NCL vs. Carnival

We have cruised with NCL, several times. We recently had the opportunity to cruise with Carnival. Here are my comparisons. (I won't mention which ship we were on Carnival, but it was an older ship, so I will like compare an older NCL ship we have been on).

1.) websites....both fairly easy and equally informative

2.) embarkation.....most of the embarkations we have participated in have gone fairly rapidly and organized; no big difference in ships handling of this

3.) balcony cabin: size-wise, not much difference. Carnival's cabin did NOT have a refrigerator, not individual room temperature controls...all NCL ships we have been on have had these two things. Carnivals bathroom, while older decorated, had a slightly bigger shower and more storage room. Carnival has no messaging system for Do Not Disturb, Please make up room, etc. as NCL ships have

4.) Food...highly subjective. We have always found the food in main dining rooms to be relatively good, with enough selection to please everyone. Carnival & NCL compare well here. However Carnival seems to be a little less than NCL when it comes to portion size. Buffett is where Carnival & NCL are highly different. While Carnival incorporates their Guy Fierri Burger bar, Mexican, Deli, Pizza stations on outside of their buffett, which is OK, their actual buffett with an assortment of food, is lacking, compared to NCL. Breakfast buffett, except for omelet station, which NCL also has, is very lacking in good hot food or fruit, for that matter.

5.) Entertainment: Here is where we found the biggest difference to be. We heard most all singers on board Carnival and all lacked talent and professionalism. NCL's much better, over-all.

6.) Service....have seldom ever had a problem with service on any ship. Carnival was no exception.

7.) Ship board activities....all ships have pretty much the same type of sea day activities...no real difference in either.

8.) Disembarkation, have always found to be pretty smooth, Carnival, no exception.

So in closing, the two biggest differences we found, were in food & entertainment. Two big areas of interest to most people! While we didn't find Carnival bad, we would definitely choose NCL over Carnival, whenever possible.

Happy cruising!!!

Thank you for sharing your comparison.

Keith

Thanks for your comparison. But I'm curious...why not mention the ship?

This is pretty much the same consensus that we have and we have sailed Carnival 11 times. I must say that the entertainment in the lounge on Norwegian was some of the best that we have had so far. Our last cruise was a 10 night Norwegian to the West Indies and I call it the geriatric cruise. We are in our 60's and were some of the youngest onboard. The ship was an older, smaller ship and had no amenities such as a water slide, or miniature golf. It was still fun and we would do it again.

Our favorite, though, is Royal Caribbean and we are booked with them this fall on another 10 nighter. Love it.

We have cruised with NCL, several times. We recently had the opportunity to cruise with Carnival. Here are my comparisons. (I won't mention which ship we were on Carnival, but it was an older ship, so I will like compare an older NCL ship we have been on).

 

1.) websites....both fairly easy and equally informative

 

2.) embarkation.....most of the embarkations we have participated in have gone fairly rapidly and organized; no big difference in ships handling of this

 

3.) balcony cabin: size-wise, not much difference. Carnival's cabin did NOT have a refrigerator, not individual room temperature controls...all NCL ships we have been on have had these two things. Carnivals bathroom, while older decorated, had a slightly bigger shower and more storage room. Carnival has no messaging system for Do Not Disturb, Please make up room, etc. as NCL ships have

 

4.) Food...highly subjective. We have always found the food in main dining rooms to be relatively good, with enough selection to please everyone. Carnival & NCL compare well here. However Carnival seems to be a little less than NCL when it comes to portion size. Buffett is where Carnival & NCL are highly different. While Carnival incorporates their Guy Fierri Burger bar, Mexican, Deli, Pizza stations on outside of their buffett, which is OK, their actual buffett with an assortment of food, is lacking, compared to NCL. Breakfast buffett, except for omelet station, which NCL also has, is very lacking in good hot food or fruit, for that matter.

 

5.) Entertainment: Here is where we found the biggest difference to be. We heard most all singers on board Carnival and all lacked talent and professionalism. NCL's much better, over-all.

 

6.) Service....have seldom ever had a problem with service on any ship. Carnival was no exception.

 

7.) Ship board activities....all ships have pretty much the same type of sea day activities...no real difference in either.

 

8.) Disembarkation, have always found to be pretty smooth, Carnival, no exception.

 

 

 

So in closing, the two biggest differences we found, were in food & entertainment. Two big areas of interest to most people! While we didn't find Carnival bad, we would definitely choose NCL over Carnival, whenever possible.

 

Happy cruising!!!

I agree fully. NCL was our favorite of the two. I found the staff on Norwegian friendlier as well.

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We cruised with ncl for the first time and fell in love.

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I believe Carnival's food is better than NCL. On the Norwegian Breakaway, the food lacked flavor in the buffets and main dining rooms. They load the food with salt and it was generally cold. Ice cream is usually served MELTED on Norwegian which means most of their food isn't kept at the correct temperature. Cold things aren't cold and hot things aren't hot.

You mentioned the very reason why Carnival's food is better such as the burger place, the mexican food place (which is like Chipotle) and the pizza is excellent (which is like Blaze pizza restaurants where they customize your pizza right in front of you and throw it in the oven. Norwegian does nothing like that with its food.

I prefer McDonalds over Norwegian food honestly. At least it is consistent.

Think you should name the ship.

This post is pretty useless. What ship? "We heard most all singers on board Carnival and all lacked talent and professionalism".....feel free to elaborate "a little":rolleyes:.

So far I have only cruised Carnival and have been blown away every time. I would try another line for sure but what most interests me are features on the Dream class for Carnival. I love deck 5 with the full walk around , large hot tubs that are mostly empty and I love the aft pool with the pool bar. Royal looks so closed in unless you are on top,decks or in Central Park areas on the Oasis class.. But that is only going by pics and videos I have seen, so I may be wrong. Disney is not an option as I love to donate to the casino.

Thank you for the comparison.

We have cruised with NCL, several times. We recently had the opportunity to cruise with Carnival. Here are my comparisons. (I won't mention which ship we were on Carnival, but it was an older ship, so I will like compare an older NCL ship we have been on).

 

1.) websites....both fairly easy and equally informative

 

2.) embarkation.....most of the embarkations we have participated in have gone fairly rapidly and organized; no big difference in ships handling of this

 

3.) balcony cabin: size-wise, not much difference. Carnival's cabin did NOT have a refrigerator, not individual room temperature controls...all NCL ships we have been on have had these two things. Carnivals bathroom, while older decorated, had a slightly bigger shower and more storage room. Carnival has no messaging system for Do Not Disturb, Please make up room, etc. as NCL ships have

 

4.) Food...highly subjective. We have always found the food in main dining rooms to be relatively good, with enough selection to please everyone. Carnival & NCL compare well here. However Carnival seems to be a little less than NCL when it comes to portion size. Buffett is where Carnival & NCL are highly different. While Carnival incorporates their Guy Fierri Burger bar, Mexican, Deli, Pizza stations on outside of their buffett, which is OK, their actual buffett with an assortment of food, is lacking, compared to NCL. Breakfast buffett, except for omelet station, which NCL also has, is very lacking in good hot food or fruit, for that matter.

 

5.) Entertainment: Here is where we found the biggest difference to be. We heard most all singers on board Carnival and all lacked talent and professionalism. NCL's much better, over-all.

 

6.) Service....have seldom ever had a problem with service on any ship. Carnival was no exception.

 

7.) Ship board activities....all ships have pretty much the same type of sea day activities...no real difference in either.

 

8.) Disembarkation, have always found to be pretty smooth, Carnival, no exception.

 

 

 

So in closing, the two biggest differences we found, were in food & entertainment. Two big areas of interest to most people! While we didn't find Carnival bad, we would definitely choose NCL over Carnival, whenever possible.

 

Happy cruising!!!

Agreed I have found the same to be true with entertainment and food. The older NCL ships also do not have the wild decor as the older carnival ships do.

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We've cruised Carnival 4 times and NCL once and feel just the opposite. Everything was better on Carnival except the cabin steward (not that they have been bad on Carnival). The food and service on NCL were no where near the level of Carnival.