Help compare apple and oranges

I have cruised Carnival and Norwegian..My family is planning a Royal Caribbean cruise which is pricey..can you tell me about your experience with them?;)

From what I've gleaned on here and friend's going on RCCL.

On Royal ships can have- Rock Walls, Wave Runners, Ice Rinks, Carousels, etc. They also have pre-cruise reservations available for many of the shows and dining venues.

Some have said that they don't feel like they're on a ship.

No public laundry. No 24hr food, even have to pay for room service late at night.

From what I've gleaned on here and friend's going on RCCL.

On Royal ships can have- Rock Walls, Wave Runners, Ice Rinks, Carousels, etc. They also have pre-cruise reservations available for many of the shows and dining venues.

Some have said that they don't feel like they're on a ship.

No public laundry. No 24hr food, even have to pay for room service late at night.

No water slides either. That is a BIG deal if you have kids or, kids at heart, in your party.:rolleyes::rolleyes:

I have cruised Carnival and Norwegian..My family is planning a Royal Caribbean cruise which is pricey..can you tell me about your experience with them?;)

What ship?

Liberty of the Sea

We enjoyed our cruise with RCCL, but we weren't neccessarily impressed or disappointed compared with Carnival. I haven't sailed with NCL (yet!), so I can't compare that. In my personal experience, here's how things broke down:

CARNIVAL PROS:

-Food OPTIONs. As already stated, room service has a cutoff time, after which they charge you a la carte. I mean it sounds dumb to complain "OMG I CAN'T HAVE FOOD 24/7 ***," but in a list of pros and cons we have to give this one to Carnival.

-MDR entertainment. The couple of nights on Royal Caribbean that the waiters got together to do a song for us... it was embarassing. Each time with Carnival I really got the feeling that those servers were really getting into, and this was a few minutes during their cruise that they got to relax and have a bit of fun with the guests. And they actually knew the songs and got energetic about it. Royal... not so much. They played a recording of a song, and the servers sang along with it. Some of them knew the songs.

-Giant TV on the lido deck. I loved Carnival's approach to this. There was just something playing there every night. Whitney Houston concert, Bon Jovi concert, a handful of recent summer blockbusters, whatever. There was always something going on on the lido deck after dinner and it was a casual come and go as you please kind of deal. Royal had nothing most nights, but made a big spectacle of it on the one night they showed something. To their credit, it was Frozen, so the selection was solid. But they made such a big deal out of doing it on that night that it actually highlighted the other nights where all they displayed was their own RCI logo.

-Warm Chocolate Melting Cake

ROYAL CARIBBEAN PROS:

-Drink packages. Holy crap is Carnival lagging in this department. Cheers is downright awful by comparison. Royal recognizes that maybe you're just a beer drinker and don't care for hard liquor. Or maybe you don't care for alcohol at all, but want the unlimited coffee package. Oh, your spouse wants unlimited alcohol but you don't? They don't care - you don't BOTH have to have the package like you do on Carnival. There's tiers of packages, so you can get exactly what you want without having to buy the most expensive package.

-The "Fun" wasn't being shoved down our throats. Good God I can't stand how much "fun" Carnival wants me to have. Leave me alone already.

- General entertainment. This one I'm hesitant to mention just because 1) it's so subjective, and 2) it's different on each and every ship, not just ship line. That being said, these are all my subjective opinions anyways, and I found the shows and comedians on RCI to be a few steps above what Carnival had. Particularly true in the atrium, where just about every night there was something going on that we would just wander into on our way to dinner. People flying around in the air, dances, an introduction to the lead staff (including free champagne!), etc.

- Towel policy. Man I don't even understand this from a business perspective, but they just trusted you. As you're heading off the ship to one of your excursions, just grab a towel at the towel station. No card, no signing, they're just there. And when you get back on the ship, dump it off in the bin of dirty towels to be washed. It was freakin' awesome not having to worry about where our towel was lest we get charged $20 for it or whatever. Same situation by the pools.

- Escargots every night.

- Embarking was a thousand times quicker with RCCL. Seemed like they had a lot more folks processing guests than Carnival did.

I think the bottom line is that they each have their faults and they each have things they excel at. At the end of the day you're on a freakin' cruise ship and not at work.

Thanks Ryan Smith :D

Oasis and Freedom class ships are great, but especially on Oasis class, I never saw the water. I think it was worth doing once because the Allure was spectacular and I think had 25 places to eat, so much to do and see, so much fun, but I did not feel like I was on a cruise. You could not go for a glass of wine, or sit on a sofa and enjoy music watching the waves, absolutely everything that faces the water is taken up by balcony cabins. The shows in the aqua theater (one place you could see the waves), were unbelievable. I believe the set up on the Freedom class ships may be a bit better, but not much.

I'm Platinum on both cruise lines. While I have truly enjoyed my Carnival cruises, IMHO, Royal Caribbean surpasses Carnival in many aspects, including ship design, layout, size and decor. Entertainment is far superior, including professional shows at the main theater, as well as live bands by the pool. Children's program, Loyalty program, room service menu selection, attention to detail, dining venue selection, and healthy options are just some things where Royal also shines.

In a nutshell, if you're someone who is easily pleased as long as you have a place to sleep, you're fed, and there's some sort of entertainment, you may not find many differences between Carnival and Royal (a lot of people do swear that the cruise lines are very much alike). But if you're more discerning, and notice and appreciate the things that set these two cruise lines apart, then the differences are much more apparent. Personally, I consider Royal and Carnival to be like night and day, specially when comparing the newer, larger ships (like the Independence). Even when comparing older ships, like Carnival's Fantasy class and Royal's vision class, the differences are substantial.

Everything that I had to say, was already said by Ryan Smith.

From what I've gleaned on here and friend's going on RCCL.

On Royal ships can have- Rock Walls, Wave Runners, Ice Rinks, Carousels, etc. They also have pre-cruise reservations available for many of the shows and dining venues.

Some have said that they don't feel like they're on a ship.

No public laundry. No 24hr food, even have to pay for room service late at night.

I know you weren't aware what ship OP was booking at the time of your post so here's an FYI for the OP. Liberty of the Seas doesn't have a carousel. They have traditional early and late shows that do not require reservations. Specialty dining can be reserved pre-cruise but it's not necessary. I believe Cafe Promenade is open until 2:00am. Late night room service has a $3.95 service charge, not a back breaker. It's a marvelous ship. Happy sailing.

Thanks for posting! I'd be interested in hearing some more comparisons, as well. I have sailed on both cruise lines but I haven't cruised on Royal Caribbean since 1997 so I'm sure a lot of things have changed!

Glad to hear about the towels. Keeping track of our towels on Carnival has always been a PIA.

My husband will be thrilled to hear about escargot being available every night! :)

I will miss my chocolate melting cake, but I'll get over it. ;)

No water slides either. That is a BIG deal if you have kids or, kids at heart, in your party.:rolleyes::rolleyes:

That was the reason we never sailed RCCL until now. Our DS is 14 so he can take advantage of the other things to do on the ship. Until now he would spend hours on end going down that slide! now he can replace the waterslide with the many other activities offered on the Allure.

My parents went on the Carnival Triumph a couple of years after it debuted and they said it was a great ship and had lots of fun. This was their first cruise ever. They said the food was great!

In January 2013, we all went on Oasis (as we saw Mighty Ships on Discovery and featured Oasis and have always wanted to go on her). This was my and my brother's first cruise. I thought the food and entertainment was AWESOME. There was so much to do, we were never board! Spent a couple of nights in the casino, and a couple of more playing scrabble in the games room with my brother. Played mini-golf, and did the zip-line.

Anyway, so after our cruise, I ask my mom which cruise was better and she said while the Carnival cruise was great, she thought Oasis was better as there was always something different to do or see EVERY night! Plus our inside balcony looking over Boardwalk was a bonus, and the escargot was to die for (we had it almost every night! and our waiter brought us one without us asking for it!)

We have a cruise booked for Freedom in 66 days!

It would help a lot to know what ship you are considering on RC.

Oasis and Allure are very different, wonderful ships. There is somethig for everyone and so much to see and do. The ship is the destination.

Freedom and Voyager class are a bit smaller, still great ships. Again, lots to see and do. They have the ice rinks, main promenade down the middle of the ship, etc.

Look on RC's website for details on each ship.

Concerning previous posts - some contined old iinformation - things can vary from ship to ship also.

Recently have seen no singing waiters. Believe that was stopped some time ago.

Room service is still free most of the time. There is a service charge between midnight and 5:00 a.m. for delivery - the food is still free - delivery/service charge is $3.95 for any size order.

Some ships do have a water slide.

People could give you a much more honest opinion if you compared specific ships.

Re-read parts of thread and saw where original OP was referring to Liberty. Great ship - smaller than Oasis and Allure, but still a lot to see and do. Love the Freedom and Voyager class of ships. Again, what ship are you comparing Liberty to?