First time with Carnival vs RCI - what will we find different?

We've done 21 Carnival and 2 RCL cruises with another Carnival cruise coming up in April. Yes...there are some differences between the two cruise lines, but not enough for us to pay more money to cruise RCL.

We think that the food, cabins and staff are better on Carnival, whereas the entertainment is better with RCL. There's more for kids to do on RCL vs Carnival. And as for too many kids, we've found that to be true on both cruise lines. That's dictated by cruise pricing.

But we keep sailing with Carnival because of the way they treat us, making us feel welcomed. And the money that we save versus sailing RCL goes towards excursions and steakhouse dining.

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Just to be clear, in case anyone is curious, not all RCI ships have the Coke Freestyle machines. just in case that's important to others

It's my understanding that they all do, at least in the North American market. Explorer had them back in 2012, Allure in 2011. Grandeur was one of the later ships to get them but they has just been installed on the cruise before ours on our 2013 sailing.

It's my understanding that they all do, at least in the North American market. Explorer had them back in 2012, Allure in 2011. Grandeur was one of the later ships to get them but they has just been installed on the cruise before ours on our 2013 sailing.

Liberty did not have them as recently as this past summer.

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Liberty did not have them as recently as this past summer.

Yeah, I stand corrected - I just searched it and there's no shortage of threads bemoaning the lack of Freestyle machines on Liberty.

I wonder why RCI hasn't completed the fleet - these machines are almost universally loved by those who have experienced them. Convenient, fast, and the flavour choices meant there were literally hundreds of different options.

On several occasions we mentioned the machines on our comment cards as being something we enjoyed.

I'm told that our Brilliance cruise coming up will not have the freestyle machines. :')

We've been on over a dozen Royal cruises and each and every one had a veterans get together, last year on Serenade they had 2, the cruise was 11 days. Thank you all for your service. :D

We have not cruised Carnival since 2013, a B2B2B on Splendor from LA around the Horn to NYC in 48 days. The pizza was amazing and had been on our Carnival cruises before that. We are Platinum. Royal's pizza is horrible sauce over cardboard with God knows what type of cheese and one piece of pepperoni per slice. Cheap frozen grocery store pizza tastes better. :*

We are going back on the Ecstasy in January. She was our 2nd cruise in 1993 and she's also a short drive away from where we snowbird in Myrtle Beach. We are lucky enough to have a vacation while on vacation. :halo:

I guess we've moved up to Royal and Celebrity...........but we are still young at heart and in spirit to return to where our love of cruising started. :hearteyes:

 

Younger passengers, as the rates are more affordable for families and young singles.

 

Some inappropriate behavior from adults at the pool games.

 

Much more drinking.

looking to do my first carnival cruise next year after only cruising RCI previously, and with the internet consensus being that this is the fun cruise line, and the second post on this thread being the above, i think i better get it booked!! :'):');p;p

I've been on both the Grandeur and the Pride. One thing, unless you've spent money for a bigger cabin on RCL, the Pride cabins will all be larger - significantly so. (Grandeur cabins average 145 sq ft, Carnival cabins start at 185 sq ft...) I traveled solo on both, and the Grandeur cabins seemed cramped to me.

I've always preferred all the food options on Carnival. I've always strongly preferred the entertainment options on Carnival -- I was often bored on the RCL ships, whereas Carnival focuses more on fun. The Grandeur's dance club is a better layout, however, than the one on the Pride, which has an odd 2-story layout with the main dance floor down a flight of stairs from the entrance. (IMHO, It's better on every other Carnival ship class -- just the Spirit class which has the 2 story layout...) But aside from the dance club, I prefer the organization of the Pride better than the Grandeur.

I never spent much time on deck on the Pride as I was sailing in January - but I spent a lot of time on deck on the Miracle, which is the same class -- the on-deck layout is comparable, but I like the on-deck entertainment better on Carnival.

Depending on when you're sailing, Carnival and RCL will have roughly the same passenger mix, most of the year. Carnival will have more kids during March and summer sailings, but the rest of the year it's about the same. Carnival seems to have more spaces dedicated to kids, so I don't see them as often on off-season cruises.

I'm not familiar with RCLs current stage shows -- Carnival has revamped them in recent years, and I like the new shows better, but it's been so long I can't really compare to RCL.

Of course, a lot of it will be subjective. Me, I'd take the Carnival Pride (actually, just about any Carnival ship...) over the Grandeur in a heartbeat... but I'm tempted by RCLs new, expensive ships. YMMV.

The majority of our cruises have been on Carnival (12) with also doing one RCI and one Disney.

We are late 50's and have enjoyed every one of the cruises we have taken.

It's been a while since we were on RCI - Mariner of the Seas which at the time was their biggest ship, but we did find that the crew were not as friendly as Carnival's crew.

We have also sailed all different levels of room and have no complaints.

My personal favorite are the spirit class ships - Pride is the only Spirit class we haven't been on but I am pretty sure you will enjoy it.

I don't mind kids but do love love love the serenity area and DH and I spend most of our days out there. Our 21 year old son and his girlfriend came with us on the Sunshine last February and they enjoyed the main pool area.

I used to avoid the shows because I had read on cruise critic that they were horrible - guess what? we gave them a shot and they were fun and enjoyable. No matter what these entertainers work hard!

I like Spirit class dh likes them a bit bigger so we are trying the Vista in January...booked a Havana inside mostly for the pool area.

I personally think your experience is what you make it.

We did the cheer's package last February and thought it was well worth it.

Enjoy your cruise!!!

Only ships that have the freestyle machine is Anthem, oasis class, freedom, enchantment, grandeur, majesty

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Do you find you spend more money on a RC cruise compared to a Carnival cruise

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We love Carnival. Granted we have only cruised Carnival but the reason we have not tried other lines is because we DON'T want to be on with the nearly dead. I am on vacation and I don't mind watching people party, heck I might want to join them. If I wanted to be on a quite, kid-less party free vacation I would do a land vacation. I have never seen anything on any of my cruises that made me question the Carnival crowd. As a matter of fact, the only misbehaving I have ever seen was from a elderly, well dressed, sober man screaming at the crew because it was taking too long to get off the ship at port. Go figure.

Do you find you spend more money on a RC cruise compared to a Carnival cruise

 

 

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We find we spend much more on Carnival for a couple of reasons:

1) It’s much more difficult to find deals where free tips are offered.

2) Beverage Package CCL requires all in the cabin to have it RCCL didn’t used to ( and it sounds like it’s still pretty easy just to get it for 1.

3) Slot machines that let you draw directly from your shipboard account (don’t get me wrong we like this and are responsible for spending more that way)

4) Fewer deals with free specialty restaurants included.

5) Better “Next Cruise” deals with RCCL, where your deposit for your next cruise is matched by OBC on your current cruise.

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We spend more on our RC cruises in fare alone. Onboard expenditures are pretty much the same. We pay for drinks as we go and don't go to the specialty restaurants. Luckily, we are too cheap to gamble.

We spend more on our RC cruises in fare alone. Onboard expenditures are pretty much the same. We pay for drinks as we go and don't go to the specialty restaurants. Luckily, we are too cheap to gamble.

Yes, RC cruises fares are higher on average, but take a look at Breeze Vs Liberty out of Galveston.

We booked our Cove on the Breeze about 6 weeks ago, then RCCL was about the same price for a regular Balcony but there were deals with tips included. We booked Breeze because we haven’t been in her yet and she’s leaving.

Checked the other day (to see if maybe we might upgrade), Breeze Prices were the same as six weeks ago, a Balcony Guarantee on the Liberty was $550 cheaper for two - plus the tips were included.

The local Market my be spanking RCCL for how it handled Harvey.

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Price. Carnival is cheaper.

Our last cruise on the freedom of the seas I felt so nickled and dimed. On carnival i could get iced tea of lemonade 24/7 On Freedom the very first night about 10pm my choice was water, water or water. We roamed the promanade in seacch of the free stuff. Water.

we had to buy a soda card.

i find that service / food is about the same on both carnival/ and royal. my money goes to whoever is running a sale for my week

Regarding the coffee, it's all instant unless you go to the coffee shop for a specialty drink.

Our first 2 cruises were on Grandeur and Pride (we live about an hour and a half from the port, so it was glorious!) We liked both and would sail both again.

We found the food to be about the same. Some things were better on RCCL while others better on CCL. We did not do any specialty dining on Grandeur but ate at the steak house on Pride. We definitely enjoyed that. The only time we ate in the buffet on either cruise was breakfast and sometimes lunch. The buffet just seems too crowded and "bland" for us for dinner. We like to sit down and have a nice meal. Not sure if it was mentioned elsewhere or not, but don't expect Guy's Burgers to be a "restaurant". It's more of a "stand in line, get your burger and fries, put your fixins on then walk away and find a table". Still really good though; we ate there multiple times.

IMHO, the entertainment winner depends on what you want. We thought Grandeur's production shows were superior, but admittedly didn't see many on Pride. We tended to frequent the comedy club. I found the comedy club to be the best entertainment on any of our 3 cruises. There were 4 comedians total (2 to start, 2 joined halfway through). We watched every performance and did not see a repeat. We also found activities on the Pride more abundant, especially the trivia type things during the day. This doesn't seem like a popular, but OVERALL I'd give the entertainment edge to Pride here, though as I said Grandeur's production shows were superior.

It's hard for me to compare cabins on the 2 because we had an OV on Grandeur and a balcony on Pride, but we also don't cruise to spend much time in the room either :)

Staff was great on both ships. I think we noticed more of a difference when going from a smaller ship (Grandeur and Pride) to a larger ship (Freedom). The staff seemed less "hurried" on the smaller ships than the larger one. I don't know for sure, but I would guess the staff to passenger ration was better on the smaller ships. We liked the CD better on Grandeur (it was Ricky Matthews when we sailed) than on Pride (don't remember who this was). We thought overall the entire activities staff was MUCH more visible on Grandeur, but the ones we did see/interact with on Pride were great.

I'll just reiterate what MANY have said about the clientele. It seems to matter more WHEN you saile than what line. Our Grandeur cruise was late March, Pride was mid August. We knew going in we were likely to see more kids on Pride and likely a different atmosphere. Honestly it wasn't really that bad. There were more kids, but most were well behaved. There were a few wild ones, but I blame that more on the parents than on the cruise line. There were a few (same kids every night) literally running around in one of the bars bumping into people, spilling drinks, interfering with people playing games (darts, table-top shuffleboard) around 11-12 at night while the parents sat there and completely ignored them. So yeah, to me that's on the parents, not the line.

Yes, RC cruises fares are higher on average, but take a look at Breeze Vs Liberty out of Galveston.

 

We booked our Cove on the Breeze about 6 weeks ago, then RCCL was about the same price for a regular Balcony but there were deals with tips included. We booked Breeze because we haven’t been in her yet and she’s leaving.

Checked the other day (to see if maybe we might upgrade), Breeze Prices were the same as six weeks ago, a Balcony Guarantee on the Liberty was $550 cheaper for two - plus the tips were included.

The local Market my be spanking RCCL for how it handled Harvey.

 

 

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Thanks - I'll keep an eye out. I really enjoyed the Breeze and am sad she's leaving Galveston.

What's wrong with tattoos? Are we judging people because they have tattoos now? :confused:

Apparently some are🤔

Lol wait until I tell our oldest daughter (Jax atty) that she's scum!😱😁

Or our next one (pharmacist)

Or our youngest (nurse)

Or myself, a RN for over 30yrs...

The depth of people's judging is so deep it smells of poop, on some. Thank goodness not all!

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Price. Carnival is cheaper.

Our last cruise on the freedom of the seas I felt so nickled and dimed. On carnival i could get iced tea of lemonade 24/7 On Freedom the very first night about 10pm my choice was water, water or water. We roamed the promanade in seacch of the free stuff. Water.

we had to buy a soda card.

 

i find that service / food is about the same on both carnival/ and royal. my money goes to whoever is running a sale for my week

We could use saving a little moola. I would like more time in the tropics and can almost do 2 weeks on Carnival for not much more than 1 week on Royal Caribbean. Plus I'm getting tired of some of the Diamond Lounge folks who think they're better than everyone else.

In my experience the food has been better on Carnival than on Royal. I get so tired of the Windjammer and love the options on Carnival. I really like Guys burgers and the burritos at the Blue Iguana. The alchemy bar is lots of fun too. Carnival takes itself less seriously which I like. That said, my next cruise is on Allure because the price was right and way cheaper than Carnival Vista.

You sound like the type of people who will enjoy whatever ship you’re on! Friends just got off Pride last week and had a blast. I’m sure you will too.

Announced in a letter, dated April 29, Carnival added: “In tandem with this change, in addition to priority embarkation and debarkation in all ports and confirmed main dining room preference, suite guests will now receive priority tender service, complimentary in-suite bottled water and one complimentary bag of laundry per voyage, as well as an enhanced turndown service”, Carnival confirmed.

I thought I read that, but a few weeks ago on the Carnival Liberty, we did not get priority tender service. I was in a suite and when we asked about it they said we didn’t get priority.

In my experience the food has been better on Carnival than on Royal. I get so tired of the Windjammer and love the options on Carnival. I really like Guys burgers and the burritos at the Blue Iguana. The alchemy bar is lots of fun too. Carnival takes itself less seriously which I like. That said, my next cruise is on Allure because the price was right and way cheaper than Carnival Vista.

 

You sound like the type of people who will enjoy whatever ship you’re on! Friends just got off Pride last week and had a blast. I’m sure you will too.

I liked the Windjammer at first but it got old later in my cruise. Johnny Rockets was fun but they charged extra. Now I'm curious how it compares to Guys. Alchemy bar? From what I've read from other folks, I'm going to need the drink package so I don't go broke! ;p