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I never thought I would EVER jump ship for Carnival...BUT


BopRN
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I just did! We have gotten SO bored with the RCCL Caribbean itineraries..... and just decided we needed a change! Celebrity didn't have ANY sailings we could do..... which would have been our first choice..... so we are now booked on the Carnival Dream in August. :eek:

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Both Carnival & RCCL have the same sail schedules from the ports that we cruise out of. So it comes down to cabin availability & pricing.

 

But it seems like RCCL is pricing themselves out of our budget range for family of 4 (2 cabins). We feel like Carnival now gives us better bang for the buck...

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2016 will be the jump year for many. The only way I sail again with carnival is if I'm booking for a new ship. Don't really like carnival but service seen better for a new ship. But I'm more inclined by NCL for 2016. There is no way I'm gonna pay Oasis class price to sail on Freedom class

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I just did! We have gotten SO bored with the RCCL Caribbean itineraries..... and just decided we needed a change! Celebrity didn't have ANY sailings we could do..... which would have been our first choice..... so we are now booked on the Carnival Dream in August. :eek:

 

I have friends that went on the Dream. They loved it!

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I have friends that went on the Dream. They loved it!

 

 

Glad they enjoyed it! We enjoyed ours too. Just little quirks that we haven't found on the other 3 cruises that made it not "as" special. Still can't go wrong with a cruise! Driving to Port Canaveral now to leave on Carnival Liberty!

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I just did! We have gotten SO bored with the RCCL Caribbean itineraries..... and just decided we needed a change! Celebrity didn't have ANY sailings we could do..... which would have been our first choice..... so we are now booked on the Carnival Dream in August. :eek:

 

And how is Carnival Dream's itinerary much different from RCCL :confused:...looks like the same itinerary you are "SO bored" with.

 

Belize, Cozumel and Honduras or Montego Bay, Cayman and Cozumel

 

Looks about the same to me.

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Glad they enjoyed it! We enjoyed ours too. Just little quirks that we haven't found on the other 3 cruises that made it not "as" special. Still can't go wrong with a cruise! Driving to Port Canaveral now to leave on Carnival Liberty!

 

We're heading out, too! Can't wait. The concert is icing on the cake.

Royal may price us out this year. We love the nice perks (drinks), but like to cruise often. Just too pricey right now!

Always have a wonderful time, no matter which cruise line. :)

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Carnival is not bad at all, but I will only go in the Fall. September/October/November are really inexpensive with very few kids, and a slightly older crowd. Itinerary is #1 for us anyways, so it's probably a good choice. The MDR is surprisingly good, not quite as good as Celebrity, but for a budget line A+. ;)

Edited by Stateroom_Sailor
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We love carnival. Went on the dream once and breeze twice in the last two years. Always good food and u get on board credit if your room price goes down up to two days out from sailing. Don't forget nightly animals in your room and mints. So many positives.

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Good luck , After 12 Carnival cruises we are done with them for a while. We have 5 RCI cruises and coming back here for the next 2 , Just got off the Carnival Liberty , had a great cruise with our friends , but as a ship and cruise would give it a C , Entertainment is gone . They have this new American Table menu that is God awful and I am not foodie . Lido Deck , hope you like rap music. Was on the Dream in 13 of our Carnival Ships hated it the most . It just a Conquest class ship that is stretched to hold more people that results in line after line . worst cruise we have ever taken in a Carnival ship when it came to waiting all of the time. Carnival has been the one big cutback after another , now saying that our last cruise I booked so cheap couldn't pass it up because of the price. So if you got a deal It will be worth it.

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^^apparently they switched to a lesser chocolate mint a bit ago that nobody liked, so they just did away with them all together I heard...

 

We've sailed with carnival 4 times now and have been pretty happy with it. The food was always good, service was always "as expected". After a couple cruises I realized the theatre show was the same as one from 2 years before that so it was like...."ooookay, glad they're still doing that routine". The comedy shows are usually pretty decent. The rooms were always pretty clean and the stewards did well.

 

So we'll see after our first RCI cruise in May. I have a feeling with pricing being how it's looking, we'll be back to carnival, but it would be nice if they updated their drink packages. They weren't bad but need to be more comprehensive, and up the limit to 20 drinks or so, include wine and coffee drinks, and not require both cabin guests to purchase it...

 

we'll see though. Things change pretty quick around here it seems.

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We love carnival. Went on the dream once and breeze twice in the last two years. Always good food and u get on board credit if your room price goes down up to two days out from sailing. Don't forget nightly animals in your room and mints. So many positives.

 

Used to be mints , not anymore they are gone .

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^^apparently they switched to a lesser chocolate mint a bit ago that nobody liked, so they just did away with them all together I heard...

 

We've sailed with carnival 4 times now and have been pretty happy with it. The food was always good, service was always "as expected". After a couple cruises I realized the theatre show was the same as one from 2 years before that so it was like...."ooookay, glad they're still doing that routine". The comedy shows are usually pretty decent. The rooms were always pretty clean and the stewards did well.

 

So we'll see after our first RCI cruise in May. I have a feeling with pricing being how it's looking, we'll be back to carnival, but it would be nice if they updated their drink packages. They weren't bad but need to be more comprehensive, and up the limit to 20 drinks or so, include wine and coffee drinks, and not require both cabin guests to purchase it...

 

we'll see though. Things change pretty quick around here it seems.

 

That's true it was like piece of stale Chocolate , we never ate them just threw them in a drawer. The cruise we just got off had only 2 shows of singing and such the rest was CD crap. One night they grabbed any passenger they could find and call it a talent show. They used to actually find good people last cruise it was the first people that signed up didn't even hear them sign or whatever it was awful.

Edited by frito58
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I just did! We have gotten SO bored with the RCCL Caribbean itineraries..... and just decided we needed a change! Celebrity didn't have ANY sailings we could do..... which would have been our first choice..... so we are now booked on the Carnival Dream in August. :eek:

 

We did the same thing because of scheduling. We're booked on the Carnival Miracle in November. We would have preferred RRCL or Celebrity.

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I just did! We have gotten SO bored with the RCCL Caribbean itineraries..... and just decided we needed a change! Celebrity didn't have ANY sailings we could do..... which would have been our first choice..... so we are now booked on the Carnival Dream in August. :eek:

 

Having been on all three, I would say that RCCL and Carnival are a closer overall product than RCCL and Celebrity. Celebrity is a full step above RCCL, while Carnival is only a half step below RCCL. IMHO, anyway.

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I am a diamond member of RCCL and also got tired of RCCL. I went on two Carnival cruises (Breeze and Liberty) and then went back to Independence. I will tell you I am not sure why I left. The last cruise on IOS was fantastic. I found the big difference was in staff. The RCCL staff likes their jobs and the Carnival staff does their job. The extra effort by everyone you meet really makes for a happy ship. Carnival was crowded/food was OK/staff surly and not at all helpful. The dinning room staff was frazzled. Our group of 24 was jammed into 2 tables meant for 8 each! So for the time being I will stay away from Carnival. You get what you pay for.

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I am a diamond member of RCCL and also got tired of RCCL. I went on two Carnival cruises (Breeze and Liberty) and then went back to Independence. I will tell you I am not sure why I left. The last cruise on IOS was fantastic. I found the big difference was in staff. The RCCL staff likes their jobs and the Carnival staff does their job. The extra effort by everyone you meet really makes for a happy ship. Carnival was crowded/food was OK/staff surly and not at all helpful. The dinning room staff was frazzled. Our group of 24 was jammed into 2 tables meant for 8 each! So for the time being I will stay away from Carnival. You get what you pay for.

 

I will say our staff was top notch on the Liberty , always hustling always smiling . They were great . They had no bearing as to why we are switching for a few cruises. I have never had a bad crew on a Carnival cruise.

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We are looking at Dream as well out of New Orleans. Its a pretty new and large ship.

 

We had a bad experience on Glory (Mostly the people) a few years back and wrote off Carnival...but with the crazy prices, to include now the bar prices...and the lack of new itineraries and ships since all RCCL cares about is the bottom line and emerging markets....we may give Carnival another shot shortly.

 

Wish they had some last minute deals....Trying to grab one out of New Orleans.

Edited by Deptacon
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As you can see I sail Carnival and I have never had a bad cruise. True some were better than others but I've never gotten off a ship and said "what a bad cruise" . I'm a big fan of Breeze and Liberty , I wish you would of booked Breeze because it's a really nice ship and diffrent than other Carnival ships.

I've only cruised RC one time in 1998 and on that cruise was my least favorite.

I will be going on Allure next year and have no doubt it will be great.

 

I think RC & Carnival are similar but each has their own pluses and minuses as well as each sailing. I'm surprised my someone's Liberty comment as the staff was top notch when we were on her. Breeze , I didnt think the buffetts food was great just ok but MDR it was very good. The public spaces were great on breeze so many places to lounge and very comfy.

Enjoy!

Edited by Midwestgal
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