Seasoned Cruisers Question

I have sailed 16 times but all on RCCL and Celebrity. I have enjoyed the food, entertainment and activities on all of our cruises. I will be cruising next year out of FLA on RCCL but am also looking at NCL Dawn and Carnival Dream while I am there.

Which would be your preference and why based on your experiences?

I have sailed 16 times but all on RCCL and Celebrity. I have enjoyed the food, entertainment and activities on all of our cruises. I will be cruising next year out of FLA on RCCL but am also looking at NCL Dawn and Carnival Dream while I am there.

 

Which would be your preference and why based on your experiences?

Apolgies in advance to all the Carnival and NCL fans out there (please don't flame me) :o!

I'm an RCl/X cruiser too, and I don't think I would consider either of these cruise lines -- simply based on what I've read, and my personal preferences. In fact, the only other mainstream cruise line that intrigues me is Princess. I've seen them compared favorably with RCCL products, and their new smoking policy (similar to X) would make them a possible option for me. :cool:

Can't help you with Carnival or NCL.........but we also have 16 RCCL cruises under our belt and are slowly making the switch to Princess.........but some of their releases for 2013 are 25% higher than this year........I hope this isn't a general trend for all cruise lines.

Good luck in your choice.

We thought NCL is a step above RCCL, the only thing we didn't like about them is no fixed dinner time, but most posters love it.

With Carnival, a lot depends heavily on your fellow cruisers. We have had some GREAT Carnival cruises, and two that were OK, but not great. I would try and avoid the 3/4 night cruises to avoid the party-till-you-puke-in-the-pool crowd. I've seen a few rowdy souls on a longer Carnie cruise, but very little. I have met some great people, of all ages, and all different demographics on Carnival ships. I also sailed on a 10 day Princess Southern Caribbean cruise back in 2003. The ports were great, and the ship was gorgeous (the previous Ocean Princess, now the P & O Oceana), however, the ship really needed a jump start after about 9:00pm when most activities were winding down. I don't really attribute that to Princess as a company, but more because of the older crowd on-board. The highlight of the entertainment was trivia, art auctions, and bingo.....otherwise, very quiet and sedate. We did find out on the last day at Princess Cays, that there were more families on board than we had seen the previous 9 days! I would think that as long as you stayed with a 7 day itinerary with Princess, that you would most likely be fine. If you sail Princess longer than 7 days, I hope the meds kick in early, as most of the other pax will probably be hitting the sheets around 9 or 10pm.

I have been on both, most who bash have not. Both are good out of these two I would choose Carnival. Big rooms ,good shows and better food.

I have only been on the NCL Dawn, not on the CCL and really enjoyed it. I most recently did the Princess line and found little differences between NCL, Princess and RCCL. Sometimes variety is the spice of life

Last year we were on the Dawn Princess and felt we were the youngest on board---And we are 68 years old! At night the trio in the lounge left at 7pm for their dinner! we had trouble finding dance music. In the atrium they had a violyn, chello and piano player. How do you dance to them? And when there was music, never saw so many doing the waltz!

We like Carnival because of the nice mix of people. And we HATE the freestyle dinning- they give you a beeper when a table is tready and once we had to wait 40 minutes!

Haven't been on RCCL in a while but don't rule them out.

And we HATE the freestyle dinning- they give you a beeper when a table is tready and once we had to wait 40 minutes!

Haven't been on RCCL in a while but don't rule them out.

I love freestyle dining. I don't want a set dining time because I don't always want to eat dinner at the same time or in the same place or with the same people every day. Obviously this is just my preference and I know many see it differently and enjoy traditional dining.

I have been on six NCL cruises and have never been given a beeper or waited more than 5 minutes for a table in the MDR. If you have reservations in a specialty restaurant there is no wait.

We are doing the Dawn for the second time next year.

We sail Princess the most and have also sailed on RCI, Celebrity, NCL and Carnival. Really, I don't see all that much difference between the lines.

Maybe Celebrity and Princess are a little more 'grown-up' but we've enjoyed our RCI, Carnival and NCL cruises as well.

I have not noticed the rowdy 'party' behavior often attributed to Carnival, but we've never taken one of their short cruises or one during spring break.

Our one NCL cruise on the Jewel was a pleasant surprise. The shows were some of the best we have seen and we thought the MDR was just fine.

Now I'd like to try Holland America, about the only mainstream line we haven't sailed. I like trying different ships and cruise lines.

Having only sailed on Carnival (26 times) I would choose them over NCL if for no other reason you have the option of fixed or your time dining.

However, I will say that the Dream is not my favorite ship. There have been some changes since she 1st came out to address the crowding on the Promenade.

You might give the Carnival Liberty some consideration. She sails from Miami and has just been upgraded with all the 2.0 renovations. Plus, the new smoking policy has really addressed that issue.

We have sailed on all 4 lines and loved them all! However, we found NCL to be our favorite. We have sailed the Dawn 5 times. We found that NCL has just a touch higher attention to service than the others. I know that everyone has their own experiences. So, just from our own experience, the crew and staff go a bit higher above and beyond on NCL than the others. We wouldn't hesitate to sail on another line. But, when we're planning a cruise, we look to NCL first.

Some folks really like "freestyle", some hate it. If you're from the northeast and you're going to the Caribbean in the winter........... it's 80 degrees, the sun's out, the pool and the beaches are beckoning............I'd be happy on any line or ship! I'd give it a try!

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. It sounds like a toss up but I am sure that we will make the best of whatever we choose.

Well, it has been some time since I posted on this particular thread. Just slipped my mind to get back.

Now that I had chosen Carnival Dream to cruise, I wondered that maybe that it was just a coincidence that we enjoyed ourselves so much after hearing all of the bashing of CCL. So, we tried cruising on the Pride out of Baltimore and I must say that I would not hesitate to book again. We enjoyed our CCL cruises as much as RCCL and itinerary will drive our selections.

Thank you for coming back and updating us, and I'm glad you've found yet another cruise line to enjoy. We find that there's more similarities than differences between lines, unless you're looking for something specific such as water slides or flow riders. I hope that we'll enjoy our first RCI cruise as much as you enjoyed your Carnival one. ;)