate in various threads, I do have to bite my tongue when the Carnival slamming starts. I really do not see much slamming of other cruise lines on Carnival threads. But another stat my TA tells me is that on Carnival, 90% of the S&S cards are "virgin" if you know what I mean.

[ala-kat]

But another stat my TA tells me is that on Carnival, 90% of the S&S cards are "virgin" if you know what I mean.

 

Just wondering, how do the others stack up? And how does your TA know this?

[Livin4Real]

We just got off the Glory last week and while we had a great time I have already booked with Princess for our next cruise. We enjoyed the caribbean princess much more than glory. The food was much better on princess as was the entertainment. My wife and I are 30 and 32 so it's not like we're old folks, we had many more entertainment options on Princess. The ship layout was better as well as the service. I definitely prefer anytime dining, we never had to wait when we did it last year and that was during spring break. We will sail carnival again but we'll definitely be looking over reviews and deck plans before booking.

[LETS PARTY]

Personally I've never been on a bad cruise:D

we were on the golden 3 times in the last 9 months, and I give the ship & service a 10....:)

will be on the sapphire princess in oct for a b2b the day after we get on the pride.......I recommed trying all the lines.. we have.. we like them all, thats why we have cruised approx 50 times:eek:

Rob

dont be to concerned about negitive talk...90% is unfounded