help needed...RCI Princess Carnival....which one???

hola! i need help. can someone please help me chose between RCI Carnival and Princess...i have sailed on RCI Navigator, and Carnival's facination, but how are Carnival's new fleet? RCI's Radiance Class? On princess, i am simply dumbfound! i will traveling woth a group of 14 or so...PLEASE HELP ME!

Thanks!

Facination 12-18-2003

Navigator of the Seas- 7-3-04

Princess' Carribean Princess is the newest ship and the Grand Class is similar to the Voyager class you experienced. Depends on what you like. RCI has a rock wall, Princess, movies under the stars. Working with a cruise TA would be a great start. Sorry, I do not know much about Carnival.

We just sailed on one of Carnival's newer ships, the Conquest. It was a great cruise!:D Our favorite RCI ship is the Rhapsody. In comparing the two, I find that I like them both about equally. Both of them have great food in the formal dining areas. But Carnival wins hands down when it comes to snack food. RCI's frozen pizza and snacks don't even compare to Carnival's homemade pizza and freshly made snacks. Carnival has more of a fun "party" atmosphere with the parade and late night adult comedians and their bars and clubs are always alive and hoppin' with lots of party action.

On the other hand, RCI has more physical activities to pursue like the rock climbing wall and ice rinks. I also like RCI's adults only pool area which is a really relaxing area to go to.;)

So I would say, if you're looking for a ship that has lots of stuff going on well into the night with more of a fun "party" atmosphere, go on Carvnival. But if you're looking for some good physical day time activities and also some good adults only areas to relax in, go on RCI. Either way, both cruises are great and you'll have a nice time regardless of which cruise line you choose.:)

As you can see from my profile I have cruised the Fascination which was okay. I also this time last year cruised Inspiration, Fascination's sister. I found Inspiration a good value as that cruise was pretty inexpensive but I cruised Miracle 4 months later (this past April) and the experience was entirely different. Where as Inspiration was a good value-Miracle cost us more and that was for a 3 day cruise and not a 7 day cruise as we had done on the Inspiration. We found though the food, entertainment, lounges etc. were tons better on Miracle then Inspiration. We LOVED the Miracle. We felt Miracle was worth the extra cost.

What this showed me was 2 Carnival cruises can be very different. Carnival offers the bargain value cruises but Carnival also offers the nicer cruises.

This is the way I feel-when I can't afford better I will gladly do a bargain cruise-but I do like the options the newer nicer ships offer. So when I can afford it- I will cruise the nicer newer ships.

I have only cruised one Princess ship. That cruise I felt was super but that was an old ship and I am sure nothing like the grand class ships. I hope to cruise one of the better Princess ships one day but right now what I have booked for next year is RCCL's Mariner of the Seas.

Anyway the way I see it you can have a good time no matter what ship you cruise-you just can't expect a bargain cruise to be as nice as the more expensive cruise. which makes sense to me-if I spend more I EXPECT it to be better.

It is like comparing Six Flags to Magic Kingdom. You can have a great time at Six Flags but you don't expect it to be Disney's Magic Kingdom.

One thing that is good to do is read some of the ship's reviews posts of the 3 ships and ittnearies you are considering. that is what we always do when we are trying to decide what cruise to pick.