If you're thinking of leaving Carnival

Our family FINALLY cruised something new this month. RC Freedom. I was SO sick of the same ole same ole on Carnival. But after the first day onboard the Freedom, I missed my 'same ole, same ole' Carnival ships!

Biggest disappointments were:

The Cruise Director and Captain doesn't keep you 'in the loop' about anything! On Carnival they are engaging you each day in the events, activities and just daily announcements. RC does not do that! Missed it :(

The buffets during in one area...the Windjammer. And it is through ONE set of doors, (that are closed and locked when buffet hours are over)completely packed away in a tight area and there will NEVER be a table for you available unless you are practically the first ones in there at opening!! Carnival has 3-4buffets open at peak times. 1-2 is right by the main pool and the other one(s) are further back inside the AC and there is ALWAYS a table available for you and your family. They have two floors of tables! Inside AND out!!! I missed that SO BAD while on the RC cruise!!

Also RC did NOT have 'help yourself' drink stations like Carnival! The crew made it for you and if you wanted coffee, you had to wait for them to make it for you. Ugh this was horrible!! Oh and it wasn't available AT ALL during the times that the Windjammer doors were closed! So if you wanted , juice, tea, coffee during the morning, day or night but not during buffet hours..too bad! You had to take an elevator to deck 5 Promenade and get it from down there! NOT convenient when you're enjoying the pool or the decks)

No 24 self-serve ice cream!!! Only open 11:30-7! (And that's if the guy in charge opens it on time...which ours was late 5 out of the 7 days).

The food in Carnival is a LOT better!! I'm serious!! So disappointed in RC food when I've heard its the best in the industry!! Especially in the main dining room....and OMG did we miss our chocolate melting cake!!!!!!

Staterooms are ok but the attendants on Carnival are way more personable! They don't turn your room in to the 'day' room and later turn it into the 'night' room. And never any chocolate! Sorry to be petty but I missed that too! :( Oh and just forget about a welcome packet of sample amenities!! RC doesn't leave you a thing!! Not sure why but...I missed that too!

There's more I can add but my family had such excitement to try new things. See new shows. Take a 'step up' in the cruising industry...just to be terribly disappointed! I'm sure there are cruise companies that top Carnival...I am not opposed to trying others (we've done Disney and it's our top fav but it's too different for us to compare in this post on the common cruise companies) And I'm not even opposed to trying other RC cruise ships. I will just be expecting to not have the things I love the most from Carnival!!

The RC lacked the things that we find as major conveniences. And when we are on a relaxing cruise, having the convenient things available are on our top five musts!!

Bottom line...guess was NOT greener!

Booked our next Carnival for October!

Royal~FreedomOfTheSeas 2014

Carnival Glory 2012

Disney Magic 2011

Carnival Triumph 2010

Carnival Victory 2009

Disney Magic 2008

Carnival Inspiration 2008

Carnival Victory 2007

Carnival Triumph 2002

Try Princess. RC is way too expensive and crowded.

Just goes to show you, bigger isn't always better and Carnival isn't the Wal-Mart of cruising!!!:D We sail for the time at sea and nothing else, but Carnival fits us well!!!:cool:

Just goes to show you, bigger isn't always better and Carnival isn't the Wal-Mart of cruising!!!:D We sail for the time at sea and nothing else, but Carnival fits us well!!!:cool:

I agree, Carnival is a very good fit for us as well.

We found NCL to be better than RCCL.

I guess that proves that there are different views on everything. Some of the things that you disliked about Royal are the things that I really liked better, like the endless announcements on Carnival. I just don't want to hear about "Bingo" and things like that during the day. I never had a problem with seating in the buffet for lunch or breakfast. I much preferred their station type layout for the buffet over Carnival's and I personally thought the buffet food was much better. I have never heard their food was the best in the industry, if you want really good food you should try Celebrity.

I loved the Promenade Café and usually went there for a snack or drink in the hours that the buffet wasn't open. I loved the little sandwiches and cookies from there. I also thought everyone on Freedom and Mariner were extremely pleasant and friendly. I still rate RCI over Carnival.

What did you think of the entertainment? That is our biggest reason why our next one is on Princess.

Carnival's entertainment now is pretty unentertaining and with playlist rolling out to more ships running out of ships with decent entertainment..

I guess that proves that there are different views on everything. Some of the things that you disliked about Royal are the things that I really liked better, like the endless announcements on Carnival. I just don't want to hear about "Bingo" and things like that during the day. I never had a problem with seating in the buffet for lunch or breakfast. I much preferred their station type layout for the buffet over Carnival's and I personally thought the buffet food was much better. I have never heard their food was the best in the industry, if you want really good food you should try Celebrity.

 

I loved the Promenade Café and usually went there for a snack or drink in the hours that the buffet wasn't open. I loved the little sandwiches and cookies from there. I also thought everyone on Freedom and Mariner were extremely pleasant and friendly. I still rate RCI over Carnival.

Agree with the above. You can also go get your own drinks if you want to. Nice gesture that they come around with refills. Would like the ice cream to be open later.

We cruised on FOS last Christmas, and enjoyed the change. Yes, there were things we didn't exactly like about both lines (especially the literally double price we paid for our GS on FOS over what we would have paid on CCL) but the shows were better on FOS. We preferred the dr food on CCL, the buffet on RCCL, the suite perks on RCCL. Service and crew were great on both ships. Truthfully, I actually prefer NCL over RCCL. Now that we have "strayed," we wouldn't hesitate to sail any line if the price/itinerary was right. One major reason we sailed RCCL was that we had never been to Labadee - which we enjoyed, and it stopped at Falmouth, Jamaica instead of Ochos Rios - rather than the same ports over and over again with CCL.

What did you think of the entertainment? That is our biggest reason why our next one is on Princess.

 

 

 

Carnival's entertainment now is pretty unentertaining and with playlist rolling out to more ships running out of ships with decent entertainment..

Glad you asked:

Royal was better for entertainment !

The women dancers were stunning!! And I have a 14 yr old son and it was so nice that they did not wear g-strings like the Carnival dancers do! I appreciated that! The shows are great themed too! Broadway-style. However, I'm pretty sure the singers were lip-syncing. The singing was PERFECT and I'm not denying it was their voices ..just pre-recorded versions of their voices.

The ice show was our favorite show of all time!! That's a must see for sure!! Unique to RC!

There was an acoustic guitar artist who played throughout the ship that was AMAZING!!!

But every ship has their own musicians and theme so you would always have something new to see if you tried various ships with RC. Carnival pretty much has the same shows on all of theirs. I wish they would consider changing it up.

Royal~FreedomOfTheSeas 2014

Carnival Glory 2012

Disney Magic 2011

Carnival Triumph 2010

Carnival Victory 2009

Disney Magic 2008

Carnival Inspiration 2008

Carnival Victory 2007

Carnival Triumph 2002

What did you think of the entertainment? That is our biggest reason why our next one is on Princess.

 

Carnival's entertainment now is pretty unentertaining and with playlist rolling out to more ships running out of ships with decent entertainment..

Stu,

Princess' entertainment was better than Carnivals entertainment last time we cruised with them . The only thing I didn't care for was that they had the same entertainment back to back nights.

Their explanation was that they did this to accommodate all the pax since the theater holds 900 and the ship 3000 but it never used to be like that.

They like Carnival had cutbacks but still better than CCL.

Bill

I don't quite get this "loyalty" thinking. So what, I cruise on multiple lines. I enjoy them all. Last year, I sailed with Carnival, Princess and NCL. This year, I've already sailed with Carnival and Princess. Also have a NCL booked.

It is interesting reading with different points of view.

Try Princess. RC is way too expensive and crowded.

Cost wasn't a factor for the OP, it was the familiarity of things we took for granted.

As another poster commented, my RC buffet area was terrible for finding a table, and the areas with the food were very tight. As for drinks, they were made up and on a counter near a wall and of flavored water (and I liked that).

If you cruise the same cruise line and same ships over and over, you will see the same shows over and over. The first time may be fun, but after the 10th time?

I don't recall the production show on Princess having a live orchestra these days. And how many times can you watch a balloon drop?

I sailed Royal Caribbean once. I personally hated it. just my opinion.

I have been very happy with Carnival.

Thanks for giving us your honest opinion! :)

LuLu

~~~

We have sailed FOS three or four times and I really can't agree with a lot of your issues. Yes, it might be nicer if the ice cream was open 24 hours, but seriously, there is so much food on the ship that no one really needs ice cream 24 hours a day.

I prefer the Windjammer to most buffet areas on other lines. We might have a few minutes wait to find a table but we always go all the way to the back since most people just stop at the first table the see. You can always go up and take your drinks from the trays at the drink area.

I also am all over the ship so stopping at the Promenade Cafe or Sorrentos for a drink or tea is never an issue for me. And I always feel the cruise director keeps me up to date (and the captain gets on during the day with a report). I also don't need to hear them trying to sell me on bingo a million times a day.

We always hope to have a pleasant cabin steward, but they are not my friends so as long as the room is cleaned up properly and in a timely fashion, I'm good.

I happen to really enjoy the DR food on Carnival. One of the things I liked the most was having indian every night. Royal used to have that and now it's off the menu. But, if you ask your waiter about it, they can tell the head waiter in the section and he'll be glad to put in the order to the chefs and you'll get a great meal any night. But I do agree...WCMC is unbeatable on Carnival.

I'm sorry that you didn't enjoy it as much as you'd hoped. I think we all get in a groove with perhaps a line or ship and it's hard to break out of that routine without making comparisons.

We sail Royal for a number of reasons but the number one reason is the flowrider. My kids love it, do it as many hours a day as available. If I took them on a ship without one, they simply would not enjoy it. Yes, there are other things to do, but they do not like salt water (most ships), they get tired of slides really fast and I really don't need them spending a week in an arcade playing video games.

So for us, Royal is the way to go. In the future, who knows?

I hope that when you are back on Carnival, it meets all of your expectations and you have a great time.

Different cruise lines for different tastes. As someone mentioned above, ironically some of the differences that the OP missed about Carnival are the same differences which I dislike about Carnival.

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...no one really needs ice cream 24 hours a day.

Speak for yourself.

Just because you aren't wracked by horrible convulsions, sweats, and headaches at the 25th hour of ice cream withdrawal doesn't mean everyone is so lucky...

Enjoyed reading your opinion!

Just goes to show you, bigger isn't always better and Carnival isn't the Wal-Mart of cruising!!!:D We sail for the time at sea and nothing else, but Carnival fits us well!!!:cool:

Yup, Carnival is the best fit for us we are very happy with them

Just goes to show you, bigger isn't always better and Carnival isn't the Wal-Mart of cruising!!!:D We sail for the time at sea and nothing else, but Carnival fits us well!!!:cool:

We love Carnival and heck I like Walmart - I like getting the best value for my dollar and frankly we think we get that with Carnival. My only real complaint with Carnival is the entertainment I wish they would rotate the shows faster, we cruised about 6 months in between our last and the shows were the same - different singers, but same show. We especially liked 3 out of the last 4 comedians we saw, so I think they are doing better in that area.

As I said,"We cruise for the sea..." The joy of living in Las Vegas is we can see all the shows we want!!!:D That's why we cruise for rest and relaxation!!!:cool:

Glad you asked:

Royal was better for entertainment !

The women dancers were stunning!! And I have a 14 yr old son and it was so nice that they did not wear g-strings like the Carnival dancers do! I appreciated that!

I bet your 14 year old son had a different opinion. :)

I have not yet sailed on Royal Caribbean so I cannot comment on that but after 7 Carnival cruises I finally tried another line. Last year I took my 22 y/o daughter on Princess. I did like Princess better than Carnival but I still love Carnival and if it comes down to price, I would probably choose Carnival. I would pay a LITTLE more to cruise Princess but I would not pay A LOT more.