jcocon

I just wanted to get my opinion out there. I've been on several carnival cruises and loved every single one. Now just recently I decided to give royal Caribbean a try just to see how both match up. I usually always travel with family to have fun and of course relax.

Just recently took a cruise on board the RC majesty of the seas on a 4 day cruise to the Bahamas. It is an older ship but still looking for that wow factor from RC. They always mentioned nice things about royal.

**** Customer Services - both royal and carnival are pretty even here. From the reception to check in to the room services and dinning room. Both have their ups and downs. For the most part they do provide pretty good service all around with the exception of a few who don't even care to even look at you. I rate Royal a 4.

*** Food - starting with the buffet areas. Royal has a pretty good selection of food and good quality in the main buffet areas like the windjammer. They really mix things up and good selections and deserts. In comparison carnival ranks pretty low here. The food is ok and poor selection. The main dining for Royal is where the big disappointment was. The food is really poor quality and they upcharge for a better selection. There were was a good variety of choices but the meals were so bad quality I just wanted to get up and leave. In comparison the main dining is where carnival cruise shines. Now the selection is not as great as Royal but the quality of food is really good. I give royal 3 stars overall.

** Photography - this section is really important to our family as we take an annual cruise to also get professional photographs taken. The pictures came out ok but not with that professional quality. The choices of backgrounds were really poor. They had a total of 5 using the same ones everyday! Royal truly needs a new to hire new photographers. The pictures were not that good and the photographers barely showed any type of interest. Stay away if your planning on pictures. As for carnival, the pictures have always came out nice and professional. Never had a complaint. I rate royal 2 stars.

**** Showtime - royal Caribbean shows were really nice and modern. Modern meaning new songs and took advantage of the set they had to make it a great experience. Now not all shows were nice. They also had comedian performers which were really poor for the main shows. I think that's more of a poor selection on royals part. Overall pretty nice performers and good to see multi racial personnel on the shows. I say this because Carnival is really focused of two things, old music era and white performers with really short skirts. Carnival falls really short in this category. Same boring 60s era performance with dated props. I rate 4 stars for Royal.

* Extra Activities and Shows - Royal falls very low here. Really boring activities and shows. For the most part I was looking to see what to do. We even started playing hide and go seek just go get the time to pass by. Really really bad. As for the side shows, there were barely none. There was the usual pool party and meet the captain, battle of the sexes, hairy chest, and marriage show. So so bad I wanted to just off the boat... Into the pool. Carnival here really beats Royal. Carnival always has something going on other than the usual mentioned above. They also have the punchliner comedy club every day with several different showings which is really great. Rate a 1 star for Royal.

* Amenities - pretty poor here again. Upcharge for everything. No ironing washing room! Sucks for those who want to iron their clothes and take picture... They charge for laundry and ironing services. They also charge for after hours room services. Also didn't like the idea of soliciting in the windjammer. Everyday we had a crew person come up to use to try to buy into going to a restaurant to try Mexican food. Really annoying. Also didn't like the idea of having a Johnny Rockets in the cruise ship. I saw now one in there as they charge for their food and services. Compared to carnival, it's really the opposite. One thing I do see similar is the same bothering crew selling bar drinks but not a big deal as both cruise lines did the same. One star here.

Majesty of the seas was not a really fun cruise ship or relaxing at that. There wasn't really anywhere to relax and sit back like carnival serenity areas. The ship did show its age with really old decorations and rust showing in rooms and around the ship. I guess since it's going to be sold soon they don't care to upgrade. I think Royal has really great potential and would love to cruise again with them but just not an older ship. This is something carnival does a little better where even the older ships has that same feel and amenities and services just like the other ships. I didn't rate the stops since one was even cancelled because of high winds. Cococai. Seems like they been having lots of problems with stopping in that island for a while. We'll hopefully this is helpful to anyone traveling in Royal Caribbean Majesty of the Seas.