Norwegian or Carnival?

We usually sail Princess but the Emerald is very expensive for New Years. Sailed Norwegian several times but have never sailed Carnival. For those of you who have sailed both, which would you choose for New Years?

Norwegian Pearl or Carnival Freedom?

Thanks.

We usually sail Princess but the Emerald is very expensive for New Years. Sailed Norwegian several times but have never sailed Carnival. For those of you who have sailed both, which would you choose for New Years?

Norwegian Pearl or Carnival Freedom?

Thanks.

I've sailed on the Pearl and the Freedom. I liked them both, but for me the Pearl gets the edge. First, it's NCL, which I generally prefer to Carnival (although I don't dislike Carnival and would sail them again). Second, I prefer the Pearl itself to the Freedom. The decor and colors, to me, are more pleasing, and I prefer the layout.

If the itineraries and price were equally appealing, I'd go Pearl. If Freedom were better in those categories, I may go Freedom. I do definitely prefer the Pearl, though.

Should we consider the number of kids that may be on Carnival over the holiday?

and what are the chances that I would get a quick reply from someone who has sailed both? I love CruiseCritic!!

and thank YOU so much!!

Kids will be on both.

What I would do is since both ships are 6-7 years old find out which one had her last dry dock/refurbishment last...or whether one is coming up for them because I always avoid going on a ship that will be in dry dock the same year as I go. I try to take after dry dock.

MDR dinners on NCL are better than Carnival. If you are like us and use the specialty dining (we go 5-6 nights on a weeks cruise) definitely NCL more choices.

NCL remains to have a live band at the pool Carnival took it away....NCL cocktails are cheaper and larger glasses....NCL breakaway didn't have any meat carving other than the day we first boarded, where Carnival does, Carnival desserts are better, NCL shows are better.

What are the ports does it matter to you?

We usually sail Princess but the Emerald is very expensive for New Years. Sailed Norwegian several times but have never sailed Carnival. For those of you who have sailed both, which would you choose for New Years?

Norwegian Pearl or Carnival Freedom?

Thanks.

My first and only Carnival cruise was over new year's on the Freedom. Never again! I've never really written a "horrible" review about a cruise, but that one took the cake .... from the service to the food (hubby got food poisioning from the Lamb) to the people on board. It was just awful. I don't know if it was the cruise line, or the fact that it was a new year's eve cruise, but I won't sail Carnival again. On a positive note, the sushi was good and it was free. Not sure if it still is, but it was back then.

Should we consider the number of kids that may be on Carnival over the holiday?

It's a holiday. The number of kids will be the same on either line.

I have not sailed the Pearl, but have been on the Freedom twice. I would consider the Freedom cruises as the most "tame" of all our other Carnival cruises. Meaning demographicly and less partying. The Freedom typically offers the most expensive Carnival itineraries (many 8-days). I have really enjoyed our cruises on the Freedom! See reviews in my signature.

I have only sailed Royal and Carnival, and am VERY excited to sail the NCL Jewel this winter!

Think we'll go with NCL for New Year's and do Carnival at another time.

Thank you all.

Been on both and would pick the Pearl hand's down.

Thank you. You just sealed the deal!!

I loved my February cruise on Carnival but I would choose NCL because I love the sail aways on NCL. I think the Freedom is the same class as the CCL ship we were on, the Valor and it was a very nice ship but NCL would be my first choice.

I sailed Carnival Freedom over Thanksgiving 2 years ago with my 3 teenage sons and my sister's family of 5 kids. There were a lot of kids but we never noticed. All pretty much well behaved. I loved the cruise and for the money, you cannot beat it. I would said Carnival again in a heart beat. I am on NCL next Friday because we wanted the Boston to Bermuda cruise as I live in Mass. I plan on writing a review when I get back.

If you ask this in the Carnival site, you will get opposite answers from the NCL. A lot of people like a cruise line and stick with it. I would go by price, itinerary and time of year. I have sailed 2 CCL cruises over Thanksgiving and loved both of them. This will be our first with NCL. We shall see how they compare but if I am not cooking or cleaning and someone is making my kids meals and making me drinks, I am good!

The past 6 years I have been on 4 Carnival, 4 RC and just got off NCL Breakaway this past sunday.

Carnival Dream is by my favorite Carnival ship, blind fold me and we would think it was RC ship, we could not find any faults in her at all she was perfect for us, but that is because we chose to dine in the Steakhouse for 6 evenings, we did dine there on formal night and honestly it was ok, service was extremely lacking, and that beverage guy you lucky he just come to your table once, they are just overworked. Putting the MDR aside we consider the Dream on par with RC.

RC we rarely find flaws, sometimes a hit or miss in the MDR but again we chose to go 5 nights to the specialty dining, 3 in Portofino's and 2 Chops each RC cruise. I can't find any complaints at all.

NCL Breakaway had an abundant of little flaws (constantly heard people saying similar things in public rest rooms, elevators, hallways etc) which add up to NCL is not for us. The crew was the most unfriendly ever, most didn't speak much English and we were given wrong drinks and many times when we placed a drink order they would question what we said 2-3 times, this went on constantly throughout this cruise not mentioning poor poor design overall of this ship.

With that being said, we do try other lines, we stop for awhile when we not care for them but to try them down the road as things do change. I will continue only going on the Carnival Dream perhaps the Breeze maybe....but for the other Carnival ships its just not for us, the buffets alone are so limited in food variety and selection its ridicious to me I like to eat well so if you don't mind the constant burgers, hot dogs, pizza, chicken nuggets and such you can't go wrong with Carnival. We never had a bad cruise just not a perfect one which is really rare...but RC is our favorite and seems to remain our favorite after trying the Breakaway.

We usually sail Princess but the Emerald is very expensive for New Years. Sailed Norwegian several times but have never sailed Carnival. For those of you who have sailed both, which would you choose for New Years?

Norwegian Pearl or Carnival Freedom?

Thanks.

I have upcoming cruises on Norwegian Jewel (Pearl's sister ship) and Carnival Freedom. These are our second cruises on both of these ships. IMHO you can't go wrong with either. Look at what the ships offer, and their itineraries and pick the one that offers what you like the most. Have fun no matter which you choose.

Should we consider the number of kids that may be on Carnival over the holiday?

My bet is the number of kids over the holiday would be similar on both ships.

Now I am so confused!!! We are flying into Fort Lauderdale. Booked the flight from Chicago when it was very inexpensive. Obstructed view on NCL is only $300 more (for 2) than 4J on Freedom and we'd save an additional day of hotel and car rental because Freedom is out of Ft. Lauderdale and sails a day earlier than the Pearl. In addition, we'd save not having to shuttle to Miami. The only port I don't like is on the Pearl. We'd be in Ochos Rios on New Year's day so we'd have to do an all-inclusive for the day.

We love all kinds of entertainment and of course, the food is important - isn't it always!!! . . .

AND we like outside areas to eat and I know the Pearl has The Great Outdoors!

So I appreciate all that everyone has shared, but when I thought I had made up my mind . . . I didn't!!

Judi

1- I lived in south florida for 25 years, FLL is my choice over Miami pier to take a cruise

2- You save money taking Freedom that could be used towards shipboard items

3- Treat yourself to the Steakhouse once or twice you won't regret it

The money you save going on the Freedom you can do the steakhouse and still save more money and avoid Miami.

mpcaruth - I just looked at the beautiful pictures of your family and of the Freedom. Thanks for suggesting that.

and I appreciate the recent advice about saving money by cruising out of Fort Lauderdale and spending it at the steakhouse!!

You wouldn't regret the Freedom, for sure. Like I said, we definitely enjoyed her.

Anyway, you haven't been on the Pearl so you won't know what you're "missing" and will have no basis for comparison/regret.

Pick something and book! You'll have a great time. Stop agonizing.

We have sailed both for New Years. In fact, We usually take New Year's cruises (due to my school schedule). I would recommend NCL over Carnival, especially the Pearl. We took the Pearl last year and had a blast. So much that we are cruising on it again this December.

Main reasons being that we found the crew were friendlier, service was better, and the food was definitely better on the Pearl even in the MDR.

1- I lived in south florida for 25 years, FLL is my choice over Miami pier to take a cruise

 

2- You save money taking Freedom that could be used towards shipboard items

 

3- Treat yourself to the Steakhouse once or twice you won't regret it

 

The money you save going on the Freedom you can do the steakhouse and still save more money and avoid Miami.

I agree about the Steakhouse on CCL. It was fabulous and blew the NCL steakhouse away. We will be cruising out of FLL in Feb. for the first time. It was being able to fly jetBlue directly there and a conflict with the last day of the cruise that made us switch to RCI for our 2014 cruise. I did love cruising out of Miami last year though but have never been to FLL so may love that just as much. I guess I am changing my mind and advocating for the user to choose the CCL cruise since we had such a good time on ours this year. What can I say! I love them all!

Hello fergusonvt- We are also debating for Allure of the Seas or the Carnival Dream for our next cruise. We loved the Dream and that Steakhouse probably was my favorite even over Chops (RC) Steakhouse. We can't decide lol, by the way, going into FLL is much better than that Miami airport. Usually when cruising out of Miami we will fly into FLL and take a shuttle down to Miami. I love them all too. ;)

Been on both Freedom(2007) and Pearl(2010) and both were great ships. Crews on both ships were very friendly(Happy Happy Washy Washy) :D

Food wise you won't go hungry on either one. CCL Warm Chocolate Melting Cake...YUMMM. Pearl has Blue Lagoon 24hr restaurant

Pearl has BOWLING...if that is something you enjoy it is fun to bowl while ship underway :)

Entertainment is about the same.

Hard to choose but not a bad choice for either of them.

So it would come down to itinerary and price

Doesn't Freedom offer an 8th day compared to Pearl?

Freedom is 8 day - St. Thomas, Antigua, Tortola, Nassau

Pearl is 7 days - Great Stirrup Cay, Ochos Rios, Grand Cayman, Cozumel.

We have taken many cruises but never on Carnival. We like to get off the ship and go to a beach for the day. We've been to all these ports at least once.