Princess Cruiser Tries Carnival

[RD64]

As many of you already know, the food and service (and even the entertainment) cannot be beat on a Princess cruise.

 

Where Carnival excels is in the design of the standard balcony cabins - and the mattresses. I wanted to strap the mattress on my back and bring it home. Much better than Princess where I feel like I slept on a piece of plywood.

 

Just my two cents....

[itravelalot]

I did one Carnival Cruise and I found they did quite a few things right and I was surprised because I was expecting "not so good". So we ended up changing our overall opinion of Carnival. With that said, even though we enjoyed it, it still didn't "feel" right for us. lol

 

So glad you enjoyed your cruise!:)

[jsmac3]

I agree about the cabins. I also like the Carnival theaters - they are larger.

[RD64]

Also - Carnival checks in passengers at the airport - a very seamless process. The terminal building is well laid out - and a pleasant way to start the cruise. It truly beats the warehouse/barn that Princess uses - and avoids the long lines winding outside the terminal in the blazing sun.

[IDKaren]

Huh...wierd...you would think since Carnival owns Princess they would incorporate their ways to Princess! i never liked Carnival so I hope Princess will be ok!

[Pam in CA]

Huh...wierd...you would think since Carnival owns Princess they would incorporate their ways to Princess! i never liked Carnival so I hope Princess will be ok!

Carnival Cruise Lines has nothing to do with Princess other than they are owned by the same holding company. Each of the Carnival Corporation Plc lines (Cunard, Seabourn, Holland America, Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess, etc.) is managed and operated separately. There's no reason for Princess to be more like Carnival Cruise Lines than Cunard or Seabourn.

 

On my last four Princess cruises, I've had the most comfortable pillow-top mattress. For the most part, complaining about Princess mattresses should be a thing of the past.

 

[Essiesmom]

Carnival does have larger theaters, but they have yet to design on without a plethora of bad seats with blocked views. When the other lines can do it, why can't Carnival. And I believe airport checkin is only available in Miami. EM

[ar1950]

If I could go back in time and have the same experience that we had on our first Carnival cruise I would do it in an instant. We were on the Triumph and it was a relatively new ship (just over one year old) and things were not as rowdy back then. We also had a great cruise director that was one of the best we have seen. Of course our first Princess cruise experience was also worth repeating for a lot of the same reasons (not a big new ship, it was the old Regal, but a great on board experience and the second best cruise director we have ever had). What is the old saying, you can't go home again? Well, we will keep on cruising in spite of the changes.:D

 

We might even try a Carnival cruise again.:cool:

 

Happy cruising everyone.:)

[Ethel5]

If I could go back in time and have the same experience that we had on our first Carnival cruise I would do it in an instant. We were on the Triumph and it was a relatively new ship (just over one year old) and things were not as rowdy back then. We also had a great cruise director that was one of the best we have seen. Of course our first Princess cruise experience was also worth repeating for a lot of the same reasons (not a big new ship, it was the old Regal, but a great on board experience and the second best cruise director we have ever had). What is the old saying, you can't go home again? Well we will keep on cruising in spite of the changes.:D

 

We might even try a Carnival cruise again.:cool:

 

Happy cruising everyone.:)

 

The OLD Regal was my favorite ship. :)

[doe326]

If I could go back in time and have the same experience that we had on our first Carnival cruise I would do it in an instant. We were on the Triumph and it was a relatively new ship (just over one year old) and things were not as rowdy back then. We also had a great cruise director that was one of the best we have seen. Of course our first Princess cruise experience was also worth repeating for a lot of the same reasons (not a big new ship, it was the old Regal, but a great on board experience and the second best cruise director we have ever had). What is the old saying, you can't go home again? Well, we will keep on cruising in spite of the changes.:D

 

We might even try a Carnival cruise again.:cool:

 

Happy cruising everyone.:)

 

I've been on 14 Carnival cruises (and 8 Princess) and have never seen anything rowdy. They do push the fun button more than Princess but there are so many places to go on a ship, if I don't like what's going on somewhere. I also noticed on some recent Princess cruises that they are also doing things like the "hairy chest contest" (which I could do without on either line) and my DH participated in a pretty wild cocktail mixing party. I'll sail Carnival if the price and itinerary are right. I sail Princess for the same reason.

[satxdiver]

Huh...wierd...you would think since Carnival owns Princess they would incorporate their ways to Princess! i never liked Carnival so I hope Princess will be ok!

 

Carnival Plc owns a number of cruise lines including Carnival and Princess. The holding company (Carnival Plc) allows each cruise line to operate as a totally separate company as long as they turn a profit. The holding company does not interfere with their daily operation or direction. The two companies, Carnival and Princess, are competitors.

 

The last CCL we were on (Magic) was an experience. There were a lot of children aboard and the pax were younger than we have experienced cruising out of the same port at the same time of year on Princess or RCL. We feel that Princess is a cut above Carnival.

[Tatka]

We tried Carnival several times and they have some things better... like staterooms sizes, better robes, but ship designs and decores and overall quality and atmosphere is not comparable.

 

I do not feel that CCL & PCL are competitors. Different leagues. IIRC Princess belongs to the premium segment of massmarket.

[iceleven]

Princess mattresses are my pet peeve. The newer pillow-top mattresses are NOT fleet wide. Each morning (on Princess ships) I awaken by 5:30 by an intense pain in my sacrum. I cannot get back to sleep. I have one more Princess cruise (15 days "on the rack") before the end of the year and if it is not any better, I'm going to another cruise line until it is officially announced ALL PRINCES beds have been replaced by a pillow-top. And I should add, I do not have problems with my back any other time. My back is fine under all other circumstances.

 

I've cruised both Carnival and Princess equally, along with other cruise lines, and the absolute worst cruise with children was my last, with Princess, three weeks ago. There were more unruly children than I ever encountered on any Carnival ship. In fact I have never encountered so many children on a cruise ship. Perhaps they didn't have enough ship activities to keep them entertained.

 

I still love cruising with Princess as their service, in most instances, is very good. There are plus and minuses on all cruise lines.

[dfields1814]

We went on the Carnival Splendor (pre fire) with my son and daughter in law when he was on R and R after Iraq. The Sapphire was sold out.

We checked in at the pier and it was a mess. I felt like we were a herd of cows. Not close to Princess. The muster was on deck. We crowded together and had to stand. Princess was better. I think the guy who designed the interior was on LSD. Pink everywhere. I did not think the food was as good as Princess. We went to all the shows. Only one was up to Princess standards.

 

But our cabin did have a sofa, that was nice.

 

The activity level was much better on Carnival. There was parting going on all the time. That was good for my son. THe disco had 2 security guards. Skywalker's has just 2 people and that is on a big night!!! When we disembarked they took off a young man (not my son) in handcuffs. That was pretty cool!

 

We got an excellent price because of my son's service and we were from CA.

 

I would probably take Carnival again only if Princess was sold out.

[skynight]

The two companies, Carnival and Princess, are competitors.

 

Although there is some overlap, not really. Their target customers are different. It's not an accident that Princess is opening up the Japan and China market on it's own without competition from Carnival Cruise Lines. Looks as if Carnival is pulling out of Europe also, leaving that market for their other brands. It wasn't an accident that the Royal was the first Princess new build since the Emerald. The funds went to Carnival and other brands. Carnival Corp does make decisions to maximize passenger loads and return and will not compete with itself to reduce same. It is true that each line runs it operation independently.

[dorisis]

What I love about cruise lines is that there is a line to suit most cruisers and all of them suit me. They have diverse things to offer and even the ships within the line can be vastly different.

 

i have yet to try many more.

[lor74]

On my first Carnival cruise on the Pride years ago, everything about the cruise was good, except that the MDR on Princess was so much better. Last year we did a last minute deal on the Carnival Freedom, because the options for the Caribbean were limited in the summer. The food was bad! I am not one to generally complain about food....my thought process is that if you don't like something, just go get something else...not a big deal......but on this ship, only the freshly prepared items such as food from the grill, sandwich shop or the wok, were worth eating. I also hated the design of the ship.

 

Would I go back on Carnival.....yes, under very specific circumstances...but not definitely not the Freedom again.

[seamanfs]

Princess mattresses are my pet peeve. The newer pillow-top mattresses are NOT fleet wide. Each morning (on Princess ships) I awaken by 5:30 by an intense pain in my sacrum. I cannot get back to sleep. I have one more Princess cruise (15 days "on the rack") before the end of the year and if it is not any better, I'm going to another cruise line until it is officially announced ALL PRINCES beds have been replaced by a pillow-top. And I should add, I do not have problems with my back any other time. My back is fine under all other circumstances.

 

I've cruised both Carnival and Princess equally, along with other cruise lines, and the absolute worst cruise with children was my last, with Princess, three weeks ago. There were more unruly children than I ever encountered on any Carnival ship. In fact I have never encountered so many children on a cruise ship. Perhaps they didn't have enough ship activities to keep them entertained.

 

I still love cruising with Princess as their service, in most instances, is very good. There are plus and minuses on all cruise lines.

I have to agree with your observations. The beds are not the best. In fact if the ships were just hotels we would never go back! But the uncomfortable beds are pretty much the only thing we dislike about Princess and we are about to go on our 22nd cruise in Nov. Called to ask for an egg crate several weeks ago and they said all were pre booked so guess we will ask when we board.

[sassyredhat]

We have sailed both lines. At this stage of the game, we think PCL is a better fit for us. We are in our late 60's.

CCL has outstanding beds, although our last PCL cruise had the topper, which made it good enough.

The balcony cabins are larger on CCL, but PCL has that great closet storage area.

PCL's balcony bathrooms are larger.

CCL has pretty good food, as well as does PCL.

We have usually experienced rowdy 30 yr olds on CCL, but the children never bothered us. Never experienced that much rowdiness on PCL.

IMO, CCL ships feel crowded. Didn't seem that way on PCL.

I'm not saying we will never sail CCL again, but right now, PCL is our line of choice.

Pat

[RoePost]

Being an Elite member of Princess it is fair to say that we prefer Princess to all other cruise lines. However, we do sail on other cruise lines including Carnival and find them to be very pleasant. Every line has there pluses and minuses and if you sail with an open mind you should enjoy every voyage and cruiseline. I do find the food on Princess superior to all others, but over the past two or three years Princess entertainment has become stagnant....Royal Carib and Carnival offer more choices for entertainment. That being said, we will continue to cruise on Princess frequently.

[Jasperdo]

Haven't been on Carnival for awhile. But they were the cruise line that got us hooked on cruising. We really enjoyed all of our Carnival cruises. Even though we feel Princess is a better fit for us now, I wouldn't hesitate to book another Carnival cruise in the future.

[iceleven]

One thing that we liked the most about Carnival and HAL were their non-public Spa facilities. With Carnival we could book our cabin on the Spa deck and use their somewhat "private" facilities. On HAL, you could buy the spa package, regardless of where your cabin was located. I don't know of any semi-private spa areas on Princess ships that Carnival and HAL offers. We always thought it was worth the extra premium for the peace and child-free Thallasotherapy pool, multiple steam rooms and saunas. Do any of the Princess ships, perhaps the newer ones, have this?

[caribill]

We always thought it was worth the extra premium for the peace and child-free Thallasotherapy pool, multiple steam rooms and saunas. Do any of the Princess ships, perhaps the newer ones, have this?

 

To have peace and be in a child-free area, all Princess ships have the "Sanctuary" which is restricted to those 18 and over and has a fee for use.

 

On most ships the fee is $15 for a half day.

[iceleven]

To have peace and be in a child-free area, all Princess ships have the "Sanctuary" which is restricted to those 18 and over and has a fee for use.

 

On most ships the fee is $15 for a half day.

 

Yes, of course but Carnival also has the Serenity area and it is free. But I'm more interested in something similar to the Cloud 9 facilities on Carnival and what is offered on some HAL ships. It is included with the price of booking a Spa cabin (inside and/or balcony). Probably not all the Carnival ships nor the HAL ships (Greenhouse Spa) have them, but the ones I've cruised on did and I thought it was the best money spent for the up-grades. I think day-passes could also be obtained.

[USNUZULOOSE]

I have not sailed Princess yet, but on Carnival I love their beds and the food. I love the warm chocolate melting cake. But I am willing to give Princess a go at it. Hope I am pleased with the beds.