Carnival Spirit vs Radiance of the Seas

Hi everyone,

my family & I are considering a cruise in 2014 and trying to decide from the MANY options. I have been tossing up between the Carnival Spirit & Radiance of the Seas, Carnival Spirit sounded great until I read the many negative reviews on here :( Radiance of the Seas seems to have much better reviews and sounds like the better ship of the 2, but their itineraries don't really suit us as much as the Spirit's.

We have 2 sons who will be 5 & 7 at the time we sail, so high quality kids facilities that will keep them entertained & prevent boredom for the duration of the cruise are probably the most important things for us. We don't plan on dumping them in the kids club every chance we get, but there does need to be activities that can keep 2 active little boys busy & occupied. We really aren't interested in watching any shows, and since it will be a family holiday, we'll probably give most night-time entertainment a miss and head to bed early as our kids are early risers.

So I guess for us the most important things are decent food (quality & variety), relaxing atmosphere for mum & dad during the day and kids activities for the boys, and maybe a great day spa for mum to treat herself once or twice ;).

Has anyone been on the spirit recently and had GOOD experience? Especially with children? I've travelled on P & O's Pacific Sky in 2004 and Pacific Sun in 2012 which were both 3 star ships in my opinion so I don't care if the ships aren't 5-star & boasting awesome shows, top-notch restaurant quality food etc etc, I just want a nice enjoyable holiday for our family in comfortable surroundings with edible food. We aren't big eaters or "foodies" but we do expect our food to at least be fresh & tasty :o.

Any views or opinions would be very much appreciated, thank you in advance!

Hi – I have been on both ships. Both have their good and bad points. However, it really comes down to the type of cruise experience you want to have.

I was on the Spirit New Year’s Cruise, and I have to say some of the reviews I have read have me questioning if I was on the same cruise. It really comes down to expectations, and based on what I have read on the reviews some people’s expectations are not realistic!

The Spirit is VERY family ordinated, and a relaxed style of cruising. Radiance is more what I would call a traditional style of cruising. Sprit has no automatic tipping, all charges are in Australian dollars, and I find the cabins to be very functional and a great lay out (No clingy shower curtain!). Radiance is a much more polished, and stylish vessel, with more pay as you use restaurants (Spirit only has one)

Kids do tend to run a little wild on both ships. I don’t have any kids so I can’t say what the kids clubs are like. However, on both ships towards the end of the cruise kids were hanging out in the hall ways (I suspect they start to get board of the clubs) P&O Australia are the only cruise line that seems to have this sorted with youth security of a evening.

In the end, it’s a cruise, and a day on a cruise ship is better than being at home! Go with no expectations, and enjoy your holiday!

I would take all reviews posted on here about the Carnival Spirit (and any other ship) (and especially in Carnival Spirit first few months in Australia, as with any new ship down here, it will take a few cruises to sort things out.) with a grain of salt.

Why I say that is because there are a lot of unknowns, like it could have been the crew, the passengers, their thoughts about the ship, which made the cruise bad, and just because they had a bad cruise, does not mean you will have a bad cruise, you could have a great cruise (and I am sure you will!).

It’s a bit like when the Pacific Pearl first arrived in New Zealand / Australia she got negative reviews and a few people said to us not to go on the ship, but we still did and spend 34 days!!! On her and had a great time!!.

I would give the Carnival Spirit a try and I am sure your boys will enjoy it very much!! :)

My 10 cents

Hi,

I did hear from a TA that Carnival closed the kids close from 2pm till 4:30PM for 'family time' - it for you to be together with your children. So just check on that before you make a final decision.

We just got back from Voyager (and have been on Radiance 12 months ago) and found the afternoon was better for the kids to go to kids club. (Been out with mum and dad in the morning, had lunch, and the kids are now bored)

So Carnival might not be what your looking for if your keen on having kids club available during that time.

We found both Voyager and Radiance fantasic with the kids; Radiance has a big water slide that the kids love; we'd go on RCI again - actually we have already booked another one so it must be good!

Even with children the shows are nice to go to here and there; we sometimes have one parent 'go out' and see the show and the other look after the children; or take the children to the early one. You can always sit up the back and leave early if they get restless.

I have been on both. Not having small children I did not like the Carnival Spirit, far too many kids for us, but the kids seemed to be having a ball. I would pick the Radiance over Spirit. Food a lot better on Radiance, staff are fantastic, drinks are a bit cheaper. Cabins are great on Spirit. As we was on the first cruise from Oz, staff was, shall we say still learning. I am sure that there are people with children that will highly recommend Spirit.

Good luck deceiding. You will have a great cruise whichever you pick.:D

Thanks so much for your thoughts & opinions everyone, its very much appreciated!

Another reason I asked is because we can get a balcony cabin on the Spirit for approx $1400 less than a balcony cabin on Radiance for a comparable cruise in Autumn 2014. I generally believe you get what you pay for and I don't consider myself to be stingy at all, but even I have to admit thats a big price difference and that could be our spending money for the whole family over the entire cruise.

Anyway, will keep watching prices, and watching the discussions on here (without taking too much notice of the reviews) before we make a final decision. It does seem that some people are picky to the extreme in their reviews, complaining about the most ridiculous things. Nevertheless all the negativity can make potential travellers rather nervous!

Happy & safe travels everyone :)

It's likely the Radiance pricing will come down so certainly keep an eye on in. It's a long way off yet, and likely to change

We were on Radiance last year just leading into Easter holidays with about 400 kids on board & rarely noticed any of them out & about where they shouldn't be. Royal has an excellent kids club set up from what I have heard.

Also it has the adults only solarium pool area where you can actually get away from kids if you want.

Day Spa on board is good but expensive.

Ship is beautiful with lots of glass walls & lifts so you can the see the ocean from most any public space.

Food was good. Staff were excellent.

We find Royal's prices drop around the 8-9 months before, just use a tracking web site to track page changes & it will norify you when something changes.

We saved $800 on our balcony cabin for our Voyager cruise in 4 days by waiting to book.

Have fun whatever you choose to do.:)

We were on Radiance last year just leading into Easter holidays with about 400 kids on board & rarely noticed any of them out & about where they shouldn't be. Royal has an excellent kids club set up from what I have heard.

 

Also it has the adults only solarium pool area where you can actually get away from kids if you want.

 

Day Spa on board is good but expensive.

 

Ship is beautiful with lots of glass walls & lifts so you can the see the ocean from most any public space.

 

Food was good. Staff were excellent.

 

We find Royal's prices drop around the 8-9 months before, just use a tracking web site to track page changes & it will norify you when something changes.

 

We saved $800 on our balcony cabin for our Voyager cruise in 4 days by waiting to book.

 

Have fun whatever you choose to do.:)

hey i was on that Radiance cruise last year i didn't realize there were that many kids on board, two of them were mine.

My two are teenagers 13 and 14 they had a ball we hardly saw them especially during the day. My kids have been cruising since they were 6 and 7 and they just love it. We sat with two other couples at dinner who had younger children who's childrens ages ranged from 3 to 7 and they had a great time always lots to keep them entertained.

I have not been on Carnival so can't comment on it. But we all loved Radiance.

Cruising is the best holiday whatever ship you choose you will have a real holiday no cooking, no cleaning, no thinking about what to cook for dinner and no grocery shopping. What more could you want. Heaven. I just love it.

Can you tell?:D:D:D

Linda

Thanks for the tips everyone - if I'm truly honest with myself, my heart is set on the Radiance, I just couldn't get past the huge price difference. But, as I said before, you generally get what you pay for, so there's probably a good reason why the Radiance is more expensive. However, as someone pointed out there's still plenty of time, and we're pretty flexible with dates which is good, so we can wait and watch prices all year before deciding :D

Thanks for the tips everyone - if I'm truly honest with myself, my heart is set on the Radiance, I just couldn't get past the huge price difference. But, as I said before, you generally get what you pay for, so there's probably a good reason why the Radiance is more expensive. However, as someone pointed out there's still plenty of time, and we're pretty flexible with dates which is good, so we can wait and watch prices all year before deciding :D

I am not familiar with Carnivals balcony grades but without telling you how to suck eggs i assume you are comparing apples with apples regarding the grade of balcony. Radiance is a fabulous ship. The basic balcony grade is E3 then E2 then E1. Most of these will be on Decks 7 & 8. Deck 7 fwd balconies have an extended uncovered balcony. The Superior standard balconies are D2 and D1 that offer a larger couch and a few other minor refinements as well as being mostly on the upper decks. The other forms of Balcony are in the Suites category. You might consider a Junior Suite esp with a family.

I would suggest either a E1 or D2 as there are some great locations for these such as on The Hump with larger balconies at the same price - but you need to be early to get these. Another good location is the Aft Balconies also with larger balconies for the same price just a longer walk to anywhere.

I believe that the cabins on Carnival are slightly larger - you might want to take that into consideration.

This is a very interesting thread for me as I am struggling with the same decision.

I just went on the Radiance NYE cruise and my whole family absolutely LOVED every single thing about it. The staff, the cabin, the food, everything!!!

I now wanted to book another cruise for July, but cant pay for 5 of of us to go to USA or Europe, so were looking at Carnival Spirit for a 10 night South Pacific. Then I read the reviews. :(

I must say that some of the reviews complain about the cyclone over NYE and compare how we (Radiance) got to our ports while Carnival just sailed around aimlessly and missed ports. That is not true. We were delayed in Sydney until 1st January, and we got to 2 of our original 5 ports (and added Champagne Bay instead of another port). This did not bother us as we got to see the fireworks from prime position in the middle of the harbour, and also loved the sea days more than the port days.

I am completely undecided what to do in July though as I have also heard from my TA that Royal is far superior to Carnival for what I want for my family. Also, being in July, how much use would we have for the waterpark, waterslides etc, if they are operating. (Based on many reviews, they only are in operation some of the time)

Hi everyone,

 

my family & I are considering a cruise in 2014 and trying to decide from the MANY options. I have been tossing up between the Carnival Spirit & Radiance of the Seas, Carnival Spirit sounded great until I read the many negative reviews on here :( Radiance of the Seas seems to have much better reviews and sounds like the better ship of the 2, but their itineraries don't really suit us as much as the Spirit's.

 

We have 2 sons who will be 5 & 7 at the time we sail, so high quality kids facilities that will keep them entertained & prevent boredom for the duration of the cruise are probably the most important things for us. We don't plan on dumping them in the kids club every chance we get, but there does need to be activities that can keep 2 active little boys busy & occupied. We really aren't interested in watching any shows, and since it will be a family holiday, we'll probably give most night-time entertainment a miss and head to bed early as our kids are early risers.

 

So I guess for us the most important things are decent food (quality & variety), relaxing atmosphere for mum & dad during the day and kids activities for the boys, and maybe a great day spa for mum to treat herself once or twice ;).

 

Has anyone been on the spirit recently and had GOOD experience? Especially with children? I've travelled on P & O's Pacific Sky in 2004 and Pacific Sun in 2012 which were both 3 star ships in my opinion so I don't care if the ships aren't 5-star & boasting awesome shows, top-notch restaurant quality food etc etc, I just want a nice enjoyable holiday for our family in comfortable surroundings with edible food. We aren't big eaters or "foodies" but we do expect our food to at least be fresh & tasty :o.

 

Any views or opinions would be very much appreciated, thank you in advance!

:)Hi

We have just come back from 12night cruise on Spirit. Kids club is open from 2-4:45pm. Then they have kids club dinner if you want your kids to have dinner with them allowing you to have dinner with your hubby. While I haven't been on the Radiance of the seas, we have been on the Rhapsody of the seas and found it very good- excellent facilities and good kids club. Spirit is probably more relaxed in atmosphere but truly don't the bad reviews put you off- the price difference is huge and at the end of the day, you have to remember that they have approx 2000 passengers on board and you can't keep everyone happy all the time.

Happy sailing whichever you choose!:)

Hi, My family and I were on Carnival Spirit in December. Kids (both boys) are 6 and 9. We had a great time and the kids really enjoyed their time on board. There was activities for kids all day long, and the kids club only closed for a short while around lunch. By the end of the cruise the kids didn't want to know us and couldn't wait to get back to kids club to see their friends.

Yes, there are a lot of kids on board but it did not worry us at all. It is a family ship, so majority of passengers were families. We had a room with extended balcony which accommodated the 4 of us very well.

We could not fault the cruise at all, and my kids keep asking when we can go again!

We had a room with extended balcony which accommodated the 4 of us very well.

Just curious about the extended balcony cabin - I have booked one for May. Was it worth the extra for it?

Just curious about the extended balcony cabin - I have booked one for May. Was it worth the extra for it?

The extended balcony was good, had plenty of room. I could sit on the chairs and put my feet up on the stool in front. I originally booked it as it was only a slight difference in price but would definitely book it again.

Thanks was a little worried it might not be worth it.

We also have just got back from cruise on Carnival Spirit.. Have not cruised on Radiance but have on Rhapsody... Our kids had a great time on Rhapsody. They did not come with us this cruise..

As said above any cruise will be a great cruise... A few differences I have thought of is:

Radiance will be in US and have US power points where as Carnival is all AUS. Carnival do price drops, Radiance wont (unless you have booked thru US T/A) We booked Carnival aft balcony and when we booked it was about $3,`100-00 p/p (this was 12 night NYE cruise) and we love the aft balcony's so happy to pay a bit more and we can only cruise NYE (dearer cruise to start with..lol) We received a few price drops and ended up paying $2450 p/p.. As far as I am aware Carnival are the only ones in Aus to do this...

Re- the food, I actually thought Carnival was better than Rhapsody, so much more to choose from..

Carnival have the 24hour free pizza and ice cream (a hit with all kids)

The drinks package was cheaper on Carnival.

The tendering was soooooo much better with Rhapsody, Carnival was a shocker.. Rhapsody's shows were better than Carnivals.

Carnivals cabins are wayyyyyy better and bigger than RCCL..

RCCL ships are much nicer as in all the glass, seems to be a view no matter where you are..

Carnivals lifts were the fastest I have ever experienced on a ship and there were plenty of them..

Carnival was more relaxed and casual. Not as many formal nights etc.....and when it was not many REALLY dressed up like on other ships

Carnival have kosks around the ship so you can check account, withdraw money from your account or pay money in (instead of having to line up at the service desk) You can also check your accound on the TV in your room (that was great)

At the end of the day we have cruised with P&O, Princess, RCCL and Carnival and they are all quite different..P&O still win hands down with shows and activities...

I think the big thing that I thought was great with Carnival was the price drops, wish other cruise lines would do this..

Good luck with whatever you decide and I know whatever that may be you will have an awesome time and have no regrets..

Fiona :-)

We also have just got back from cruise on Carnival Spirit.. Have not cruised on Radiance but have on Rhapsody... Our kids had a great time on Rhapsody. They did not come with us this cruise..

As said above any cruise will be a great cruise... A few differences I have thought of is:

Radiance will be in US and have US power points where as Carnival is all AUS. Carnival do price drops, Radiance wont (unless you have booked thru US T/A) We booked Carnival aft balcony and when we booked it was about $3,`100-00 p/p (this was 12 night NYE cruise) and we love the aft balcony's so happy to pay a bit more and we can only cruise NYE (dearer cruise to start with..lol) We received a few price drops and ended up paying $2450 p/p.. As far as I am aware Carnival are the only ones in Aus to do this...

Re- the food, I actually thought Carnival was better than Rhapsody, so much more to choose from..

Carnival have the 24hour free pizza and ice cream (a hit with all kids)

The drinks package was cheaper on Carnival.

The tendering was soooooo much better with Rhapsody, Carnival was a shocker.. Rhapsody's shows were better than Carnivals.

Carnivals cabins are wayyyyyy better and bigger than RCCL..

RCCL ships are much nicer as in all the glass, seems to be a view no matter where you are..

Carnivals lifts were the fastest I have ever experienced on a ship and there were plenty of them..

Carnival was more relaxed and casual. Not as many formal nights etc.....and when it was not many REALLY dressed up like on other ships

Carnival have kosks around the ship so you can check account, withdraw money from your account or pay money in (instead of having to line up at the service desk) You can also check your accound on the TV in your room (that was great)

At the end of the day we have cruised with P&O, Princess, RCCL and Carnival and they are all quite different..P&O still win hands down with shows and activities...

I think the big thing that I thought was great with Carnival was the price drops, wish other cruise lines would do this..

Good luck with whatever you decide and I know whatever that may be you will have an awesome time and have no regrets..

Fiona :-)

Fiona i would just like to mention that p&o and princess do price drops and some AU TA's will do it too....i use a local TA and they do price drops and they book RCL cruises so i suppose they do it for them too

So how do we get price drops - I have booked with a local TA, and we booked almost 12 months in advance - prices so far have dropped about $200 on Balconies - and we did get some good OBC when we booked.

Any help gratefully accepted.:)

So how do we get price drops - I have booked with a local TA, and we booked almost 12 months in advance - prices so far have dropped about $200 on Balconies - and we did get some good OBC when we booked.

 

Any help gratefully accepted.:)

sorry Kate we are not allowed to mention TA's due to CC rules

If you have some flexibility in when you can Cruise you can get bargains without worrying about price drops.

We have been on P&O and their UK Sister ships as well as Princess, we liked them all but we did find RCI's Voyager the cleanest best presented of the lot so far when we sailed last December.

We wondered about Carnival Spirit or the Radiance for this December 2013, we ended up with Radiance as we liked the itinerary around the Islands and I am not sure if the Carnival Spirit is what I am looking for in a Ship / Cruise line.

Shop around though, we got what I think is a bargain on an extended Balcony for me my Wife and 7 year old Son.

sorry Kate we are not allowed to mention TA's due to CC rules

No problem - will have a chat with the one I have booked thru - no harm in asking.

I think the best way to decide is to try it out for yourself.

In my opinion ALL cruises are good they are just all very different to one and other. I've read reviews of cruises that I would personally consider my favourite that others have trash talked about ( clearly whingers :P haha). To put perspective on it as well, I thought the food on Rhapsody of the seas was terrible but the food on Radiance was amazing... go figure... same cruise line!

When Carnival is that much cheaper than Radiance I would personally go with them, I don't think RCCL are worth paying THAT much for over other lines, if they were a similar price I would probably choose them though.

Another thing to keep in mind is that often gratuities aren't included in the price of an RCCL cruise and that will add a fair bit on, while Carnival is included.

Im summary, either line I'm sure will be fine, keep an eye on prices and consider what itinerary works best for you :)