southern carribean Carnival vs Royal Carribean

[Aosborn]

My wife and I are going to book a cruise Thanksgiving week 2004. We are mid 30's and would like to know what cruise ship offers the best ports of call. Carnival Destiny or Royal Carribean Adventure of the Seas. Any suggestions on what ship has the best ports of call?

[wallie5446]

We have done the south on NCL, RCI, & Celebrity.
Celebrity.

WE LOVE THE WATER AS LONG AS WE ARE ON A CRUISE

[atonal1]

Destiny visits Dominica & Barbados, while AOS visits St Maarten & Curacao. Both visit St. Thomas & Aruba. Curacao is one of my favorite places to visit (been there twice).

If price isn't a factor, I'd choose AOS over Destiny (I have sailed Destiny twice) as the ship is newer and offers more activities. In fact, I'm sailing on the AOS Thanksgiving cruise!!

Inspiration 6/96, 12/01
Carnival Destiny 7/97, 11/00
Rhapsody of the Seas 11/98
Norwegian Sea 7/00
Norwegian Star 6/02
Paradise 11/02
Sovereign of the Seas 8/03
Serenade of the Seas 12/03

[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=0000ff&cdt=2004;8;7;17;0;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img] until Carnival Triumph 8/04

[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=0000ff&cdt=2004;11;21;22;0;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img] until Adventure of the Seas 11/04

[Aosborn]

Thanks for the feeback. We re leaning towards AOS but would love to hear more thoughts on this issue.

[TrentS]

I would definitely go with the Adventure, no contest, and I wouldn't even care about the ports. The ship is the best "port" of them all! The Voyager class ships are just so much "better" IMO than ANYTHING else afloat.

Song of America '86
Holiday '87
Royal Princess '87
Norway '88
Rotterdam '88
Queen Elizabeth 2 '88
Queen Elizabeth 2 '89
Queen Elizabeth 2 '90
Crystal Harmony '91
Queen Elizabeth 2 '91
Canberra '92
Queen Elizabeth 2 '93
Queen Elizabeth 2 '95
Monarch of the Seas '96
Independence '99
Queen Elizabeth 2 '00
Millennium '00
Crown Princess '00
Statendam '01
Norwegian Sky '01
Explorer of the Seas '01
Norwegian Star '02
Amsterdam '02
Star Princess '02
Zaandam '02
Brilliance of the Seas '02
Navigator of the Seas '02
Navigator of the Seas '03
Carnival Pride '03
Brilliance of the Seas '03
Costa Mediterranea '03
Explorer of the Seas '03

[Desertbelle]

We are booked on the Dawn Princess, rt from Ft. Lauderdale, 10 days, November 23-December 3.

Ports are Barbados, Dominica, Isla Margarita, Curacao, St. Thomas and Princess Cays.

My daughter and her husband, 30'ish are booked with us. Our travel agent has some special pricing with nice shipboard credits too. You might want to look into it!

Margie

Celebrating Our Parents 60th Anniversary - Legend of the Seas to Mexico 9/5/04!!
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Our Dawn Princess Caribbean Medley Family Cruise 11/23/04
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Windjammer-Flying Cloud 1991
Carnival Elation 1999
NCL Sun 2002
Star Princess 2003
Legend of the Seas 2003

[Raddisonmn]

My husband and I sailed Carnival's Destiny in April 03. We LOVED it. Now we're in the process of booking on AOS for Feb. 05. I can't wait!!

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3/30 Destiny cruise

[sscruising]

Hi: My husband and I will be sailing on the AOS for the third time in August. Can't wait! Although Ihave not sailed on the Destiny, I have been on board for a tour. Personally, I found the decor too dark. Also, I know of at least 3 times the ship has died in the water. On my first trip on the AOS, we were in line at the airport to return home and I overheard a couple saying they were stranded at see due to mechanical problems. I asked if they were on the Destiny and they said yes. I haven't heard of any problems with the ship in over a year so maybe they got the bugs worked out.

Sandi

[Vanilousky]

My second time on the Adventure of the Seas is in October and I can't wait... I love that ship and is my second time that I go to Aruba.... IS perfect because, the ship sail from Aruba the next day.... Choose the Adventure of the Seas for the south caribbean, forget the Carnival Destiny... Many people have problems with that ship.

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[B]Adventure of the Seas Again 10/17/04...[/B]
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[Aosborn]

We pulled the trigger. We are sailing on AOS over Thanksgiving week.

[Cancunspy]

I Think You Did the RIGHT thing after reading trents post and list of ships how can you pick other,ADVENTURE OF THE SEAS is not only a great ship she is a very clean ship,plus it looks like a space ship very modern and well laid out, easy to get around with plenty of elevators, then is who,how they navegate the ships, I can tell you that all ship have GYROS to maintain a smooth and level ship but if the person that controls these GYROS is under orders to run then at low power to save fuel or power then you have a ship full of sea sick cruisers and some don't know they been sea sick cause they are too drunk to begin with, well that is part of what I saw aboard the Carnival Triumph, it was so bad the water kept coming out of the pool and that started in Miami harbor as The Explorer of the Seas past us, and it got worse at hi seas, it also was not a very clean ship,also the night club lost power then regain half of it and the Dj called for help and they said the electricians do not work on the last night of the cruise,so with no tv screens and the main bass speaker out of service the music and club was kind of dead, when is a nice club and to top it off was the last night of the cruise and that is when you want to have great sound and party hard,Anyway you made you choise and is a good choise, I will never cruise Carnival again, after all it cost me just about the same as a Royal caribbean cruise since Carnival's prices for tours and drink are a bit more so at the end it comes out to the same price. And the dinnig room was like an I H O P with booth seating and round tables too, and that is the main dinning room , no way near Voyager class ships.

Voyager of the Seas 4/2000 Western Caribbean
Carnival's Triumph 4/2001 Western Caribbean [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif[/img]
Adventure Of the Seas 4/2002 Aruba Route
Adventure of the Seas 8/2003 Barbados Route
Adventure of the Seas 4/25/2004 Barbados Route
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[pjbrock]

Have sailed Destiny and Navigator (sister to AOS)as well as Serabade. We love the Southern Caribbean- all Islands are great. Pick by what you think is best of Islands-there are lots of books out there and/or check out the ports of call boards. It will be wonderful either way. My favorites's are Aruba, St Martin & Barbados (everyone does St Thomas) Really depends on what you like to do. For un-spoiled nature Dominica isn't to be missed but personally I like a little more amenities. - Both ships are great.

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'Til we sail away!


Fascination 4/98
Majesty of the Seas 4/00
Destiny 4/02
Navigator of the Seas 4/03
Seranade of the Seas 2/04
Splendor of the Seas 4/05

[lbchew]

We are going on the Serenade of the Seas thanksgiving week--our first cruise. Can you leave out of Puerto Rico? We chose Serenade because we have 5 ports and will be at each one for the entire day-St. Thomas, St. Marten, St. Lucia, Barbados and Antigua. Good prices and good reviews too!

[mammallama]

lbchew--We are on Adventure of the Sea and it leaves from San Juan. We are going to those same islands. Did the same cruise last year.. same time, same ship, same route. Loved it so much, we're doing it again.
Have fun!
Karen

[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=4169e1&cdt=2004;6;6;22;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img] to get me on the ADVENTURE OF THE SEA

[url="http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=927093444&f=1683059817&m=9483049477"]Roll call AOS 6/06/04 click here[/url]

[mammallama]

AOSBORN-- Take the first three letters of your user name. There's your answer! Karen

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[url="http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=927093444&f=1683059817&m=9483049477"]Roll call AOS 6/06/04 click here[/url]

[Luvtotrav]

Ibchew,
My wife and I did the southern route on the Radiance. It was also our first cruise. We loved it so much, that we have taken 4 more since then in less than two years. We are now booked for a July 11th cruise to Mexico. I did tell my wife just recently, that I am ready for another land vacation next year. But we fully intend on taking many more cruises. Good luck and enjoy.

From Minnesota

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Looking forward to Alaska, Infinity

[Luvtotrav]

I just read my post and realized I made an error. We are going to Alaska on July 11th. We went to Mexico in Feb of this year.

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Looking forward to Alaska, Infinity