Celebrity and RCCL Cruiser Extremely Impressed By Carnival

[tally10]

Just returned from a 12 day Eastern Mediterranean cruise on the Carnival Freedom. We have not been on Carnival since 1988 (the Celebration) and felt that we had moved on to RCCL and Celebrity. We went with low expectations. We were pleasantly surprised! The ship was wonderful! Food is how cruise food used to be! Never a bad meal in the dining room and great service with a smile. I am truly a convert. We were going to book for next year, but midway through the cruise, they announced that Carnival was pulling out of Europe.:eek:. That is really a shame. No party atmosphere on this one, which we liked. The kids were well behaved except for one incident in a crowded elevator. The only downside was that whenever we tried to use our balcony, we were driven inside by our neighbor's cigarette smoke. We are hoping Carnival reconsiders Europe, maybe when the economy rebounds. BTW, the Celebration was docked next to us in Rome. She is now the "Grand Celebration" for a spanish line, but the smokestack was all Carnival. How prophetic!

[Pistol Packin Mama]

Just returned from a 12 day Eastern Mediterranean cruise on the Carnival Freedom. We have not been on Carnival since 1988 (the Celebration) and felt that we had moved on to RCCL and Celebrity. We went with low expectations. We were pleasantly surprised! The ship was wonderful! Food is how cruise food used to be! Never a bad meal in the dining room and great service with a smile. I am truly a convert. We were going to book for next year, but midway through the cruise, they announced that Carnival was pulling out of Europe.:eek:. That is really a shame. No party atmosphere on this one, which we liked. The kids were well behaved except for one incident in a crowded elevator. The only downside was that whenever we tried to use our balcony, we were driven inside by our neighbor's cigarette smoke. We are hoping Carnival reconsiders Europe, maybe when the economy rebounds. BTW, the Celebration was docked next to us in Rome. She is now the "Grand Celebration" for a spanish line, but the smokestack was all Carnival. How prophetic!

Good to hear, we haven't been on Carnival for years and have one planned for next year on the Conquest. Hope it continues to be good. I do know the food at dinner, on our last cruise on RCCL was not very good, and we were really disappointed.

[tally10]

Good to hear, we haven't been on Carnival for years and have one planned for next year on the Conquest. Hope it continues to be good. I do know the food at dinner, on our last cruise on RCCL was not very good, and we were really disappointed.

 

Yes, the food and the food quality on our last 2 RCCL cruises was pretty bad except in Chops. The food on the Freedom in the dining room was wonderful!! The buffet was ok-on par with RCCL except they actually had white meat chicken, which after the honey stung chicken on RCCL, RCCL never had white meat again. I did like the Caesar salad better on RCCL, but that was the ONLY thing better on RCCL I hope your cruise on the Conquest is as good as ours was on the Freedom.

[MD34]

BTW, the Celebration was docked next to us in Rome. She is now the "Grand Celebration" for a spanish line, but the smokestack was all Carnival. How prophetic!

 

Carnival also owns Iberocruceros, and transferred the ship recently to its sister cruise line.

[fpslim]

The Celebration was transferred to Iberocruceros earlier this year. It's a Spanish Line of which Carnival owns 75%. I suspect that's why it still has the "Farcus Funnell"

[slotaddict]

I too am a RCL, Celebrity and NCL cruiser - who just returned from the Carnival Pride - I was extremely impressed with the quality of the food and presentation - The ship itself was well maintained service was great, I will be going on another Carnival cruise for sure.

 

 

One thing that did surprise me - the tips are automatically placed on your bill which I have no problem with - in fact I prefer it - we always tip extra directly to the servers and stewards if we feel they have done a great job. The room steward and servers actually seemed surprised to get the extra money, in fact the assistant waiter almost didn;t want to take it. :eek: I think that the service on the Pride was exceptional.

[code_d]

We are hoping Carnival reconsiders Europe, maybe when the economy rebounds. BTW, the Celebration was docked next to us in Rome. She is now the "Grand Celebration" for a spanish line, but the smokestack was all Carnival. How prophetic!

 

Is it just the Freedom? Or all of CCL pulling out? I hadn't heard of all CCL.

 

So glad you had a great vacation!! Seems like there have been a host of negatives lately, nice to hear the service we have come to expect is still there!

 

Be careful and don't let the RCCL boards see this or you might be banned

 

[tally10]

We are hoping Carnival reconsiders Europe, maybe when the economy rebounds. BTW, the Celebration was docked next to us in Rome. She is now the "Grand Celebration" for a spanish line, but the smokestack was all Carnival. How prophetic!

 

Is it just the Freedom? Or all of CCL pulling out? I hadn't heard of all CCL.

 

So glad you had a great vacation!! Seems like there have been a host of negatives lately, nice to hear the service we have come to expect is still there!

 

Be careful and don't let the RCCL boards see this or you might be banned

 

 

From what they told us, the Liberty will not be going there as previously scheduled and the new Dream, after a couple of Mediterranean cruises, will do a transatlantic and that is it. They added that the sister lines, i.e. Princess and Hal will be there, and encouraged everyone to book on those lines instead. They had been offering a $400 OBC to book on board and then withdrew the offer except for the Dream.

[cruisecastle]

Just returned from a 12 day Eastern Mediterranean cruise on the Carnival Freedom. We have not been on Carnival since 1988 (the Celebration) and felt that we had moved on to RCCL and Celebrity. We went with low expectations. We were pleasantly surprised! The ship was wonderful! Food is how cruise food used to be! Never a bad meal in the dining room and great service with a smile. I am truly a convert. We were going to book for next year, but midway through the cruise, they announced that Carnival was pulling out of Europe.:eek:. That is really a shame. No party atmosphere on this one, which we liked. The kids were well behaved except for one incident in a crowded elevator. The only downside was that whenever we tried to use our balcony, we were driven inside by our neighbor's cigarette smoke. We are hoping Carnival reconsiders Europe, maybe when the economy rebounds. BTW, the Celebration was docked next to us in Rome. She is now the "Grand Celebration" for a spanish line, but the smokestack was all Carnival. How prophetic!

 

Carnival Europe is a whole different animal. Much nicer than Carnival domestically. Our Med cruise on Carnival a few years ago was awesome. We were booked for the Balctic cruise next June that got canceled and I'm bummed but looking forward to Alaska