We love X, but are considering Carnival

[blondieJen]

Being 24, having been on a Carnival cruise, and having a Celebrity cruise and Carnival cruise booked, I would say I am much more looking forward to my Carnival cruise than my Celebrity (but I have never been on a celebrity, so I cannot speak completely fairly).

 

As I am sure that people older than me look forward to food, decor, service, etc, I look forward to the atmosphere, fellow cruisers, and entertainment (and could honestly care less if the dining room is pink as long as the food is good ... it is..., or the theatre is tacky, as long as the show is good). I think that the latter is better on Carnival. Your sons may have more fun on the Carnival cruise as it seems like there is more things to do for younger people. I guess I am refering to their "party" atmosphere, but I can tell you, my parents are 65 and they have cruised on every line, and still like Carnival the best, so I guess it can't be too much of a "party" atmosphere, otherwise they'd never go back...

 

So my suggestion would be to book the Carnival for when you are traveling with the younger cruisers, and celebrity for when you are going alone.

 

Again, I have never been on Celebrity, but have done extensive research on both lines and my parents have been on both. I think your sons would have more fun on Carnival, but that is just my two cents.

[JennAngel9]

I think Jen does a good job of distinguishing the benefits of CCL from X (though to be fair, we have never paid much attention to entertainment or found it to be great on any ship).

 

On the other hand, I am only a couple years older, also named Jen and have the opposite areas of interest (service, ambiance, etc)... but I suppose the fact that I am married and cruise with my best friend my skew my needs for a party scene and entertainment.

 

I just want to note that on our Panama Canal cruise with Carnival in Dec 2006, we often found the dance club empty except for ourselves. Likewise, on our Baltics cruise on X,there was always a room full (of seniors) ready to do the twist and dance to other more.. mature music.

[blondieJen]

I think Jen does a good job of distinguishing the benefits of CCL from X (though to be fair, we have never paid much attention to entertainment or found it to be great on any ship).

 

On the other hand, I am only a couple years older, also named Jen and have the opposite areas of interest (service, ambiance, etc)... but I suppose the fact that I am married and cruise with my best friend my skew my needs for a party scene and entertainment.

 

I just want to note that on our Panama Canal cruise with Carnival in Dec 2006, we often found the dance club empty except for ourselves. Likewise, on our Baltics cruise on X,there was always a room full (of seniors) ready to do the twist and dance to other more.. mature music.

 

The last paragraph made me laugh. I would be right in there with them doing the electric slide, and loving every minute of it! When I cruised carnival i went to the club everynight and I remember it not being totally full either, but that's how we met people. But then again, I'm not afraid to dance by myself in the middle of the dance floor, so I made friends easily. I made friends with older and younger folks, too.

 

To be honest, I remember being a little bored on the Carnival ship (I was 18 and couldn't drink or gamble yet) because we could only do the club and that was it... And my parents picked Carnival for that cruise because I was joining them and they thought it would be a younger crowd. There weren't many 18-20 y/o's on the ship, surprisingly, so by the end of it we knew almost everyone on the ship in our age group.

 

I guess my point is that - I can only imagine the number of people around your sons' age being less on the X cruise vs. the CCL. When I go on my X sailing I will be going with my parents and my boyfriend's parents so we aren't too interested in meeting new friends, more so hanging out together as a group. My b/f and I are going Carnival when it is just us, hoping to meet other couples around our age that like to lounge by the pool and have a good time at night. So I guess it is all what you want out of it... If your sons want to meet people their age, would it be fair to say Carnival would be your best bet, or are there a good amount of people in their 20's on X as well? (Jen, I guess this Q is guided to you since you might know being on both)

[CanWeGoYet?]

Celebrity is better in every way, and carnival is at the dead bottom. But you can't explain why because you don't want anyone getting mad at you. Thanks for offering so much of use to the discussion.

[JennAngel9]

Jen, I would definitely say there are more 20 and 30somethings on CCL than Celebrity-- but the number is going to be pretty small in either instance and my instinct is that it matters more WHEN, WHERE, and how long the cruise is than the line. For instance, the Carnival Pride cruise I took over spring break in college was full of other people in their 20s, maybe even close to half (including a number of ex-sorority sisters who didn't like me because i left the sorority-- awkward!). But the Carnival Liberty Panama cruise over x-mas break didn't seem to have that many folks between the ages of teen and 40s-- but definitely more than my Constellation cruise. On the other hand, the 3 day century cruise out of miami had a huge gamut of ages, and a lot of "party" people (read: drunks).

[Bridge Maven]

While it is true that some Carnival cruises are less expensive than Celebrity, their cruises that leave from New York during the summer have higher per diems than most Celebrity cruises.

 

I may be in the minority, but I am more concerned with the size of my cabin and overall condition of a ship than its decor. Based on my experience, Carnival has larger cabins and keeps their ships in better condition than Celebrity, even though I might not emulate their decor.

 

Carnival's food is not as "gourmet" as Celebrity and I realize that is very important to some passengers, but the food they do serve is very good, while their soups and desserts are better than Celebrity.

[CanWeGoYet?]

While it is true that some Carnival cruises are less expensive than Celebrity, their cruises that leave from New York during the summer have higher per diems than most Celebrity cruises.

 

I may be in the minority, but I am more concerned with the size of my cabin and overall condition of a ship than its decor. Based on my experience, Carnival has larger cabins and keeps their ships in better condition than Celebrity, even though I might not emulate their decor.

 

Carnival's food is not as "gourmet" as Celebrity and I realize that is very important to some passengers, but the food they do serve is very good, while their soups and desserts are better than Celebrity.

 

I think so much of the food depends on the ship. I had no complaints about the food I had on the jubilee or celebration, but it wasn't until I took a cruise on carnival pride that I thought it was excellent. It's been a while but the menu items in the main dining room, as I recall - were just as gourmet as what I was served on the Century. So much of the food I had on that cruise sounded wonderful as described on the menu, but tasted just ok when served.

[Bridge Maven]

I think so much of the food depends on the ship. I had no complaints about the food I had on the jubilee or celebration, but it wasn't until I took a cruise on carnival pride that I thought it was excellent. It's been a while but the menu items in the main dining room, as I recall - were just as gourmet as what I was served on the Century. So much of the food I had on that cruise sounded wonderful as described on the menu, but tasted just ok when served.

 

Thanks, Tink, for sharing that information. We will be taking a family reunion cruise on Carnival Legend next June which is a sister ship to Pride.

[JennAngel9]

I actually also recall food on Pride being better than Legend, but I did spend a lot of the Pride cruise in specialty dining (and/or mildly intoxicated)... so take it fwiw.

[debkaysmith]

Don't do it!

[TomCruises]

We have been on 7 or so X cruises, and have also recently been on HAL, and love both. We are planning an impromptu (read cheap) cruise with our 2 sons, 24 & 21 for the beginning of October. I am thinking that they will find no one on X or HAL, but will have much better luck finding friends on Carnival. As a family, we tried a very old Carnival ship in 1995, have been on about a dozen other cruises with them, and a bunch just the 2 of us. My 24 year old was on RCCL twice for spring break.

Considering that, how will their category 11 suite compare to a sky suite? Are there suite perks? How different is the food? Entertainment on X and HAL has not been very good lately, so it can't be worse, can it? What about the Casino? Is there a specialty restaurant? Anyone wear tuxes on formal nights? Any info or recommendations you could give me would be great. Thanks.

 

Hey, if you wanna save money and are willing to compromise quality of your entire cruise, I would recommend NCL!!:D

[Windy56]

I think so much of the food depends on the ship. I had no complaints about the food I had on the jubilee or celebration, but it wasn't until I took a cruise on carnival pride that I thought it was excellent. It's been a while but the menu items in the main dining room, as I recall - were just as gourmet as what I was served on the Century. So much of the food I had on that cruise sounded wonderful as described on the menu, but tasted just ok when served.

 

My thoughts, exactly. The food sounded gourmet on the Constellation last Christmas/New Years, but lacked flavour almost all of the time, including the desserts. The food on the Pride sounded lacklustre but when it arrived at the table it was visually attractive and full of flavour and texture. The side dishes, usually vegetables of some kind, were really creative and often served in these little ramekins...perfect portions and perfect compliments to the main course.

[halos]

 

Now go back to the Carnival board and talk about hairy leg contests bringing on your own Budweiser and how cheap you can book a cruise

 

You have dominated this thread and board long enough

 

I will sum up your points

Carnival is as good as Celebrity except the food is better the entertainment is better the rooms are bigger its more fun and the people arent all old but they are all professionals with lots of class

And there are as many drunks on every other cruise line

Do I have it right?

 

:eek:

 

I sense a bit of hostility here.

[CanWeGoYet?]

Vog, why take it so personally if some think carnival is equal to or preferable to X? It's a discussion board, you are going to agree with some opinions and disagree with others. Because they are just that, opinions and not statements of fact.

 

Have you considered switching to decaf? You sound like you are about to burst a vessel in your brain.

[halos]

And for good reason

 

You get a thread like this one and all of a sudden there is a rash of postings on the thread telling people that Carnival is just as good as Celebrity and the food is better and the people onboard are not trailer trash or party people and everything on Carnival is wonderful

 

Then they'll get to the point of telling us that THEY went on ONE Celebrity cruise and THEY didn't think the food was good or the service was good or they thought everyone was old and no one had any fun

 

And they post and post and post as if by repeating it constantly it makes it true

 

And they attack anyone who supports Celebrity or rightly says they would not cruise on Carnival or thinks Carnival is not as good a cruise line or that the crowd has less class as being snobs or thinking wrongly they are superior and so on

 

Well take a close look at who is posting all of this garbage

They are died in the wool Carnival cruisers

LIKE YOU

Even put Carnival logos into your cruise critic signature

 

They are people who have been on ONLY Carnival cruise except MAYBE one short one on Celebrity one time - maybe years ago

 

They come out of the woodwork

 

Well truth be told I would be willing to bet that 90% plus of all Celebrity cruisers -people who prefer and regularly cruise on Celebrity DO NOT THINK Carnival is anywhere close to Celebrity in terms of food, service, ship design and decor or anything else

 

I also am pretty much certain the "typical" Celebrity cruiser would not or does not think much about the OVERALL crowd on Carnival ships

 

Now reading this thread someone might get the wrong impression that Celebrity cruisers think Carnival is pretty much okay - equal to or better than Celebrity and worth cruising

 

But that is NOT what most Celebrity cruisers think

But that is NOT being represented on this thread

Because all of you Carnival people have come here to dominate the thread

 

Notice by the way that the same OP posed basically the same question on the Carnival board

No Celebrity cruiser went THERE to put down Carnival and insult its loyalists

But somehown one of you Carnival people chose to post THERE either!

 

Hostility?

Damned yes

:confused:

LOL...I find it very telling that you would get hostile over a conversation about cruise lines.:rolleyes:

I ask that you please find and quote any and all of my posts that offended you OR where I claimed CCL to be a BETTER cruise line than X.

When you find them, I will apologize if I see that I made an error of some kind. I am not above saying something stupid on these boards and I always apolgize when I have done something wrong.

 

If you do not find any posts where I claim that CCL is BETTER than X, I would like an apology from you.

 

 

I believe that any posts I made were saying that I personally prefer CCL to X and that each person should take a cruise and judge for themselves.

I may be mistaken. You can prove me wrong. I'm not going to bother to reread my posts but you are welcome to search.

 

I hope you other celebrity cruisers see how ONE person on these boards can make people get the wrong impression of an entire cruise line.

If you read the CCL boards and see a person talking about sneaking a bottle on, you could very well assume that CCL is a line full of drunk low life scum...but that would be like me reading the posts by Vog and thinking all X cruisers were like him.

That wouldn't be very fair now would it???

[cruiserbryce]

we havent cruised X yet but just did the..."hey let's save a few bucks and cruise Carnival" thing and while we had a good trip will probably stick with other lines in the future. It just had a different feel. Didnt like the decorations of the ship, didnt feel the service or food was up to par with others we have been on.

[Bridge Maven]

After reading this thread I realize that I should be grateful that people have allowed me to sail on Celebrity enough to be come an elite member of Celebrity's Captain Club. It appears that I must be inferior to the the typical Celebrity passenger because I think that the passengers we met on Carnival weren't any different than the passengers we met on Celebrity.

[JennAngel9]

While I don't agree with everything VOG said, and I find his tone a bit traumatizing, I do think he raises a valid point, which probably hasn't been clear from this thread-- I do think the majority of X cruisers do not believe that Carnival provides an equally good experience. If you think about it, if you believed they were roughly the same, why would you continue paying X prices?

[xitappers2bx]

We have been on 7 or so X cruises, and have also recently been on HAL, and love both. We are planning an impromptu (read cheap) cruise with our 2 sons, 24 & 21 for the beginning of October. I am thinking that they will find no one on X or HAL, but will have much better luck finding friends on Carnival. As a family, we tried a very old Carnival ship in 1995, have been on about a dozen other cruises with them, and a bunch just the 2 of us. My 24 year old was on RCCL twice for spring break.

Considering that, how will their category 11 suite compare to a sky suite? Are there suite perks? How different is the food? Entertainment on X and HAL has not been very good lately, so it can't be worse, can it? What about the Casino? Is there a specialty restaurant? Anyone wear tuxes on formal nights? Any info or recommendations you could give me would be great. Thanks.

 

 

I've only been on one cruise, and my second one will most likely be in the Sky Suite on the Mercury... with that said, the first one was on a Carnival ship... it was myself (25), my daughter who turned 5 on the first day, and my parents (early 50's, verteran cruisers who are loyal to royal caribbean). We stayed in the Cat. 12 penthouse, and my daughter and I loved it. My parents were less than thrilled with the pushiness of the people pushing drinks, but tit for tat, the ship was a bit las vegas gaudy, but it grew on us. I loved the ship, (the sensation to the bahamas), the entertainment was hilarious, the balcony spacious, the room was incredible, the whirlpool tub to die for (esp after a long day of wondering around nassau and then going out and getting to taste the nightlife there), and the service (room steward was INCREDIBLE, waiter was AMAZING and beyond accomadating, and the folks at the pursars desk more than helpful) was stellar. There was a lot to do for people in my age group, and I met a lot of really awesome people around my age. There was dancing, karyoke, nightclubs, bars, etc. The only reason I'm looking at the Mercury for our December vacation is because I want to do a longer one, and as I live near Philly, you can't get much closer than Baltimore.

 

And yes, on the formal night, there were many people wearing tuxes.

[halos]

I do think the majority of X cruisers do not believe that Carnival provides an equally good experience. If you think about it, if you believed they were roughly the same, why would you continue paying X prices?

*nods head in agreement*

ABSOLUTELY won't argue that point!!

There is nothing wrong with prefering a line, but is it necessary to absolutely trash the people who sail a different one???

 

If you hate a line, isn't it just fair to say, "These are the things that I hated about *insert line*"?

When people trash an entire line and have nothing good to say then, for me, it negates their entire review or comment.

 

 

And why do some people feel these boards need to be segregated? How many Celebrity cruises do I need to take before I can legitimately post on these boards??

 

I didn't wait for Vog to find an offending post by me. I went and looked at all my posts myself, searching for something I said that could have made him go berserk.

I found nothing. I'm still scratching my head about his reaction and singling me out...

I don't believe for one minute that X is like CCL, they are two totally different experiences...one is not bad and the other good. They are just different.

If someone enjoys a hairy chest contest (which I actually haven't even seen on any recent CCL cruises...not to say they don't have them, I just must have not seen it) does that make them low class?? :confused: If you think so, then definitely CCL is not for you. If you think it might be funny...then why not open your mind to a new experience?

I didn't think the hairy chest (or legs or whatever else they do) was all that much fun until I didnt' have it anymore. After two weeks of daily sorbet parades, I discovered that I missed the stupid games they play on Carnival. Sometimes you don't know what you got til it's gone....:p

 

I do know first hand that even on X ships, the attitude of some passengers about CCL being beneath them is very much alive and well. On a few instances when people asked which other lines I had sailed and I mentioned CCL, I saw their eyes kinda glaze over....

Also, while with a Cruise Critic group, my DH was chatting with the husband of a CC member. The guy asked my DH what kind of car he drove. My DH told him and the guy's response was, "Oh, that's a shame."

At that point in the cruise I would have preferred being on ANY other line.

You would think with it being a fellow CC member, they'd have had the common sense to keep that comment to themselves..... *sigh*

BUT, we haven't written X off even with all this.

 

Oh..my DH drives a Sebring convertible. I don't know if I'm supposed to be ashamed of that or not, but this guy obviously thought so. He'd have been totally appalled to know the vehicle my DH had previous to that was a Ford F-150 I guess. :rolleyes:

 

My long-drawn out point is that there can be classless people on ANY line.

 

 

After reading this thread I realize that I should be grateful that people have allowed me to sail on Celebrity enough to be come an elite member of Celebrity's Captain Club. It appears that I must be inferior to the the typical Celebrity passenger because I think that the passengers we met on Carnival weren't any different than the passengers we met on Celebrity.

 

That's the point. You can't allow what you see on these boards to distort your judgment of an entire cruise line or the people that sail it. Although I can see how reading these boards affects me very much, I do try to remember that CC members are not the entire cruise sailing population (thank heaven!) and no matter what is posted about any line, I will never know if I like somethign until I try it myself....and neither will anyone else.

The OP may indeed dislike Carnival...but then again, they may like it.

 

Again, I am not anti-X and I am not a cruise line cheerleader. I am a total cruise-aholic. :) I love being on a ship and the bottom line is being on the sea is what is important to me. The different experiences I get on each line are wonderful...variety is so nice (to me). Some people like the comfort of the same thing all the time and that is nice as well...I like to mix it up.

I know I will sail Celebrity again...when there comes a day when we need a more subdued cruise, I will be callling the TA to book something on X.

I had the best cabin steward ever on my Infinity sailing...and we loved the aft consierge cabin (it was the nicest cabin I've stayed in so far. The balcony was huge)...But for us, on that particular sailing, I have to say we missed the fun...the same fun that to others is tacky. :p

I can understand why some people wouldn't like that stuff...honestly, LOL!! What I don't enjoy is the attitude of superiority that comes from some of these people.

Don't look down on others who enjoy silly fun. We are not low class by any means, we are just people who enjoy letting our hair down a bit, that's all.

 

 

Bottom line is like most people on Cruise Critic, I love to cruise. Just stick me on a ship (heck, even a boat!! :D) I love to be on the water.

If anyone else is like that, then YES! Go try other lines. Like I said, variety is really nice.

 

You'll all be happy to know I'm done now. *wink*

[halos]

Ok, I lied, I'm not done.

 

:( I am very sad to see that Vog took the time to ask a mod to withdrawal his steroid-rage post, but didn't come back to apologize....which I would have readily accepted as I dislike animosity.

 

On a happy note, however....

 

Thanks, Tink, for sharing that information. We will be taking a family reunion cruise on Carnival Legend next June which is a sister ship to Pride.

 

Excellent choice!!!!!! :D The Spirit Class ships are my favorite. The ships themselves are kinda difficult to manuever around. I totally agree with people who say that the layout and decor of CCL ships is bizarre, because it is. BUT, each time I have sailed a Spirit class ship, I have had a wonderful cruise experience!!

Happy sailing to you :)

[DC2OC]

A Celebrity person can have a good time on a Carnival ship especially if they enjoyed sailing RCCL which has similiar demographics.You may want to try during the off season when there are less kids or Spring Breakers.I would not want to sail RCCL during those periods either.We prefer the couples atmosphere.Funny thing some on this thread like the West Coast Bear shows up and starts giving inaccurate poorly thought out knocks on Carnival which brings some Carnival people over throwing the mud back.He does the same thing on other boards also

[Ma Bell]

After reading this thread I realize that I should be grateful that people have allowed me to sail on Celebrity enough to be come an elite member of Celebrity's Captain Club. It appears that I must be inferior to the the typical Celebrity passenger because I think that the passengers we met on Carnival weren't any different than the passengers we met on Celebrity.

 

What a snide remark. People are people wherever they are. It would be nice if for once the discussion could be about the product instead of the people. Is there a chance that you will ever begin to post to the cruiseline boards that you actually sail on? It makes me wonder why someone would spend every day posting about a cruiseline that they do not like any more unless it's just to take potshots.

[Bridge Maven]

It appears that some posters will never understand that just because a person doesn't think that Celebrity is perfect in every way or that there are other cruise lines which offer a comparable overall cruise experience, it doesn't mean that person considers Celebrity to be a bad cruise line. It just means that they feel that Celebrity is one of many cruise lines to consider when selecting a cruise, not the only one.

 

It is also very annoying when these same posters act as if they own the boards and try to dictate who the right to post on them.

[halos]

It appears that some posters will never understand that just because a person doesn't think that Celebrity is perfect in every way or that there are other cruise lines which offer a comparable overall cruise experience, it doesn't mean that person considers Celebrity to be a bad cruise line. It just means that they feel that Celebrity is one of many cruise lines to consider when selecting a cruise, not the only one.

 

It is also very annoying when these same posters act as if they own the boards and try to dictate who the right to post on them.

 

Unfortunately, every (mass market line) cruise board here is the same in this regard. :(

 

LOL...which proves is that the 'demographic' people speak of is more alike than they would like to think. ;)