Carnival vs Princess

We used to sail Carnival and loved it but after 2004 we were unable to cruise until 2012. We were going to Alaska so went on Princess. We enjoyed it although at the time I felt that the food was better on Carnival. At least how I remembered it to be. We took another Princess cruise last September and have two more coming up in February. Because we live in Maryland we are considering taking the Carnival Pride out of Baltimore for a 21 day b2b southern Caribbean in 2016. Because of that I started to read the Carnival board again. Wow! After reading the thread of how Carnival is going downhill I wonder if we should commit to 21 days on Carnival!!! Princess, for one day less but similar itinerary, is almost 2x as expensive plus we would have to fly. I'm talking several thousands of dollars and that is for a balcony. I'll have to think long and hard about this.

Any recent Princess and Carnival cruisers out there? What are your thoughts on the differences.

We are just recently off the Miracle (19 August) and saw no indication that Carnival is going down hill. Having sailed both Carnival and Princess I would say that they both have their charms. We sail Carnival 4 to 5 times per year and chose that line because the price gives us the most bang for the buck.

Enjoy your cruise.

Each one is different, and you have to set your expectations accordingly. We have sailed 14 times on Carnival, and the last two times on Princess. Princess is more laid back and elegant in my opinion. But a cruise is always what you decide to make it. We are sailing again on Carnival in three months, and then actually trying our Norwegian in Europe next year. We were just off the Royal Princess three weeks ago, and I know that when we step on the Liberty, it will not be the Royal Princess....but we are on a cruise, and we will have a fantastic time.

Chevy VS Caddilac. Carnival is fine and a good value, but Princess is a cut above. fFr the money difference I'd choose Carnival.

We did a 7 day Carnival Pride cruise followed by a 7 day Caribbean Princess cruise this spring. The food on Carnival was much better than on Caribbean Princess. David's Steakhouse is wonderful on Pride. Crab Shack was good but not in the same league. Cabins were nicer on Pride. The fun factor went to the Pride as well thanks to a great CD. Entertainment on Caribbean Princess was better, but the Comedy Club and piano bar on Pride are excellent. We will be back on the Pride again tomorrow.

We sailed Carnival a few times and Princess once. I love both and agree with bassmaker that a cruise is what you make of it. Although, I found the food to be better on Princess. I know others may disagree but that's my opinion. :D

I sailed the pride last summer with my family was a great cruise and kids enjoyed it thourghly. This summer we did the freedom and once again were satisfied with a great cruise, the food on both ships was good and the guys burgers, blue iguana and pizza food was very good. Mdr also food was well prepared and tasty all in all not a bad meal for us on carnival. We also have taken a number of princess cruises and feel the food is slighly better than carnival but depends on what they were offering. Princess also does seem to have a more upscale feel but carnival is definitely more fun to me and the kids. We love carnival and will continue to sail with them, princess is great as well and since both now are owned by carnival the similarities i feel are noticeable, so to pay double i think is not worth it but similarly priced cruises i think are a toss up which i would give the edge to best itinerary if i had to choose which line. Either way you cant go wrong as they are both good cruise lines!

It is interesting to me that you ask this question -- we have recently sailed on Caribbean Princess, and had sailed on Carnival Fascination in 2009. I was surprised at how similar Princess seemed to Carnival! I had gotten the impression from what I had read about Princess that it would be a more elegant and refined experience than Carnival, but I did not find it so.

Since you have sailed on both lines, and liked them both, I think you will be able to be happy on either. Go with your "gut" regarding cost and convenience. Both cruise lines will always be there for you to cruise on in the future (I assume :rolleyes:), so from where I sit, you can't make a wrong decision. And if it were me, I would go with the cruise that costs half as much -- even if you like it half as much as you think would have liked the Princess cruise, it's all good, right?

The key to your being happy on Carnival might be for you to make a pact with yourself not to compare it to what you experienced in the past. Consider it the same way you might consider a cruise on a line which is brand new to you. That way you forestall any tendency to be disappointed by comparing your current cruise with the "good old days." And perhaps you will not find that Carnival has deteriorated! Many don't think it has.

Princess is definitely a cut above Carnival. Carnival is a no frills cruise line, basic amenities in the cabin, more children on board, and a younger crowd. The food on Carnival was acceptable, but food is subjective, what one likes one may dislike. Princess has an older crowd, slower paced, and the food is good. However, in the buffet they have 4-5 dishes with sausage in them--every day. I thought to myself that a sausage vendor gave Princess a good deal on sausage. We found that purchasing a wine package on Princess was easier to get than on Carnival. We went to the Special Occasions shop and the attendant had no idea what we were talking about. We showed her where it said in the daily paper where to purchase the package. We got frustrated and ended up leaving. We bought a bottle from the bartender whenever we wanted to sip on some wine.

What brought us back to Carnival was the no smoking policy on balconies. for us booking a cruise out of San Francisco on Princess is easy for us as we don't have to fly. If the price for flights are good, we'll book Carnival. Haven't found one yet for the East coast.

I just got off a Carnival B2B, had a great time, and came home and booked Princess 48 hours later. That should tell you what you need to know about Carnival cutbacks. However, only you can speak to the money issue. If I had a chance to take a major cruise on Carnival for thousands less than Princess I might consider it. After all, you are still at sea. Then again if I had to eat off the Carnival MDR menu for 21 days I think I would lose my mind. I just did it for 12 days and we got to the point where we were challenging each other to eat things we hadn't eaten the week before and it was all still marginal.

I am looking forward to a 7 day on Pride next summer because it's my last year with a child in Club 02 and it's what he wants.

I don't think I can do a B2B on Carnival any more or anything longer than 7 days.

We started out on Carnival, learning the "ropes" about cruising. Then tired of the Carnival fun and the crowd. We go on vacation to slow down, relax and get pampered a little. We cruise for destinations and not ship. Princess wins over non stop sales pitches and games. Two non smoking nights in the casino is BIG. IF you watch the prices, they are close sometimes cheaper. But you have to check daily. We don't mind the buffets (Horizon Court and IC) and rather not go to the MDR. The food isn't worth me putting on long pants. And I think Princess has the best pizza going. We drive each time so flight costs are moot.

Being Platinum on both Carnival & Princess, we enjoy both cruise lines. We think the Princess ships are more elegant than Carnival, but nothing wrong with how Carnivals ships look either since we cruise with them too.

Concerning costs, our last 7 day Princess cruise with a balcony was cheaper than a Carnival 7 day cruise with balcony. Like someone else said, you have to keep an eye on the cruise lines web site for a sale that just occurred. Our last cruise fare was only on the web site for about one week, then the fare went back up. Think they call it a Flash Sale.

We would enjoy 21 days on either cruise line. Book whichever cruise you want & have fun :) !

Carnival isn't going downhill more than other cruise lines or vacation options that haven't countered with skyrocketing prices.

The price of cruising hasn't gone up like tickets at amusement parks, concert tickets, or football games have.

I find the showers on Carnival to be larger.

Princess does have nicer ships and older passengers (who complain as much or more).

I like cruising on both, but cruise more on Carnival by choice.

Carnival isn't going downhill more than other cruise lines or vacation options that haven't countered with skyrocketing prices.

 

The price of cruising hasn't gone up like tickets at amusement parks, concert tickets, or football games have.

 

I find the showers on Carnival to be larger.

 

Princess does have nicer ships and older passengers (who complain as much or more).

 

I like cruising on both, but cruise more on Carnival by choice.

For a significant cruise, I would pick Princess over Carnival in a heartbeat. In fact, for a Med cruise 2 years ago and an Alaskan cruise last month, I chose the Crown Princess.

The décor of the Crown is polished brass and muted wood tones; the dining rooms feature art work by Botticelli, DaVinci and Michaelangelo; and the food on Princess is overwhelmingly better than the budget line. Perhaps the main drawback on Princess is the older demographic; being early 60ish, I was one of the younger pax aboard.

Carnival is great when I get a budget price and no single supplement. Otherwise, I'm checking out Celebrity, Disney, or Princess for value and service.

Thanks all for your replies!!! Most appreciated! It was really depressing reading that thread "So Disappointed" and mostly everyone complaining about how Carnival has gone downhill and the food inedible. I mentioned that to my dh and he said that if we paid extra to eat sometimes in the Steakhouse (or whatever the paid dining is called) we would still be spending less than Princess.

At the moment the difference between the two lines is just over $2000 plus for Princess we would need airfare to Florida plus hotel for a night. Between now and 2016 the price on Princess could go down while Carnival's goes up and be equal but one never knows. I checked out the price of Princess for 2015 and it still is quite a bit more than Carnival. Also in 2016 (maybe next year too but not sure) the ship is the newer ship the Royal. I have heard some negative things about it (cabins small and balcony's even smaller). The one thing we like on Carnival is that the rooms are bigger and include a small couch. Dh gets up early so it gives him a place to sit. (Our 2 Princess cruises we were in Window Suites which don't have balconies but is quite spacious. Only 3 Princess ships have these).

I do have a concern if the food is bad. 21 days is a long time to be on a ship with bad food. For the poster who mentioned sausage… I don't like it but dh does.

These two cruises on the Pride are one time cruises. One is an 11 day one way from Baltimore to San Juan and the other is the next 10 days going from San Juan back to Baltimore. They are in January. I doubt these cruises will attract families with kids.

Glad though to hear from some people who have cruised both lines recently and although may have enjoyed one over the other for various reasons would sale on either if the price were right.

For a significant cruise, I would pick Princess over Carnival in a heartbeat. In fact, for a Med cruise 2 years ago and an Alaskan cruise last month, I chose the Crown Princess.

 

The décor of the Crown is polished brass and muted wood tones; the dining rooms feature art work by Botticelli, DaVinci and Michaelangelo; and the food on Princess is overwhelmingly better than the budget line. Perhaps the main drawback on Princess is the older demographic; being early 60ish, I was one of the younger pax aboard.

 

Carnival is great when I get a budget price and no single supplement. Otherwise, I'm checking out Celebrity, Disney, or Princess for value and service.

Wow, I am surprised that you were one of the youngest on board. We are about your age. When we tried Princess 2 years ago it was a cruise to Alaska although not a cruise tour. Maybe the cruise tour part was older because older people have more time to vacation and also more $$$. Ours was a RT from Seattle for 7 days. We enjoyed it and found the passenger ages were about our age. Many younger and many older. A year ago we went on the Caribbean Princess to NE/Canada. It was September so not too many families. Ages were about our age. We enjoyed it immensely.

Oh and to those who mention the decor of the ship… that does not make or break our cruise. All of our cruises we have enjoyed although some more than others. For us it is the friendliness of the staff and passengers, the entertainment and the food. None of our cruises had any of these things "bad" but some were better than others.

For a significant cruise, I would pick Princess over Carnival in a heartbeat. In fact, for a Med cruise 2 years ago and an Alaskan cruise last month, I chose the Crown Princess.

 

The décor of the Crown is polished brass and muted wood tones; the dining rooms feature art work by Botticelli, DaVinci and Michaelangelo; and the food on Princess is overwhelmingly better than the budget line. Perhaps the main drawback on Princess is the older demographic; being early 60ish, I was one of the younger pax aboard.

 

Carnival is great when I get a budget price and no single supplement. Otherwise, I'm checking out Celebrity, Disney, or Princess for value and service.

I think this is a good example of why different people will give you different answers on what is "better" or whether the generally higher cabin fares on Princess are "worth it". I take a cruise vacation primarily for two things: the ports and the ability to sit on a deck chair in the sun. I'm not sure I would notice if the finishings on a ship were polished brass and muted wood tones. If I did notice, I'm not sure I'd see it as superior to what I find on Carnival.

My husband and I have cruised both lines and enjoyed both cruises. But, we cruise Carnival by choice. We have more fun on Carnival. Carnival just fits us a people more and we enjoy it more.

I just read these threads about serious cutbacks and take them with a grain of salt because I don't think my most recent carnival cruise was all that different than our Princess cruise, in fact we had more fun! We had a better time! It's all about perspective!

The key is to go with REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS! Don't expect it to be at the same level as Princess while paying half as much. Set the expectations accordingly and I can guarantee that you'll have an enjoyable time on Carnival. Many of the complaints that you see are from frequent cruisers who expect Carnival to be "the way it used to be" while still paying the same budget prices that they used to pay 20 years ago.

Will you be able to notice major differences between these two cruise lines? It depends on how discerning you are. Some people are happy as long as they are fed, they have a place to sleep, and have some sort of entertainment. If that sounds like you, Carnival will be just fine. If you are more discerning, and you enjoy more attention to details, then you may not be as satisfied with Carnival.

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If it's just my wife and I, Princess. If we take our 13 year old son, Carnival.

We love both for diferent reasons. Started out with Carnival 20 years ago so it will always feel like home to us but it was also nice to try something new. I have seen plenty of changes over the years with Carnival and even with the 3 cruises on Princess there were changes. I think all the big cruise lines have been making changes, they all have too many cabins to fill. As long as they can fill the cabin at a low price they can try to sell u stuff on board. If they have an empty cabin, they can't sell anything.

Food on Carnival sucks big time! that on my last cruise in January on the Sunshine, I made a point not to have dinner in the buffet or MDR once. Specialty restaurants are the way to go!

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Will you be able to notice major differences between these two cruise lines? It depends on how discerning you are. Some people are happy as long as they are fed, they have a place to sleep, and have some sort of entertainment. If that sounds like you, Carnival will be just fine. If you are more discerning, and you enjoy more attention to details, then you may not be as satisfied with Carnival.

 

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Well put. I would even happily delete "and have some sort of entertainment". It's not why I go on a cruise, not something I put much value on and not something I would miss.

Well put. I would even happily delete "and have some sort of entertainment". It's not why I go on a cruise, not something I put much value on and not something I would miss.

Me too. Many people appreciate the simple pleasures of cruising and don't need and perhaps don't want anything more.

We would pick Princess in heartbeat over Carnival! :D

LuLu

Carnival has many disabled inside cabins without bunks. On princess, you have to get a suite to get three beds or a sleeper sofa and twins for those who can't do bunks. I didn't like the food as well, but there was more live music around the ship

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