Anyone ever try celebrity or royal??

I want to try a "nicer" cruise line. Obviously nice is subjective so I'm looking for opinions from people that are into the same.

Wife and I are early 30's. Like to drink and gamble. One thing I noticed is that royal has an actual poker table and not the electronic one. Big deal imo.

I just don't want to go on a cruise where the average age is 60.

Royal seems like a better overall fit. Any especially with their drink packages. Any thoughts??

I want to try a "nicer" cruise line. Obviously nice is subjective so I'm looking for opinions from people that are into the same.

 

Wife and I are early 30's. Like to drink and gamble. One thing I noticed is that royal has an actual poker table and not the electronic one. Big deal imo.

 

I just don't want to go on a cruise where the average age is 60.

 

Royal seems like a better overall fit. Any especially with their drink packages. Any thoughts??

I LOVE RCCL. That being said, they are usually more expensive that CCL so you have to decide what your wallet can support. Favorite ship ever (to us) is the Mariner of the Seas.

Average age is probably only slightly older than CCL. HAL is the geriatric cruise line (but still nice).

I was thinking of asking a similar question but for a different demographic actually! I have an 8 year old and i wonder if RC's kids program is as good as Carnival's. Their sale (that ends today) looks pretty lucrative and I can cruise for the same price for a balcony on the two cruise lines with totally different ports.

If you like to gamble, NCL casino at seas gives players great discounts on cabins! (we tried them when we got a certificate from a land-based casino for a free inside, which we upgraded to a balcony on Breakaway) We like their line very much- especially their newer ships. We didn't like Royal as much, except for their entertainment. Their food wasn't as good in the dining room, imho. (buffet was pretty good, though) We love the idea of freestyle dining on NCL, and the entertainment beats CCL hands down. They have a great promo going on - free drinks, or grats, or dining plan. If you book a suite you get all 3!!

I like Royal, but I wouldn't call them Nicer than Carnival. Their newer ships have more activities. Food is not as good, IMHO. I would consider Celebrity a step up.

I cruise Carnival right now because when I can cruise (spring and fall break and summer -- I'm a teacher), they are cheaper. That and my husband doesn't want to change.

We are considering a RCL cruise out of galveston for our 2016 family cruise. Prices are higher and i read a lot of complaints about the food being subpar even the Chops steakhouse. food is subjective though. I take it all with a grain of salt.

I have heard their kids program is really good though. My 2 oldest live in Camp Carnival/Circle C so RCL having a decent kids program is something im looking for.

I do not like however that they have multiple types of rooms that you cannot book online. you have to call.

Also read this week that they no longer allow you to bring sodas and water on board any more. i dunno. thats not a deal breaker either.

We are easy to please and try not to cruise with expectations.

Never been on CCL but did a lot of Celebrity and Cunard. Celebrity, I feel is in a different league than CCL (I've read a lot of reviews of CCL). It is not as child friendly; more for couples. Very upscale and classy.

Celebrity cuisine and service is superb, and you would be advised to bring some very nice clothing with you for the evenings.

RC is our favorite cruise line! Celebrity just too laid back quiet at night for us, not yet for us and we are 52.

I am a platinum Carnival cruiser and just took my first Royal cruise (Explorer of the Seas) over Christmas with my hubby and daughter age (8). We had a wonderful time! I've been meaning to post a review/comparison, but have just been too busy since our return. Anyway, here are my impressions:

Food - Carnival is better. Royal's food is edible, but bland. Hubby and I found that it lacked even basic seasonings like salt. Ice cream on Royal was cheap, had a gritty, ice crystal texture, and was available only certain hours.

Ship - LOVED the RCI ship better than any other we've sailed! Ice skating, roller blading, plenty of fun activities, movie theater (albeit very small) sports court, ping pong, and of course the iconic rock wall.

Activities/Shows: Royal is better in this area. I'm not much of a show person, but the ice skating show we saw on EoS was awesome! Plus there were a variety of games and activities for everyone and parades down the central plaza (my hubby's favorite part of the ship!) we had Christmas caroling on Christmas Eve, and even Midnight Mass, as well as daily morning Masses in the main showroom. We were never bored! On Christmas morning, Santa paraded down the promenade to the ice skating rink, where he met the kids and gave them each a wrapped, age-appropriate gift. (DD got headphones.)

Kids club - DD loved the RCI kids club more than any other cruise, including Disney! I don't blame her - the counselors actually interacted with the kids and played age-appropriate games with them, instead of just supervising/babysitting the kids. There were 700 kids on board!

Service: Service was okay on RCI, but lacking a certain sincerity that I enjoy with Carnival. I would make eye contact, smile, and say hello to various Royal crew members in passing, and would get barely even a nod, if I got that. There were 1-2 exceptions, of course, and no one was RUDE, but they staff didn't seem quite as friendly as on a Carnival ship.

Cabin - We booked sort of last minute, and wound up booking an OV GTY on Royal. We were upgraded to a balcony! The location was great, and I'm not one to look down my nose at an upgrade, but I think Carnival cabins and balconies are a little nicer. For one, the cabins are bigger. For another, the balconies we've had on Carnival have been more open with better visibility. The balcony we got on deck 6 was enclosed, like the cove balconies on the lower decks of the Dream class ships. Also, the bathroom on Carnival is bigger, although I love that Royal has actual medicine CABINETS in the bathroom instead of open shelves. Royal did not give us any of the convenient samples like toothpaste either.

Amenities - I LOVED that Royal trusts its passengers with things like pool towels, golf balls/clubs, ping pong balls/paddles, etc. throughout the ship. I always find it annoying that Carnival makes you "check out" these things on your S&S! Granted, the towels on Royal are not high quality, but if your need a towel or 2 for the pool/spa, just walk over to the table and grab what you need! Also, hooray for Royal for having their hot tubs open 24 hours! One nuisance with Royal, though, is that it was so dang hard to find a free drink! If hubby wanted tea or if I wanted some ice water, we had to trek to one of the rare drink stations on the Lido deck and hope that the server there had what we wanted sitting out. There were no drink machines like on Carnival, although there were Freestyle Coke machines if you purchased a special mug to lug around the ship with you.

Miscellaneous - We got a BOGO 1/2 off deal through Royal, making our cruise VERY affordable! Labadee was an awesome private port, and lunch on the island was included with our cruise. Johnny Rockets on the EOS was only $6/person extra and the food was yummy, as were the milkshakes and ice cream sundaes. :-)

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I was thinking of asking a similar question but for a different demographic actually! I have an 8 year old and i wonder if RC's kids program is as good as Carnival's. Their sale (that ends today) looks pretty lucrative and I can cruise for the same price for a balcony on the two cruise lines with totally different ports.

See my reply above. My 8-year-old LOVED the kids club better than Carnival AND Disney!

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It's been a while since our RCCL cruise but the main reason we didn't return was the food. We are not big foodies but by the 7th day, we just wanted something that had some taste to it. For the price, we returned to Carnival because we feel they are in the same category of cruises.

Celebrity will certainly get you the "nicer" that you are looking for. If it helps, my mom loves cruising Celebrity because of the passengers. But, she's 72...

Celebrity for sure!!

was on X for my firs time this past Fall and loved everything about (well except that there is no self service laundry) but who cares.

I am 30 yrs old and fitted right in. Nice and pleasant change from Carnival

Yeah it sounds like I would like celebrity in terms of ships and amenities but I'm not trying to sail with grandma and grandpa

Oh yeah! No self service laundry on Royal either. Also, our bathroom shower on Royal had a curved door that allowed me to get clean without being molested by a shower curtain.

There were also trash cans on board.

And no afternoon tea, like on Carnival (my favorite sea day activity).

Embarkation/debarkation for our Royal cruise were the worst ever, and Port Canaveral is usually my favorite home port!

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I went Royal Caribbean and HATED it. There felt like nothing to do, and it was such an uptight and stuffy atmosphere that I was uncomfortable and pretty miserable the whole time.

I agree with all that Lady Jag said about Royal except the info concerning the kids clubs. I have only been on Disney with the grandkids. Price wise I have found Royal to be cheaper than Carnival out of Galveston. We were supposed to have been on the Navigator last month but I had a medical issue and we had to cancel.:( That cruise was booked a couple of years in advance and I was also able to get in on the BOGO sale last year and it beat the Carnival Magic with the fare prices. We are planning to rebook as soon as I hear back from the travel insurance(always get it but this is the first time had to use it and they have been easy to work with. In fact my daughter called Royal on the day we were to board,a Sunday, and I had ALL fees, taxes, excursions, etc in my account by the following Wed.!) I have been checking prices for Galveston and I can book a D2 balcony on Royal for less than the Carnival Magic or Freedom 8B balcony. A D2 is a larger room and balcony than the Carnival balcony. We wanted to come back to Royal after a number of Carnival cruises to sail something different. And Galveston is a closer port than the Florida ones for us and we can budget a little less time away from the farm. I think if you watch the sales etc. you can find comparable costs(We are also Platinum on Royal and the cabin discount helps). :) Hope this helps a little!

It's been a while since our RCCL cruise but the main reason we didn't return was the food. We are not big foodies but by the 7th day, we just wanted something that had some taste to it. For the price, we returned to Carnival because we feel they are in the same category of cruises.

 

Celebrity will certainly get you the "nicer" that you are looking for. If it helps, my mom loves cruising Celebrity because of the passengers. But, she's 72...

This as well. We were very unimpressed with the food. We missed Carnival desperately for that reason. They are similar as far as the rooms and shows etc. I cant say as far as the casino as I was 7nderage, but I felt like the only young person on the cruise. Most people were in their 50s or older, and it was during spring break. The ladies we sat with at dinner however we fabulous. They were older ladies travelling together as friends, which they did every year around tax time because their husbands were always busy(accountants). They were the best part of the trip.

I sailed on Royal to Hawaii from Los Angeles, and loved it. Nightlife was fairly happening.

I sailed on Celebrity to Alaska from Los Angeles, and loved it. Agreed the "nightlife" was non-existent, but that may have been due to the itinerary. We struggled to find late night cookies and tea (by late night I mean 10pm!) but my friend made friends with a guy cleaning up and he magically found some cookies for us. We adapted. :p

That said...not a drinker, not a gambler, but love to sail. I've yet to be "really" disappointed in a cruise.

FYI - I'm in my early 50s.

"ajee" .... Yes in additional to Carnival and others we have been on Celebrity and RCCL.

For what you want RCCL would probably be the best fit for you. ;)

LuLu

We've done well over 20 Carnival cruises and decided to see what the competition had to offer. In 2014, we cruised on Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and Princess.

For our introduction to Royal Caribbean, we figured sailing on the world's largest cruise ship, Allure Of The Seas, was the way to get started. We had a very enjoyable cruise, and it was so interesting to see some areas where Royal Caribbean was better than Carnival... and some areas where Carnival was much better.

After having done so many Carnival cruises, it was fun just to see a lot of new things. All the entertainment, including all the production shows, were all new to us... and that made it very interesting. Also, new ports of call... such as Royal Caribbean's private retreat at Labadee, Haiti... that was really enjoyable. So, just changing it up after 20+ Carnival cruises was fun for us.

Allure Of The Seas at Labadee, Haiti

As others have said, overall, the food on Royal Caribbean was inferior to what we had been used to with Carnival. While we did have some really nice experiences in a couple of their specialty restaurants, overall the day-to-day food available over the course of the 7-day cruise was just not as good on Royal Caribbean as what we had experienced on all those Carnival cruises. Especially if you like to eat in the buffet... be prepared for a less-than-Carnival food experience.

Of course, there were a few exceptions. I like what Royal Caribbean does in their pizza restaurant WAY better than the way Carnival does it... both in terms of the taste of the pizza, and also the system they use to serve it. On Carnival ships, as I'm sure you have experienced, it is not uncommon to stand around for a long time waiting for them to produce a slice of pizza for you. Part of that is due to the fact that there is just ONE employee doing all the tasks in Carnival's pizza restaurant. He is the order taker, he kneads the dough, he puts all the ingredients on, he bakes the pizzas, he slices them, and he serves the slices up to you.

On Allure Of The Seas, their pizza restaurant is run more like a traditional pizza buffet restaurant. They had LOTS of employees in the pizza restaurant... and they had lots of different varieties of pizza out for you to serve yourself. They kept a constant stream of fresh pizzas coming, and put them under heat lamps to keep them warm as people took slices. There was always a good volume of traffic, so pizza never sat long enough to get cold or old. Carnival could learn a LOT from how Royal Caribbean does this.

Another food experience on Allure Of The Seas that stood out for me was Rita's Cantina... which is the Mexican restaurant and bar onboard. It's always been a joke to me how little Mexican food is served up on Carnival... and how bad it is. I don't think Carnival's Indian restaurant staff understands Mexican food at all. I live in Southern California and we're big on Mexican food there. Rita's Cantina offers a much better Mexican dining experience than you can get on Carnival.

But overall, other than a few standouts like what I mentioned, Royal Caribbean's food just didn't cut it for me. Especially breakfast and lunch.

Forgetting food... there were some really unique experiences on Allure Of The Seas that made me very glad I got to experience them. The shows they put on in their Aqua Theater are really cool. Their multipurpose facility that can be converted to an ice rink is REALLY a great venue... we had our muster drill there, and attended several special events there... including QUEST, which was a riot! There was a lot of music in the evenings. The sense I kept having was that Royal Caribbean spent generously on entertainment and I never felt like they were trying to get by on a tight budget like I sometimes feel on Carnival.

As others have mentioned, it is significantly more expensive to sail on Royal Caribbean than it is on Carnival. Compare apples to apples and you will see it clearly.

I'm glad we sailed on Allure Of The Seas, and we're going to do at least one more Royal Caribbean cruise... but I suspect that we'll be cruising mostly with Carnival and Princess in the future, and sometimes with Norwegian.

Follow the link in my signature to read my full review of Allure Of The Seas, including many photos.

I just don't understand how people say the food on RC is inferior to Carnivals. :eek:

Trust me you get better selection/quality/variety on RC than on Carnival when it comes to the lunch buffet.

Dinner is pretty much the same but honestly how can they say carnival is better...carnival gives you meatloaf, fried chicken, pot pie, flat iron steak you never see these items on a RC menu.

Late night you get assortment of snacks, mini sandwiches on all types of rolls/bread/croissants, pastries, cookies, cupcakes, salads, and you never have a wait for the pizza like you do on Carnival.

Balconies are doubled the size on RC than what you get on Carnivals basic balconies.

Both Carnival and RC offer very good specialty dining.

RC service overall is excellent where carnival its a hit or miss...and you never can get a second cocktail in the MDR on Carnival that beverage server never comes by a second time, but RC is always around to take orders.

THE DRINK PACKAGE I BELIEVE IS NEARLY SAME COST AND THERE ARE NO LIMITS, Carnivals limit is 15 drink maximum, not on RC...and the drink glasses on RC are larger than carnivals. For instance, if I order a grey goose and tonic on Carnival it comes in what looks like that small juice glass, on RC it will be served in a much larger glass.

RC shows are much better quality overall.

RC ice shows are not to be missed.

The pools on RC are fresh water, much larger and more open spaces around them regarding deck space compared to Carnival

RC remains to have some live music on deck in the afternoons.

I can go on and on why RC is better than Carnival....but I also never have a bad carnival cruise just don't expect the quality on Carnival that RC offers.

Thanks. I don't do a ton of cruises. Usually 1 major vacation a year. Either cruise or vegas. We've been doing 2 the last few years so I figure cut it back to 1 but spend a little more on something I like. I might skip royal and just try a celebrity suite. I just don't want my wife and I to be on a cruise with rose from the titanic.

I drink a lot and like to have a good time. Not sure if everyone on the ship will appreciate that.

If I only did one cruise a year it MUST be either Princess or RC! (Unlelss its the new Carnival Vista lol)

Trust me its nice not having to keep track of how many drinks you get in hopes that you won't get shut off early at night...RC is UNLIMITED and they offer you different types of drink packages, such as wine and beer only...or premium package....or ultimate package. (Get the ultimate it includes the better coffee's and also FRESH squeezed OJ in the MDR and buffet for breakfast)

Oh, if you notice my next cruise is on the Carnival Valor and not a RC ship, its because up until a month ago I was booked on the Oasis of the Seas...my other half got this premier cruise discount which is a special lower rate plus he gets $900 cash back in the casino right away and on top of it we don't have to fly to south florida Pt.Canaveral is just two hours away from us and the Valor is southern caribbean and 8 nights, the only reason why we switched.

I've only sailed with Celebrity once (last year) but have another cruise booked in August with them (we tag along with my mother in law and her retired pilots association). Since we sailed to Alaska, the cruise was definitely about the destination. Their naturalist was top notch.

I did find that I was expecting to be "wowed" by Celebrity and wasn't. Other than more upscale furnishings and more sophisticated art and decor (which was really nice), there didn't seem to be much different from our Carnival sailings. I couldn't wait to be amazed by the food (after all, that's what they are supposed to be known for) and some nights it was great and others it was "meh". People did seem to dress up a little more on Celebrity for dinner. Service was good, no different than Carnival in my opinion.

The free drink package was great and had great service at the bars, especially the martini bar. We found the nightlife pretty active on our sailing, as did our daughter (24), but in all fairness, I think we've lost our late night party edge, especially on port-intensive trips.

Would I sail them again, sure, but it will most likely come down to cost. I'd really like to try RCL sometime to compare it as well.